Ya Really Just Never Know

I’m a voracious reader. That makes me a nerd. I’m also a finicky reader. That makes me like zillions of other guys who sometimes look at a book and go, “Um, is there anything on TV?”

Oh sure, once upon a time I was force-fed books in school which I “fake read” (if I even gave them that much effort) but ever since I can remember there have only really been two types of reading materials in my hands.
1) Books you couldn’t pry away.
2) Books that were about to be forever tossed from my picky grip.

Not much middle ground.

Now some writers are readers who will devour any and everything. That’s not me. If I am not “feelin’ it” I move on and the amount of slack I am willing to cut any new title that finds its way into my life keeps getting shorter and shorter and shorter.

Why? Because there are already too many books I know I absolutely WANT to read. And being that I already know I do not have enough hours left on this planet to get to my current reading aspirations – and new books are being published all the time which I can’t wait to get my hands on… plus magazines, blogs and scoops on half-naked celebrities from TMZ – the slack I am willing to cut a title that isn’t cutting it for me is little, to say the least.

I do wish someone would have given me permission earlier in my life to toss a book aside when I wasn’t groovin’ with its vibe. In too many instances I “gutted books out” and choked down a bunch of pages for which I never had an appetite. Or an attention span. You ever been reading a “classic title” and realize your four pages further down the line but all you can remember is that your mind is absolutely convinced that microwave frozen pizza gets a bad rap.

These days, I read with a hook and if a book isn’t cutting it for me – after I have given it a fair shot, an imprecise calculatory science at best – (note, as a writer, you get to make up words) I am gone-zo.

I think that’s why this picture means so much to me.

What you are looking at is a copy of my book HOMEBOYZ. I wrote this book for reluctant readers, for kids who say they HATE to read. The pic was given to me by a teacher at an urban school in a high poverty community with an insane drop-out rate, a swollen illiteracy rate and a whole lotta other rates that they wish they weren’t being rated on.

But look at the wear and tear on that bay-bee. She said it’s her most popular book. Kids who loathe reading will book talk HOMEBOYZ and get other kids who hate reading to check it out. She told me, with a chuckle, copies of HOMEBOYZ has been stolen innumerable times (this isn’t her only one). “And these kids never steal the textbooks, I tell you that!”

As a writer, I am so, so proud that my book has reached so many kids. As a reader, this is the type of book that I want in my own hands. If I am not energized, enthused, excited, challenged, outraged, feverish, hurt, humored and genuinely moved by a book then off I go (like an addict) seeking the high that only reading can uniquely afford into the night, searching and searching and searching.

Who does this? Nerds do. And I am proud to be one.

Alan Sitomer is California’s 2007 Teacher of the Year. In addition to his work as an inner-city high school English teacher and professor in the Graduate School of Education at Loyola Marymount University, Mr. Sitomer has authored 14 books for esteemed publishers such as Disney, Scholastic, Penguin/Putnam, and Triumph Learning. These include six young adult novels, three children’s picture books, two teacher methodology books, and a classroom curriculum series for secondary English Language Arts instruction called The Alan Sitomer BookJam. A nationally renowned speaker specializing in engaging reluctant readers, Alan is currently working to reshape literacy education across the United States today.

Mr. Browne’s Precepts

In my novel Wonder, a teacher named Mr. Browne begins his first day of teaching English to his 5^th grade class with a lesson on precepts. “Does anyone know what a precept is?” he asks the class, and after some discussion, he informs the kids that precepts are “rules about really important things.”  In a nutshell, precepts are words to live by. You can find a precept in a book you’re reading, in a song you’ve heard, or in a fortune cookie. It doesn’t matter where, but if a phrase rings true to you, and it can help guide you in making a decision, then make it your own personal precept.

Mr. Browne then tells his class that he’s going to be giving them a precept every month until the end of the year, and every month they’re going to discuss the precept and write an essay about what it means to them. Mr. Browne’s Precept for the month if September is: “If you have the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind.”  It’s a quote by Dr. Wayne Dyer, and Auggie Pullman thinks it’s a nice quote.

That chapter in the book ends there, but if I had extended it I could easily imagine how the rest of the discussion would have played out. Mr. Browne would start by asking what the students thought the precept meant. Did they like the precept? Did it apply to how they lived their lives? Then he might have started talking about the obvious benefits of the precept. If everyone adopted that quote as his or her own personal precept, he would tell them, wouldn’t the world be a better place? Imagine if nations adopted it as a mandate, wouldn’t there be fewer conflicts? Some of the kids would agree, adding that if nations chose to be kind “instead of right,” it might even end world hunger. Other kids would argue that being wealthy doesn’t have anything to do with being right, and there might even be a little sidebar conversation about whether might really does make right.

