Tag Archives: friendship

Boy Robot

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Boy Robot is a fast paced adventure story of boy who until the age of 18 was a human, and is now a robot built as a weapon. As he tries to escape the soldiers who are hunting him, he is helped by a human girl.

The novel discusses themes of humanity, and switches point of view in each chapter. Best suited for high school students due to recounts of violent upbringings, sexual assault, bullying, and the use of profanity, this novel will appeal to readers who enjoy action and sci-fi. Additionally, the lead character is gay, and another major character is transgender. Author Simon Curtis is a young gay performing artist, who dedicates the book to those lost in the July 12, 2016 Pulse nightclub massacre.

The cliffhanger ending guarantees a sequel.

Invisible Fault Line

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Callie, a teenaged girl who plays in a rock band, has her life turned upside down when her father goes missing. In addition to school and band practice, her days are spent trying to comfort her distraught mother, enlisting her friends to hang up posters, and reliving past conversations she had with her dad. But no leads turn up until Callie sees a photo of the great San Francisco earthquake and recognizes a familiar face.

This young adult novel will appeal to readers who enjoy relationships (parent / child, friend / friend, and a tiny bit of romance), and mystery. It’s an engaging story that is hard to put down.

Shyanna’s Song

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shyannaSince her father’s death, song has left Shyanna’s life.  She no longer sings nor does her mother. But this is the year the Shyanna decides to change that. Even though she has terrible stage fright, Shyanna decides to enter the Melody pageant that is held every year in the mermaid kingdom (think American Idol) . Shyanna wants to enter the competition in order to inspire her mother to love music again.  Shyanna thinks she has a pretty good chance to win until she meets her greatest competition, Rachel, the pretty mermaid who is new to town.

An engaging story for children and adults alike. Lessons on friendship, courage, perseverance and safety. An unexpected twist at the end made this an even more enjoyable read. The sporadic, full color illustrations will beg the reader to linger a little longer. Back matter includes: legend of mermaids, questions for discussion, writing prompts and the author and illustrator bios.

shyanna inside

 

Sidney & Sydney: Book 1 Third Grade Mix-Up

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sidney and sydneyThe start of a new school year and the start of third grade.  What could induce more uncertainty and nervousness?  How about stepping into the classroom on the first day and seeing that your teacher spelled your name wrong.  Should you speak up? Perhaps it’s better to just sit down and not make a fuss about it.  After all the teacher, Mr. Luther,  is known to be grumpy.

Ah, the trials of third grade!  Sydney (spelled with a “y”) meets her gender counterpart (Sidney with an “i”) on that first day.  They soon find out they have a lot more in common than just a same first name.  This is a story of friendship that elementary students will like to read about.  The dialog is very realistic and the characters are well written and believable.  The story line is engaging without being trite or overly predictable.  Jakubowski seems to accurately understands her audience.

The story is heavily illustrated, in full color, by Luisa Montalto. Most of the illustrations are full page, centering on the characters with little to no background distractions. The opening pages give an illustrated bio of the characters and the end pages give further info and insight into the characters.  I can envision many of my students trying to copy Montalto’s clean style and creating a Sydney or Sidney of their own.

Visit Capstone to have students read bios on Sydney and Sidney and there respective friends.  Also there are two downloads: “How funny are you?” and “Are you a good friend?”  Both of these quizzes are the type with no definitive right or wrong answers.  They are the type that sum up your answers with “If you have mostly “A” answers you are….

 

 

Should Charlotte Share?

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Product DetailsShould Charlotte Share is a nice character development book. It helps children define what effect their choices may have on others and for themselves. Twenty-four pages in length, each “chapter” addresses a different decision and consequence.  The first chapter explains that we make choices every day and that the choices we make have effects or consequences. The next four chapters target a specific behavior. Each behavior is given four pages; first is the scenario, the next two pages show the good and the bad outcome of the decision, the last page asks the reader “What would you do?” and delves deeper into the outcome of good and the bad consequence.

For example chapter two asks, “Should Henry help?” The first page sets the scenario: Henry’s sister’s shoe is untied. Page two shows that he could help, as we see him tying his sister’s shoe . The third page shows that he chose not to help her as they are getting ready to run a race with her shoe untied. The fourth page is the consequence and we see that when Henry chooses to help, he and his sister can play and have fun. But when he chooses not to help we see his sister has tripped on her shoelace and she can no longer join in the fun.

The chapters include: Should Charlotte share?, Should Henry help?, Should Wendy tease her teammate?, Should Theo tell the truth?  The end pages include a picture glossary, index and notes for teaching. Full color photographs are used. Diversity is present; bi-racial, white, Latino, Indian, Asian and perhaps Native American; however, African-American does not seem to be represented.

