Review: Pirates!

Pirates! by Celia Rees.  Bloomsbury.  2003.

This is a page turner based on a true story, proving that fact is usually stranger than fiction and that a really good story can come from a mixture of the two.

Nancy is upset about her impending arranged marriage.  She is stuck on her father's Jamaican plantation awaiting her doom.  One night she comes across Minerva, one of the slaves on the plantation being attacked by the overseer.  Nancy kills the overseer in order to save Minerva.  The girls realize they must escape the plantation and find themselves on the Deliverance which isn't just any ship, but a pirate ship.  Over this period of time the friends discover they are sisters by blood.  Their actions make them sisters in spirit.  Soon Nancy learns that as pirates who are constantly at battle with the British navy, they are at war with her true love William, who is pretty disgruntled when he finds out his girlfriend has become a pirate.  Only time will tell if they can work it out.  This is a fun adventure story where female characters are in the starring roles.  It's age old story of if women can have it all- good friends, the guy, maybe a family one day, and still be able to run an entire pirate ship.

An engaging read for older tweens, 7th to 9th grade.
ATOS Book Level: 5.4
AR Points: 14.0

Trends

Your shoes say a lot about you.  At the library, the cool thing for girls is to wear extra high (or, excuse me, x-hi) converse sneakers with their school uniforms, which I love, it's very punk rock.  They usually wear leggings under their skirts, so it is a very common occurrence that they will come in from school, ask for a bathroom key, and head to the bathroom to loose the skirt. Sometimes if the bathroom's occupied they'll just find a vacant isle in the nonfiction section and shed the skirt like it was was a heavy coat, even more punk rock.  They do it with an easy nonchalance.  This is the beauty of a truly great trend, and what makes it become classic style, the fact that it doesn't make you appear insecure and shouts that you're trying to fit it.  Instead, you are allowed to make it your own.

Now here's the funny thing.  My cousins also have a shoe of choice.  That is the Tom's slip on shoe.  Not only are these shoes a mix of preppy meets hippie, but you become an automatic philanthropic patron when you buy a pair.  Checking the prices online, if a person was to buy a pair of extra high converse's or a pair of Toms shoes it would put them back about the same amount, give or take $10 to $15 or so.  What matters is the message you want to send.  Here are two pairs of shoes that aren't about what your parents want you to put on your feet, because you aren't mimicking a more adult style.  No one over 17 should really be caught in either shoe.

The marketing for each company varies.  Converse with its street smart urban cool.  Toms with its do good preppiness.  Back in middle school I too coveted a pair of shoes that I felt would define me.  I saved all my babysitting money to buy a pair of red Dr. Martens boots.  I loved them dearly.  This may make me a little biased toward the style of the tweens at the library, but no matter what style you choose, what you put on your feet says something about who you are to the world and how you're going to walk in it.

Here There be Monsters

Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl prod. by Jerry Bruckheimer.  Dir. by Gore Verbinski.  Buena Vista Pictures.  2003.

After bringing up this movie in the blog post about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 I realized that the American tween of this generation will grow up never knowing that once there was this kitschy ride at Disneyland called Pirates of the Caribbean.  It had no media tie ins, it was just a part of Adventure Land, kind of the way Big Thunder Railroad is a part of Frontier Land, a ride with no Disney movie about it.  After writing this, I'm a little worried about the fact that I see this as a matter of cultural significance.  It just goes to show what an influence Disney has had over this Southern Californian girl.

The Black Pearl has one of those plots that you can choose to follow, or completely ignore and still enjoy the movie.  Basically, Captain Jack Sparrow wants his boat back from his mutinous ghost crew.  Will Turner, who has pirate in his blood, even if he wants to deny it, wants Elizabeth Sparrow.  Elizabeth Sparrow, first gets kidnapped for being the governor's daughter, she then lies about her identity to the ghost pirates who kidnap her in order to keep her father safe.  The three characters must help and bargain with one another to get what they all want.  There is lots of drinking, sword fighting and general pirate talk with many lovely shots of the Caribbean.  Every tween generation needs a good action movie.  The only problem with pirates is that it's a little difficult to run off and become one nowadays.  At least your mom wouldn't totally flip out in the 80's if you told her you wanted to be an archaeologist, unless she was a yuppie, so you may as well have told her you were going to be a pirate.  Huh, they have a ride about Indiana at Disneyland, too.

