Module 13: Sisters

Module 13: Graphic Novels and Series Books

Book Summary

Sisters was written by Raina Telgemeier and it is a biographical graphic novel about the time of the author’s life when she was a teen, with flashbacks to when she was younger. The main storyline revolves around a road trip the family takes from their home in San Francisco to a family reunion in Colorado. In one of the flashbacks, Raina couldn’t wait to be a big sister but once Amara was born, things don’t work out the way Raina thought they would. Amara is grouchy and prefers to be alone. The sisters’ relationship doesn't improve over the years, and then a baby brother enters the picture. Later, their parents seem to not be getting along. The sisters work on their own relationship with each other.

APA Reference of Book

Telgemeier, R. (2014). Sisters. New York, NY: Graphix

Impressions

I was pleasantly surprised! This book was so engaging and fun to read. Graphic novels are able to achieve through the illustrations the subtleties of things like feelings that can be hard to describe in words. This book made me think about adolescence, family trips, and my relationships with my siblings.

Professional Review

Two sisters who are constantly at odds take a family road trip that covers more ground—both literally and figuratively—than they expect. After begging her parents for a sister, Raina gets more than she bargained for once Amara is born. From the moment she was brought home, Amara hasn't been quite the cuddly playmate that Raina had hoped. As the years pass, the girls bicker constantly and apparently couldn't be more unalike: Raina spends her time indoors underneath her headphones, and Amara loves animals and the outdoors. The girls, their mother and their little brother all pack up to drive to a family reunion, and it seems like the trip's just going to be more of the same, with the girls incessantly picking on each other all the way from San Francisco to Colorado. However, when the trip doesn't go quite as planned—for a number of reasons—the girls manage to find some common ground. Told in then-and-now narratives that are easily discernable in the graphic format, Telgemeier's tale is laugh-out-loud funny (especially the story about the snake incident) and quietly serious all at once. Her rounded, buoyant art coupled with a masterful capacity for facial expressions complements the writing perfectly. Fans of her previous books Smile (2010) and Drama (2012) shouldn't miss this one; it's a winner. A wonderfully charming tale of family and sisters that anyone can bond with. 2014, Graphix/Scholastic, 208 pp., $24.99. Category: Graphic memoir. Ages 7 to 13. Starred Review. © 2014 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved. 

(PUBLISHER: Graphix (New York:), PUBLISHED: [2014]) 

Reference

[Review of the book Sisters by R. Telgemeier]. (2014, June 1). Kirk’s Reviews, 82(11).

Library Uses

Discussion Questions from http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/guide-raina-telgemeiers-sisters

1. Sisters takes place during different timelines, one focusing on the family road trip between San Francisco and Colorado. The others are a series of flashbacks to different times in Raina’s past. Why do you think the author decided to tell her story this way? How can you tell, from either the words or the pictures, which time period it is?
2. Which moments make Raina regret wishing for a sister? Which moments convince her having a sister is worth the aggravation?
3. Look at the full-page illustrations that appear between some sections throughout the book. What do these images tell you that you don’t learn elsewhere in the book? Why do you think the author chose to highlight these objects?
4. Consider how Raina feels about Amara at the beginning of the road trip and how she feels at the end. Do you think the road trip changed their attitudes? Identify three turning points in their relationship.
5. In comics, words and sounds are drawn or colored to signal how they sound. What do the styles of the word balloons, colors, and lettering tell you? Look at pages 108-109 for examples. What makes something a scream? A thought? A song? How do these add to the story?
6. Raina escapes her family’s crowded apartment and the confines of the van by listening to her Walkman. How does music help her relationships with her family? How does it hurt those relationships?
7. Consider Raina and Amara. What are three things that you see as appealing about Raina as a person? About Amara? What do you think they would list as three good (or bad) things about each other at the beginning of the story? What about at the end?
8. Sisters is a companion book to Raina Telgemeier’s memoir Smile, a story about Raina’s front teeth getting severely injured. How do the stories in Sisters fit together with those in Smile? How does reading both books give you a more complex picture of Raina and her family?
9. Compare Raina’s immediate family, including her mom, dad, brother, and sister, to her aunts, uncles, and cousins Josh, Jeremy, and Lindsay. How do Raina’s expectations for hanging out with her cousins compare to the reality? What does she learn about family, both good and bad?
10. Consider the fight that Raina and Amara have on pages 136 through 139. When Amara says, “You’re not being nice. You’re just feeling sorry for yourself,” what do you think she’s trying to tell Raina? What does Raina learn from that accusation?

Module 12: Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith

Module 12: Biography & Autobiography

Book Summary

The book begin’s with Charles Darwin having a hard time deciding whether or not to get married. He made a pros and cons list and decided on getting married because the pros outweighed the cons! 

The book chronicles Charles and Emma's lives as husband and wife starting with how they met (they were first cousins!), to having children (they had 10!), and all the way until their deaths—first Charles, then Emma. In tandem are the scientific discoveries Charles is making throughout his life, such as his theory of evolution. Along with Charles’ scientific work and publishing (which Emma helped with, too!), the theme of religion plays a big part in the Darwins’ story. Emma was very religious and Charles was pretty much agnostic or even atheist. They struggled with their religious differences for their entire lives but still managed to listen to, respect, and contemplate each other’s points of view. Most striking was perhaps how this book portrayed Charles Darwin as a very loving husband and father. He loved Emma more than anything in the world, and he loved and spent a lot of time with his children, which at the time (and still for some folks) was very rare for fathers to really pay any attention at all to their kids. Another thing I did not know about Charles Darwin that I learned from this book is that he was very sickly, and I feel really sad that he was ill so often. 

APA Reference of Book

Heiligman, D. (2009). Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ leap of faith. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, LLC.

Impressions

This book is awesome. It’s a biography of Charles Darwin and his wife, Emma. It chronicles a different aspect of Darwin’s life than we are used to reading about. 

Charles Darwin is one of my heroes and this book reinforced that even more. You know how sometimes you find out bad stuff about people you really admire, like celebrities or historical figures, and you feel kind of betrayed? Well, this book did the exact opposite. It was refreshing to learn that Charles Darwin, aside from being a brilliant and brave scientist, was also a good person! He loved his wife so much! How many scientific dudes do we learn about just seem so stern and emotionless (not to mention how many ideas were stolen from women or the situations where women collaborated but were not given credit for their part). But here we have Charles Darwin, one of the biggest names in science, and he is an emotional, sappy ball of mush for his wifey and his kiddos!! I love it! 

