Blog Love

So today I participated in my very first Book Blog Hop. I almost could not believe how many people were participating. There are a whole lot of Book Lovers out there!

As promised, here are a few of my new favorites to frequent. In case it isn't obvious, I have a particular penchant for YA book bloggers! In purely random order...

- 21 Pages: This girl is only 15 years old and her blog is fabulous!

- Tales of a Teenage Book Lover: I would come back even if it was just for the author interviews. Carrie Ryan and Kimberly Derting? How can I interview these people?!

- Voracious YAppetite: Check out her "YA Gotta Meet" feature; it's a great way to spread the Book (blog) Love around.

- GreenBeanTeenQueen: If the name alone isn't enough to get you to visit, this teen/tween librarian's site is jam-packed full of great content.

- Steph Bowe's Hey! Teenager of the Year: From what I've gathered, Steph Bowe is basically the queen of teen bloggers. She reads like crazy, has featured some fantastic interviews, and is about to become a published author. Wow.

- Readergirlz: This site has everything! I l-o-v-e their Author in Residence series. Fabulous!

- The Bookshelf Sophisticate: Katelyn just started blogging a couple of months ago (like me!) and her site is already overflowing with reviews and recommendations for books I want to read.

- Bloggin' 'bout Books: So many, many YA reviews. The next time I need something to read, I will head over here for a recommendation. I especially liked the fact that not everything was 100% positive! Honesty is good.

- Bookend Diaries: This is a site I'll be coming back to when I'm in the mood for a grown-up book. I love that Kelly even includes cookbook reviews.

- Today's Adventure: I actually discovered NotNessie at There's a Book before the Blog Hop, but wanted to include it on this list anyway. She has such great advice for bloggers who are just starting out.

- There's a Book: Again, this is not a Blog Hop find, but I wanted to give it a shout out because this is one of my absolute favorite book blogs. I always learn something new and get great recommendations for books to add to my Library List.

Whew... that is quite a list. Thank you to Jenn at Crazy for Books for making the Blog Hop happen!

Friday Blog Hop

Happy Friday, Book Lovers! Jennifer over at Crazy for Books hosts this Book Blogger Hop every Friday. What a fabulous way to uncover new favorites in the book blogging world! Here is Jennifer's explanation of the event:

This is for ALL BOOK BLOGGERS (NEW AND OLD) and READERS!  Let's make some new friends and have fun!  It's FRIDAY!!! 

ABOUT THE HOP:

In the spirit of the Friday Follow, I thought it would be cool to do a Book Blogger Hop to give us all book bloggers and readers a chance to connect and find new blogs that we may be missing out on!  So, I created this weekly BOOK PARTY where book bloggers and readers can connect to find new blogs to read, make new friends, support each other, and generally just share our love of books!  It will also give blog readers a chance to find other book blogs that they may not know existed!  So, grab the logo, post about the Hop on your blog, and start PARTYING!!


Are you a Book Lover? Join in the Hop and start spreading comments around! If you check back here tomorrow, I'll be posting about some of the fabulous blogs that I intend to uncover today...

Suzanne Collins on TIME's Top 100!

Suzanne Collins, author of The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and this summer's Mockingjay, has made the 2010 TIME magazine's Top 100 list for the "people who most affect our world."

YESSS!!!

I can honestly say that I believe Suzanne Collins is changing lives through The Hunger Games. I work in a school full of students, many of whom thought they didn't like to read. And then they read Katniss's story. And then they fell in love.

If you can turn a child into a Book Lover, then you have changed his/her life forever! Thank you, Suzanne Collins.

PS: Here are a few other people I love who made the Top 100: Banksy, Temple Grandin (my students are putting on a play about her!), and Taylor Swift. It's also pretty interesting to look at who was chosen to author each of the individual bios. Cyndi Lauper writing about Lady Gaga? Bono writing about Bill Clinton? I like it.

So now the floor is yours... Who would go on YOUR Top 100 list?

Teaching with Historical Fiction

Whether we are reading it or writing it ourselves, historical fiction is an amazing classroom tool. Rather than slogging through page after a page of a textbook (although textbooks have their place!), historical fiction allows students to absorb the facts, faces, nuances, and varied perspectives of the past from characters who they can relate to. The books below are just a few of the ones that my students have particularly enjoyed (and learned from!).

