new posts in all blogs
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: source: used book store, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 13 of 13
How to use this Page
You are viewing the most recent posts tagged with the words: source: used book store in the JacketFlap blog reader. What is a tag? Think of a tag as a keyword or category label. Tags can both help you find posts on JacketFlap.com as well as provide an easy way for you to "remember" and classify posts for later recall. Try adding a tag yourself by clicking "Add a tag" below a post's header. Scroll down through the list of Recent Posts in the left column and click on a post title that sounds interesting. You can view all posts from a specific blog by clicking the Blog name in the right column, or you can click a 'More Posts from this Blog' link in any individual post.
Hello... Wrong Number. by Marilyn Sachs. 1981. Scholastic. 97 pages. ISBN: 9780590327283 Hello... Wrong Number is a short and sweet paperback YA novel originally published in 1981. A teenage girl named Angie intends to call the object of her affection, a boy named Jim McCone, but when she dials the wrong number, she gets a different Jim. In a series of phone calls, Angie and the wrong Jim become quite close, sharing confidences and saying things to each other they’d never say to anyone else. But they have never met face to face. Will Angie, who can be quite shallow about boys, still like Jim if he doesn’t look as she imagines?
I chose to read this book because it reminded me of a book I loved as a kid,
Phone Calls by R.L. Stine. Like
Phone Calls,
Hello... Wrong Number is a story told almost exclusively in dialogue between the main characters. Though the story is very lighthearted and easily zipped through in one sitting, the dialogue is well-written, bringing the characters right off the page. Both characters’ voices are very strong, and I could almost hear the way they might speak to one another.
Most kids have cell phones now, and caller ID makes it pretty easy to avoid wrong numbers, so it’s hard to say if today’s teens would relate to the story or not. I certainly don’t think most
high schoolers in 2012 would name KC and the Sunshine Band as their favorite band, or compare a boy they like to Elton John, as Angie does. Still, Marilyn Sachs is a great author for fans of Paula Danziger, who also always wrote short, fun, romance novels for younger teens.
Hello... Wrong Number would work well in a lesson about writing dialogue, and I think it would be fun to hear kids talk about how phone calls have changed since their parents were kids. It's also just a great escapist read for anyone missing the 80s!
I purchased Hello... Wrong Number from my local used book store.
For more about this book, visit Goodreads and Worldcat.
Sammy Carducci's Guide to Women. by Ronald Kidd. 1991. Penguin. 112 pages. ISBN: 9780140364811Sammy Carducci’s Guide to Women is a comic novel about the trials and tribulations of dating in the sixth grade. Sammy is the shortest boy in his class, but he makes up for his small size by having a big personality filled with cocky self-confidence. He’s been watching his older brother, and now believes he has all the knowledge necessary to impress the women in his class. The only problem is, the one girl he’s really interested in, Becky Davidson, is the most physically mature girl in the entire school, and he has a lot of competition for her affections.
This book is written by Ronald Kidd, who, nowadays, publishes chapter books like
Chasing George Washington and
Teddy Roosevelt and the Treasure of Ursa Major, as well as novels like
The Year of the Bomb, and
On Beale Street.
Sammy Carducci was published in the middle of his career so far, back in 1991.
Reading the story felt a lot like watching a 90s sitcom like
Saved By the Bell or
Boy Meets World, where kids are the main focus and adults play a secondary role. A lot of the “jokes” of this story - Sammy’s height, Becky’s maturity, Becky’s parents’ reactions to Sammy, Sammy’s disagreements with his friend Gus - are common tropes found in a lot of movies, shows, and books from the same time period. Sammy isn’t quite a stereotype, but he does represent a certain type of recognizable character, whose personality is familiar to me based on how much time I spent indulging in 90s pop culture as a kid.
Kidd’s writing reminds me a lot of authors like Gordon Korman, Louis Sachar, and Rachel Vail, who use this same sense of humor to tell stories about early adolescence. Like books by Korman, Sachar, and Vail, Kidd’s story about Sammy Carducci could really appeal to boys or girls, thanks to Sammy’s engaging voice and the high stakes he sets up for himself by wanting to date Becky.
