Children's Reading Blog

An Old Book Republished: The Secret River

2011-03-17T16:12:00.000-07:00

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1896-1953), the author of The Yearling, wrote only one book that was not intended for adult readers. That book was The Secret River, which was originally published posthumously in 1956. It has been republished with new and striking illustrations by Leo and Dianne Dillon, two-time Caldecott Medal winners.

Although The Yearling is read by many youngsters, fewer of them were ever introduced to a little girl named Calpurnia--a budding poet--and her little dog, Buggy-horse.

The Secret River is a tale--not quite a fairy tale, but with magical and surprising elements. Hard times have fallen on the forest, and her father can catch no fish to sell at his fish market. Calpurnia decides to find some fish to catch to help her father, and seeks out the help of Mother Albirtha, the wisest person in the forest. Mother Albirtha tells Calpurnia about the Secret River, and that the only way to find it is to follow your nose.

Calpurnia thinks Mother Albirtha's directions are silly, but does as she is told. As forest creatures catch her eye, she turns her head and finds a new direction to follow. Before long, she emerges from the forest onto the banks of a river she had never seen. Calpurnia and Buggy-horse catch so many fish--especially catfish--that they are almost unable to carry them home.

It is dark when Calpurnia and her dog head for home, and they meet several hungry creatures along the way. Calpurnia gives each a catfish or two, and then realizes they are lost. Once again, she decides to follow her nose. Soon she finds herself at Mother Albirtha's place, gives her a fish, and makes her way home, still carrying enough fish for her father's market.

Some time later, Calpurnia once more seeks out the Secret River, following her nose but never reaching its banks. When she tells Mother Albirtha, the old woman explains that the river allows itself to be found only when there is a need. However, the river exists in her mind and Calpurnia can see it any time she wants simply by closing her eyes and picturing it.

The publisher recommends this book for children aged 4 to 8 years, but it is a lovely story for older children to read aloud to younger siblings or just for their personal enjoyment, especially of the beautiful illustrations. This is a book that is certain to become a favorite.

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Effa Manley Loved Baseball

2011-03-16T15:32:00.000-07:00

She Loved Baseball: The Effa Manley Story is beautifully written by Audrey Vernick and illustrated by Don Tate. The book tells several stories: the Negro baseball leagues and their contributions to major league baseball, a woman brave enough to organize boycotts of white-owned businesses in New York's Harlem that employed no people of color, and the first woman to be honored by the National Baseball Hall of Fame for her contributions and hard work to have great players from the Negro baseball leagues honored.

Intended for the 5- to 10-year-old age range, this is a brief biography that could easily interest older readers and motivate them to learn more about Effa Manley and her work--not only in baseball, but in civil rights movements as well. Although Effa serves as a great role model for girls, it is more a story about how one person can help change the way many people think. Effa made people question what is right rather than drift along with the status quo. Don Tate's illustrations complement the prose, and add emotional charge to Vernick's words.

Whether for Black History Month or just for fun, She Loved Baseball is a great little book that concentrates on a woman involved with America's national sport. However, in just a few pages, it also covers a lifetime of achievement by one woman. Everyone can enjoy this book.

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Chains: A Book about Slavery in the Northern Colonies

2011-03-08T13:47:00.000-08:00

Most books about slavery seem to deal with slavery in the southern colonies/states. Thus, many people believe that slavery was not an issue in the northern states around the time of the American Revolution. Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is told from the point of view of Isabel, a young Negro 'tween, and gives 'tweens and teens a personalized trip into the life of a girl who experienced slavery under kindly owners and under more abusive owners in the North. It is a book that deals with separation from family in Rhode Island and life as a slave in New York City. It deals with the death of a mother, and the sale of a sister. It also deals with the politics of the time--especially how both the rebels and the British military used American slaves to further their own aims. Even Isabel became embroiled in the politics, despite a vow to stay away from them. But Chains is also a story of caring, which sometimes came from unlikely sources.

Chains, aside from being an interesting fictionalized historical journal, is narrated by Isabel in the language of the times. The story spans about eight months of the revolutionary period, from May of 1776 through January of 1777. During this period, British soldiers in New York took over homes of wealthier colonial rebels after reestablishing British control, and allowed less affluent Tories (British sympathizers) to do the same. This period was a time of heavy American losses in the fight for freedom--but freedom can mean more than political separation from a country far across the seas.

In Chains, each chapter is introduced with an important quotation from patriots, newspaper items, and the Declaration of Independence, or an excerpt from actual letters found in historical archives. These sources range from familiar names such as Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and King George, to unknown British and American soldiers, Tories, and unknown Londoners. Despite the colloquialisms of the time, the language is easy to understand. Many readers will be interested in how American English has both changed and endured.