Professional Review

When the book opens, Charles Darwin is trying to make a decision, and he is doing so in time-honored fashion: drawing a line down a piece of paper and putting the pros of marriage on one side and the cons on the other. As much as Darwin is interested in wedded life, he is afraid that family life will take him away from the revolutionary work he is doing on the evolution of species. However, the pluses triumph, and he finds the perfect mate in his first-cousin Emma, who becomes his comforter, editor, mother of his 10 children--and sparring partner. Although highly congenial, Charles and Emma were on opposite sides when it came to the role of God in creation. Heiligman uses the Darwin family letters and papers to craft a full-bodied look at the personal influences that shaped Charles' life as he worked mightily to form his theories. This intersection between religion and science is where the book shines, but it is also an excellent portrait of what life was like during the Victorian era, a time when illness and death were ever present, and, in a way, a real-time example of the survival of the fittest. Occasionally hard to follow, in part because of the many characters (the family tree helps), this is well sourced and mostly fascinating, and may attract a wider audience than those interested in science. Austen fans will find a romance to like here, too. To be illustrated with photographs. Ilene Cooper 

Reference

Cooper, I. (2009, January 1 & 15). Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ leap of faith. [Review of the book Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith by D. Heiligman]. Booklist, 105(9-10), 68.

Library Uses

Do a subject study! There are TONS of children’s/young adult books about Charles Darwin. For example, you could include beautifully illustrated The Tree of Life by Peter Sís (whose books are ALL beautifully illustrated!). 

Then you could also study the theory of evolution and connect it to some STEM/STEAM/STREAM programming with activities on evolution and ecology, such as species classification, look at the differences/similarities between easy-to-handle animals (like bugs!).

Module 11: Flesh & Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy

Module 11: Informational Books

Book Summary

This week one of the books I read was Flesh & Blood So Cheap by Albert Marrin. It is about the fire in 1911 at the Triangle Waist Company, a blouse sweatshop in New York City’s garment district. The fire killed 146 workers, mostly young immigrant women. The book also chronicles the garment industry of the time as well as the labor reforms that took place after the deadly fire.

APA Reference of Book

Marrin, A. (2011). Flesh & blood so cheap: The Triangle Fire and its legacy. New York, NY: Alfred A Knopf.

Impressions

Albert Marrin is a professor of history at Yeshiva University in New York. He has written many juvenile nonfiction books and won many awards, including the National Humanities Medal (http://bit.ly/AMarrinYeshivaU; http://albertmarrin.com/index.php?id=47). I learned a lot from reading his book. I had only heard about the Triangle Fire after the news of a garment factory in Bangladesh that collapsed in 2012, killing 134 workers, which occurred only five months after a fire in another Bangladesh factory killed 112. Some media were drawing comparisons to the Triangle Fire and the need for labor reforms.

Marrin’s book was really interesting, accurate and I liked everything except for a brief part at the end, where Marrin kind of trivializes the suffering of labor industry workers in developing nations in an attempt, I assume, to show both sides, i.e. industry isn’t evil. He was essentially saying that, yes, sweatshops subject workers (including children) to horrible conditions and extremely low wages, but they are actually the best paying jobs in countries like Bangladesh. I do understand this perspective, but I worry that he just kind of left it at that. Nonfiction, especially when created for children, must be as unbiased as possible, but I wish Marrin had followed up with a more critical look at labor rights and international industry. Just because the international garment industry is helping the Bangladesh economy doesn’t mean we can’t also learn about the part we play in the wealthy and powerful West in contributing to the poverty, suffering and exploitation of developing nations.

I really like this interactive documentary from The Guardian (http://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2014/apr/bangladesh-shirt-on-your-back) because they bring up the point that, yes, Bangladesh is “winning” by having the garment industry in their country, but they are also losing because every year, even after the building collapse in 2012 that the media paid attention to for about a week, people are still suffering and dying in Bangladesh factories. We do a disservice to our youth if we don’t get them thinking about the bigger picture and their place in it.

Professional Review

At the core of this landmark look at labor history is the detailed drama of the notorious 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, in which 146 workers died. Most of the victims were immigrant women between the ages of 14 and 23 who were burned or suffocated behind locked doors or who perished when they tried to escape the flames by jumping from windows. Their catastrophic deaths lead to changes in U.S. working conditions and fueled a campaign for union rights. This volume's excellent early chapters focus on the personal histories of the victims, many of whom were Russian Jews and Italian Catholics, and examine why their families left Europe, the passage to America, and life in New York City's tenements. Following chapters delve into the horrifying factory conditions that led to the fire. The highly readable book design features black-and-white photos on every double-page spread as well as newspaper accounts and biographical profiles, including those of leading protesters, such as Jacob Riis and Rose Schneiderman. Marrin further expands the discussion with disturbing contemporary parallels to underground sweatshops today. Sure to spark discussion, this standout title concludes with source notes and suggested-reading lists that will lead students to further resources for research and debate.--Hazel Rochman

Reference

Rochman, H. (2011, April 1). Flesh & blood so cheap: The triangle fire and its legacy. [Review of the book Flesh & blood so cheap: The triangle fire and its legacy, by A. Marrin]. Booklist, 107(15), 63.

Library Uses

From Grade 8 ELA Common Core Standards for reading informational texts, writing, and speaking and listening.

Most of those who perished in the Triangle Fire were Jewish and Italian immigrants. Why? Have participants research the lives and struggles of these two groups around the turn of the 20th century. Topics for discussion: where did immigrants work and live? Which groups immigrated in greater numbers and why? What were the working and living standards they usually encountered?

Retrieved from: http://asset.studysync.com/library/759/lesson_plan.pdf

Module 10: Here Lies the Librarian

Book Summary

Module 10: Historical Fiction!

The book by Richard Peck starts with a tornado coming through a little town in Indiana where the story is set. The tornado causes minor damage but manages to extract several bodies from the ground in the town graveyard; some bodies even flew out of their coffins. As the main character, a tomboy named Peewee, goes to check on her mother’s grave, she passes the gravesite of the former town librarian, who was thankfully spared by the tornado like Peewee’s mother. Since the librarian’s death the town decided not to hire a replacement. With the library essentially closed, one of the town farmers took it upon himself to save the entire library collection in his barn because he thought it was important that a town have books, even if there was going to be no library.
Eventually four young women from Indianapolis ride into town in fancy cars, signs of their privilege and class. All students of a Library Science college, they came into town to check out the spectacle of tornado damage and to inquire about the town’s shuttered library. They convince the town’s people to open the library back up and proceed to take turns running it. The leader, Irene, pulls Peewee in to help out as much as she can and also shows her how to be a lady. This is the librarian-related stuff.

