The Thing About Georgie

Is there something about you that makes you different from everyone else in your class? Are you well known for this distinguishable trait? The thing about Georgie is that he is a dwarf. It is hard not to notice. But being a fourth grader has its other factors that occupy Georgie's life, such as having a best friend who wants to include another person in their duo dog walking business, or an annoying girl who calls him nasty names is his partner on a project for school, or finding out your parents are having another child, all these concerns just as any fourth grader would have regardless of having body issues. You learn about what being a dwarf is like but the novel also focuses on the part of being a kid that everyone hopes— that they can be appreciated by others and themselves for a variety of skills and interests. This Maud Hart Lovelace Nominee by Lisa Graff is the author's first book and I hope she writes many more.

The Wright 3

Several years ago, a student recommended that I read all the books by the author Blue Balliett. I only read one of her books, Chasing Vermeer, which I really enjoyed. Recently my women's book club read Loving Frank, about the architect Frank Lloyd Wright and I remembered another of Balliett's books, The Wright 3 about the famous architect.

Calder and Petra (the sleuths who uncover the Vermeer in her previous book) are working together again along with Tommy who returns to Chicago and resumes his friendship with Calder. The three of them are inspired by their sixth grade teacher to care about and possibly save the historic Robie House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright which is scheduled for demolition soon. But while they are admiring its unusual characteristics, the windows and shadows and certain people begin to be more than just a coincidence as they follow up on clues which propel them to do some dangerous spying. This fast moving 314 page book is filled with illustrations by Brett Helquist who visited the Robie House to accurately create the drawings.

The Secret of Zoom

Do you like books that have a bit of adventure, heroism, mystery and fantasy? Then this book is for you. Minnesota author, Lynne Jonell (author of Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat) has come up with plenty of clever ideas for this book. Christina's parents are scientists and she lives a secluded life in an old mansion. I hesitate to say too much about the story and ruin all the surprises for you. But as you can see from the cover illustration and the title, the two main characters have discovered a secret and are on their way to ....

Iqbal

The book Iqbal is about a boy who gets sold into slavery and works at a carpet factory. Iqbal has been working in a carpet factory since he was 7 years old. He was sold to a carpet factory, this carpet factory has a girl named Fatima. Iqbal inspires Fatima and gives her courage to try to escape. When Iqbal escapes he talks about the cruelty about what they do in carpet factories. Then he was murdered on Easter Sunday 1995 by his carpet factory master for speaking out.

Review written by Ellie S grade 5
Iqbal is written by Francesco D'Adamo

The Liberation of Gabriel King

Frita is black and Gabe is white and the two of them are best friends. The story takes place in a small town in Georgia during the summer of 1976—the Bicentennial! That may seem like a long time ago to you but I was alive during that time and let me tell you living in the south was different in many ways then living in Minnesota or Wisconsin. At least I don't remember any Ku Klux Klan members in my small town near Milwaukee but there was racism. But I do remember summer days between my 4th, 5th and 6th grade as ones for goofing off and with no care in the world days. You are probably wondering about the title word—liberation. The two friends set free and release from control some of their fears and help each other in the process. I highly recommend this growing up book for its seriousness, its problem solving and hanging out having summer fun book. This Maud Hart Lovelace Nominee is by K.L. Going and it was a Michael L. Printz Honor Winner.

Star Jumper: Journal of a Cardboard Genius

Do you have a younger sibling who bugs you to no end? Want a way to get away from him? (or her)? In this short book by Frank Asch, Alex has come up with a solution and he tells us all about it in his journal. He says he is a genius and he has an awful lot of inventions to prove it. I like all the drawings in Alex's journal and it is amazing all the cool stuff he makes out of recycled objects. This book will get you thinking of inventions you may need.

Home of the Brave

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to come to Minnesota from another country? How about a country that never saw snow? The main character in this story is a refugee from a country in Africa. He is in the United States because of the violence in his own country and he misses his parents and older brother. Fortunately he has an aunt and cousin he can live with here. With all the tragedy in this young person's life, there are funny moments in the book because of the way he describes things that are very common to us. Kek, the protagonist tells his story in a unique style and the words paint an amazing picture. Katherine Applegate is the author of this award winning book.

