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!

Team Moon

Thimmesh, Catherine. TEAM MOON How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006.
ISBN:0-618-50757-4

Summary:

Team Moon is a photo essay about the Apollo 11 mission, which landed the first man on the moon. What stands out about this book is how seamlessly Thimmesh weaves in direct word-for-word quotations from the people who were involved along with all of the pictures and captions, and dates that would need to be in such a book. She makes this watershed event in human history, not just an event, but something personal and meaningful to a variety of people (virtually anyone who actually was involved . . . factory workers to rocket scientists), and she includes their individual roles, as well as their feeling in the overall telling of the Apollo 11 mission.

Telling the story of the two Bobs in mission control, Themmesh describes the tense scene--

Thirty seconds!
Now would not be the time for the two Bobs to miscalculate, miscount, or lose their superhuman powers of concentration. They could not afford to be wrong.
“When we tripped the low level, things really got quiet in that control center,” recalled Bob Carlton. “We were nervous, sweating. Came to sixty seconds, came to thirty seconds, and my eyes were just glued on the stopwatch. . .”

Reviews:
From launch to splashdown, Thimmesh gives names and voices to the 400,000-strong army that got Neil Armstrong and company to the moon and back. Taking as her organizing principle the journey itself, she describes how each element was made possible by NASA and its many contractors. Thus readers learn about the 14,000 people at North American Rockwell who built the command module Columbia, the 17,000 people at NASA's launch operations, and so on, from the women who sewed the spacesuits to the engineers who designed the re-entry parachutes.
Horn Book (July/August, 2006)

With exciting you-are-there language and stunning historical photographs, this book captures the excitement of the Apollo mission to the moon. It lives up to its subtitle; besides the astronauts, it tells about the work of the contractors who built the rocket and the lunar module, the computer gurus who programmed the equipment, the crew in Mission Control who guided the machines, the seamstresses who constructed the spacesuits, and many more.


Library Media Connection (February 2007)
Enrichment Activity:
This would be a great book to pair with a book like The Apollo 13 Mission by Donald Lemke to compare the two missions which were meant to be similar. Seeing all of the components that are part of Team Moon, should show the students how little room for error there is in a mission. Reading about Apollo 13, and showing movie clips from the film, might make the danger seem more real. As a class, a Venn diagram could be used to find the similarities and differences of the mission.

Another activity would be to look at the different vocations involved and do a job study, helping students see what they might be good at. Once they have decided on a type of job they are interested in, they could write a short “what if” essay describing how they would have impacted the Apollo 11 mission with their vocation.

The Bard

Stanley, Diane. Bard of Avon the Story of William Shakespeare. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1992.
ISBN 0-688-09109-1

Summary:

This biography of Shakespeare is incredibly informative and entertaining. It covers the early life of Shakespeare through his death and very gently, but accurately handles some of the more controversial issues that surrounds parts of Shakespeare’s life. For example, in reference to his sonnets:

Some were written to a “fair youth” and others to a “dark lady.”

There was also a ‘rival poet.’ Historians have been trying ever

since to discover who these important people in Shakespeare’s life

might have been.

This picture book is heavy on text, and covers more than just Shakespeare’s life. It includes information about stage design, popular actors of the time, and general information about the influence of Elizabethan England on the theater.

Stanley provides a bibliography at the back of the book, and stars the books that would be helpful to young readers doing their own research on Shakespeare. This gives certain credibility to an enjoyable, very literary book.

Reviews

“One of the things that both children and adults are likely to enjoy about this book is its creators' recognition of the difference between historic and imagination-based story events.”

Reading Onlilne (June 1999)

"These seasoned raconteurs...neatly piece together the puzzle of Shakespeare's life,"

Publishers Weekly (July 31, 1998)

Enrichment Activity:

This book is definitely a book for “tweens,” (readers about 10-13 years old) which, with the popularity of myspace and facebook with this age group, lends itself to the use of technology. Students could use Powerpoint to create a “myspace” profile all about Shakespeare. This gives the students a chance to use what they learned about him in this book to make it factual, and then go a step beyond that to come up with what band’s music would play on his page, and create pictures of his “top eight friends” like: Queen Elizabeth, or Romeo, or even Diane Stanley, the author of the biography.

