The Mailbox, by Audrey Shafer

Title:  The Mailbox
Author:  Audrey Shafer
Publisher:  Yearling
Pages:  192
Genre:  Realistic Fiction
Age Range:  5th-8th Grade




Summary:
Gabe is an 11 year old boy who has seen a lot in his short life.  After his mother died when he was two, he was bounced around from foster home to foster home until his Uncle Vernon, a reclusive Viet Nam veteran, was located when he was nine.  Two years later, Gabe comes home from his first day of sixth grade to find his uncle dead.  Wracked with grief and unsure what to do, Gabe does not report the death, and leaves for school the next day as if nothing has happened.  When he returns home at the end of the day, his uncle's body is gone, and there is a mysterious note in the mailbox that says, "I have a secret".  Thus starts a mailbox correspondence between Gabe and the mysterious stranger-and a journey towards finding the one person who needs him as much as he needs them.

Review:
I picked up this book on an impulse from the book fair at school, and I am so glad that something told me to check it out.  The story is compelling, and the characters are complex and flawed in a way that just begs discussion.  Uncle Vernon's misanthropic veteran is a gruff old man with many, many scars.  It is fair to say that most of him never came out of the jungle.  Gabe is a confused, frightened boy with scars of his own.  All of the more minor characters are completely believable and well-written. 

This is the first middle grade novel that I have seen that deals with any aspect of the war in Viet Nam, and it does so with a real sense of compassion for the veterans who fought there, while at the same time highlighting how war damages those who participate in it.  Not one of the veterans who is featured in the book has been able to entirely leave the experience behind them-and Uncle Vernon and the mysterious stranger are perhaps more damaged than most.  The book also deals with the foster care system and the effects on children who are bounced around from home to home.  Gabe himself had been through a sort of war before he came to his uncle, and he was also scarred by the experience.  It explains why he told no one about his uncle's death-he did not want to go back to not ever being secure in where he would lay his head that night.   

There is some raw language (though no actual swear words) and mature subject matter in this novel, but the readability is pretty low, so I'd say this book would be good for mature 5th and 6th graders, average middle schoolers, and high schoolers who need high-interest, low readability.


Teacher Resources:

The Mailbox Classroom Guide


William Allen White Book Awards Discussion Guides

The Boy Who Dared, Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Title:  The Boy Who Dared: A Novel Based on a True Story of the Hitler Youth
Author:  Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Publisher:  Scholastic
Pages:  174 plus about 10 pages of photos and a timeline
Genre:  literary non-fiction
Age Range:  6th Grade and Up

Summary:
The year is 1933, and the world is in the grip of the Great Depression.  Germany is especially hard hit, after paying reparations to the rest of Europe after World War I.  Helmuth Hubener is a German schoolboy, playing with toy soldiers on the floor of his small Hamburg apartment, while outside brown shirted men in jackboots have parades in support of their new chancellor, Adolf Hitler.  At first Helmuth is taken in by the shiny uniforms and nationalist pride-until his Jeweish neighbors' shops are burned, and more and more freedoms are curtailed for everyone.  Forced to join the Hitler Youth, he grows more and more angry, until one fateful decision leads to his imprisonment and execution.

Review:   
Even though this is billed as a novel, I am going to call it literary non-fiction.  It reads more like a biography than a novel, and while I'm sure some of the events are completely made-up, there is enough non-fiction here that I am not comfortable calling it fiction.

This book is sparsely written, at times almost too sparsely.  Yet Bartoletti does a good job of setting the mood of Germany during the 1930s and early 1940s.  Without going into too much technical detail, Bartoletti lays out some of the reasons that the Germans turned to Hitler in the first place.  She also shows how the media can be used to incite fear and manipulate people into doing things that go against their nature. The characters are portrayed thoughtfully, with care given not to stereotype.  When Helmuth rejects the Nazis at first, it is just as much because of his dislike of his stepfather as it is about being uncomfortable with the Nazi's restrictive laws.  So often in Holocaust literature the German people are shown to be either indifferent to or in favor of the racism and hatred spread by the Nazi's.  This book shows that some people did try to stand up, and that not every German was in love with Hitler.  Helmuth's character is influenced strongly by his brother Gerhard, who is a voice of reason during Helmuth's teenage years.  Gerhard, however, counsels following Hitler's laws in order to be a patriot (and good Mormon).  In the end Helmuth cannot.

This book would make a good companion book to Number the Stars by Lois Lowry or The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen.  While most Holocaust fiction focuses on the events around the Jewish internment in concentration camps (and rightly so), there is a place in young adult literature for stories of the ordinary Germans who tried to stand up to the Nazi's.  