Well, it is rated PG-13, but I think it's fine for most 6th graders, too.

Review: Guinness World Records 2011

Guinness World Records 2011 ed. by Craig Glenday.  Jim Pattison Group.  2010.

This book is the reason why many tweens who come into the Children's Room bother to learn about the reference section.  It's also a good example to use when explaining how to look up a nonfiction book.  032 GUINNESS, and voila, you come to a row of books with shiny hologram covers.  If you're lucky and there are a couple of different years present, you can line up a few consecutive years and look up the same record in each book to see if it was broken in the next year or not.  There are vibrant color photographs for the records that are just better explained in a picture.  Also, this is a book that is great for a group.  It is common for four or five tween boys to find a table, put a copy of Guinness in the middle of the table, and have everyone lean over to read the book together.  It then becomes a contest to see who has filled their brain with the largest amount of knowledge about world records.  Community reading at it's finest?  I would definitely consider it a good candidate.

Appropriate any tween who appreciates and is looking for photos with loads of gross out factor.

Review: Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.  T. Egerton, Whitehall.  1813.

A book doesn't need overly complex language to be great.  You also don't have to be an adult to enjoy a great book.  Pride and Prejudice is a story that is actually pretty relevant to tweens who pick it up.  Family, friendship and love are the keys themes.  Also, Jane Austen isn't just for girls.  My brother loves Jane Austen.  He also likes books like A Clockwork Orange, so yeah, I have little patience for boys who complain about Jane.

Elizabeth Bennet's family is driving her crazy.  Her mother will go to any length to pair her daughters up with eligible young men, even if it means almost killing Lizzy's older sister Jane.  Jane is too shy to let Mr. Bingley, the object of her affection, know how she really feels about him.  Mary is overly verbose and awkward.  Kitty and Lydia are giggling, boy crazy, gossips who seem to have no concern for anyone but themselves.  Mr. Bennet is grumpy all the time and never really does anything about anything, which is why Mrs. Bennet is on this voracious man hunt in the first place.  If Mr. Bennet dies, the rest of the family will be sent to the poor house.  Enter Mr. Darcy.  He at first snubs Lizzy, but over time he falls madly in love with her, and really kind of saves the day at the end.  One of the reasons that this book holds the test of time is that the reader gets all sides of the fairytale.  Mr. Darcy gets to be the knight in shinning armor, but the story is not complete without Lizzy's wisecracking and quick witted observations.  She is out to set things right for those she loves, and doesn't let what people think of her get in the way.  A true heroine if there were any.

A great book for 8th and 9th graders.  This ATOS level bugs me since the Sense and Sensibility level is 8th grade.
ATOS Book Level: 12.0
AR Points: 27.0

Review: Charlotte's Web

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White.  HarperCollins.  1952.

Luckily tweens have a chance to get to know E.B. White through his children's books before they get to meet him again in high school and college as the White in Strunk's and White's The Elements of Style.  Also, White will be forever intertwined in the history of the first children's librarian, so I think it's important that one of his classics makes it onto this blog. 

Wilbur the pig is saved by Fern the girl from being slaughtered.  He is the runt of the most recent pig litter, and without her protests would not have survived.  Fern raises Wilbur like a pet, so when her father sees that Wilbur has grown to a good size to be slaughtered for food, everyone is once again distraught.  Enter Charlotte.  She is the spider who lives in the door beams of Wilbur's side of the barn.  She "weaves" a plan in which she will use a little PR to make Wilbur more valuable alive than dead.  The plan works, and Wilbur is saved.  However along the way he has to learn about the trials of living.  That nothing stays the same, and that growing close to someone means that you will be hurt when you have to let them go, because life goes on and you have to keep stepping forward.

A good sturdy chapter book for 3rd graders.  A fun read for 4th graders, too.

