As I’ve reflected back over the semester of reading I’ve done for my professional reading postings I’ve noticed that through these postings I’ve had to delve deeper into topics and issues that previously were just words or surface issues. But having read more about bullying and cyberbulling, image issues, standardized testing, etc I’ve solidified thoughts and feelings on the subjects and viewed each topic through the lens of librarianship rather than just an impersonal observer, and have come to conclusions and come up with ideas on how to combat some of these issues in my professional life. All of the topics discussed figure prominently in the lives of tweens, their peers and even their parents (all of whom can be library patrons at some point), and it is beneficial to know about, understand and even have an opinion on these topics so that when/if someone comes looking for information or help we are prepared to provide it. After reading some of the articles I did, I looked at my nieces and nephews through a new lens, and found myself asking them questions about their reading tastes, interactions with their peers, bullying/cyberbullying, and many other topics, and gained valuable insight into how very changed the world is today from when I was in their shoes not so many years ago. As librarians, and possibly parents, we need to know about and be willing to be open to the changes in the lives of our tweens rather than dismissing their concerns because “that’s not the way it was when I was a kid.”
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
The Giver
Author: Lois Lowry
ISBN: 0440237688
Publisher: Laurel Leaf, 2002
Age: 9-12
Genre: Science Fiction
Summary: Jonas’s world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear or pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the Community. This is a world in which the old live in group homes and are “released” – to great celebration – when the time is right; the few infants who do not develop according to schedule are also “released,” but with no fanfare. When Jonas turns twelve, he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now it’s time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back. He discovers the disturbing truth about his utopian world and struggles against the weight of its hypocrisy, and after learning more he decides that he cannot pay the price.
Read A-Likes: Messenger; Gathering Blue; Number the Stars; and The Boy Who Dared.
Inkheart
New Line Cinema
2009
Rated PG
Summary: When Mo Folchart spends his time looking for a book. Not just any book, but one specific book. Inkheart. Nine years ago he learned that when he reads a story, the characters leap off the page. Literally. And that’s a problem because when he reads someone out, someone must go in…and his wife, Risa, disappeared the last time he read out loud. Now Mo, along with his daughter Meggie, is on the hunt for the last copy of Inkheart to read his beloved Risa back out again. With the help, and interference, of other characters from Inkheart, and even the author himself, Mo must somehow use his special powers to send the interlopers back to their world and save ours.
Similar Movies: The Chronicles of Narnia; The Golden Compass; The Spiderwick Chronicles; and Nim’s Island.
Personal Thoughts: This movie was fabulous! Not having read the book myself I understand that it does not exactly follow the story line of the book, but is a cute movie all the same. An imaginative story that literally “bring to life” books.
The Girls' Book of Glamour: A Guide to Being a Goddess
Author: Sally Jeffrie
ISBN: 0545085373
Publisher: Scholastic, 2009
Age: 9-12
Genre: Non-fiction
Summary: Transform yourself from drab to fab with this nifty guide to all things glamorous! Whether you want to have the shiniest hair or convince people you’re a celebrity, this book will show you how. Being a glamour goddess has never been so easy. Inside this handy guide you’ll find instructions on how to host a spa party, create your own style, exit a limo gracefully, make your own body glitter, persuade your best friend to lend you her clothes, put on a fashion show, make your own jewelry box, and so much more.
Read A-likes: The Double Daring Book for Girls; The Girls’ Book of Friendship; The Girls’ Book: How To Be the Best At Everything; and The Daring Book for Girls.
Personal Thoughts: This book is not only for little girls, but has some really fun ideas for girls of any age! A fun idea would be to take some of the easier ideas and use them for a girl’s only library programming night! My sister’s, nieces and mom are already planning a girl’s night with some of the fun ideas in this book!
Snow White and Rose Red
Author: Patricia C. Wrede
ISBN: 0142411213
Publisher: Firebird, 2009
Age: 9-12
Genre: Fairy Tales, Fantasy
Summary: The Queen of Faerie has two half mortal sons. Hugh is content to stay in Faerie, but John feels compelled to roam mortal lands, returning home to visit between Hallowe’en and May Eve. Then, because the beautiful but willful spirit Madini wishes to see all ties between Faerie and mortal lands severed forever, he is forbidden to leave home again. Snow White and Rose Read live on the edge of the forest that conceals the ever-shifting, elusive border of Faerie. They know enough about Faerie lands and mortal magic to be most concerned when they find two human sorcerers setting spells near the Faerie border on the day of All Hallows. And when the kindly, intelligent black bear wanders into their cottage some months later, they do not realize the connection between his plight and the sorcery they saw in the forest.