The Year of the Dog

Do you think you could find yourself in just one year? Decide what your talent is? What you will do when you grow up? Pacy tries to do that during the Year of the Dog. Pacy is Chinese-American and so is her new best friend Melody. They are lucky to be friends because they both share the same traditions, being Chinese-American, actually Taiwanese-American. You can learn a lot from this story about the customs and traditions of Pacy's family from one Chinese New Year to the next. Pacy shares her life along with her mother's memories of her childhood: celebrating Halloween, cutting hair, eating ugly vegetables, playing a munchkin and even going to a camp with her family for Taiwanese-Americans. Author Grace Lin wrote the kind of book she wished she could have read when she was young. Maybe you will be inspired to write about your life and add little drawings, too, like Pacy (Grace Lin).

Princess Academy

What a treat I had driving home yesterday from visiting my dear friend in northern Wisconsin. Listening to full cast audio of Sharon Hale's 2006 Newbery Honor book, Princess Academy made the hours fly by. I only had 2 discs to listen to this morning to finish up the book. I highly recommend listening to this fine story. Don't let the title be off-putting, the young women (ages 13-17) in this novel are strong, clever, resourceful and eager to learn. Of course there are hardships, such as being locked in a closet when something else is in there! The twenty peasant women are being trained to be suitable princesses from which the prince can choose from to marry. Besides reading, curtsying, they learn diplomacy and commerce. Their stern tutor, Olana doesn't just dispense knowledge, it comes back to her in ways that will amaze you. Don't miss this Maud Hart Lovelace Nominee—either written or audio—the pages will fly by!

Lawn Boy

Do you know about economics? What is economics? How about a simple way to learn about money and one way to make it and have fun in the process? Read Gary Paulsen's book, Lawn Boy. A very short, actually too short, he could have written more but a short book with chapter titles like: Dramatic Economic Expansion: Its Causes and Effects and Overutilization of Labor Compounded by Unpredicted Capital Growth. Sounds scary, huh? It's not. The main character has help from Arnold after making money on cutting lawns and Arnold, not being able to actually pay the lawn boy, invests it for him. Crazy way to learn about the stock market but very easy to understand. I recommend this book for a bizarre mow through the lawn of capitalism!

Clementine

Crazy little Clementine! There is never a dull moment with Clementine around, of course she is allergic to sitting still! If you like Junie B. Jones, Judy Moody, Ivy and Bean or Ramona books,, you'll love Clementine. She writes the story herself which makes it a little hard to believe she is only a third grader. I think our third graders have more common sense then she does! Most books I review are for older readers, but this book could be enjoyed by younger readers too. Sara Pennypacker has two more titles about this unique and genuine third grader, The Talented Clementine and Clementine's Letter which I haven't read yet. This "spectacularful"* 135 page book has wonderful drawings to compliment the text. Check out this book and you'll have a head start on reading the Maud Hart Lovelace Nominees for this 2009-10 school year.
*Clementine's word

Scat

This is Carl Hiaasen's third children's book that is set in Florida; has a four-letter word title and is an environmental adventure mystery. I have read all of these and am almost sure this is one is my favorite. The story revolves around the endangered panther. As with his other books, the antagonists do not respect the environment or the panther. They are out to make money at whatever the cost. Nick and Marta are curious about the disappearance of their teacher and they, along with a few other characters begin to uncover an illegal operation that threatens the life of a panther cub and her mother. These unique characters work together because of their love of nature and concern for an abandoned cub.

About the Florida Panther from the floridapanther.org web site: Historically, this subspecies roamed the entire southeastern United States, including Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Currently, the only remaining population is in southwest Florida. Loss of habitat is one of the the main reasons for their decrease in population. About 100 cats remain in the Florida panther population. As recently as the early 1990s, only about 30 Florida panthers existed. Although the population has recovered somewhat, the Florida panther is still critically endangered.

How to Steal a Dog

Do you know what it feels like to live in a car? Or to be afraid to tell your best friend why she can't come over to play? This book is told in the voice of the main character, Georgina who lives with her mom and little brother in their car. She has come up with a plan to get some money so they can pay rent on an apartment. I suppose the cover of the book gives away her plan. It is a good story and I encourage you to read it and perhaps learn more about homelessness. SJV kids can make homelessness an issue to work on with your family or through our Public Achievement Issue groups this year.

Swindle

I finally read this book! When Scholastic highlighted this book on their DVD last year for the book fair, I was a little turned off by their sales pitch (and the cover of the book, too I hate to admit). But so many of my students read the book and really liked it, I thought I would give it a try. I totally enjoyed it! It would make a good movie.
This adventure story starts out with Griffin's family about to lose their house. When Griffin finds a baseball card worth a ton of money, he figures his family will be rich and not have to move. BUT not when the antagonist, S. Wendell aka Swindle acquires the card. Griffin's home is at stake here and he is so desperate that he comes up with an awesome plan to get the card back. Retrieving the card made me really nervous but I admired the way all the characters had a unique talent to contribute to the scheme.

Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy

They do things differently in Phippsburg, Maine as Turner Buckminster is finding out. Turner's family just moved to Maine where his father has taken a new position as the minister. The story takes place in 1911 and the people in this little town have no respect for the community of former slaves living on an island very close to the coast, visible to the town of Phippsburg. In fact the young people in town seem to have no respect for Turner either. He doesn't feel welcome and the kids make fun of him while playing baseball and even swimming. Turner discovers Lizzie (an islander) one day when he has isolated himself from the others. Turner and Lizzie secretly become friends. As the story moves along I was amazed how steady Turner is in his resolve to do what is right. I highly recommend this book for older readers such as 5th grade and up because of the emotional content and a devastating part of our nation's history. This Newbery Honor and Michael Prinz Honor Book Award winner is based on a true event.

Julia Gillian (and the Art of Knowing)

This is a very enjoyable little big book. I say little big because this 281 page book is almost square and has double spaces between the sentences and lots of delightful drawings illustrating the pages. So it has the feel of a big book but not the length. Minneapolis author, Alison McGhee takes us into the thoughts of Julia Gillian, a ten year old girl living near Lake Harriet in Minneapolis. She is a very quirky child who communicates with her very big dog telepathically. You will enjoy her papier-maché masks and her neighbors. You may empathize with her reluctance to finish a book she fears may have a bad ending. She has a route she walks with her St Bernard everyday but first she stops at Enzo's apartment where her 18 year old neighbor occasionally dispenses advice disguised in a story. I think younger readers, particularly 3rd or 4th graders will like this book.

RULES -Where you stand determines what you see.

I have the above saying on my library wall next to the word perspective. I usually think of people from other countries or cultures when I explore this concept. But this novel, Rules offers another viewpoint. It allows a peek in the window of someone living with an autistic sibling. The author, Cynthia Lord does a wonderful job allowing us into the frustration, complication, and ever-present situation of living with someone with special needs. The main character, twelve year old Catherine, is telling the story and through the voices of her parents and a boy in a wheelchair using cards to talk, she presents an amazing pull of emotions through the people in her life. Catherine grapples with appearances and worries about what others think, so she writes rules for her younger brother, David. She is quite clever and the rules add humor to a sometimes tense situation. Many of the rules are very useful not only to David but to Catherine. One of my favorites is: If you don't have the words you need, borrow someone else's. David likes to use words from Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad stories to communicate. There is so much to appreciate about Cynthia Lord's book, I wholeheartedly recommend reading it.

Vive La Paris

Vive La Paris is written by Esmé Raji Codell. Esmé also wrote Sahara Special which is about these same classmates. I absolutely triple enjoyed this book. I say triple because it was 1) a fun and serious read, 2) the characters learned something new, and 3) the persistence of one of the main characters to not use violence in retaliation.
This book has so much in it and yet I don't feel like it is too crowded. The author gives us inter generational relationships, the Holocaust, bullying, piano lessons, a book club (yeah!) and being black in urban Chicago. The story is told through the first person, fifth grader Paris McCray, and her take on things is very humorous but we also experience her lack of knowledge and innocence which creates an uncomfortable situation. I would like to hear from young readers how they viewed or reacted to Paris' ignorance and subsequent realization of her Jewish friend's experience.
Click here to check out Esmé's web site and blog.

The Janitor's Boy by Andrew Clements

The Janitor's Boy is Jack. The book is about Jack. Jack's dad is the janitor at his school but Jack doesn't like that and leaves gum under the desks. He gets caught and then gets detention. I love how Jack has a great sense of smell. And when Jack met Eddie in the tunnel, I thought it was cool that Eddie was living there. Eddie is a kid that ran away from his dad. His dad was in a war and now was acting weird. Eddie didn't want to live with his dad until his dad got better.

This book review was written by Thomas, grade 5.

The Surrender Tree

This book won a 2009 Newbery Honor and Pura Belpre Author Award. This book is a different book than usual for a Newbery award. This story is told through poems. In beautiful verse Margarita Engle gives readers a look into the Cuban wars for independence through the perspective of a slave healer, and a lieutenant they refer to as Lieutenant Death and José, Rosa's husband. Rosa, who was born a slave, learns the healing arts from her mother and uses plants in the jungle to heal rebel fighters while Cuba battles Spain for independence. This historical fiction novel makes me want to learn more of Cuba's history. At the end of the book there is an author's note, historical note, chronology, and list of books to check out on Cuba and Rosa, who is a real person.