From there the discussion would move to Mr. Browne asking the students how hard it would be for them to choose to back down from an argument with their moms or dads or brothers or sisters, if they knew they were right and the other person was wrong? Would they give in just to let the other person save face? Why?

It’s not so simple a thing to choose to be kind, Mr. Browne would then tell them. It’s one thing to back down from an argument with someone you love, or a friend, because you don’t see the point in “winning” the argument at the cost of your friend’s feelings. But what if you believe in something that no one else believes in? What if you’re the only one who knows you’re right? Should you back down, just to be kind? What if you were Galileo, and you knew you were right about the planets revolving around the sun even though the rest of the world thought you were crazy—would you back down? What if you were living in the 1950s and you were the only one in your town to believe that black people should have the same rights as white people—would you back down, just to be polite? What if you were standing up for something you believed in—would you really want to back down, just for the sake of kindness?

All this would lead a lot of the kids to question whether the precept is good, after all. At which point Mr. Browne would tell them that maybe the most important word in the precept isn’t the word “kind” or the word “right.” Maybe the most important word in that whole sentence is the word “choose.” As with all things in life, he would tell them, every choice you make needs to be weighed. Every decision needs to be evaluated. All that precept is telling you, Mr. Browne would finish telling them, is that it’s better to choose to be kind than to choose to be right. But the real point is that you have the choice. Do you choose to be kind?

And that would have been the end of that introduction to precepts—at least in my book. The truth is, I started “collecting” precepts when I was a teenager. I didn’t really call them precepts at the time: I just wrote down things I liked: phrases, words, inspirational quotes. They always got me thinking. And I always thought that if I had been a teacher, I would have used precepts as a way of inspiring some real independent thinking in my students—thinking that wasn’t just about what the kids read or what formula was the right one to use. But thinking about character, about the dramas played out in the lunchroom everyday, about the impact of what we say and do in other people’s lives.

For a list of all of Mr. Browne’s Precepts and where they came from, log onto my website at www.rjpalacio.com. It’s still a work in progress, but I’m working away at it, and will have it functional by the pub date of Wonder, which is February 14^th.  And if you have your own personal precept you’d like to share with me, please email me at rjpalaciowebmail@gmail.com or post on my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/WonderbyRJPalacio. I’ll be listing personal precepts on my website in coming weeks.

R.J. Palacio

R.J. lives in NYC with her husband, two sons, and two dogs. For many years, she was an art director and book jacket designer, designing covers for countless well-known and not so well-known writers in every genre of fiction and nonfiction.

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Mr. Schu is premering the Wonder trailer today on Watch.Connect.Read.

Mr. Sharp has posted an interview with R.J. on sharpread.

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Nerdy is giving away two galleys of Wonder.

Rules for the Giveaway

* The contest runs from January 30 to 11:59 PM on February 1.

* If you win Wonder, we will send you an email.

* You must be at least 13 to participate.

Top Ten Invented Words by My Students That Could Be Used to Describe the Nerdy Book Community (as interpreted by me)

Each year, as we study the origins of the English Language, my students invent their own words and we use a wiki to add to an ever-growing CrazyCollaborativeDictionaryProject. It is an online dictionary — with some podcasts by student word inventors – that grows by about 80 words every year, and allows for collaboration across time and space (cue: Star Trek theme). I had pitched the idea of finding words in a real dictionary to describe us Nerdy Book Clubbers but that struck me as boring almost as soon as I suggested it. Instead, I went to our Crazy Dictionary to find words invented by my students that might better describe either us or our book-loving mania. These are in alphabetic, not numerical, order. – Kevin

 

Bzeeb (2006) – The act of being cool.

