Pie, by Sarah Weeks

Title:  Pie

Author:  Sarah Weeks
Publisher:  Scholastic
Year:  2011
Pages:  183
Genre:  Realistic Fiction, Mystery
Themes:  Overcoming Loss, Family
Age Range:  3rd-6th Grade

Summary:  (from Goodreads)

When Alice's Aunt Polly, the Pie Queen of Ipswitch, passes away, she takes with her the secret to her world-famous pie-crust recipe. Or does she? In her will, Polly leaves the recipe to her extraordinarily fat, remarkably disagreeable cat, Lardo . . . and then leaves Lardo in the care of Alice.
Suddenly, the whole town is wondering how you leave a recipe to a cat. Everyone wants to be the next big pie-contest winner, and it's making them pie-crazy. It's up to Alice and her friend Charlie to put the pieces together and discover the not-so-secret recipe for happiness: Friendship. Family. And the pleasure of donig something for the right reason.

Review:  
Everybody loves pie!  Sarah Weeks must have known that going into writing this book.  Each chapter starts with a real pie recipe that goes along with the plot, an interesting literary device that can add to the conversation with students-why did the author choose this recipe to go with this chapter?  And the pies look delicious!  Perhaps the best thing for me as the reader of this book is a bunch of new recipes to try for my next holiday desert!

Alice follows a line of children's book characters with parents that just don't understand her.  Alice's mother is a pretty horrible person for most of the book-greedy and high-strung and rather neglectful.  Her father is portrayed as a long-suffering spouse who really has no control over his wife's over-the-top emotional tendencies.  Luckily for Alice-and the reader-her mother has an epiphany towards the end of the story that leads to a reconciliation between her and Alice that helps round out the books overall sweet appeal.

Alice herself is plucky, a word almost always reserved for a young female character who shows spunk and determination.  Alice had both of those things in spades, and her desire to figure out who is trying to steal her aunt's pie crust recipe is the driving force of the novel.  But the book also explores issues of identity, grief, and friendship, making it ripe with possibilities for discussion and written response.

Teacher Resources:
Scholastic Interview with Sarah Weeks

Mockingbird, by Kathryn Erskine

Title:  Mockingbird
Author:  Kathryn Erskine
Publisher:  Philomel
Year:  2012
Pages:  224
Genre:  Realistic Fiction
Themes:  Disabilities, Autism, Overcoming Loss
Age Range:  4th-8th Grade

Summary:  (from Goodreads)

In Caitlin’s world, everything is black or white. Things are good or bad. Anything in between is confusing. That’s the stuff Caitlin’s older brother, Devon, has always explained. But now Devon’s dead and Dad is no help at all. Caitlin wants to get over it, but as an eleven-year-old girl with Asperger’s, she doesn’t know how. When she reads the definition of closure, she realizes that is what she needs. In her search for it, Caitlin discovers that not everything is black and white—the world is full of colors—messy and beautiful

Review:  
Erskine does an excellent job creating believable, relate-able characters, and Mockingbird is no exception.  Caitlin has Aspergers syndrome, a neurological condition about which much has been written over the past decade or so.  Now considered one of the conditions under the umbrella term Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), people with Aspergers syndrome are often highly intelligent, creative people with difficulty understanding and processing pragmatic language and emotions.  Caitlin is very self-centered, but not in the conceited way of a spoiled child.  Caitlin has trouble with empathy, which becomes apparent early on through her interactions with her father, her counselor at school, and her father.  What makes this book about a child with ASD different from others I have read is the emotionally charged context-Caitlin's brother was killed in a school shooting, which forces her to come out of her own Caitlin-centric world and begin to take the needs and feelings of others into account.

Given the years I spent teaching special education, I'd say that Erskine is right on in regards to what she imagines goes on in Ccaitlin's head.  Of course, it's hard to say, since as far as I know Erskine herself does not have Aspergers, but it feels authentic based on my experiences with kids who have ASD.  Sometimes (unintentionally) funny, sometimes heartbreaking, always honest, Caitlin as narrator gives the story an emotional punch that would not be present in third person.  Dealing with the loss of her brother, and the subsequent grief of her father (as well as her own), is the instigating act that sets in motion a period of growth for Caitlin-and for the community as a whole.

While we have had way too many opportunities to read about school shootings and their aftermath, I think that Erskine does a good job framing the story with the shooting without describing it in such detail that it might frighten younger readers.  This book, despite the topic, is very accessible to mature 4th grade readers, and has something important to say to students in the middle grades.  Ultimately, Caitlin is not the only one to discover her empathy within the context of the story, and students can discuss what it means to be accepting of people with disabilities.  Also, any child who has suffered a major loss should find things that will resonate with them, and give them a chance to process their loss and discuss it in a less-threatening way through Caitlin's story.