Teacher Resources:

Scholastic Discussion Guide 

E-Notes Study Guide 

Where the Wild Things Are

Title:  Where the Wild Things Are
Author:  Maurice Sendak
Publisher:  Harper Collins
Pages: 48 
Genre:  Fantasy
Age Group:  K-3rd Grade



Plot Summary:
Max is a very naughty boy who makes mischief in his wolf costume.  When his mother calls him a wild thing, he says he is going to eat her up, and gets sent to bed without supper.  In his room, he imagines an incredible journey to the land where the wild things are.

Review:
I realize that this book is probably not new to anyone reading children's book blogs, but with the movie that came out last year and the season, I thought it was time to pull it out and use it in the classroom.

This book is just charming, from beginning to end.  It is old enough now that some of the langauge is starting to sound quaint rather that realistic, but Sendak did such a good job creating the atmosphere of the book that even the words that are not  familiar to students (mischief, gnashing, rumpus) don't take away from the sense of fun and adventure.  My students love Max, and they are inspired to use their own imagination from seeing him use his.


Teacher Resources:
 Because I teach in a school where we are not allowed to celebrate Halloween with the students, I have to be creative when it comes to honoring the spirit of the season for my non-fundamentalist kids, and respecting the wishes of the non-celebrating families.  I'm doing a monsters theme right now, but none of the books are specifically Halloween stories, nor do they contain spells or witchcraft of any kind.  Where the Wild Things Are is my whole-group text for this unit.  Below I'll list some of the activities that I am doing with it. 

• Vocabulary-I've been modeling reciprocal teaching a lot this fall, and my students are almost ready to go it alone.  For this book, I read the book aloud, and they concentrated on Clarifying, one of the steps in reciprocal teaching.  They were to write down words or phrases that were confusing to them.  As we read, if we got to a word that I knew was unfamiliar to most of the class, I would do a think aloud to model thinking about the word, and how to complete their Clarify box on their reciprocal teaching sheet.  That is where the words mentioned above-mischief, gnashed, and rumpus-came from.  We discussed the words and their meaning as part of our after-reading activity.
• Sequencing-I created a list of ten events from the story that are discreet enough for a sequencing activity and put them on notecards.  I then copied the pages of the book that show those events, minus any text.  The students will get into cooperative groups, decide what order the events belong in, and glue the picture and events in order on a long piece of bulletin board paper.
• Guided Drawing-My students often have fine motor and concept development deficits, so I like to do guided drawing activities with them so they can see how more complex pictures are made using simpler shapes.  I do a step-by-step drawing demonstration, with the students copying each step as I complete it, and in the end we will all have a picture of one of the wild things!

Shredderman: Secret Identity, by Wendelin Van Draanen

Title:  Shredderman:  Secret Identity
Author:  Wendelin Van Draanen
Publisher:  Random House
Pages:  144
Genre:  Realistic Fiction
Age Group:  3rd-6th Grade




Plot Summary:
Nolan is the school nerd-at least according to bully Bubba Bixby.  No matter how many times Nolan tells his teachers and parents about the mean things Bubba does, they never catch him in the act.  So when Nolan's teacher Mr. Green assigns a newspaper project in class, Nolan knows just what he wants to do-an investigative report on Bubba, proving once and for all what a bully he truly is.  But how to do his assignment without getting pounded?  Well, he needs a secret identity, of course, and Shredderman.com, a website devoted to all things Bubba, is born.  But will it help bring truth and justice back to Nolan's life?

Review: 
This is the first in a series of four books by Van Draanen telling the story of Nolan and Bubba.  It is charming.  As a teacher, I've known a few Nolan's in my time-smart, socially awkward, unassertive.  I have never known one to solve their problem in such a creative way as Nolan, however.  Once he makes the decision to catch Bubba in the act with his secret camera, he begins to change from the scared, meek computer nerd into a more confident, assertive young man.  Nolan's message is that if he had a superhero trapped inside of him (his superpower-using his noggin!) then so do you, third through sixth grade reader.

I use this as a read aloud, and this year my students are eating it up!  They have already asked me to read the second book, Shredderman:  Attack of the Tagger as soon as we finish Secret Identity.  I consider this high praise, given that I have read very few series books over the years where the students were clamoring for more-Series of Unfortunate Events being the exception.  My boys especially really get into Nolan/Shredderman, and given some of the recent talk about the reading crisis for boys it's always good to have male-centered titles for upper elementary and middle grade readers. 

Teacher Resources:

Shredderman.com on Random House 

Live Oaks Media Shredderman Activity Guide 

 

Miss Malarkey Leaves No Reader Behind, by Judy Fincher

Title:  Miss Malarkey Leaves No Reader Behind
Author:  Judy Finchler
Publisher:  Walker Books for Young Readers
Pages:  32
Genre:  Realistic Fiction
Age Level:  2nd-4th Grade



Plot Summary:(from Goodreads)

Miss Malarkey can make a reader out of anyone.

