Category Archives: fiction

Jun 10 2014

Season of Gifts by Richard Peck

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**See Parent Note at the end of this post.**

I was so excited to pick up yet another sequel to A Long Way from Chicago, starring my favorite rambunctious grandmother of literature, Grandma Dowdel.  And, for the most part, this book met my expectations.  I think that a good number of my students that read A Long Way from Chicago last year might enjoy this book.  However, since they are still elementary-aged kids, I know some of their parents probably wouldn’t want this recommendation yet.

The main character is Bob, a preacher’s son who moves to town with his family to start a new church.  It is the era of bobby socks and Elvis Presley, but their neighbor, Mrs. Dowdel, has not really embraced the changing times.  She is still as feisty and independent in her nineties as she was when her grandkids, Joey and Mary Alice visited her all those years ago.

Each chapter focuses on a different Grandma Dowdel escapade-this time with Bob and his younger sister in tow.  His older sister is 14 and has no time for small town antics.  Some of the cast of characters introduced in Chicago are still present, and others are mentioned as the parent or grandparents of the current high school students in town.  It was interesting to see Mrs. Dowdel through the eyes of her new neighbors, and I enjoyed her antics as much as ever.  I felt like I was in on the joke when comments were made about her grandkids or Effie Wilcox, so I think that reading the other books first would be a great plan and make this a worthwhile companion piece for lower middle school grades.

**Parent Note**

At the start of the book, the main character is bullied by the bigger boys in town.  This results in him being stripped and tied up in Mrs. Dowdel’s outhouse.  Additionally, towards the end of the story, Bob’s younger sister declares that she no longer believes in Santa Claus.  By the end of the novel, there is a shotgun wedding at the church for a teenage girl and her army-private beau.  There is reference made to her dress fitting very snug across her middle.

For these reasons, I don’t see that this is a book I could read with my upper elementary students.  However, parents could make this call for their own children if they feel comfortable with the subject matter.

Jun 10 2014

Goddess Girls: Athena the Brain by Joan Holub & Suzanne Williams

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Athena the Brain is the first book in the Goddess Girls series.  At the time of this writing, there are 13 books in the series.

The idea of these books is to present Greek mythology with a twist…the Greek gods and goddesses are tweens at Mount Olympus Academy (MOA)-a middle school for the privileged immortals (and a few non-human beings, monsters and other mortal characters from mythology.)  Clearly, this is set up as a serial, patterned book series-not unlike the good old days of Sweet Valley High and any myriad vampire series available nowadays.

The big difference that I can see is there are references to actual mythology that make the story more engaging.  Instead of vampire lore that can vary depending on where the story originates, these stories are based on extremely well-known myths.  There isn’t much variation in The Odyssey, for example, so anyone that has heard the story may snicker in that moment where Athena’s toy wooden horse falls out of her bag in Hero-ology class. (In fact, I think that some of my students would find the references pretty entertaining!)  The reader that knows mythology will get the jokes.  BUT, I don’t feel that anything is lost by not knowing the myths.

This particular story is cute and the characters are drawn in such a way that elementary age readers will identify with them.  They can easily see the personality types represented and the school-age dynamics are relatable.  MOA has all your typical students-the popular beauty, the jock, the outcast, the gossip, the brain, etc…they just happen to be Greek gods and goddesses.  Their encounters and conflicts with one another make reference to mythology and to the conflicts kids today are familiar with in a school setting.

This first book was a very easy read.  I plan to grab a few more over the next couple of months and see if their appeal holds when different characters are central to the plot.  It would be a breeze for a solid elementary-age reader, but would also appeal to middle school aged girls that may find reading to be a chore or a challenge.

 

May 30 2014

Flora and Ulysses by Kate diCamillo

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Oh, I wanted to love this book.  I really, really did.  I really enjoyed the majority of diCamillo books I’ve read, so when I saw a friend’s son reading this one, I asked to borrow it.  (He’s in second grade and quite a reader, but I waited to ask his opinion until after I had finished reading it.)  Turns out, the second grader and I had the same response to the story! To be perfectly honest with you, I had completely forgotten that I read this book until I saw it in a bookstore the other day…and I just read it last month.

Overall, it was okay.  “Meh” is my preferred statement here.  The story starts out fanciful enough…the squirrel, Ulysses, is sucked into a vacuum cleaner and then rescued by Flora.  Flora is obsessed with comic books, which annoys her romance-novel writing mother.  Flora’s parents are divorced and it is a strained relationship, so her escape into comic books is understandable.  Her father shares her love of comic books, although he seems to have some major issues dealing with the difficulties in his life, too, so it makes sense that he shares Flora’s escapism.