Of particular interest to me was the descriptions of life in revolutionary New York City. Some of the sites mentioned by Isabel exist today only as plaques, but the names of neighborhoods in lower Manhattan remain the same. It is difficult for modern New Yorkers and visitors to imagine parts of Manhattan--especially upper Manhattan--s wilderness, but large cities during this period were not what large cities are today, and the author reminds us of this.

Chains is an excellent book for readers 10 and older, and is good enough to hold the interest of adults. Whether Chains is read during Black History Month or another part of the year, it is an great read. But adults should be warned--you might learn something new!

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Even Children Lead: A Story about Ruby Bridges

2011-02-23T16:13:00.000-08:00

Ruby Bridges Goes to School: My True Story

The year is 1961. Ruby Bridges attended the school for black children as a kindergartener. Today she is starting first grade in a school much closer to home, one that used to be only for white children. For months, it was only Ruby and her teacher, Mrs. Henry, were the only ones in the school because white parents would not let their children attend a school that had been integrated. Finally, some students began coming back to the school, and Ruby had children to play with.

Ruby Bridges Goes to School: My True Story, by Ruby Bridges, is a wonderful little biography written for children aged 4 to 8 years. With beautiful photograph collages, the short book takes on a world of meaning that shows how one brave little girl could change the attitudes of an entire neighborhood during the racial tensions of the early 1960s.

Unavoidable Delays in Posting

2011-02-23T16:10:00.000-08:00

Originally, I meant to post on 3 books per week during Black History Month, 1 book at each of 3 age levels. I had surgery scheduled in early February, but I didn't think that would interfere much with my plans. Unfortunately, some complications kept me in the hospital longer than I expected, and left me weaker than anticipated. So... although several posts will be too late for this year's Black History Month, I will continue reviewing on the 12 planned books, as these are all books that can be read at any time. They are simply a focus during February.

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A Teen Book for African American Heritage Month

2011-02-04T16:42:00.000-08:00

Mare and her two granddaughters, Octavia (Tave) and Talitha (Tali), left me in Alabama as they continued driving east. Weeks earlier, we all left California, headed for Mare's family reunion in Alabama. I finished reading the book only an hour ago and already feel homesick for their company. Octavia tells the travel story and shares the postcards she sends home to friends, while Mare spins tales of growing up in Alabama and gaining her own kind of independence in the Women's Army Corps (WAC) in the European theater during the 1940s.

Mare's War, by Tanita S. Davis, is the story of two wars--a psychological mother-daughter war, and a physical war in Europe. In addition, there was a type of war at home in Alabama that kept colored and white people separated by neighborhood boundaries, old "traditions," and job possibilities.

Marey Lee Boylen was seventeen when she forged her mother's signature to the enlistment permission form and joined the WACs. After her father died, she had to quit school to help her mother out with the farm he had purchased and the house he had built and the mortgage he had left. She worked two jobs--as a house girl for Mrs. Ida Payne, and as kitchen help for Young's Diner. Since her mother was constantly taking up with unsuitable men and hiding in her bottle of whiskey, Mare was also left to care for her younger sister, Feen. Then her mother stopped talking to her after Mare used an ax to fend off an attack on her sister from "Uncle" Toby. Feen was shipped off to live with her aunt in Philadelphia, and Mare's purpose in life--to take care of her sister--was taken away.

In the Army, Mare met colored women who grew up in other parts of the United States and had finished high school. One in particular, Peach, immediately befriended her and began teaching her skills she could not afford to learn at home--including how to speak standard English. All the girls in her unit became a family, watched each other's backs, and helped each other out. Together, they made it through basic training, escaped an attack by a Nazi submarine as they were deployed to England, survived air raids over England, and endured both squalor in northern France and luxury accommodations in Paris. Still they managed to squeeze in a bit of site-seeing and partying.

Finally, World War II's western battles were ended, American personnel left the clean-up of Axis force prisoners-of-war and unexploded mines to their European Allied forces, and Mare was sent home--but not before Peach told her that she was going on to San Francisco, where there were more job opportunities for colored women. Mare considered the possibility of moving to San Francisco, too, and taking Feen along with her. After all, her mother had remarried (although Mare learned this from a neighbor) and Feen was back home in Alabama. Mare was determined that Feen would finish school and have more opportunities than being household help. First, she had to settle things with her mother.

