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We are excited about a new project we have in the works with Kidlit Frenzy, Great Kid Books, and 100 Scope Notes. Read Mary Ann Scheuer's introduction to our new series, and be sure to check back on Wednesday, May 22nd to read the reviews. Introduction to Common Core IRL: In Read Libraries by Mary Ann Scheuer at Great Kid Books

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This spring, the team decided it was high time to hold a party for our 1000 Books Before K Club kids. We thought: May, nice weather, a bus or historic trolley - PIGEON!!! Thus was the pigeon party born.

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In Out of the Easy, Ruta Sepetys had me at hello. It begins:

My mother's a prostitute. Not the filthy, streetwalking kind. She's actually quite pretty, fairly well spoken, and has lovely clothes. But she sleeps with men for money or gifts, and according to the dictionary, that makes her a prostitute.

Seventeen-year-old Josie Moraine doesn't want to follow in her mother's footsteps. She's known that for years, and even though she still works at the same brothel as her mother—cleaning rooms, mind you—and even though she's on good terms with Willie Woodley, the woman who owns it, she's independent enough that she's kept her own apartment since she was eleven years old.

She works part-time at the bookstore below it, and she dreams of going to college. But when Josie dreams, she dreams big: she wants out of New Orleans, to start over somewhere up North, somewhere where she can reinvent herself—where no one knows who she is or what her mother does.

LOVE: THE DIALOGUE. Out of the Easy is set in 1950, and Sepetys' characters sling slang without sounding phony or overblown, and the dialogue zings back-and-forth like in an old movie. The characters speak in distinctive voices, and unlike in Strands of Bronze and Gold, those differences in vocabulary, rhythm, and diction are affected by economic class, vocation, and education, rather than being purely dictated by the color of one's skin.

LOVE: JOSIE. Her narration has a touch of the noir hero: deadpan, world-weary, and with an understanding of ironic humor. Unlike a noir hero, though, she is open about being emotionally affected by... things that are emotionally affecting. She's smart, she's canny, and rather than blushing and wanting to melt into the ground in embarrassing situations, she treats them as opportunities—I cheered out loud when she turned one around by becoming an impromptu blackmailer, and I swooned during another when she threw herself into a cute boy's lap to save herself (and him, to a degree) from some catty mean girls. 

LOVE: HER MOTHER. Well, no, actually, I loathed her mother. But I loved that she wasn't the Pretty-Woman-hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold, I loved that she wasn't secretly sympathetic, or selfless or particularly smart. She was completely self-absorbed, and while her behavior makes her come off as rotten and somewhat stupid, it's important to remember who's telling the story: Josie isn't exactly an objective party. The other women who work for Willie are a mixed bag of funny/serious/witty/quiet/ruthless/rude/mothering/mean/sensitive and everything in between, and it's easy to imagine that if another person had told the story, Louise would have come off as more human. Maybe. Then again, SOME PEOPLE ARE JUST TERRIBLE.

LOVE: THE BOOKS. Josie works in a bookstore, and she and her best friend Patrick have an ongoing game where they predict what sort of book customers will want. There are references to Dickens and Keats, Capote and even L'Engle. And, tangentially, Poe: Josie ends up with a dead man's watch—THAT'S RIGHT, ON TOP OF EVERYTHING ELSE, SHE INVESTIGATES A MURDER—under her floorboards, and she swears she can hear it ticking, ticking, ticking. Which, of course, evokes The Tell-Tale Heart.

LOVE: EVERYTHING ELSE. Sepetys is true to the era and her characters in how Patrick's story plays out; the romance is sweet and heartfelt; the details about 1950s life and culture work themselves in fluidly; Josie wants what she wants so badly that I was never quite sure about how far she'd go to get it; and while the ending certainly has some fairy-tale elements, there's enough bitter in the sweet to keep cynics (like me) from getting all up on their high horses.

Oh, I loved this book. As it's got the same combination of fantastically-rendered historical atmosphere—the dialogue is TO DIE FOR—and mystery elements, I highly, HIGHLY recommend it to fans of Judy Blundell's What I Saw and How I Lied.

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Author page.

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Amazon.

Publisher.

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Book source: Review copy from the publisher.

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<!-- START INTERCHANGE - ONE CRAZY SUMMER -->if(!window.igic__){window.igic__={};var d=document;var s=d.createElement("script");s.src="http://iangilman.com/interchange/js/widget.js";d.body.appendChild(s);} <!-- END INTERCHANGE --> One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garica, as you can see by crowd of awards (Coretta Scott King Award, Scott O'Dell Historical Fiction Medal, Newbery Honor

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Throughout the U.S., teachers and librarians are talking about what it means to implement the Common Core State Standards in their school. Five of us -- librarians and literacy experts -- are working together to show what the Common Core means for school libraries in real life. We’re calling the series Common Core IRL: In Real Libraries.

Today, I’m laying out some of the groundwork for our thinking. Come join all five of us on Wednesday, May 22nd, as we launch this new project:

• Alyson Beecher, district literacy specialist: Kid Lit Frenzy
• Louise Capizzo, children’s librarian: The Nonfiction Detectives
• Travis Jonker, school librarian: 100 Scope Notes
• Cathy Potter, school librarian: The Nonfiction Detectives
• Mary Ann Scheuer, school librarian: Great Kid Books

As teachers have worked to make sense of these new standards, many have focused on the overarching shifts in teaching that the Common Core standards are calling for. EngageNY, a collaborative platform for teachers in New York, has developed several presentations on these shifts. Two key shifts are particularly important to me as an elementary school librarian:

• the call for balancing informational and literary texts, and
• the focus on helping students read increasingly complex texts.

As a school librarian and parent, I want to provide many opportunities for our students to read about the world around them. Young children are fascinated by so many different things in the world - animals and their habitats, faraway places, different people’s customs, famous people’s lives. It is important that we provide our children with access to materials that interest them. I am convinced that if children are encouraged to read more nonfiction of their choosing, they will develop skills that will help them read and think about nonfiction as they grow older.
As the Common Core document states for ELA Standard 10,

“Building knowledge systematically in English language arts is like giving children various pieces of a puzzle in each grade that, over time, will form one big picture. ... The knowledge children have learned about particular topics in early grade levels should then be expanded and developed in subsequent grade levels to ensure an increasingly deeper understanding of these topics.”