Toasting Marshmallows

O’Connell george, Kristine.Toasting Marshmallows Camping Poems. New York: Clarian Books, 2001.
ISBN 0-618-04597-x


Summary:

Toasting Marshmallow is a collection of poetry by O’Connell George that covers many of the real, and memorable aspects of camping. The book appropriately starts by setting up camp with, “Tent”, and ends with “Pulling up the stakes, with other fitting camping themed experiences happening in between. O’Connell George pays as much attention to form and rhythm as she does to rhyme, making this a more sophisticated book than many of the picture book- poetry genre. “Tent,” for example, is in the shape of a triangle- narrow at the top with only one word on the line, and then widening, adding one word on each line until the base of the tent is formed with seven words, “Our tent is up! Blooming, bright Orange.”

O’Connell George is not restricted to rhyming poems, in fact many of the poems in this collections do not rhyme, others have rhyme in them but truly feature rhythm. “Forest Walk” makes a beautiful read aloud, because of the rhythm:

I-belong-here
no-twig-snap
no-leaf-rustle
no-branch-crack
see all-all, know-all
float-like-fog
like-smoke
pine-needle-soft
forest walk.

Reviews:

A young girl savors the sights, sounds, and smells of a family outing. Whether playful or profound, the exquisitely crafted poems reverberate with eloquent yet effortless language, while the radiant acrylic artwork hints at the awe-inspiring mysteries of nature."

School Library Journal Best Books 2001


Enrichment Activity:

This book allows for a fun chance to build prior knowledge for students. The teacher can read the book aloud outside with all of the students sitting in a circle on the ground- for a camp-out feeling, and at least demonstrate (with a stick and a marshmallow) how to toast a marshmallow, if not actually allow the students to do so (given appropriate age and safety measures). After toasting marshmallows, go back inside, and have students create their own poem to describe what kind of marshmallow toaster they are. Be sure to re-read the poem “Toasting Marshmallows” to the students on page 22 of the book. Drawing pictures of the process or gluing cotton balls to the page to represent the marshmallow in its various toasting states would complement this activity.

Beast Feast

Forian, Douglas. Beast Feast.. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Company, 1995.
ISBN 0-15-295178-4

Summary:

Beast Feast is a collection of Florian’s poems- specifically about different types of animals. It gives a brief and usually funny description of each creature, and on the opposite page there is a picture of the animal being described. The pictures, are funny as well, for example the Kangaroo is described as having a “kangaroom” inside for babies, and the accompanying picture shows a window where the pouch would be.

This book is a delightful venture into rhyming poetry, and subject specific, so that it is an easy one to recommend to children interested in animals—especially the more extra-ordinary animals of the world. Most of the poems are in a predictable pattern of couplets, or have an easy ABAB rhyme scheme. The Toad for example displays couplets, “The tubby toad’s so squat and plump/That rarely does it even jump.” making this a good independent read for young students. The pictures are beautifully done, and are as interestingly silly as the poems themselves feature a camel looking at itself in a mirror, a toad on a scale, a mole wearing glasses, and much more. This would be a great addition for any classroom or library.

Reviews:
Gr 1-4-A colorful and clever assemblage of 21 animals, from the walrus (``The pounding spatter/Of salty sea/ makes the walrus/Walrusty.'') to the kiwi (``Wings so small./No tail at all./ Very rare./Feathers like hair./Quiet and shy./Cannot fly./They call you a bird,/But I don't know why.''). Each brief poem employs an Ogden Nashian twist of language, a small surprise, or a happy insight into the familiar.

School Library Journal

Enrichment Activity:
This would be a great book to incorporate into any biology unit or poetry unit. One fun activity to do with this book is for students to draw a picture of a pet at home, and then create a couplet to describe it. The teacher or librarian could then collect these pictures and short poems to make a whole book about the “beasts” that the students know.

Stop Pretending

Sones, Sonya. Stop Pretending. New York: Harper Collins, 1999.
ISBN 0-06-446218-8



Summary:

Stop Pretending is a powerful, purposeful collection of poetry by Sonya Sones. It tells a story in fragments of poems that creates a deeper meaning than paragraphs after paragraph could describe. She chronicles her emotions after her sister was diagnosed as manic depressive. Stop Pretending is also the title of one of the poems that describes her feelings about the way her family and friends react to her sister’s break down.