This book could easily become a lesson in itself. Due to it’s small size (7″ x 8″) small group sharing would be ideal or the use of a projector would be needed for whole class instruction.

The Mysterious Woods of Whistle Root

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The debut novel by Christopher Pennell,  The Mysterious Woods of Whistle Root,  is a perfect read-aloud or a read alone for the intended audience. It is a tale of magic and friendship that captivates from the very first sentence:
“In a small town called Whistle Root, rats play music in the moonlight.”   From that beginning, nothing that comes later can be too strange to be believed and really makes for a fun, refreshing fantasy.

The rats play music from the rooftops so the owls can dance. There are vegetables appearing on rooftops, of which one character comments: “ I notice that you have a squash on your roof, dear. How lovely. I only have broccoli”.  Rats talk and fly on breezes, mysterious messages appear inside a hat that is in a wooden crib in the middle of the woods, strange whispers can place people in a deep sleep and an unique beast appears who likes to adorn himself with owl feathers. It may have been difficult to pull off the sorts of unusual happenings found in this book, but Pennell does it with entertaining ease. He presents the activities and events so casually and deftly that it becomes very easy for the reader to accept them as a natural part of this odd, wonderful world.

The main character is Carly Bean Bitters, a young girl who can only sleep during the day and no one knows why. She is lonely as all children are awake when Carly is asleep. One magical night that all changes when Carly becomes friends with Lewis, a violin-playing rat.  Lewis has lost two members of his musical trio. When a member is missing from the band a vegetable stands in “for you must always have exactly three members.” Lewis already has a squash on Carly’s rooftop but Lewis proclaims that “ it would be too embarrassing to have two vegetables in the band and (the squash is a lousy drummer)”. So he asks Carly to join his group.

Soon after, Carly and Lewis become friends with Green. He is a boy who lives with his grandmother underneath the school.  Green has a hidden door to his house in a little used, dark area of the school library – the reference section. The three friends set out to uncover the reason for the strange change in behavior among the owls in Whistle Woods.  They had always danced to the rats’ music, but now they hunt them instead. Also, Green’s grandma has fallen into a sleep from which she cannot be awakened. Carly and Green are willing to do what is needed to get Grandma back and restore the once peaceful owl and rat relationship. Unraveling the mysteries will help restore everything to “normal”.

The illustrations by Rebecca Bond are charming pen and ink doodlings that complement the text.  My first response at seeing the illustrations was disappointment.  In our flashy, colorful world I expected the same for the illustrations.  However,  I realized as I became acquainted with the book that the media choice really was perfect.  Pennell provides a wonderful description and Bond provides a nice framework for readers to use their own creative imagination to fill in the color and detail. In the end I thought it was a wise choice.

Others have compared this novel to  The Dreamstealer by Sid Fleischman with its storyteller’s voice and the extravagance of its imagination, and Kenneth Grahme, C.S. Lewis, E.B. White and  Kate DiCamillo for its well-imagined talking animals… just to name a few.

It has just the right blend of mystery and scary with a fairy tale ending.
I’m a truly hoping that this will be a series, as I would love to get lost in the world of Whistle Root again and again.

Fleabrain Loves Franny

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Fleabrain Loves Franny, by Joanne Rocklin, portrays the unlikely friendship between a young girl and a flea.
Set in Pittsburgh, 1952, Franny Katzenback is recovering from polio and wondering if she’ll ever walk again. Franny reads and falls in love with the brand-new book Charlotte’s Web. At a critical point during her illness she imagines she is being cared for by angels, which just turn out to be nurses in white uniforms. So when she starts to receive letters from a flea, who lives on the tip of her dog’s tail, it seems like just another delusion.
But Fleabrain proves his existence and a strong friendship forms. Fleabrain is a strange and marvelous fluke of nature. He is a self-taught genius and just happens to be a voracious reader. He helpsFranny gain courage, self-confidence and strength to fight her battles with prejudice, discrimination and the struggle of recovery. He is determined to stand by and motivate Franny during this difficult time in her life because he finds he truly loves her. Fleabrain becomes Franny’s Charlotte.

The other characters in the book include her older sister Min, whom she sarcastically calls “Saint Min”, her best friend from a distance Walter Walter (yes, double named), the mean-spirited Nurse Olivegarten, Franny’s adored grandfather Zadie, and Dr. Gutman a neighbor and scientist working with Jonas Salk to find the cure for polio.

Rocklin’s inclusion of many daily life routines and practices of the 1950’s add to the story’s realism. She introduces young readers to some realities of disability and the harsh and often times unfair reactions of others. She also does a good job of introducing many topics for classroom discussion.  Readers may learn not only about paralysis, polio, Jonas Salk, vaccines, infectious diseases and prejudices; but also about literary and cultural references such as E. B. White’s Charlotte’s Web, Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis, James Howell’s Paramoigraphy, the philosophy of  Friedrich Nietzsche and Jewish folklore and traditions. These may sound like heavy topics for young readers, but Rocklin provides small spoonfuls of understanding to the reader.  As Franny learns of these things in incremental, digestible pieces, so does the reader.

