RULES

Lord, Cynthia. RULES. New York: Scholastic.2006.
ISBN: 0-439-44382-2

Summary

Catherine is a typical tween girl who just wants to be normal. Her brother, David, is autistic, and has his own special set of needs that Catherine is all too aware of. She spends much of her time helping take care of him, so that her mother can work from home,and she just wants to have a normal summer vacation and become friends with the new girl that moved in next door.


"A boy can take off his shirt to swim, but not his shorts."


Catherine has created a set of rules to help David survive in the world, some of them while on the surface seem merely functional (and funny), actually are quite deep and reveal a lot about her intelligent but hurting character.


"Sometimes people laugh when they like you But sometimes they laugh to hurt you."

While going with David to occupational therapy, she meets a teenage boy, Jason, who cannot speak, but uses a word book to communicate. She begins to make words for him, and builds a relationship with him. She finds, however, that he likes her and she might like him, and she is embarrassed. He points out to her that maybe her rules aren't to protect David in the world, but to protect her, because she is embarrassed of him.



This is a penetrating story that deals gently with what it is like to be the "normal" sibling who takes responsibility of a child with special needs. Lord uses the rules and words that Catherine creates to express the world view of a twelve-year-old longing for her world to be different. . .to be normal. Catherine's circumstances seem real, as do her reactions, and as the reader you feel as ashamed as she does, because you might be just the same as she is- embarrassed about her brother and hiding behind rules. Her family life is realistic, and her feelings of resentment, because she is neglected compared to the attention David gets seem extraordinarily appropriate. She comes to see herself in a new light as she grows through the awkwardness and pain of her own life.


"Some people think they know who you are, when really they don't"


Reviews


In the able hands of the author, mother of an autistic child, Catherine's emotions come across as entirely convincing, especially her alternating devotion to and resentment of David, and her guilt at her impatience with him. Through her artwork, the heroine gradually opens up to Jason, a wheelchair-bound peer who can communicate only by pointing to words on cards. -Powell's Books http://www.powells.com/biblio/61-9780439443821-0

"Catherine is an endearing narrator who tells her story with both humor and heartbreak. A lovely, warm read, and a great discussion starter." — School Library Journal


Enrichment Activities


Create your own set of rules for David. Look at the rules that Catherine creates, and come up with your own.

OR

Put yourself in Catherine's shoes. Re-write a chapter of Rules, but think about what you would do differently. Include the reactions that other people have because of your choices, and the impact that it has on David specifically.

The Battle of the Labyrinth

Riordan, Rick. Battle of the Labyrinth. New York: Hyperion 2008.

ISBN: 978-142310146-8

Summary

Percy Jackson is the son of the sea god Poseidon. Being a demigod is still quite new for him, but he is getting used to risking his life to save the mortal world as we know it. Riordan creates a fantastical world flawlessly weaving or perhaps entangling the realm of ancient Greek mythology with a Harry Potter-like story about an underdog boy and his demigod friends who save the world from Kronos and utter destruction nearly every holiday from school.

In The Battle of the Labyrinth, Percy finds that the titan lord Kronos is gathering strength, and preparing an invasion of the demigod safe haven, Camp Half Blood, where Percy trains each summer. Kronos takes bodily form in Luke, a friend who betrayed Percy and everyone at camp, and he is planning to lead an army of gods and monsters through the labyrinth that Daedalus built to hold the Minotaur, which has grown and spread across the entire US, and if it is navigated correctly can take you from New York to California in a matter of minutes.

Riordan’s writing causes the reader to strap on a seat belt and hold on. This fast moving fantasy world accounts for every logical (and mortal) explanation for why it couldn’t really happen, and even causes you to want to learn more about Greek mythology. The chapter titles, like “ I Battle the Cheerleading Squad,” make you interested, and the fantasy/ mystery style that is so action packed keeps you reading. Each of the books in this series has an element of a “who done i?t” and draws you in the way an episode of CSI does, so that you HAVE TO know how it ends. The characters are believable in their parts- Percy is brave but doesn’t always get what is going on, Annabeth knows the dangers that she faces and is courageous enough to make hard decisions, even if she reveals some feelings for Percy in the process, Grover is lovable, and loyal, but all of the characters are simply typical teenagers with extraordinary abilities. These are the kind of heroes people love to read about. It is the perfect mix of courageous fantasy and comedy, one great example of this is sacrificing McDonald’s food to hear from the spirits of the underworld- a slightly different take than the sheep’s blood of Odysseus’ day.

