Module 15 * Censorship Issues * April 28 - May 1

Lush
by 
Natasha Friend

Bibliography: Friend, N. (2006). Lush. New York, NY: Scholastic Press.

Summary:  Sam has a secret that she can't and doesn't want to tell.  She has been schooled not to.  Her dad is a drunk.  She can't depend on him, he doesn't remember being loud and mean the next day, and continually promises to change- but doesn't.  Sam is getting older and wiser and she IS DONE!  Her mother and grandmother make excuses and pretend everything is just great.  In the midst of a crisis brought on when her drunken father hits her little brother in the face with a liquor bottle, Sam makes a poor drinking choice herself and gets in a bad situation at a party.  Because of this, she stands to lose her friends and her reputation.  A new friend she has made through secret notes in the library tries to help her and becomes a surprisingly important person in her life.  

My Take: This is an important book.  It shows kids what truly happens when a parent is an alcoholic and all of the sordid things that go with it.  I bet this book has saved more than a few kids from feeling alone and helpless.  Sam's story drew me in and I cared about her right away.  I wish there was another book to continue this story, but the important points were made and things were mostly wrapped up- no one in real life knows if their recovering alcoholic will stay sober, so why should the reader?

Reviews: 

After years of pretending she has a “normal” family, a worried teen finally confronts her father’s alcoholism. Thirteen-year-old Samantha knows her father has a drinking problem, but her parents seem oblivious. Sam’s father makes empty promises to stop drinking while her mother immerses herself in yoga classes, defending her husband as a “good man.” Although Sam carefully camouflages the situation by inviting friends over only when her father’s away, his binges are getting worse and she’s afraid he will lose control. Desperate to confide in someone other than her friends, Sam leaves notes in the library asking for advice from an older girl she doesn’t really know. When her drunken father injures her little brother and the family’s future is jeopardized, Sam must deal with anger and uncertainty as she makes some surprising discoveries about her family, her friends and herself. Sam comes across as a savvy as well as naïve teen who tells her own story with humor, honesty and hope. Realistic family drama. 

Lush (review). (2006).  Kirkus Reviews 52(11).  Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/natasha-friend/lush/

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is the story of a 13 year old girl in eighth grade. Her dad Is a major alcoholic. Or as she calls it he is a lush. But this isn't a sad story in which the dad leaves the family and everything falls apart. No, this story is how her actions and perseverance save their family.

Sam decides to keep her fathers drinking habits secret. Everything wells up in her with no one to tell. She can't even talk to her own mom.

Now, Sam decides to talk about it. But not to her friends. She visits the library every day after school, and one day she leaves a note inside a book that has never been checked out. She thinks a girl named Juliet gets it and is writing. But when the note comes back each time with a signature AJK she isn't so sure anymore.

This gorgeously written book is extremely exciting. Natasha Friend has the first hand experience of a father being an alcoholic so this is anything but corny. I know you, as I did, will grow to love Sam, her little brother Luke, and her yoga crazy mom. 

Lush is for anyone in middle school. If you are in eight grade or above you will really understand. But I warn you there is some pretty crazy things that happen in this book, so be prepared.

I would say that this is the kind of book that will get you to bawl, and yet laugh at the same time. This book I so cute, at sometimes I wish I could be Sam for a while. This is a truly great book.

H., Hannah.  Lush by Natasha Friend (review).   [Web log entry]. Retrieved from  http://www.teenink.com/reviews/book_reviews/article/33141/Lush-by-Natasha-Friend/

Use in a School Library: It would be interesting to do a unit in a high school library on real-life issues covered in literature.  The class could choose the topics, things like drug use, drunk driving, teenage or family alcoholism, suicide, homosexuality, bullying, sex, etc.  I could provide a list of appropriate books dealing with each topic, Lush being one of them. The kids could give a summary of the book- perhaps a book talk- and tell what they learned from the book about dealing with the issue at hand.  A list of books used for this unit should be posted somewhere in the library so that kids dealing with these issues might have something of quality to read dealing with an issue close to them, and perhaps helping them through it.  

Module 14 * Poetry and Story Collections * April 21-27

Zoo's Who
by Douglas Florian

Bibliography: Florian, D. (2005). Zoo's who. New York, NY: Harcourt Books, Inc.

Summary:  Florian has written a short poem about 21 different animals both common and exotic.  He also created the illustration that goes with each poem.  The poems range in length from 3 to 8 lines.   