Copper Sun by Sharon Draper is one of my all-time favorite books, and I have yet to find a student - male or female - who hasn't also been drawn in by its magic. Copper Sun is the story of Amari, a fifteen-year-old girl growing up in a small village in Africa. But then one day the "milk-faced visitors" arrive, and shatter the only world Amari has ever known. The pale-faced men kill many of Amari's friends and family as she watches. Then the survivors are chained together, forced to walk through miles of jungle, shipped across the ocean to America, and sold to the highest bidder.

After Amari is bought as a birthday present for a wealthy farmer's son, she meets Polly, an indentured servant. From that point on, Amari and Polly take turns narrating the rest of the story. Through their voices, the horrors of life on a southern plantation are given a human face. Although there is no shortage of cruel, white stereotypes, Amari and Polly learn that nothing is completely black and white. After a failed attempt to help cover up their mistress's scandalous secret, the two girls must work together to find their way to freedom.

I honestly cannot say enough good things about Copper Sun. Sharon Draper is an incredible storyteller, and as the granddaughter of a former slave, her depiction of the past is something that no reader will soon forget.


47 by Walter Mosley is a very, very different kind of story about slavery in the south, blending together both historical and science fiction. Fourteen-year-old 47 is a slave on the Corinthian Planation, going through the motions of every-day life, believing Mama Flore when she says, "White peoples gots as many ages as you can count, but slaves on'y gots four ages. That's babychile, boy or girl, old boy or old girl, an dead." But all of that changes the day he meets Tall John, a man who portrays himself to the master as a runaway slave. To 47, Tall John reveals that he can "read dreams, fly between galaxies, and make friends with any animal no matter how wild." He explains that he has come to the planet to defeat the evils of the Calabash, who have manifested themselves through 47's master and others like him. In order to win against them, he needs 47.

As he prepares for the ultimate war against the Calabash, Tall John works to re-train 47's mind, to show him that all people are meant to be equal, frequently repeating the refrain, "Neither nigger nor master be." I love the way this passage reveals how the young boy's perceptions were slowly transformed:

"...back then, in the days of Negro degradation, white people either laughed at our color or, even worse, felt sorry for us because of our obvious ugliness and inferiority. In my childhood being black meant poverty, slavery, and all things bad. I was, before Tall John came, ashamed of my color and everyone who looked like me. And so when I first looked upon Eighty-four I was afraid and disgusted. But when I remember her now there's a wholly different image in my mind's eye. Eighty-four was tall and slender with high cheekbones and large, almond-shaped eyes. Her skin was a dark black that had depth to it like the night sky. In later years I had the pleasure of seeing her laugh many times and so I know her teeth were ivory of color and powerful. Eighty-four was beyond good-looking... she was regal."

Although there is a great deal of the fantastic in 47's story, the horrors of history are presented in all their stark truth. Through 47's deeply engaging, flashback-style narrative, Walter Mosley has proven himself to be a stand-out author for young adults. To learn more about Mosley's experience writing 47, listen to his interview on NPR.

At first glance, Hannah's Journal appears to be written for an elementary school audience, but it was the perfect compliment to my 6th graders' investigation into the immigrant experience. Although we were studying Baltimore immigration, and Hannah arrived on Ellis Island, she painted such a clear picture of what it would have been like for a young person to sail across the ocean and create a new life in America. Through Hannah and the people she meets on her journey, author Marissa Moss introduces a wide variety of immigrant experiences, demonstrating again and again that no two stories are alike.

"Hannah's" hand-written narrative added another layer of realism to her story, and the accompanying hand-drawn, comic-style illustrations had my students cracking up laughing. In addition, Hannah's Journal was the perfect jumping off point for one of my favorite writing assignments: a series of letters written "home" to Europe, in the voice of a young adult immigrant in Baltimore in the late 1800s.

If you start flipping pages in Hannah's Journal and you're thinking, "Hmmm... this looks familiar!" that could be because Marissa Moss is also the author of the popular Amelia's Notebook series. As I looked through her website, I was thrilled to discover that she has recently written a novel about Ancient Egypt, a piece of my history curriculum that I have had an extremely difficult time finding a companion novel for. Maybe my search is over!

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse first caught my attention because the entire story is written as free verse poetry. I loved having the opportunity to teach the elements of poetry alongside the Social Studies content of the 1930's dust bowl.