Ulysses develops all sorts of super powers after his vacuum incident-He can fly! He can type! He can understand human speech! He’s a poet!  But, by the end of the book, I still wasn’t really sure what the point of the whole relationship was for Flora.  Perhaps it was more escapism??  There are other periphery characters, but I honestly can’t remember their names or much about them.  When I asked my second grade friend what he thought, his response was pretty much the same: “It was okay.  I think the book was supposed to be funny, but I didn’t really like it.”  (Now, to be clear, this kid READS, and we’ve chatted about books before, so I’m fairly confident in his opinion.)

If you have a comic book obsessed child, this may be right up his/her alley.  Know that the mother says some rather unkind things to her daughter on more than one occasion, although in the end it is more or less resolved.  If you want a richer, more interesting diCamillo book, I would steer towards something like Because of Winn Dixie or Tale of Despereaux, instead.

May 26 2014

Igraine the Brave by Cornelia Funke

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Igraine is a 12-year-old girl that wants to be a knight. Unfortunately for her, she’s a girl and the only non-magician in her family.  Fortunately for her, her magician parents seem to be very tolerant of her dreams.  Her older brother, Albert, is less tolerant-but in a older/younger sibling annoyance sort of way.

Igraine’s parents are the most famous magicians in the kingdom and the owners of several magical singing books.  Over the centuries, many have tried to steal the books from Igraine’s ancestors and this is the key plot point of Igraine’s story, as well.  Of course, Igraine must come to the rescue when her parents accidentally turn themselves into pigs and her aspirations of becoming a knight become partially realized.

The story is fanciful-even silly at times-but I think it is a very enjoyable read for mid- to upper-elementary students.  The cast of characters are fun and light-hearted and much less menacing from some of Cornelia Funke’s other bad guy characters.  The ending is a bit abrupt, but easily workable in a classroom.  I intend to read this novel with my third grade gifted education students next year, as I think the story is accessible to them and there are a million projects and tasks that we could explore and create related to this story and connecting it to fairy tales and the medieval world of knights and kingdoms.

Jan 3 2014

The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer

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The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell is the first in a planned series by GLEE actor, Chris Colfer.  This book is the first novel he wrote/published.  The idea behind the novel is cute and it has great potential for growth and expansion.  I do hope that as his experience with writing increases, Colfer’s style develops in complexity.  As I was reading, I felt that he had all these ideas to get on paper, so the development of plot points suffered a bit.  In all honesty, this first book could have been divided into multiple volumes to give him time to develop each plot point and work on his descriptive writing skills.

All that being said, this is a relatively engaging read that I think many skilled elementary school age readers will enjoy.  The main characters are brother and sister twins that inadvertently find themselves trapped in the Land of Stories where all of our fairy tales originated.  They encounter all of the heroes and villains of our story history and find out new details and back stories to tie seemingly unrelated characters together.

The novel ends with a wide opening for a follow up-or two-or three.  I think that as his writing skills grow (and his attachment to a thesaurus develops) the stories that Colfe spins could become truly delightful.  This novel would be a great starting point for those kids that enjoy reading, but are intimidated by larger works.  The book itself is longer than those of Narnia and the like, but I think the writing style would be easier to access for kids that aren’t quite ready to read Narnia-level work on their own yet.  The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell would be a fun and easy read-aloud with kids-both at home or for an elementary school classroom.

Jul 8 2013

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

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The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate is a fictionalized telling of the story of Ivan, the “shopping mall gorilla” of the 1970’s and 80’s.  Applegate, author of the Animorphs series, breaks away from serial YA fiction to bring us a first-gorilla account of Ivan’s time in his shopping mall home and his eventual move to a zoo.

Ivan is a witty and delightful main character.  I admit that I finished this book on a Wednesday morning and began reading it aloud to my fourth graders that same day.  My students enjoyed the gorilla-esque prose as I read, and I was careful to pause and emphasize the shortened, stylized sentences.  For skilled readers, the format of the words on the page will be very appealing.  (Another teacher in my school downloaded her copy and projected it on her smart board so that her students could see how the format enhanced the character’s voice.)

In the book, Ivan’s story starts with him as an adult, living in the mall menagerie.  There are flashback to his childhood in the jungle and his life with various trainers.  The story follows his mundane life in the mall into his introduction into zoo life.  The ending is open-we know he makes it to a zoo and begins to live life with other gorillas, but we don’t know much beyond that.  My students and I did research on the real Ivan to see what happened in his real story and how his zoo life experience was for him after leaving the mall.  It was a wonderful follow up after finishing the book.  (Ivan passed away at the Atlanta Zoo in 2012, after being a beloved part of the Atlanta Zoo family since 1994.)

