Dalphine is used to doing things that are hard–-like being a mother to her little sisters. She’s peacemaker, caretaker, and chief worrier. Her story will pull at your heartstrings.
ONE CRAZY SUMMER by Rita Williams-Garcia, Amistad, 2010.
Delphine wants to understand three things:
Why did her mother leave? (Delphine was four.)
Why did she stay away? (Delphine's little sisters don't remember her at all.)
Why didn’t she want her little girls? (All three girls wonder about this.)
Finally, in the summer of 1968, Delphine, now eleven, gets her chance to ask. Her father and his mother, who have raised Delphine and her younger sisters, send all three girls from Brooklyn to visit their mother in Oakland, CA. They soon discover that their mother has no idea what a mother should be, and she certainly can’t be the mother they want her to be, nor does this perfect stranger have any interest in being that mother.
A revolutionary poet, their mother sends the children to a Black Panthers’ summer camp, the only place that will feed them breakfast and lunch. She keeps saying, hurtfully, in words or actions, “Didn’t ask no one to send you here, no way.”
The girls are not allowed in the kitchen at their mother’s house, but Delphine realizes her sisters need a home cooked meal, something like their grandmother would feed them at home. Delphine goes to the grocery, buys food, and then stands up to her mother and gets admitted to the kitchen–which doubles as a work area for printing protest materials. She cooks and cleans up after supper.
This brings on a comment from her distant biological mother. “We’re trying to break yokes. You’re trying to make one for yourself. If you knew what I know, seen what I’ve seen, you wouldn’t be so quick to pull the plow.”
This is a clue to her mother’s life, but it isn’t understood until much later. You might want to read this book a second time to put the pieces of the puzzle together. If your ten or eleven year old reads this middle grade novel, you’ll get questions. Better be prepared.
The author has won numerous awards including the Coretta Scott King Honor for Like Sisters on the Homefront. Her website is www.ritawg.com She is on the faculty of the Vermont College of Fine Arts in the Writing for Children and Young Adults Program. Her own two daughters are grown.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Congratulations, Hester Bass!
And the winner of the
2010 SIBA CHILDREN'S BOOK AWARD
is
drum roll, please...
THE SECRET WORLD OF WALTER ANDERSON by Hester Bass, illustrated by E. B. Lewis, Candlewick, 2009
Reviewed here on March 9.
Hurrah for Hester!
2010 SIBA CHILDREN'S BOOK AWARD
is
drum roll, please...
THE SECRET WORLD OF WALTER ANDERSON by Hester Bass, illustrated by E. B. Lewis, Candlewick, 2009
Reviewed here on March 9.
Hurrah for Hester!
Don’t Call it a Weed!
Weeds, I’ve been told, are plants in places you don’t want them to be. If you like the weeds where they are, does that make them non-weeds?
One summer a much loved aunt of mine who was ill and unable to leave her bed, wrote a full page of her letter to me about the lovely mimosa tree she could see from her window. Imagine my shock to hear someone refer to this tree as a weed. When I discovered a little girl who loved the “stubborn and wild” mimosa as much as my aunt, I hugged this little girl to my reader’s heart immediately.
A TREE FOR EMMY by Mary Ann Rodman, illustrated by Tatjana Mai-Wyss, Peachtree, 2009
Emmy loved all the parts of the mimosa tree growing in her gramma’s pasture: the fuzzy pink blossoms in summer, the seed pods in the fall. Her proud gramma said the tree was a lot like Emmy, “Stubborn and strong and a little bit wild.”
When her parents asked what she wanted for her birthday, of course, Emmy wanted a mimosa. It would be perfect under her bedroom window where she could enjoy it every day, all year.
Her parents set out to buy a mimosa tree. Not so easy. The plant and garden stores don’t sell mimosas just like they don’t sell dandelions.
What’s a mimosa lover to do?
If you have any wild and stubborn young readers at your house, here’s a summer time book to delight. Best read close to a mimosa, sitting on a quilt, with a picnic lunch close at hand. Another glass of lemonade, please.
One summer a much loved aunt of mine who was ill and unable to leave her bed, wrote a full page of her letter to me about the lovely mimosa tree she could see from her window. Imagine my shock to hear someone refer to this tree as a weed. When I discovered a little girl who loved the “stubborn and wild” mimosa as much as my aunt, I hugged this little girl to my reader’s heart immediately.
A TREE FOR EMMY by Mary Ann Rodman, illustrated by Tatjana Mai-Wyss, Peachtree, 2009
Emmy loved all the parts of the mimosa tree growing in her gramma’s pasture: the fuzzy pink blossoms in summer, the seed pods in the fall. Her proud gramma said the tree was a lot like Emmy, “Stubborn and strong and a little bit wild.”
When her parents asked what she wanted for her birthday, of course, Emmy wanted a mimosa. It would be perfect under her bedroom window where she could enjoy it every day, all year.
Her parents set out to buy a mimosa tree. Not so easy. The plant and garden stores don’t sell mimosas just like they don’t sell dandelions.
