Magic that Can Be Shared All Year Long by Brandee Green

How many of you have ever read the letter from Chris Van Allsburg found in the collector’s edition of The Polar Express?  I ask you this, not because this is a holiday post, but because as an avid reader and lifelong fan of The Polar Express, I was stunned to have just recently found it; and I think there is a huge message in that letter that can be applied to everyday life, all year long.

Chris Van Allsburg starts the letter by saying that he had been asked by many how he came up with the idea for The Polar Express.  He continues on by saying that he had avoided telling the truth until the point when he wrote the letter, ten years after the first copy was published. I won’t tell you the story today because I want you to read it for yourself and feel the magic as I did in the front of my classroom.  My fifth graders and I were working on critical reading skills to see the hidden stories in Van Allsburg’s pieces.  If you are not familiar with many of his stories, you should take a look.  There is so much more there than meets the eye.  For example, take a look at The Wretched Stone and see if you can find any hidden or implied themes.  This is a very powerful book when viewed through critical eyes.  On that particular day, we were drinking hot cocoa and discussing our final book of the unit, The Polar Express.  We had discussed beforehand that I wanted them to view The Polar Express, not as a child this time, but for the first time, with newly trained critical eyes.   Imagine their surprise when their teacher almost lost it in the front of the room, reading a children’s book about Santa Claus.  That isn’t just the magic of Christmas, that’s the MAGIC OF READING!

I gained a tremendous lesson that day from Mr. Van Allsburg.  The lesson I gained was that the magic of Christmas is hidden within us.  Quite obviously this is a lesson that can be applied to everyday life, but just as important I think, is a lesson that can be applied to our reading lives.  As readers, we feel the magic within us, but we have periods of time when we feel as though we may have lost that magic.  Of course as adults, we know how to find that magic again.

For children, it may be very different.  Some children have found the magic because of a parent, teacher, or friend who shared that magic with them.  That magic was nurtured and it grew because of the time and energy the giver put into it.   Some children however, have never found that magic.  It is our job as parents, teachers, readers, and friends to make sure that magic is shared with those who haven’t found it yet.  As with the magic Van Allsburg shared with me that day, we need to make sure we remember how important that magic can be, and that we give it the time and energy it deserves.

As a teacher, part of sharing that magic is allowing my students to see me as a reader and as a writer.  In planning for this piece, I called upon my students for advice.  We discussed whether or not they had ever felt the magic of reading deep within a book, and because each of them had, they immediately wanted to share.  This spurred some wonderful conversations about books which I always encourage.  I then asked them how they could pass that magic on to the students that would be entering my classroom in the fall.  They began discussing all the books that they wanted to donate to our classroom favorite’s shelf.  They also discussed making copies of their favorite Book Talk responses and putting those in a binder so that my upcoming students would be able to read about those favorites.  This will give my upcoming students a chance to read my current students’ thoughts and feelings about those books, which to me, is just as important as the titles.

My students are excited to pass on the magic of reading, and I will be certain to share their generosity with my students in the fall. This will hopefully lead to a long tradition of passing on the magic of reading, much like Chris Van Allsburg has done with the magic of Christmas.

 

Brandee Green is currently a fifth grade ELA teacher in Aiken, SC.  Visit her on twitter @bandee123 or www.creatinglllearners.blogspot.com  to learn more about her classroom experiences with Chris Van Allsburg and to enter a contest to win a copy of the book mentioned above.  

Sparking Readers by Sara Kajder

Together, books and readers create “sparks” – the moments of possibility that open when a reader and the words on a page connect in such a way as to require a new way of seeing, enacting, and carrying forward.  This is the story of one such “sparking,” one built out of a towering TBR pile, an author’s generosity of spirit, a courageous reader, and three special bonobos.

In early December, my TBR pile was staggering, spilling from my single “dedicated” bookshelf where it had started in July and now was snaking up the space between furniture and the wall.  (Moment of teacher-reader confession – so, it didn’t “start” in July.  It simply was “restarted” as I literally moved the previous tower into a closet.  I needed the shelf to feel possible and pray that the book-Gods will forgive…) In a moment of dedication, I swore to read my way through that shelf as things were clearly getting a bit out of hand.  I started with that first book from July – Eliot Schrefer’s Endangered.   (Since I’m in a teacher-reader confessional space, I think it is important to note that books don’t sit in my pile as long as this one had.  I’d been dragging my reader-heels.  No matter the accolades the book had received, I was resisting it for fear that it would reduce the realities of the Congo and round the corners on issues that are hard and pointed.) I curled up with the book, instantly gripped by the first line, “Concrete can rot.”   The book and I “sparked.”  I was transported, wrestling with ethical issues, hiding from danger, and entranced by the relationships between the bonobos and the people who entered, challenged and supported their lives.

When readers “spark,” the world melts away, replaced by the story.  When teacher-readers “spark,” we slow to experience the last pages of a book and, when the spell breaks, we move into action.  I paged through unit plans, looking for ways to conserve space in a tightly-planned year that would allow my eighth graders to enter this book-space that I had just inhabited.   I emailed my department chair, requesting that we find a way to fund the purchase of at least a class set of books.  And, in a moment of what felt like insane courage muted only by the reality that I was still “sparking,” I emailed Eliot Schrefer.