We came to a cave where stalactites hung low from the ceiling. In the center of the dirt floor was a rectangular pit, like a grave.

Grover shivered. “It smells like the Underworld in here.”

Then I saw something glinting at the edge of the pit—a foil wrapper. I shined my flashlight into the hole and saw a half-chewed cheeseburger floating in brown carbonated muck.

“Nico, I said. “He was summoning the dead again.”

Reviews

Riordan's Percy Jackson & the Olympians series has won accolades among both critics and readers for its combination of real-world places and otherworldly antics. Tongue-in-cheek narration combines with a steady stream of grotesque monsters, perilous dangers and surprising plot twists for a nearly nonstop reading adventure.

-Kidsread.com

"The Battle of the Labyrinth," the fourth in the series, is a glorious, no-holds-barred adventure with great plot twists, a melding of ancient and bionic technology and a cliffhanger ending that will have fans eagerly awaiting the fifth and final showdown between gods and monsters next year.

-LA Times

Enrichment Activities

This book would be great with a study of mythology or ancient Greece. Students could get to know one of the Greek gods of the pantheon and share information about that god or goddess.

Another activity would be to claim to be the demigod child of a god or goddess, and come up with attributes that he or she would have because of it. Perhaps create a quest that only a demigod with those skills would have, or write about what that character’s role would be in the Battle of the Labyrinth- good, bad, lost in the maze. . .

How I lLive Now

Rosoff, Meg. How I Live Now. New York: Random House, 2004.
ISBN

Summary

Rosoff’s book concerns a 15-year-old girl from New York who is shipped off to England by her father, and evil stepmother. This, however, is far from a Cinderella story. Daisy is literally starving. She is starving for attention, for life, for affection from anyone who will give it to her, so starves herself to find some semblance of control in her life. When she is picked up from the airport by her British cousin, Edmond, she notices something different about him. She notices something different about her whole new British family (four cousins and a sweet aunt) that she can’t quite put her finger on, but somehow she begins to feel loved and accepted by these people who she doesn’t even know. She lives peacefully in their house in the English countryside getting to know this family, and come to grips with her new life there. In this fictional world, World War III is about to start, and the girl who seems farthest from the action gets caught in the middle. Daisy’s Aunt has important business about the coming war to address, so leaves the kids for a time to fend for themselves, but the war breaks out and she is unable to return. The kids enjoy their time without adult supervision, and Daisy begins a sexual relationship with Edmond, but it all comes to a halt when the British Army moves in and relocates them, splitting up the family.


“ So there we are carrying on our happy little life of underage sex, child labor and espionage when someone came to visit us, which after weeks of Just Us Five kind of took us by surprise.”


Now all that Daisy and her young cousin Piper have to find a way to get back to the boys and home before everything they know is destroyed.

Rosoff has a way with words. She is blunt, descriptive, and says things the way teenagers do. The most notable aspect of her writing is her use of capitalization. Anytime the young female protagonist uses a hint of sarcasm or refers to something that she has given name to, no matter how seemingly unimportant, it is capitalized. This is how we come to know Daisy.

It was when I was thinking things like this that I sometimes noticed Edmond looking at me in his odd, listening kind of way and sometimes I looked back at him doing the same expression myself just to see what he’d say.. But mostly he just smiled and half closed his eyes and look more like Wise Dog than ever and I thought to myself If this kid turns out to be thirty-five I won’t be a bit surprised.

Reviews

Daisy's voice is flawless and engaging. Her character is spiky, self-absorbed and resentful, yet she shows vulnerability and passion. Whilst battling with anorexia, Daisy deals with loss and responsibility as she lurches from one crisis to another, showing resilience and courage in roles beyond her years. The depth of her character is vast: it's hard not to feel anything for her as she captures the reader in a snare of humour, love, pathos and turmoil.

-The Bookbag http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php/How_I_Live_Now_by_Meg_Rosoff


“A daring wise, and sensitive look at the complexities of being young in a world teetering on chaos.”