The narrator, teen-aged Billie Jo, is living with her father and pregnant mother on their failing farm in Oklahoma. Although the story is sprinkled with glimpses of light, Billie Jo's story is primarily one of darkness and dust. In spare blank verse, she describes the death of her mother and brother, the departure of her closest friend, and the daily struggle to survive in the dust.

I have to be honest and say that, while I certainly saw and appreciated the merits of Hesse's story (a Newbery winner at that!), this was not one of my students' favorites. I think that Billie Jo's depression actually spread through them as we worked our way through the story. In a way, I feel like Hesse's ability to so deeply affect the mood of her readers is simply a mark of good writing. On the other hand, this is one of the few books I have used where a whole class of students actually didn't want to finish it. (Don't worry; we finished it anyway!)

If you're looking for more ideas on teaching in this genre, I found both teaching tips and good book recommendations in this Scholastic article. Now I want to hear from you! What gems of historical fiction have you uncovered?

Shelf Love

"I would be the most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves." - Anne Quindlen

I don't know what it is about bookshelves, but I love them! They seem to be simultaneously full of treasured memories and new adventures.  Don't you want to go explore these collections?

from here

from here

from here. And guess what? This one is a painting!

from here. Again, a painting, but don't you just love it?

from here. I would happily take the puppy with the shelves!

So what about you, book lovers? How do you organize your shelves? By color? size? author? genre? Do you have a Shelf Love image to share?

Lisa of My Little Buffalo!

Today, I am so thankful for this girl. Lisa is the designer of My Little Buffalo (a blog, a design service, and an Etsy shop). She creates the most fabulous, free-spirited designs that can be used for, oh... everything! And if you haven't guessed yet, she is the designer of my brand new b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l blog header and button. I am a happy, happy girl.

Go check her out! You will be happy, too :)

The Lost Conspiracy

The Lost Conspiracy by Frances Hardinge, Harper Collins, 2009, 576 pp, $16.99, Fantasy, ISBN: 0060880414

"Understand this: Nothing is the way most people imagine."


The island of Gullstruck was colonized many years ago by the Cavalcaste, but continues to be populated by many other distinctly different tribes, like the Lace, Bitter Fruits, Sours, and Ashwalkers. In addition, the personified volcanoes play just as large a role as the people themselves. But as the title suggests, this story is about the Lost. The Lost are people who have the ability to send each of their senses independently away from their bodies. Their eyes could go hunting, while their ears listened to secret conversations, and their sense of touch tested the winds for a storm brewing miles away. Because of these magical gifts, the Lost are the most revered members of society.

The Lost Conspiracy is about one Lost in particular: the Lady Arilou. Arilou is a member of the always-smiling Lace tribe. Due to a history of unfortunate (and partially misunderstood events) the Lace are among the most distrusted members of society. Without the distinction of Lady Arilou as one of their members, the Lace would be in an even more precarious position on Gullstruck Island. Because of that, the Lace spend their lives covering up a secret that can never be spoken aloud: Arilou may not be a Lost after all. 


Arilou's sister, Hathin, grew up to become her primary protector: dressing her in ceremonial clothes, leading her around the coast, and most importantly, speaking for her to cover up her lack of language and simple-minded ways. This plan had worked well until the Lace received the news that Raglan Skein, a member of the Lost council, would be coming to the coast of the Lace to test Lady Arilou's skills. And then on the first day of his visit, Raglan Skein was found dead.

And then within the next 24 hours, every single Lost on Gullstruck Island was found dead. All of the Lost except Arilou.

The Lace were framed to appear responsible for the crime, and Lady Arilou's tribe was massacred.  Because Hathin and Arilou had been away from the village at that time, they were the only survivors. 


And that is where the story really begins.


The Lost Conspiracy is like nothing I have ever read. It is a metaphor for the pitfalls of colonization. It is a fantastical tale of magic and myth. It is a story about loyalty, revenge, and redemption. There was humor and hope, but there was also so much darkness.


"Daughter, listen to me." There was a new, careful seriousness in the old man's tone now. "Think carefully about this. If you take up this quest, you give yourself up to revenge. If you succeed, you become a killer; if you fail, you leave a tear in the world that nobody else can mend. Someday many years from now you might choose to marry. Your husband and children will see your tattoos and know that you have either shed blood or betrayed the world's trust in you. Choose this path and it will never leave you."