APA Reference of Book

Peck, R. (2006). Here lies the librarian. New York, NY: Scholastic, Inc.


Impressions

The historical aspects are mainly the cars and car mechanic work of the time. There is eventually a race where Jake, Pewee’s older brother, enters a car he has built up himself. There is a rival garage owned by a large family who continually vandalizes Jake and Peewee’s garage and assaults their dog. There is a slight love story where Jake’s love interest—surprise surprise—is really into cars, too! There is a lot of driving and fixing cars. The story seems true to the time period in the descriptions of the way life was lived back then in rural Indiana, the way people spoke, particularly in that region (the author himself is from that area of the country), and the book is true to the specifics about cars of the early 1900s.
I would also like to say that I really appreciated how the author did not adhere to gender stereotypes, even though we tend to think of cars and librarianship (especially librarianship of the past) as very black and white, male versus female practices. Peck stayed true to the time period (a time period which adhered way more to gender roles than we do now) without any sexism, unless it was to demonstrate the everyday sexism of the time and town, as portrayed through the actions of certain characters.
I think the books is very accurate because historical fiction is author Richard Peck’s jam! He is a prolific historical fiction writer, cranking out a book every year! He is well-accustomed to the thorough background research necessary to write a high quality, interesting book of this genre.

Professional Review

PECK, RICHARD Here lies the Librarian. Dial, 2006 [208p] ISBN 0-8037-3080-2 $16.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 5-8
Peck moves eastward from back-of-beyond Illinois (A Year Down Yonder, BCCB 1/01) to boondocks Indiana, 1914, for this tale of a parentless brother and sister, Jake and Eleanor, who scrape out a living servicing autos in a borrowed shed and dream of opening a real repair shop just as soon as hard pavement makes its way to their corner of the world. The answer to their automotive dreams arrives in a somewhat different guise than they expect-a quartet of affluent young ladies from Indiana University who take over the town library in what must rate as literature's Extreme Job Share. Big brother Jake's attentions seem torn between the lovely Irene and equally lovely Grace, and Irene finds time between shifts to take fourteen-year-old narrator Eleanor in hand and try to make some semblance of a lady out of a rough-hewn grease monkey. Despite the best efforts of a rival service station to sabotage their plans, Jake (with the help of Grace's family clout) gets to race at Indianapolis and Eleanor ultimately takes the wheel as the Stutz rattles first across the finish line. Once again Peck demonstrates his masterful storytelling ability with a riveting opener in which a tornado blows through the cemetery and relocates a host of deceased citizens and/or their bits and pieces. From there, though, much of the plotting relies on the unconvincing and underdeveloped premise that four independently wealthy library grads would take on the rural job, and that a pair of exceedingly eccentric neighbors (even by Peck standards) would keep brother and sister independent over the years. Nonetheless, Eleanor is a delightful narrator whose wry observations draw humor from a culture clash rather than simply exploit rube vs. snob plot potential. EB
Reference

Bush, E. (2006, May). Here lies the librarian. [Review of the book Here lies the librarian, by R. Peck]. Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, 59(9), 418-419.

Library Uses

Use this book and non-fiction books to study the automobile in the 1920s. Look at archival footage of 1920s automobiles, races, and factories. Research which activities were off limits to girls and women in the 1920s.

Module 8: Feed

Module 8 was children’s and young adult Fantasy and Science Fiction books, also known as speculative fiction. Before this module I didn’t care much for these genres. Then I realized that there is a lot of overlap and much of the books I read as a child could be considered fantasy books because of the whole talking animals thing… Anyhow, I appreciate these genres much more now and I am excited to share Feed with you!

Feed is basically my nightmare come true! But it’s brilliant!


Book Summary

Feed, by M.T. Anderson, centers around a teenage boy, Titus, and his group of friends who live in an anti-utopian future of the Earth. An anti-utopian setting, according to Young Adult Literature: Exploration, Evaluation, and Appreciation, is a setting where the “communit[y] on the surface seem[s] to be utopian […] but turn[s] out to be dystopian or anti-utopian” (Bucher & Hinton, p. 192). In the case of feed, the setting is a version of life where there are so many technological advances that people haven’t really noticed or have slowly, subconsciously accepted how awful things truly are. For example, everyone in Feed has these lesions on their skin due to how toxic Earth’s environment has become. But, hey, you can now travel to the moon!

The moon is like a sadder Atlantic City. Despite the “lo-grav,” the entertainment is cheesy and everyone becomes instantly “null” (Feed-speak for boring) because, with technology at your finger tips and the instant gratification that comes with it, what is interesting anymore? Certainly not much, as Titus and his friends endlessly look for dumb ways to entertain themselves.

The group meets a strange girl named Violet on the moon who Titus ends up falling for. Turns out this girl did not have The Feed implanted at birth, like everyone else. The Feed is something like Google Glass only it’s implanted into your brain at birth. (And, by the way, conception occurs in laboratories now, probably due to the fact that everyone is infertile because everything is sick and dying on Earth). Not only is The Feed implanted into your brain, it becomes part of your biology as you grow.

The group’s Feeds get hacked by a protestor while they’re visiting the moon and they end up spending a long time in the hospital. Back when Violet was born her hippie-ish parents decided against giving giving her The Feed, but once she became a teenager they agreed to allow her to have it installed. Due to the fact that her Feed hasn’t been a part of her since birth, the hacking did more damage to her than others, potentially becoming fatal.

The narrative continues around Violet’s recovery and remission. Authorities work to figure out if they can fix her Feed or not. Titus’s feelings for Violet grow stronger, but he also becomes really annoyed by her intelligence and existential questioning. She’s often the Debbie Downer of the group, like me!

Eventually Violet and Titus detach somewhat from their group of friends and do things alone together, such as the time they went to a filet mignon farm and Titus ironically declared, “I like to see how things are made, and to understand where they come from.” The filet mignon farm is rows upon rows of “huge hedges of red […], with these beautiful marble patterns running through them. They had these tubes, they were bringing the tissue blood, and we would see all the blood running around, up and down” (Anderson, p. 116). Anderson writes like this throughout the entire book—eloquent descriptive language contrasted with the horror of what is actually going on. Occasionally a filet mignon “fruit” had a deformity, such as the one that grew a blinking eye ball. Hard to read when you’re a vegan!