I know you are bzeeb, man, ‘cause you’re hanging out with other book lovers. I hope some of your bzeebiness flows to me, too. – Kevin

Ecallow (2011)– When you get stuck in a book and you don’t hear anything around you.Listentothedefinition

I am often in this escallow zone, particularly when I am in a passage with something intense going on. I block out the entire world. You? — Kevin

Flibergish (2011)- The act of eating a book.Listentothedefinition

Sometimes, well, we get a little hungry. Particularly late at night. A book can be vey inviting and you might just get a little flibergish now and then. Spit out the punctuation, though. Those marks will give you indigestion! – Kevin

Kanban- (2008) Someone who mushes words together.Listentothedefinition

WhenItypereallyfastsometimesmyfingersmovequickerthanmybrainandIcouldbeconsideredaKabanatthatmoment. (PS — it’s difficult to write like that!) – Kevin

Nosidamic (2010) – The language spoken by people in a secret land.Listentotheword

Our secret land is the world of literature. And our language is love. – Kevin

Pimip (2007) — A word that means awesome, cool, and amazing (2007)Listentothedefinition

Synonym: bzeeb. Example? The Nerdy Book Club. – Kevin

Thoughtopter (2011)- A device that will pick up brain waves and will write down your thoughts on paper or on a computer.Listentothedefinition

Maybe, someday, the stories in our heads will just magically transform onto paper and bind itself up and present it to a reader. Until then, it’s all finger and toes. What? You don’t use your toes to write? – Kevin

Wordieworder  (2007) - A person who uses large words in their vocabulary Listentothedefinition

All you bibliophiles and wordieworders will no doubt scour the lexiconical world for other examples of large words. The largest word on our Crazy Dictionary is Aheolaphoalamprosolpooslopeleroadeasoloper (2005), which means very small dog. I know you wanted to know that. – Kevin

Zciwohcalism (2006) – The act of looking at the ceiling when thinking hard about something.

I’m doing it right now as I write this post. You probably will do it, too. I even had a revelation: there’s a cobweb up there. – Kevin

Zenalania- (2008) A place of zen and tranquilityListentothedefinition

If there is ever a word that describes the appeal of the Nerdy Book Club, this is it. It’s a place of zenalania, and I am happy to be part of it. – Kevin

 

Kevin Hodgson teaches sixth grade and mostly uses simple words. He blogs at Kevin’s Meandering Mind (http://dogtrax.edublogs.org/)

Top Ten Books I Would Grab If My Classroom Was On Fire

Now I’m sure you are all thinking the same thing so let me answer your question. Yes, if my classroom was on fire the first thing I would do is make sure the kids were out the door safely. But then I would most likely go flying back into the classroom to grab these 10 books to save them from the flames!

Charlotte’s Web – I sigh just thinking about Fern sitting by the barn watching Wilbur blossom from a wriggly little piglet into a T double-E double-R double-R double-I double-F double-I double-C, C, C pig. This was the first book that gave me a little slap of reality that life does have an ending. Boy do I still weep openly every time Charlotte passes on and Wilbur grieves for the loss of his friend. I love this book for the pure innocence of Wilbur and the joy of true friendship between him and Charlotte.

 

Pete The Cat I Love My White Shoes  - I was fortunate enough to have a wise colleague share this gem of a book at the beginning of the school year. After I shared this with my students for the first time I felt like a rock star because of their cheering and begging to hear it again and again!  I love how Eric Litwin crafted a brilliant story that helps students learn many sight words and color words in a very fun way- through a catchy song!  I seriously caught myself singing it for weeks after we first heard it. This is a GO TO book in my classroom if we have an extra couple minutes.

Strega Nona –  Shhh – I have a secret love affair with pasta! My amazing mother found this book when I was very young and shared it with me.  I remember snuggling up next her and being in awe of the idea of a magic pasta pot that would give me all the pasta in the world! Tomie dePaola is gifted in the talent of being able to weave a story that is full of wonder and warmth.

Panda Kindergarten – This is an adorable non-fiction book about the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda at the Wolong Nature Preserve. These pandas learn skills they will need in the wild to survive while in the care of the Nature Preserve. The pictures will seriously melt your heart and you can’t help but “awwwww” at them. My students clamor for this book, pour over the captions and text and talk about what the pandas do at “school” compared to what they do at school.

The Great Fuzz Frenzy – I love to use this book when we are in the early stages of discussing building mental images while reading.  I cover the book with construction paper so the kids can’t see the giant tennis ball. In the story a dog drops the tennis ball down into the prairie dogs home. The prairie dogs pull the fuzz off the ball, play with it and end up arguing over it. All in all the prairie does figure out they need to share and get along. The amazing part is that the authors NEVER give away in the text that the fuzz is from a tennis ball.  My kids love guessing what the fuzz is and I love seeing their creativity run wild. It’s always fun to reveal what the fuzz truly is!

Scaredy Squirrel Makes A Friend – I love a book that can make my students laugh hysterically but then really think at the same time. This is a great book to share the first few days of school to spur conversation about making new friends, but also a great book to revisit for various reading and writing mini-lessons. Author Melanie Watt has created a fabulous character that kids can relate to. This book is a hard one to find in my classroom because someone always has it in their reading basket!

