Eight Keys, by Suzanne LaFleur

Title:  Eight Keys
Author:  Suzanne La Fleur
Publisher:  Wendy Lamb Books
Year:  2011
Pages:  224
Genre:  Realistic Fiction
Themes:  Loss, Family, Identity, Growing Up
Age Range:  4th-6th Grade

Summary:
Elise has just started middle school, and so far things are not going well.  Her best friend Franklin suddenly seems babyish and embarrassing to be around,  she's being bullied by a girl at school, and her schoolwork is overwhelming.  Things are changing at home, too.  Elise has had her aunt and uncle all to herself since she was a small child, coming to live with them after her parents died.  Now her cousin Annie is coming to live with them, and bringing her infant daughter.  Elise tries to solve her problems on her own, but nothing she does seems to do anything but make things worse.  Then, right around her twelfth birthday, she finds the key.  Her father, who died of cancer before she was old enough to start school, left her eight keys, each one opening a mysterious door in her uncle's barn.  When Elise opens the first door, she discovers a room that is full of her mother, who died the day Elise was born-pictures, mementos, her favorite chair, and her childhood teddy bear.  Her father left a note in each room, and as she discovers the keys to the other doors, she learns more about her parents, the uncle who took her in, and finally herself.

Review:
This is a beautiful, thoughtfully written book.  LaFleur does an excellent job showing how Elise changes from a rather selfish, immature girl into a young woman who understands what it means to be a friend, and who learns to appreciate the people in her life in new ways.  The other characters are equally well-written:  Franklin, her best friend from early childhood, with his allergies and Star Wars figures; Amanda, the bully; Aunt Bessie and Uncle Hugh, who know just how to help Elise find her way; and Caroline, the new friend that shows Elise that sometimes things change for the better.  And while he may have passed away prior to the start of the book, her father is very much a character.  As a parent myself,  I was especially moved by the effort he took to ensure that his daughter would learn the important lessons she needed to be happy.

This would be a great book for discussing how characters change from the beginning of the story to the end. It would also be good for looking at character motivation-even the school bully becomes a more sympathetic character when you realize what motivates her to be so mean.  It is also an excellent vehicle for talking about what makes a family, or how we handle adversity.  Just a wonderful gem of a book!

Spaceheadz by John Scieszka

Title:  Spaceheadz

Author:  John Scieszka
Publisher:  Simon and Schuster for Young Readers
Year:  2010
Pages:  163
Genre:  Science Fiction
Themes:  Saving the World
Age Range:  3rd-5th Grade

Summary:  (from Goodreads)

Michael K. just started fifth grade at a new school. As if that wasn't hard enough, the kids he seems to have made friends with apparently aren't kids at all. They are aliens. Real aliens who have invaded our planet in the form of school children and a hamster. They have a mission to complete: to convince 3,140,001 kids to BE SPHDZ.
But with a hamster as their leader, "kids" who talk like walking advertisements, and Michael K as their first convert, will the SPHDZ be able to keep their cover and pull off their assignment?

Review:
I don't get this book.  It is silly and zany and a little ADHD.  An awful lot of the action seemed designed to allow Scieszka to tell as many puns and goofy jokes as possible.  That said, I can completely understand why kids, especially 10 year old boys, probably like it.  The whole book reads like a cartoon, complete with all of the silliness and mayhem you might expect from the likes of Spongebob or Phineas and Ferb.

To be sure, there is very little literary content in this book, making it pretty inappropriate for use during whole group instruction or guided reading.  However, as a high interest book to have in your library for independent reading, it is great.  It's a good choice to offer an intermediate reluctant reader, especially if they are interested aliens taking over the world.

 

The Tiger Rising, by Kate DiCamillo

Title:  The Tiger Rising
Author:  Kate DiCamillo
Publisher:  Candlewick Press
Year:  2002
Pages:  128
Genre:  Realistic Fiction
Themes:  Dealing with Loss, Divorce, Friendship, Freedom
Age Range:  3rd through 5th Grade

Summary:
Rob Horton is a twelve-year old boy living with his father in a run-down motel in Florida.  After his mother died, he and his father both withdrew into their own grief, which mostly consisted of pretending they didn't have any.  One day, while waiting for the school bus, Rob discovers something surprising in the woods behind the motel-an actual, real tiger in a cage, pacing back and forth.  And that's not the only thing surprising that happens that day-he also makes a friend.  Sistine Bailey is the new girl at school-even newer than Rob.  Her mother has moved them back to her hometown after she discovers Sistine's dad is having an affair, and unlike Rob, Sistine has no problem sharing her feelings-loudly and often.  She thinks they should let the tiger free, but Rob isn't sure.  Letting animals-or feelings-out of their cage can be dangerous!