What’s a mimosa lover to do?
If you have any wild and stubborn young readers at your house, here’s a summer time book to delight. Best read close to a mimosa, sitting on a quilt, with a picnic lunch close at hand. Another glass of lemonade, please.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Uncle Augustus, Where Were You?
Mosquitoes ring the dinner bell when I step into our backyard. Then I read about a man who suddenly developed an appetite for bugs, so much so, that he raced in, around, and under bushes, hid behind trees, and leapt amazing heights just to scarf up flying insects. Instead of thinking him weird, I wanted to invite him to our 4th of July picnic.
The Entomological Tales of Augustus T. Percival: PETRONELLA SAVES NEARLY EVERYONE by Dene Low, illustrations by Jen Corace, Houghton Mifflin, 2009
Obviously, one woman’s glass of iced tea is another’s dreaded discovery. Petronella is about to be presented at her 16th birthday party when she discovers to her horror that her guardian and beloved Uncle Augustus has suddenly developed a predilection for eating bugs. Yes, bugs!
Set in Victorian London, this is a book for middle grade girls who want to while away hot summer hours on a back porch or in an out of the way spot in the garden. Or not. The reader is swallowed whole by the main character’s adventures (while Uncle is swallowing bugs), so the reader’s setting really doesn’t matter. As long as there are no interruptions.
Kidnaping, bugs for clues, making sure Uncle doesn’t eat those clues, and oh, yes, one’s best friend’s brother, a titled Lord with the Home Office, is simply to be swooned over. Or is that for? The pace is frantic.
Fond of terms of endearment like “old egg” or “old prune”, the trio, Petronella, her best friend and the young man known as one of England’s most eligible bachelors, travel from one crisis to the next. While they unravel clues, they barely escape a pursuing pack of outrageously proper relatives who could (and would!) alter Petronella’s life drastically if they find out about Uncle and his joy of eating bugs.
This will be a fun book for the readers at your house, but sadly, Uncle was a no-show at my holiday picnic.
The Entomological Tales of Augustus T. Percival: PETRONELLA SAVES NEARLY EVERYONE by Dene Low, illustrations by Jen Corace, Houghton Mifflin, 2009
Obviously, one woman’s glass of iced tea is another’s dreaded discovery. Petronella is about to be presented at her 16th birthday party when she discovers to her horror that her guardian and beloved Uncle Augustus has suddenly developed a predilection for eating bugs. Yes, bugs!
Set in Victorian London, this is a book for middle grade girls who want to while away hot summer hours on a back porch or in an out of the way spot in the garden. Or not. The reader is swallowed whole by the main character’s adventures (while Uncle is swallowing bugs), so the reader’s setting really doesn’t matter. As long as there are no interruptions.
Kidnaping, bugs for clues, making sure Uncle doesn’t eat those clues, and oh, yes, one’s best friend’s brother, a titled Lord with the Home Office, is simply to be swooned over. Or is that for? The pace is frantic.
Fond of terms of endearment like “old egg” or “old prune”, the trio, Petronella, her best friend and the young man known as one of England’s most eligible bachelors, travel from one crisis to the next. While they unravel clues, they barely escape a pursuing pack of outrageously proper relatives who could (and would!) alter Petronella’s life drastically if they find out about Uncle and his joy of eating bugs.
This will be a fun book for the readers at your house, but sadly, Uncle was a no-show at my holiday picnic.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
An Unsolved Mystery!
Fibonacci numbers appear in nature and nobody knows why. An aspiring detective needs a definition as well as a reason to care. Kids who are “in” on the pattern and how it works love to show you. Add one to one and you get two. Add two and one, and you get three. Add three and two and you get five. Or 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, and what comes next? Aha! Before you know it, you are hooked.
GROWING PATTERNS: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature by Sarah C. Campbell, photographs by Sarah C. Campbell and Richard P. Campbell, Boyds Mills Press, 2010
The author and her husband make this mathematical enigma accessible to readers of all ages. Author Campbell shares enough history to ground the subject, not overwhelm the reader. A one page glossary will probably encourage readers who don’t read the last pages first to go back and start over, or hunt for those pages they want to ponder again. Lavish photographs by both Campbells and easy to follow diagrams support the brief but clear text so even the most math resistant reader will be drawn in, totally unaware of how much he or she is learning.
The challenge to find this pattern in the flower bed, the field, at the beach, on animals, or any other place not yet reported, will inspire a summer of sleuthing.
Imagine that first report of the school year:
How I spent My Summer: Stalking Fibonacci Numbers.
My summer summaries were never that intriguing. Were yours?
GROWING PATTERNS: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature by Sarah C. Campbell, photographs by Sarah C. Campbell and Richard P. Campbell, Boyds Mills Press, 2010
The author and her husband make this mathematical enigma accessible to readers of all ages. Author Campbell shares enough history to ground the subject, not overwhelm the reader. A one page glossary will probably encourage readers who don’t read the last pages first to go back and start over, or hunt for those pages they want to ponder again. Lavish photographs by both Campbells and easy to follow diagrams support the brief but clear text so even the most math resistant reader will be drawn in, totally unaware of how much he or she is learning.