-People

Enrichment Activity

This book would be best as a companion book for independent reading after a unit on war or perhaps in literature circles where the theme might be war or pain, or being a teenager. This is an edgy book that I wouldn’t recommend for everyone, so it might be go well with a book like Speak or Thirteen Reasons Why, where real issues are dealt with in a fictional setting.

The Game of Silence

Erdrich, Louise. The Game of Silence. New York: HarperCollins. 2005.
ISBN 0-06-441029-3

Summary

The title refers to a game that the children of Omakayas's tribe play when the adults are talking about things that are important and boring. Unfortunately this is a game that they have need of playing a lot as the tribe finds that the U.S. government has lied to them and is driving them out of their land. The story takes place on an island on Lake Superior, and predominately about the simple day to day life of a young girl and her family, but ultimately deals with the push to force the Native Americans west, and the cost to the Native Americans- hunger, starvation, death, orphans being taken in by other families. It deals with the best and worst parts of human nature. It teaches little life lessons that children learn along the way. It displays the life of a young girl as she changes through the joys and struggles of life and growing as she faces being alone with the spirits who will be her guide. The setting seems unfamiliar to someone who has never even seen the Great Lakes, but the characters are familiar. The beautiful older sister, the annoying little brother, best friend, grandmother, father, mother, people of the community. These are all the same for most readers, though they go by different titles here. These familiar things help detract from what you don't know about the time period, so that you pick up facts in bit and pieces of the narrative. For example, in this exchange with her sister at the end of a long day of fishing,

"'You're crazy,' Omakayas grumped, knowing her adored older sister was too far out in the water to hear her. 'And I'm all tired out and cold. I'm leaving.'"

We see that common attitude of a typical younger sister, but are aware that they have been out fishing all day in order to trade the fish for supplies.


Reviews


"this long-awaited sequel is framed by catastrophe, but the core of the story, which is set in 1850, is white settlers'threats to the traditional Ojibwe way of life. Omakayas is now nine and living at her beautiful island home in Lake Superior. But whites want Ojibwe off the island: Where will they go? In addition to an abundance of details about life through the seasons, Erdrich deals with the wider meaning of family and Omakayas'coming-of-age on a vision quest."
-Booklist starred (May 15, 2005 (Vol. 101, No. 18))


Enrichment Activity

Omakayas has many dreams that seem to be predictors of what is to come. Students can describe a dream that they have had, and then illustrate it, or chose one of Omakayas' dreams to illustrate. This could be followed by writing about what you drew, especially with older students to work on adjectives and adverbs to describe their dreams well.

Iron Thunder

Avi. Iron Thunder. New York: Hyperion. 2007.

ISBN 10-142310446-3

Summary

Tom is a boy who just lost his father in the Civil War. His mother does laundry for ironworkers and brings in a little money each week, and his sister is ill and unable to work much to help support the family. Tom’s mother finds him a job at the iron yard that will make 75 cents a week, and he takes it. Little does he know that he is about to become part of history. He becomes the right hand man of Captain Ericsson, the inventor of the iron clad called the Monitor. Tom goes from resenting his job to finding himself approached by spies from the south to becoming the first recruit to serve on the Monitor as it goes to head off the Merrimac. This story is masterfully crafted around the character of Tom, dealing with the struggles of a young man torn between taking care of his family, staying safe, and going on the adventure of a lifetime that might just lead to his death. The fact that this is just a story about a boy makes the rest of the setting less intimidating, and the pictures and facts about the actual events complement what Tom is going through.

“I was pretty quiet over my coffee, bread, and molasses, thinking about all that was going to happen: the launching and Mr. Quinn. The wasy I was feeling, either way I would be sunk.”

Reviews

Decked out with the appurtenances of nonfiction—maps, a resource list (leaning toward upper-level titles), and a generous array of contemporary prints for illustrations—Avi’s historical novel views the construction of the Monitor and the ensuing epochal battle with its Confederate rival through the eyes of an actual but fictionalized crew member.