I think Hardinge's beautiful prose was one of the things that kept me reading, even when the twists and turns of her imagination had me back-tracking whole chapters just to understand one scene. I found myself continuously turning down pages in an effort to remember my favorite lines, like this:

"My village has no name," she said.

The old priest opened his mouth to answer and then stopped and blinked slowly three times as her meaning swung over him like a searchlight. "The whole--" 

"Nobody in our village has a name but us. We are the village now. We have no priest, no family, no friends. They didn't even leave us our enemies."

There was a long silence but for cicadas grinding moonlight into silver dust in the streets outside.

My only hesitation on The Lost Conspiracy is the recommended age for readers: 10 and up. While as I said, the book is certainly dark, I don't think it is inappropriate for younger readers. However, it was so darn complicated I just cannot picture a ten-year-old persevering to make their way through all 576 pages.


I will say this, once you have reached the end of this tome, you will desperately want to talk about Hathin and the ultimate end to her quest. So... have you read it yet? Because I want to talk about it!

PS: When it was first published in the UK, The Lost Conspiracy was titled Gullstruck Island. Which title do you think fits better?

PPS: I first found out about The Lost Conspiracy from School Library Journal's Battle of the Books. It almost won the grand prize! What about you? Where do you get ideas for what you want to read next?

PPPS: Do you know what book would compliment this one perfectly?? Nation! I love, love, love Nation by Terry Pratchett. It follows similar themes of colonization and discrimination and the distinctiveness of tribal cultures. It also subtly weaves in such deep ideas about religion and science and faith. Plus, I just really fell in love with Daphne and Mau. Now I just kind of want to write a review of Nation since remembering how much I love it...

Oliver Jeffers!

I am obsessed with this man. Seriously.

Well, more so with his art... and writing... and how they get put together into amazing books for kids.

I only recently became acquainted with Oliver Jeffers via an interview I stumbled across on Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. (Click and read! So interesting!)

After reading the interview, I had to experience his work for myself. So I scampered down to the bookstore on my very first free afternoon and greedily gobbled up every single book by him that was on the shelf. From the boy who ate books for breakfast (and lunch and dinner) (red ones were his favorite) to the journey of a little, lost penguin (who maybe wasn't so lost after all)... these books are fabulous.

When I read his latest, I found myself with a cryball in my throat, right in the middle of the children's section. The Heart and the Bottle is the story of a girl "whose head was filled with all the curiosities of the world." She is imaginative and wide-eyed and approaches the world with love and big questions... until she experiences a very sudden and tragic loss. At that point, the little girl decides that her heart would be much safer in a bottle around her neck. That way she could never be hurt again. But... then she wouldn't be able to feel anything else, either. The Heart and the Bottle tells how she learned to let her heart be free again. 

If you're already hungry to learn more about Oliver Jeffers, check out the video below! He talks you through the ideas behind each of his books and how his own artistic style has evolved over the course of their creation.

Paper Towns

Paper Towns by John Green, Dutton Juvenile, 2008, 305 pp, $17.99, Realistic Fiction, ISBN: 0525478183



The allure of an unattainable girl. The uncertainty of the future. The false nature of both high school and suburban life. The timelessness of Walt Whitman. This is Paper Towns.

Quentin Jacobson has spent most of his life in love with his next-door neighbor, Margo Roth Spiegelman. Rarely referred to by her first name only, Margo Roth Spiegelman is the kind of girl who many of us secretly wish we were: beautiful, daring, brilliant, and reckless. When Margo goes missing at the end of their senior year, she leaves behind a trail of mysterious clues for Quentin to follow (although they really haven't spoken for the majority of their high school lives). Most of the people in Margo's life are used to her sudden disappearances and are more focused on living up the end of senior year, rather than dwelling on where she might have gone. Quentin, however, becomes obsessed. Paper Towns tells the story of his quest to find her.

I added this book to my reading list because it was listed in Scholastic's SCOPE magazine as a #1 choice by students. So, some people must have really liked it. Unfortunately, I wasn't one of them. I thought it was monotonous and I honestly did not like a single one of the self-indulgent characters (except maybe Radar, who only ever got to be Quentin's supportive sidekick).  

Although it followed a similar theme of "a life being forever changed by an unattainable girl with dark thoughts," I strongly preferred Green's Printz Award winner, Looking for Alaska. I thought it was incredibly unique and thought provoking. It made me feel something! If you are wanting to read something by John Green, I would look for Alaska first.