So what does the Common Core mean in real life? In our series Common Core IRL: In Real Libraries, we are choosing high-interest subjects and looking at how we can support elementary students as they read increasingly complex texts around a subject. We want to provide both stimulating read-alouds, especially for young students, and just-right books of increasing complexity.


As Lucy Calkins writes in her Curricular Plan for the Reading Workshop,

“We want to encourage our students to be researchers of the world and to know that reading can be a source of information to grow knowledge both about subjects they are experts in and ones that are newer to them.”

Lucy Calkins writes about curriculum that spirals from grade to grade, level to level. We are taking this idea to the library, suggesting that we look at our collections for an interesting topic and provide interesting reading materials that spiral up, gradually increasing in the complexity of the text. This allows students to build on knowledge, revisiting favorite books and then stepping into more complex material. It allows them to delve into a topic with more depth, becoming an expert in an area that interests them. But in order to do this, we must be conscious of the reading levels of the materials we select. As Calkins writes,

“It is important to get slightly easier books if the topic is new. While shopping for new books this month, keep in mind that a child can read a just-right book on a topic she may be familiar with—like cats. But if that child decides to read books on a topic about which she has no foreknowledge, like gemstones, it will benefit her to begin with books that are easier than her just-right reading level. As she builds up her vocabulary and background knowledge about gemstones, she’ll move on to reading with success books that are at her just-right level (or slightly above that level).”

In our special segments, Common Core IRL: In Real Life, we will share our favorite books on a common topic, spiraling up through the elementary grades. In the School Library Journal, Marc Aronson and Sue Bartle have suggested that school libraries develop clusters around high-interest topics. We are taking this one step further, providing suggestions for increasingly complex texts, both as read-alouds and independent reading books.

See the Common Core in action at Common Core IRL: In Real Life. Come visit Kid Lit Frenzy, 100 Scope Notes, Great Kid Books and The Nonfiction Detectives on Wednesday, May 22nd, to learn all about frogs as we suggest resources for spiraling up, gradually increasing in the complexity of the texts.

©2013 Mary Ann Scheuer, Great Kid Books

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Sixteen-year-old Ash Fisher is the son of a vampire and a human, and as far as he knows, the only twin-blood in Black City. Because of his human blood he's allowed by law to live in the city proper, rather than behind the wall in the Darkling ghetto. He lives with his human father, making ends meet by selling his venom to human Haze addicts, and worries every single day, that this will be the day that the Trackers discover that he and his father are harboring a Darkling... a crime punishable by death. But how could they refuse? She's Ash's mother, and she's dying.

Sixteen-year-old Natalie Buchanan, meanwhile, is the daughter of Black City's Emissary: the woman in charge. The Buchanans have just returned back to the city after months in the capitol, a move precipitated by the savage murder of her father by a Wrath-crazed Darkling. 

Full-blooded Darklings are barely second-class citizens; the few that live in the city are defanged and work as servants, and all of them—Ash included, despite his human blood—are required to wear ID bracelets at all times. ID bracelets that mark them as property of their human 'owner'. Not wearing the bracelets is punishable by death.

Any action judged a 'grievous crime against the state' is punishable by death, regardless of species.

Romantic relationships between humans and Darklings are punishable by death, regardless of species.

You've probably already guessed where the story is headed, and you aren't wrong: but that's not to say that there aren't some twists along the way. Since the prose stylings are neither squee-inducing nor remotely offensive, it'll be the plotting, the characters, and the world-building that attract or repel readers: and as Black City has a lot in common with other recent bestsellers, it should be pretty easy to figure out whether or not you should pick it up.

If you enjoyed the format of Marie Lu's Legend, then Black City might work for you: in this one, as in the Lu, the main characters alternate narration duties. And, as in Legend, the heroine is associated with the dictitorial government while the hero is, well, not part of the resistance, but certainly not held in any sort of esteem by the ruling class. Also, despite the vampires, I'd slot this one firmly in the science fiction arena.

If you like vampire apocalypse stories a la Emily McKay's The Farm or Julie Kagawa's The Immortal Rules and The Eternity Cure, then Black City might work for you: unlike both of those examples, in this case, the vampires are the subjugated class, but along with the action and the romance and whatnot, it deals with similar themes of racism and xenophobia. Black City actually takes that aspect of the story further, and makes some direct parallels to WWII with the aforementioned ghettos, with concentration camps, and with the ongoing experimental vivisection (i.e. torture) carried out in the name of research.

Like so many paranormal romances—though, as I said, this is more science fiction than fantasy—our characters do experience instalove, which I well know is definitely a dealbreaker for many. It, like Stephenie Meyers' 'imprinting' also turns out to be the sort of instalove that removes agency from the characters, which is another problematic element for some readers. In Richards' defense, she threw a hella-great twist into the mix of that plotline: even with the clues she dropped, I only saw HALF of it coming. 

LONG STORY SHORT: WILL YOU LIKE IT? IT DEPENDS.

WHAT DID I THINK? Aside from a few issues—I found it bothersome that Natalie kept going on and on about how a Darkling killed her father, when she KNEW VERY WELL that that wasn't the entire story, because, you know, SHE WITNESSED THE WHOLE THING GO DOWN; the pacing got bogged down in the middle with all the 'DOES HE LIKE ME?' 'OH GOD SHE LOOKED AT ME AND I'D BE BLUSHING IF I COULD BLUSH' 'LET'S MAKE OUT' 'OH GOD WE JUST MADE OUT' 'IS OUR LOVE WORTH THE RISK?' and so on; there was some of that 'HE'S SO DANGEROUS BUT I LOVE HIM' that skeeves me out; the ex-boyfriend is such a complete d-bag that he comes off as a moustache-twirler—I approved of the plentiful gore and the creative vampire mythos (multiple species, various cultural traditions).