You’ll have to read the book (or the long book review below…) to find out what ends up happening to Violet and so you can be prepared to face our inevitable future.

References

Anderson, M. T. (2002). Feed. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

Boucher, K., & Hinton, K. V. (2014). Young adult literature: Exploration, evolution, and appreciation (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

APA Reference of Book

Anderson, M. T. (2002). Feed. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.


Impressions

You can tell by reading my summary that I loved this book. It is very engaging like a good sci-fi should be! Like how I couldn’t put down The Hunger Games. Anderson is a brilliant author because his writing “shows,” it doesn’t merely “tell.” There is a lot of allusion and the reader puts together the pieces to figure something out. The slang he invented for the book is also really interesting and perfectly fitting for the culture of the characters of the book. Brilliant!


Professional Review

Feed

Despite the title, this isn't a sequel to the author's Thirsty (BCCB 4/97); it's a compelling, witty, and seductive dystopia about life in a technocorporate-ruled future. Titus is a basic teenager, annoyed by School(TM) and ready to enjoy a trip with his friends to that traditional break destination, the moon, "except the moon turned out to completely suck." Okay, not completely-he does meet Violet, a strange and beautiful girl, but she, Titus, and his friends all undergo a rather traumatic experience when a hacker hits their feeds, their brain-implanted connections that make information, marketing, entertainment, and private conversation availabe to them twenty-four hours a day.

After a few days in a moon hospital, Titus grows closer to Violet, and when the kids return to Earth, the two begin going out. He's drawn to her unusual viewpoint and intrigued by her atypical history: a child of impoverished academics, she didn't get her feed installed until much later in life, and she writes with her hand and thinks about what happens in other countries. The feed oddity proves to be particularly significant, because the hacking damages Violet's less-- integrated circuitry, leaving her increasingly prone not just to signal blockage but to serious neurological deficits, disorders that may well kill her. Highly skilled technical repair might save her, but her unpredictable consumer history makes her an unreliable investment in the eyes of the corporate sponsors; therefore no help will be forthcoming, and Violet will die.

The dystopic view here isn't limited to the world, however; the tragedy isn't Titus' raging against the system that kills his beloved but his resistance to such raging. Titus is a Winston Smith drawn to the possibility of life beyond the screens, but he's essentially a lover of Big Brother (or, more accurately, Big Brother's products) from the start, annoyed by the predictable criticisms of the naysayers: "Of course, everyone is like, da da da, evil corporations, oh they're so bad, we all say that, and we all know they control everything. I mean, it's not great, because who knows what evil shit they're up to. Everyone feels bad about that. But they're the only way to get all this stuff, and it's no good getting pissy about it, because they're still going to control everything whether you like it or not." As Violet deteriorates, Titus becomes increasingly annoyed with her Cassandra tendencies, eventually separating from her and the possibilities she offers and tellingly thinking at her death, "I had thought it would feel like a tragedy, but it didn't feel like anything at all." As with many classic dystopias, the message isn't subtle, but it's not meant to be; it's the lacerations close to the bone (sometimes literally, as with the fad for surgically created lesions to mimic the skin condition afflicting popular media stars) that give this book its bite.

What really puts the teeth in the bite, however, is Anderson's brilliant satiric vision in the seamless creation of this imagined but believable world. The writing is relentlessly funny, clever in its observations and characters and not just in its inventiveness, but it's also inventive indeed, with Titus' narration establishing a new yet familiar language in a manner reminiscent of A Clockwork Orange. The familiar raised inflections have officially become questions with no actual queries, businesses issue edicts in phraseology straight out of Clueless ("We regret to inform you that our corporate investors were like, `What's doing with this?"'), and parents use the old-fashioned "Dude" rather than the up-to-date "Unit." The details of Titus' world are dead-on credible, just one step beyond the present while clearly built on it. Readers will snicker about the shirt sale at "Wetherbee & Crotch" ("except it only came in sand, persimmon, and vetch") and the hot feedcast drama (called Oh? Wow! Thing!, it "has all these kids like us who do stuff but get all pouty"), all the while recognizing the roots of the grimmer side of Titus' present in their own.

It's this vision that cunningly allows the book to be cool while questioning the consumer pursuit of coolness. When Titus finally hears a faint echo of the emptiness that Violet tried to warn him of, he muses, "It was like I kept buying these things to be cool, but cool was always flying just ahead of me, and I could never exactly catch up to it. I felt like I'd been running toward it for a long time." It's fitting for a dystopia-and a particularly cynical one at that-that the closest thing to hope is this breath of discontent. Pessimistic teens will find that darkness appealing; optimists will be startled to discover that a book about raging against the machine can be so much fun. (Imprint information appears on p. 98.)

Deborah Stevenson, Editor

Reference

Stevenson, D. (2002, November). Feed. [Review of the book Feed, by M. T. Anderson]. Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, 56(3), 95-96.

Library Uses

Adapted from the blog, Auntie Karen’s Teen Book Corner, by Karen Crow.

Curriculum Ties:  advertising ploys and propaganda; environmental issues; world issues (victims of natural disasters; people starving to death in 3rd World countries, etc.); death; peer relations and peer pressure

Discussion Prompts: 

What might it be like to have a computer hardwired into your brain? 
What might you use it for? 
Would you use it to help you learn difficult school lessons?  
Would you use it to communicate with others telepathically? 
Would you use it to access information in an instant (I'd love to be able to think of a melody or a piece of art and have the computer tell me the name of the piece and its artist)?   
The people in Titus' world have managed to connect computers and RSS feeds directly to the human brain... but whether they have used it for good or for evil is for you to determine.

Challenges and Censorship Issues:

Language Issues: Anderson uses foul language throughout the piece. Perhaps he would explain it as many authors do, as simply trying to be realistic.


Sexuality: Titus and Violet have intimate moments, although they do not have actual intercourse. In the book sex is referred to as "doing it" and "prong.”


Consumerism: This book is meant to be a satire about the shallow consumerism of today. Characters are self-centered, always seeking pleasure for themselves, and seemingly oblivious to anyone's perspective but their own. Whether kids will see Feed as satire or as a glamorization of their own world will depend upon their own perspective and world view. Do you think there are more Tituses than Violets in our society today?


Drugs: There is drinking and The Feed allows kids to download computer programs that act like drugs.


From Common Sense Media:

Satire with a nice bite -- for mature teens.

Parents need to know that the author makes a sometimes heavy-handed statement about our tech-driven consumer culture and where it's leading us: There's lots to think about and discuss. He uses humor and satire to make his points and will certainly get kids thinking about where we might be headed.