Where Is The Green Sheep? This book is a fabulous book for early readers because of the volume of high frequency words embedded in the text, but also other words are heavily support through the colorful pictures.  The kids love the repeating line “But where is the green sheep?” and join in quickly when reading it together. I had the great honor of hearing Mem Fox speak at the Dublin Literacy Conference and was filled with glee when she chose to read this to us. Her voice is fantastic! You can visit her website and hear her read several of her texts. My kids love to take her books to the computer and read along with her!

Mercy Watson – A pig that loves to eat butter toast and wants to drive a car?! Who doesn’t love that idea?! My kids and I roared through this story the first time I read it and each year my students fall in love with the funny pig named Mercy Watson and want to read more and more of her. Kate DiCamillo has done an amazing job of writing an early chapter book series with strong characters and interesting plots that keep kids coming back hungrily for the next book to see what hilarious antics Mercy gets into.

Tiger Can’t Sleep – This is a tale of a tiger in a closet that keeps a little boy awake by performing loud, comical shenanigans because he can’t seem to get to sleep. My students have great, big belly laughs with what the tiger gets into. S.J. Fore does a wonderful job of incorporating sound words into his story and it’s a great mentor text for our young authors who try their hand in using onomatopoeia (yes, I had to look up how to spell that word).

What Do You Do With A Tail Like This? – The first time I saw this book I was amazed at the fresh layout to a non-fiction book. I loved the idea of setting kids up to predict what animals’ noses, feet, and ears were on the pages and then revealing them with facts associated to the animal and body part. So innovative! It really opened me and my students up to trying different approaches to writing non-fiction books and I am so thankful for that.

As a proud member of the Nerdy Book Club it’s hard to imagine selecting only 10 books to “save from the flames” and I admit to changing this list several times. As of right now this is what I would grab on my trip back into the burning building but who knows how I will feel tomorrow. We Nerdy Book Club members have ever evolving feelings about books! What books would you grab from your classroom if it were on fire?

Mary Brothers is in her eleventh year of teaching and teaches first grade in Dublin, Ohio alongside other fabulous Nerdy Book Club members (whether they know they are in or not).  She spends her days trying to convert students into Nerdy Book Clubbers themselves to hopefully help this club achieve global domination. You can tweet her at @MMBrothers.

How I Help My Kids Have Reading Lives (and Join the Nerdy Book Club)

I love my job!!  On a daily basis, I have the opportunity to model for my students how I am personally part of a much bigger reading community than just the four walls of our classroom.  I frequently talk to them about my reading life, their reading lives, and how I want them to live the lives of readers.

I look at how many ways we’ve been able to break down the physical walls of our classroom, and extend into the virtual reading community; many of those experiences grounded in conversations I had with other book lovers via Twitter.

It was through Twitter that I met Susan Dee (@literarydocent), and discovered that we were both going to begin reading Out of My Mind to our students at precisely the same time.  I teach in Ohio and Susan teaches in Maine.  In 140 characters or less (multiple times!), we came up with a plan for how we could connect our two classrooms via Kidblog.  As we each read this powerful book aloud to our students, we had them take the time to respond to the book on the blog several times a week, and then also respond to each other’s thinking.  Their conversations were amazing!!  We capped the experience off with a Skype visit between our two classes.  They were so excited to put names and faces together, especially with the people with whom they had had rich online discussions.  Their “in person” conversations were as thoughtful as their responses on the blog – so delightful!

It was also through Twitter that I met Laurel Snyder (@laurelsnyder), a wonderful author of children’s books.  With the upcoming release of her latest book, Bigger Than a Breadbox, this past October, she was offering free Skype visits to classes who might want that experience.  That was a no-brainer for me – I definitely wanted that experience for my students.  Laurel visited us via Skype, but the way she set it up, if felt like we were right there in her living room, just chatting about her book and other issues pertaining to being an author.  My forty-eight students felt so connected to this author who lives in a different place than they do.  They were thinking and responding like readers in a virtual world.

This year, I have a different teaching situation than before.  I’ve always taught in a fairly self-contained elementary classroom, but this year I am teaming with another teacher, and I teach two sections of 5th grade language arts each day.  From the beginning, my goal was not to have them be two separate classes; instead, I wanted the physical walls to come down, and have them be part of the same larger reading community.  I turned to my trusty KidBlog again.  I’ve opened the virtual walls between the two homerooms so that they have conversations with each other about books, recommendations, our read aloud, and their lives as a reader on a regular basis, even when they’re not in the same room.  KidBlog is the perfect tool to enable these ongoing discussions.