In fairness to the author, here is a video of him reading the prologue of Paper Towns (which I did actually enjoy!).


So what do you think? Am I all wrong about Paper Towns? Have you ever been let down by a book that everyone else seemed to think was fabulous?

Marcelo in the Real World

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork, Arthur A. Levine Books, 2009, 320 pp, $17.99, Realistic Fiction, ISBN: 0545054745

Marcelo Sandoval hears music no one else can. He seeks truth, God, and clarity through religion.  He has been diagnosed with a "developmental disorder" on the autism spectrum - potentially Aspergers.

Marcelo describes it to Jasmine like this:

"'Cognitive disorder' is not an accurate description of what happens inside Marcelo's head. 'Excessive attempt at cognitive order' is closer to what actually takes place."


"Yeah? I like excessive order myself. Is that an illness?"


"If it keeps you from functioning in society the way people think a normal person should, then our society calls that an illness."

Marcelo has peacefully spent the vast majority of his school years at Paterson, a school for students with special educational needs. Then the summer before his senior year, Marcelo's father, Arturo, announces that he believes Marcelo should spend his last year at the public high school. Marcelo and Arturo reach an agreement. If Marcelo successfully spends the summer working at Arturo's law firm, then he can choose his own school in the fall. However, if he is, for any reason, deemed "unsuccessful" at the end of the summer, he will be forced to go to public school.

That summer in the law firm is the start of Marcelo's experience in "the real world." Marcelo is initially assigned to work in the mail room with Jasmine, a beautiful and fiercely independent young woman who ultimately learns just as much about the real world as Marcelo does. Wendall, the son of Arturo's partner, is also working at the law firm for the summer, although instead of running mail, he has been assigned to help research one of the firm's biggest cases. Wendall takes it upon himself to teach Marcelo about the darker side of the real world.

One afternoon, helping Wendall with his boxes of files, Marcelo stumbles across a photo of a girl with half a face in a box marked "trash." The girl in the photo affects Marcelo in a way that he has never experienced before, and sends him on a journey to uncover the truth. At the start of that journey he has no way of knowing that he will uncover more than he ever wanted to about the young girl, the world, and his own father.

Marcelo in the Real World affected me in a way that few books do. Author Francisco X. Stork forced me to completely re-examine the way that I view the world and the people in it. Marcelo's character brought up huge 'life questions.' What are we living for? Where do we find truth? What do we owe our own families? Who gave us the authority to put labels on people who simply see the world in a different way?

I particularly enjoyed Marcelo's sessions with Rabbi Heschel. Although he originally began meeting with her out of his "special interest" in religion, their conversations played a pivotal role in helping him to make sense of his summer in the real world. I have found very, very few YA books that tackle God and faith in such a profound, meaningful way. In fact, I can't think of any others. Marcelo in the Real World is special.

I would whole-heartedly recommend this book to high-school students and adults. (There were several conversations between Wendall and Marcelo which made me hesitate to recommend for middle schoolers.) Many reviewers have brought up the correlation between this book and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, as they both feature a protagonist on the autism spectrum. I would also recommend Jodi Picoult's most recent novel, House Rules. Jacob, the focus character of House Rules, has been formally diagnosed with Aspergers. His "special interest" is forensics and crime scene analysis, which ultimately put him right in the middle of a trial for murder where his various "quirks" only help to make him appear guilty. As with all of Picoult's books. she examines the issues from such a variety of perspectives that it's difficult to keep your finger on where you stand.

Just one more note... Have you all noticed that fictional characters on the autism spectrum are everywhere these days? I just started watching Parenthood (great, great show!) and one of the characters was recently diagnosed with Aspergers. I think that making people more aware of the nuances of this diagnosis can only be a good thing!

Seriously, just one more note... go read Marcelo in the Real World! And then come back and tell me what you think.

Bloglovin'

Have you all already heard about Bloglovin'?

I just discovered it via cupcakesandcashmere (clearly not a book blog, but one of my favorites!)

I have become just a little bit addicted to the world of blogs. I find most of them by following trails from one to the next. However, bloglovin' seems like a great way to find a whole bunch of fabulous blogs, all in one place. Plus, they are ranked by subject area, so searching is easy.

Do you have a great blog to recommend? I want to hear about it!