Though
Sammy Carducci’s Guide to Women is out of print, a play based on the story can still be purchased from
Dramatic Publishing. I can imagine a play with so many colorful characters would be a lot of fun to perform, and it would be really interesting to see what kind of contemporary spin could be put on the story to bring it up to date.
I purchased Sammy Carducci's Guide to Women from my local used book store.
The Telltale Summer of Tina C. by Lila Perl. Scholastic. 202 pages. ISBN: 9780590332712Tina Carstairs is twelve years old, and considers herself a Sad Soul. She and her friends have even formed a club - the Saturday Sad Souls Club- devoted to the improvement of their most egregious flaws. But even though Tina has a twitch that flares up when she’s angry or anxious, that’s not the biggest of her problems. Her mother walked out on the family, moved away, and met a new man. Her father is planning to marry an overly sweet young woman named Rosebud. And Tina’s friends have invited a new girl into their club despite the fact that she doesn’t seem to have any flaws. The only thing that might save Tina’s summer from total disaster is Johann, a sixteen-year-old Dutch tourist she meets in New York City.
The illustration on its front cover and even the blurb on the back of it reduce this book to a frivolous story about a misunderstood adolescent. I realized very early on in the story, however, that this book has much more depth than that.
The Telltale Summer of Tina C. is a well-written slice-of-life story about growing up in the 1970s suburbs. Though Tina’s parents are divorced, she is troubled by the idea of blended families, and outright disturbed by the fact that her mother’s new boyfriend does the cooking, while she works all day. Though Tina has some angst - about her twitch and the boys who tease her for it - her life is pretty well sheltered until she has the opportunity to visit New York. The story arc really resembles a coming of age story more than anything else, and Tina is a well-developed, flawed, but lovable protagonist whose emotional experiences are more important than the individual points of the plot.
As I read, I found myself wondering how a twelve-year-old girl of 1975 might react to certain things about this story. Would it seem unusual, or dangerous, for example, for a girl Tina’s age to spend time with a sixteen-year-old boy in a museum, without adult supervision? In 2012, parents would go nuts, I think, imagining all the ways in which an older boy might take advantage of a younger girl, but was society the same way back then? Or did parents feel safer? I also wondered if the underlying discomfort with divorce and remarriage reflected the author’s attitude, or Tina’s, and whether the average reader of this book would have felt the same sense of confusion and dread, or if she would take it in better stride.
I really don’t think a book like this one could be published today. It’s so innocent, and I can imagine a 21st century twelve-year-old finding it tedious and slow-moving. On the other hand, it’s one of the best Apple paperbacks I’ve ever read, and kids who are weary of the darkness of contemporary YA might like to give it a shot. It’s out of print, but copies are available online.
See more posts about this book at
Cliquey Pizza: 80's teen book series & pop culture and
New York Minknit. Kirkus’s original review from 1975 is also available
here.
I purchased
By:
Katie,
on 6/24/2012
Blog:
Secrets & Sharing Soda
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
source: used book store,
published 1985,
series: katie hart,
author: martha tolles,
feature: old school sunday,
genre: mystery,
level: middle grade,
read 2012,
publisher: scholastic,
Add a tag
Katie's Baby-sitting Job. by Martha Tolles.1985. Scholastic. 124 pages. ISBN: 9780590325233
When the Stellans move onto Apple Street, Katie is determined to become their little girl’s babysitter. Finally, they call to hire Katie, but on her very first night of babysitting, Mrs. Stellan’s expensive heirloom jewelry goes missing. Feeling terrible, Katie decides she absolutely must find the thief and bring him or her to justice- whether it turns out to be one of the boys from school, the yardman, or the mean new girl.
This well-plotted middle grade mystery was first published in 1985, a year before the Baby-sitters Club series came into existence. It is the last of three books about Katie Hart, the first of which, entitled
Too Many Boys, was published in 1965.
Too Many Boys was renamed
Katie and Those Boys when it was reprinted in 1974, and it was followed in 1976 by
Katie for President.