Sones uses poetic devises beautifully, for example: one poem is titled “REALITEASE,” a pun, as Cookie questions whether the reality of the matter is that her sister has gone crazy and she is sane, or if in truth Cookie is the one who has gone crazy. The poems range from sweet to disturbing giving a full range to the emotion a young teenager might feel in this situation. One sweet poem called “MIDNIGHT SWING” remembers when Cookie’s sister “helped [her] climb up/ and taught [her] to pump” One more disturbing poem describes Cookie getting lost in the ward, and a nice nurse helping her find her way back to the elevator. It ends with,

“Just as the doors close,
I see that she’s drooling,
And rocking, and rocking, and rocking.”

showing that Cookie not only is upset by the events going on in her life, but that she can’t tell who is sane anymore. She is so desperate for someone to reach out to her at this point that she didn’t even notice that the helpful nurse was really a patient in the psychiatric ward.

Reviews

In a story based on real events, and told in poems, Sones explores what happened and how she reacted when her adored older sister suddenly began screaming and hearing voices in her head, and was ultimately hospitalized. . . Individually, the poems appear simple and unremarkable, snapshot portraits of two sisters, a family, unfaithful friends, and a sweet first love. Collected they take on life and movement . . .
Kirkus Reviews

Enrichment Activity
This genre of book particularly allows for transition into a longer poem, such as an epic like, The Odyssey, or a Shakespeare play as it is a less intimidating version of the same concept. Stop Pretending would be a great read aloud to do before Shakespeare’s Othello, where there is truly pretending going on or Hamlet in which there is a lot of question of his an other characters’ mental stability. This would also serve older students in preparing to write poetry about themselves. After listening to one poem from this book read aloud, students could create their own poem to be shared with the class, or simply kept in their journals.

And The Green Grass Grew All Around

Schwartz, Alvin. And the Green Grass Grew All Around. New York: Harper Collins, 1992.
ISBN 0-06-022757-5

Summary:
This collection of folk poetry contains a variety of types of poems. Some are songs with music written in, some are teasing, some are warnings, as well as riddles, stories, and good old tall tales. These are American poems and songs – some familiar, and some new to me. The stories are humorous, and entertaining with pictures that complement the lyrics and lines. Some of the rhymes are clearly meant to tease, and even leave blanks for you to insert the name of the person you intend to tease.

Reviews
Full of vigorous, swinging rhythms and funny, often nasty, sentiments, the pages are filled with well-known rhymes as well as new discoveries.
Horn Book starred (September, 1992)
There are also the universal rhymes that kids all over the world seem to learn from each other. As always, Schwartz's scholarship is unobtrusive and stimulating, with detailed notes at the back about sources and variants for any child or adult who's curious to find out more.
Booklist starred (Vol. 88, No. 17 (May 1, 1992))
Enrichment Activity
Recite some of the more commonly known verses of a poem, and then explore the other line. Children would enjoy memorizing these silly poems and songs, and perhaps some of the less than nice rhymes could be used for children to make nicer versions- turning some of the teases and taunts into rhymes that help them remember simple math equations or history facts.

The Talking Eggs

San Souci, Robert. The Talking Eggs. New York:Dial Books for Yong Readers, 1989.
ISBN 0-8037-0619-7

Summary:

A poor young girl named Blanche lives with her selfish mother and sister goes to fetch water from the well one day and meets an old woman. She gives the old woman a drink of water, and went home to take water to her family. Her sister complains about the water being too warm, and mother and sister begin to beat her. She runs off into the woods, and meets the old woman again. The woman offers to take her in as long as she agrees not to laugh at anything she sees. She agrees, and sees amazing, unbelievable things at the old woman’s house. The next day, the old woman tells her that she must go home, but since she has been a good girl, she could go out to the chicken coop and pick the eggs that say, “take me.” She does, and out of them comes great gifts. When her mother and sister see all of her gifts, they want some of their own. Blanche’s sister goes to find the old woman, and succeeds only to show her selfishness, and get what she deserves in the end, while Blanche moved into town to live like a lady.

