Inkheart

"Look. (Grown-ups skip this paragraph.) I'm not about to tell you this book has a tragic ending, I already said in the very first line how it was my favorite in all the world. But there's a lot of bad stuff coming." William Goldman, The Princess Bride

Each chapter of Inkheart begins with a quote from a book that you may or may not recognize but will appreciate. It gives a little clue about what the chapter is about. It seems that all the SJV students who have read this book by Cornelia Funke have said to me "You should read this book —you would really like it". Well, I've finally gotten around to reading this adventurous book and yes I am really enjoying it. It is full of magic and interesting characters and it is about books, storytelling, villains, trickery and a family of book-lovers! What more could one want?

Twelve-year old Meggie has lived an usual life since her mother left and her dad has been hiding the mystery of her disappearance. Now he can't keep it a secret because Meggie and an eccentric aunt are swept up (literally) in the story (literally again) with Mortimer (her dad, who she calls Mo) and must use their ingenuity to escape this frightful fantasy they are in.

One of my favorite quotes from the actual story—"She usually found it so easy to escape somewhere else, to get right inside the minds of people and animals who existed only on paper, so why not now? "Because fear kills everything, " Mo had once told her. "Your mind, your heart, your imagination."

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

As Chris entered the library today he said "I looked online and I saw that the next Percy Jackson book won't be out until May of 2009! I started jumping up and down because it just can't end like that."
Pepperwolf - "End like what?"
Chris - "I won't give out too much information but it ended when a character named Nico came to Percy's house to tell him something very important. I can't wait for the story to continue."
Pepperwolf - "You've read all four books in such a short amount of time, why were the books so good?"
Chris - "The books are about a boy named Percy Jackson who found out his dad was an Olympian god and his dad's father named Kronos is getting an army and rebuilding himself because the Olympians cut him up with his own scythe and he wants to destroy the Olympians. There is so much adventure and excitement and action all that in four books."
The series: The Lightening Thief, Sea of Monsters, Titan's Curse and The Battle of the Labyrinth. If you've read any of these good books, feel free to post your own comment for the blog.

The Summer Birds

The Summer Birds is an interesting tale about kids who meet a strange boy. When the boy teaches the kids to fly, some of the children question his talent and end up going into a full out war. The Summer Birds is written by Penelope Farmer.
Review by Alli

A Haitian Family

I am reading Tracy Kidder's book, Mountains Beyond Mountains about Paul Farmer, an amazing doctor who cures people in Haiti of infectious diseases. My women's book club was going to discuss the book and I wanted to know more about Haiti.
I found this book, A Haitian Family as part of a Journey Between Two Worlds series. The story part of the book focuses on nine year old Gregory who came to the United States as a refugee. That means he immigrated to our country because he was escaping persecution in his own country or rather his father was. Gregory's family arrived in New York by plane but that is not how they started their journey here. They left Haiti on a very crowded flimsy boat and ended up in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba after being picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard. They lived in a refugee camp for several months awaiting for permission to continue on to the U.S.
This book also explains the history of Haiti. It begins the story in 1492 when Christopher Columbus arrived in Hispaniola, which is what the island was named before, and continues to 1996 when René Préval became president. Now Haiti occupies about one-third of the island on the west and the country of Dominican Republic is on the eastern side.
You'll find out why Gregory's family was being persecuted and learn a lot about the struggles and culture of the people who live very close to our southern state of Florida.

Whatcha Mean, What's a Zine?

Yeah, what's a zine? This arty book explains the art of making zines and mini-comics with contributions by more than 20 creators of Indie Comics and Magazines. Written by Mark Todd and Esther Pearl Watson, this manual will get you motivated and off the ground running. I guarantee you will have your own zine started before you even finish this book. Actually you don't even have to finish the book at all - just read all the pictures and flip through the pages and you'll know what a zine is and how to make your own. Aren't you excited? I am, in fact I am going to stop blogging right now and start another zine. Bye.

Regarding the Trees

Did you ever read Regarding the Fountain or Regarding the Sink? This book by Kate Klise is just as clever as the others and has our favorite entrepreneur, Florence Waters assisting the Geyser Creek Middle School and principal Wally Russ again. This time she is called with a tree trimming proposal and now Mr N's class has a special interest in the trees. Goldie Fisch and Tad Poll and Walter Russ have new friends in this book, see if you can figure out their names. I especially like Jeannie Ologee. The illustrations by the author's sister, Sarah Klise contributes smartly to the book's unique format.