And, he replied.  Ten minutes later, he was in my inbox, and offering not just to possibly skype with students but to actually come to our school.   His generosity leapt off of the screen and the moment exploded with possibility.

Fast-forward to February.

“Sparks” abounded.  Endangered was shared as a school-wide book in January, including students, faculty, staff and parents across grades six through eight.  Students initiated a fundraiser with the goal of adopting a bonobo from Friends of Bonobos, the charity with whom Eliot Schrefer partnered while writing the book.  Discussions broke out in English, Social Studies, and Science, filling classrooms and hallways with readers’ talk and “sparks.”

At the end of the month, Eliot spent an entire day with us, speaking for over an hour with each grade level and spending an elongated lunch for a few students who self-identified as writers eager to learn lessons of craft, of process and of even starting.  And, as happens when teacher-readers get caught up in the planning of these kinds of incredible days, I was drowning in scheduling, details and real-time “emergencies” (as in how to get an outdated, limping-along laptop to step up to the demands of a multimedia-rich Prezi just moments before the day began).   And, as often happens to teacher-readers, I was immediately reminded of the energy and unique possibility of the day when I was slowed (and schooled) by a student.

During my eighth grade’s hour with Eliot, I noticed that “Erin” (pseudonym) was quietly writing in her journal while he spoke.  Erin, an unusually hungry reader, maintained a quiet, almost-not-there presence in my English classroom.   Her writing would be rich with connections and thoughtful ideas, but it was regularly late or something I’d find on scattered scraps of paper left by her seat after class.  I had yet to see her bring a book to class. Her focused attention caught my eye as I scanned the room through my camera lens, fixated on capturing photos of our day (and not seeing that I was failing to actually experience any of it).  Out of respect for her quiet, I lowered my camera and slowly navigated to her corner of the table.  Looking over her shoulder, I caught glimpse not of written notes but of an immaculately drawn bonobo.

  She looked up, eyes-wide, and whispered, “do you think [Eliott] will be angry?  I think in pictures.  Maybe, he’d like this?  Words don’t fit this book.”  I almost wanted to take a photo of her bedraggled hardback book, newly-taped together with pages turned, marked, and, in many cases, falling out of the binding.   I instantly recognized it as the beloved book of a reader… the kind that speaks out to those of us who have loved books into very similar states in similar brief lengths of time… the kind that outwardly shows the kinds of “sparks” it inspired.  I nodded to her in agreement, but, more importantly, I put down the camera and picked up my own reader’s writer’s notebook.    I lowered myself into a seat, started hearing (not just listening) and allowed myself to be a learner alongside my students – the stance I most comfortably inhabit.

We read together – with Eliot.  We wrote together, creating found poems merging lines from the book with our own ideas – again with Eliot as our guide.  And, in her own act of courage, fueled by her readerly “sparks,” Erin surprised us all by approaching Eliot, sharing her picture, and engaging him in discussion about where he finds his inspiration.  She held onto four words, “from readers like you.”

In that moment, I learned what might be the most important lesson of all.  Yes, books and readers come together to create “sparks,” but nothing is like the light generated when books and readers AND authors come together.  That light is magic that helps students to find voice, to find untapped courage, and to stretch into new roles. “Sparks” seek out other “sparks.”  And, when they do, within magic moments where communities that grow from glimmers of courage and possibility, we can do things that matter.  Erin lead our schoolwide effort to adopt three Bonobos from the sanctuary. Bigger, her voice has found a way to make itself heard in our English class.  And, she has already started her own list of books she recommends we take on as a school next year.  There is such magic in what we do.

Sara Kajder is, among other things, a writer, a reader, a runner, a teacher educator, and mother to two growing boys. Currently she is teaching middle school at Shadyside Academy where she gets to experience the joy of creating “sparks” for her student readers. You can find Sara on Twitter as @skajder. 

Who Needs the Mail? by Matthew Olshan

You can’t retire,” cried Diamond Jacques. “The people need you!”

“Perhaps,” Lalouche replied, “but even more, the people need their mail.”

At the end of the nineteenth century — just as at the beginning of the twenty-first — the tradition of sending handwritten letters was under siege. The telegraph was already a mature technology, and the advent of the telephone meant that more and more people were turning away from pen and paper for the instant gratification of a spoken conversation.

Nevertheless, the French postal service, or “La Poste,” offered no fewer than eight collections and deliveries — per day — in Paris on weekdays, and a mere five on Sundays and fête-days.

If those eight deliveries didn’t suffice, there was another technological wonder in the wings: an elaborate system of pneumatic tubes that could whisk a letter from one end of town to another in the blink of an eye.

The preferred method of delivering mail was changing, too. Horses were phased out in 1873, thanks to the greater efficiency of trains. Twenty years later, in 1893, La Poste authorized its carriers to use newfangled bicycles for their routes on an experimental basis — although without compensation. Perhaps they were worried the carriers would have too much fun!

Within a few decades, practically all the mail would be moved by automobile. But where’s the romance in that?

The pleasure of seeing a real, tactile, bona fide letter, addressed by human hand, come wiggling through my mail slot was one of the starting points of The Mighty Lalouche. Everyone remembers the childhood excitement of getting something in the mail — a letter or package, sent from who-knows-where, arriving as if by magic at the front door.