ATOS Book Level: 4.4

AR Points: 5.0

Review: The Winter of Red Snow: The Revolutionary War Diary of Abigail Jane Stewart

The Winter of Red Snow: The Revolutionary War Diary of Abigail Jane Stewart by Kristiana Gregory.  Scholastic.  1996.


The fictional diary of Abigail Jane Stewart, like other books in the Dear America series fills the space where the American Girl series leaves off.  The books in these series are aimed at a little older tween audience, and are more graphic about historical conflicts taking place during the characters' lives.  An interesting contrast is that in the American Girl series the characters are definitely living in pivotal times of history, however they tend to hear about important historical events in the news, the way most people at different historical times experience cultural change.  In the Dear America series the characters are closer to the actual events, maybe not as realistic in terms of the general population, but hey, someone had to be there.


Abigail's diary describes much of her daily life, most of which involves chores and helping her mom around the house in general.  The one catch is that her family lives close to the camp at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania in the years 1777-78.  Abigail describes the lives of the soldiers in the camp and the tension surrounding the outcome of the war.  The title refers to Abigail watching the soldiers march in the snow without shoes, witnessing their bloody feet turning the snow red.


An appropriate read for 4th to 7th graders.
ATOS Book Level: 5.5 
AR Points: 4.0

Review: Slaughterhouse-Five or The Children's Crusade

Slaughterhouse-Five or The Children's Crusade by Kurt Vonnegut.  Dell.  1969.

When it comes to getting started on reading Vonnegut (and I do find it to be a life long journey) Slaughterhouse-Five is a good starting point.  The funny part is that the main character, Billy Pilgrim may be having experiences that differ from most American tweens, but his emotions, and the brash, rash commentary by the narrator is just what many tweens are looking for; it's what they felt has been missing.  Vonnegut is the author who's books you hold close to your chest as a young person and proclaim, "He gets me."

Billy Pilgrim has it rough.  He has been taken as a POW during World War II.  He really wasn't enjoying the war itself much either, actually he found it horrifying.  To top it off, his life at home in the suburbs of New York is so painfully dull that it's really not something he hopes to return to if he ever gets out of this war alive.  Basically, he has nothing to live for, so he violently travels from place to place down the tunnel of time.  This involves an alien abduction where he is is put in the zoo as an exhibit.  The aliens can see their world in 4D, therefore they can see the future and explain to Billy that there is no way to change one's course in life, and that there is no use in trying.  This helps Billy realize there is nothing he can do about his impending murder by a fellow POW soldier in the future, he can only allow it to happen to him as the narrator describes the scene.

Vonnegut gave a new voice to the experience of war, trauma and the state of life in the sixties.  Tweens experiencing many new things in their own lives will appreciate the blunt descriptions and bizarre plot lines.

A great read for older tweens who have already been taught what World War II was all about.
ATOS Book Level: 5.0
AR Points: 8.0

Review: The Little Prince

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.  Reynal & Hitchcock.  1943.

The Little Prince  is told in first person.  Our author has just survived a plane crash when he runs into a little boy in the desert.  The boy happens to be a prince, he also happens to be from outer space.  You see, that's where he is a prince.  Anyway, the story is basically a long conversation between the prince and our narrator in which the prince tells his story and makes the narrator reconsider current his outlook on life.  The prince has the reason of a child, which is presumed to be of no use, however the more the prince talks, the more the narrator realizes the prince makes plenty of sense.  The prince has been traveling the solar system and was in charge of his own asteroid before he found himself in the desert, so he does have experiences to share.  The entire story is peppered with the different wisdoms and experiences of the prince, sending the messages that it is always important to listen to children, whether they be real people, or the internal child inside of all of us.

A good book for older tweens who will appreciate the philosophical underpinnings of this book.

ATOS Book Level: 5.0

AR Points: 2.0 

Review: The Sisters Impossible

The Sisters Impossible by James David Landis.  Random House Books for Young Readers.  1990.

