Cynthia Lord of Rules

I've already mentioned how much I love Cynthia Lord's book Rules. It won a Newbery honor and a Schneider Family Book Award (for raising awareness of a disability). The book is very powerful.

Over at her journal/blog, Ms. Lord writes about winning the Newbery and what it means to her. This is an especially important book since she has a son with autism and a daughter who inspired the main character.

Reviews of Mock Newbery candidates

This is a bit anti-climatic in the event of the announcement of the actual awards, but I typed up most of this before the awards were announced, just hadn't posted it yet.

In a previous post, I posted results for the various mock awards. In the spirit of continuing to earn library 2.0 prizes and sharing, I am going to explain in greater detail what happened at our Mock Newbery and give (brief) reviews and thoughts on the books.

Unlike the real committee, we couldn't all read all of the books out in the year. Instead we focused on a short list chosen because of good reviews and availability. It is a sad truth that libraries don't always receive books in a timely fashion. In theory everyone there, and we had about 14 people, had read all of the books. In reality everyone read as many of them as they could. We then went around and discussed each book in turn. We then did a round of voting for which ones would stay on the table to be still considered. I have bolded and starred* those below which made it past our first cut. Here are my thoughts on them and some of our discussions. Very brief reviews because there are so many of them.

Mock Newbery Nominees:

• The Wright 3 by Blue Balliet
  Summary in brief: Three kids solve a mystery to save a Frank Lloyd Wright house. It's a sequel to Chasing Vermeer which I haven't read.
  Review: I didn't like this book. To be fair, I don't like mysteries. However I thought this book just dragged on and on. I was listening to it on CD and it was like pulling teeth to get through it. The author could not decide if she was writing a mystery or a supernatural mystery and it was confusing as it veered between the two. The only good part about the book was the developing relationship between the three kids. At the end, all of the resolution came very quickly without warning. It was far too abrupt and jarred the reader. Of course then the book continued on for chapters with little points. Other people liked the book (a little) better than me, but not much.
  
• Ask Me No Questions by Marina Budhos*
  Summary in brief: After 9/11 a Muslim family living illegally in the United States tries to go to Canada only to have the father arrested and tried.
  Review: People thought this book was fabulous. I thought it was okay. It was timely and it is nice to seek a book from the Muslim point of view. The author did a good job of showing the grey areas of the law, that the family understood that they had been breaking the law for years by staying on an expired visa. I'm not sure how readable this book will be in fifty years. While it made it past our first round, it didn't get many votes.
  
• Victory by Susan Cooper*
  Summary in brief: Two stories told side by side in differing views, one of a modern girl who has moved from England to America and is having trouble adjusting and one of a boy pressed into the English Royal Navy in 1803 aboard the ship Victory.
  Review: I had not read this at the time of the discussion, but I have since finished it. I liked it very much. The naval history was amazing. I believe the book would appeal to both girls and boys. Our only male at our discussion pushed hard for this book. Flaws: the girl's story is not as fleshed out, and the supernatural vision that brings them together at the end is a little unrealistic.
  
• Loud Silence of Francine Green by Karen Cushman
  Summary in brief: A girl growing up in California in the middle of the Red Scare meets a new friend, learns about thinking for yourself, standing up for what is right, and the Hollywood blacklist.
  Reviews: I thought this was a very good book. The character was an 8th grader which is exactly when children really start to question that which their parents are teaching them. The questioning of the daughter and increasing fear and confusion of everyone in her life is shown in exactly the right amount of downward sliding slope and scale. Some of the people felt that the Catholic school nuns were depicted too harshly from their experiences, however others felt it was pretty accurate from their experiences. I liked this book a great deal and felt it would appeal to girls in about the fifth or sixth grade. It bored one of my coworkers. However, it wasn't spectacular and nothing that deserved the Newbery Medal.
  