-Booklist (August 2007 (Vol. 103, No. 22))

Enrichment Activity

The fear throughout the novel at the seaworthiness of this craft leads to a fun experiement. Have each student bring an empty food can to decorate at the Monitor according to the descriptions and pictures in the book, and then see if it will actually float. This is the same lesson that Tom learns about displacement. Students can then document their findings in a journal or create a picture and caption of what happened.

NightJohn

Paulsen, Gary. NightJohn. New York: Bantam Doubleday. 1993.
ISBN 0-440-91014-5

Summary

NightJohn is the story of a slave girl named Sarny who learns to read when a slave named John comes to the plantation. John knows how to read and has gone on a mission to teach slaves to read, which is illegal. John goes from plantation to plantation teaching whoever is willing to be taught, sometimes at a very high price. This story is carefully crafted with historical accuracy in mind to tell more than just Sarny’s story, but the stories of slaves throughout the history of the United States. The setting, plot, characters, and theme are all appropriate for a story in the south prior to the Civil War. The cruelty of slave owners, and the strength of Sarny and John make this a lasting story. Paulsen addresses with care tough parts of what would have been real life at the time from eating out of a trough to being hung by chains on a wall until you are beaten at the end of the day, he handles these hard concepts without being disrespectful to the people this really happened to. Paulsen excels at giving enough information to understand what is going on, but not so much that you are overwhelmed, which allows for your imagination to make up for the difference. The following quote when Sarny is caught writing words in the dirt describes more than this summery can say:

“’It’s all my doings.’ I pulled at the chains but they don’t give. ‘ I be making the word and forgot where I was and he saw me and now he’s going to whip you.’”

Reviews

“What gives the story transcendence is the character Nightjohn, who fires Sarny with hope. He once escaped north to freedom, and now he's come back to teach slaves what is fiercely forbidden them--reading. When he's caught showing Sarny the alphabet, two of his toes are cut off, but he escapes again.”
-Booklist (Vol. 89, No. 8 (December 15, 1992))

A searing picture of slavery, sometime in the 19th century at an unspecified place in the South. Sarny, young enough not to have experienced the rape that will come inexorably with child-bearing age, tell Kirkus Review (1993)
-Kirkus Review (1993)

Enrichment Activity

To follow reading NightJohn, teaching the students some of the spirituals that were sung in the time period might be appropriate. Going over the words and the ideas behind them would be a very important task, and one to do carefully to help the students understand why songs like this would be sung. Playing a recording of one would be helpful as well as looking at the lyrics. Then have the students each write their own song incorporating some of the events that occurred in NightJohn.

Actual Size

Jenkins, Steve. Actual Size. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004
ISBN:0-618-37594-5

Summary:
Jenkins features 18 amazing animals in his simple, beautiful picture book. The concept couldn’t be any more simple or entertaining. A life-size illustration of each animal is given along with a brief fact about the creature. For some creatures a page is far too large, like the dwarf goby, which Jenkins tells us is the smallest of all fish at 1/3 of an inch in length! Other creatures can only show off one part of their bodies because they would take a whole book up with their size. Some of these large animals are the giant squid, and the Alaskan brown bear. This book is beautifully illustrated, and at the end, the reader can see the “big picture” as Jenkins profiles each animal with an illustration of the whole body of the large animals and a magnified picture for each of the small animals.

Reviews:
Jenkins'newest presents a parade of cut-paper animals, each accompanied by a pithy line of text. The difference here is the scale: everything appears at actual size. Jenkins'masterstroke, though, is his inclusion of creatures both great and small, so while petite critters fit comfortably within 12-by-20-inch spreads, larger ones appear as evocatively cropped bits and pieces
Booklist (May 15, 2004 (Vol. 100, No. 18))


“A new exploration of the biological world, from one of the current masters of collage, features life-size-not scaled-representations of the extremes of the animal kingdom.” Kirkus Review (May 1, 2004)

Enrichment Activity:
This book allows for many cross curricular activities. One such activity would be measuring yourself. Pair students up and give them each a meter stick. Students then take turn measuring one another. They would then come up with a description (with the help of teacher or librarian) using that measurement and each write theirs on a piece of construction paper. Then students could draw part of their bodies on the paper- hand, foot, pigtail. . . At the end of this activity all of the pieces of construction paper would be collected and made into a book. What a way to remember a class- in actual size!