Book Notes

This is our second pick for 4th and 5th grade book club. I love Cynthia Rylant’s books, and this one in particular.

Ob and Summer are grieving from the loss of May, Ob’s wife and Summer’s foster mother. They neither one want to get out of bed in the  morning or go on and live their happy lives without her. Enter Cletus Underwood, the Bat Woman, and an owl flying through on silent wings. Life just may go on after all. Different, but just as precious as it was before.

It’s a small book, but has such a big story in it with lovely writing with a folksy narrative. A great book for sharing.

I should start off by saying that I listened to this on CD. I’m not a big audio books listener. My mind tends to wander, and I want to actually read the book and hold it in my hands. So this was an interesting experience.

Simone has a great family and some great friends. She is also adopted. When she is 16, her birth mother who has long been in contact with her parents, has asked to speak with Simone. At first she resists, but eventually curiosity overwhelms her and she makes the call.

At the same time she has started to notice Zach at school. But he has a “just friends” girlfriend. What follows is a great story about family and friendships, religious beliefs, and love’s first kiss.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story, and it was surprisingly fun to listen to. The narrator did a great job, making herself sound like the main character. It was fun to listen to. I wonder how it would be to read it instead?

I read the first Katie Kazoo book called Anyone But Me. Katie wishes she could be anyone but herself, and she gets her wish–she becomes her classroom’s hamster!

Katie is in the third grade and has great friends and great family. But will she stop being a hamster and start being Katie again? Read it to find out!

Set on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, this was an intruiging book, with a fast plot.

Tragedy strikes one of Brady’s neighbors when their kayak sinks one chilly April morning. Brady had participated in the rescue efforts, and feels connected to the family. He discovers that the sunken kayak had a hole drilled in the bottom of it. Was this no accident but murder? And more horrifying, is Brady friends with the sabateur?

It’s a short read. Fun and light for summer.

I have just finished reading this incredible Swedish import. I love reading books that have been translated to see what is popular in other countries.

In this novel, a teenager finds that he has become invisible. Something happened to him two days ago when he was reported as missing. And now he is watching as a detective tries to piece together the events of the past two days. It’s really interesting to watch Himler as a ghost. His frustration at not being able to communicate with people: his slow realization of what happened to him.

It’s an engaging read, and takes no time at all to finish. An interesting perspective. I’d like to see how they managed the movie version of it.

This book has only been on the shelves for a few weeks, and already it is making the rounds. It is one of our favorites. Sad and beautiful and poetic.

Kit is 16 years old when her younger brother is diagnosed with and dies from Leukemia. The novel is written in free verse (remember Out of the Dust?) and captures all the family’s emotions. The sadness, anger, emptiness, and eventually, the hope of a new but different life.

Because the novel is in free verse you can read through it so quickly. Too quickly, actually. Read it through once, to see what happens. Then read it again. And linger over every word. They are so carefully chosen. The author proves again and again that just a few words are needed to provide so much emotional impact. You definitely need a box of tissues by your side when reading this. I loved it.        

This book came highly recommended and I just finished it. Not bad. Not bad at all. I loved the beginning. When I started it, it was so captivating that little else got done. Dinners were burned, beds went unmade.

Charley, 16, has been in a coma for a year since her brother, Hal, found her lying on the rocks in the ocean. Her family is going back to their vacation house in Cornwall (lovely setting!) and that’s when the story begins. Hal can suddenly hear Charley’s voice inside his head. At first he thinks it’s only his imagination, but it isn’t. Charley can see what he sees and can talk just to him. The novel is made up of small chapters. Some from Hal Now, Hal Then, Charley Now, Charley Then. This is a brilliant set-up. The Charley now keeps saying things like, “Help me, I’m all alone, It’s dark in here and I can’t find the door.” This also allows the reader to get a glimpse into Charley’s last summer.

As things progress, and Charley becomes more insistent that Hal “remember”, Hal begins to suspect that Charley’s being in a coma is no accident.

With the setting, and pace, this is a perfect summer book. Think hot surfers and gorgeous coastline.

Hooray! My reading slump is over. I just finished reading the most remarkable book. I am so glad the girls in book club chose this one. It won the Newbery Honor this year, and after reading The Higher Power of Lucky, I can’t believe it didn’t win the Newbery Medal. This one was so much better.

Catherine is 12, and her younger brother David has autism. She is frustrated with people staring at him and making fun of him. She gives him guidelines (rules) for everday life to help him get along better so that he blends in more. For both of their sakes.

Over the summer while her best friend is in California, a new girl just her age moves in across the street, and Catherine meets Jason. Her new neighbor Kristi is popular and pretty. Catherine was hoping they could be close friends, but can they when Kristi seems so awkward around people with disabilities?

Jason, is one of my favorite characters. Catherine meets him at the therapy clinic. Jason is wheelchair bound, and can’t talk. He has to point to words in his communication book. They develop a friendship, but one that Catherine only wants to have at the clinic. Can she learn to be friends with him outside of the clinic? In spite of the stares?

I absolutley adore this book! There is nothing fake about the characters. They act like real people. Nice setting too, on the coast of Maine. Definitely a must read.

Our 6th-8th grade book club just finished reading Olive’s Ocean. I was so glad when they chose this title. It is one of my absolute favorites. The writing is easy and relaxed; the characters are beautiful and real; and the overall story is believable.