• The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo*
  Summary in brief: A chnia rabbit is greatly loved by his owner and he only cares for himself. Eventually he is separated from her, goes through a great journey, and learns to love.
  Reviews: No question about it, Ms. DiCamillo can write. This book is fabulous, beautiful. It has the feel of a classic, very much as The Velveteen Rabbit is. Our male member thought that this book was too "precious" a book that appeals to middle aged women (who lets face it are the ones giving the awards for the most part) and they hope it appeals to kids. The school librarians said the kids are split on love/hate it. So are many of the adults. I loved the illustrations, except for the one illustration that looks like a crucification. While the ending seemed predictable (and trite) to me (though I loved it and cried, but I'm a sucker who cries at Hallmark commercials), others were surprised by it. I feel like this book should get some sort of award or we're ignoring something really obvious.
  
• Weedflower by Cynthia Kadhata
  Summary: A Japanese girl in an internment camp during WWII.
  Review: I haven't read this one. No one liked it well enough to keep it on the table.
  
• Monkey Town by Ronald Kidd
  Summary in brief: A girl comes of age while her town is in the middle of the Scopes Monkey Trial and she begins to doubt her father who organized it and everything she has been taught.
  Review: It was well written and very largely based on historical fact. The largest change was that the main character was quite younger in real life than in the book. The author's note is fantastic, possibly the best part of the book. I can't remember reading a lot of historical fiction books about this particular subject which makes it unique and valuable. However I felt that some of the author's slams against Christianity were unnecessarily harsh and unwarranted to make his point.
  
• Year of the Dog by Grace Lin
  Summary in brief: A year in the life of a Taiwanese-American girl adjusting to the United States and American lifestyle.
  Review: The Newbery medal is awarded for the most distinguished piece of children's literature. Many of the books on this list are distinguished. This one is a nice book, a sweet book, and completely not distinguished. No one at our session had much of anything to say about it past that. I am not sure why it was on our list. Good points: based on the author's own experiences and the picture book the character writes in the story is an actual picture book the author has written. That's a fun tie in.
  
• Rules by Cynthia Lord*
  Summary in brief: A girl tries to help her autistic brother learn to deal with the world by writing rules for him. She also tries to make a new friend, lead a normal life, and reconcile her feelings for a handicapped boy she has recently met.
  Review: I loved this book. It was my favorite on the list (before I read Victory and it is still my favorite, but it a close thing) and I fought hard for it. The rates of autistic children (or at least the rates of diagnosis) are increasing in our society. More and more of these children are being mainstreamed into classrooms. It is very possible that students will know or know of an autistic child. The book was at times funny and heartbreakingly poignant. (Now did that sound like a cliched movie review or what?) It is amazing to watch the main character deal with her feelings for brother and her attempts to be normal and have normal friends. These things aren't easy to reconcile and Catherine doesn't always do it perfectly. The ending isn't perfect, but she does grow, and it is real. I think everyone should read this book.
  
• Gossamer by Lois Lowry*
  Summary in brief: Two magical creatures give dreams to an old woman and an abused boy.
  Review: Well, when I summarize it like that, it doesn't sound like much. But it is. Ms. Lowry has once again taken a slim volume and created a masterful work. As the creatures discover their existence and point of view they struggle to create nice dreams for their charges. They also go up against the creatures that give nightmares. It is a well-fleshed out book for being so short a tome and well written and distinguishe. Our only male representitive thought it was again too precious.
  
• Out of Patience by Brian Meehl*
  Summary in brief: Jake lives in a dying town in Western Kansas. There is a propehcy that the town will be destroyed when the plunger of destiny returns.
  Review: I loved this book. It's fun and funny. I fought for this one too, but not as hard as for Rules.
  
• Jazz by Walter Dean Myers
  Summary in brief: A collection of poems about Jazz music.
  Review: It's pretty and the poems are nice, but this book didn't quite jive for me. I'm not sure why, but it seemed like something I've before time and again.
  
• Dear Miss Breed by Joanne Oppenheim
  Summary in brief: The true story of a librarian who kept in touch with many of her former students after they had been taken to internment camps for being Japanese during WWII.
  Review: I skimmed this book to be honest. It seemed pretty good.
  
• Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich by Adam Rex
  Summary in brief: A series of poems about various monsters.
  Review: Cute, I especially liked the ones where the Phantom of Menace can't get various silly tunes out of his head. It's a picture book basically, and not particularly noteworthy.
  
• Bella At Midnight by Diane Stanley*
  Summary in brief: A girl grows up in a kingdom during a time of war as a best friend of a prince. She discovers she is actually not a commoner and helps to overcome the war and help her friend the prince.
  Review: Loved this book. I kept trying to make it a traditional fairy tale, and that never quite worked. There were definitely elements of one fairy tale or the other, but it isn't a specific fairy tale. The magic elements worked as did the human elements. I book talked this book sucessfully to fifth and sixth grade kids.
  
• Counting on Grace by Elizabeth Winthrop*
  Summary in brief: Grace is a mill worker in a cotton mill. She struggles to balance her desire to help support her family with her desire to better herself.
  Review: I love historical fiction so I am pre-disposed to like it. I loved this book, thought it was wonderful. And the author's note is amazing. The author's note is the best part of the book.
  Optional:
  
• Toys Go Out by Emily Jenkins
  
• The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by M. T. Anderson
  

Library 2.0

My library, the amazing and wonderful Kansas City Public Library, is entering the world of Library 2.0. Step one in our version of Library 2.0 is to create a blog. I've been blogging for years over at another site as a personal blog. (Though some library stuff ends up there). I created this last September to be a more professional blog. Fortunately I am able to use it for Library 2.0. It by the way looks really odd to put a period at the end of 2.0 to finish a sentence. From now on I think I will try to avoid using 2.0 at the end of a sentence. I am also one of the people at my branch who is the answer-technical-questions contact for all these fun and exciting things. The only thing on the list I've never done is create a runescape character. I've never done that or any sort of RPG or MMRPG (I am pretty sure I just messed up that acronym), but it should be fun and I'm looking forward to it. It will help me relate to the kids in my library, understand what they're doing, and solidify my geek status.

Now why am I doing Library 2.0?

1. It is a fun excuse to play with this stuff at work.
   
2. I get free stuff for doing so
   
3. I'm betting there is more stuff I can learn. I love technology and geeky stuff like this and want to learn more.
   

Mock Awards: Caldecott, Newbery, Coretta Scott King

Tis the season...
The holidays are over and children's book award season is upon us! In the last week, I've been to three different mock sessions. These were metro-wide events but attracted people from outside the Kansas City area too. They're great because I get to see so many of my fellow children's librarians (who I won't see again for months and months). It's always fun to spend an afternoon with people who like me are willing to debate endlessly the finer details of children's lit and illustrations. I'll try to blog later and in more detail about them, but here, in brief, are our winners.

Mock Caldecott (held at Antioch branch of Johnson County Library)

Winner:
Good Boy, Fergus! by David Shannon

Honor Books:
I Saw an Ant on the Railroad Track by Joshua Prince
Mama: A True Story by Jeanette Winter
Winter is teh Warmest Season by Lauren Stringer

Mock Newbery (held at Oak Park branch of Johnson County Library)

Winner:
Gossamer by Lois Lowry

Honor Books:
Rules by Cynthia Lord

Mock Coretta Scott King (held at Plaza branch of Kansas City Public Library)

Winner (Illustrator award):
Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom illustrated by Kadir Nelson; written by Carole Boston Weatherford

Honor Books:
My Feet Are Laughing illustrated by Frank Morrison; written by Lissette Norman
My Pop Pop and Me illustrated by Cathy Ann Johnson; written by Irene Smalls
Welcome, Precious illustrated by Bryan Collier; written by Nikki Grimes
Bessie Smith and the Night Riders illustrated by John Holyfield; written by Sue Stauffacher

That's our choices! Stay tuned for more details and my thoughts on some of the books.