Recently, I became a member of the Nerdy Book Club (actually, I’ve been a member all my life; it’s just nice to have people organize it so well now!).  I shared my membership in this club with my students, and then asked them what they thought it meant to be part of a book club.  What great conversations ensued!  From the obvious (“you get together and talk about a book”) to the more thoughtful (“it gives you a sense of what other people think about the same book you read”), the discussions have been thought-provoking.  And how did I hear about the Nerdy Book Club??  You guessed it — Twitter again!

Hopefully, the message my students get on a daily basis is that we are all part of a global reading community, and to keep those communities alive, we need to actively participate in them.  I really do want my students to be readers for life, both inside and outside our four classroom walls.   Making that happen is why I love my job!!

Karen Terlecky

Karen Terlecky is a 5th grade language arts teacher and one-half of the Literate Lives blog team.  She also contributes to the Choice Literacy website.  She fell in love with books at an early age, with her mom as her reading model.  Hopefully, through her 28 years of teaching, she has been a reading model for many other children along the way.  She is a proud member of the Nerdy Book Club!

“We’re Still Listening, Nathaniel”

Retro Review: “We’re Still Listening, Nathaniel”
2012:

Eloise Greenfield’s THE GREAT MIGRATION: JOURNEY TO THE NORTH is recognized as a Coretta Scott King honor title. The illustrator of this book is Jan Spivey Gilchrist. The author is honored with this particular award, but the illustrations are so much a part of what makes this book special that the words and images become a sort of symbiotic relationship.

With first-person poems offered by multiple narrators and mood-setting illustrations, Greenfield and Gilchrist set the scene and provide a snapshot of resolve for each sojourner during the “great migration” of the early 20th century that saw nearly 1.6 million African Americans making their way from the south to the north in an effort to get away from the increasing violence in the southern states. Eventually, this number would grow to 6 million as historians recognize the “great migration” lasting up through the 1940s and 1970s.

The poems and pictures in this book speak to the experience of many through the voices of a few. This is the power of the poem. Good verse gets inside the reader’s mind and stays there, lines lingering long after setting the book back down.

The Greenfield and Gilchrist combination is not some new mash-up like we see in popular music. In order to capture the gift that is the Greenfield/Gilchrist combination, we go all the way back to. . .

1990:

NATHANIEL TALKING wins the Coretta Scott King Award. Eloise Greenfield is the author/poet. The illustrator—Jan Spivey Gilchrist.

Twenty-two years before THE GREAT MIGRATION: JOURNEY TO THE NORTH would win the Coretta Scott King Award—on the 22nd no less—this book would set to solidify a long-standing relationship between author and illustrator that would work together to create no fewer than eighteen books together in a relationship beginning in the late eighties to the most current title released in 2011. The Coretta Scott King Award for NATHANIEL TALKING was given for the illustrations.

In this long-standing relationship between two highly-talented ladies (Greenfield was the 1997 NCTE Excellence in Poetry for Young Children award recipient), both have now been recognized for their contributions as writer and illustrator as individuals and as a partnership.

I’d like to share NATHANIEL TALKING with The Nerdy Book Club this week. The book is out of print now, but used copies are available. I actually found my beautiful hardcover copy of this book at the local Friends of the Library Sale. Set in an urban neighborhood, one might assume that Nathaniel is a generation or two removed from the “great migration.” And now that he is here, he has some things to share with the reader about his life.

Nine-year-old Nathaniel peers out from the cover of the book with a sense of plucky confidence that comes of youth. With his red hoody and blue and gold baseball cap, he seems to be looking his shoulder inviting the reader, “Oh, you want to know my story? Come on then. . .”

Like a contemporary troubadour, Nathaniel uses the forms at his disposal, rap, the blues, free verse, and elegy to weave a story that must be heard. “Nathaniel’s Rap” and reprise of this rap bookend this collection of poems that follow our young hero:

I can rap
Rested, dressed and feeling fine
I’ve got something on my mind
Friends and kin and neighborhood
Listen now and listen good
Nathaniel’s talking
Nathaniel B. Free
Talking about
My philosophy

Nathaniel muses about who he will be at ninety-nine years of age, with a piece called “Knowledge” where he senses he will know “almost/everything about everything.”
And this is lot to look forward to when his current situation compels Nathaniel to share two poignant pieces about his dead mother. In “Missing Mama” we get a sense of from where some of Nathaniel’s artificial assuredness may be coming:

my uncle he said
you going to get past
you going to
push on past this pain
and one of these days
you going to feel like
yourself again

Gilchrist’s black and white drawings appear throughout a book that comes with a full color cover. The juxtaposition of images and words are readily seen in a world that is seeming painted black and white. Messages of “be good,” and “you’ll get over this” guide this child through familiar issues of childhood that are really shades of gray, which Gilchrist quietly builds into each page.