I'll be reading Phoenix to see where it all goes.

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Author page.

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Amazon.

Publisher.

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Book source: Finished copy from the publisher.

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...I wrote about M.M. Vaughan's The Ability, which wasn't a perfect match for me, but will very likely please younger fans of Roald Dahl.

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Good
by
Greg Pincus

Last night we had a sitter
Just like Mom had said we would,
And since I am a real nice kid, I'd promised to be good.

I kept my word. Indeed I did.
I think it's plain to see.
In fact, I'd say that I was just as good as good can be.

I was good at whining
And at scaring our pet cat.
And throwing food against the wall? Yes, I was good at that.

I was good at tantrums
And was good at staying up.
I was extra good at pouring too much soda in my cup.

I was good at playing -
I played lots of "I can't hear!"
And my sitter said that I was good at changing her career.

So Mom and Dad, I'm asking you,
I'm shouting through this door:
If I was so, so good last night, what'd I get grounded for?


Let me just go on record as saying there is nothing autobiographical about this poem (well, except for me being a good kid, of course!!!). I'm just sayin'.....

You can check out this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Ed DeCaria's Think Kid, Think!, and read some Poetry Friday history as well as see a slew of other great poetry posts. You should go. It's the "good" thing to do.

And... if you want to get all the new poems hereabouts (and only the poems) emailed to you for freeee as they hit the blog, enter your email address in the box below then click subscribe!

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So, things are finally starting to calm down and I'll be able to start blogging again soon! Yay! I've missed connecting with all of you.

While I get things in order, I thought I'd share this guest post I did for the "What to Expect When You are Expecting" website, ( yes, it a website for the book all expecting moms know!).  I wrote about Rain Dragon's five favorite baby books!  After all the baby book testing we've done, I thought I should share!

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I had my last booktalk of the year in April, strategically before state testing so the students would have something really good to read.  Here are the notes for the books I talked for 9-12th grade:

Miracle by Elizabeth Scott (real life read):  Final Destination, the movie.  PTSD
Leading question:  Other than war, what are some other instances where people can suffer from PTSD?


Zoe Letting Go by Nora Price (real life read):  famous journals in history
Leading question: Why do people keep journals?  How would you react if someone read yours?

Legend by Marie Lu (dystopia): current hot topic issues Americans face today that deals with government (gun control)
Leading question: Do you trust the government 100%?  Why or why not? 

Darkwater by Catherine Fisher (fantasy): stories about the Devil throughout history (Devil and Daniel Webster, Faust
Leading question:  how many of you have ever heard this song?  Do a little Charlie Daniels.  Explain how this is recurrent theme throughout literature.

The Diviners by Libba Bray (supernatural): haunted places in our area
Leading question:  Anyone ever heard of la Llorna?  How about Chupacabra?  Regional legend ghost stories.  Are they true or not?

Eve & Adam by Michael Grant and Catherine Applegate (science fiction): protein folds mystery and the gamers who helped solve it.
Leading question: What would the perfect teen look like (in your mind?)  Is it ethical or not to "play" with genetics?

Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta (fantasy): Talk about Kony or Saddam Hussein
Leading question:  What causes people to become refugees?  How can they start over again?

Falling for You by Lisa Schroeder (girl reads; novel in verse): signs of an obsessive person (taking up all of your time, needing you in his life in order to live, constant contact, telling you what to wear/look like)
Leading question:  Where is the fine line between a relationship and obsession?  Has anyone ever heard of a crime of passion?

Fateful by Claudia Gray (historial supernatural): Titanic exhibit in Ft. Worth; the 2015 launch of the replicated Titanic
Leading question: How long have werewolves been around?  How did they get from Europe to America?

Scandalous: 50 shocking events you should know about (so you can impress your friends) by Hallie Fryd (non-fiction): Look at cover and talk about two events: Elvis and his shocking antics: Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding.  How the impacted history.  Yes, history does have a dark and dirty side, and this book has the stories the textbooks leave out.

Infects by Sean Beaudoin (supernatural tongue-in-cheek):Zombie talk  (fast, slow, what infected them, how to kill/evade them)
Leading question:  Have you ever had a case of food poisoning? 

Trinity: a graphic history of the first atomic bomb by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm (non-fiction): How many times was the A-bomb detonated?  Where?  One of the best kept government secrets of its time.  Oppenheimer was the creator, but how did he feel about this thing he created?  Why did the U.S. choose Nagasaki or Hiroshima?

The Raft by S.A. Bodeen (real life read; thriller): Life of Pi; the effects of dehydration
Leading question:  Besides food and water, what would be the most important thing to have on a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean?

Breathe by Sarah Crossen: air quality alerts; the most polluted cities in the world
Leading question: Do all people need the same amount of oxygen to survive?  What about those that live in mountains vs. prairies dwellers?  Athletes or sendentary people?

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater (supernatural): Different ways of divination (tea leaves, magic ball, tarot cards)
Leading question: Do psychics have the abilities they claim or not?  Ever watched Long Island Medium or Psychic Detective on television?

Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson (girl reads): hindsight; spending your entire summer with your parents and siblings
Leading question:  Ever had one of those moments when you know you screwed up but didn't do anything about it?  Ever wished for a do-over?

Zoo by James Patterson (adult fiction): story about the chimpanzee that turned on its owner and caused substantial facial damage
Leading question: If you had a pet you loved and it turned on you, what would you do?

Ten by Gretchen McNeill (mystery): movie the Elevator; Agatha Christie
Leading question: What's the best thing about being on an island?  The worse?

The Turning by Francine Prose (psychological mystery): long-distance relationships
Leading question:  If you were offered a summer job that paid big time, would you give up all phone and internet access the entire summer? 

Before You Go by James Preller (real life read): Three things guys think about (food, girls, hanging out) and the nothing box they are all equipped with
Leading question: What is the best summer job for a teen?  Are they different for guys and girls?

Visit Sunny Chernobyl: and other adventures in the world's most polluted places by Andrew Blackwell (non-fiction):  brief history of the infamy of Chernobyl; current disasters that pollute the earth (Fukishima).  Talk briefly about one other place in the book (India river) and end with the fact the Texas made the top five list of the most polluted places on earth. 