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/feed
https://sites.google.com/site/265crowteenbookcorner/science-fiction/feed-by-m-t-anderson

Reference

Crow, K. (n.d.). Feed by M. T. Anderson [Web log]. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/site/265crowteenbookcorner/

Module 9: The Face on the Milk Carton

Book Summary:

A teenager named Janie is having lunch in the school cafeteria with her friends when she notices her childhood picture on a milk carton. Privately freaking out, she thinks of her loving parents and wonders if it is possible that she could have been kidnapped long ago. She keeps the startling discovery to herself and, at home, sneaks into the attic where she finds more clues suggesting she really is a missing child.

At the same time that all this is going on Janie is also starting a relationship with her older neighbor, Reeve, and trying to maintain a normal relationship with her circle of friends. However she is falling apart on the inside. When she finally confronts her parents they inform her that she is actually their granddaughter, the daughter of their estranged daughter.

Janie is relieved for a little while but continues to feel uneasy. She convinces her boyfriend to drive up to New Jersey where her supposed real family lives. She doesn’t approach them but sees them from the car and realizes they all look like her.

Janie finally confesses to her parents where she has been and why she has been acting so troubled lately. Her parents realize that their estranged daughter must have been the one who kidnapped Janie. She made up the story of Janie being her daughter, but her parents believed her and raised Janie all this time as their own. Finally Janie’s mother calls Janie’s biological mother and… the book ends! You have to keep reading Cooney’s books about Janie to hopefully get to a conclusion.

APA Reference:

Cooney, C. B. (1990). The face on the milk carton. New York, NY: Delacorte Press.

Impressions:

This was a quick and easy read! There was not a lot of depth to the characters, but that is common in mystery as the author must focus on the plot. This would be a good book for a teen reader who is reluctant to read, for whatever reasons, because the mystery compels the reader to want to finish while the plot predictability is accessible for the struggling reader. Also, the author wrote several books about the main character, Janie, so it is kind of like a series, which are also good for reluctant or struggling readers.

Professional Review:

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, 1990)
In a novel that never quite lives up to its gripping premise, a high-school student discovers that her much-loved parents may in fact be her kidnappers. After Jane Johnson sees what seems to be her own face as a three-year-old displayed on a school lunch carton, she is plunged into a series of flashbacks: memories of long-forgotten childhood experiences that reinforce her sudden suspicion that she may have been kidnapped. As the underpinnings of her secure world slip, she clings to Reeve, the boy next door, with whom she is falling in love. Her parents' explanation (they are her grandparents; her mother abandoned Jane to return to a cult) proves unsatisfactory, pushing Jane toward emotional collapse until--with the help of Reeve and his sister--she finds a way to face the situation rationally. Cooney's original plot and satisfying resolution are marred by Jane's interminably overwrought analysis of her condition, and by a love interest that is more tacked on than intrinsic. Nevertheless, a real page-turner. 1990, Bantam, $13.95. © 1990 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.
(PUBLISHER: Bantam $13.95., PUBLISHED: 1990)

Library Uses:

The librarian could read aloud a section from this book (to get the readers hooked!) and then do science experiments on solving mysteries, detective science, such as finger printing, ink chromatography and CSI kits!

Module 7: After Tupac & D Foster

Book Summary


Set in the mid-nineties, in a neighborhood in Queens, New York, After Tupac & D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson is a realistic fiction book about three 12-year-old friends. The main character acts as the narrator detailing the time in her life when she and best friend, Neeka, met D, a foster child who just wandered into their neighborhood one day. The girls bond over their love for rapper Tupac Shakur, analyzing his song lyrics and following him in the news as the book is set during the final tumultuous years of Tupac’s life until his tragic death. Although they feel an instant connection with D, Neeka and the narrator don’t know much about her life. D is deep and philosophical, but doesn’t share much about herself until the day her biological mother shows up and takes D back. The girls promise to stay friends forever, but eventually Neeka and the narrator loose touch with D. There is also a sub plot about D's brother, a gay man who is in jail because he was framed for the murder of another gay man.

My Impressions


I like how the author portrayed the characters’ interest in Tupac. I felt like I could really relate to that feeling of connection to a famous artist through their songs. This book also brought me back to Tupac’s time, because I was definitely listening to his music since my older brother and sister were into him. I especially remember the last couple of years of his life, which were chronicled in the book, and his tragic death. That was really sad.

This book was a sweet trip back to early adolescence and the friendships of that time. I like how strong the girls’ relationship with each other is. It doesn't have a happy ending since the girls eventually lose touch with D, but I appreciate that because it is more realistic and makes their longing for her more powerful. It's a feeling I can relate to in my life, having had friends move away and being the friend who moved away.

Professional Review

Gillian Engberg (Booklist, Feb. 1, 2008 (Vol. 104, No. 11))
The summer before D Foster’s real mama came and took her away, Tupac wasn’t dead yet. From this first line in her quiet, powerful novel, Woodson cycles backward through the events that lead to dual tragedies: a friend’s departure and a hero’s death. In a close-knit African American neighborhood in Queens, New York, the unnamed narrator lives across from her best friend, Neeka. Then D Foster wanders onto the block, and the three 11-year-old girls quickly become inseparable. Because readers know from the start where the plot is headed, the characters and the community form the focus here. A subplot about Neeka’s older brother, a gay man serving prison time after being framed for a hate crime, sometimes threatens to overwhelm the girls’ story. But Woodson balances the plotlines with subtle details, authentic language, and rich development. Beautifully capturing the girls’ passage from childhood to adolescence, this is a memorable, affecting novel about the sustaining power of love and friendship and each girl’s developing faith in her own Big Purpose. Grades 6-9
(PUBLISHER: G. P. Putnam's Sons (New York:), PUBLISHED: c2008.)

Engberg, G. (2008). [Review of the book After Tupac & D Foster by J. Woodson]. Booklist, 104(11). Retrieved from www.clcd.com

Ideas for Librarians

This book can be used in conjunction with some of Tupac Shakur’s lyrics and writings (Rated G versions, of course). We could explore some of the connections between the girls’ discussions of their “Big Purpose” and some of the themes of Shakur’s songs.