Follow my blog with bloglovin

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

In advisory this morning, I followed up the morning's announcements of school news, due dates, and detentions with, "Oh, and one more thing... Did you know a brand new Twilight book is coming out?"

Utter pandemonium broke loose.

I have a feeling that my eleven-year-old ladies have not been the only ones celebrating lately! Stephanie Meyer's newest novel(la), The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, is a "sideways story" from Eclipse. If the name Bree Turner doesn't jump right out at you, that could be because she only lived for about 10 pages of Edward and Bella's third installment.

Bree is one of the newborn vampires in Victoria's army. Her story came about as a writing exercise while Meyer worked to flesh out the full text of Eclipse. As Bree's story grew, Meyer realized that it could be a good fit for The Twilight Saga: The Official Guide. Her story also helped to build the background information for the film version of Eclipse.

Want to hear the coolest part? The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner will be available online for free from June 7th through July 5th, as a gift from Stephanie Meyer. To read the free, online version just go to www.breetanner.com! As if that wasn't enough, $1 from the purchase of each book will be donated to the American Red Cross. Nice.

So Twilight fans... are you already pre-ordering your own copy of Bree Tanner's story? Or are you holding out for the hardback edition of Midnight Sun?

Springtime in the City!

Today it is absolutely gorgeous outside: bright blue skies with puffy white clouds. All I want to do is find a breezy spot to read (and then maybe take a nap!).

Wouldn't you like to curl up with a good book here?

Or here?

As for me, I think I'll take my reading right outside my front door with this guy...

Happy reading!

(Top two images were taken from here)

Tales From Outer Suburbia

Tales From Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan, McClelland and Stewart, 2008, 96 pp, $19.99, Fantasy, ISBN: 0771084021

A talking water buffalo. An exchange student who lived in the pantry. A hidden inner courtyard/parallel universe. The geographic end of the Earth.

All of these things can be found in Shaun Tan's masterfully illustrated Tales From Outer Suburbia. When I first laid eyes on this collection of short stories I thought, "That can't be right. This is a picture book! What is it doing with all of the other YA books?" But as soon as I started reading, I understood my error. The actual tales are each a brief glimpse of the way life could be, if only we could live in Tan's imagination. Although I loved the opening story of the oracle-like water buffalo and the story of two boys who set out on an expedition to find the actual geographic location of the edge of a map, my favorite was "Grandpa's Story." In this tale, the narrator's grandpa tells of the quest that he and his true love had to complete before they could be married.

 "This was the Scavenger Hunt, always the most troublesome and feared part of any wedding. Well, we expected to be back home and dressed for the well-rehearsed vows in no time at all - we were young and full of confidence, always in a hurry too. Of course, it was not too long before we ran into trouble, a whole lot of trouble..."

The illustrations show each of the obstacles that the couple had to conquer, from carnivorous television sets and whole cities of "No Vacancy," to floods and forests of wind-up ducks. The various challenges forced them to question themselves and their relationship.

"...there was a long and terrible silence, of a kind we had never known before. We refused to even look at each other. It was like all the stones in the desert went down our throats and into our hearts."

However, the Scavenger Hunt was also the very thing that brought them back together, more united and more in love than ever before.

Are you beginning to see why I love these stories so much? I think they get even better with time. Here is a sampling of other illustrations from this book:

Although people of all ages will surely gobble up each bizarrely fabulous illustration, I imagine that it will take a more mature reader - at least at the middle school level - to understand the nuances of each unique story. On the other hand, don't children often understand the simple truths that many "grown-ups" fail to see? I think in this case, I will simply choose to not offer an age recommendation. Tales From Outer Suburbia is for everyone.

If you, like me, have gotten a little obsessed with Shaun Tan's unique method of story telling, I will point you toward his other picture books. In truth, I have not read any of them yet, but The Arrival is at the top of my list!

The Graveyard Book

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, Harper Collins, 2008, 320 pp, $17.99, Fantasy, ISBN:0060530928

Nobody "Bod" Owens becomes an orphan, escapes from a cold-hearted murderer named Jack, and is adopted by the ghosts of a graveyard... all within the first chapter of this fantastical novel.