My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf (non-fiction): Which is more difficult, elementary or junior high?  How about junior high or high school?  Talk about Jeffrey's history in school and the demons he had to battle.  Describe his social life and his relationship with his friend Derf.  Then talk about what happened 10 years later, when Derf saw him on television...

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So, today I voted here in the LA mayoral election... and I got one of those "I Voted" stickers. And I flashed back to childhood.

One day in either late elementary or early middle school, a friend and I had collected enough Chiquita banana stickers to give to everyone in the class and planned that at the top of the hour (I think it was), we'd all put said stickers on our noses and continue class as if nothing had happened.

My memory from here is even hazier, though I seem to recall the teacher continuing to lead the class without really acknowledging anything was amiss, though clearly aware.

What I don't recall was how I felt afterwards or whether the weeks of collecting stickers had paid off for me. I do know I never organized another banana-in. But to this day I have the urge to put stickers from bananas on my nose.

Nothing profound here, but it was a happy flashback for me and something I hadn't thought of in decades. And if you were there (or arranged a similar event!)... well... feel free to add your memories here. (You know... letting me know I'm not alone in my silliness!)

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And now we come to the end of my re-read of Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War.

Previous installments are here, here, here, and here.

This is, hands down, the most bizarre cover I've come across. Is that a girl? Dancing? With a sock puppet? I don't even. THERE AREN'T EVEN ANY MAJOR FEMALE CHARACTERS IN THE BOOK.

Chapter Twenty-nine: The sale turns around.

• Thanks to the Vigils, selling chocolate is suddenly cool. Carter hands wads and wads of money over to Brian Cochran and then tells him who to credit the sales to: it takes Cochran a few days before he realizes that Carter is distributing the sales to make it look as if EVERYONE is participating in the sale—not counting Jerry, of course—even though it's really only a few students doing all of the selling.
• Boys cheer when Cochran updates the sales roster, and it makes him feel like a football hero... which is ironic, as it's actually Jerry who's the football player.

Chapter Thirty: Brother Leon is now enjoying homeroom IMMENSELY.

• As in previous homeroom scenes, we get this from Goober's perspective: Goober, by the way, has stopped selling chocolates to stand in solidarity with Jerry. He hasn't gone so far as tell anyone—not even Jerry—but nonetheless, he did stop.
• Meanwhile, now that selling chocolates is cool, many of the other students have turned on Jerry. Which Brother Leon loves. Apparently everyone—including Brother Leon—has forgotten about that whole Nazi lesson back in Chapter Six.
• Later, Goober is dismayed to discover that his sales numbers have been updated: according to the roster, he's sold 50 boxes, rather than the 27 that he actually did sell: Out in the corridor, The Goober's breath came fast. But otherwise he felt nothing. He willed himself to feel nothing. He didn't feel rotten. He didn't feel like a traitor. He didn't feel small and cowardly. And if he didn't feel all these things, then why was he crying all the way to his locker? Again and again, Cormier highlights the feelings of shame that the victim feels: Jerry felt it when his locker was vandalized, and Goober feels it now. In each case, the wronged party is the one who feels guilty.

Chapter Thirty-one: The return of Janza.

• Janza accosts Jerry and tries to goad him into starting a fight by calling him gay. Which literally almost makes Jerry vomit. (I'd like to say that everything about that situation is another example of dated material in the book, but... sadly, not so much.)
• Rather than beating Jerry personally, though, Janza does him one worse and hires a bunch of LITTLE KIDS to do it. I hate Janza.

Chapter Thirty-two: But, oh no, beating the crap out of him isn't enough.

• Jerry drags himself home and into bed, but the phone calls continue. And now they're staking out his apartment building, cat-calling and stage-whispering "Jerry, come out to PLAAAAYYYYYY" and the like. Which, of course, made me think of this bit from The Warriors. (Twin Peaks fans: NOTE THAT THAT IS A YOUNG JERRY HORNE. Always crazy, is our David Patrick Kelly.)

Chapter Thirty-three: Janza and Archie.

• As if anyone had any doubt, it was Archie who put Janza into beating up Jerry. (Using the kids, though, was Janza's own brilliant idea, and Archie isn't happy about it: not only because he likes being completely in control, but because strategically, the less people involved, the less possible problems.)
• Archie also suggests to Janza that there might not actually be a blackmail photo: a statement that makes Janza feel both relieved and angry.

Chapter Thirty-four: Jerry's day of invisibility.

• Everyone ignores Jerry. They don't just ignore him, they look through him. EVEN THE TEACHERS. His locker has been emptied and scrubbed clean, like he's been erased. Goober isn't in school that day, so he has no anchor.
• But then, something snaps, the period of invisibility is over, and someone tries to push him down a flight of stairs.
• Meanwhile, the final tally has been done, and, according to the numbers, every single box of chocolates has been sold. Well, every box except for Jerry's 50. Brian Cochran briefly starts wondering about Jerry, about this one stubborn kid standing against the Vigils, against Brother Leon, against Trinity itself, and he has a moment of almost-compassion. But then he figures, oh, whatever, who cares, I'm out of here at the end of the year.
• Archie informs Obie that there's going to be a school-wide, students-only assembly the next night, and it will involve Jerry Renault, the last fifty boxes of chocolates, and a raffle.

Chapter Thirty-five: If Archie Costello promised you anything "fair and square", would you believe him?

• Archie promises to give Jerry a chance, "fair and square" at revenge, and Jerry goes along with it. So, now he and Janza are standing in a boxing ring, stripped to the waist, and waiting for the raffle tickets to be sold. 

Chapter Thirty-six: And what, exactly, is the deal with those raffle tickets?