I still feel that magic when our faithful postal carrier delivers a special letter — or better yet, when he rings the doorbell to alert us to a package.

The sound of that bell takes me right back to childhood, when I first came to understand that the envelope had my name on it; that just those letters and numbers spelled out the place where I lived; that someone, somewhere, had fed this letter to a big blue metal box with a noisy mouth.

How the letter got from the belly of that faraway box to my trembling hands was a mystery; for all I knew, the brave men or women in postal uniform were adepts of a secret society whose sole mission was to connect me with family and friends.

The bright “ding!” of an incoming email reminds me of the pleasure of letters, but in a diminished way. In my little world, the arrival of the mail — the real mail, be it six times a week or merely five, be it full of grocery store circulars or no — is still good for a daily thrill.

“Why get so excited?” my friends will ask. “These days, it’s all junk. Anything important happens electronically.”

Of course, they’re right.

“Perhaps,” I say. “But for whatever reason, I need my mail.”

MATTHEW OLSHAN is the author of Finn: A Novel, a modern telling of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, with girls as protagonists rather than boys. His latest novel, The Flown Sky, is a fantasy in the tradition of C. S. Lewis’s Narnia Chronicles. He is also the author of the recently published picture book The Mighty Lalouche. Olshan lives in Baltimore, but also has a little farm in south central Pennsylvania, called Pencil Creek. Visit him at MatthewOlshan.com.

Enter below for a chance to win a copy of Matthew’s newest book, The Mighty Lalouche signed by illustrator Sophie Blackall.

A World So Large with Possibilities by Toni Buzzeo

Just this past week, I spent three days at Ridge View Elementary School in Dexter, Maine with PreK, Kindergarten, First, and Second Grade classes. We sang, we performed puppet plays, we discussed illustration, plot, setting, and especially characters. But it wasn’t until Friday morning, when I met with the first of my second grade classes, that I remembered what a wealth of information and ideas and inspiration my readers can be.

 

I’ve just published a new picture book, Just Like My Papa (Hyperion, 2013), gorgeously illustrated by Mike Wohnoutka http://www.mikewohnoutka.com/. It’s the second in a trio of books about animals on the East African savanna, so of course, we were talking about the savanna, looking at photographs from my trips there, and discussing the shape of the trilogy.

In Just Like My Papa, Kito, a lion cub, quite literally shadows his father, the king of the pride, in everything he does, from guarding the pride against ever-present dangers, to protecting the territory they occupy, to following the lionesses in the hunt, preparing to enjoy its spoils. Kito is enthusiastically devoted to his father, sometimes to the point of peskiness, but even the king of the beasts will take a few minutes to entertain his eager little fluff ball. A perfect Father’s Day book!

 

After discussing Just Like My Papa, we turned to the first book, Stay Close to Mama, featuring giraffes, who are naturally curious creatures. Twiga, a baby giraffe, is endlessly curious and puts himself, quite innocently, in many dangerous situations, threatened by hyenas, crocodiles, and leopards despite his mama’s repeated warnings to Stay close. Stay safe.

 

Finally, we turned to talk of the last book in the trilogy, My Grandma Always Remembers, which Mike is painting right now. As you will have guessed, it’s about a grandmother elephant, the matriarch of her family, and her little granddaughter elephant in the time of a serious drought. We talked about droughts and the need in families for one animal who remembers times long before where precious water and grasses could be found across parched and dusty plains.

Suddenly, one little girl piped up, rather passionately, with, “You actually need a fourth book about a grandfather animal.”

“I know,” I said. “But so far, I haven’t managed to find a single animal species on the savanna with a grandfather patriarch who remains with the family.”

There then ensued a lively and truly invigorating conversation about possibilities. Had I considered members of the wild dog family—though not, of course, hyenas, who are so unpopular. Or how about REPTILES? Snakes! There must be snakes aplenty on the savanna. Birds, perhaps, as they are so plentiful in East Africa and they do often mate for life? And what about INSECTS? Those stinging ants in Stay Close to Mama—might the hive actually have a king in residence rather than a queen?

Oh, in those seven or eight minutes the world seemed so large with possibilities.

And that is it, isn’t it? It’s one of the things I love most about kids. The world can be quite limitless when you are eight years old, or nearly there, seven and three quarters, perhaps. Kids don’t quickly shut doors as we sometimes might. They fling them open, one after another after another. What about THIS? Or THIS? Or THIS? Or how about THAT too?

So, I’m on a hunt, so to speak, for patriarchs in the animal kingdom of East Africa. If you’re an eight year old—or just think like one—feel free to toss me an idea. Maybe Mike and I will have a quartet of books after all!

Toni Buzzeo is a former school librarian, so she comes by her love of books and kids quite naturally. In fact, it was while teaching at Longfellow School in Portland, Maine that she began to write for children, right after her first trip to Kenya in 1995. She has published nineteen picture books thus far, with two more under contract, including My Grandma Always Remembers. Toni’s book One Cool Friend, illustrated by the distinguished illustrator David Small, won a 2013 Caldecott Honor. Many of her other books have garnered award attention as well. Toni and her husband live in Buxton, Maine from May through December, where she writes in a lovely writing cottage above the brook. But just after the winter holidays each year, she high-tails it down to sunny Sarasota, Florida where she can listen to the birds singing outside her office window during the day and zip over to walk the beach at sunset.