Included is an author’s note reflecting on polio and the issue of disability, and a bibliography of referenced works and songs.  Teachers can also go to Rocklin’s website and get a CCSS aligned discussion guide and activities list.

Fly Guy’s Amazing Tricks

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Buzz has an unusual pet, a fly, whom he names “Fly Guy”.  Fly Guy is a very intelligent fly and he has learned several new tricks. Buzz decides to set up a circus act to entertain his friends and to show off Fly Guy’s talent. Fly Guy swims the backstroke in the bird bath, he flies in circles around the head of a one of the kids in the audience, and then he hangs from Buzz’s nose upside down.

At dinner that night Buzz tells his parents that Fly Guy has learned some new tricks, at which point Fly Guy does a repeat performance of the day’s show. Unfortunately, Fly Guy  makes a rather messy disaster of the dinner table. Buzz decides that Fly Guy should only perform his tricks when he hears the word “NOW.”   Fly Guy’s performing on command helps Buzz get rid of a potential bully that very night.

In this amusing beginner reader, Buzz and Fly Guy once again prove that together they can overcome all kinds of obstacles. The story is divided into short chapters and it is illustrated with full color drawings.

The Good, The Bad and The Monkeys

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Jake has an unusual job of herding monkeys.  When monkey rustlers come and try to steal his “herd”, Jake acts responsibly to tend to his small group.

I feel comic books and graphic novels are a great way to draw reluctant readers into reading.  Comics Land stories I believe are trying to do just that – draw in reluctant readers.  The stories are brightly colored, easy to read and follow and are written with a touch of unexpected humor.

I like that the back matter includes a “word power” section where readers can check the glossary for unknown words.  Here they will also find a pronunciation guide as well as the meaning of the word.  Each book in this series also contains questions to aid in critical thinking skills, vocabulary scramble, word/picture match, find the hidden objects and a how to draw section.

Yes the story line does not hold much weight, but the beauty in these little gems (the Comics Land series that is) is that this format is highly appealing to young readers.  Beginning readers will gain confidence in their skills in a easy to access manner and learn along the way.

Drops of Life

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The first thing I noticed were the beautiful illustrations in this book. It is was initially drew my attention.

Secondly, I was drawn in by the message described on the back pages.  Here I learned about an organization called ENO (Environment Online) that helps spread awareness and knowledge about sustainable development.  This online environment allows students around the world to share their learning with our global community.  This piqued my curiosity and thought this would be a wonderful resource for teachers and students.

And lastly, once again from the back page, I learned that this story is a well-known children’s play that has been performed in over eighty countries.

With all these positive attributes, I felt I really should have liked this book more; however, I found it to be choppy and unremarkable.  It is easy to envision this as a play by the way it is written, but it makes for stilted reading.  Perhaps something was lost in the translation, but as I was reading through this I couldn’t help but feel as if the dialogue is something that the students themselves would have created.  For this reason, I think students may like it as a play, but will have a difficult time being engaged for reading pleasure.

One Cool Friend

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 Elliot and his father visit an aquarium for the day. Elliot politely asks his father for a penguin.  When his father agrees, Elliot hurries off to get one.  What Elliot failed to realize is that his father may have been thinking of the stuffed penguins on sale in the gift shop, not the real one he manages to stuff into his backpack.  This is a layered story with subtle clues that are missed on the first read through. Children and adults alike will enjoy it even more the second and third time as they will now clearly see the signs that were missed on the first read through.  David Small’s choice of cool, pale blues and sparse color compliment the story nicely and evoke a wintry feel. This is an enjoyable story that children and adults will love.

A curriculum guide can also be found at:
http://www.tonibuzzeo.com/onecoolfriendcurriculumguide.pdf

Tabby McTat: The musical cat

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Synopsis:  Fred the street singer and musician and his cat Tabby McTat are purr-fectly happy singing or “busking” for tips in the town square.  One day while the cat is roaming, Fred is robbed of his money and chases the thief, breaks his leg and ends up in the hospital.  When Tabby returns Fred is gone.  Tabby finally wanders away and finds a new home with a family, but he never forgets Fred.

What I liked about it and who would like it:   This a lovely story about a long lasting friendship.  Scheffler’s illustrations have great appeal, especially the cat and kitten faces.  Also look for interesting detail in drawings and the clever “cat” endpapers that look like they are stamped on the book!  On a whole this is a very enjoyable story and cleverly illustrated.