• Well, I'll tell you: on each raffle ticket, the purchaser writes down a boxer's name—Renault or Janza—the move said boxer is to execute, and then the purchaser's own name.
• If you think that many students are going to allow Jerry to throw any punches, you're going to be sorely disappointed: Archie might be a sociopath, but he's got a decent-if-pessimistic understanding of human nature: "You see, Carter, people are two things: greedy and cruel. so we have a perfect set-up here. The greed part—a kid pays a buck for a chance to win a hundred. Plus fifty boxes of chocolates. The cruel part—watching two guys hitting each other, maybe hurting each other, while they're safe in the bleachers. That's why it works, Carter, because we're all bastards." 
• That explanation leaves Carter—who apparently has always thought of himself as "one of the good guys"�feeling understandably uncomfortable and guilty. But, you know: he doesn't do anything about it.
• Obie—along with, it turns out, Carter—makes an attempt to take Archie down by bringing out the box of marbles. In the Hollywood version of this story, Archie would draw a black one. But not in Cormier's world: Archie is forced to draw two marbles, one for Jerry, one for Janza, and his luck holds both times.
• HA. On a hunch, I just looked it up, and SURPRISE, SURPRISE, they changed this scene in the movie: Archie pulls a black marble and has to take Janza's place in the boxing match. Also, crazily enough, ADAM BALDWIN PLAYS CARTER.

Chapter Thirty-seven: The fight.

• It's just as awful as I remembered it being.
• And, of course, Brother Leon stood there and silently watched the whole thing happen.

Chapter Thirty-eight: The aftermath.

• Goober holds Jerry's broken body in his arms as he and a few stragglers wait for an ambulance. And Jerry tries to tell Goober what he's learned from all of this, but there's "something wrong with his mouth, his teeth, his face" and so the words won't come out right. But this is what he wants to say: They tell you to do your thing but they don't mean it. They don't want you to do your thing, not unless it happens to be their thing. It's a laugh, Goober, a fake. Don't disturb the universe, Goober, no matter what the posters say." Not one for sugar-coating things, was Cormier.
• Archie and Brother Leon, meanwhile, get away with everything, their power and reputations intact: Beautiful. Leon and The Vigils and Archie. What a great year it was going to be.

Chapter Thirty-nine: Obie and Archie, back in the bleachers.

• Judging by their conversation—much of which mirrors their first conversation in the book—not much of anything appears to have changed: if Jerry overheard it, he'd be likely to assume that his attempt to disturb the universe had no affect whatsoever. But Goober will be forever changed by it, and possibly even Carter. And someone informed Brother Jacques about what was happening. So, on the surface, no. Nothing was disturbed. But underneath? Maybe.

Ag. Now I'm all emotionally drained and busted. I need a nap. And maybe some ice cream.

Links!

Kelly: Inspired by -- and Read Alikes to -- The Chocolate War

Liz: The Chocolate War Wrap Up

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We are excited to launch Common Core IRL: In Real Libraries, a new series with Kid Lit Frenzy, Great Kid Books, and 100 Scope Notes. Today we're exploring several books about frogs written for a range of readers. Our goal is to help libraries build their nonfiction collections as they support teachers in the implementation of the Common Core State Standards. Head over to these blogs to read

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I put down roots in the Haute this weekend. We’ve finally had a sustained break from all the rain and hopefully there will be no more morning frost so I got vegetables and herbs planted in my garden.

There are a couple of pieces of land close to campus that have been divided into plots for community members to grow crops each summer. Sounds nice, huh? Well, it gets even better! There are tool sheds on the grounds with gardening implements and wheel barrows. Leaf mulch and horse manure mulch is available and area farmers provide inexpensive straw to help the soil retain moisture. This wonderful deal isn’t free. There are dates by which certain progress must be made and a portion of the harvest must be donated to the local food agency. Nope, nothing is free, but this comes awfully close!

My sister drives over from Indy and we’re farming together. We’ve planted cabbage, broccoli, tomatoes (too many!), sweet and hot peppers, cucumbers, turnip greens, okra, sage, dill, fennel, basil and catnip. While the herbs will be a welcome part of the harvest, they’re also strategically placed in the garden to ward off pests.

I’ll be balancing my time at the garden with the time needed to finish the few dozen books I have to finish for BFYA which will be at ALA in a few short weeks. I won’t do much there other than committee meetings and catching up with people I’ve probably never met before. If you’re going to be there, please let me know!

I do plan to see Kathy aka The Brain Lair and I’ll congratulate her in person for being named her local Teacher of the Year. This is an awesome accomplishment for any educator but, especially for media specialists/school librarians who most people don’t recognize as such. From the article, from knowing all the great things Kathy does, I know she’s more than deserved this award!

I never give a second thought about what I share here. I find information I enjoy and I look forward to sharing it. When it comes to the give-a-way on Anali’s First Amendment, I have had second thoughts. I so want to win one of those prizes that I hate to limit my chances! But I will, not only for the sake of my readers but also to help draw more support to The Arc.

Anali’s First Amendment is hosting the All Aboard the Arc annual fund raiser to benefit The Arc of Massachusetts, which serves men, women and children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The blog has much more information about the Arc and ways you can donate to support this worthy cause. To help bring attention, there’s a giveaway and it ends Monday 20 May.

• Firehouse Subs gift cards
• Greyston Baker brownies
• The Greyston Bakery Cookbook

Author Meg Medina (Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass) also recently blogged about one of her passions, Partners in Print, an organization which supports literacy development mostly for ENL students. In the post, Medina provides unique insights into what it’s like being bilingual.

I have a co-worker from Congo who often tells me what a disadvantage she has because she’s not a native English speaker. (I’m smiling because she often reads these posts.) She’s lived here some 40 odd years, but still translates in her mind. One wouldn’t know this because she never misses a beat, no matter it be a technical cataloging question or a casual conversation filled with U.S. idioms.

Most native born Americans only speak one language like me and will have a difficult time understanding the difficulties these adults and these students, face. I am so amazed by their linguistic abilities, that I don’t see the problems. Thanks to Medina’s post, I understand more.

Don’t miss artist Jimmy Liao  (The sound of color )in the Gallery on the PaperTigers website.