References

Woodson, J. (2008). After Tupac & D Foster. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons

Module 6: Mr. Lincoln's Way

Book Summary

Mr. Lincoln's Way by Patricia Polacco is about a principal of an elementary school who is caring, understanding, involved, and everything you would want a principal to be. All of the students in the school love Mr. Lincoln, especially when he plays with them out on the playground at recess! However there is one boy who has not been so positively inspired by Mr. Lincoln. He is the school bully, "Mean Gene," and he's learned to be racist because of his racist father. However, Mr. Lincoln does not give up on Eugene. He manages to find something Eugene is interested in and uses this as a way to connect to Eugene and find out what the root of his problem is. Eugene misses spending time with his grandfather and has learned to be hateful from his father. Mr. Lincoln is able to get through to Eugene, teach him about tolerating differences, and find a way to get his grandfather, a more positive role model, back in his life.

My Impressions

In typical Polacco fashion, this book explores difficult topics in a gentle way. Mr. Lincoln, one of the main characters, is the type of adult Polacco puts in many of her stories, the kind of perfect adult role model who is everything for children: caring, observant, intuitive, wise, and abundantly understanding. It shows that many times bullying comes from the bully's own pain, and that well-trained, sufficiently staffed schools are crucial for children, especially when it comes to the crisis of rampant bullying occurring in schools. 

Professional Review

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2001 (Vol. 69, No. 14))
Mr. Lincoln, the African-American school principal is considered "just plain cool" and is loved by all the students-except Eugene Esterhause. "Mean Gene" is a bully who uses racial epithets he has learned from his bigoted father. Mr. Lincoln is determined to reach Eugene and affect a change in his thinking and behavior. When he discovers that Eugene has learned a great deal about nature from his kind grandfather, he enlists Eugene's help in managing the school's new atrium. They become deeply involved with the birds, especially a pair of mallards that have nested there. Along the way, Mr. Lincoln tries to teach the troubled child about acceptance and respect of all his "little birds," both feathered and human. When the ducklings hatch, Eugene and Mr. Lincoln lead them safely to the pond where their parents await. Polacco ("Betty Doll", p. 264, etc.) is a master at telling moving stories that gently teach lessons of kindness, compassion, and love. This newest work is only slightly less successful. It is certainly visually appealing, with colorful, expressive illustrations that beautifully enhance the text. Personalities and changing moods are vividly presented in Polacco's signature style. The story, however, seems a bit contrived and derivative. It's a little of "Make Way for Ducklings" meets "To Sir with Love". In fact, endpapers that show a grown Gene Esterhause, now a teacher, indicating there might be more to the story as indeed the flap copy reveals that Polacco based her setting on a school where the ducks and atrium do exist. With that in mind, it is still a sweet story about learning to respect oneself and others, and is well worth the reader's attention. 2001, Philomel, $16.99. Category: Picture book. Ages 6 to 9. © 2001 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.
(PUBLISHER: Philomel Books (New York:), PUBLISHED: c2001.)

[Review of the book Mr. Lincoln’s Way, by P. Polacco]. (2001). Kirkus Reviews, 69(14). Retrieved from www.clcd.com

Ideas for Librarians


Adapted from http://www.patriciapolacco.com/books/linclon/linclon.html


Have Storytime participants draw a picture of a bird of any color, size, shape, or kind. Next to the bird, have each participant write his or her name and list the characteristics that he or she feels make him or her unique. For example, have each child list his or her hobbies, dreams, religious preferences, heritage, nationality, or any information they wish to share with one another. When the drawings are complete, create a library atrium by decorating a wall or bulletin board with the drawings of the birds. Allow time for participants to share their drawings and characteristics with each other.

References

Polacco, P. (2001). Mr. Lincoln's Way. New York: Philomel Books

Polacco, P. (n.d.). Activity ideas: Mr. Lincoln's Way activity ideas, "Mr. Lincoln's Way" [Author Website]. Retrieved from http://www.patriciapolacco.com/books/linclon/linclon.html

Module 5: In Darkness

In Darkness, by Nick Lake, is amazing. 

This module was about the "other" awards (not Newbery or Caldecott). In Darkness won the Michael L. Printz Award in 2013. "The Michael L. Printz Award is an award for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature. It is named for a Topeka, Kansas school librarian who was a long-time active member of the Young Adult Library Services Association."


Book Summary

Shorty lives in the densely populated and severly neglected part of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, called Site Soley (Cite Soleil), where residents live in extreme poverty. We meet our main character while he is stuck under the rubble of a hospital destroyed by the 2010 earthquake. He was in that hospital recovering from a gun shot wound as Shorty is a member of a street gang, one of the only options for the youth of Site Soley. We journey in and out of memories with Shorty, learning about his family, his past, and his views on life, while every other chapter takes place from the perspective of Toussaint L'Ouverture, leading the slave rebellion and Haitian Revolution that began in 1791. In the novel, we meet L'Overture from the very Vodou ceremony at Bois Caiman where the slave rebellion really started in history. Through these juxtaposed chapters is an obvious but unspoken connection between Shorty and L'Ouverture.

My Impressions

This book is part historical fiction mixed with magical realism, and it is done brilliantly. While mildly confused at first, once I realized what the author was doing in crafting the novel to alternate from Shorty and then L'Ouverture's perspectives, it served to enhance the book even more. There is a lot of alternating in Lake's story. There are words and phrases in Haitian Creole and Site Soley slang, many not offering an explicit English translation. Lake, a white British man, takes care to not portray Vodou in the racist ways it is typically misrepresented in Western media.

This was a book that I could not put down. While disturbing at times due to the graphic violence, it is certainly not gratuitous and makes the book such a compelling read. It is an important book to read in order to get a glimpse of what it can be like to live in extreme poverty in one of the most dangerous slums in the world, in one of the poorest, most neglected countries in the world. Add to that a 7.0-magnitude earthquake.

Professional Review

Shorty, 15, is in a Haitian hospital with a bullet in his arm when the walls fall down during an earthquake. As he waits for help, drinking blood to try to quench his thirst, he remembers how he got to the hospital and the haunting gang violence he witnessed in the slums: his beloved twin sister was taken; his father was chopped to pieces. His mother loved freedom-fighter Aristide, but his father did not. Shorty’s present-day narrative switches back and forth with an historical plotline set in the eighteenth century, when Touissant L’Ouverture, a former slave, led Haiti in the fight for freedom, calling for justice, not vengeance, in the struggle to emancipate the slaves. The constantly shifting narratives, large cast of characters, and cultural detail may overwhelm some readers, and the unspeakable brutality is not for the fainthearted. But older readers, especially those who have seen the devastating footage of Haiti s recent earthquake, will want to read about the grim, contemporary drama and the inspiring history. Grades 10-12
(PUBLISHER: Bloomsbury (New York:), PUBLISHED: 2012.)