Go Big or Go Home!

A meteorite falls from the sky and goes right through Brady's roof, ceiling and bed—good thing he wasn't in it! Brady and his cousin Quinn spend the last few weeks of their summer vacation doing extreme sports in their South Dakota state. These two fourteen-year-olds bike, boat, fish, camp, explore caves and avoid a confrontation with their annoying neighbors. Even the neighbors' dog is coming over and taking rocks from his mom's garden. You will find out why the dog is collecting them for the bullies next door. This Will Hobbs book will have you flying through the pages.

Punished!

Do you know what a pun is? Reading this book, you will get your fill of puns very quickly and I wonder if any of you will be talking in puns before this book is finished. The setting for this story begins in the library! What could be better? Actually the two boys visit the library reluctantly - they much rather play baseball. Logan's favorite section is 796.357. The place in the sports section where the baseball books are. You will love following Logan as he tries to get rid of his punny language. But the curse doesn't stop there— Professor Wordsworth has another challenge for him. Punished by David Lubar is a short and entertaining book you will definitely enjoy.

Three Good Deeds

What a strange little book! I just finished reading this enjoyable story by Vivian Vande Velde, another Maud Hart Lovelace Nominee and found it to be unlike any other story I have read. Maybe that is why it was chosen to be a nominee. I think younger readers will get a kick out of "How-Word"—that is what the geese call him. As the title implies, three good deeds are involved here and it seems such a simple thing to do but Howard is having lots of trouble finding good things to do. I wonder if the reader can give Howard some ideas. One thing I liked about the book is the names of the geese, such as Mighty-Beak/Bone-Crusher and Scared-By-A-Rabbit and Moonlight-Gives-Her-Down-A-Silver-Glow.

You may have read other books by Vande Velde such as Heir Apparent or Never Trust a Dead Man, both are in the SJV library and have been Maud Hart Nominees in the past. I am winding down my list of nominees, my goal was to read all the Division I titles before school starts. Of course I've read several other books that weren't MHL books, too. It has been a good book summer!

Bright Star in the Big Sky

You may have heard that the state of Montana is often referred to as the Big Sky state. After traveling through Montana last week, I will say that that is a great way to describe this beautiful state with such wide open horizons.

The title of the book, Bright Star in the Big Sky, refers to Montana's congresswoman, Jeannette Rankin. She became the first woman elected to the United States Congress! At the time that Ms. Rankin was elected to congress, only a few states allowed women to vote. Before Ms. Rankin was elected as a representative for Montana, she used her skills as an organizer working towards the suffrage amendment (giving women the right to vote). Four years after speaking before the Montana legislature and traveling around the state, women in Montana were granted the right to vote in 1914. But finally in 1919, the 19th Amendment passed—giving all women in the U.S. the right to vote, and she was the only woman to vote for it. Besides working for women's suffrage, she was committed to helping the poor, ensuring the rights of women and children, focusing on issues of peace and laws against child labor.

I am glad we stopped at the Jeannette Rankin Peace Resource Center in Missoula, because this short book by Mary Barmeyer O'Brien was very interesting and I learned a lot about a Bright Star, one of America's most significant women in history.

Elijah of Buxton

Author Christopher Paul Curtis won the Coretta Scott King Award for this book published in 2007, Elijah of Buxton also won the Newbery Honor Medal and it is a selection of the Junior Library Guild. But I would have read this book anyway without knowing about these awards because I enjoyed Curtis' other books especially Bud, Not Buddy.

In 1859, eleven-year-old Elijah Freeman, the first free-born child in Buxton, Canada, which is a haven for slaves fleeing the American south, uses his wits and skills to try to bring to justice the lying preacher who has stolen money that was to be used to buy a family's freedom.

I love the clever way Curtis' tells this story using Elijah's own voice (including many phonetic spellings reflecting the dialect of the speaker) to recount what happened to him from events at school to catching fish (he uses a stone!) to scaring his mother by hiding a critter in her knitting basket. You will get a kick out of how Elijah and his friend Cooter misinterpret their teacher. There is one part in the book where Elijah gets a harsh lesson on why not to use the "n word". But the book wasn't all about fun stuff. Elijah (and you will, too) learns a lot about how people were treated horribly as slaves. I recommend this book to older readers, 5th and up. Let me know what you think about this story.

Here's a link to an interview with Christopher Curtis about how he came to write Elijah of Buxton.