 

Find Toni online at www.tonibuzzeo.com and watch the video of that sweet writing cottage being built!

A Call for Pictures – Summer Reading Edition

If you’re anything like me, right around the time I start realizing that we have less than a month of school left and I start to feel overwhelmed by my to-do list, I start to fantasize about a different list – my summer to-be-read list.

After all, that list (or, if you live dangerously, physical stack) of books you have going from a school year’s worth of #titletalks and book reviews is just begging for some attention and summer is the perfect opportunity to curl up with a cool drink and just read. (Doesn’t that sound wonderful?)

Thanks to Donalyn’s #bookaday invitation yesterday, you’re probably already thinking about your summer TBR list, so we’re asking you to share a photo of you with your summer bookstack with us. We’ll use the photos we get to make a video montage once the dust settles from the end of the school year.

Please send your photos to nerdybookclubblog@gmail.com no later than 11:59 pm on June 1, 2013.

Cindy Minnich is lucky enough to live the charmed life of a high school English teacher, mom to one future librarian, and wife to a fellow reader. She can be found on Twitter as @cbethm, on web at http://www.chartingbythestars.com, and in real life on her princess chair enjoying a book and a cup of coffee.

Top Ten YA Road Trip Novels by Ben Kuhlman

When the weather starts to warm up, the trees put their leaves back on, and the sun decides to stay up for more than just a few hours, many of us start to think about travel.  There are just more places to go in the summer, more time to go there, and more desire to get out and look around. 

 

In short, the summer is a great time for a road trip.

 

I’ve participated in a few of these, from family trips to Grandma’s house in Columbus, Ohio, with my five siblings packed (or maybe smashed) into a station wagon for three hours, to a 14-hour haul across seven states to our college Senior Trip in Myrtle Beach, to driving across the plains from Chicago to Denver (Nebraska is HUGE!).  Road tripping (sorry, bear with me) is a staple of American life.  So, it follows that it might be a staple of American YA fiction.  We remember these trips because they so often aren’t merely empty time spent behind the wheel.  Things happen on road trips – bizarre things, scary things, sad things, beautiful things.  The trip itself is often part of the event, and part of the story we tell – and hear.  So, here’s my best attempt at tipping my hat (metaphorically, of course) to some of my favorite YA Road Trips, and some that you might want to check out.

 

In reverse order of awesomeness:

10.  13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

I tried several “girly” road trip books, and many of them were disappointing for one reason or another.  This book didn’t feel formulaic or Disney-esque.  It was just a good story with some quirks, some fantastic Old World settings (which were not all uniformly positive or interesting, a nice way of making it feel more real), and two strong, distinct voices (the primary narrator, Ginny, and her crazy aunt who orchestrates this continental scavenger hunt).  Perhaps some parts of this book are predictable – the introduction of the love interest, Keith, feels inevitable when it finally happens – but there are several false romances, and Johnson plays around with some of the expectations we have of her. The best feature of this book is how messy everything is.  There are lots of loose ends, or problems that crop up during the trip.  There are disappointments that are unresolved.  The ending is disappointing but completely believable.  And the characters are distinct and interesting.  It’s a fun read, despite the sad premise, because the adventures feel real, and Ginny’s struggles are honest.

 

  

9.  Savvy by Ingrid Law

This is probably the “cutest” book on the list, and the only one involving the use of fantastical “powers.”  Perhaps this isn’t a pure road trip book, and it’s probably a stretch to call this book YA.  But it has a solid, road-trippy premise and much of the material common to the type (new faces, growth or change played out through travel).  So I’m including it.  I like the quirky voice of this book a lot, and that goes a long way toward getting a sophisticated reader like myself (ha!) beyond the young characters and the mostly-PG rating.  Mibs is a pleasant mix of naughty and nice, and her “savvy” is unusual – something that makes her uses of it unpredictable and interesting.  And I like poor Lester – he’s such a hard-luck case that his turnaround (though predictable) is a lot of fun to watch.  Throw in some mean bad guys, and it’s a fun story about a really crazy family on the run.

 

 

 8.  Chaos Walking/Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Okay, I’m cheating by putting this on a “road trip” list.  But it’s a fantastic sci-fi series with a kind of Mark Twain/Huck Finn feel.  With aliens.  It has some rough parts, with some violence and some seriously dark themes.  But most of the story is the story of a journey.  And the main characters are discovering things and growing as they go.  There is also a mystery (and some serious problems) to solve.  It’s a great sci-fi road trip story, and Ness does a great job creating an unusual context with interesting, believable characters.  We sci-fi nerds talk a lot about world-building, and this world is built strangely but well.  I love the talking dog, Manchee, and I’m afraid of the Mayor and the preacher.  Most fitting of all for this novel on this particular list, Todd is forced to change his entire way of thinking about the world.  Perhaps all of the women in his town didn’t really die from the germ that makes men able to hear each other’s thoughts.  (So what did happen to all the women?  Hmmm. . . .) It’s a really original story, and a great example of a kind of road trip.