Lily's parents want her to start ballet lessons.  Lily has no interest in taking ballet lessons.  Her older sister, Saundra, is the ballet dancer in the family.  Lily knows she'll never match up to Saundra's dancing abilities, so she sees no reason in trying.  Lily actually likes school and prefers to have her nose in a book than doing exercises on the barre.  However, her parents are not impressed by Lily's academic inclinations and want her to engage in an activity where she is actually doing something, an activity that will teach her discipline so she can apply it to all other parts of her life.  At first Lily hates ballet class and tries everything to get out of it, but as time goes on, she learns to respect the beauty of ballet.  Lily will never be as talented as Saundra, but she realizes this is okay.  Lily can still get a lot out of ballet without striving to be the best.  As Lily's appreciation for ballet grows, her relationship with Saundra blossoms.  Lily is there for Saundra when Saundra needs her support most, and Lily learns that it's the fact that you show up for the important things in life that counts, and the rest works itself out.

A book for 3rd to 9th graders.
No AR information available.  

Review: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling.  Scholastic.  1998.

Well, I blogged about the most recent movie in the Harry Potter saga, so I figured I should write a review of the book that started it all.  

Harry Potter lives with his mean aunt, uncle and cousin who shun and verbally abuse him.  On Harry's 11th birthday, a particular awful day when you're not loved by your family, a giant named Hagrid, to Harry's surprise and the horror of his family, takes Harry away.  Eventually, Harry winds up at Hogwarts School of Wizardry where he learns how to be a wizard and he learns more and more about why he is a very special wizard.  He becomes friends with Ron and Hermione, joins the his house's quiditch team and dedicates himself to finding the where abouts of the Philosopher's Stone.

Something that is appealing about Harry is that his life always seems to be the pits, thus making him empathic.  First, he's stuck with his awful relatives.  Then he discovers he is completely different from them, and not only that, he is special amongst his new found people.  However, being special is a double edged sword.  This story sets up how Harry will have to balance between holding great responsibilities as a mythic hero of sorts while being true and dependable to his friends.

A fun read for 4th to 9th graders.

ATOS Book Level: 5.5

AR Points: 12.0

The Brothers Known as Jonas

Like Miley Cyrus, I had only heard about the Jonas Brothers through second hand sources that were referencing popular culture.  I find this to be a strange phenomenon.  Maybe I'm living under a rock, but I do feel like I've had far more exposure to the work of celebrities like Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift, while Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers seem to be more representations of tween interest in pop culture.  So I watched a Jonas Brothers' video.  The first one to come up was for the song "Burnin Up".  It's been watched over 87 million times, so maybe I am living under a rock.

The video is actually quite comical.  The scenes go back and forth between the brothers singing poolside, to each brother imitating what I like to call "smooth heroes" from movies and TV from the 60's and 70's.  In the video the guys seem to have it all: they don't take themselves too seriously, play in a band and get lots of attention from girls.  They also make Justin Bieber look like the bad boy of tween music.  The interesting part is that their parodies of suave male characters from the 60's and 70's is supposed to be funny (and to a certain degree, it is), but there is also this underlying theme of having male characters who do everything right, nothing can possibly go wrong for them.  If something does go wrong, it's quickly remedied and the boys are back on the top of the world.  So, on the surface it's fun and light, but when these themes get replayed to a tween girl audience over and over again it does become worrisome.

Book Review: American Girl Dolls and Series

Meet Molly by Valerie Tripp.  American Girl Publishing.  1986.

American Girl is a brand that markets product to younger tween girls.  Once upon a time before this franchise took off, the American Girl Dolls were owned by the Pleasant Company and there were only books to go with the dolls.  These books helped create each doll's character, placing her in a distinct time in American history.  It was an interesting concept.  The dolls were somewhere between baby dolls and Barbies and were perfect for a young tween girl who wasn't quite through with all dolls yet.

An example of one of the American Girl Dolls who is a character in her own series is Molly.  She is a third grader living in Illinois during World War II.  Her father is a doctor who is in Europe serving in the military. Molly's mom is left to care for Molly, her sister Jill, and her brothers Ricky and Brad.  Molly's best friends Susan and Linda help keep things interesting as Molly tries to find the bright side in the hard times she and her family face.