Have you looked at Google+Hangouts yet? Again I say: Google concerns me. I was listening to a piece about Google on NPR this past week about their new voice search. The story also mentioned Google Travel which will read information from peoples’ photos to help plan vacations. They’ll look at both faces and places to determine your ultimate spot. One more way for them to collect data. No, I’ll not be using an Android, Google Chrome or Google Glass. I want to think I’m making you work for my information.

I don’t watch Scandal; I’m an Elementary girl. I think it’s interesting that while Kerry Washington, an African American woman, can be promoted for her sexuality, Lucy Lui, an Asian American woman, cannot. Neither can Sandra Oh who preceeds Scandal in Grey’s Anatomy. Read Lucy Lui on this topic :” I kind of got pushed out of both categories. It’s a very strange place to be. You’re not Asian enough and then you’re not American enough, so it gets really frustrating.” MORE

If you have time to up your professional reading this summer, don’t miss Voya’s 5 Foot Bookshelf: Essential Books for Professionals Who Serve Teens.

I’m so glad to be getting my hands in the soil! So thankful to be growing my own food and for the people I’m meeting in the process. I’ve found one more thing to help fill my summers days, but there’s always time for the things we want to do!

 

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”

Steve Jobs

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed under: Sunday Reads Tagged: garden, giveaways, google, meg medina

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“Mom, you need to talk to Noah and tell him I need more cinnamon on my morning toast.” I raised my eyebrows at the first grader. “I doubt you need more. You already… Read More →

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My re-read of The Chocolate War continues!

Previous installments are here and here.

Chapter Twelve: In which Jerry has his last perfect moment in a long, long time.

• Jerry's at football practice, and his frustration about—and this is my interpretation, as he hasn't actually articulated the feeling—being rudderless and acted UPON rather than being the ACTOR in his own life, as well as being dismissed as insignificant and a nonentity by all of the forces who use him continues: What infuriated Jerry was that Carter toppled him gently, lowering him to the ground almost tenderly as if to prove his superiority. I don't have to murder you, kid, it's easy enough this way, Carter seemed to be saying. Long-windedness cut short: FORESHADOWING.
• Then the next pay is successful, and Jerry has a moment of "absolute bliss"... but then he goes inside to change, he finds a letter from the Vigils taped to his locker.

Chapter Thirteen: The first day of the chocolate sale.

• The Room Nineteen prank isn't sitting well with The Goober. At first, he felt like a folk hero and he enjoyed the butt-patting popularity, but there are rumors that Brother Leon is carrying on an investigation and that Brother Eugene has had a nervous breakdown. Also, there's this: The room would never be the same again, of course. The furniture creaked weirdly, as if it would collapse again without warning. The various teachers who used the room were uneasy—you could tell they were apprehensive. Once in a while, some guy would drop a book just to see the teacher flinch or leap in panic. So. Things that are broken—like, completely, utterly destroyed—and then mended... are never quite the same again. UNSETTLING THOUGHT, INDEED. By which I mean: FORESHADOWING.
• And then Brother Leon does role call, and asks each boy if he will participate in the chocolate sale, and every boy in the room says yes... except Jerry. And, as you might expect, even though this sale is supposedly entirely voluntary, refusing does not go over well: "You may pick up your chocolates in the gym, gentlemen," Brother Leon said, his eyes bright—wet bright. "Those of you who are true sons of Trinity, that is. I pity anyone who is not." That terrible smile remained on his face. "Class dismissed," Leon called although the bell had not sounded.

Chapter Fourteen: Time passes. Boys sell chocolates. 

• I love the structure of this chapter: Cormier shows the passage of time with brief vignettes of random students selling chocolates interspersed with scenes of the daily battle of wills between Brother Leon and Jerry in homeroom. His ability to create three-dimensional, believable characters with just a few paragraphs is lovely, as is his trust in his audience to be able to keep up with the rapid pace of the scene changes. 
• Using The Goober as our window to those homeroom scenes is another great choice on Cormier's part: he's already been shown to be more sensitive to and aware of tension and conflict than many of the other students, so his view of the situation is especially perceptive.
• Meanwhile, the kid who was appointed Candy Treasurer is pretty sure that Brother Leon is cooking the books...

Chapter Fifteen: In which we find out what Archie is holding over Janza's head.

• And, in a word, is is nothing: he's just PRETENDING to have a photo of Janza masturbating in a school bathroom. I don't even. (If it'd been a different character, this situation never would have worked, but as Janza is, as Willow Rosenberg would say, ID BOY, it makes complete sense to me that he would wander into a bathroom and think, "Hmmm, broken lock, no real privacy, well, now's as good a time as any.")
• The Archie/Janza scenes are always interesting; Janza acts like he thinks he's Archie's equal, but clearly knows that he isn't—he craves acceptance, but would never ever admit it; Archie very definitely looks down on Janza, but respects the fact that his unpredictability and inherent brutality makes him dangerous.
• I just noticed, too, that Archie and Jerry are the only two characters who are regularly referred to by their first names. Oh, wait, Obie, too.

Chapter Sixteen: In which a random student has a devastating flash of insight.

• Brother Leon holds a bad grade over David Caroni's head to find out what the deal is with Jerry Renault: Were teachers like everyone else, then? Were teachers as corrupt as the villains you read about in books or saw in movies and television? He'd always worshipped his teachers, had though of becoming a teacher himself if he could overcome his shyness.
• Which, of course, makes me think of River Phoenix's monologue in Stand By Me about stealing the milk money. Like I said, devastating.
• Anyway, now Brother Leon knows that Jerry's Vigil assignment ends tomorrow, and that he will say 'yes', start selling chocolates, and all will be right with the world.

Chapter Seventeen: In which Jerry does the unthinkable.

• He says no.

Links!

Kelly: Guest Post: Why The Chocolate War Matters by Angie Manfredi

Liz: The Chocolate War Read A Long Part Three

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The Prologue of the first book in the Family Tree Quartet warns us that sometimes, as the title says, it is Better to Wish than to know what is in the future.