Gossamer

Did you ever wonder where your dreams come from? Sometimes dreams seem really bizarre but they also have pieces that are part of your life. This story gives you an insider's view of what happens when you sleep. It is also the story of a young foster child who has suffered from very bad parenting. He is taken under the wing of a very patient, loving grandmotherly woman and her dog, Toby. In addition to her care, much healing work is done by Littlest One guided by Thin Elderly in giving the boy pleasant dreams. Their work is urgent because the Sinisteeds are tantalizing him with nightmares. This Maud Hart Lovelace nominee, Gossamer is written by the Newbery award winning author Lois Lowry and I bet you will be using your dictionary by the end of the book to look up the word gossamer.

One Well - The Story of Water on Earth

Some families are lucky. They can turn on the tap [faucet] for drinking water, to fill a bathtub, wash their car or pet, or water the garden. But other families around the world are less fortunate. One billion people, almost 16 percent of the Earth's population, have to walk more than fifteen minutes to get to the nearest water supply...While the amount of water on Earth is always the same, the distribution of water across the world isn't.

This wonderful picture book by Rochelle Strauss and illustrated by Rosemary Woods is filled with lots of information in a very thoughtful way. Many ages will enjoy this book because the pictures make the text easier to understand. And there are a lot of interesting tidbits related to the overall message of the importance of water including the water cycle, melting polar ice caps, changing habitats, livestock and animals, pollution, usage and access. We all have a part in educating ourselves on the crucial need to be Well Aware.

Did you know that on a summer day, an average-sized birch tree can draw about 80 gallons of water from the soil? That's enough water to fill 2 large bathtubs!

Princess for a Week

Do you ever read the summary or excerpt that is written on the back of the book? At times I don't. Sometimes I want to be entertained and surprised so I don't read it especially if it is a book I am going to read anyway. Well, I didn't read the summary for Princess for a Week by Betty Ren Wright, so I was really surprised just as Roddy was to learn that Princess wasn't a dog like he'd hoped and he'd have to let this girl use his bedroom instead of sharing it with a dog.
Who names their child Princess? And why does she have to be so overly confident? Roddy and his friend Jacob certainly have their hands full with Princess visiting for a week. But you have to admit she does make things interesting and suspenseful. It won't take you long to read this short mystery book filled with full page pencil drawings.

Project Mulberry

Did you ever wonder how silkworms made silk? And how do we get the silk? Julia and Patrick (her next door neighbor) are friends and joined the Wiggle Club. Its real name is Watch-Grow-Give-Live! (WGGL) and now they are partnering up on a project. The three best projects will be chosen to go to the state fair.

In Project Mulberry, the readers follow Julia and Patrick's project from beginning to end. I enjoyed learning some things while reading this book about sericulture and sustainable farming and Korean embroidery. And it was very interesting observing the relationship between the two very different personalities and how they worked together to accomplish something. But the best part wasn't just the great story, it was the conversations the author, Linda Sue Park had with the main character between the chapters.

I highly recommend this book and encourage you to read it, too. It may inspire you to do your own Animal Husbandry or Domestic Arts project!

Book Clubs

Hello dear readers, I know it has been awhile. I have been busy reading grown-up books. I am in a book club with several other women and it is a highlight of my month. You might want to consider starting your own book club. Find others that enjoy reading and decide on a book to read and then meet to talk about the book. You will enjoy books even more because you can share your perspective during discussions and discover new ways of looking at the same story! I have been in this book club for 14 years and we have read a lot of interesting books. We even have a web site where we keep track of all the books we've read—you could do that too! But the fun part is: we have dessert when we are done discussing the book.

Abby Takes a Stand and Phineas L. MacGuire Erupts!

I read two more Maud Hart Lovelace nominees to review for you.

Abby Takes a Stand from The Scraps of Time 1960s, a historical fiction book set in the time of the civil rights movement. Young Abby experiences discrimination first hand at the opening of a new restaurant in a department store. How would you feel if you were handed a flyer to try out a new restaurant and when you arrived and took your place in line — people started saying things like "What is she doing here?" It is just one of the many instances of discrimination against black people in the south. People in the town decide enough is enough and use the nonviolent strategies of another group doing sit-ins in North Carolina. Abby is too young to participate in the actual sit-ins but her mother and her cousin are organizers, so she is active in other ways to promote their cause for equality. This book is a great read and you get to learn about nonviolent protest used during the struggle for desegregation.