Rochman, H. (2012). [Review of the book In darkness, by N. Lake]. Booklist, 108(9). Retrieved from http://www.clcd.com




Ideas for Librarians


This book could be used for a book club discussion with older teenagers. We could have two meetings to discuss the book, one before reading to get the kids prepared--there are violent and disturbing things that take place in this book--and then one after reading. I would give the kids a set of questions/prompts to guide them through their reading and I would establish a blog or some kind of internet venue where I could check in with the group, and the kids could post questions or comments during reading. At the post-reading discussion I would also give the participants resources if they are interested to find out more information, such as information about the country of Haiti, Toussaint L'Ouverture, the Haitian Revolution, the 2010 earthquake and its ongoing aftermath, information about how to help Haitians and/or teens living in poverty either abroad or in our very own community, and the author's website address and links to interviews and/or articles with the author or about the book.


References

Lake, N. (2012). In darkness. New York: Bloomsbury.

Module 4: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

If you were like me as a child, a "lazy reader," you watched the movie The Secret of NIMH and loved it, but you never bothered to read the book it was based of off... until now! 

Module 4 was about the Newbery Award. In 1972, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, by Robert C. O'Brien and illustrated by Zena Bernstein, won the Newbery. Named for 18th-century British bookseller John Newbery, this American Library Association (ALA) award, the first official award for children's literature in the world, is awarded "to encourage original creative work in the field of books for children. To emphasize to the public that contributions to the literature for children deserve similar recognition to poetry, plays, or novels. To give those librarians, who make it their life work to serve children's reading interests, an opportunity to encourage good writing in this field" ("About the Newbery medal," para. 3).

Book Summary

Mrs. Frisby, a field mouse, is a widow with three young children, one very sickly. The family, who during the winter lives in a brick on a farm, must move to their warm-weather home before the farmer plows the land, which their winter home is on. However, it is too risky for Timmy, the youngest who has been very ill. Mrs. Frisby risks her life on several occasions figuring out how to move her family to safety in time. Eventually she enlists the help of the rats, the mysterious farm neighbors who live under the rose bush.

My Impressions

I love this book. When I was little, my siblings and I watched the movie a lot, but it wasn't until taking this class (I am now in my 30s) that I actually read the book. So, now I love the book and have deemed it one of my favorites.

Mrs. Fisby is considered a fantasy and science fiction book, but since the fantastical elements are animals--they talk and do things humans do (not to mention the rats' laboratory-generated ability to read)--it doesn't feel like what I usually think of when I think of fantasy and sci-fi books. Perhaps this is where I have limited myself in my reading life. I tend to think of fantasy and sci-fi as books as books like Twilight (which, in all honesty, I have not read [yet!] and I'm not here to pass judgement on the series made wildly popular by teen girls), with vampires or aliens--supernatural beings, and stories about outer space to which I can't relate. Turns out that fantasy and sci-fi are big umbrella genres, with subgenres I actually do like (many that I probably read as a child without explicitly knowing [or caring] about the genre) and books that I would like now if I gave them the chance. So, what I'm trying to say here is thank you, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH and Robert C. O'Brien for showing me that I'm a jerk and a dummy for having brushed off fantasy and sci-fi for so long!

The book is such a good adventure story. I really like how there are several heroes. The rats are heroes and I like that they are portrayed in a positive way. Usually in stories with rats they are portrayed as the villains. The main protagonist of the book is a single mom, Mrs. Frisby. The choice to have a single-mom protagonist is a feminist statement in the simple fact that even though the widowed Mrs. Frisby seeks help, in doing so she actively participates in solving her family's problem and ends up helping the rats, too. Also, the rats are not depicted as typical heroes saving the helpless little lady (she's little, but not helpless!). Subtle political elements like this can enhance the message of a story more than if they were explicitly stated. However, the prominent rat characters are all male; the wives and female rats (who also possess special abilities) are mentioned, but they are mostly in their homes, focused on the domestic (albeit not unimportant) duties.

Another, more known political subplot in this book is the issue of animal testing. O'Brien (nom de plume of Robert Conly) was a National Geographic reporter in the 1960s where it is assumed that he could have had access to the work of a particular scientist from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), John B. Calhoun, who at the time had been conducting experiments on rodents to test the effects of population density. Calhoun thinks his work had an influence on Conly's (O'Brien) book, but Conly remained silent about there ever being any connection (Ramsden & Adams, 2008, 41-44). It is also interesting to note that the animal rights movement started gaining momentum in the 70s, when Mrs. Frisby was published (1971) (Finsen & Finsen, 1994). Regardless of how the plot came to O'Brien and whether he was intentional about it or not, I still think it was brilliant to clandestinely weave political issues into the story.

Professional Review

(Click on book review image for a clearer view.)

Ideas for Librarians


Use this book as part of a theme on collaboration, teamwork, working together, socialism! (j/k... am I?). 

References

Burns, M. M. (1971). [Review of the book Mrs. Frisby and the rats of NIMH, by R. C. O'Brien]. The Horn Book Magazine, 47(4), 385.

Finsen, L., & Finsen, S. (1994). The animal rights movement in America: From compassion to respect. Woodbridge, CT: Twayne Publishers.

O'Brien, R. C. (1971). Mrs. Frisby and the rats of NIMH. New York, NY: Atheneum

Ramsden, E., & Adams, J. (2009). Escaping the laboratory: The rodent experiments of John B. Calhoun & their cultural influence. Journal of Social History, 42(3), 761-792.

Module 3: The Snowy Day

Book Summary:  

The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats, is a sensory story about a little boy named Peter, living in the city, who one day wakes up to see that a lot of snow has fallen overnight. Peter goes outside to explore the snow in the pure joy, present-in-the-moment way that children experience life.

APA Reference:

Keats, E. J. (1962). The snowy day. New York: The Viking Press.

My Impressions:

My favorite part of the book is when Peter walks through the snow with his toes pointing in, then out, and turns around to examine his footprints. I did not grow up with snow, so as an adult experiencing snow for the first time, I identified a lot with how Peter was experiencing it in the book. I remember listening to the "crunch, crunch" of my footsteps, then turning back to check them out.