Reviews:

A lively retelling of a rather hard-hearted Creole version of a widely collected folktale. Blanche does all the work while her mother and older sister Rose put on airs and treat her cruelly. To repay a kindness, a mysterious old woman leads Blanche to her magical shack deep in the backwoods, where the chickens have rainbow colors, the two-headed cow brays like a mule, and nattily dressed rabbits dance.
Kirkus Review (1989)

This adaptation of a Creole folktale contains familiar European fairy tale elements, but certainly stands on its own and is a unique contribution to the American folktale repertoire. In imagistic language spiced with Southern folk flavor, San Souci tells of a cruel mother and her two daughters, Blanche and Rose. Rose is just like her mother, while Blanche is good and kind, and consequently abused. One day Blanche meets an old woman and treats her with a ``spirit of do-right.'' Soon they meet again, when Blanche runs away from mistreatment and the old woman takes her back to her house.
School Library Journal (September 1989)

Enrichment Activity

Students could decorate eggs based on the story- more ornate for the eggs that say “don’t take me,” and simple looking eggs for the ones containing gifts.

Another activity would be to read other Cinderella stories, and draw pictures of the magical animals that occur in the story.

Bubba the Cowboy Prince

Ketteman, Helen. Bubba the Cowboy Prince. New York: Scholastic Press, 1997.
ISBN 590255061

Summary:
Bubba is a ranch hand for his “wicked stepdaddy,”and has two brothers who boss him around, and make him do their chores. When Miz Lurleen puts on a ball to find a worthy rancher to be her husband, Bubba helps his family get ready to go, but he, himself is too dirty and smelly to go. That is when his fairy godcow steps in to give him some new clothes, and a noble horse to take him to the ball. When he finally gets to dance with Miz Luleen, it is almost midnight, and the magic wears off of him before the dance is over. He ran off in his dirty smelly clothes, and rode home on a cow, but lost one boot as he was leaving. Miz Lurleen visits all of the area ranches the next day, and finds Bubba. The two ride off into the sunset together.

Analysis:
This book is a fractured fairytale, and its original form, of course, is Cinderella. This variation on Cinderella has a male protagonist rather than a female, and contains recognizable stock characters (the wicked step parent, and siblings. . . ). The use of informal language is part of what gives this story it’s charm, using Texas style dialect and idiomatic phrases that make it a fun read. The ending is predictable, whether you are looking for a fairytale ending, or the ending of a western, because it fits both standards.

One thing that this version of Cinderella lacks that is typically found in a traditional tale is repetition. In many of the Cinderella stories, the protagonist has three or more impossible tasks to complete, and goes to a ball that lasts over a few days, so has several encounters with the love interest. With Bubba, however, the reader doesn’t see the monotony or great challenge of his tasks, and only goes to the ball one night, before his love comes to find him.

Reviews:
A Cinderella parody features the off-the-wall, whang-dang Texas hyperbole of Ketteman (The Year of No More Corn, 1993, etc.) and the insouciance of Warhola, who proves himself only too capable of creating a fairy godcow; that she's so appealingly whimsical makes it easy to accept the classic tale's inversions.

Kirkus Review (1997)

Rustler lingo and illustrations chockablock with Texas kitsch make this ranch-spun Cinder-fella a knee-slappin' tale.

Publishers Weekly (November 17, 1997)


Enrichment Activity:
After reading Bubba the Cowboy Prince, read Cinder Edna to the students. Use a venn diagram to compare and contrast the two stories. Focus especially on the settings and characters.Have students write their own variation on Cinderella in which the student is the protagonist, and use people in their own lives to fulfill the roles of the other characters in the story.

Pass It Down

Marcus, Leonard. Pass It Down: Five Picture Book Families Make Their Mark. New York:Walter and Company. 2007. ISBN-100-8027-9600-1



Summary:
This book relates the stories of five families who have impacted the world of picture books, and how the parents impacted the lives of their children to become writer or illustrators of picture books. Families included are: Crews, Hurd, Myers,Pinkney, and Rockwell.

Analysis:
The collection of biographies in this book is wide ranging, in that the stories of the authors' lives are very different, but they also relate to one another so closely that the biographies of the children who became authors/illustrators seem almost like overlays of one another.