The chapters of Mare's story are broken up with Octavia's perception of the trip and the postcards she sends back to her friends. Although two years younger than her sister Tali, Octavia seems the more mature of the two. Or maybe she is just more timid. Through Octavia's chapters, we learn that Mare knows them better than they thought she did, and that the sisters knew each other better than the other knew. They stay in hotels and motels along the route, take some side trips (since Mare is the only one who knows where they are going, even when she lets Tali drive her car on Interstate 10), and learn about their grandmother as she tells the girls about just a few years of her life. In fact, although they start out being unhappy about the road trip, the girls find themselves more and more interested about their grandmother's stories and their journey.

Mare's War is a story of bridging a generation gap as much as about life for African American women during the 1940's. It helps modern teens understand that, although much progress had been made in American society between the Civil War and World War II in some parts of the country, other areas still had--and continue to have--a distance to go.

Kindle edition:

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One Crazy Summer

2011-02-03T19:02:00.000-08:00

Here is another book to consider reading during Black History Month. Written primarily for the nine- through twelve-year-old reader, One Crazy Summer presents a different perspective of the San Francisco Bay area of the late 1960's. Hippies are barely mentioned, as author Rita Williams-Gracia weaves her story through an African American neighborhood in Oakland, California, the city which birthed the Black Panther Party.

Peaceful resistance was not the only movement that brought civil rights issues to the forefront during the 1960's. One such movement, mainly associated with militancy and armaments, was the Black Panther Party, which called for revolutionary action and armed militia to protect citizens of African American communities from brutal encounters with police. But the Black Panthers did more than just throw Molotov cocktails into police buildings and provide armed protection for its communities. It was also an organization that provided meals and other services to the poor--a point that rarely makes its way into history books--probably because it is not part of the group's "manifesto."

In her book, One Crazy Summer, author Rita Williams-Garcia does not write about the Black Panther movement, but uses it as a background feature that contributed to changes in the lives of three young girls who were sent by their father to Oakland, California. The purpose of the trip from Brooklyn, New York, was for Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern to meet and get to know their mother, who had abandoned them when the eldest was not yet five years old and the youngest was only a few days old. They overheard their father, who raised the girls with help from his younger brother and Big Ma, his Alabama-born mother, "They need to know her, and she needs to know them....That's final" (p. 43).

The year is 1968. It is the summer immediately following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the summer after the race riots that crippled cities throughout the United States. Eleven-year-old Delphine, the eldest of the three and the one "in charge" of her younger sisters, tells the story. The four-week visit starts out unwelcoming. Cecile, their mother, barely steps forward to claim them at the airport. She clearly sees them as an intrusion into her self-imposed exile as a struggling poet.

The girls are told the location of their room inside their mother's almost barren house, and told they are never allowed in the kitchen. Within the first twelve hours of meeting their mother, the girls are sent to Ming's for take-out and to the People's Center for free breakfast, where the girls stay on for the summer camp program, sponsored by the local Black Panthers. After all, Delphine is supposed to keep herself and her sisters out of the house for as long as possible. At least the camp program will use up some of the time.

One Crazy Summer is not about the Black Panthers. Rather, it is about learning to view from different perspectives. It is about a summer of growth, of reinterpretation of Big Ma's description of their mother, of change, and of understanding. Although meant for pre-teens, the book grips the adult reader so that the book is hard to put down. For those adults who remember the late 1960's, the book serves as a reminder of the changes American society has undergone during the past 50 years. For those too young to have experienced the civil rights struggles of the 1960's, it serves as an example of an era that bridged the gap between Negroes and Blacks (or African Americans). For all, it's a great read.

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Biography of MLK for the Youngest Readers

2011-02-01T17:53:00.000-08:00

To begin my reviews of children's and young adult's books related to Black History Month (February), I have chosen a book for the youngest readers--not because it is short and easy to review, but because it carries so much power in so few words. This book is also unique because it is one of the few biographies written--perhaps I should say well-written--for the four- through eight-year-old age range.

Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., by Doreen Rappaport, is not a new book. It received plenty of honors in 2001, when it was first introduced. Awards included the Coretta Scott King Award honor status, and the Best Illustrated Children's Book category of the New York Times Book Review. Also, it was a Caldecott Honor Book during the same year.

Martin's Big Words continues to be among the best biographies written expressly for very young readers and pre-readers. It is wonderfully written, using quotations from Dr. King's speeches and writings to move the story along. That so much information can be relayed by such a short story, brilliantly enhanced with stunning illustrations by Bryan Collier, is a tribute to the writing style and artistic interpretation of a prize-winning author-illustrator team of Rappaport and Collier.

Children who know little or nothing about Dr. King will be as enchanted by Martin's Big Words as those who are familiar with the status that Dr. King has in modern American society. Even the youngest reader can learn how the honesty, integrity, and perseverance of one person can help change a nation for the better.