 

  

7.  The Disenchantments by Nina Lacour

I really enjoyed this book, and I’m putting it on this list, though I’m worried that many of you reading this will try to read it and fail.  I don’t know if this is an idiosyncratic, subjective choice, but I think it’s worth sharing because it’s such a nice imagining of a YA road trip.  Basically, the main character (Colby) agrees to help drive his best friend (Bev) and the rest of her band around the Northwest on their last summer “tour” before the band moves on to college.  Of course, Colby has a romantic interest in his “best friend,” and has for a long time.  Of course, something goes wrong.  Bev announces that she will not be accompanying Colby on the tour of Europe that they have been planning together for years.  Instead, she will be moving on to college without him.  Colby, crushed, betrayed, and with no plans for his future without the trip to Europe and the girl of his dreams, is forced to follow through with the band’s “tour,” despite this horrible disappointment.  He gets petty, mean, and the rest of the band tries to cope.  Lacour resists the temptation to make this story about musical genius – the band is terrible – and the choice is refreshing and fitting.  The ending is a little uncertain but satisfying.  But it’s a solid, interesting story with some unpredictable twists and turns that make this a fun take on road tripping.  (It helps that it’s a rock band on tour through an interesting part of the country.)

6.  Rules of the Road by Joan Bauer

I’ve read other books by Joan Bauer and enjoyed them, so I don’t know why it took me so long to get to this one.  But I sat down and read this book in one sitting, and it was great.  A fantastic Road Trip novel if there ever was one.  Jenna, the main character, is talked into driving her (female) employer from Chicago to Dallas, with stops at her shoe stores along the way.  Of course, she becomes close with this woman, and the plot thickens nicely.  Bauer is a master of the carefully-crafted simple sentence, and she manages to put together a positive, hopeful story that doesn’t feel sappy or cloying.  This book is adorable in places, suspenseful and action-packed in places, and wrenching in places.  Jenna struggles with her father’s alcoholism, and Bauer doesn’t dismiss or sugarcoat the suffering this entails.  But it can be beaten.  That’s the lesson here – despite the shoe-store main plot, the real story is about dealing with alcoholism, and Bauer tells that story clearly and honestly.

 

 

5.  Jerk, California by Jonathan Friesen

Adam Sandler made Tourette’s Syndrome into a joke, and I’m not sure that was a good thing.  In this book, the main character, who has Tourette’s, starts a journey that helps him change from the “freak” who was teased and horribly bullied in high school to a mature, well-adjusted adult with a manageable disability.  In the first half, he leaves his abusive step-father behind and moves into the “Old Coot’s” house to work in his landscaping business.  In the second, he takes a Road Trip to Jerk, California, because his friend wanted him to, and because a beautiful young woman wants to go with him.  It’s a good story, with some real conflict and internal struggle.  The self-loathing and its gradual defeat really drives the novel, and Sam/Jack (he changes his name halfway through) fights constantly with himself, easily backsliding into despair, and losing control of himself at inopportune times.  It’s a thoughtful, sensitive, and vivid portrait of a young man struggling to like himself when so few other people want to.

 

4.  Trouble by Gary D. Schmidt

This book is solid all the way around, with several interesting characters, an engaging setting and scenario, well-crafted plot twists, and a masterful sense of tone.  This is a great road trip story because of the breadth of learning that the main character, Henry, goes through as he gets to know and understand Chay, the Cambodian refugee who is so badly mistreated by Henry’s prosperous New England community (and his older brother, Franklin, a leader in the abuse).  This book is just so full of tension – in a good way – that it’s incredibly engaging and suspenseful.  Poor Henry is tied up in knots, and his mixed feelings about his brother take a long time to unravel.  Plus, the whole Mount Katahdin thing (which is also the end of the Appalachian Trail) is a nice goal for a Road Trip book.

 

 

3.  Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig

I read this while I was still in high school, and I didn’t die, so I’m going to call this YA.  It’s a fantastic example of the road trip as philosophical and spiritual exploration, and it’s deep and probing.  It’s a hard book, and I’m not sure that it’s a great book for most YA readers.  I had a philosophy professor say to me once, “you should read this book once every four years.”  I’ve tried to stick to that, and it’s been a different book for me every time.  It’s about a father and son driving across the United States on a motorcycle, while telling the story of a philosopher/writing teacher, and making connections to motorcycles and taking care of machines.  I’ve identified with the son, the father, and with the teacher at various points in my life, and I’ve always found time with this book to be well-spent.  It’s a worthwhile challenge, in my humble opinion.

 

 

2.  Whirligig by Paul Fleischman

This is a great book by an original YA author (also the author of Seedfolks, a similar kind of multi-voiced work of fiction about interconnectedness and community).  It’s about a kid named Brent Bishop who makes a huge mistake that causes the death of an innocent young woman.  He spends months traveling around the country building whirligigs – decorative, wind-powered weather-vane things – to atone for his terrible decision.  Through a series of interlaced chapters, between Brent’s experiences traveling all over and building these things, and the chance encounters people have with his work and how it changes them, we find out about how one person’s actions can affect another, through good or ill.  All of the chapters connect with Brent and his whirligigs.  While some of the connections are serious and life-changing, and some are not, it is clear that Brent is changed as a result of the experience.  It’s a strange reading experience, and the connections are not always immediate or close to each other.  But they’re there.  It gives Brent’s penance a weight or a kind of echo that it wouldn’t otherwise have.  It’s short, and dense, and challenging, and the collective weight of so many interlocking stories is imposing, perhaps even inspiring.