When Bod is adopted, he is given the "Freedom of the Graveyard." This means, as his guardian Silas explains, "...the Graveyard is taking care of you. While you are here, you can see in the darkness. You can walk some of the ways that the living should not travel. The eyes of the living will slip from you." Because "it takes a graveyard to raise a child," Bod grows up learning the ways of the world (and the ways of the dead!) from a variety of ghosts, a wonderfully cynical witch, a Hound of God (the opposite of a Hell Hound, see?), and from his guardian - who may or may not be a vampire. All of these characters do their best to protect Bod, ruling that he must stay within the gates of the graveyard where they can keep him safe. However, as Bod becomes a young man, he becomes more and more curious about the world outside the gates.

The man Jack is always out there, though. If Bod is to ultimately defeat him and be free in the world, he will not be able to do it alone.

The Graveyard Book is truly a coming of age tale, a story about the necessity of finding yourself, while still valuing the family who made you that way. Mixing elements of the macabre and shades of evil with heart-warming moments of truth and innocence, it's easy to see how The Graveyard Book won the 2009 John Newbery Medal. Although it can be touted as a fabulous "boy book," girls will surely enjoy it as well. I can envision this book being read by students from 4th or 5th grade and up.

Students who like The Graveyard Book, will surely also be fans of Coraline, author Neil Gaiman's first best seller for children and young adults. Coraline is a walk on the darker side of Alice in Wonderland. It is the story of young, lonely girl who goes looking for a respite from the real world's shades of gray, and discovers a child's dream world, complete with her "other" mother and father. The thing about dreams is... sometimes they turn into nightmares.

Extras:
*Neil Gaiman's personal website: It is positively bursting with interesting items to look at, watch, and read. Snoop around! You'll be intrigued by what you see. 
* Alternative illustrations for The Graveyard Book 
* A fan's imaginings of Bod and his cohorts
*Neil Gaiman narrating a trailer for The Graveyard Book  

When You Reach Me

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead, Wendy Lamb Books, 2009, 208 pp, $15.99, Science Fiction, ISBN:0385737424

The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. - Albert Einstein

I think that this quote, found on the first page of When You Reach Me, is the reason why I fell in love with this book. I sympathized with Miranda after she fell out of favor with her best friend, Sal. I was thoroughly entertained by the family practice sessions for her mother's appearance on The $20,000 Pyramid. I was intrigued by the laughing man, who slept under the mailbox on Miranda's corner. I snacked on the various side comments that placed me smack dab in 1970's Manhattan. But the thing that kept me reading, and that ultimately won my heart, was the mystery.


M- 
This is hard. Harder than I expected, even with your help. But I have been practicing, and my preparations go well. I am coming to save your friend's life, and my own.
I ask two favors. 
First, you must write me a letter.
Second, please remember to mention the location of your house key.
The trip is a difficult one. I will not be myself when I reach you.

What? Whose life needs saving? And who was the writer of this note anyway? Initially, Miranda is skeptical about whether or not she is even the intended recipient. However, the following notes contain "clues," unequivocally proving that the mystery writer is writing only to her. As Miranda works through the mysteries of middle school friendships, she must also unravel the deeper mystery of the notes. Once she solves the mystery, it will change her life forever.

When I reached the end of When You Reach Me, I had one hand over my heart and a cryball in my throat. A combination of humor, science fiction, drama, and romance, tied together with ribbons of Miranda's own favorite book: A Wrinkle in Time, it's no wonder that this gem won the 2010 Newbery Medal. I believe this book would match up well with students in the upper elementary grades and in middle school; although, adults are sure to enjoy it as well!

Rebecca Stead can be found here, both in video and in a written interview, discussing the inspirations behind When You Reach Me. If you are still looking for more information, go here for the review that made me pick this book up in the first place. And I am so thankful I did! 

The BSC Lives!

Growing up, the members of The Babysitters Club were my favorite fictional friends. Seriously. I felt like I knew them. I spent a pretty good chunk of my allowance buying each new book at the mall. I vividly remember going to my first babysitting job at my neighbor's house: I wore a multi-colored t-shirt with dangly star earrings and a side pony tail, just because it seemed like something Claudia would do. I was a member of the BSC Fan Club, owned the Kristy and Mary Anne dolls, and knew all of the answers to the board game. Plus, my sister and I can quote 99% of the feature-length movie. (I'm realizing that this sounds a little obsessive... but I have a feeling I'm not alone!) Now that I'm teaching, my BSC collection is a part of my classroom library and my sixth graders are eating them up. What can I say? They're classics.