Principal Wiggins promises to dye his hair purple and sleep on the school roof if the students read 1,000 books this year. Miss Malarkey is determined to find the right book for each student so they’ll participate in the school program, and learn to love reading. She’s got a tough audience — video game fanatics, artists, sports lovers — nonreaders all. But she won’t give up until Principal Wiggins can flip his purple wig. 

Review:
If you are looking for a good back-to-school book to read with your class, add Miss Malarkey to your list. This picture book, suitable as a read aloud for ages seven through ten, is sure to please both students and teacher.  This year I used this book to introduce how to find a just right book with my students.  They are all reluctant readers, and they could appreciate the narrator's trouble finding a book that held his interest.  This book also pokes slight fun at the "No Child Left Behind" law, by turning something that causes a lot of stress for teachers and students alike into something fun and funny.  I especially like that this book makes a point of addressing what so many children seem to believe-that it's not cool to like reading.  The narrator thinks that he and his friends are all on the same page when it comes to what they would rather do-play video games.  But when his friends start discussing the books they are reading instead of shooting monsters, he realizes that not reading makes him the odd man out.

Teacher Resources:
Books by the Month Idea   

Author Information from Bloomsbury Kids 

Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins

At last the wait is over!  Wednesday evening, I came home from class to find my copy of Mockingjay waiting for me in the mail. 

In case you have been living under a rock when it comes to the latest in young adult literature, Mockingjay is the last book in the Hunger Games trilogy.  I reviewed the first two books in the series, The Hunger Games and Catching Fire here.  The trilogy tells the story of Katniss Everdeen, a 16 year old living in District 12 of Panem-what was once the United States.  Her life, and the lives of everyone in the districts, is closely controlled by the Capitol.  The populace is left half-starved and completely oppressed.  Once a year, just to prove how powerful it is, the Capitol puts on the Hunger Games, in which teen-age tributes fight to the death to earn their districts extra food for the year.  The event is televised all through Panem, and is required watching.  When Katniss, who volunteers to be a tribute to save her younger sister, finds a way to outsmart the system, she becomes a threat to the Capitol, and sets in motion a chain of events that leads to an uprising.

(If you have not yet read The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, and want to, I suggest you stop reading now, as I cannot guarantee there will be no spoilers in the following review.  You have been warned!)

This is where Mockingjay picks up.  While Katniss deals with the physical and emotional aftermath of her time in the games, the rebels try to groom her to be their symbol-the mockingjay, which has come to mean freedom to the people of Panem.  Katniss is ambivalent about being used by the rebels, and is desperately worried about Peeta, the second tribute from District 12, who was captured at the end of the Hunger Game in Catching Fire.  Finally, her desire for revenge against the cruel President Snow causes her to throw in the with rebels.  With her best friend Gale by her side, she tries to outsmart the Capitol-and the rebels-in order to avenge the brutalities visited on her, her family and friends, and her district, and maybe just free Panem from tyranny while she's at it.

That summary feels pretty weak, but I am afraid that saying too much will ruin something for someone, so it'll have to do.  Because the fact is, if you know too much about the events of the book prior to reading, there is no way that the story can pack the same emotional wallop that it does on a cold read.  I was wrung out after finishing-in a good way, if there is such a thing.  Granted, I pretty much read it all in one sitting, but I don't know how I could have put it down.  And I am not really going to go into the state of the Peeta/Katniss/Gale triangle.  That, too me, is the least that this series has to offer.  Suffice it to say that regardless of what "team" you are one (and could we stop making everything about teams, like it's the Superbowl or something!), you will find very few happy endings in Mockingjay.

What made this book feel different for me than other books with similar topics is the way that the horrors of war are portrayed.  There is no sentimentality here.  All of the characters, but Katniss, Gale, and Peeta especially, are horribly damaged by the war-body, mind, and spirit.  Collins does not try to sugarcoat the effects of war on human beings.  People go crazy, people are wounded, people die.  For periods of the book some of the characters are basically living on anti-depressants and other psychiatric drugs.  I don't see how anyone reading this book could possibly believe that war is somehow glamorous, as some books/movies seem to imply.  Despite the horror and pain, Katniss and the others somehow manage to keep going-a greater testament to the human spirit than the glorified warriors of other novels, I think.

I also liked the theme of media manipulation.  Both the Capitol and the rebels use propaganda films to sway the populace.  There is a certain amount of "wagging the dog", and ultimately the novel shows how almost anything can be spun to prove almost anything.  I think that is not so different than what happens in today's media.  Just think about a political campaign.  There is so much conflicting information presented in campaign ads, it is impossible for both sides to be telling the truth.  Or think about famous scandals.  A well placed apology or public conversion can change a scoundrel into a repentant saint  we are all too quick to forgive-especially if they shoot a basketball real well or starred in a movie we really liked.  The fact was that no one who wasn't "in on it" had any idea what the true agendas of either the Capitol or the rebels were, including Katniss, who was once again manipulated for someone else's purposes.