Much like The Magic School Bus the narrative gives life to a history lesson a tween may otherwise uninteresting or not pertaining to anyone who is like them.

The American Girl Series is a great read for older 2nd graders to 5th grade.
ATOS Book Level: 4.2
AR Points: 1.0

How Would You Feel

Cyber bullying was in the news again a few months back.  In the light of extremely tragic events, it was encouraging to see messages from celebrities like Ellen De Generes and Chris Colfer to tweens and teens telling them that life does get better once you get older and have more choices about how to control your environment.

I saw these Ad Council PSAs on a blog I enjoy to read, and thought the message of dealing with the use of the word gay as a put down was a good one to consider.  Sometimes I think it's good to have a planned response to certain situations in the library that are unfortunately bound to come up.  This includes cursing, rowdiness and the putting down of those different from you.  With a planned response, I feel that I can put a fast stop to the situation at hand, giving me time to access the people involved and the reasons for way the situation is taking place.  In my personal experience, it's always effective to bring up what a tween's mother might think about the situation, no one likes embarrassing their mom.

Review: The Babysitter's Club Series

The Babysitters Club series by Ann M. Martin.  Scholastic.  1986-2000.

At our library, The Babysitters Club holds somewhat of a cult status.  The series is checked out by well read tween girls.  This is once again, a series that I feel has gone a little out of fashion because the last book in the series was published almost ten years ago, and the fact the realistic fiction is not as popular as the paranormal or fantasy genres.  Also, it seems that most contemporary realistic fiction needs a hint of quirky in the story line in order to be successful.  The BSC is from Stonybrook, Connecticut, and these girls just to not do hints of quirky.

However, with tween girls being the huge market that they are, and the fact that there really isn't a series about middle school girls with quite the breadth of the BSC, the first two books from the series (Kristy's Great Idea and Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls) were reissued in the middle of this past year.

The club is made up of Kristy, Mary Anne, Dawn, Claudia, Stacey, Mallory, Jessie and later on Abbey.  Mary Anne's boyfriend Logan and Kristy's good friend Shannon are also a part of the club as associate members.  The fun thing about the BSC is that they are always creating ways to hang out together for reasons to befit the club.  It doesn't hurt that Mary Anne and Dawn become step sisters over the series, and that many times the members of the club get to go on vacation together.    

Recommended for tween girls in 4th to 7th grade.
ATOS Book Level: 3.6  
AR Points: 4.0
 

Review: The Gardener

The Gardener by Sarah Stewart, illus. by David Small.  Farrar, Straus, Giroux.  1997.

Lydia Grace has been sent to Chicago to live with her cranky Uncle Jim.  It is the time of the Great Depression, and Lydia Grace's family does not have the resources to feed an extra mouth on the farm.  Lydia Grace is unsure if she will be able to do her favorite thing in the world while in the city: garden.  Through the letters she writes home we learn about Lydia Grace's time in the city.  She finds places to plant seeds, learns to bake and makes friends with everyone she meets.  She even gets Uncle Jim to come around by the end of the story when she has a special surprise for him on the roof of their apartment.    

I unfortunately always choke up a bit when I read this story for a read aloud.  However, it's interesting to see how young tweens respond to the concept of the Great Depression.  They are much more familiar with the idea of grown-ups being out of work than they might have been a few years ago, making the story of The Gardener that much more relevant to them.

Recommended for younger tweens.  A great book to read if a gardening project is getting started or in the works at school.

ATOS Book Level: 3.9

AR Points: 0.5

Review: Miss Rumphius

Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney.  Viking.  1982.

Something that is hopeful yet frustrating for tweens is that they have come into a time when they begin to question the world.  They question the actions of the authority figures around them (their family, their teachers) and wonder if their is any meaning to their place in the world.

The comforting yet challenging part of the story Miss Rumphius is that there is an answer to that overwhelming question.  Alice, the main character (who is Miss Rumphius as a young girl), has a few dreams up her sleeve.  She wants to travel the world, and when she grows old she wants to live by the ocean, but there is one other thing she must do.  "You must do something to make the world more beautiful," her grandfather instructs the young Alice.