Flush

Even though I read Flush quite awhile ago I never got around to writing a review. When I went to the Maud Hart Lovelace web site to see who won the 2009 awards and saw that Carl Hiaasen's book had won, I felt bad I didn't have a review published. Flush is a book I recommend along with Hiaasen's other children's novel, Hoot because I enjoyed reading both of them. Hoot won the Newbery Honor in 2003. They are great mysteries and in both, the protagonist takes on a cause for the environment. In Hoot, I wish that Roy would have solicited the help of his classmates earlier on in his campaign to save the habitat of the endangered burrowing owl. (It could have been a really awesome Public Achievement project!)
In Flush, many of the adults in the story are so corrupt it gives Noah and his sister Abbey more of a challenge to help their father's cause. It is pretty scary stuff. The father is in jail (intentionally) for trying to deliver his own kind of justice to a casino on a boat business that is dumping their sewage in the Florida keys, Noah feels he needs to help him. And Noah has a very complicated and clever way to catch the law-breakers. You will not be putting this book down until you've finished!

Savvy

Who wouldn't want their own savvy? Mibs'(short for Mississippi) oldest brother Rocket's savvy is electrifying and her other brother, Fish has a water problem but what will Mibs' savvy be? She waits for her all important thirteenth birthday to find out. But things don't go as planned, her father is in a serious car accident and all that Mibs can think about is getting to her father to help him get well. Her siblings and children of a pastor and his wife (who are caring for them in her parents' absence) have quite the adventure. You will never look at a pink bus in the same way again!
This book written by Ingrid Law was one of those awarded a 2009 Newbery Honor. Hey SJV kids—do you know what person on staff at our school has read all of the Newbery Medal books? Let me know who you think she or he is.

The Graveyard Book

I think everyone should be given a "Stay Home and Read Pass" every once and awhile. Let's say you are in the middle of a really good book, but you have to go to school or work and can't read until you get back home. But if you have this pass, you can say, I'll be staying home to read today and everyone will understand. How many of these should we pass out?
I would have used mine to read The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. The book is so engaging. Adults and children (no younger than 10) will love this book. It starts out with the child's family getting killed but this youngster does survive. He actually is living in the nearby cemetery and the characters he meets and skills he learns are incredibly fascinating. You will have affection for his new family and his guardian. My favorite part was when he empowers some children to stop themselves from being bullied. Let me know what you think of this 2009 Newbery Medal Award Winner.

Elephant Run

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to live on a teak plantation in Burma and harvest teak while sitting on an elephant with your feet tucked under his ears? In this book, you may get a chance to find out. This story takes place during World War II and Nick's mother sends the 14 year-old to live with his father in Burma to get away from the bombing in London. Nick gets to know some amazing people including a very special monk who happens to be in the right place at the right time and a Japanese soldier who facilitates Nick's learning the language and culture of Japan. Roland Smith, the author of this historical fiction has written quite the adventure and you will find Nick doing some things that make you very nervous for his safety.

Habibi

The author, Naomi Shihab Nye was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to a Palestinian father and an American mother. This young-adult novel called Habibi is somewhat of an autobiographical story of her life as an Arab-American teenager who moves to Jerusalem from the US in the 1990s. Habibi means darling in Arabic and is used by her grandmother in another book Naomi wrote titled Sitti's Secret. Sitti is Arabic for grandmother and Sitti's Secret is a picture book of a young girl going with her dad to visit his family in Palestine. Both of these books won the Jane Addams Children's Peace Book Award. Habibi is a good book and I recommend it because it is fun learning about life in another country by reading someone's personal story.

Yes We Can

A Biography of President Barack Obama by Garen Thomas. I really enjoyed reading this summary of Obama's life starting with his father coming to the United States and meeting his mother at the University of Hawaii. The book includes many photographs and words of President Obama both verbal and written throughout his career, each is cited for its reference. The book includes a bibliography and web sites for further investigation. I felt after reading this biography that I knew this man better and could understand why people voted for him for president. This was a historical event, electing our first multi-racial man. Someday I hope to see a woman elected to the presidency.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

You have no idea what the book is about from the cover. It's a page-turner because Hugo finds the key to the auto-man. It is exciting to see what he does to stay alive. Everyday he shows bravery and gentleness and at the same time he is a thief!
Thanks to SJV student Thomas, grade 5, for this post.

Readers can add to their knowledge of the illustrations and what went into making of this book at the web site by Brian Selznick, the author, who was awarded the Caldecott Medal for this book last year. Even though The Invention of Hugo Cabret has over 500 pages, it won't take you long to read it because almost 300 of its pages are just illustrations!