Read A-likes: A Matter of Magic; Princess of the Midnight Ball; The Thirteenth Child; The Seven Towers; and Princess of Glass.
Personal Thoughts: An interesting, fun, and complex adaptation of a familiar fairy tale.
Demeter & Persephone: Spring Held Hostage
Author: Justine & Ron Fontes
ISBN: 0822559668
Publisher: Graphic Universe, 2007
Age: 9-12
Genre: Graphic novel
Summary: The goddess Demeter is loved by all for her warmth and bounty. But no one is closer to Demeter’s own heart than her beautiful daughter, Persephone. When Persephone disappears one day, Demeter searches everywhere. She discovers that Persephone was kidnapped by Hades, the god of the Underworld. Demeter is filled with sorrow, and a permanent winter falls on the land. Can Demeter rescue her daughter from the Underworld? Can the gods and goddess of Mount Olympus convince Demeter to bring back spring and summer? Demeter and Hades finally settle on a compromise: Persephone will spend 1/3 of the year in the Underworld with Hades and the rest with her mother, which is where the four seasons come from. It is winter when Persephone is with Hades in the Underworld.
Read A-likes: Atalanta: The Race Against Destiny; Hercules: The Twelve Labors; The Trojan Horse: The Fall of Troy; Jason: Quest for the Golden Fleece; and Psyche and Eros: The Lady and the Monster.
Personal Thoughts: These graphic novels, while not award worthy writing, are a fun and interesting way to learn the Greek myths. The illustrations are very much in the popular style and are bright and fun. My 10 year old niece has now read every one of this series of graphic novels and it’s helped her understand better “The Lightning Thief”, which she is also reading.
The Boy Who Dared
Author: Susan Campbell Bartoletti
ISBN: 0439680131
Publisher: Scholastic Press, 2008
Age: 9-12
Genre: Historical fiction
Summary: Just as the Nazis are rising to power, Helmuth Hubener, a German schoolboy, is caught up in all the swashbuckling bravado of his time. The handsome stormtrooper uniforms, the shiny jackboots and armbands, the rousing patriotism – all serve to draw him into this bright new world full of promise and hope. In the beginning his patriotism is unwavering. But every day the rights of people all over Germany are diminishing. Jews are threatened and their businesses are being destroyed. The truth has been censored, and danger lurks everywhere. Anybody can turn on you. The world has turned upside down, Patriotism means denouncing others, love means hate, and speaking out means treason. How much longer can Helmuth keep silent? Written in flashback style as 17 year old Helmuth awaits his execution in 1942 for resistance to the Nazi’s.
Read A-likes: Yellow Star; The Diary of Anne Frank; and Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow.
Personal Thoughts: This book is a gripping read based on the true life story of Helmuth Hubener, a Hitler Youth during World War II Germany. This is the story of a young boy that, even at the threat of death, could not remain silent and do nothing to stop what he knew was wrong. A good book for all, but especially for boys as it shows the friendship between boys, and teaches about hard decisions. A good book for teaching young readers how to stand up for what they know is right even when the world says different and consequences can be severe. Included in the back of the book are pictures of Helmuth Hubener, his family, friends and even the execution chamber where he was executed; as well as historical information about Nazi Germany and World War II in general.
The Charm Bracelet
Author: Emily Rodda
ISBN: 0060095830
Publisher: HarperCollins,
Age: 8 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Summary: When Jessie visits her grandmother at beautiful Blue Moon, she discovers an amazing secret, and enters the Realm for the first time. Fairies, elves, tiny horses and all kinds of magical beings live in the Realm. A noble Queen in a great golden palace rules them all. A high hedge keeps out dangerous creatures. But the Realm is in terrible danger from an old enemy. Jessie must outwit an evil enemy and save the land before it is destroyed forever.
Read A-likes: The Flower Fairies and The Third Wish.
Personal Thoughts: This book, while definitely on the younger end of the scale, is a fun and charming read. Very imaginative and well written. It is the first book in a series entitled “Fairy Realm” written by the same author, and are wildly popular with young girls. Young Jessie learn all about choices and the consequences of those choices.
Catherine Called Birdy
Author: Karen Cushman
ISBN: 0064405842
Publisher: HarperCollins, 1995
Age: 9-12
Genre: Historical fiction
Summary: Fourteen year old, Catherine feels trapped. Her father is determined to marry her off to a rich man – any rich man, no matter how awful. Her mother wants her to be a lady trained, and her brother Edward taught her to read and write because even girls shouldn’t be ignorant. But by wit, trickery, and luck, Catherine manages to send several would-be husbands packing. Then a shaggy-bearded suitor from the north comes to call – by far the oldest, ugliest, most revolting suitor of them all. Unfortunately, he is also the richest. Can a sharp-tongued, high-spirited, clever young maiden with a mind of her own actually lost the battle against an ill-mannered, pig-like lord and an unimaginative, greedy toad of a father?