Katie’s Baby-sitting Job makes no real reference to the prior books, nor does it have a definite conclusion to signify the end of a series. For all intents and purposes, it really stands on its own.
As in many of these older Apple paperbacks I have read, I noticed that this one has much more formal-sounding dialogue than a lot of tween series paperbacks being published today. The way the kids talk to each other - and to adults - sounds much more sophisticated and scripted than anything normal kids might say, and there is very little slang. Though the book isn’t particularly deep or layered, the language adheres to a certain sense of propriety and politeness that, though inauthentic, was kind of enjoyable. The tone definitely dates the book - perhaps even further back than the actual copyright - but it also gives the book a retro charm that adult readers of kids book get a kick out of.
Other quirks also date the book. There is a lot of talk of the mothers of the kids in the story hiding their various valuables when they go out of the house. These days, I think they’d be more likely to keep their valuables in a safe, or to have security systems installed to prevent theft. I also find it hard to believe that names like Dick or Sarah Lou would have been very popular in the 80s; it’s likely these names were chosen for the first book in 1965, when those names were more common.
Still, though, it amazes me how much of this book is still relevant today, as is. Kids still desire money to buy things - maybe not Christmas presents for friends, as Katie does, but certainly other items like cell phones and video games - so Katie’s motive for becoming a babysitter in the first place is something kids can definitely still relate to. The mystery, too, remains plausible, and I think Katie’s approach to solving it is much more believable than in some other middle grade mysteries. I also like that the mystery isn’t too terribly scary; I would have read this as a kid and had no trouble sleeping afterward, which means it is really very tame.
Finally, I think it’s nice that the book actually resolves Katie’s issues with the new mean girl in the neighborhood in a positive way. So many tween books seem to glorify and even promote this kind of enmity between “geeks” and “popular girls,” but this story really sees both girls as people and allows them to make up for their flaws and assumptions about one another. Sometimes I suppose it can be enjoyable to love to hate a fictional character, but I think kids also appreciate fully-developed characters in
Me and the Terrible Two. by Ellen Conford. 1974. Pocket Books. 121 pages. ISBN: 0671299956 I so clearly remember seeing Ellen Conford’s books on the shelves in the young adult section of my childhood public library. I didn’t read many of them, since they seemed so dated, even in the early 90s, but the ones I did read -
If This is Love, I'll Take Spaghetti and
I Love You, I Hate You, Get Lost became instant favorites. On a recent trip to the used bookstore, I knew I wanted to look for some more Conford books, and I was pleased to discover one of her earliest books, Me and the Terrible Two, which was originally published in 1974.
When Dorrie’s best friend moves to Australia, twin boys named Haskell and Conrad move in next door. They’re Dorrie’s age, and in her grade at school, but instead of being “very nice people” as her mother suggests, they are completely obnoxious. They impersonate Dracula while hanging upside down from trees. They sing and bang hammers early in the morning. They threaten Dorrie’s dog. And worst of all, Dorrie is assigned to the same group as Haskell for a Children’s Book Week project The project, though, is a lot more fun than she expected, and both Haskell and Conrad may not be all that they seem after all.
This quick read is now 38 years old, and its pop culture references, not to mention the fashion depicted in the illustrations by Charles Carroll definitely place it firmly in the 1970s. Girls are shown wearing bell bottoms and oversize blouses. There is mention of Shirley Jones (of
Partridge Family fame) in the very first chapter, and several mentions of John Wayne (who was still alive then) in Chapter Two. When the group project - a newspaper - gets underway, it also becomes very clear how much technology has changed for kids in the last few decades. Kids today don’t know a time without Microsoft Word and the Internet, and might be surprised by all the extra work the characters have to do to create a newspaper without those things.
One thing did ring very true from own childhood, though. When the teacher takes attendance on the first day of school every kid says, “Here” when his name is called, except for Haskell, who says, “Present.” I can remember that happening quite often in elementary school, and reading this scene in a book that was published 8 years before I was even born makes me wonder if that tradition still continues today, and how such a thing even gets passed down.