My Take: The poems are cute and short, though some of the vocabulary he uses is more difficult than the length of the poem would lead the reader to believe.  I like that he changes the shape of the poem occasionally to fit the animal (The Tern and The Snake).  The illustrations are, to quote my nine year old son, creepy.  I'm not sure what it is about them, perhaps that most of them are dark and include random collage pieces?  The poems are funny and really do describe the animal they are about.

Reviews: 

"A puffin loves stuffin' / Its bill full of fishes. / It fills it with seven / Or eight if it wishes. / It always finds dishes / Of fishes delicious. / A puffin loves stuffin' / Its bill full of fishes." Florian punishes his legions of fans with 21 more occasions for zoological wordplay, admiring Bush Baby's "bushy tush," observing the behavior of penguins in "penguindy weather," concluding that one good tern deserves another, and so on--shaping or otherwise altering many of the verses, and pairing each to a typically witty construct of paint and found objects. For gales of laughter, read the poems aloud; for chuckles of amusement, linger over the pictures--either way, Florian demonstrates as well as any writer or artist ever has the simple joys of playing with language and imagery. (Poetry. 6-10)

Zoo's Who (review). (2005). Kirkus Reviews, 73(7), 416.

If the intention of this title is to interest young students in and interest them about a number of animals including sloths, lizards and pigs then this book of verse makes a contribution.  As for poetry, however, it is a rather uneven collection.  While some verses are clever and provide interesting images, others fall flat.  "The Eagle", for example, is tightly written and has a wonderful sense of word play.  "The Slugs" is witty, simple and perfectly paced.  Yet, other poems such as "The Bush Baby", "The Tortoise", and "The Sharks" have very little to recommend them.  They are short on music and creative language, to say the least.  The watercolor illustrations that accompany the poems are colorful and have a batik-like quality.

Zoo's Who (review). (2006). Library Media Connection, 24(4), 84.

Use in a School Library: It would be fun to read these poems aloud to kids and see if they can guess the animal from the poem without being told the title (which is always the name of the animal).  Florian has quite a few poetry books, all of which are relatively short, so it would be an easy author/poet to include in a genre study. 

Book Trailers

Here are the links to three book trailers I created:

Gregor the Overlander- by Suzanne Collins

https://vimeo.com/93021472


Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty- by G. Neri

https://vimeo.com/93031041


Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart- by Candice Fleming

https://vimeo.com/93033481

Module 13 * Graphic Novels and Series Books * April 14-20

Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty
by 
G. Neri

Bibliography: Neri, G. (2010). Yummy: The last days of a Southside shorty. New York, NY: Lee & Low Books.

Summary:  Yummy is an eleven-year-old gang member who never had a chance.  From the broken home and parents in jail to his gangster brother, life did not deal him a fair hand. Things go from bad to worse when a gang hit attempted to earn him street cred kills a young girl from his neighborhood.  On the run and hidden from the law by his gang, Yummy's story took hold of the nation.  He was even on the cover of Time magazine!  The gang eventually decides that the heat is not worth it and takes Yummy out themselves.  What a sad and tragic life.  

My Take: Though this story was very depressing, even more so because it is true, it was also very powerful.  To some Yummy's life might seem pointless, but he brought nation-wide attention to a very real and increasingly prevalent problem with gangs in urban environments.  Since the juvenile laws were so much less stringent than adult laws at the time, gangs got young boys to do a lot of their dirty work for them.    

Reviews: 

"So young to kill, so young to die" read the 1994 Time magazine cover with Yummy's photo. Yummy was a real 11-year-old Chicago kid, with father in jail, abused by his mom, and sucked all-too-readily into the Black Disciples gang. "The disciples ain't stupid," comments a character in Neri's account. "They got this endless supply of young ones with no daddy, just looking for attention"--pit bull puppies who could escape felony convictions because of age. Given a gun and sent on small jobs, Yummy was a bundle of thug ego with a kid's immaturity, and he accidentally killed a teen girl bystander while threatening supposed rivals. Now a liability as a magnet for unwanted attention, Yummy was executed by his own gang. While Neri invents a fictional narrator as tour guide for the reader, the story is based on public records, media reports, and personal accounts. VERDICT Neri's re-creation paints a compelling and sympathetic portrait of how a youngster became too eager to please the wrong people, and DuBurke (Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography) provides skilled, semiphoto-quality inks and shadows that do his subject justice. Strongly recommended for tweens and up.

Cornog, M. (2010). Yummy: The last days of a Southside shorty (review).  Library Journal 135(19), 56.
.