The full-spread illustration that accompanies “My Daddy,” a blues-inspired piece give the reader a sense of Nathaniel’s anchor in his world:

he sings “’Thaniel, ‘Thaniel, ‘Thaniel
boy I love you deed I do”
he signs “’Thaniel, ‘Thaniel, ‘Thaniel
boy I love you deed I do
well you’re a mighty fine fella
and song I’m proud of you

And because of an attentive and nurturing uncle, a knitting and knowing grandmother, a caring and affirming father, we get to see Nathaniel, a young boy that could be any one of our students anywhere in any one of our learning communities, celebrate in one of the final pieces, “I See My Future”:

I see my future
clear as I don’t know what
not all of the things around me
not furniture or houses
or sidewalks and stuff
I just see me
my serious man face
thinking
my laughing man face
my big Nathaniel me
moving through the world
doing good and unusual
things.

1992. . .
2012. . .

A relationship born out of words and images, Greenfield and Gilchrist provide mentor texts for what it means to be young, what it means to be a part of a larger world, even when the landscapes and circumstances are beyond one’s control.

Greenfield and Gilchrist continue to produce works that encourage readers to know that one’s voice is big enough to fill the ambient space of another’s ear. To know that a line on a page becomes a horizon for character and reader alike.
To know that when you talk. . .someone’s listening.

Paul W. Hankins hangs around libraries and social media forums in the hopes that an author might be there already or show up soon. As a response to some higher calling, Paul teaches English 11 and AP English Language and Composition at Silver Creek High School in s. Indiana. You can follow him at Facebook and Twitter (search Paul W. Hankins). He does not have a regular blog as of yet. . .this blog alone took a lot out of him. In fact, you be best served–if you wanted to find him today–to look in the big green chair at Hankins Ranch. He’ll be the handsome man with a cool, wet cloth on his forehead.

Horton Halfpott by Tom Angleberger

In a sentence or so: Smugwick Manor is a kooky place with quirky people and mysterious happenings. Events get an extra helping of crazy when M’Lady Luggertuck decides to not have her corset laced quite so tight, and The Loosening begins.Horton Halfpott is a kitchen boy at Smugwick Manor. His job, sad as it is, is to wash dishes all day, every day. And on the rare and glorious occasion he finishes washing dishes before the day is over, he is off to polish the extensive fork collection. And then he is off to the silver platter…you get the idea.  Horton has a few friends at the Manor, most importantly his best friend Bump, a stable boy who knows how great Horton is and what a bummer his life can be in that kitchen all the time.On the fateful day that M’Lady Luggertuck decides to leave her corset just a little looser, a chain of events take off that Horton could never have imagined. For instance, M’Lady decides to have a ball. In addition to this being a shock to everyone (M’Lady isn’t the most pleasant of folks), this creates even more work for the staff and, by extension, Horton.  This extra work involves delivering the invitations personally, which leads to Horton meeting a bright, beautiful, and totally unattainable young lady. But on top of the ball and some serious crushing, some rare and precious valuables go missing at the Manor. Throw in a detective with an appetite greater than his detective skills, a very creepy and nasty Luther Luggertuck, some ship-less pirates, and secret room in the attic full of mystery, surprises, and hidden disguises, and things at Luggertuck Manor are running right off the rails.

Why you should be reading Horton Halfpott RIGHT NOW.

• This is a Middle Grade spoof on Victorian mysteries. Seriously, you haven’t heard of a better blend of hilarious and quirky and heart-warming heroism. I know you haven’t.
• The writing is Roald Dahl meets Harry Potter. YES. I KNOW. I’m being completely serious when I tell you that this is perhaps the best compliment I can possibly give for a MG book.
• The characters are hilarious (though often unintentionally so) and utterly loveable. Okay, maybe not Luther and M’Lady but every good book needs bad people.
• The author asides to the reader are fun and funny and make you feel like you’re sharing secrets with Tom Angleberger. I liked that a ton.
• The author created illustrations! You know he does some solid illustrations because he created the illustrations for this very blog! Pretty cool, no?
• If you are looking for a middle grade read that’s mysterious, silly, thoughtful, fun, and has just a splash of romance. Well, are you? Look no further!
• Cool kids read this book. Just saying. And by cool kids I mean nerd kids.