All in all, this book is definitely a relic of a time gone by. Even without the obvious dated references, its style and tone differ pretty strongly from contemporary titles, and the school environment portrayed in the story also feels very old-fashioned. It’s a great nostalgic read, though, and I really enjoyed revisiting Conford’s light and humorous prose.
Me and the Terrible Two is out of print, but some Ellen Conford works are still available, including many titles in the Jenny Archer and Annabel the Actress series.
I purchased Me and the Terrible Two from my local used bookstore. For more about this book, visit Goodreads and
0 Comments on Old School Sunday: Review: Me and the Terrible Two by Ellen Conford as of 1/1/1900
The Cybil War. by Betsy Byars. 1981. Scholastic. 126 pages. ISBN: 9780590426091
The Cybil War is an Apple paperback published in 1981. The story is that of an elementary school love triangle wherein best friends Simon and Tony fight to win the affections of their classmate, Cybil Ackerman. Simon has been in love with Cybil since she was kind to him after his father moved out, but Tony, a notorious liar who isn't even allowed to attend his own sister's birthday party, is in it more for the competition. Cybil herself is more than worth the fight - she's smart and generous and compassionate, and possesses an inexplicable ability to rise above the antics of her classmates, even when they aim to hurt her feelings. Though the right choice for Cybil is pretty clear early on, it's still fun following the story to its satisfying conclusion.
I think this book captures the feelings of early crushes in a very innocent and pure way. There is no real romance in this book; rather, the love Simon feels for Cybil is a very noble form of admiration where he regards her with awe more than anything else. There are some references to dating, which, even 20 years ago, was not something that happened among elementary school kids I knew. There was some "going out" but that usually just meant holding hands and spending recess together, not going to the movies, as they do in this book. The storyline matches up better with sit-coms about school life than it does with real life. Maybe kids went on dates in 1981, but it seems like it happened much more in pop culture than in reality. The book also includes a pet show, which is definitely the kind of thing I think kids dream of having, even if they never actually do it. I can still imagine that piece of the story taking place in a contemporary book.
Because this book is by Betsy Byars, I expected it to be well-written, and I was not disappointed. I was also pleasantly surprised when I realized the book is still in print and available as an e-book! It's one of the few books about love that can appeal to boys or girls - and maybe even more to boys, given the male friendship at the center of the plot. The cover could use an update, but otherwise, I think the story is a perfect choice for fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-graders who are taking their first tentative steps toward finding love.
I purchased The Cybil War from my local used book store.
The Great Science Fair Disaster. by Martyn Godfrey. November 1992. Scholastic. 122 pages. ISBN: 9780590440813
The Great Science Fair Disaster is an Apple paperback published in 1992, right around my tenth birthday. I have no idea how I missed out on so many of these realistic fiction middle grade paperbacks back then, since pretty much all I read was The Baby-sitters Club, but reading them now still makes me nostalgic, even if the stories are new to me. In this book, written by the late Martyn Godfrey (also author of a book I know I used to see in the library called
Mall Rats) is the story of a seventh-grader, Marcie Wilder, and her dad, who is the school principal. Every year, Mr. Wilder has an idea for a project that inevitably devolves into a disaster. This year, he wants the school to host a science fair, and even though Marcie can name many things that could go wrong, her father will have none of it. On top of that, he's also cracking down on Marcie at school and at home, and trying to hide a mysterious drug called REGET whose purpose Marcie can only guess. In addition to troubles with her dad, Marcie must also work through a sticky situation with her possessive best friend Alison, who resents her decision to work with someone else on the science project instead of her.
This book doesn't have the most suitable title, since the science fair doesn't even happen until the last quarter of the book, but the story is decent. Like a lot of Apple paperbacks, it focuses on universal experiences that all kids can understand, even if they haven't experienced them in their own lives. Every kid can imagine the trials associated with having a parent for a principal, and I think many schools do host science fairs. (Mine, incidentally, did not, and for a long time, I thought the entire concept was created by the entertainment industry and/or authors of paperback books!) The author also does a nice job of incorporating different character archetypes that often emerge in middle school, including the boy who has matured from a jerk into a worthy lab partner, and a jerk (aptly named Steve Butz) who has always been awful and shows no sign of changing. Marcie, too, represents a certain type of kid, who is generally well-behaved but has occasional lapses in judgment and outbursts of anger.