The challenge to find this pattern in the flower bed, the field, at the beach, on animals, or any other place not yet reported, will inspire a summer of sleuthing.
Imagine that first report of the school year:
How I spent My Summer: Stalking Fibonacci Numbers.
My summer summaries were never that intriguing. Were yours?
Monday, June 28, 2010
Fishing for a Good Book
His grandmother’s summer cottage on a small lake in Michigan. Idyllic. Perfect place to grow up, to bring your kids and grandkids. It’s the 1970's. Kyle is 12 and sees his life stretching ahead of him, this summer and all the summers to come.
KYLE’S ISLAND by Sally Derby, Charlesbridge, 2010
Then Kyle’s grandmother dies, his parents separate, and his mother decides to sell the cottage. Kyle fights his feelings of bitterness and disappointment by trying to figure out how to save the cottage.
Although his older sister and his twin sister, who seems, somehow, different this summer, offer a little help, they aren’t nearly as engaged in the project as Kyle wants or expects them to be. His younger brother Josh would do anything for Kyle, but there are limits to what a 7 year old can do.
Prospective buyers view the cottage, Kyle takes on odd jobs, and as the summer simmers on, Kyle comes to think of himself as more than a big brother, more like a stand-in dad. He teaches Josh how to fish and go camping. Every day, he thinks about the coming end of summer. Will it be his last summer on the lake?
This is a quiet novel but there are readers, boys and girls alike, who enjoy quiet novels. They will relate to Kyle and his concerns and sympathize with his struggles.
Fishing, camping, sibling relationships, and coping with the realization that grown-ups aren’t perfect, offer much to think about in this warm hearted story of a family’s summer vacation.
KYLE’S ISLAND by Sally Derby, Charlesbridge, 2010
Then Kyle’s grandmother dies, his parents separate, and his mother decides to sell the cottage. Kyle fights his feelings of bitterness and disappointment by trying to figure out how to save the cottage.
Although his older sister and his twin sister, who seems, somehow, different this summer, offer a little help, they aren’t nearly as engaged in the project as Kyle wants or expects them to be. His younger brother Josh would do anything for Kyle, but there are limits to what a 7 year old can do.
Prospective buyers view the cottage, Kyle takes on odd jobs, and as the summer simmers on, Kyle comes to think of himself as more than a big brother, more like a stand-in dad. He teaches Josh how to fish and go camping. Every day, he thinks about the coming end of summer. Will it be his last summer on the lake?
This is a quiet novel but there are readers, boys and girls alike, who enjoy quiet novels. They will relate to Kyle and his concerns and sympathize with his struggles.
Fishing, camping, sibling relationships, and coping with the realization that grown-ups aren’t perfect, offer much to think about in this warm hearted story of a family’s summer vacation.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Following Footprints
Summer brings on the patter of little feet in the kitchen all day long. Those little feet leave footprints. Feet of all sizes on the porch, in the hall, and from shower to towel rack and back leave tale telling evidence, too. Do you read feet? Do you know who did what when? Isn’t that part of a mom’s job description? Here’s a book to share with feet owners who can laugh at themselves.
MOOSE TRACKS by Karma Wilson, illustrated by Jack E. Davis, Margaret McElderry, 2006
Along with feet, do you also read faces on picture book characters? Jack Davis has worked sly humor into his characters’ expressions. His detailed settings offer clues to the mystery at hand. It’s just plain fun to point out the smug faced mice and boggle-eyed frogs to that two year old who wiggled her way onto your lap. Or you could wonder where the dog went and why the cat isn’t demanding a bigger role. Preschoolers would be happy to offer their opinions. A first or second grader who insists he’s given up reading for the summer might be glad to do this, too.
This book ends with a punch line. I don’t want to spoil it, so I’ll just say that Karma Wilson has written other books for kids to read with their families or for families to read to their kids. Take a stack to the beach or the mountains, or the nearest living room chair.
In the meantime,who left all those moose tracks?
MOOSE TRACKS by Karma Wilson, illustrated by Jack E. Davis, Margaret McElderry, 2006
Along with feet, do you also read faces on picture book characters? Jack Davis has worked sly humor into his characters’ expressions. His detailed settings offer clues to the mystery at hand. It’s just plain fun to point out the smug faced mice and boggle-eyed frogs to that two year old who wiggled her way onto your lap. Or you could wonder where the dog went and why the cat isn’t demanding a bigger role. Preschoolers would be happy to offer their opinions. A first or second grader who insists he’s given up reading for the summer might be glad to do this, too.
This book ends with a punch line. I don’t want to spoil it, so I’ll just say that Karma Wilson has written other books for kids to read with their families or for families to read to their kids. Take a stack to the beach or the mountains, or the nearest living room chair.
In the meantime,who left all those moose tracks?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Hillview School Library