I Love Lists!

This list was posted today on The Wormhole.  Since I am a sucker for lists, I just had to pass it along.  Given my new pledge to reconnect with YA literature, I though I should give myself a little test to see how out of the loop I am-I actually don't think I'm doing too bad!  The ones I've read are in red (get it?).

Persnickety Snarks List of Top 100 YA Novels (2010): based on a reader poll conducted for five weeks between April and May 2010. Over 735  respondents shared their top ten YA books from all over the globe; 80% were female.

1. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

2. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's (Sorceror's) Stone - J.K. Rowling

3. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

4. Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson

5. Northern Lights (The Golden Compass)- Philip Pullman

6. The Truth About Forever - Sarah Dessen

7. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

8. The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton

9. Twilight - Stephenie Meyer

10. This Lullaby - Sarah Dessen

11. Looking for Alaska - John Green

12. Just Listen - Sarah Dessen

13. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling

14. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott

15. City of Bones - Cassandra Clare

16. On the (Jellicoe Road) - Melina Marchetta

17. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger

18. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K. Rowling 

19. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

20. Along for the Ride - Sarah Dessen

21. Shiver - Maggie Stiefvater

22. Vampire Academy - Richelle Mead

23. Graceling - Kristin Cashore

24. Thirteen Reasons Why - Jay Asher

25. Sloppy Firsts - Megan McCafferty

26. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien

27. Alanna: The First Adventure - Tamora Pierce

28. Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card

29. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling

30. Uglies - Scott Westerfeld

31. A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray

32. Tomorrow, When the War Began - John Marsden

33. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks - E. Lockhart

34. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

35. The Westing Game - Ellen Raskin

36. Paper Towns - John Green

37. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling

38. Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins

39. A Tree Grows In Brooklyn - Betty Smith

40. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Sherman Alexie

41. Lock and Key - Sarah Dessen

42. The Amber Spyglass - Philip Pullman 

43. Evernight - Claudia Gray

44. Sabriel - Garth Nix

45. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J.K. Rowling

46. Beautiful Creatures - Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl 

47. Forever - Judy Blume

48. I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith 

49. Ella Enchanted - Gail Carson Levine

50. The Princess Diaries - Meg Cabot

51. Stargirl - Jerry Spinelli

52. Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones

53. The Dark is Rising - Susan Cooper

54. Hush, Hush - Becca Fitzpatrick 

55. Saving Francesca - Melina Marchetta

56. Second Helpings - Megan McCafferty

57. Dreamland - Sarah Dessen

58. Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer

59. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist - Rachel Cohn, David Levithan

60. Fire - Kristin Cashore

61. The Chocolate War - Robert Cormier

62. Weetzie Bat - Francesca Lia Block

63. The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank

64. Looking for Alibrandi - Melina Marchetta

65. How I Live Now - Meg Rosoff

66. City of Glass - Cassandra Clare 

67. Keeping the Moon - Sarah Dessen

68. Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer

69. Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging - Louise Rennison

70. If I Stay - Gayle Forman

71. The King of Attolia - Megan Whalen Turner 

72. Wintergirls - Laurie Halse Anderson 

73. Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast - Robin McKinley

74. The Blue Sword - Robin McKinley

75. Feed - M.T. Anderson

76. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants - Ann Brashares

77. Go Ask Alice - Anonymous 

78. Wicked Lovely - Melissa Marr

79. Lord of the Flies - William Golding

80. Someone Like You - Sarah Dessen

81. The Forest of Hands and Teeth - Carrie Ryan

82. Jacob Have I Loved - Katherine Paterson

83. The Knife of Never Letting Go - Patrick Ness 

84. Poison Study - Maria V. Snyder

85. Shadow Kiss - Richelle Mead

86. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle - Avi

87. An Abundance of Katherines - John Green 

88. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

89. A Ring of Endless Light - Madeleine L'Engle

90. Glass Houses - Rachel Caine

91. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party - M.T. Anderson

92. Walk Two Moons - Sharon Creech

93. Whale Talk - Chris Crutcher

94. Perfect Chemistry - Simone Elkeles

95. Going Too Far - Jennifer Echols

96. The Last Song - Nicholas Sparks 

97. Before I Fall - Lauren Oliver

98. Hatchet - Gary Paulsen

99. The Pigman - Paul Zindel

100. The Hero and the Crown - Robin McKinley

 

In case you were counting, that 32% of the list.  And not just the titles that have been around since I was a young adult-I've read some of the newer ones too.  Go me!