The Great Science Fair Disaster only really seems outdated to me when I compare it with the books Apple currently publishes in the Candy Apple and Poison Apple series. The contemporary titles focus on some of the same issues as this older book, but with more emphasis on fashion, dating, and friendship drama. Emotions don't run as high in
The Great Science Fair Disaster, and there is a stronger feeling of platonic affection among boys and girls than in the newer books. There was also no texting or email in 1992, so these characters are, by default, less "plugged in" than their 21st century counterparts. There is no reason, though, that a child turning ten in 2012 couldn't still appreciate and enjoy this book, which is funny, light, and easy to read.
I purchased The Great Science Fair Disaster from my local used book store.
38 Weeks Till Summer Vacation. by Mona Kerby. 1989. Penguin Books. 90 pages. ISBN: 0590440187
This short middle grade paperback follows Nora Jean Sampson as she counts down through her much-dreaded fourth grade year. As the year progresses, she obsesses about how skinny she is, deals with torment from obnoxious class clown, Jimmy Lee, discovers Nancy Drew, and participates in a reading contest.
The book introduces many story threads, but rarely resolves them. Basically, it reads as a catalog of things Nora Jean does in fourth grade, without tying them together very strongly. There are some hints at Jimmy Lee's family situation, which might be an explanation for his bad behavior, but this idea is never brought to fruition. Neither does Nora Jean's obsession with her appearance lead to any sort of conclusion. Nora Jean is much the same at the end of her story as in the beginning, and her countdown serves no purpose, as she just starts another one when the summer begins.
The illustrations were probably the most entertaining part of the story for me, and that's completely because of their amazing 80's fashions. Big tee shirts, straight-leg jeans, velcro sneakers, a Dolly Parton Halloween costume, complete with beach ball breasts -it's hard to believe there was a time where we would have taken these things seriously, or just glanced at them as though they were nothing out of the ordinary. There is also one girl in the story who is drawn to resemble Soleil Moon Frye as Punky Brewster. She's on the left:
I have no idea if this resemblance was at all intentional, but it amused me. The one on the right looks oddly familiar, too, but I can't pinpoint why.
Another bonus of the particular copy of the book which I purchased from my local used bookstore is that it's signed!
It says:
Here's hoping you laugh out loud! Mona KerbyThis was not a favorite old-school read for me, but because it was short, I made it to the end anyway. It is (not surprisingly) out of print now, but both the author and illustrator have other titles that would definitely be familiar to contemporary readers. Illustrator Melodye Rosales did the illustrations for the American Girl books about Addy, and Mona Kerby is the author of the 2008 picture book,
Owney, the Mail-Pouch Pooch.
I purchased 38 Weeks Till Summer Vacation from my local used book store.
Is There Life After Sixth Grade? is a Troll paperback which is part of the Making the Grade series. The series also includes
The Terrible Truth About Third Grade by Leslie McGuire and David F. Henderson (1991),
Fourth Grade Loser by Ellen Kahaner and David F. Henderson (1991),
How I Survived Fifth Grade by Megan Stine and H. William Stine (1991), and
What'
s New in Sixth Grade? by Mindy Schanback (1991).
This book tells the story of Amy, an outspoken, individualistic sixth grader who sometimes has a hard time following school policies with which she disagrees. When she refuses to wear a white shirt and dark skirt for the yearbook photo, and is therefore banned from being in it, Amy decides to channel her frustration into a project. She starts her own, alternative yearbook, designed to portray school life as it really is. Things go well for a while - one of Amy's teachers even agrees to supervise the project - but when the administration hears of it, they are none too pleased. Will Amy be in trouble once again, or will she survive to begin seventh grade?
Based on the cover of this book, there is no question that it was published in the early 90's. The oversized pink tee shirt hanging off of one shoulder, and the skirt worn with leggings and boots look like they walked right out of an episode of Kids Incorporated, or possibly Saved By the Bell. I don't see much of that style of dress on kids today.