 

1.  Abundance of Katherines/Paper Towns by John Green

I’m not ashamed to be a John Green fanboy.  Both of these novels are fantastic in so many ways.  Green has, in my opinion, become one of the best YA writers working today.  Perhaps one of the best of any kind.  Margo Roth Spiegelman fascinates me, not only because of her image at her school, but also because of the intricacy of her planning and the . . . ending.  Her revenge before her disappearance in the beginning is breathtaking.  Paper Towns is a kind of missing-persons mystery, and it culminates in a hilarious-yet-scary road trip that made me laugh, made me scared, and resolved the mystery in a satisfyingly ambiguous way (is that possible?).  It’s true that the road trip comes late in this novel, but that doesn’t ruin its awesomeness. If that really is a problem, I added An Abundance of Katherines to this spot.  It’s an earlier novel by the same author, almost as awesome as Paper Towns, and almost wholly about a road trip and extended stay.  Heck, read both.  They’re both worth it.  If you don’t know John Green, he’s a master craftsman of teenage character and dialogue.  Check him out.

 

This has been a fun task – hope you enjoyed reading the list, or maybe some of the books!  I’m thinking about writing a post about writing this post . . . and about what didn’t make this list.  Thanks for reading!

 

Mr. Kuhlman is a 7th grade Reading and Writing teacher in the Chicago area who loves to read, loves to talk about reading, and who wishes he could read in his sleep. He’s very proud to officially join the ranks of the Nerdy Book Club after years in training. He’s also a reading specialist, a member of the National Writing Project, a Reading Specialist, and a Skylanders fiend.

Expanding Their Worlds Through Books by Tara Smith

I teach in an affluent suburb of New Jersey, and my students are fortunate enough to have parents who attend to their needs and wants in equal measure. As privileged as they are, my kids have an awareness that they are lucky, and that there are children nearby and all over the world who struggle daily for just  the barest essentials to survive.  My sixth graders are eager t o learn about the great wide world around them, and they are at a stage in their development where they are able to consider  abstract  issues of social justice, war and the struggle for peace,  and social  activism.  Reading wonderful books that transport them into other lands and other lives becomes all the more important at this stage, I think, because our kids seem to be so receptive and eager to learn about their world.

I try to find books like these for my sixth graders, and sometimes (oh, happy day!) they find such  books for me.  That was the case with The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis.  Sarah, who had found this book prominently displayed at the town library and had checked it out herself, was completely enthralled with the story.  Her enthusiasm was contagious, and soon many students were asking first for The Breadwinner, and the other books in the series.   I purchased as many copies as I could get my hands on, and each made their way from student to the next, with many spirited conversations along the way.

 

The Breadwinner and its sequel Parvana’s Journey are set in war ravaged Afghanistan, where the Taliban have taken control of some areas and American soldiers battle against them on land and from the sky. Parvana’s family has lost everything, but they still have each other and together they manage to scrape by. Then Parvana’s father is taken away by the Taliban, and she must pretend to be a boy so that can continue to make a living for her family doing her father’s job as a letter writer and reader. But nothing stays constant in Afghanistan – and the first two books follow Parvana’s journey from one catastrophe to the next: she is separated from her family, rescues abandoned children, and moves from one area of devastation to another in search of her mother and sisters.  The sights she sees and the situations she experiences are vividly described – and Parvana herself emerges as a strong young lady, who is both believable as well as admirable.  Ellis is able to describe suffering with a type of unsentimental clarity that really appeals to my sixth graders – the details are just enough to allow for inferences and to provoke thinking.

Mud City is the story of Parvana’s best friend Shauzia, who fled Afghanistan for a better life elsewhere, only to find herself on her own and struggling to survive on the streets of Peshawar, Pakistan. Enduring harrowing experiences of her own, Shauzia is rescued by the Red Crescent…and then makes the brave decision to return with this humanitarian group to the country of her birth, and do what she can to help the thousands in need just across the border.

My Name is Parvana picks up the narrative some time later. Parvana has been captured by American soldiers who suspect her of being a terrorist. Parvana refuses to speak; she remembers the events of the past four years when she was reunited with what was left of her family and helped them to open a school. The Taliban threaten death and destruction unless the school closes down – and they carry through with their promise. But the American soldiers believe that Parvana was somehow connected to this event, and so Parvana sits alone in jail, until a dramatic bombing of the base forces Parvana to risk her life once again.  At the end of this book, Parvana faces a choice – to leave Afghanistan for safety  in France, or to stay and help those who don’t have such an option. When she makes the decision to stay, she says to her friend Shauzia, half in jest:

“So…more of the same then. More hunger, more fear and more work.”

And her friend responds, truthfully:

“This is Afghanistan… What do you want – a happy ending?”

For the children of Afghanistan, happy endings are few and far between.

It’s been important, I know, for my students to read about Parvana, Shauzia and the other wonderful Afghanistani  characters that people Ellis’ books.   Afghanistan seems so far away, and when my kids see stories about this country and the ongoing war that seems to continue without any end in sight, they often pause to focus only on our brave soldiers and the difficulties and sacrifices they make every day in the name of our country.  When they think of the Afghani people, they often think about the Taliban, or the Afghan soldiers.  The children of Afghanistan, the families whose lives have been torn apart over these years, and the landscape of the country itself have remained on the edges of their consciousness.