Review:
"Marcus's writing is, as usual, tight but lively, and each chapter is liberally laced with photographs, preliminary sketches, and final art. The book will be of interest to those readers who enjoy getting behind the scenes of the books they love."

School Library Journal

Enrichment Activity:
A great activity after reading this book to children would be to read and display the books that the featured authors and illustrators worked on. A class of students could easily spend a day reading about an author or illustrator family, and reading a book or two by that author/illustrator, and then trying out the techniques that were used to create the images in the book (painting vs collage. . . ).

My Friend Rabbit. . . not to worry, I've got an idea.

Rohman, Eric. My Friend Rabbit. Brookfield Connecticut: Roaring Book Press, 2002. ISBN 0-7613-1535-7

Summary:

Rabbit is friends with Mouse, and no matter what he does there is trouble. They are playing with Mouse’s plane, and gets it stuck in a tree, so he has an idea to stack animals on top of one another until the pile is high enough to reach the plane.

Analysis:

This book is beautifully illustrated, and just fun to read. Everyone has had a friend like Rabbit, or is that friend to others, so people of all ages can read and identify with it (especially my husband for one reason or another). The illustrations are fun, but functional. They are every bit as important as the text, because in some cases they replace the text entirely, so you have to read the pictures to know what is going on.

Reviews:

"Beautiful block print style illustrations in bold colors show Rabbit racing from page to page, carrying the reader ever onward."

Through The Looking Glass Children's Book Review

Enrichment activity:

1)Rabbit and Mouse fly an airplane together. What kinds of things do you do with your friends? Have students draw pictures of things they do with their friends. (relating to text)

2) What are some other methods Rabbit could have used to get the airplane out of the tree? Come up with a plan with a partner on how to get the plane out of the tree. Ex: a squirrel could climb up and get it for them, the elephant could use his trunk to reach it, a bird could fly to it. . .

Knuffle Bunny Too (or is it Kuh-nuffle?)

Willems, Mo. Knuffle Bunny Too A Case of Mistaken Identity. New York: Hyperion, 2007. ISBN-13:978-142310299-1

Summary:

Trixie is excited about taking Knuffle Bunny to school and showing him to all of her friends, because he is so special, being the only bunny of his kind. When she arrives, she finds that a class mate, Sonja, also has a Knuffle Bunny, and there is great dischord in the classroom because of it. The teacher takes the Knuffle Bunnies away, and when they are returned, they are with the wrong child. A midnight trade is made to get things back to normal, and Trixie and Sonja become best friends with very tired daddies.

Analysis:

Mo Willems is reconized as a Caldecott winner for the previous Knuffle Bunny book. His artistic style is beautiful. The setting is New York City- which is unmistakable. It is displayed in black and white still pictures in the background with Trixie, her family, her school, and of course, Knuffle Bunny imposed in cartoon and color on top of the picture. With this technique, Willems has captured a child in an adult world, the feeling that the characters stand out, and are therefore the most important part of his world, but created something that looks real, and gives the perception of movement.

There are little details that are included in the story telling and illustration that would be easily overlooked on a first reading. One of the Knuffle Bunnies has a pink bow- something that students might be so attentive as to catch and adults may not, but still gieves Trixie's Knuffle Bunny a uniqueness. The girl that Trixie switches bunnies with, Sonja, is not listed amoung the friends she intends to show her bunny to when she gets to school, so perhaps this is not her favorite classmate to begin with- hince the animosity between the two. The depth of this short picture book is amazing, and while I agree that Willems should be recongnized for his illustrations, this story in words alone, is worthy of an award.

Reviews:

information coming soon

Enrichment activity:

What makes something unique or special? Does something have to be unique to be special?

Ask students to bring their favorite stuffed animal for show and tell. Count how many bears, bunnies, disney characters. . . there are, and make a chart to show how many of each there are. This is a chance for students to see that a lot of people have stuffed animals, and some may even be the same, but each one is special to the boy or girl who owns it. For show and tell, make sure the students tell the name of their stuffed animal, how they got it, and why it is special to him or her.

Extend on this to what it would be like to find out that someone else had a very similar special stuffed animal, and what it would be like to get it mixed up. A nice follow up would give students time to draw a picture of themselves with their stuffed animals.