Imagine my delight when I learned that the series is being re-released, including a prequel titled The Summer Before! Click here for an interview with Ann M. Martin where she discusses the success of the  series and her decision to write a prequel. This article talks about the series' cult following and includes a fun slide show of BSC related paraphernalia. Through all of the recent BSC hoopla, I also discovered the fabulous blog whatclaudiawore.com. If you are a Claudia fan, go there immediately! You will laugh out loud, get a little nostalgic, and find yourself hunting through your closet for stirrup pants and sparkle flop socks.

Do you have a favorite BSC memory or a good quote to share? I want to hear it!

I Just Don't See Myself Here

Crisp, T. & Knezek, S. (2010). "I Just Don't See Myself Here": Challenging Conversations about LGBTQ Adolescent Literature. English Journal, 99(3), 76-79.

When was the last time that one of the books taught in your classroom featured a gay protagonist? For that matter, when was the last time that you personally read a book with a gay protagonist? I am going to guess that you struggled to come up with an answer to either of those questions.

Good YA books with LGBTQ characters can be hard to come by. Although the field has made considerable progress within the last decade, we still have a long way to go. One student in Crisp and Knezek's study remarked, "You've got to understand. I'm betting almost everything available featuring gay characters in books for kids and teens is here-- and they fit on these two tabletops. You'd need all the rooms in this building, and more, to fit the books that feature heterosexual kids and their families. They have a much better chance of finding themselves or what they're interested in. ...I just don't see myself here."

In "I Just Don't See Myself Here," Crisp and Knezek explain that simply increasing the quantity of books with LGBTQ characters is not enough to address the gap in YA literature. Adults who use these books in classrooms must also be thoughtful about how their selections depict the characters. For their study, Crisp and Knezek selected two YA novels, which were similar on the surface in that they were both epistolary novels narrated by teenage boys. However, they give very different impressions of what it means to be a gay, teenage male.

The first novel was Totally Joe by James Howe. Joe Bunch, the narrator, is an extremely likable character who self-identifies as gay. He describes the reactions his classmates and family have to his "coming out," and explains how he finds the courage to be himself in the face of adversity. Their second selection was The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. Charlie, the narrator here, is adamantly heterosexual.  He gives the reader a much more harsh perspective on what it means to be a gay male, via his friend Patrick and Patrick's closeted partner Brad, whose father brutally beats him after finding him with Patrick. While Totally Joe was criticized for "idealizing," Perks was applauded for its "realism." But what does that teach students about what it means to be gay?

Crisp and Knezek have done a skillful job in analyzing how the presentation of these diverse characters could impact a reader-- for better or for worse. They emphasize that introducing LGBTQ characters in the classroom is key in teaching students to "read for social justice." However, just reading about these characters isn't enough. "We have more than one image about what it might mean... to be a gay male. This strikes us as a wonderful thing because 'there is no one way...to be queer and proud.' But these depictions also reiterate the importance of teachers' careful consideration of what we are going to explicitly and implicitly teach our students."

The ideas brought up in "I Just Don't See Myself Here" really stayed with me. The article made me question how much I know about YA literature featuring LGBTQ characters, and what kind of an impression I have unconsciously made on my students by never even bringing up the issue of sexuality. I took it upon myself to do some research, both in the library and on the internet. After doing some reading, I would recommend the following books to teachers looking for material to use in their classrooms: First, The Misfits and its sequel, Totally Joe, both by James Howe, are humorous, easy reads that I can see being used in middle school classrooms. Whether or not they are "idealized," they present well-rounded, admirable characters who consider multiple perspectives and are willing to stand up for what they believe in. I wish these fictional role models existed in my own middle school! Second, The Geography Club and its sequel, The Order of the Poison Oak, both by Brent Hartinger, are more appropriate for high school age students. Both of these books made me question the number of homosexual students in my school; when it comes to sexuality, students can do an extremely good job of hiding their true selves. I think that both of Hartinger's short novels would raise of number of thought-provoking questions about stereotypes and sexuality, without being too heavy handed. Finally, I found this fabulous blog which is chock-full of reviews of YA books featuring LGBTQ characters: I'm Here, I'm Queer, What the Hell do I Read? Go check it out!

As educators, we have a serious responsibility to serve the needs of ALL of our students. This article, and the books that I read as a result, reminded me that I will never be done educating myself. Would you recommend any other books along this vein for classroom use? Let me know!