Read A-likes: The Midwife’s Apprentice; The Door in the Wall; and The Shakespeare Stealer.
Personal Thoughts: This book is so amusing, but not at all what one would expect from a book set in Elizabethan times. Catherine is a sharp tongued, clever and adventurous young woman that revolts against the life expected of her. The book is written in diary format, which makes it an easy read, but also gives it a more personal, realistic feel.
Ivan the Terrible: Tsar of Death
Author: Sean Price
ISBN: 0531205002
Publisher: Children’s Press, 2008
Publisher: Children’s Press, 2008
Age: 9-12
Genre: Non-fiction
Summary: Ivan was orphaned at seven and left at the mercy of ruthless nobles. Surrounded by violence, all the young prince could do was watch. Then, Ivan grew up – and ruled Russia with a cruelty that made the nobles look like saints. As Russia’s first tsar, Ivan the Terrible forced thousands from their homes. He tortured spies and executed enemies. In his final decent into madness he even killed his own son. Before Ivan died, he obsessively wrote down every single one of his victims. The list was thousands of names long.
Read A-likes: Vlad the Impaler: The Real Count Dracula; Genghis Khan: 13th Century Mongolian Tyrant; Hannibal: Rome’s Worst Nightmare; Napoleon: Emperor and Conqueror; Alexander the Great: Master of the Ancient World; Attila the Hun: Leader of the Barbarian Hordes; Sir Francis Drake: Slave Trader and Pirate; and Henry VIII: Royal Beheader.
Personal Thoughts: This book is part of a new non-fiction series called A Wicked History. This series takes many of the infamous villains from history and tells their stories. These books aren’t long, but contain a very good, condensed look at the lives and acts of each villain. These books are very popular with young boys, but are interesting to read even for adults.
Heidi
Author: Johanna Spyri
ISBN: 0517189674
Publisher: Children’s Classics, 1998
Age: 9-12
Genre: Classics, Adventure
Summary: Heidi lives with her aunt Dete, but when Dete gets a position in Frankfurt she is unable to take Heidi with her. Instead she is to go live in the mountains with her grandfather. Grandfather is at first unhappy to see Heidi. He is unsure of how he will entertain her or even where she will sleep. Heidi joyfully finds a little spot in the hayloft and makes herself at home on the hay. She loves to gaze out the window at the valley below. Grandfather shares her love of the beauty of the mountain and begins to appreciate her sweet spirit. As the months pass, Heidi makes friends with Peter, the shepherd boy, and his grandmother. She visits them regularly and brings joy to all she comes into contact with. Aunt Dete becomes engaged and returns for Heidi. Her fiancé is looking for a friend for his daughter, Klara, who is confined to a wheelchair. Heidi is deeply saddened to leave the mountain but must obey her aunt. While in Frankfurt, she learns to read and becomes close with Klara. But Heidi misses her grandfather and the beauty of the mountain. Her sadness makes her ill. She is unable to eat and becomes frail and thin. She is then sent back to live on the mountain with her grandfather and is elated to be home again.
Read A-likes: Secret Garden; Black Beauty; Little Women; Anne of Green Gables; and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
Hatchet
Author: Gary Paulsen
ISBN: 1416936475
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Book for Young Readers, 2006
Age: 10-14
Genre: Adventure
Genre: Adventure
Summary: Thirteen year old Brian Robeson is on his way to spend the summer with his father when the single engine plane in which he is flying crashes because the pilot suffers a heart attack. Suddenly, Brian finds himself alone in the Canadian wilderness with nothing but a tattered windbreaker and the hatchet his mother gave him as a going away present – and the dreadful secret that has been tearing him apart since his parents’ divorce. But now Brian has no time for anger, self pity, or despair – it will take all his know-how and determination, and more courage than he knew he possessed, to survive.
Read A-likes: Brian’s Winter; Brian’s Return; Brian’s Hunt; Julie of the Wolves; and My Side of the Mountain.
Personal Thoughts: This book is raw and realistic, but so fantastic! I read this many years ago as a teen and I remember the impact it had on me. I had read and loved other survival stories like My Side of the Mountain and Julie of the Wolves, but this book is so much more personal than those books. This feels real. Like a real life account rather than a clever story written to entertain. This book deals not only with survival, but also with the emotions that accompany divorce, and how it tears apart kids as well as the parents. A very complex and well written book that I consistently suggests to tweens and teens, especially boys.