Fave quote: “Well, Reader? You know a little of Miss Sylvan-Smythe by now. Do you think she is likely to listen to this transparent flattery? Of course not. She jerked her hand away.” (pg 94)

Title: Horton Halfpott or The Fiendish Mystery of Smugwick Manor or The Loosening of M’Lady Luggertuck’s Corset
Author: Tom Angleberger
Publisher: Amulet Press (Abrams)
Drop date: May 2011
Genre: Mystery, Humor, Middle GradeLisa is the nerd behind Lisa is Busy Nerding. She particularly likes to read young adult books that involve some sort of magic, dragons, or other such awesomeness. When she’s not reading, she’s gaming or watching a plethora of nerdy TV shows and movies with her equally nerdy husband and sweater wearing schnauzer.

ALA Awards

For the Nerdy Book Club, there is a sense of anticipation that comes along with a January Monday where the book lovers and librarians and teachers and students offer their predictions about the best books from the year before. Mock awards are presented in classrooms and at libraries, but we all watch and wait for this Monday. We wonder if our dearly beloved favorite books will make the cut or if we’ll be introduced to new titles for our TBR lists.

It’s like our Academy Awards – the nominations and award show all in one.

So, a drum roll please, as we give a nod to the books that have been chosen for this year’s ALA Youth Media Awards.

Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults:

Medal

Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley

Honor

Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler

The Returning by Christine Hinwood

Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature:

Medal

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

Honor

Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai

Breaking Stalin’s Nose by Eugene Yelchin

Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children:

Medal

A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka

Honor

Blackout by John Rocco

Grandpa Green by Lane Smith

Me … Jane by Patrick McDonnell

Blueprint in a Book

As a child, I don’t recall ever seeing either of my parents read a book. Neither of them shared a favorite title or took me to the bookstore. The only books in our home were the ones I supplied myself, my temporary treasures from libraries carted home with pleasure in hands that could barely carry them.

My home was a place where grownups worried and struggled to survive. (My parents did the best they could. It was all they knew.)

So I filled the empty spots and dark days with Nancy Drew, Little House on the Prairie, and the Hardy Boys. I read every book I could find, comforting myself in language and story. Intuitive teachers somehow knew which books I needed, and kindly allowed me free reign in their classroom libraries. I could be trusted to return every book. And every book would be read.

I particularly loved reading funny, light-hearted stories about large families. They taught me how homes were supposed to be. Fathers had jobs. Mothers were happy. Kids could be kids and trouble themselves only with tree houses and best friends. Homes could be pleasant places filled with laughter.

In the pages of books, I also learned life-changing kinds of things: people could make plans and achieve goals. People could overcome obstacles. People could transcend their lot. There WAS another way to live.
And so I began charting my course. With each title I read, I was slowly mapping out a blueprint for my future. (Scholarships. College. Writing. Teaching. A Master’s degree.) A life filled with books that belonged to me.

Books became more than stories on a page: they were advice-givers, hope-dispensers, dream-prompters, warning-givers, cheerleaders—and friends.

Driven by hope, I plowed through the challenges in my life and went to college (though statistically I wasn’t supposed to). I stayed on course and began a wonderfully satisfying teaching career. Now I fill my own classroom library. I lend out my own books. I do my own read-alouds! Imagine! I make it my mission to supply every student in my charge with the right book at the right time. When I discuss good books with my students, I am happier than I can say. Books help me connect with my class. Books give my students common ground. Books create community in my classroom.

In my own home, I surround myself with book stacks. They are everywhere in my house, not relegated to one particular room. They are on shelves, waiting in baskets, sitting on ledges. They are stacked on my dining room and kitchen tables. I cannot ever have enough books, and I am constantly acquiring more. (One of the greatest joys in my life is hearing my husband say, “Your box arrived”.)

I gather books like they are lost jewels, on the hunt for them in bookstores and libraries. When I spot the title I am looking for on a shelf, waiting for me, I want to shout with the elation of a receiver who has scored in the end zone in the final seconds of the 4th quarter. But, as decorum dictates, I simply close my eyes, hug the book, and smile.

Now, books are accompaniments to a peaceful life. They make my days sweeter and richer, like chocolate sprinkles on a buttercream cupcake.