Ellis’ books opened up this world for my students.  In the conversations that I overheard, and in our one on one  reading conferences, this new knowledge was exciting to share and discuss. Students used Google maps to examine the Afghan  terrain more closely, they investigated timelines to understand the many phases of the war   in Afghanistan, and they began looking for connections between the themes explored in this series with themes in other historical fiction books they had read.    They began to explore humanitarian organizations that are committed to assisting the Afghan people and their children in particular.  They wanted to know how they could help in the building of schools, and in the purchasing of school supplies.  The war in Afghanistan no longer seemed so far away and so abstract.  When we learned that  most of the royalties for Deborah Ellis’  bestselling books go to the organization “Canadian Women for Women of Afghanistan”, we checked out their website  and learned  about ways in which readers can become active in this humanitarian cause.  They went beyond just reading about happenings far away to becoming engaged in matters that affect the world they live in.  It was just an amazing journey in the power of reading for our class.

We are now on a book hunt for other authors like Deborah Ellis, and other series like The Breadwinner.  Ellis herself has written the following books which are now on order for our classroom:

 

Set in Bolivia, these books follow the story  of Diego who is trying to fend for himself  among the dangers of the  coca leaf trade  when his father is imprisoned.

 

This is the story of twelve year old Valli, and her life picking coal in the coal town of Jharia, India.

 

This is the story of 15-year-old Abdul has made the  long, dangerous journey from his war-torn home in Baghdad to a migrant community in Calais, France which seems just as fraught and terrifying.

 

This novel is set in Malawi, Africa and is the story of Binti  and her siblings.  Orphaned by AIDs, they must find a way to be reunited and build their lives together again.

 

We are really looking forward to the arrival of these books…and the new reading adventures they will inspire.

 

 Tara Smith teaches sixth grade in Glen Rock, New Jersey.  When she is not teaching, she can most often be found reading…and when she is not reading she is most likely on the hunt for new books to read.  Tara blogs about her experiences teaching Reading Workshop, Writing Workshop and Social Studies at  A Teaching Life.

Retro Review: Little Brother by Cory Doctorow Reviewed by Glenda Funk

At the time of his suicide in January, Aaron Swartz was facing a million dollar fine and a possible 35 years in prison stemming from his impending prosecution for allegedly violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. While reading obits for Swartz and about the justice department’s legal pursuit of him for downloading thousands of documents from the JSTOR database via MIT, I found a tribute from YA author Cory Doctorow, a friend of Swartz. Indeed, Homeland, Doctorow’s follow-up to Little Brother, includes a cautionary afterword by Swartz.

Swartz and Doctorow shared similar philosophies about the Internet as an open space, as well as citizen’s rights to free speech and privacy. Swartz helped create the RSS feed, the Creative Commons website, and Reddit. He also fought tirelessly to defeat the SOPA legislation. While Swartz championed open access through legal battles and technology, Doctorow has sounded a siren about loss of privacy and freedom via the YA novels Little Brother (2008) and Homeland (2013).

Essentially, Little Brother—a smart allusion to George Orwell’s Big Brother idea in 1984—tells the story of seventeen-year-old Marcus Yallow, a.k.a. “win5ton” and what happens when a geeky teen with a few problems at school and a knack for computer hacking skips class on the wrong day and at the wrong time, the wrong time being during a terrorist attack on the Bay Bridge connecting San Francisco and Oakland.

In some ways, Marcus is a throwback to the anti-establishment figures of the 1960s. He’s constantly in conflict with “The Man,” who at school is assistant principal Benson. Marcus uses his vast computer hacking skills to “subvert this school’s security system” and has “supplied security countermeasures to…fellow students,” says the accusatory Benson. Additionally, Benson suspects Marcus of playing a role in the theft of SAT tests the previous year. In his relentless pursuit of Marcus, Benson embodies a microcosm of what happens in a society that trusts no one and subverts the privacy and legal rights of citizens to gather “reliable intelligence” in its quest to procure security.

Thus, when Homeland Security accuses Marcus of having bombed the Bay Bridge and labels him a terrorist, he and his friend Darryl disappear into the bowls of Gitmo by the Bay, an obvious reference to Guantanamo Bay. Marcus endures torture and humiliation, but his experience transforms him into an activist intent on protecting his friends, family, teachers, and town.

At times the political rhetoric of Little Brother seems pedantic, such as when one of Doctorow’s characters delivers a speech:

 

If you love freedom, if you think the human condition is dignified by privacy, by the right to be left alone, by the right to explore your weird ideas provided you don’t hurt others, then you have common cause with the kids whose web-browsers and cell phones are being used to lock them up and follow them around. If you believe that the answer to bad speech is more speech – not censorship – then you have a dog in the fight.

 

Still, Little Brother makes readers ask important questions: To what lengths should we go to insure safety against terrorists? How does stripping citizens of their constitutional and legal rights and labeling the accused as terrorists and enemy combatants undermine our civil rights? Have computers mutated our world in such a way that we should forgo certain rights? What would you as a teen do if you were accused of being a terrorist or enemy combatant? I posed this chilling question to my students. It rendered them speechless.

