A reader asked me about G. Neri's Tru & Nelle. Here's the synopsis:
Long before they became famous writers, Truman Capote (In Cold Blood) and Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird) were childhood friends in Monroeville, Alabama. This fictionalized account of their time together opens at the beginning of the Great Depression, when Tru is seven and Nelle is six. They love playing pirates, but they like playing Sherlock and Watson-style detectives even more. It’s their pursuit of a case of drugstore theft that lands the daring duo in real trouble. Humor and heartache intermingle in this lively look at two budding writers in the 1930s South.
With Harper Lee's death and the publication last year of
Go Set A Watchman, this book is timely and could do quite well. My quick look inside in the "look inside" feature at Amazon tells me there's a character in it named Indian Joe.
If I get it, and read it, I'll be back. If you got it, and read it, let me know!
By Bianca Schulze, The Children’s Book Review
Published: January 10, 2011
As announced by the American Library Association (ALA) …
Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award
Recognizing an African American author of outstanding books for children and young adults:
“One Crazy Summer,” written by Rita Williams-Garcia is the 2011 King Author Book winner. The book is published by Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
Three King Author Honor Books were selected:
“Lockdown,” by Walter Dean Myers and published by Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers; “Ninth Ward,” by Jewell Parker Rhodes and published by Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.; and “Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty,” written by G. Neri, illustrated by Randy DuBurke and published by Lee & Low Books Inc.
Coretta Scott King (Illustrator) Book Award
Recognizing an African American illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults:
“Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave,” illustrated by Bryan Collier, is the 2011 King Illustrator Book winner. The book was written by Laban Carrick Hill and published by Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
One King Illustrator Honor Book was selected:
“Jimi Sounds Like a Rainbow: A Story of the Young Jimi Hendrix,” illustrated by Javaka Steptoe, written by Gary Golio and published by Clarion Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent (Author) Award
“Zora and Me
I finished one book and read two more this week. I enjoyed them all for different reasons and will be sharing them with my 7h graders once school starts. I especially love how these three really meet the needs of three different kinds of readers.
First up is REVOLUTION by Jennifer Donnelly, due out in October from Delacorte. I had high expectations for this novel because I loved Donnelly's A NORTHERN LIGHT so much. I wasn't disappointed with REVOLUTION, and in fact, I think I might have liked it even better.
The book starts in Brooklyn, where gifted but troubled Andi is supposed to be writing her class project on the music of fictional French composer Amade Mahlerbeau and its influences on modern musicians. What she's doing instead is barely hanging on. The death of her younger brother has sent her mother into depression, and Andi herself is getting through the days on her guitar music and some pretty heavy medication. Her parents are divorced, but when her DNA-scientist father discovers what's going on, he takes Andi with him on a research trip to Paris, where he's doing work to determine whether an old, shriveled-up heart actually belongs to a persecuted young prince from the Revolution era.
While she's in Paris, Andi discovers the diary of a teen girl living during the time of the French Revolution, a girl who has a strong connection to the young prince Andi's father is studying. As the days go by, Andi is drawn deeper and deeper into the diary and into the life of the composer Mahlerbeau until one night, she finds herself transported from the modern-day Catacombs to the Paris underground of the late 18th century.
This book combines so many amazing themes: grief and healing, the transformative power of music, and the things we do for love. And of course, there's also the theme of revolution -- that which exists in the bigger world and that which happens in our own souls. This was a great, compelling read, and it's a title I'll be thinking about for a long, long time. I'll be handing it to some of my more advanced readers -- including a few of last year's 7th graders who loved Donnelly's A NORTHERN LIGHT.
I'd be willing to bet that a lot of my new 7th grade girls in September are going to love this book...
THE HARD KIND OF PROMISE (Clarion - June 2010) is actually a title that I think fans of THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z. will appreciate quite a bit. It's similar in that it tackles the everyday struggles of middle school life, and I love the way author Gina Willner-Pardo does this -- with characters who are real and flawed and discovering themselves and with dialogue that's so wonderfully authentic it made me laugh out loud in places. At its heart, this is a book about friendship -- about the friend that Sarah had grown up with and finds herself drifting away from as middle school presents new interests and challenges. It's a sweet, funny, heartfelt book -- one that's perfect to hand to students who are tired of big flashy vampire books and just want to read something about regular kids like themselves.
And here's one that I know my reluctant readers -- boys and girls alike -- are going to love.
YUMMY: THE LAST DAYS OF A SOUTHSIDE SHORTY (Lee & Low-July 2010) is a graphic novel written by G. Neri with illustrations by Randy DuBurke. It's a quick read that packs a punch because its title character, Robert "Yummy" Sandifer was a real-life Chicago gang member who killed and