When political correctness meets a child

In my library we (by which I mean I) do a book club for lower elementary school students. The kids are ages 5-8 and we read a simple chapter book. The youngest ones, well I suspect their parents read it to them, but that is just fabulous. We meet twice a month. There is some book discussion, a game, an activity or craft, snack, etc. It's a ton of fun and I love it. For the last discussion we were talking about holiday traditions, and I was being my typical librarian politically correct self and saying "Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa". One little girl (interuptted) asked, "What is Kwanzaa?" I was focused on the child whose turn it was and so didn't answer in time. Another child answered explaining Kwanzaa thusly, "I think it is something vegetarians don't do." I was laughing too hard at first to correct her. One of the kids present does celebrate Kwanzaa so I asked him to explain it. His explanation: "we go to this place and they talk for a long time and then they light a candle; I don't like it, it's boring." I added some explanation about the candles and the symbolism of African-American heritage and then wisely steered the conversation away. Fortunately my Jewish attendee had more fond memories of Hanukkah to share, and my Muslim boy talked cheerfully about Ramadan (yes it is not in December this year, but equal time), and then we had some happy Christmas stories. It's a great group, fairly diverse, and fun. And now you know that Kwanzaa is for vegetarians, carnivores, and omnivores alike!

Cross posted various places in other blogs.

Animal Movement Storytime

I really do intend to do update this more than once a month, at least eventually. Today's storytime was a great deal of fun. I did this storytime with my Tiny Tykes/Toddlers which in my library we define as 18-36 months though we allow a lot of leeway. I had some older kids (3 year-olds) and some younger ones (15 months) and they all seemed to enjoy it. I'm not sure how it would work with five year-olds, but it was a big hit with my crowd. Part of why it works is how interactive it is. This storytime, these books, these songs flow well and beg for children to interact with them. Here's a storytime plan:

Theme: Move Like the Animals

Opening: Open like you normally do. You hopefully have a routine established with a song, a rhyme etc. In my library we sing two songs and I introduce myself (not a week goes by without new people) and the theme of the storytime. We usually also do a sign that goes with the theme. This week I used the sign for animals.

First Book: From Head to Toe by Eric Carle
This is a classic book and perfect in this setting. The words are repetitive and invite the children to try out the motions which get progressively more elaborate. MOst of the children stayed sitting during this, though there were some who stood for more expansive movement.

Song: Hokey Pokey!
Okay, I admit, there is no animal movement in this song. But it is fun. It is a whole lot of fun. I used a version from a collection of 100 Favorite Kids Songs. Use whichever version you can. Do listen to it first to make sure you have an idea of what order the parts come in. I recommend you stay away from Little Richard's version. It's a bit too crazy, too much his style, and too fast. It is actually kind of scary. Now the kids (and parents probably) are up and moving. Tell them to stay standing for the next book.

Book: Animal Fun by Zita Newcome (from the Toddlerobics series)
This book follows a toddler aerobics class as they do various movements. It directs your toddlers to do the movements too. I did them (for the most part) with the book balanced in one hand. At the end of the book, the kids are directed to lie down on the ground, wiggle like a worm, and take deep breaths. It is a great way to ground them for the next activity.

Song: Old MacDonald
I sang this to go with the animal theme. There are a lot of great animal action fingerplays and motion rhymes or other songs. But a few verses of Old MacDonald never went wrong.

Book: We've All Got Bellybuttons!
We love this book at my library! Big colorful pictures, and great inclusionary dialogue. And of course at the end, the parents tickle the children and all is well.

Song: Shake Your Sillies Out by Raffi
Okay, once again, not to do with animals. But it is fun and kids can dance and move. You can skip this song and go straight to your closing routine if you wish or substitute for another motion rhyme.

Closing: Close as you normally would. We use If you're happy and you know it.

We had so much fun with this with the dancing and moving and jumping. I was winded by the end and the kids were beaming. Even the littlest guy was bopping along.

Other books:
I found these titles better as display. I try to leave some books out on the same theme to encourage parents to go home with a book. And of course I try to have extra copies of the storytime titles so we can take those home too.
Monkey See, Monkey Do: An Animal Exercise Book for You! by Anita Holsonback and Deb Adamson
Babar's Yoga for Elephants by Laurent De Brunhoff
Wiggle Waggle by Jonathan London - this is a good one to substitute in storytime too

Craft: Not everyone does a craft, but we do. We made a simple elephant but his legs attached by brads (all cutting and brad attaching was done in advance by volunteers) so the elephant could "dance". The kids colored him and glued his head to his body. Perfect.