Reading Little Brother also offers a mini crash course into the world of computer hacking and security systems for the uninitiated. Knowing that the scenarios Doctorow describes are both plausible and real lends an air of verisimilitude to the story that makes the tech jargon riveting to lay readers such as myself.

“All writing is political,” says author Barbara Kingsolver. Whether social or political, thinking about the truths authors speak through imaginative literature is a way teachers can push back against paradigms that emphasize metrics over qualitative narrative. Through fiction, we can invite students–who have grown up in a Patriot Act world and who take the absence of privacy and open access to even our own case law for granted–to consider the social and political issues that inform their lives.

Little Brother offers both an excellent companion piece for 1984 and students’ studies of American Government and public policy. As Thomas Jefferson wrote and Doctorow reminds readers: “Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”

We the governed must take responsibility for actively safeguarding our civil rights. The rights activists like Aaron Swartz fought to preserve live in the fictional Marcus Yallows and come to life in books like Little Brother.

Glenda Funk is a self-professed news junky who balms her insomnia late at night reading The Huffington Post. She teaches senior English, speech, and a dual-enrollment Communication and rhetoric class a Highland High School in Pocatello, Idaho. She’s a NBCT: AYA/ELA and opines on twitter @gmfunk and on her blog at http://www.evolvingenglishteacher.blogspot.com.

Life with a Side of Strawberry Jam by Michelle Cooper

 

I know it is a trite and overused phrase but I truly believe I learned everything I needed to be successful in life from a children’s book.  Books speak to our souls. They let us fly to the moon and encourage our wildest wonderings. I can still remember the wonderful book that captured my imagination as a child…The Giant Jam Sandwich. From its musical verses to its feats of grandiosity, I went on a journey celebrating community, teamwork, and the amazing attitude that together anything can be accomplished!  The residents of Itching Down use their unique talents by banding together to thwart a common enemy–the wasps.

By creating an enormous, yes giant, strawberry   jam sandwich, the residents victoriously capture their enemy by baking a mountainous loaf of bread pulled by eight fine steeds and flying machines that whirled high above head.  As a child I longed to go to Itching Down and join the mighty fight to save the town!

What book inspired you as a child? Which title took you on a journey you never wanted to end? These were two of the questions I asked high school students to prepare for Children’s Book Week.  Their answers may surprise you! I have ranked their top ten favorite books below.

 

10.  The Harry Potter Series

9.  Clifford

8.  Amelia Bedelia

7.  Harold and the Purple Crayon

6.  Little House on the Prairie

5. The Very Hungry Caterpillar

4.  The Giving Tree

3.  Goodnight Moon

2.  Any book by Dr. Seuss!

1.  All time favorite winner- The Magic Treehouse

Celebrate Children’s Book Week by sharing a book with a child!

Children’s Book Week

Michelle Cooper describes herself as a “Tech Geek, Librarian, Book Lover, Teacher and all around Nerd” who is passionate about helping young people succeed.  You can find her on Twitter as @_MichelleCooper and online at http://www.talesoflibrarylady.blogspot.com/

Lesson Learned: The Story Always Comes First by Vince Vawter

If you plug “adults reading kid’s books” into your favorite Internet search engine, page after page will open to give examples of this growing phenomenon.

I think I know the reason.

A middle-grade or young-adult author must cut through a lot of clutter in order to reach those markets. Thus, a kind of clarity emerges in the book, and adults appreciate that type of pure storytelling just as much as the younger reader.

The first several drafts of my novel Paperboy were written with a general audience in mind.  What did I know? I had been a newspaper publisher for many years, but I had never completed a novel.

My agent and then my editor convinced me that I should redirect my story to the middle-grade market. As a result, Paperboy is a better book.

Notice that I didn’t use the phrases  “lower the writing” or “write down for the market.” The story in Paperboy is essentially the same in both my first draft and in the final product. The difference is in the telling. I found out that by deleting or recasting some “grown-up” parts, the story itself and the writing became more sharply focused.

Certainly, no one can say that Paperboy was “dumbed down.” How many middle-grade books do you know that have references to Voltaire, Heidegger, Socrates, Jason and the Argonauts and Candide? And add Howdy Doody for good measure.

Paperboy is autobiographical in nature, especially the parts dealing with the main character’s speech impediment. Did I black out occasionally while trying to say my name? Did I give my friends nicknames because I couldn’t say their real names? Did I bang out words on a typewriter at night that I had stuttered on during the day? Yes. Yes. Yes. And more.

The heroine of the story, which takes place in 1959 in Memphis, is a black housekeeper named “Mam,” and she is patterned after a woman I loved and respected. Adolescence is about confusion. Why can’t I talk like other kids? Why do people treat people of another color differently?

Because I address harsh realities in the book, don’t think that Paperboy is about pain and anger. Just the opposite. Adolescence is the age that the forces of creativity, optimism, and self-worth come to bear.

Obviously, I hope that all ages will be inspired to read my story, but I’m thankful the middle grades get a crack at it.

The paperboy in my tale throws the meanest fastball in town, but I guarantee he would love to be a member of The Nerdy Book Club.

VINCE VAWTER, a native of Memphis, retired after a 40-year career in newspapers, most recently as the president and publisher of the Evansville Courier & Press in Indiana. Paperboy is his first novel.