Teacher Resources:
Lesson Ideas from Six Trait Gurus
Novel Study from TeachingBooks.net
Kathryn Erskine's Website

Navigating Early, Clare Vanderpool

Title:  Navigating Early
Author:  Clare Vanderpool
Publisher:  Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Year:  2013
Pages:  320
Genre:  Historical Fiction, Realistic Fiction
Themes:  Loss, Family, Coming of Age
Age Range:  4th-8th Grade

Summary:  (from Goodreads)

At the end of World War II, Jack Baker, a landlocked Kansas boy, is suddenly uprooted after his mother’s death and placed in a boy’s boarding school in Maine. There, Jack encounters Early Auden, the strangest of boys, who reads the number pi as a story and collects clippings about the sightings of a great black bear in the nearby mountains.

Newcomer Jack feels lost yet can’t help being drawn to Early, who won’t believe what everyone accepts to be the truth about the Great Appalachian Bear, Timber Rattlesnakes, and the legendary school hero known as The Fish, who never returned from the war. When the boys find themselves unexpectedly alone at school, they embark on a quest on the Appalachian Trail in search of the great black bear.

But what they are searching for is sometimes different from what they find. They will meet truly strange characters, each of whom figures into the pi story Early weaves as they travel, while discovering things they never realized about themselves and others in their lives

Review:
This newest novel from Newbery Award-winning author Clare Vanderpool is another beautiful example of how historical fiction can show us not just how things used to be, but how they still are.  Jack and Early may have lived in 1940s Maine, but the grief that each of them feels, and the journey they take to find their footing again in a world suddenly turned upside down, is timeless and universal.  Vanderpool has included some elements of magical realism within the story-not so much actual magic, but coincidences and fantastic events that give the whole story the feeling of myth.  The story alternates between the real-life story of Jack and Early's adventure, and the story of Pi that Early claims to see in the numbers.  It becomes clear to the reader as time goes on that Early is making his story reflect the journey that he hopes his brother has taken-one from the familiar to the unknown, from knowing his place in the world to feeling lost in the depths.  The characterization and narrative structure are good for discussion, and students who are older or more mature may see parallels between Navigating Early and other stories that have heroic quests, which can lead to comparing and contrasting texts.

The Absolute Value of Mike, by Kathryn Erskine

Title:  The Absolute Value of Mike
Author:  Kathryn Erskine
Publisher:  Philomel
Year:  2011
Pages:  256
Genre:  Realistic Fiction
Themes:  Family, Loss, Belonging
Age Range:  4th-7th Grade

Summary:  from Goodreads

Mike tries so hard to please his father, but the only language his dad seems to speak is calculus. And for a boy with a math learning disability, nothing could be more difficult. When his dad sends him to live with distant relatives in rural Pennsylvania for the summer to work on an engineering project, Mike figures this is his big chance to buckle down and prove himself. But when he gets there, nothing is what he thought it would be. The project has nothing at all to do with engineering, and he finds himself working alongside his wacky eighty-something- year-old aunt, a homeless man, and a punk rock girl as part of a town-wide project to adopt a boy from Romania. Mike may not learn anything about engineering, but what he does learn is far more valuable.

Review:
I loved this book!  Erskine has created such a quirky cast of characters, each deeply flawed but with their own set of endearing qualities-Moo, who refuses to admit the limitations of age and health; Poppy, stunned into complete withdrawal from the world by the death of his son; Past, who finds that running away from loss in a small town is easier said than done; and Mike himself, who needs the nudge of an entire community to recognize his own worth.  Erskine returns to one of the motifs of her earlier work, Mockingbird, when strongly implies that Mike's dad, the math genius, is also on the autism spectrum.  In that regard, this book gives the reader an understanding of what it may be like to be the child of someone who has difficulty expressing the emotional connections they feel with others.

The detailed characterization sets the perfect foundation for the plot.  When Mike discovers that the town is trying to help a local minister adopt a small boy from Romania, at first he is skeptical.  How can this cast of eccentric, sometimes barely functioning people raise the money for the adoption before the deadline?  But then he sees the face of the boy, named Misha.  Misha, incidentally, is the Romanian version of Mike, and Mike immediately feels a strong connection with the little boy living an ocean away.  Misha becomes the symbol of everything that Mike has felt but never articulated or dealt with emotionally-the loss of his mother, his emotionally distant father, the feeling of abandonment and loneliness  and his deep-seated insecurities about his own abilities.  In saving Misha from the orphanage, Mike saves himself, and a few other people as well.

The Year the Swallows Came Early, by Kathryn Fitzmaurice

Title:  The Year the Swallows Came Early
Author:  Kathryn Fitzmaurice
Publisher:  Harper Collins
Year:  2009
Pages:  288
Genre:  Realistic Fiction
Themes:  Family, Loss, Parent/Child Relationships
Age Range:  4th-8th Grade

Summary:  (from Goodreads)

Eleanor "Groovy" Robinson loves cooking and plans to go to culinary school just as soon as she's old enough. But even Groovy's thoughtfully--planned menus won't fix the things that start to go wrong the year she turns eleven--suddenly, her father is in jail, her best friend's long-absent mother reappears, and the swallows that make their annual migration to her hometown arrive surprisingly early. As Groovy begins to expect the unexpected, she learns about the importance of forgiveness, understands the complex stories of the people around her, and realizes that even an earthquake can't get in the way of a family that needs to come together

Review:
Love, loved, loved this book!  Fitzmaurice did an excellent job taking a very difficult subject and making it something accessible to younger readers.  Groovy is a girl with goals.  She knows exactly what she wants to do with the money that her great-grandmother, the famous writer, left for her.  Groovy is going to be a chef.  She keeps a cooking notebook, and tries out new recipes for her family and friends.  One day, on the way to help her friend at his brother's store, her father is arrested.  When she finds her mother to deliver the bad news, her mother tells her that she is the one who called the police.  It turns out that her father stole the money that was meant for her education and gambled it away on one bet.