Eoin Colfer

I am a huge fan of Eoin Colfer, especially his Artemis Fowl series. A few years ago I played Holly Short in a brief "teaser" style adaptation of his second book in that series at the Arizona Festival of the Book. Recently I listened to Artemis Fowl: Opal Deception on CD. For years I've been pronouncing his first name (yes he's Irish) as Americans are wont to pronounce Ian, but on the CD it sounds more like Americans pronounce the name Owen. Oops. I'm trying to change it in my head. There is a fifth book in the series now (not including the companion book, The Fowl Files) entitled Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony.

Review of Opal Deception
I believed that at the end of the previous book, Colfer had written himself into a hole, but a very interesting hole. Artemis Fowl had had his memory entirely wiped of the Faerie people. Or has he? There are the mirrored contacts. At the beginning of this book, Artemis Fowl does not remember his friendships and has reverted to his previous self. Colfer does manage to bring the Fowl that he had become back, but it is an interesting journey. And it is a dangerous thing for a writer to do, to wipe away all character growth that he spent three years building. Fans will love Opal Deception. I listened to the CD and it was captivating. However I'm not feeling the urge to rush out and get the next book. With previous books I had that urge so much I preordered books in the series. Perhaps it is that the Fowl mystique is cooling for me. However I will still read the next book, and I will keep recommending the books.

I've also booktalked Artemis Fowl with great sucess with fifth through eighth graders. I tend to recommend these books to kids who like Harry Potter. If you like Artemis Fowl and/or Harry Potter, here are some other recommendations.

Gregor the Overlander (actually the series is called the Underland Chronicles) series by Suzanne Collins... It all starts innocently enough. Gregor's father has been missing for two years. He is babysitting his baby sister and she falls into a grate in their laundry room in their apartment building in New York. Gregor follows her and they float down on mists to land in an underland world. There a race of humans fly on giant bats and fight six foot rats. The four foot cockroaches have decided his sister is a princess. And the humans are pretty sure that Gregor is the warrior prophesied to save them. This book series is also very good for Narnia fans as it is light on the magic but packed with action (thus more palatable for conservative Christian families). Oh, and just for fun, did I mention that Gregor is African American, but that it isn't the point of the story and it isn't a big deal. Readers may not even realize immediately. We need characters like that. Reading level starts around 4th grade.

Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud... Welcome to an alternative London where instead of Lords and Ladies as nobility and everyone else as commoners there are wizards as nobility. Nate is a young apprentice wizard. The secret to the power of wizards lies in their ability to summon and control powerful demons. However when Nate summons a demon named Bartimaeus everyone gets more than they bargain for. These are great books, lots of action, magic, fun. They're much smarter and well written than Harry Potter in my opinion. Reading level starts around upper 5th or 6th grade.

Charlie Bone series by Jenny Nimmo... This one is very much like Harry Potter. Charlie Bone is a half-orphan (dad disappeared, but mom's still there) with crazy black hair (no scar though). He lives with his nice (maternal) grandmother and mean (paternal) grandmother and mother and uncle. Then one day he discovers that when he looks at pictures he can hear what was being said when the photo was taken. He is a "gifted" descendant of the Red King. The Red King had a lot of children, all gifted or as they usually say endowed, and half of them tried to kill the other half. He's packed off to a boarding school for the gifted and endowed children. And the war started with the Red King rages on among his desendants. Occasionally into an evil family (like Charlie's) a good one will be born and vice versa. All of Charlie Bone's friends have different powers. And there are some magic cats and other adults who aid them along the way. Five books and the series feels complete. I can't imagine there being more, but I suppose it is possible. I didn't like this as well as Harry Potter, but it has its merits and it is a good filler. It is also an easier reading level. Starts at about 4th or maybe very high 3rd grade level.

Happy Reading!