Needless to say, I love this book.

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Black History Month Books

2011-01-27T13:06:00.000-08:00

February is Black History Month in the United States. Although there are many great books out there, some "click" with kids better than others, or come highly recommended from editors/sellers of children's books.

Watch for my reviews throughout the month.

Here are some recommendations, by age group.

Ages 4-8:


Ages 9-12:



Teens (most available as Kindle editions):



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Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

2011-01-23T17:01:00.000-08:00

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi, 2010.
NY: Little, Brown and Company/Hachette Book Group.

The author of the Eragon series has given tweens and teens another great book. This one has a science fiction theme in that it takes place in the not-too-distant future, after global warming has taken its toll on the Earth. It gives us a glimpse of the impending poverty that runs rampant, rule by multinational corporations, and a chasm between the rich and the rest of humanity. But mostly it is a story of how a young teen is able to remain true to principles of human goodness that dominate the choices he makes even when the easier course of action would keep him safer or more comfortable.

The world in which Nailer lives is brutal and almost feudal. He lives somewhere along the new coast line of the Gulf of Mexico, and works by scavenging copper wiring, other desirable metals, and pockets of trapped petroleum from the remains of old oil tankers that have been abandoned and left to float along the Gulf shores. Nailer knows he may soon grow too big to continue this job, as it requires smallness, agility, strength and a certain degree of contortionist qualities. It is dangerous work, with little or no safety equipment. Workers rely on each other to meet quotas and, often, to stay alive. This results in a code among work teams; those who break the code suffer grave consequences.

Nailer has another problem: a tough-as-nails hard-drinking, drug-using father whose moods are as difficult to predict as the formation and quickness of city-destroying storms that are part of the changed Earth: "Sober, the man was scary. Drunk, he was a demon." Pima, Nailer's best friend, and her mother, however, are stabilizing influences in his life, and because of them--and his relationship to his notoriously brutal and quick-tempered father--he has gained a reputation for integrity with the local population.

Then one day, after a particularly brutal storm that stopped work for several days and leveled the shanty town to the ground, Nailer and Pima make a discovery: a modern clipper ship has been smashed by the storm, just off the coast of a small island that is only accessible by a land bridge during low tide. They decide to try to scavenge as much as they can before a boss claims the ship as his or her own salvage site. Just as they are about to leave with what bounty they could carry, Nailer discovers that a girl in her fancy stateroom is still alive. Pima urges him to leave the "swank" and let her die, but Nailer's moral code does not allow him to do so. Between the two of them, the girl is saved.

The morning after saving "Lucky Girl," however, Nailer's father and his crew discover the ship and board it to claim everything that is valuable, including the salvage Nailer and Pima intended to hide. To make matters worse, merchant representatives have been asking after the swank girl, offering a huge reward for information leading to her apprehension. One thing leads to another, resulting in Nailer and Lucky Girl running for their lives with help from an unlikely source.

This is a good read, even for adults. Because it predicts occurrences and inventions in the future, it is "hard" science fiction--the kind that is based on scientific facts and predictions, not the kind that deals with invasions by alien life forms. It deals with issues of environment and the effects on the human condition without lecturing on either. Like much modern good writing for young adults, issues of life, death, survival, choices and morality are not repressed or glossed over. Ship Breaker may be a stand-alone book at this time, but I would love to see it broadened into a saga--or at least a trilogy!!

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Same Book, Different Era?

2010-09-29T21:15:00.000-07:00

Last time, I wrote about a marvelous new book by Cassandra Clare called Clockwork Angel. Well, I found a better book by the same author: City of Bones, the first book of the Mortal Instruments trilogy. Not only was this book better, but it was set in modern-day New York City instead of Victorian London. With slight modifications of characters and relationships, the story is basically built on the same skeleton as the newer book.

Currently, I'm reading the second book of the Mortal Instrument trilogy, City of Ashes, which develops the theme from the first book. I just hope that the sequel to Clockwork Angel isn't a re-telling of City of Ashes. Otherwise, I'll have to assume that we have an author of young adult books following in the footsteps of Danielle Steel: same basic story, different cities, different names, different occupations, but bottom line, the same plot. Don't get me wrong--I must have read at least eight of Steel's books before I stopped. The entire time I was hoping to see something novel, but no such luck. For YAs, I suspect the better readers will spot the sameness right away, leaving an unread and forgotten book under the bed, gathering dust balls and essence of dirty clothes. Or maybe not.