There are characters in the book that were not part of the real Ivan’s experience.  They help give him a voice and create a context for his story-especially for younger readers.  There are references to poaching of gorillas and the how their hands have been sold as ashtrays on the black market.  There was also an explanation of the elephant training methods used by some less-humane circuses, including an incident with the baby elephant, Ruby.  Additionally, Ivan’s older elephant friend eventually dies due to old injuries sustained in her circus days.  HOWEVER, these are not reasons to avoid this book!  With the right explanation and openness to discussion, they are wonderful learning moments for kids.  One of my students even made reference to Charlotte’s Web and The Jungle Book when we were talking about these moments in class.  Kids that have been exposed to most children’s literature have the context for these moments…as adults, we sometimes forget that.

I highly recommend The One and Only Ivan for mid- to upper-elementary grades.  It is a wonderful independent read and a fantastic book to read along with your child and discuss.  A quick internet search will produce all kinds of information on the real Ivan for follow up discussions with your kids.

 

Click here to purchase the book through Amazon (including Kindle)

Jul 8 2013

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

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The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern is a delicious read.  The writing is rich and descriptive and the storyline is compelling.  This is definitely a book for skilled readers that enjoy detailed plots and settings.  The main character, Celia, is followed from childhood to her adult life-although the story jumps around in time and chapters are told from different perspectives.  It is not until the very end of the book that the reader understands why some chapters are being directed at us, the reader, while others are more omnipotent in nature.

Celia’s life is not easy.  She is introduced shortly after her mother commits suicide.  Her father sees her as a project, not as someone to love, which creates a very complicated basis for building relationships in the story.  Her father is a famous illusionist with a slightly sinister undercurrent.  He clearly wants to use Celia for her supernatural gifts and abilities to prove something to a mysterious opponent.  Celia is bound at age six into a competition with another “student” that she will not meet until later in life.  Her father’s training methods are cruel, and as we meet her competitor, we see that his training is equally rigorous, yet, unfeeling and sterile.

The title circus, though is wondrous and richly drawn by Morgenstern.  Due to the nature of the plot, the circus expands and develops with fantastic new attractions and incredible sights and experiences.  The circus “extras” become equally fascinating and the story about how they build, grow and develop the circus becomes an enjoyable secondary plot.  The circus is grounded in reality, created by people that have mechanical and technical gifts, but flourishes with the addition of magic by Celia and her competitor.  The circus is clearly the playing field for the competition, even though the reader is not initially sure if it is a competition between good and evil, good vs. good or evil vs. slightly less evil.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.  It was a delightful story to get lost in for several hours.  The Night Circus is clearly written for avid readers with a more sophisticated grasp on literature.  The story would appeal to advanced high school aged readers.  The storyline does involve some cruel father/daughter moments and unpleasant mentor/mentee relationships.  There is romantic tension within the novel and one instance of implied sex between consenting adults.

 

Click here to purchase the book from Amazon (including Kindle)

Mar 8 2013

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

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Wonder is one of the books you remember.  It is a story to return to time and again.  It is a book that parents and kids can both relate to-and in turn, be able to relate to one another.  I downloaded this book on a Saturday morning and found myself stealing moments all day long to go back to Auggie’s story.  By the end of the day, I was nearing the end of the book and I found myself sad to see it end and invigorated by Auggie’s story.

August is a bright, funny boy with a severe facial deformity.  He has been subjected to countless surgeries, years of pain and ugly stares from strangers on the streets of his home in New York.  Auggie has never attended a real school, but his parents finally realize that they cannot provide the education he needs, and he is enrolled in a local private school at the start of his fifth grade year.

His first taste of “real” school coincides with the start of middle school-a difficult time for any kid.  Palacio does a wonderful job of drawing parallels between Auggie’s experiences with fitting in and the experiences of every kid that is wading through the swamp of middle school.  Each section of the book is written from different points of view-Auggie, his sister, students at his school-and each point of view clearly paints a picture of Auggie’s experience and the narrator’s perspective of Auggie’s life.

I have found that this book appeals to both boys and girls in the upper-elementary and middle school range.  Parents can be comfortable knowing that although this book does delve into the middle school experience of “growing up” that incidents of sex, alcohol and drug use are non-existent.  There is a mention of a party with no grown-ups present, but the character involved chooses to leave.  Negative actions in the book have consequences…there are no free rides.

 

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