Twelve-year-old Martha Boyle is preparing for her family’s annual vacation at her grandmother’s house on Cape Cod. Before she leaves, a woman knocks on her door and gives her a page from her daughter Olive’s diary. Olive was hit by a car and killed just a few weeks earlier. Before the accident Olive had written in her diary that she wanted to be a writer and live by the sea which she had never seen, all things that Martha wants to be and loves. Olive also mentioned that she thought Martha was the nicest girl in her class and she hoped to be friends with her some day.

Over the time spent at Godbee’s (Martha’s grandmother) Martha thinks about Olive and wonders why she never became friends with her, and what she can do for her now. She also spends some amazing moments with her grandmother (my favorite character in the whole book) and experiences her first kiss.

This is a fantastic read. I can’t recommend it enough.

We finally got some snow the other day. A decent foot. After spending about four hours on Saturday shoveling, we got to go cross country skiing on Sunday. We went to our favorite rail trail where no one had spent any time removing snow from the parking lot. Since you are not allowed to park on the street, we did what any reasonable person would do. We drove into the parking lot. Other people had clearly been there before us, there being tire tracks. But apparently they all have much heftier vehicles than I do. We got stuck in the snow. And no amount of spinning the tires or spinning the tires while rocking the vehicle helped. There was no one around to help us so we had to figure out what to do ourselves.

Then, I remembered my favorite sleuth getting out of a similar muddy situation. Nancy once got stuck in the mud. Being in a constant state of preparation for any disaster she was far better equipped always carrying burlap sacks in her trunk. Too bad we don’t have any burlap sacks, I thought. They provide just enough traction to get the tires up and out of the slick crater they’ve embedded themselves in. I looked down. I have floor mats. “Hey, let’s use the floor mats!” I shouted. “It worked for Nancy Drew.” I got one of those sideways, this is no time to talk about literature looks. But, I was firm. The car mats came out, secured under each front tire, and presto! Freedom.

What a wonderful feeling that is. I don’t ever want to hear anyone tell me that Nancy Drew is not a well-written series. Or that they don’t want their kids to read formula fiction, which is a fancy way of saying that the books are all the same, they just change the bad guy and the item to be solved. I don’t want to hear any of it. I could still be stuck out there fending off wild animals or something if I hadn’t read every single Nancy Drew between the ages of 10 and 12. I also might not know the words “predicament” or “titian.” Highly useful vocabulary.

I think I might just go home, open up my box of Nancy Drews and pull out The Moonstone Castle Mystery or The Mystery at Lilac Inn. They’re all so different it will be hard to decide.

Here is the winner of the 2007 Newbery Award. The Newbery Medal is awarded annually to a children’s book judged to be the best written of the year.

This book tells the story of Lucky Trimble and her guardian Brigette as they make a life together in Hard Pan, California among a cast of unusual characters. Lucky’s best friend likes to tie knots. Really elaborate knots, but all the same, what is the point of this? It doesn’t further my understanding of the character, it doesn’t even develop him in my mind. There is another adult character who has fashioned his house out of the abandoned water tower. Weird? Yes. It makes me wonder what is in the water out there in Hard Pan.

The ending of the story is very sweet. However, the rest of it is just okay. Good thing it was a brief book. I felt like it has been done before (it has). And better (it has). The book ends up reading like just another orphan story with weird characters and a weak plot.

I wish I was wrong. I would love for someone to come to me and point out something lovely and fresh about this book that I missed. Help me out here. Read it, and clue me in.

What kind of librarian would I be if one of my first posts wasn’t about my favorite books? All children’s titles, of course. Most of these were read so many times that I wore out my paperback copy.

I still have all of those worn-out paperbacks. They have a place of honor next to the clean, hardcover copy.

My all time favorite is The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare. I love this book. I loved it the first time I read it and it has yet to be surpassed. Everytime I pick it up, there they are, just the same as they have always been. Kit, Nat, Mercy and Judith and the witch, Hannah Tupper.

This book’s setting is what first drew me to it. 1685 Wethersfield, Connecticut. Katherine Tyler, Kit, is going to live with her mother’s sister after losing her last family member. Having grown-up in Barbados, she is unprepared for the Puritan way of life. She feels out of place until she befriends the widow Tupper, a Quaker, whose religion makes her as much of an outcast as Kit. A great read, romance, historical fiction, friendship all together. My absolute favorite.

Next on the list is Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher. I first read it in the 4th grade. I had trouble with the first chapter, it spends a lot of time setting up the story, but by the time you get to chapter 2 away you go. Vermont in the early 1900’s, Elizabeth is sent to live with her Putney relatives. I love them all. Sweet Aunt Abigail, Uncle Henry, and cousin Ann, whose sharp eyes and manners can only just mask her good heart. It’s a great family, a great story with real people. I could talk about this book all day, so just read it and then come in and talk with me about it.

Ramona books by Beverly Cleary. Was there ever a more perfect character than Ramona? Everything about her is wonderful. I love that her family is middle class. Money is always an issue, but even without ipods, xbox, and their own website, they have a great life and a great family. Ramona and Her Father is still one of my favorites. So is Ramona the Brave, and while we’re at it, Ramona Quimby Age 8.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. This is a wonderful book to read in March. We’re right at the same stage as the garden when she first arrived. It’s cold and windy, but by the time you can learn to skip rope up to a hundred, little wick things will be pokin’ out t’ earth. That’s my Yorkshire attempt. Who hasn’t wanted to be like Dicken, or live in a house with so many rooms that you can spend a rainy day wandering around exploring them? Fantastic classic.

I know I am leaving something out. That’s the problem of doing this at work instead of at home. However, with the power of blog, I can go home, check my precious shelves and fill in the ones I missed. I know there are people out there who had favorites, let’s hear about them!