The story inside the book, though, is not particularly dated. There were just a few little things here and there that hinted that this is not a 21st century story.
- Amy refers both to camera film and her Instamatic camera. Kids today would probably just snap photos on their phones.
- On page 68, there is some discussion of hairstyling that refers to the style of the time, including electric curlers, hair spray and gel. I think kids would know what these are, but I'm not convinced they use them to style their hair on a daily basis.
- The design of the yearbook also seems somewhat primitive by today's standards. We have Photoshop, Publisher, and other computer software that make publishing much easier, but the kids in this book lay out their pages on paper and copy them on a Xerox machine.
These details don't totally change the story, though. Kids growing up right now could still figure out what was going on, and appreciate the overall plot.
There were a few things that did sort of spoil the story for me, however. For one thing, Amy's dad is depicted as pretty irrational. Amy gets in trouble for dressing her own way at school, and his reaction is to threaten to send her to boarding school. I feel like that's a stereotype of evil parents borrowed from the movies or TV that didn't really feel authentic in this particular story. I also took note of the way the middle portion of the book seemed to leap over huge gaps in time in just a few sentences. Amy gets the idea for the alternative yearbook, and just a few pages later, the whole thing has come together. That caught me off guard, and I didn't feel like I really caught my breath before the end of the story.
Leslie McGuire had already been writing and publishing for ten years when
Is There
by Grace Maccarone, illustrated by Kelly Oeschli
1987 | 94 pages | Chapter Book
The Haunting of Grade Three is a chapter book published in 1987 by Lucky Star, which was an imprint of Scholastic,
it appears, from 1986 to 1993. It was later republished as a Little Apple paperback.
This is the gentle story of a third grade class that has been temporarily relocated to Blackwell House, a rumored haunted mansion in the town of Elmwood. After some mysterious occurrences disrupt the class's work one afternoon, teacher Mr. Jenkins incorporates ghost hunting into his history lesson, assigning Adam, Norma, Dan, Debbie, Joey, and Chuck to investigate ghostly happenings around the school and try to locate their source. These kids wouldn't normally hang out together - the boys constantly tease Norma, because her last name is Hamburger, and Dan and Joey stand out as the biggest kid and the biggest liar in third grade, respectively. But despite all of this, they come together to visit the Blackwell House at night and get to the bottom of the creepy hauntings once and for all.
The most egregiously dated references in this book were to the
Ghostbusters movie, whose theme song is referenced throughout the book, and to the old Burger King jingle ("Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce.") The first sentence also talks about a VHS player, which is how Adam watches Ghostbusters. I think the overcrowding issue that has caused the students to be displaced to Blackwell House is also an issue that was especially timely in the late 80's and early 90's. I can remember that issue coming up in my own childhood, resulting in various classroom changes and shifts. That's not to say that aspect of the book wouldn't make sense nowadays - it just seemed like it was included to make the book feel more contemporary at the time of its publication.
In terms of writing style, I'm trying to think of books that are like this one that are being published today, and I can't name many. It seems like chapter books have become largely focused on long, formulaic series, or at least series that follow one individual character. And what I like about these older books is that they are often one-shots that stand on their own, and there are lots of them, set in lots of different places.
I also thought it was interesting that this book switches so often between points of view. So many chapter books are written in first person now, that it really caught my attention when I realized the narrator bordered on omniscient and could leap from one character's mind to the other as necessary.
Finally, I liked that this book sought the logical explanation behind suspected hauntings without falling into a hokey Scooby Doo trope. The kids wind up unmasking a scientific problem, not a criminal mastermind, and that felt like a much more realistic and kid-empowering conclusion.
These days, Grace Maccarone is an author and editor for Scholastic. I'm pretty sure I've seen some of her easy reader titles on the shelves at my library. Illustrator Kelly Oeschli passed away in 1999, but he was an illustrator for many children's books, including titles based on
Sesame Street and
Fraggle Rock.
Though
The Haunting of Grade Three is, amazingly, still
in print from Little Apple, I bought it from
1990 | 69 pages | Chapter Book
Tagline from cover: A famous author is coming to Mr. Carson's class - but everyone's getting sick!