Alice grows up to become a librarian (gotta love that part), until she earns enough money to travel the world.  After traveling far and wide she settles down in a house by the sea.  That is when she begins her final task of how to make the world a beautiful place.  The title of the story is an indication of what she comes up with for her plan.

I think this is a great story to read aloud to 3rd and 4th graders, to introduce them to Barbara Cooney's beautiful illustrations, and give them something to ponder about the lives they are creating for themselves.
ATOS Book Level: 3.8
AR Points: 0.5

Review: The Best Part of Me

The Best Part of Me: Children Talk about their Bodies in Pictures and Words compiled by Wendy Ewald.  Little Brown.  2002.

Wendy Ewald got started with the idea of teaching photography techniques to school children while she was still a photography student herself.  The photographs in The Best Part of Me are from Ewald's collaboration with the teachers and students of the public schools in Durham, North Carolina.  Ewald asked the students to choose their favorite body part.  Together, she and the student would create a composition for this body part in order to make a portrait.  The student would then write an accompanying explanation for the portrait to explain what they liked about their mouth, hands, feet, elbow, or whatever part they had chosen.  It's wonderful to read and see how these students take ownership of their bodies, and through doing this take ownership of their beings.  They root themselves by connecting their characteristics to family members, or past experiences or positive words.

What's very cool is that other classes have been inspired by this book.  Teachers can also attend a Literacy Through Photography workshop that is offered through Duke University's Center for Documentary Studies, where Ewald is a professor.

Now that We're on the Subject

Another resolution I want to make, this being December and all, for my blog and for my professional reading habits is to begin reading through all of the Newbery Award Winners.  I feel like this will provide me a good sense of structure and a solid foundation when it comes to being confident in approaching our JF and YA collections.  The nice part is that I now have a space to track the titles I will be reading.  A space where I can also offer feedback and develop hook lines for when I give book talks on these titles.  I have read some of the winners already (A Year Down Yonder, Hatchet and The Giver) as well as Newbery Nominees like The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg.

Sometimes it feels like there isn't much structure to being a children's librarian.  We have a different set of programs that tend to be belittled by other members of the library staff and are in a completely different wing of the library anyway.  It is important to read the children's classics, but it doesn't seem to hold the relevancy with the patron population (the kids) as it would if it was about having knowledge of the adult fiction collection.  The Newbery winners have prestige, like the classics, by being recognized for their potential of being eventual classics and have content that is more relevant to tweens today.  I think reading more Newbery winners will give me the same feeling of validation that I get when I simply walk to a certain shelf of nonfiction books without looking up the subject's number.  It's a more efficient use of time, and sets up a more opportune moment to match the patron up with the perfect book.

Brown Paper Bags

You can't judge a book by its cover, but many of us do.

As this blog winds down to a close for my Tween Literature class, I want to make some plans for the future to give me reason to continue blogging here.  This place has become a nice archive for me to stash things (reflections, book reviews, websites) I find handy in terms of my work at the library.  I want to try and read more obscure books that maybe do not get the same amount of light as certain best sellers.  Yes, I loved Diary of a Wimpy Kid and know that I need to keep reading popular novels to stay current with what my patrons are reading, but what about when they have read all that they can read from the popular series and want more?  This is where the Ugly Book Contest comes into play.   

In her book Naked Reading Teri S. Lesesne brings up this idea she got from a fellow teacher and librarian in Texas.  The librarian looks for books that have truly awful covers (we've all seen the ones), and puts these books on display for students to choose, read and redecorate in order to make the books' outsides as fabulous as their insides.

At the public library, we don't have quite the captive audience to redecorate all the bad book covers, but when I'm giving book talks to patrons I do have enough of their attention to make a case for a book with a bad cover.  If I can find a good hook for a book with a strong plot there may be a chance that a patron just may take it home to give it a try.  I have noticed with book talks in general that patrons tend to be first captivated by the cover but always make their final choice based on the most interesting sounding plot line.  So, in the end, what's on the inside does count.