Obviously, Groovy is devastated.  And feels betrayed.  And generally hates life.  Around the same time, her best friend's absent mother returns.  He is devastated, and feels betrayed, and generally hates life.  Both of these characters are living situations that go beyond the usual "my parents just don't understand" that populates much of children's literature, especially for this age range.  But there are children who might read this book that also have awful parental situations.  And, like this book, their stories do not always end up with a happy ending tied up in a bright shiny bow.  Fitzmaurice has written a book that tells children that being deeply angry at a parent is OK, but that eventually you are going to have to make some kind of peace, either with your parent or inside of yourself, in order to move forward.  The book also highlights the healing power of forgiveness, but with the recognition that sometimes forgiveness is hard, or not possible at all.

Teacher Resources:
HarperCollins Reading Guide

Signal, by Cynthia C. Felice

Title:  Signal
Author: Cynthia C. Felice
Publisher: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
Year: 2009
Pages: 160
Genre:  Realistic Fiction
Themes:  Family, Friendship, Loss
Age Range:  4th-7th Grade


Summary: (from Goodreads)
One day while running on the trail near his house in upstate New York, Owen McGuire meets a girl with startling green eyes and bloody cuts all over her body who seems to be utterly alone. Her name is Campion, after the wildflower that is an alien species in the area—alien meaning “from someplace else”—and Campion claims to come from someplace else entirely, a planet called Home. She plans to signal her parents to come pick her up in their spaceship. Owen agrees to help, and as he does, he feels happier than he has in a long time: his mother died a year and a half ago, and now he and his workaholic father live together like two planets on separate orbits, in a new house far from his friends. What will he do when Campion asks him to come with her into outer space, away from his lonely life on Earth?


Review:
I picked this book up at the book fair at my school.  I hadn't read anything about it online or anywhere else, so the description above led me to believe it was a science fiction book.  And that is the hook, the thing that sets you up for the much sadder and more earthly truth of Campion's life.  


Owen's loneliness is apparent in the beginning of the book, and only gets more evident as the story progresses.  His father throws himself into his work after losing Owen's mother in a car accident, and Owen has no friends in the new town where they live.  The few interactions we see between Owen and his father are obviously strained, and it helps make his decisions-first to believe Campion's very far-fecthed story, and second to leave with her and her "parents" when they arrived in a spaceship to rescue her.

From the beginning of the book I felt that the backstory that Campion produced was not exactly believable.  But I was still thinking of it as a science fiction story at that point.  Once I realized the sad reality that Campion was running away from an abusive home, the story set-up made much more sense.  I can see how children reading the story would be drawn in thinking it was one thing, and be surprised at the "twist" at the end.  It would provide an excellent discussion of character motivations-both for Owen and for Campion.  The other characters in the story each have their own quirks and eccentricities, which can only add to the discussion and make it richer.  I would say that this book would be good for a book club, or for a literature circle format.  

Close to Famous by Joan Bauer

Title: Close to Famous

Author: Joan Bauer

Publisher: Viking

Year: 2011

Pages: 250

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Themes: Family, Friendship, Loss

Age Level: Grade 5 and up

Summary (from Goodreads): Foster McFee dreams of having her own cooking show like her idol, celebrity chef Sonny Kroll. Macon Dillard's goal is to be a documentary filmmaker. Foster's mother Rayka longs to be a headliner instead of a back-up singer. And Miss Charleena plans a triumphant return to Hollywood. Everyone has a dream, but nobody is even close to famous in the little town of Culpepper. Until some unexpected events shake the town and its inhabitants--and put their big ambitions to the test.

Review: Truth be told, I wanted to love this book. I really, really did. I thought that a young cupcake baker with ambitions to monopolize the Food Network spotlight was a novel idea. As a fellow cupcake baker and cooking show addict, I figured I would really enjoy spending some time with the character of Foster McFee. Unfortunately, Foster's town of Culpepper is chock full of literary cliches. There's Foster herself, whose list of issues would smother any main character: displaced from her home, suffering the loss of her father, worried about her mother's escape from an abusive relationship, trying to make friends in a new town, and....wait for it...she never learned to read. Joining Foster are the young boy with an inferiority complex (and big dreams of his own), the washed up movie star, the beautifully damaged mother, the villainous boyfriend of the mother, and many, many more. There's nothing inherently bad about this story, and it was not arduous reading by any means. It just wasn't all that compelling, either.

Teaching Resources:

Discussion Guide for Close to Famous