Chicken Pox Strikes Again by Jean Marzollo is a 1990 Little Apple chapter book, and the fifth volume in a series called 39 Kids on the Block. The series is about a group of kids who live on Baldwin Street, and this volume focuses mainly on John Beane, an elementary school student whose class is expecting a visit from Rosemary wells. When Wells breaks her leg, however, the class invites John's grandfather, an author of serious stories about American Indians, to visit instead. Worried that his strict grandfather will disappoint the kids in his classroom, John does his best to catch chicken pox from some of his classmates who have been infected. When he does get sick, though, he has a rare opportunity to bond with his grandfather, which makes him sorry to miss the class visit after all.
I was really impressed by all the threads and themes this book brings together. The title and cover of the book give the impression that the main conflict is between the class and a chicken pox epidemic. But the chicken pox outbreak is a minor plot point compared to the larger issue of John's identity. He's sorted out some aspects of his identity as an American Indian - he knows better than to play Cowboys and Indians, for example, since his grandpa has explained that cowboys and soldiers "had stolen land from the Indians." He also understands that Granpa Beane doesn't like to waste anything, or to brag about his successes, but he doesn't yet know how to make his grandfather happy, and that causes him a lot of distress.
What John learns, as a result of his grandfather being invited to speak in his classroom, is how to better understand his family history, and his grandfather's personality and interests. The ending, where John has the opportunity to write a thank you message to his grandfather, is very touching, and surprised me by having such emotional depth. I know of
Jean Marzollo these days, mainly because of her non-fiction titles, like
I Am A Star,
I Am A Leaf, and
I'm a Caterpillar, and picture books such as
Ten Little Christmas Presents and
Pretend You're A Cat. I didn't realize she had written
over 100 books, or that she'd been writing for so long!
Chicken Pox Strikes Again is out of print, and I can see that it probably would not hold up for today's audience, mainly because of the chicken pox. I know a lot of kids are vaccinated against it now, and if I'm not mistaken, the vaccine is actually required before kindergarten in most places. So what was a universal childhood experience might now seem obscure. Everything else, though - including the references to Rosemary Wells, honestly reads like it was written this year, and it's a lot better written than a lot of other series chapter books I've read.
I was pleasantly surprised by this book, and I regret that I missed this series as a kid, even though I think it was a bit below my reading level in 1990.
Old School Sunday is a weekly feature where I review old, outdated, and/or out of p
Dede Takes Charge! by Johanna Hurwitz
1984; 1986; 1992 | 121 pages | Middle Grade
Tagline from cover: Life is full of surprises when Dede takes charge! This 1984 Apple Paperback is the story of DeDe Rawson, whose parents have been divorced for a year. Her mother, now single, must work a job that requires odd and unpredictable hours, and her father, who lives in an apartment lets his answering machine pick up all his calls, so that DeDe is forced to leave messages for him. As the book goes on, DeDe must deal with her mother's weight gain, and her efforts to lose it, deciding what to buy her parents for their respective birthdays, and the unnerving quiet of Thanksgiving with just one parent in the house. She tries to take charge, but with all the push and pull between households, and the knowledge that being with one parent always means being without the other, it's not easy!
DeDe is the best friend of another Johanna Hurwitz character, Aldo Sossi, who stars in many of his own books, including
Much Ado About Aldo (1978),
Aldo Applesauce (1979),
Aldo Ice Cream (1981), and
Aldo Peanut Butter (1990). He and his family make appearances in this book, mainly to give DeDe moral support, and to serve as a foil for DeDe's family so the reader understands how different DeDe feels from her classmates. From what I have gathered from Google and Amazon, DeDe also appears in the Aldo books, but I think this is the only book where she is the star.
DeDe Takes Charge! did not have as many of the charming dated references as the first couple of books I reviewed for Old School Sunday, but it was dated in a different way. What really struck me as odd, more than anything else, was the characters' attitudes about divorce. Though DeDe's mother recognizes that more than half of marriages end in divorce, there is still an element of shame attached to the idea that isn't really present in 21st century books on the topic, or in 21st century life. I was especially taken aback by the fact that Mrs. Rawson actually offers to stay home from DeDe's play if her ex-husband attends so that she not be embarrassed by having her divorced parents in the same room. In a society where, nowadays, parents often remain friends after divorce, these concerns seem preposterous. Of course a child should be able to see both her parents at school events! The book just seemed overly preoccupied with the perils of divorced life.