In 1994, in the Roseland neighborhood of Chicago's South Side, a 14-year-old girl named Shavon Dean was killed by a stray bullet during a gang shooting. Her killer, Robert "Yummy" Sandifer, was 11 years old. Neri recounts Yummy's threedays on the run from police (and, eventually, his own gang) through the eyes of Roger, a fictional classmate of Yummy's. Roger grapples with the unanswerable questions behind Yummy's situation, with the whys and hows of a failed system, a crime-riddled neighborhood, and a neglected community. How could a smiling boy, who carried a teddy bear and got his nickname from his love of sweets, also be an arsonist, an extortionist, a murderer? Yet as Roger mulls reasons, from absentee parenting to the allure of gang membership, our picture of Yummy only becomes more obscure. Neri's straightforward, unadorned prose is the perfect complement to DuBurke's stark black-and-white inks; great slabs of shadow and masterfully rendered faces breathe real, tragic life into the players. Like Roger, in the end readers are left with troubling questions and, perhaps, one powerful answer: that they can choose to do everything in their power to ensure that no one shares Yummy's terrible fate.

Yummy: The last days of a Southside shorty (review). (2010).  Publishers Weekly 257(28), 119.

Use in a School Library: This book would be a great graphic novel to use in a middle school or high school when introducing graphic novels.  Sometimes kids think of graphic novels as comic books, so one that is based on a true story and is about someone who is their age could be powerful.  It shows how to take a personal narrative and use graphic arts to turn it into something very different.  There are many apps and web tools that would allow kids to do this with one of their own, hopefully much less depressing, personal stories.  

Module 12 * Biography and Autobiography * April 7-13

The Road to Oz: Twists, Turns, Bumps and Triumphs in the Life of Frank L. Baum

by 

Kathleen Krull

Bibliography: Krull, K. (2008). The road to Oz: Twists, turns, bumps and triumphs in the life of Frank L. Baum. New York, NY: Knopf Books for Young Readers.

Summary:  This book takes the reader through the life of Frank L. Baum, author of The Wizard of Oz books. It starts with his privileged childhood and then takes you through his on-going struggle to make something successful of himself while growing up and eventually creating a family of his own.  The ideas he had for the next big thing, or the way he would make his fortune were always far-fetched and usually dismal failures.  That is, until he decided to take the one thing he has always been good at, telling entertaining stories to his children and their friends.  Those stories eventually became the well-love children's book and movie, The Wizard of Oz.

My Take: Since his books are among my all-time favorites, I enjoyed this book.  It was interesting to see the long journey Baum went on before he became famous.  It was sweet that the stories stemmed from the love he had for his children.  He led a very bumpy life, just like the title says.  

Reviews: 

"Once upon a time, there was no Dorothy from Kansas and her little dog, Toto. There was no tornado that whirled them to a magic world named Oz...Someone had to make it all up." Author Kathleen Krull skillfully tells young readers precisely how an interesting man named Frank L. Baum did so. Through vivid anecdotes and strong research, Baum comes to life as not only the author of these beloved stories, but also as a human, who failed time and time again in a variety of pursuits. Persistence and heart are characteristics of Baum (that shine through thanks to Krull. Kevin Hiiwkcs's skillful illustrations add much to the text, making this biography a delicious visual feast.

Coleman, J. The Road to Oz: Twists, Turns, Bumps & Triumphs in the Life of L. Frank Baum (review).  Library Media Connection, 27(3), 83-84.

Krull (Hillary Rodham Clinton) turns to the frequently failing but resilient man behind the 1900 classic, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Her very readable account begins with Lyman Frank Baum's privileged childhood in a wealthy family and continues through his many attempted careers, such as chicken breeder, newspaper editor and window dresser. "Bad luck, bad planning, too much ambition, too much risk… ('Will he ever amount to anything?' some people whispered)." The chatty narrative paints a well-rounded, occasionally irreverent portrait of Baum as a plucky, earnest entrepreneur and doting family man who loved telling stories to his four sons. Numerous parenthetical asides interject well-researched tidbits, such as jokes Baum recycled in his Aberdeen (Dakota Territory) newspaper. Hawke's (Library Lion) jaunty acrylics fit Baum's optimistic spirit, while vignettes drawn in green highlight some of Baum's inspirations, e.g., drawings of the Tin Man accompany a passage about how the writer once made an all-metal dummy for a hardware store window. A detailed author's note rounds out this cheeky yet informative biography. Ages 8-12.

The Road to Oz: Twists, Turns, Bumps & Triumphs in the Life of L. Frank Baum (review). (2008) Publishers Weekly 255(34), 74.