Review:
As one might expect from Kate DiCamillo, this book is beautifully written, with eccentric characters and lots of emotion.  The setting (the south) and some of the characters (the slightly mystical, wise old black woman; the quiet, troubled man) are familiar to anyone who has read Because of Winn-Dixie.  For a short book, The Tiger Rising packs a pretty big emotional punch, dealing with issues of divorce, loss, and finding your way through grief.  Spoiler alert-the tiger does not meet a happy end.  But I think that the choices that Rob and Sistine and Rob's father make could be a good jumping off point for discussion.

Teacher Resources:
Scholastic Discussion Guide
Professional Development Institute Literature Guide
Bookrags Novel Study Guide

Dodger and Me, by Jordan Sonnenblick

Title:  Dodger and Me
Author:  Jordan Sonnenblick
Publisher:  Feiwel & Friends
Year:  2008
Pages: 176
Genre:  Fantasy
Themes:  Friendship, Family, Overcoming Fear
Age Range:  3rd-6th Grade

Summary:
Willie Ryan was not exactly the happiest fifth grader in the world.  He had an overprotective mother, an annoying little sister, his best (and only) friend moved away, the weird English girl from his class wouldn't leave him alone, and he hadn't made a hit for his baseball team all season.  It seemed like nothing he did worked out the way he hoped.  After yet another humiliating performance on the baseball field, Willie decides to take a shortcut through the woods to avoid seeing the other kids.  In a clearing he spies a McDonalds bag someone left on the ground.  When he goes and picks it up, he discovers that it is really a magic lamp in disguise, and when he runs his hand over it out pops...a large blue chimpanzee named Dodger.  Not exactly what you were expecting, huh?  Thus begins an unexpected romp through the familiar three-wishes territory, as Dodger tries to help Willie solve his problems-mostly by seemingly making things worse!

Review:
This is a cute book, though there is nothing hugely original about it.  Despite the "genie" being a large blue ape, the plot is very familiar-lonely, awkward boy gets magical intervention to solve his problems, which goes awry and forces him to realize that he can solve his own problems and/or learn to appreciate the things he thought he wanted to change about people.  Of course, if you are a third grader who has never read or seen any of the other variations on this theme (or the movie Aladdin), then it would feel original to you.

What makes this book really enjoyable, even if the plot is predictable for the more mature reader, is the way that the character of Dodger is written.  He is funny and sweet and crazy and slightly sarcastic, and there are a few things he says that probably only a mature reader would get.  I always appreciate it when authors throw the parents and teachers who also read their books a little bone-sort of like the "wink, wink" moments on Sesame Street that are meant for the parents who are watching with their kids.  Really, all of the characters are pretty well-written, and I think that a lot of students would feel a connection with Willie and his overprotective mother and insecurity.

Witness, by Karen Hesse

Title:  Witness

Author:  Karen Hesse
Publisher:  Scholastic
Year:  2003
Pages:  161
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Themes:  Racism, Friendship, Social Justice
Age Range:  4th-8th Grade

Summary: (from Goodreads)

The story takes place in a small Vermont town in the year 1924, revealing the devastating impact of the Ku Klux Klan on this pastoral, insular community. At the heart of the tale are two motherless girls who come to the attention of the newly formed Klan: 12-year-old Leanora Sutter, who is black, and 6-year-old Esther Hirsch, who is Jewish. 
Hesse tells her story, which is based on real events, through the eyes of 11 different characters. Each point of view is expressed in poetic form, but with a stark clarity of difference that makes the voices unique and identifiable. There is a fire-and-brimstone preacher whose sermons reveal him as a zealot and whose actions brand him as a hypocrite. There is a middle-aged farm woman named Sara who takes Esther under her wing despite the warnings of her neighbors, trying to help the child understand why the Klan has marked her and her widowed father as targets for their hatred. Esther's only other friend is Leanora, who is about to learn some harsh lessons on tolerance and hatred herself at the hands of the Klan. And linking them all together is 18-year-old Merlin Van Tornhout, a young man struggling to fit in with the adult world and determine for himself the difference between right and wrong. The remaining characters who circle the periphery of this core group reflect the various mind-sets and biases that were common during this era of fear and persecution, even in a setting as bucolic as the Vermont countryside.

Review:
This book is a gem, an example of high-quality writing for children at its finest.  This book details a pre-civil rights era America, and examines race and racial inequity not with the deep South as its backdrop, but with the rural Vermont countryside.  One of the myths that northern Americans have told themselves for years is that things were only really bad for blacks and other minorities in the south, but as Hesse clearly demonstrates that was never true.  We may not have had Jim Crow laws on the books north of the Mason Dixon Line, but that doesn't mean that out communities didn't struggle with issues of race and discrimination.