Phineas L. MacGuire Erupts! is written for the same age group, grades 3-5. But the younger readers will enjoy this more. Phineas or Mac as he is called, is in 4th grade and his best friend just moved away and he is stuck with another kid (a new student) to work on a science fair project. The book is written in the voice of Mac and even though he is a smart kid—there are a lot of goofy things he comes up with. For instance, this is an alternative science fair project he came up with:

When you drink milk and start laughing, why does the milk automatically squirt out of your nose? Does only milk from a little carton do this? How about milk from a glass? From a plastic cup? If you were drinking from a juice box, would stuff come out your nose, or does juice automatically go straight to your stomach?

You get the idea.

Weedflower

I really enjoyed reading Weedflower by Newbery Award winning author Cynthia Kadohata. She won the award for Kira-Kira, which I also read and highly recommend. I have been suggesting students read Weedflower but hadn't read it yet myself until this week. I learned a lot about the Japanese internment during the second world war.

Can you imagine being forced to leave your home and shipped off to live in the stables of a racetrack? And having to stuff your own mattress with straw? Or being moved again to live in military barracks in the middle of an Indian reservation? This story is not only based on true events, it is the real-life story of the author's father and tens of thousands of Japanese and Japanese-Americans.

The story is told from the perspective of twelve-year-old Sumiko or "Weedflower" as her new Mohave Indian friend, Frank names her. She used to live with her family in California working on the family's flower farm dreaming of the day when she would have her own flower market. She has a special care-giving relationship with her younger brother, Tak-Tak similar to Shannon in Jackie's Wild Seattle. In addition to Frank, Sumiko also becomes friends with an old snake eating man and a liar while in Poston, Arizona, the hottest and dustiest place in the United States.

I Met Will Hobbs!

I went to the Eden Prairie Public Library to hear author Will Hobbs talk about his books. WOW! What a fabulous speaker and writer! He had the roomful of listeners mesmerized with stories of his adventures which gave him ideas for his novels. I believe he motivated the listeners to become readers of all his books and to become outdoor enthusiasts and possibly future writers. He showed slides of his hiking in the Grand Canyon, rafting down the Snake River, his home in Colorado, scenes from the Arizona/Mexican border and the mountain statue of El Cristo Rey (from the Crossing the Wire book), working on a salmon catching boat (Leaving Protection) and many more. He also tantalized us with his newest book, Go Big or Go Home. The summary of the book states:

Fourteen year old Brady and his cousin Quinn love
extreme sports, but nothing could prepare them
for the aftermath of Brady's close encounter
with a meteorite after it crashes into his
Black Hills, South Dakota, bedroom.

Will Hobbs inscribed the book, Go Big or Go Home that I bought for our school library. And he autographed a poster for the SJV library, too. Evidence of our meeting is in the photo above. I am now a serious Will Hobbs fan! Click here to check out the Will Hobbs official web site.

Jackie's Wild Seattle

I just started Jackie's Wild Seattle by Will Hobbs last night and read some more this morning. It is a great book. I knew I wouldn't be disappointed. So far I know that the animal lovers in our school will love this book, I can already picture those of you (older readers, 5th or 6th graders) who will check this book out!

Two siblings from New York are visiting their mom's brother in Seattle for the summer while their parents are in Pakistan for nine weeks. Their uncle has a great job (volunteering) for a wild animal rescue operation. Jackie is an older woman who runs Jackie's Wild Seattle and the brother and sister and Uncle Neal stay with her. She seems like a warm and likable character that everyone can learn from. To me good writing is important for me to like a book, but a good story is important for me to love a book and recommend it to others. I haven't even finished this book yet and I recommend it. More later....

Later...
I finished the book and it was even better than I thought. I loved it! Uncle Neal gets hurt on a rescue so Shannon (the 14 year old) helps him with the wild animal rescues. Many animals from coyotes to bats to beavers to eagles are rescued. This book is similar to Cages by Peg Kehert in that one of the characters in this book is also sentenced to do community service working with animals. It is a young man Shannon befriends by listening to his troubles. I don't want to give too much away with the story but you will have a new appreciation for wildlife and the power of relationships with two-legged and four-legged in healing.

Meet Author Will Hobbs!!