Abby's story starts in 1930 when she is 8.  We learn that times are tough but that her father works hard.  Abby's mother still grieves for the two children she lost.  Abby has a good friend, Orrin, that her father doesn't want her to play with.  This first chapter sets the stage for the challenges Abby faces as a girl coming to age in the Depression.  Her father's intractable ideas about people and their worth, her mother's inability to stand up to her husband, the fact that under it all these are people who are just trying hard to do their best, all these things make Abby's choices hard but understandable.

This book sees Abby from childhood through adulthood, from carefree days to brave decisions.  It's a lot for one 200+ page book to do.  Martin does it well.  Her language does not burden young readers with all the concerns that an adult reader will glean.  The book has just enough introspection for the audience which is girls between the ages of 11 and 14.

I look forward to reading the other books in the quartet.

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Noel Fielding, in case you're tragically unaware of who he is, is one of the Mighty Boosh guys.

I adore him, both in his Vince Noir persona on The Mighty Boosh and as himself as a team captain on Never Mind the Buzzcocks. Whenever we re-watch the Boosh—or any episode of Buzzcocks in which he appears—I swoon all over the living room. Whilst giggling maniacally, of course.

And Josh doesn't even mind, because A) how can you get jealous over Random Dude on TV and B) he has a bit of a mancrush on him, too.

ANYWAY. So, the first season of The Mighty Boosh is set in a zoo, so I'm going to point you back to Cecil Castellucci's Queen of Cool, in which the title character signs up for an internship at the Los Angeles Zoo, and it turns out to be a life-changing experience:

I ESPECIALLY loved it that Libby's transformation took TIME. She doesn't work a day at the zoo and all of a sudden miraculously appreciate Tina and Sheldon and the others (including Sid, who I loved). It was a slow process, and I got the feeling that Libby was aware it was happening, though A) she didn't want to admit it was happening and B) she fought it. All that complexity and yet, light enough for beach reading. Way impressive.

I was going to embed a Noel Fielding clip, but then I fell into the Youtube vortex and just lost, like, an hour. I LOST AN HOUR WATCHING CLIPS I'VE ALREADY WATCHED A ZILLION TIMES BEFORE.

My brain, I weep for it.

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I'm going to finish up my re-read of Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War with TWO BIG POSTS.

Previous installments are here, here and here.

Okay, settle in!

Chapter Eighteen: In which Jerry has a long dark night of the soul.

• It turns out that Jerry didn't mean to continue to refuse to sell the chocolates. He'd been looking forward to the ordeal being over: the tension with Leon, the shunning by the other students, being watched by the Vigils. But that 'No' just popped out of his mouth.
• He lies there in bed, these thoughts going round and round in his head, and even thinking of the girl he saw downtown in a sweater that "bulged beautifully" (<--gross) doesn't help to distract him.

Chapter Nineteen: In which Jerry fully commits to his stance.

• Before homeroom, Jerry is approached separately by three other students: two upperclassmen and The Goober. The upperclassmen praise Jerry; The Goober pleads with him to back down, because "Brother Leon won't let you get away with it."
• A poster in Jerry's locker with a T.S. Eliot quote—Do I dare disturb the universe?—is described in detail, as it's one of those images that always comes to me when I think of the book (like the eyes on the billboard in The Great Gatsby), I was surprised that its appearance came so late in the story.
• And the chapter ends with this: He was swept with sadness, a sadness deep and penetrating, leaving him desolate like someone washed up on a beach, a lone survivor in a world full of strangers. The imagery ties back to the poster, of course, but I especially love the mix of emotions that it suggests, some of them conflicting: he's both abandoned and been abandoned by everyone else; he has gained an understanding of the world (even if it's a vague feeling that he can't fully articulate) that no one else seems to share; he's sad for everyone and everything.

Chapter Twenty: In which we see that Obie really is sick and tired of Archie.

• And who could blame him, really? Everyone knows that Archie is the true leader of the Vigils, and so he gets all of the glory for every stunt that they pull off... but who's the one who has to deal with the real pressure, who has to be sure that all of the stunts run smoothly? Obie, that's who. Archie doesn't respect him, doesn't appreciate him.
• The prank described in this chapter—every time a certain teacher uses the word 'environment', the students all jump up and dance around like crazy for a minute—is brilliant and hilarious. (Though, like many of the others, it creates an undercurrent of fear and apprehension, too.) But it's also a great example of Archie, once again, playing puppetmaster with EVERYONE: he has no loyalty to anyone but himself, and once he's bored with the teacher's discomfort, he turns the tables and makes the students the victims.

Chapter Twenty-one: Jerry's insurrection is a spark that threatens to become a conflagration.

• Students are talking; Jerry's outward show of defiance has made him somewhat of a symbol/inspiration to his peers—even though he certainly never meant for it to, and even though he'd rather for it to have never happened. Which actually makes me think of another unwitting/unwilling person-turned-symbol: Katniss in The Hunger Games. One of the major differences being, of course, that Katniss has A) a support network, and B) a clear-cut enemy to rebel against. Jerry isn't rebelling against an obvious authoritarian regime—though obviously the school administration and the Vigils are both authorities that bring pressure to bear—he's rebelling (again, though, not completely consciously) against his perception of WHAT LIFE IS. Ag. Poor Jerry. I do feel for him.
• This chapter is a great example of the portrayal of the objectification/dehumanization of women that plays out in The Chocolate War: in the first vignette, we have Kevin Chartier's take on his mother—...trying to ignore his mother who stood near the phone making sounds at him. Kevin had learned long ago to translate whatever she was saying into gibberish. She could talk her head off now and the words reached his ears without meaning.—and then we have Richy Rondell, who stands around outside the drugstore 'feast[ing] himself' on the girls who walk by by committing 'rape by eyeball'.
• Meanwhile, in an effort to discomfit Archie, Obie—who, even though he pretty much brings about our innocent hero's downfall, is one of the more likable characters in the book—tells him that Jerry has A) defied the Vigils by continuing to refuse to sell chocolates, and B) reminds Archie that he promised Brother Leon that the Vigils would support the sale.

Chapter Twenty-two: Sales numbers are down; Brother Leon is taking it hard.