The content is not always easy to read, and there are a few of what I call "grown up" words in there, but mature 4th and 5th readers with the guidance of a teacher or parent could have some really interesting discussions about what life was like for Leanora and Esther-though there will definitely need to be some front-loading of historical context, since the novel is long on feeling and short on exposition.  That said, older students could read the novel either as a a reader or an author-the text structure is unique, free verse is something that many of them won't have a lot of experience with, and there is a lot of room for students to interpret what they are reading and to discuss character traits and character change over the course of the book.  The minister eventually ends up targeted by the clan himself, poor Marvin struggles with cultural expectations and what he knows is right, and the girls have such an innocence about them at the beginning that is truly tested through the events of the story.  Hesse has once again given us a moving, heartfelt book about a tough to talk about issue.

The Magic Thief, by Sarah Prineas

Title:  The Magic Thief
Author:  Sarah Prineas
Publisher:  Harper Collins
Year:  2008
Pages:  422
Genre:  Fantasy
Themes:  Adventure, Belonging, Magic
Age Range:  3rd-6th Grade

Summary:  (from Goodreads)

In a city that runs on a dwindling supply of magic, a young boy is drawn into a life of wizardry and adventure. Conn should have dropped dead the day he picked Nevery's pocket and touched the wizard's locus magicalicus, a stone used to focus magic and work spells. But for some reason he did not. Nevery finds that interesting, and he takes Conn as his apprentice on the provision that the boy find a locus stone of his own. But Conn has little time to search for his stone between wizard lessons and helping Nevery discover who or what is stealing the city of Wellmet's magic

Review: 
Being the fantasy lover that I am, I fully expected to enjoy this book, and I was not disappointed.  In the magical city of Wellmet, where you live determines almost everything about you.  People who live in the Twilight are destined to be poor and live their lives scrambling to survive.  Citizens of Sunrise are the wealthy and privileged of the city.  Conn, the main character, is from the Twilight area of the city, making his living by picking locks and pockets.  An orphan, Conn is very skilled at taking care of himself-until he meets the wizard Nevery.  Suddenly he is thrown into situations that his life has not prepared him for-a wizard's apprentice, in school, meeting the most powerful people in the city.  In Conn, Prineas has created a character  of incredibly honesty and heart.  Once he realizes that the magic is in danger, he thinks nothing of his own safety.  And while he does not always tell the whole truth, he never tells a lie, even when it would be expedient to do so.

There is only a small amount of backstory given for the way that magic and the city are connected, but it is enough that the reader can fully appreciate the plot without feeling like there are holes in reason or logic.  Even fantasy novels have their own internal rules, and the world that Prineas has created is at once familiar and new, and she takes old ideas about magic from other fantasy writers and makes them her own.  As seems to be the norm these days, especially with fantasy and science fiction novels, this is the beginning of a series, of which there are currently three.  I'd recommend them for a classroom library for fluent readers ages 8 to 12.

Frankie Pickle and the Pine Run 3000 by Eric Wight

Title:  Frankie Pickle and the Pine Run 3000
Author:  Eric Wight
Publisher:  Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers
Year:  2012
Pages:  96
Genre:  Realistic Fiction, Graphic Novel
Themes:  Teamwork, Setting Goals
Age Range:  2nd-5th Grade

Summary:  (from Goodreads)

Frankie Pickle returns for another imaginative adventure and this time it all comes down to race cars. Well, not quite race cars, but the Pine Run Derby for scouts. Frankie is in danger of not advancing to the next ranking with the rest of his troop unless he can win the Pine Run 3000. But Frankie wants to do everything on his own so he imagines himself as a world-class sculptor, a mad scientist, and of course, a pro-racecar driver. In the end, Frankie learns that team work is the only way he won't get left in the dust.

Review:
Frankie is a character that a lot of kids can relate to.  He is messy and clumsy and always seems to get himself into trouble.  He really wants to do the right thing, but sometimes his impulsive behavior gets in the way-which pretty much describes almost every nine-year-old boy I've ever met.  Frankie is determined to do everything himself, despite the fact that his father wants desperately to help him.  Turns out, there is a family tradition of racing model cars in the Pine Run 3000, and Frankie realizes that sometimes teamwork is better than going it alone.

The ending is good, mostly because he doesn't actually win the race, which is more realistic than an awful lot of books.  But he still gets his desire to move up in the ranks of the marsupials, because his hard work was recognized even though he didn't come in first.  Considering the competitive nature of our society, and the fact that most kids think if they aren't "first" they are losers, this is a nice message.  Good addition to a classroom library.