Otherwise, though, this book still felt quite contemporary. Johanna Hurwitz makes the everyday interesting, and she clearly understands what makes kids tick, both then and now. The School Library Journal review on the back cover of the book compares Hurwitz's writing to Beverly Cleary's, and I think the comparison is apt. Unlike Beverly Cleary's books, however, most of Hurwitz's books are now out of print.
Also of note: The book's illustrations were done by Diane Degroat, who also illustrated
Anastasia Krupnik by Lois Lowry, and now also writes and illustrates picture books about an opossum named Gilbert. The illustrations in this book are probably the most dated thing about it. DeDe's mom's hair is especially 80's, as are her clothes in some pictures. Good stuff.
For more on Johanna Hurtwitz, click
To kick off my first official Old School Sunday, I chose to read
Yours Till Niagara Falls, Abby by Jane O'Connor. We know her now as the bestselling author of the
Fancy Nancy picture book series, but Jane O'Connor actually got her start with this middle grade novel in 1979.
Abby Kimmel begs her parents to let her go to camp so her best friend Merle - who is dreading the experience - won't have to go by herself. At the last minute, Merle breaks her ankle, and suddenly Abby is the one on her own with a group of strange girls, in an unfamiliar place. At first, she's really disappointed that Merle isn't there and uncertain of her cabinmates, Phyllis, Bonnie, Eileen and Roberta. Her counselor, Marty, "is no prize either," and though she passed the swimming test, Abby is afraid to dive into the pool. As summer wears on, however, Abby begins to see the good sides of camp, and the summer winds up being a positive experience after all.
The novel is told mainly in the third person, but a series of wisecracking and somewhat sarcastic letters from Abby to her parents, and Merle, at home, infuse the book with a wonderful sense of Abby's personality as well. Songs, pranks, and gossip also bring the camp atmosphere to life in a way that felt very true and very realistic.
The illustrations also felt really familiar to me, and it turns out there is a good reason. Illustrator
Margot Apple drew the pictures for Nancy Shaw's sheep books, as well as many other titles from the 70's, 80's, 90's and 2000's.
Honestly, even after 32 years, except for a handful of pop culture references, and the names of some of the characters, this book still read like a contemporary middle grade novel. It was very similar in both style and theme to the Summer Camp Secrets books I read recently, and could easily hold its own with them, even today. But since this is Old School Sunday, I'll focus on some of the more outdated details.
- Abby is a fan of Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, and Groucho Marx. I have a feeling that a poll of 100 random kids born in the year 2000 would find that maybe one knows who those people are. (I was born in 1982, and I'm not sure how many of my peers know who they are.)
- When one of the girls spills soda in her lap, mean Phyllis sings "Come alive! You're in the Pepsi Generation!" which was the Pepsi jingle from 1964 to 1967. I think it is one of those cultural catchphrases that hung around even after it stopped showing up on TV, because even I knew it as a kid, but I wonder if kids now would catch the reference or gloss over it.
- Early on in the book, Abby says to Merle, "[...] I'm not exactly Tracy Austin myself - but you're hopeless at sports!" I gathered from the context that Tracy Austin was a sports figure, but I had to Google to learn that she won the women's singles title at the US Open in 1979. She apparently continued playing tennis into the early 1990's, but I had never heard of her. Maybe that is a product of not being into sports, but it caught my attention either way. (To my surprise, af
Very interesting. I remember the Aldo series but not this book. Her books are good. Haven't had the chance to read her "newer" series for younger readers, but they look good too
+JMJ+
Another "Single Mother of the 80s" book! You know I have to read this one. ;-)
As for the Beverly Cleary connection, have you read Dear Mr. Henshaw? It's the only Cleary (at least that I can think of) in which the parents are divorced and don't get along very well.