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.)