Let me tell you a bit about City of Bones. This book introduces the Nephilim, or Shadowhunters, that half human, half Angel warrior race that protects humankind (called mundanes by all other races) from invasion by the demon world. Clary, the 15-year-old heroine, is in a teen night club with her best friend (but not boyfriend), Simon. Out of the corner of her eye, she spots a beautiful girl disappear into a doorway marked "No Admittance." After a few seconds, two young men whose handsomeness matches her beauty ease through the same door. Clary decides to investigate, and comes face to face with her very first other-worldly creature, who is promptly dispatched by the trio she saw entering the room. Interestingly, Clary should not have been able to see the trio or the monster, as they were using a glamor to hide from human eyes.

Clary returns to Simon, whom she had abandoned without explanation about her hasty exit. Suddenly, she gets a frantic call from her mother to stay away from home--to go anywhere but home. This, of course, makes Clary all the more anxious to get home and help her mother from whatever it was that brought an end to the call with her mother screaming. Clary runs home to find a strange-looking monster in the apartment. It had torn apart every room in the apartment except for her own bedroom. Now it seems interested in having Clary for a snack. It corners her and knocks her down. She hears it talking: "Tasty." Without knowing what she is doing, she manages to shove a cellphone-like device into the creature's mouth. Clary had forgotten to return the device to its Nephilim owner, Jace, and now it seems to be getting hot in her pocket. Maybe it will explode. But no. The monster begins to choke instead. Clary manages to get out from under its weight and runs from the house, not knowing where to go next. She does not want to go to Simon's home, because the monster or others might follow her. She tries calling her mother's best friend, Luke, who often stays with her or has her stay with him if her mother is away for an art show. Luke is not picking up. Suddenly, Jace appears. So the adventures begin.

In not too long, we discover that Jace and his partners, brother and sister pair Alec and Isabelle, came by because of a reported demon sighting. After checking the apartment for more monsters, the three suggest that Clary spend the night at their home, a stone manor magically disguised as a church. From there, the story is much the same as in Clockwork Angel, but with better monsters, a somewhat better "understory," and interesting twists of the screw. Before long, the Shadowhunter teens and Clary discover that they are looking for a magic chalice which they must keep away from a middle-aged Nephilim-turned-evil, Valentine, whose main interest is to rule the world.

Needless to say, Clary and Jace have an attraction for each other. Simon, Clary's best friend, is meanwhile trying to tell her that he is in love with her. For a little while it seems that Isabelle is interested in Simon, and Clary is not sure how she feels about that. While all this life is going on, the teens are racing to find the chalice before Valentine can find it. And near the end of the book, surprising information comes out that not only affects the outcome of this book, but sets up a tension for the second book. This is a well-engineered series so far.

I am almost finished with the second book of the Mortal Instruments trilogy, City of Ashes. It, too, is a good read--even better than City of Bones, perhaps because the characters are developed further as the new quest is completed.

Happy reading!!

New YA SF/Fantasy novel: Clockwork Angel

2010-09-19T23:12:00.000-07:00

Clockwork Angel. What a great young adult science fiction/fantasy novel! Another Bestseller for Cassandra Clare. I don't know where these wonderful YA novelists are coming from, but this is another one destined to become a household name.

Clockwork Angel is the beginning of a new series called The Infernal Devices-- Book 1 of ... another trilogy? A longer series? Two? No clue on the dust jacket, but maybe Cassandra Clare's website can give us more clues (cassandraclare.com). I just don't have the time to check it out this week, what with all the mandatory reading I'm doing because of teaching and taking classes myself. But I always make time to get fun reading in, and this book did not disappoint.

Clockwork Angel has everything--magic, vampires, warlocks, demons, goblins, and other Downworlders. And a race new to Goth and Fantasy readers--the Nephilim, who protect mankind from all the evil races of the world. There is our 15 or 16-year-old heroine, Tessa Gray, who is...something else again. As in The Twilight Saga and the Hunger Games Trilogy, Tessa is a strong female character who becomes torn between loving two young gentlemen, Will Herondale and Jem Carstairs--although Tess questions just how gentlemanly Will really is. And then there's her beloved brother, Nate, who had sent her the first-class steamship ticket to come to London after their aunt died in New York City home.

Within the first several pages of the prologue, we learn something about the clockwork angel, which Tessa wears as a pendant. It is the only token she has of her mother, who died, along with her father, when Tessa and Nate were very young. That was when Aunt Harriet became their guardian. Aunt had loved them and had worked day and night at sewing and other jobs to maintain their New York apartment. They had been poor, but they were happy. Despite their poverty, Aunt never tried to sell Tessa's clockwork angel. Aunt had been very kind-hearted, and so made do in other ways. When he was old enough, Nate left New York for London under the invitation of their father's old employer. Nate sent Aunt and Tessa all sorts of little luxuries like chocolates from London until Aunt Harriet had died. Then he sent Tessa the first-class steamship ticket that brought her from America to England.