The Black Stallion
Author: Walter Farley
ISBN: 0679813497
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers, 1991
Age: 9-12
Genre: Adventure
Summary: Young Alec Ramsey first saw the Black Stallion when his ship docked at a small Arabian port on the Red Sea while returning to America from India. The giant horse was rearing high into the air, and his front legs struck out viciously at the men trying to get him aboard the ship. Alec suddenly realized that he was looking at a stallion unbroken and untamed. At this point little did Alec dream that the mighty black horse was destined to play a vital part in his young life, and that a strange understanding would grown between them and lead them through many incredible adventures, from the nightmare of a shipwreck to the triumph of a great race in America.
Read A-likes: The Black Stallion Returns; Son of the Black Stallion; The Island Stallion; and Black Stallion and Satan.
Julie of the Wolves
Author: Jean Craighead George
ISBN: 0064400581
Publisher: Harper Collins, 1997
Age: 9-12
Genre: Realistic fiction, Adventure
Summary: To her small Eskimo village, she is known as Miyax; to her pen pal in San Francisco, she is Julie. When she runs away from her husband’s parents’ home she soon finds herself lost in the Alaskan wilderness, without food, without even a compass to guide her. Slowly she is accepted by a pack of Arctic wolves, and she grows to love them as though they were family. With their help, and drawing on her father’s teachings, Miyax struggles day by day to survive, and find out who she is…Miyax or Julie. But the time comes when she must leave the wilderness and choose between the old ways and the new. Which will she choose? Miyax of the Eskimos – or Julie of the Wolves?
Read A-likes: Julie; Julie’s Wolf Pack; Island of the Blue Dolphins; and My Side of the Mountain.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Violet Eyes
Author: Debbie Viguie
ISBN: 1416986766
Publisher: Simon Pulse, 2010
Age: 9 and up
Genre: Fairy tales
Read A-likes: Golden; Before Midnight; The World Above; and Belle.
Personal Thoughts: This book is part of a series “Once Upon A Time is Timeless” and one of my favorites! In this book the author takes a traditional fairy tale, in this case the Princess and the Pea, and gives it a new spin. You find yourself rooting for not only Violet, the main character, but you get to know and love some of the other princesses that are competing for the hand of the prince. There is much more complexity to these stories than the original fairy tales, and they also are written in a more “kid friendly” fashion, which makes them more interesting to kids, as well as easier to read. Good, clean, happy fun!
Chalice
Author: Robin McKinley
ISBN: 0399246762
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile, 2008
Age: 9 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Summary: Mirasol is a beekeeper. She tends her small woodlot in an obscure corner of Willowlands, and looks after her bees. The earthlines speak to her, but this is not unusual; they speak to many members of the old families. The concerns of Master, Chalice, and their Circle, who govern Willowlands, are nothing to do with her, although the rumors of this Master’s wildness, and his Chalice’s inability to bind him with their Circle, are troubling. And then the Master and Chalice die in a fire – and Willowlands is thrown into chaos, for the Master and Chalice left no heir to take their places. The Circle sends for the Master’s younger brother who was training with the priest of Fire, but because of his years with them he is no longer quite human. Mirasol hears the news and fears for the future of Willowlands, but she is preoccupied with her own difficulties: her goats are fountaining milk, and her bees are producing so much honey it is pouring out of their hives. And then the Circle comes to her cottage to tell her that she is to be the new Chalice, and it will be up to her to bind the land and its people with a Master the touch of whose hand can burn human flesh to the bone.
Read A-likes: The Blue Sword; Fire: Tales of Elemental Spirits; Pegasus; Dragonhaven; and Sunshine.
King Arthur: Excalibur Unsheathed
Author: Jeff Limke
ISBN: 082253083X
Publisher: Graphic Universe, 2006
Age: 9-12
Genre: Graphic novel
Summary: England was a country in chaos. The king had died leaving no heir, but instead left a sword in a stone with the inscription that whoever pulled the sword out of the stone was the rightful kind of England. Young Arthur came to London for a tournament with his father, Lord Ector and brother, Sir Kay, and met Merlin at Westminster where they had gone to see the sword in the stone. When Kay’s sword goes missing Arthur runs and pulls the sword from the stone and takes it back to Kay. Other’s recognize the sword and demand to know where he got it from. He showed them that he could remove the sword and so became the king. He grows up with the help and advice of many advisors including Merlin, successfully fights his first battle, meets Guinivere, his future wife, and received Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake.
Read A-likes: Robin Hood; Perseus: The Hunt for Medusa’s Head; Demeter & Persephone: Spring Held Hostage; Theseus: Battling the Minotaur; Psyche & Eros: The Lady and the Monster; and Odysseus: Escaping Poseidon’s Curse.
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