Use in a School Library: I would use this book with a 4th grade study of authors and their crafts.  I would have a list of biographies and autobiographies appropriate for the age and I would have kids choose one.  Then I would have them create a report of any kind they wish to share the author's struggles, process and successes.  It should be inspirational for them to see how many different methods different authors use and that writing does not always come easily, even to professionals!  

Module 11 * Informational Books * March 31- April 6

Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of the Macy's Parade

by 

Melissa Sweet

Bibliography: Sweet, M. (2011). Balloons over Broadway. New York, NY: HMH Books for Young Readers.

Summary: This is the story of Tony Sarg (rhymes with aarg) who is the mind behind the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons.  It tells about where he got his start (London), how he began (making marionettes) and how he came up with the idea for the huge balloons that have becomes iconic (he started with horse-drawn floats and real animals that were too scary for the  children).  It documents the creative process and stages he went through before the parade became the highlight of the Thanksgiving season that it is today.  

My Take: This book is fascinating!  The information is interesting and relevant and the way the book is put together- the mixed media art- makes you feel like you are looking at one of Sarg's idea books!  This is a great book to use to introduce informational texts to kids.  

Reviews: 

This bright, brimming picture biography commemorates Tony Sarg, a brilliant, self-taught artist whose innovative heliumballoons delighted legions of Macy's parade watchers from 1928 on.

Sweet sketches Sarg's career as a puppeteer and marionette-maker. Moving from London to New York City, where his marionettes performed on Broadway, Sarg engineered mechanical storybook characters for Macy's "Wondertown" holiday windows. In 1924, he created floats and costumes for the first Macy's parade, which celebrated both immigrant and American holiday traditions. When the annual parade's lions and tigers (borrowed from the Central Park Zoo) frightened children, Macy's commissioned Sarg to replace them. Ever innovative, Sarg eventually utilized rubberized silk and helium to create larger, lighter balloons that could be controlled from below. Sweet's charming mixed-media layouts form a playful bridge between her creative process and Sarg's. She fashioned whimsical toys from painted blocks, buttons and fabric, combining them in photo-collages with old books, cut paper, imagined sketches for Sarg's projects, watercolor images of parade scenes and much more. Endpapers inform and delight, too, with excerpts from a 1929 book about Sarg's marionettes and a front-page parade invitation in the 1933 New York Times. Backmatter is also a collage of treats, with an author's note appending further biographical details and comments about the art.

This clever marriage of information and illustration soars high. (bibliography of adult sources, quote sources, acknowledgements, period photo) (Picture book/biography. 4-8)

Balloons over Broadway (review). (2011). Kirkus Reviews, 35(17), 1607.

Tony Sarg (1880-1942, "rhymes with aargh!"), the man who invented the giant balloons of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, has found a worthy biographer in Caldecott Honoree Sweet (A River of Words). With lighthearted watercolors, fanciful scrapbooking, and collaged typography, Sweet shows how Sarg, a self-taught immigrant, combined an indomitable curiosity with an engineer's know-how and a forever-young imagination. The story walks readers through each stage of Sarg's development as a master of puppetry--his childhood fascination with mechanics and marionettes, his first big break as a developer of window displays for Macy's, and his early earthbound parade creations (essentially air-filled rubber bags that were steered down the street). And then comes the light-bulb moment: "With a marionette, the controls are above and the puppet hangs down…" writes Sweet. "But what if the controls were below and the puppet could rise up?" The rush that comes from inspiration, the cliffhanger moments of creation, the sheer joy of building something and watching it delight the multitudes--Sweet captures it all in what is truly a story for all ages. Ages 4-8.

Balloons over Broadway: The true story of the puppeteer of Macy's parade (review). (2011). Publishers Weekly 258(32). 

Use in a School Library: It would be lots of fun to begin a unit on informational texts with this book right before Thanksgiving break.  The kids' "homework" over the break would be to watch the parade on tv and share some of the facts they have learned with family and friends who are there at the time.  Being the one to give the adults new information about the parade (there were lots of things I didn't know before I read this book) will be an awesome hook into the world of informational books!  Then, after the break, groups would share their experiences.  Looking through some good, interesting informational books that the librarian has selected would be next, and then they could choose one to create a presentation of information on.  These could be shared with others.

Module 10 * Historical Fiction * March 24-29

Goin' Someplace Special 

by 

Fred McKissack

Bibliography: McKissack, K. (2001). Goin' someplace special. New York, NY:Atheneum Books for Young Readers. 