The setting of Clockwork Angel is Victorian London, and all Victorian principles apply. Tessa is a displaced American and an orphan searching for her brother. She was abducted from the dock when her ship landed in England by Mrs. Dark and Mrs. Black. She managed to escape the clutches of the two warlock sisters who force-taught her about the magical abilities Tessa did not know she possessed--the ability to Change into a person by holding an article they owned. The warlocks also had been preparing her, it turned out, to become the Magister's wife. Tessa didn't know anything about the Magister--or of his clockwork automatons that the sisters discissed--and she did not want to be imprisoned long enough to find out. After the escape, in part with Will's intervention and Jem's, Tessa meets the Nephilim and the real adventures start. This, an early chapter of the novel, is when it became difficult for me to put down the book.

Even though Ms. Clare beautifully portrays Victorian London, at the end of Clockwork Angel she thoughtfully notes the real and the conjured in the book's Victorian London setting. This is a nice touch and a great enticement for her readers to look up maps of old London and uncover where the changes are. Her website, linked above, has videos, extras, and exclusives--all the things that teens thrive on--about Clockwork Angel and Ms. Clare's other teen books, according to the publisher. Talk about inducement to read...

There is one other aspect of Clockwork Angel that I want to note: It can be read by 'tweens and neo-teens who have good vocabulary, because there is no sex--plenty of violence and gore, but no sex. In a few places in the book, sex is alluded to as assignations or trysts, but it is not among the youth in the book. Rather, it is the Downworlders who mostly involve themselves in the most debauched of such events--and it is not described. As I said earlier, Victorian principles apply. Charlotte Bronte would have been proud.

How often does a novel come out that is aimed at teens, has just enough romance but no sex (very Jane Eyre), and is still a great read for adults?

Next on my reading list: The Mortal Instruments Trilogy, by Cassandra Clare. What can I tell you--trilogies seem to be my thing!! :)

The Hunger Games Trilogy Leave Me Hungry for More

2010-09-05T19:42:00.000-07:00

In my last post, I raved about the first book in this trilogy, The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. Well, over the past two days, I finished the other two books: Catching Fire, which came out in 2009, and the newest one that just came out, Mockingjay. The first two were on the New York Times Bestsellers List; and the final book, which has only been out for a week or so, is already on the list. It already made number 3 in the Los Angeles Times Bestsellers List

Normally, I don't read a book a day. I do have other things that occupy my time. But having the second and third book of the trilogy on hand turned out to be a good thing, as I don't think I could have waited a year for the next one to come out. The Hunger Games Trilogy is some of the best writing I've come across in a long time, no matter who the intended audience was. These books are amazing, with a strong yet conflicted and tragic heroine, lots of action peppered with introspection, self-doubt, fire, and strong moral fiber.

To say more about these books will give away too much of their content. I will say that the content of the first book caused both me and, according to the dust jacket, Stephanie Meyer (author of the Twilight Saga) to dine with the first book. I even warned my husband to bring reading material with him so I wouldn't have to keep the book under the table. By the second book, I just sequestered myself and left him to fend for himself. Last night, I hated the fact that I was exhausted and fell asleep in the middle of the action.

My enthusiasm for The Hunger Games Trilogy is pushing at me to tell all about the second and third books. The action is so tightly woven throughout the books that to tell a little results in an inadequate presentation of the content, and to tell just a little more results in sharing too much of the story. This trilogy is a must read for young adults and many freedom-loving not-so-young adults. Read these books and see what I mean. You will not be disappointed.

The Hunger Games

2010-09-02T15:30:00.000-07:00

Only a few minutes ago, I finished reading The Hunger Games, the first book of a fairly new trilogy for young adults. I purchased the book because Time Magazine praised the book highly. Some of the commentary should have made me realize I was purchasing a book meant for teens, but it was not until I was almost one-quarter of the way into the action that the intended audience hit me--not because of wording or content, but because the major characters were mostly sixteen years old and younger.

Like Twilight, the first book of the Twilight Saga (the blasted subject of my last post), The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, is a book with a teen girl as the main protagonist. As does Bella in the Twilight Saga, Katniss finds herself in a strange triangle in which she loves one boy but believes she may be in love with another--she is not sure because...well, because she does not know where their strong friendship is going. This is where the similarity between the two books ends.