So, when I came upon Nerdy Book Club on Twitter, I wanted to know more. Was it only for people who knew each other – old friends who reunited yearly at NCTE and ALAN? Was it only for librarians? Did I have to have a certain number of followers?

I humbly requested membership. Thankfully, Colby and Donalyn approved my entrance. I was accepted! There was no application fee. No interview process. All I had to do was read and share titles.

It is a privilege to be in the club. I vow to be a faithful member. I’ll bring cupcakes to all our meetings! I’ll type and mail out the minutes! And, oh, yes, I will read. For the rest of my life.

Cynthia Alaniz

@utalaniz

Cynthia is a 4th grade teacher, team leader, and language/literacy content specialist in Texas. She has a master’s degree in Educational Leadership and is a Teacher Consultant with the National Writing Project. She was named her district’s Elementary Teacher of the Year in 2009, and Super Teacher in 2010 and 2011.  She has been teaching for 22 years. She is a book blogger and shoe-shopper– and a very proud member of the Nerdy Book Club.

The Alexander Award

We’re all excited about the upcoming Newbery, Caldecott and Printz awards. So why aren’t we excited about the Alexander?

Because it doesn’t exist of course … but it needs to.

The Alexander is given to a SERIES of worthy books. It is bestowed only when the last book of the series has been written.

It is named, of course, for Lloyd Alexander who wrote perhaps the greatest series of mid-grade fantasy ever concocted: The Prydain Chronicles. (Better know to me, at least, as the Taran books.)

Alexander won the Newbery for the final book in that series, the High King. But I’ve yet to find anyone who says the High King is their favorite of the series. The Black Cauldron stands out for thrills. Taran Wanderer stands out for literary merit. And the Castle of Llyr has an winningly oddball charm.

I’ve always believed that Alexander won the Newbery for the SERIES and not really for The High King. For one thing, I don’t quite see how it can “stand alone.”

And why should a book have to stand alone? If it’s part of a series it need not. Perhaps it SHOULD not!

If we are telling a story that spans several books, why should the individual “chapters” stand alone? If we are watching a kid grow up, then the ringleted hair she pulled in kindergarten is part of her story when she squeezes all the toothpaste out of a tube a few years later.  An author should be rewarded for creating a character like that, not penalized.

So if the Newbery marks a book down for that trait, there should be an award that awards bonus points for creating a multi-book tale that builds, grows and matures the way Taran does.

So which series should win the award?

Looking to the past….

An obvious winner is The Great Brain. Individually, the books are collections of great stories — clever, infuriating, sometimes scary or funny. Put together they are a remarkable portrait of a time, a place and two brothers.

The Tripod Trilogy by John Christopher. (The Alexander will dispense with those antiquated US residency requirements.)

And, OF COURSE, Ramona from her first appearance in a Henry Huggins book all the way to the end.

And in the future?

Well, I think May Amelia would be perfect for it… when Ms. Holm finishes it.

And word is that Kirby Larsen is writing a new Hattie book!

How about my friend Michael Buckley’s Sisters Grimm? Individually the books contain too many farts to win a Newbery. But together … do they not add up to a symphony?

I think the Wimpy Kid is a perfect contender. Each book seems like such a jolly good yukfest. But seen from a distance, the series is creating one of the most realistic, unflinching, unforgiving portraits of a kid every attempted.

While none of the brushstrokes gain serious Newbery consideration, the final piece of art may be a masterpiece!

And this year’s Alexander … I nominate a rigorous adventure set in our own country’s folkloric past — not Europe’s for once! —  when the sons of John Henry and Little Bill fought a desperate, fantastical battle for the soul of America.

Let’s put a shiny Alexander sticker on The Clockwork Dark Trilogy by John Claude Bemis. This year he wrapped up his tale with The White City, an action-packed ending to a series which any self-respecting middle school book nerd would wolf down eagerly.

Personally, I liked the second book in the series best (I often do). But it is just part of a story.

Which is the reason we should recognize a whole series, give it an award and get all the books in a row on the library shelf and thus into the hands of kids.

(Full disclosure: I have to admit to being friends with all of the present and future writers mentioned. And two of them are from my publisher, Amulet. And all are really nice.)

And now I look forward to hearing who the rest of the Nerdy Book Club would choose….

Oh… and did I mention the Marshall award for best writing for a Picture Book format?

– –Tom

Tom Angleberger is the author of Origami Yoda and Fake Mustache, husband of author/illustrator Cece Bell and honored to be the doodler of the NerdyBookClub logo.