Summary: Tricia Ann is excited to go to her "someplace special" by herself for the very first time.  She is a young black girl in the 1950's, somewhere in the south.  All along the journey she encounters what her grandmother knows she will have to contend with and has tried her best to arm her against- racisim and the Jim Crow laws.  She has to sit in the back of the bus, is told to leave the hotel she goes to to visit her friend the doorman and is not allowed to sit on a bench in the park that her stonemason Grandfather helped to build.  Tricia Ann remembers her Grandmother's wise and wonderful words through all of these challenges and realizes why she has been taught them, "You are somebody, a human-- no better, no worse than anybody else in this world", and "Hold yo' head up and act like you belong to somebody".  These are the thoughts that help her to get to her someplace special, where everyone is welcome- the public library.

My Take: I love this book.  It is a very real and personal look at one girl's first solo experience with the racist south and the Jim Crow laws that limit where she can go and what she can do.  The story lets the reader see what it was like, and how unfair it all was through the eyes of an innocent child.  By the end of the trip, Tricia Ann in not so innocent and understands why her grandmother has continually told her that she is important and not to let others take her happiness or make her feel she doesn't belong.  
  

Reviews: 

Young Tricia Ann is off to Someplace Special — and about to "burst with excitement" because her grandmother is letting her go there alone for the very first time. The journey is not an easy one: she must face the indignities of life in the Jim Crow South. She has to sit behind the sign on the bus that says "COLORED SECTION," She is not allowed to sit in the park by the Peace Fountain her stonemason grandfather helped build. She visits her friend the doorman at the elegant Southland Hotel and is asked to leave. "What makes you think you can come inside? No colored people are allowed!" the manager says. Despite these humiliations, Tricia Ann is strengthened at every turn by people who care about her and who bolster her with reminders to "Carry yo'self proud" and "Don't let those signs steal yo' happiness." Soon she reaches her beloved Someplace Special — the public library The words carved in stone proclaim: "Public Library: All Are Welcome." Jerry Pinkney's illustrations place Tricia Ann at the center of each page, willing to face the challenges the outside world throws at her. Whether Tricia Ann is in her grandmother's kitchen (surrounded by bountiful fresh fruits and vegetables and the love they symbolize) or fearfully looking over her shoulder on the bus, Pinkney makes it clear that she will triumph. Though this story takes place in an unnamed Southern city, the helpful author's note states that McKissack was raised in Nashville, where, unlike many other Southern cities of the 1950s, the public libraries welcomed African Americans. The library pictured on the final pages, bathed in hopeful lemon sunshine, is the downtown library of 1950s Nashville. There are many books about a child's first trip alone, and many books about racism and the struggle for civil rights, but this book is about more than either: it is the story of a child facing a difficult time sustained by the support of the adults in her life. McKissack and Pinkney strike just the right balance in a picture book for young readers and listeners: informative without being preachy; hopeful without being sentimental.

Smith, R. Goin' Someplace Special (review). (2001). Horn Book Magazine, 77 (6), 736-737.

In times like today, where young African American children can not image being denied entry into McDonalds, Red Lobster, or Pizza Hut, we need a story and visual aid to teach the lessons of the past. Hurtful signs and painful comments are overcome by Tricia Ann as she makes her way to one of the only places in the city that welcomes her with open arms: the public library. Prepared and fortified by her grandmother, she ventures outside her community for the first time. Sitting in the back of the bus behind the Jim Crow sign this young girl's full of love, pride, and respect.

Remembering her grandmothers words "You are somebody, a human -- no better, no worse than anybody else in this world" Tricia Ann now the adult Patricia McKissack was able to heal and chronicle an aspect of an aspect of her personal journey from a childhood in Nashville.

Jerry Pinkney, four-time Coretta Scott King winner, works magic in watercolor illustrations. Each page has soft portraits of this young African American girl as she braves the indignities and obstacles of the 1950s. His technique of sketching pencil illustrations and then transferring the design to watercolor, adding a mix of shades and jewel-like colors makes Jerry Pinkney's work distinctive.

Pinkney's attention to detail and McKissack's remembrance will certainly help our children to begin understand growing up in the segregated South.

Abif, K. Goin' Someplace Specail (review). (2001). Black Issues Book Review, 3 (6), 76.

Use in a School Library: This would be a stellar and powerful book to use as a read-aloud for kids during February's Black History month.  You could print a list of the Jim Crow laws that ruled life in the south at that time.  Then give different scenarios of things kids do now that are easy and commonplace- going to McDonald's and playing in the PlayLand, Going to Main Event and bowling with their family, etc. and talk about how those Jim Crow laws would make things more difficult and degrading.