The story is simple, but beautiful in its simplicity. The illustrations, done using collage, add to the narrative, which is an important characteristic of many Caldecott winners. I am also interested in the political implications of this book, the first full-color and Caldecott-winner depicting an African-American main character and set in an urban setting. This is deeply important for anyone interested in the history of children's literature because the Caldecott award started in 1938, taking 25 years until a Black character could star in a book not merely accepted as good literature for children, but award-winning literature. I admire Keats for creating this book, which came out in the early 60s, during the Civil Rights movement. His character, Peter, who went on to star in many of Keats' books, went down in history as one of the most important children's book characters for breaking the mold and exposing society to multiculturalism in children's books. In the review posted below, you will read that Keats found an inspiring picture in Life magazine of a little Black boy, and waited for 20 years for a book to be written for which he could illustrate this character, but it never came (or never was allowed to become...) so he created the book himself, a quiet but nonetheless important role to take on as an ally of the Civil Rights movement.

Professional Review:

Having just gotten up from the dinner table and looked outside, I was shocked to see the ground covered with snow. No thrill for an adult who has to drive a car. But what a contrast when you read about a little boy named Peter who awakens one morning, and discovers that snow has fallen overnight. Peter begins his wonderful outside adventure by making snow angels and building a snowman. When it is time for Peter to go inside, he brings a special souvenir inside with him. This classic book s colorful illustrations won the 1963 Caldecott Medal, and in honor of its 50th anniversary a special edition has been issued. It includes 8 pages of special bonus material. Keats had a picture from Life magazine of a little black boy and for 22 years waited to illustrate a book using that child. The opportunity never came so he wrote his own and featured a black child named Peter. He wanted to use a distinctive style for this book and he turned to collage using papers from around the world. The fascinating part of this additional material are copies of letters that he received from the famous and not so famous and their remarked about the impact seeing a black child in a picture book had on their lives. Surprisingly readers also learn about the angst that Keats suffered knowing that he would have to make an acceptance speech for the Caldecott Award. Art was his world not public speaking, but his book has had a profound impact and has been named one of the 100 Most Important Children s Books of the 20th Century by the New York Public Library.

Courtot, M. [Review of the book The snowy day, by E. J. Keats]. Childen's Literature. Retrieved from http://libproxy.library.unt.edu:3627/#/bookdetail/1/1/milQnnOnkRjnmpoL/bdrtop

Ideas for Librarians:

I have noticed that singing, rhyming, and counting activities are common in StoryTime. My introductory activity to reading The Snowy Day, which I would plan to do sometime during the winter, would be doing this counting rhyme from the State Library of Iowa:

Too Many Snowflakes!

One little snowflake
fell on my hat (pat head)
Two little snowflakes 
melt just like that! (snap fingers)

Three little snowflakes
sparkle at night (hold up three fingers)
Four little snowflakes
help make the world bright. (hold up four fingers)

Five little snowflakes
are pretty to see (hold up five fingers)
But hundreds of snowflakes
are covering me! (pretend to brush off snow with arms)


Also, check out the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation! Did you know there is an Ezra Jack Keats Book Award?
 

Module 2: Mouse Soup

Book Summary:

Mouse Soup, by Arnold Lobel, is a story about a mouse who gets captured by a weasel. The weasel plans to use the mouse for soup, but Mouse distracts the weasel by telling him stories.

APA Reference:

Lobel, A. (1977). Mouse Soup. New York: Harper & Row.

Impressions:

I have avoided Mouse Soup the entire six years of my teaching career. A colleague of mine associated it with a bad experience during her first year of teaching where the entire second grade was forced to read Mouse Soup, leaving students and teachers with no free choice to select their own books or design their own reading lessons. So, even though this book was floating around my classroom library every year and circulating amongst my students, I never gave it a chance until now.

Verdict: I really liked it!

It’s not that my colleague thought it was a bad book. In her brilliance she knew that a one-size-fits-all approach to teaching reading does not work. While Mouse Soup was appropriate for some second-graders, it was too high-level or too low for others.

Fast-forward many years to now, when I finally pick up Mouse Soup for a grad school assignment. In my dismissiveness of the book, I didn’t realize it was written by Arnold Lobel, the creator of the Frog and Toad series, some of my absolute favorite books! On their own, I love them, but as a teacher I had great success with Frog and Toad. They are great books for the struggling readers who want to be seen with chapter books, like the “smart kids,” and the fact that it’s a little series gets them to at least read three books. That’s a huge victory in some cases!

So, of course I loved reading Mouse Soup. The main thing I love, as with Frog and Toad, are the illustrations. They are simple, not vibrantly colored, but they are sweet and emotive. This is a good example of a book where the illustrations do some of the work of telling the story.

I also really enjoy Lobel’s writing style. Mouse Soup is a minimalistic story, kind of like how a mouse is a mini animal, but the story is also silly and provides opportunities for making simple inferences, with the aid of the illustrations.

On the cuteness scale, it ranks high, both in story and illustrations. It’s just so cute. Cute is important! 

Professional Review:

Note: This is not a review of the 1st edition of the book, published in 1977. It is possible that it is a review of the 1992 video by Churchill Entertainment, Mouse Soup. 

Tiffany Torbeck (Children's Literature)

A weasel gets much more than he bargained for when he captures a clever little mouse and tries to make mouse soup. The mouse explains to the weasel that mouse soup is better with stories and proceeds to tell four: Bee and the Mud, Two Large Stones, The Crickets, and The Thorn Bush. Each story is funny and entertaining on its own, but when the mouse tells the weasel that what he needs are the title ingredients, the reader will know that the weasel will get just what he deserves. The read along is narrated by Lobel himself with a lovely introduction and concluding statements. The cadence is perfect for new readers and most readers will be able to keep up just fine. Background music and sound effects fit perfectly with the text and really do add something to The Crickets story, since readers can experience just how annoying ten crickets can be. This is a wonderful set for libraries and classrooms. 2008, HarperFestival/HarperCollins, $9.99. Ages 5 to 8.

(PUBLISHER: HarperCollins (New York:), PUBLISHED: [2008] c1977.(HarperCollins (New York:), PUBLISHED: [2008] c1977.))

Torbeck, T. (2008). [Review of the book Mouse Soup, by A. Lobel]. Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database. Retrieved from http://www.clcd.com/#/bookdetail/1/1/PjooKnpPkoHOlqnn/bdrtop

Library Uses:

I would use this book in my school library much as I did when I was a teacher, with reluctant/struggling readers. I would use it to introduce reluctant/struggling readers to easy chapter books and easy books that they wouldn’t consider “baby books.” It could also be used like that in the public library. Maybe there could be a read aloud type of reoccurring activity for younger elementary kids, but not the Storytime ages of birth through five.