The Hunger Games is one of the best Science Fiction books for young adults that I have read in a long time. It is the first book of a trilogy, which I have not yet finished reading. In this first book, Katniss faces the challenges of day-to-day survival for herself and her family in a post-apocalyptic country, Panem, within the boundaries of current-day America. The country had been divided into thirteen districts around a central city that was the seat of government. Many years earlier, the districts rose up against the central government, but the Capitol had located itself in the center of the Rocky Mountains and was both well protected from attack and exceedingly well provisioned with raw materials from the districts. During the revolt, one of the districts had been completely annihilated, and the smoldering and uninhabitable land was left as a reminder to the remaining districts that the Capitol was not defeatable and would mercilessly squelch all rebellion.

As one of the strongest reminders of the districts' lowly places in the social order of Panem, an annual lottery is held in each district to select "tributes" to participate in the year's Hunger Games. The names of a boy and a girl between the ages of twelve and seventeen are randomly drawn in each district lottery to participate in the annual games. The same name may be entered multiple times if a young person wishes to earn extra food rations for his or her family. The games, mandatory televised watching throughout Panem, allow a single victor to emerge each year. The victor is the last survivor of the games.

In District 12, the poorest of them all and whose chief industry is coal mining, Katniss waits for the girl's name to be drawn. Her name appears many times in the lottery pool, as she has been the primary provider in her family since her father's death in a mining accident. She knows her chance of selection is good. The draw is made and the name announced: It is not Katniss' name, but that of her younger sister who became eligible for the lottery only this year. Katniss had forbidden Prim to sign up for extra rations; she wanted to minimize her young sister's chances of selection. Knowing Prim has no chance to survive the games, Katniss volunteers to take Prim's place, and the substitution is accepted by the monitors.

The story takes twists and turns, involves politics, greed, and shaky alliances among tributes, and tests the mettle of each participant. Katniss, mentored to form a bond with the boy from her district, finds herself genuinely caring for Peeta, and this complicates her own survival. Two traits dominate Katniss' emergence as a finalist: her illegally-practiced hunting prowess, and her moral fiber.

Half-way through the book, I found myself so involved with the characters that the book went out to dinner with me: I read while my dining partner was ignored. By the final chapters, I was barely aware of my surroundings. Young adult book? This book is for ALL adults, not just the young ones.

Out of the Twilight Zone

2010-08-30T19:13:00.000-07:00

The incredible popularity of the books in the Twilight Series amazed me to no end. To me, the books were Harlequin Romances for teens and 'tweens. No great or enduring literature here. The premise that Vampires can be almost undifferentiated from humans is such a violation of all the rules of "vampirism" that the books are really about humans and very-long-lived humans. Aside from the longevity, the only difference between humans and this series' vampires is that most humans don't subsist on blood--human or animal. Vampires do not walk in daylight without a good explanation, as Anne Rice gave Lestat in her series--he had to trade blood with the mother of all vampires to begin to develop some immunity to the sun's effect. Vampires certainly may try to avoid human blood and attempt to subsist on that of other mammals, but even contemporary literature's strongest vampires were unable to resist the occasional human (hence, Tru Blood needed to be invented). In no other literary place will you find that fog cover keeps the sun's rays from destroying vampires. Scientifically, we all know that the sun's destructive rays make it through those clouds, albeit less strongly; but if humans can get badly sunburned on an overcast day, how can a vampire without the blood of the vampire queen survive a cloudy day unscathed?

Do I find any redeeming qualities in these books? Yes. The heroine is definitely a strong figure and, for the most part, a great role model for teenage girls who, for one reason or another, do not see college in their futures. Bella is assertive, forthright, virginal, conflicted--in short, everything most of us adults think of as the perfect teenage daughter, despite the fact that there is no such person.

Come to think about it, none of the characters in the book are normal. The teens and other characters are either perfectly good or perfectly evil. It is as if the rest of the world cannot be part of the saga of Bella and Edward. Interestingly, now that movies on some of the books are out, I've noticed that the book sales are declining. Realistically, as young girls enter their 'tweens, they should develop a sudden interest in the Twilight Series. But that does not seem to be happening. And why should it? As a teen, I watched the movie instead of reading the book as often as I could get away with it. It was a definite time-savings to spend two hours in front of the TV compared to the numerous evenings that a book took to read. So the decreasing sales must mean...that the books are not destined to be classics--cult classics, maybe; but not classics. The story lines are overall too trite, and the writing itself is, at best, mediocre.