• Sales haven't just slowed, they've virtually come to a halt. And Brother Leon—who sees Jerry Renault as just as much of a symbol as the students do, but a symbol that needs to be crushed—forces Brian Cochran to read every single name and number on the list aloud. It's a creepy scene, and suggests that Leon has gone round the bend.

Chapter Twenty-Three: The Goober refuses to play ball.

• The Goober is tired of Trinity. The Vigils are a part of it, but only a part. He feels like there's something 'rotten' and 'evil' there, and he doesn't want to give any more of himself to Trinity than he already has: so he's quitting football, and he's not going out for track in the spring.
• He never says it, but it seems likely that the 'rotten' feeling he's picking up on has to do with the fact that he seems to be the only one who feels any amount of sympathy for Brother Eugene, or guilt for his part in his nervous breakdown.
• Jerry, meanwhile, is in love with Ellen Barrett, a girl at their bus stop. I could be wrong, but she might be the only named female character in the entire book.

Chapter Twenty-four: Brother Leon and Archie throw down.

• There are a lot of references to obscene phone calls in this book—in this chapter specifically, Brother Leon's heavy breathing is likened to one—and that, along with the hippie, is one of the few things that date the book. (Because that's not really still a thing, is it? Obscene phone calls? Now that we have caller ID and *69 and all that?)
• Archie and Leon are both starting to lose their grasp on authority: Leon out-and-out orders Archie to use the Vigils to deal with the failing chocolate sale, which A) means that he's admitting that the situation is out of his control and B) that Archie and the Vigils have legitimate power, but C) not so much power that he can't order them around. I feel that there are approximately one billion possible term papers in this book.

Chapter Twenty-five: Jerry is summoned to appear before the Vigils.

• It doesn't go particularly well: Archie asks Jerry to start selling chocolates. He doesn't manipulate him into offering, he doesn't even order him. He asks. It's a scene that makes it even more evident that Archie is losing his grasp on power: he knows it, Obie knows it, and Carter—remember him? the supposed President of the Vigils?—knows it.

Chapter Twenty-six: Jerry calls Ellen Barrett.

• It doesn't go well.
• Also, she uses the word 'crap', which 'destroys all illusion' about her. Which is yet another great example of the Women As Non-Human thread in the book.
• Despite crashing and burning on the phone, Jerry's proud of himself for taking the plunge. And he has a moment—a moment—of pride about standing firm about the chocolates.

Chapter Twenty-seven: The Vigils REALLY begin to implode.

• Archie missteps by bringing in Frankie Rollo in for an assignment. Rollo, a junior already known for being trouble, mocks the proceedings (and the Vigils, and Archie) until Carter steps in and punches him.
• Which changes everything, because to keep the power dynamic intact, Archie has to let it ride, and in doing so, endorses physical violence as an option.
• But even after all of Archie's strategizing, Carter makes his move, and puts Archie on 'probation' until the Jerry Renault situation is handled and the Vigils are once more feared and respected on the Trinity campus.
• Archie is DISPLEASED.

Chapter Twenty-eight: Things start to get bad for Jerry.

• Someone assaults him on the football field, he gets prank phone calls at home at all hours, his locker is vandalized—the poster gets especially trashed—and one of his school assignments is stolen.
• In the midst of all this, he suddenly understands the poster: ...the solitary man on the beach standing upright and alone and unafraid, poised at the moment of making himself heard and known in the world, the universe.

Links!

Kelly: The Chocolate War: A Cover Retrospective, Foreign Editions and The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

Liz: The Chocolate War: Read A Long Part 4 and Review: The Chocolate War

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...have been announced.

The Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy Book went to: 

Fair Coin, by E.C. Myers!

See this post for the rest of the shortlist and this post for the rest of the winners.

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Writer Jordana Horn went into her son’s class, filled with seven and eight year-old kids, earlier this month to lead a session on journaling. She asked the students to write what they don’t… Read More →

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SIGNED BY ZELDA is now in paperback! Kate Feiffer's Signed by: Zelda (with wonderful cover art by Kelly Murphy) is her second novel for young readers and comes on the heels of nine pictures books, four of which are illustrated by her father, the great Jules Feiffer. Besides her own great track record as a children's book author and her wonderful lineage, I was intrigued by Signed by:

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A Lucy Book of Sloth by Lucy Cooke   Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2013. ISBN: 9781442445574 Grades K-4 The reviewer borrowed a copy of the book from her library. Are you looking for a way to draw more readers to the nonfiction sections? All you need to do is put A Little Book of Sloth on display, and the readers will flock to the 600s. We've had it available in the collection a short time, and

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Peace, by artist Wendy Anderson Halperin is a visual and poetic meditation on the subject of peace. The book is dedicated to our senses, and that dedication sets the tone for the book – peace is real, and it can be sensed with our whole bodies and expressed with our words, actions, and thoughts. There is a very short text which can be read aloud, along with quotes from famous peacemakers spread throughout, and panels of illustrations depicting scenes of peace.

Halperin chooses quotes from people like Mother Teresa, Albert Einstein, Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, and Anne Frank. I like that many of the quotes focused on the small ways we can work toward peace: “When people talk, listen completely” (Ernest Hemingway); and “Friendship is the only cure for hatred, the only guarantee of peace” (Buddha). The many illustrations, too, while wide in scope (they depict children and nature around the world), also depict small scenes of peace. Some of the images contrast to illustrate the concept. For example, one scene shows a grandmother washing dishes while her granddaughter lounges on the couch. A few pages later, we see the same grandmother washing the dishes with her granddaughter at her side helping her. Another scene depicts an elderly man boarding a bus as everyone continues to read their paper. Later on in the book, we see that a child has risen from his seat and offered it to the man. We also see children reading in tree houses, planting vegetables, sharing meals with their families, and quietly observing a heron.

The book is one to read and look at over and over again. It may spark discussions about kindness, friendship, stewardship of the earth, and about standing against all those things that destroy peace – like anger, apathy, ignorance, and jealousy. I can see this making a soothing bedtime book for all ages, and while it would be difficult to read the book aloud to a classroom (too many small details), it would make a good book for small groups to read and discuss in the classroom.

Posted by: Parry

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