I was just checking the Hennepin County Library web site and I see that award winning author Will Hobbs will be at several libraries next week June 24, 25 and 26. The 5th and 6th graders for sure know this author because I read most of his Crossing the Wire book this past spring. He wrote many other great adventure books including one on the MHL nominee list for this coming school year —Jackie's Wild Seattle. Far North, Jason's Gold, Ghost Canoe are just a few of the titles we have at the SJV library of his. We have a lot of his books - they are great adventure stories. He has written 17 books for elementary and middle school aged readers so if you like fast paced, heart pounding scary, out in the wild, trying to survive type books, you'll love his novels.

Ruby Holler

Just finished Ruby Holler. Great book. Toward the end I couldn't put it down. It is a really good story. Nature, villians, a boy and a girl (twins) as the main characters with distinct personalities, a mystery and a little heart-racing part. I hadn't read it before because so many of you had read it and so I relied on your recommendations to get others to choose this book to read. But when it won the MHL Award this year, I thought I'd better see for myself if this is a winner.

Usually summertime is when I try to get a head start on the MHL books for next school year, so I can advertise them. Today I went to my public library and the shelves were almost bare! They had a display of multiple copies of the new nominees and only a few were left. I felt guilty checking out two of them. I'll have to read fast so I can return them and get them back into circulation.

Enjoy reading the MHL Nominees

I've listed the titles of the Maud Hart Lovelace (MHL) Nominees on the right. You may recognize some of the titles because we have a few in our library. Lunch Money by Andrew Clements has already been read by many. You can't go wrong reading a book by him. They are all so good. My favorite of his is a toss up between Frindle and The Landry News. Oh no, I just remembered I read No Talking! this spring and that is my new favorite of his. I'll write about that book in another post.
Now back to the MHL nominees. The books I have listed are for the Division I readers, grades 3-5. There is another list for Division II readers, grades 6-8. Many books are on both lists, so I don't usually spend the money to have all the books in our library. But that doesn't mean you don't have access to them. Remember, in the spring, if you've read at least three of the MHL nominees you can vote for your favorite. The Division I winner for 2007-08 was Ruby Holler chosen by Minnesota students like you.

The Book of One Hundred Truths

This book by Minnesotan, Julie Schumacher held my interest the whole time. The story is told by Theo, a 12 year old girl. Theo's mother gives her an empty notebook and asks her to record one hundred truths. She gives it to Theo as she is leaving Minnesota to go to her Neena's (grandmother) for her annual summer visit to their home on the beach in New Jersey. What kept me interested was the two mysteries going on in the story. One mystery was—What happened to Theo's best friend, Gwen? and the other was—Why are her two aunts being so secretive? Lots of relatives are at her Neena's and Granda's and all add up to a crazy summer vacation with all the quirks that people of assorted ages and interests bring to the situation. My favorite person was cousin Jocelyn. A seven year old who loves to make her bed and keep her clothes neatly folded and put away in specific drawers!

This book won the 2007 Minnesota Young Adult Book Award. Alyssa P read this book for her award book assignment for Ms Skree and liked it. I hope she will add her comments about the book to this blog .

Cool Zone with The Pain and the Great One

Remember The Pain and The Great One? Judy Blume has brought those two siblings back for a series of four books. The second book is Cool Zone with Abigail and her brother, Jake. Fun reading for grades 2 and 3. A great read aloud for your younger siblings or kids you babysit for. Abigail is the third grader and Jake is a first grader. You will enjoy the banter between the two. Blume can really capture the dialog accurately. One minute the two are teasing each other and the next they are sticking up for each other. The chapters alternate between The Pain's and The Great One's point of view. Good book to help explain PERSPECTIVE. (one of my favorite SJV library words) This 111 page book has fun illustrations by James Stevenson throughout to make it even more enjoyable. Let me know what you think!

Check out Judy Blume's web site with book info and her own blog!

The Book Thief

I would say this is in my top ten books I've ever read. The Book Thief written by Markus Zuzak is a GREAT book. I highly recommend savoring it. It is about a young girl in Germany during World War II, but it is narrated by Death. Very interesting and it takes a little getting used to because Death knows and tells what is going to happen before it happens. There is a lot of tension and anticipation. This is mainly the story of Liesel Meminger, who was taken in as a foster child by a working class family in a small town near Munich. The man she calls Papa is not a supporter of the Nazi regime, so his work and his family suffer. They hide a Jewish man in their basement, scrounge for life’s basic necessities and generally try to survive. The desire of Liesel to read and the connection to books and a classmate and the man they are hiding make this thick book a very fast read. If you read this book please post here your reactions and any favorite parts. (I bet you can guess which part was my favorite.)