The Twilight Series books are the type of books that, as either a mother or an educator, I would look upon as a passing fancy. I would neither encourage nor discourage the reading of the books. Reading is, after all, something we want our teens to do more. However, I would read and recommend the books selected by the panels of the committees for the Caldecott Medal Award, the John Newbery Medal Award, the Coretta Scott King Book Award, the Golden Duck Award, and award committees that honor children's literature. (See this link for more children's and YA book awards: http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/lit_resources/awards/nat_awards.html .) Even though the intended target of these books is children (and Young Adults), they can easily be enjoyed by adults as well. They have excellent plots and plot development, the conflicts are those that any of us can relate to, the questions are timeless, and the books roll around in our minds for a long time. These are the books that will endure and that should be considered classic. Some of them are tied very closely to the era in which they were written; some may take on a different meaning in a different era; one or two may have lost relevance. But it is easy to see why the books have staying power. They send powerful messages or ask powerful questions. The language in these books is of a higher level than that found in fad books. The plot development and conflicts are mature, addressing the very issues young people care about--personal self-image and development, social issues, interpersonal problems.

With relief, I watch the slow and steady decline of sales of the Twilight Series books. Now I can get back to reading young adult and children's books that have social value...

So much to read...

2010-01-27T18:19:00.000-08:00

For weeks now, I've been trying to get back to the children's books from which I used to teach not only literature, but also behavior. Then there are the books I got for my grandchildren and nieces and nephews. So many books! So many activities! Where does one start? Clearly, I can use some help.

What would you like to see me write about? Do you have a favorite book for which you would like activities? Is there something you want to discuss with children, but feel like you need a conversation starter--like a book that can be used to introduce the idea? Is there an age group for which you would like book suggestions?

As an example of what I mean, I decided to read some books that my granddaughter asked for several years ago--the Junie B. Jones series. As is my usual method, I decided to start with the first book in the series. That meant the first book I read was Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus. Before I go any further, I have to say that Barbara Park, the author, clearly has the ability to see things from the vantage point of a young child. Junie B. is everthing that our mothers love and all they try to socialize out of us: she is assertive, inquisitive, brave, resourceful, caring, sensitive, brash, loud, petulant, lovable--everything a young child can be and more. She's larger than life and familiar as our memories. In this book, it is the first day of school and Junie B. starts kindergarten, which is not what she expected. (Continued below.)

Older children can read this book to remind them of their first day of school--adventures and misadventures--and the excitement that went with it. It can be used with pre-schoolders to introduce the idea of classroom in a larger school building. It can be used purely to entertain children.

Almost each chapter suggests to me an activity that can help a child preparing for that first day of school. For a child having problems socializing with a particular individual, the book suggests ways to make friends or influence enemies. The chapters are short, and are readily discussable--both for funny events and for problematic situations. For example, the day before school starts, Junie B. visits the school to meet her teacher and see the classroom. Junie B. chooses a red chair that she will sit in when she comes tomorrow. But the next day, Junie B. finds someone else sitting in the chair, and that girl has no intention of giving it up. Junie B. backs down and looks for another seat. By then, Junie B. is stuck with a yellow chair that reminds her of the stupid smelly bus. Questions that naturally flow from this event are: Did Junie B. do the right thing in not pursuing an argument? Might the girl have given up the chair if Junie B. had acted differently? What else chould one do in a similar situation?

So, Dear Reader, what would you like to see? Please let me know!!

June 29, 1999: Child's Science Experiment Goes Awry!

2009-11-07T15:08:00.000-08:00

June 29, 1999 is a book of few words. The publisher recommends this book for children ages 5 to 8, but the impact of the book is remarkable, for younger children as well as older ones--like those of us who are approaching our golden years. Seriously, I know tweens who adore this book.

The illustrations are in vivid color, with simple yet non-condescending text moving the reader along. The theme of the book involves a science project: Holly wants to know if vegetables will grow better when floating in the air than rooted to the ground. She plants her vegetables in boxes to which she ties helium-filled balloons to hold them aloft. The next thing she knows, gigantic vegetables are falling from the sky all over the country! But Holly knows that she didn't plant some of the vegetables--like the arugula that fell over Ashtabula--so these giant veggies are probably not from her experiment. This realization leads to that wonderful discussion question: "If these vegetable are not Holly's, where do you think they came from?" Just remember to ask this question before you turn to the final page!

Activities and discussion topics to use with this book include:

Identification of vegetables,
Finding cities on a map,
Container gardening,
The scientific method,
Validation of research.

See? Lots of creative uses can be found for this book, not only for young children, but for high school and college students, too.

If you have read this book and want to share your thoughts and how you used it with your own children or students, please share in the comments section.

Here is the reference information for this book:

June 29, 1999 by David Wiesner
ISBN: 0395727677
ISBN-13: 978-0395727676
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Paperback reissue: September, 1995

If you wish to purchase the book, click on the illustration above to purchase from Amazon.com .
It is also available at Borders.com and Barnesandnoble.com .