The Million Dollar Shot by Dan Gutman

A great pick for a 4th grader who reads but cannot find the right book. This has it all, the coolness of the NBA, an interracial relationship story better than Maniac Magee, and so much heartbreak that you would think it was a girl book, but the more-than-evil Twinkie guy reminds you are just reading a superb book, written for everyone, including nonreaders.

Olive's Ocean

by Kevin Henkes

A quick read.

file under:
grandmothers/granddaughters
death, thinking about
summer
family

The summer starts with Martha finding out that a girl in her grade died in a bicycle accident. Martha didn't really know Olive, but Olive's mother brings by a page from her journal where she'd written her hopes--she'd write a book, live by the ocean, and become friends with Martha Boyle.
The spooky coincidence is that Martha herself has just decided that she will be a writer--it’s a secret she’s keeping from her family.

With this, Martha goes off to spend vacation with her family at her grandmother's on Cape Cod. She spends the summer trying to become a writer, getting to know Jimmy Manning (14-yr-old neighbor, aspiring film-maker), and processing Olive's death.

Some funny family scenes. Some page-turning boy-liking scenes. Some wincey cringey disappointing scenes. Neat descriptions of scenes, feelings, and people-dynamics--potentially encouraging for young readers who identify with wanting to be writers. A lot of internal-thinking, cerebral-writing...but in simple language.

I really enjoyed it.

Reading it as an adult, I wondered a bit if the thought-heavy writing would keep it from being a favorite book among kid readers--but I asked a seventh-grader who read it last year, about it, and she said “oh my gosh, that’s such a good book!” and told me about how she started with the book and then passed it to so-and-so and then so-and-so needed to read it, and so on, and that she'd almost forgotten how good it was and maybe she'd read it again... so there you go.
Sixth grade is probably the grade to read this and really like it.

Replay

by Sharon Creech

I loved it!

The story shifts between scenes from Leo's family, Leo's imagination (which is really funny), and the school play that's in production…
It makes sense after a couple of pages, and from there it moves quickly.

Leo is 12, the second-oldest in a family with four children; his slightly younger brother plays football, his older sister plays soccer, his littlest brother has a lisp and sings all the time; his parents are hard-working and tired a lot of the time. His home is a whirlwind of different activities and busy-ness…there's always an air of mild chaos.

Leo retreats into his fanciful funny imagination, recasting scenes where he's famous and successful and has made everyone happy or someone gets what they deserve, etc. These imagination scenes are a lot of fun--and Creech has Leo's real-life and imagination follow each other seamlessly, which makes it all funnier, after a little bit of confusion at first.

Leo has a routine where he runs from his porch, jumps over a bush, climbs a tree, looks down, studies the neighborhood, and repeats this--with his goal being to see something new each time he goes around.. I liked these parts a lot

Also there's a great chapter, "Then and Now," where the play in falling apart because nobody is staying in character, and Mr. Beeber, the drama teacher, tries getting everyone to think about what his/her character was like before the play…it leads into an exercise where he has them pick someone they know and then write about what they were like when they were little, and how they're different now, and why that might be. …It's a well-done chapter--and connects with Leo's secretly discovering & reading his dad's childhood autobiography, The Autobiography of Giorgo, Age of Thirteen, and imagining what he was like and when/why/how he changed. It would be fun to do the exercise with kids who are reading the book.

The book itself is set up like a play--from the tickets on the cover, the title page that looks like a program/poster, a cast list, and a list of scenes instead of chapters…a curtain opens and closes at the beginning and end of the book. This all adds an interesting dimension to the story-- between this and the real/imagined/play format, I think Replay introduces current writing/storytelling creative trends to children's literature in a neat way. …it's like contemporary grown-up writing but right on target for kid readers.

The chapters are nice and short--speedy--and terrifically named. The pages are slightly smaller than typical pages. The combination makes for a manageable, readable book--not too thick seeming or intimidating… which is helpful since the reading itself (because of the back and forth and scene-shifting from reality to imagination to play) could be challenging.

The book ends with an appendix of Mr. Beeber's play--which is neat.

People who might like this book:
+ kids who really really really love acting/theater/writing
+ kids with lots of brothers and sisters
+ sharon creech fans
+ strong readers ready for uncommon storytelling

It might also be a good book for kids who are dealing with family sadness/sickness/death… because there's an honest treatment of that in the story--quiet and thoughtful and scared but safe--and it's reassuring without simplifying it.
In a way, the story is all about kids dealing with death, the inevitability and unpredictability of it (*even though no death happens in the story) …and about how powerful and magical storytelling is.

book site (with reading guide) || author site

Busted by Betty Hicks

Stuart is forever in trouble with his overprotective mother. He's grounded and banned from watching tv, playing video games, and talking on the phone. And Stuart's pretty sure he's not a bad kid.

When circumstances lead to Stuart's mother forcing him to quit soccer, Stuart's friend Mack suggests a new tactic. The reason that Stuart's mother is so strict is because she's single and overly focused on Stuart, according to Mack. Mack endeavors to set up Stuart's mother with her Uncle Joe. Stuart meanwhile plots to set up his mother with his soccer coach, hoping to get back on the team. As usual for Stuart, nothing quite works out to plan. He gets back on the team, but realizes that he's created a whole new set of problems.

This book references Sleepless in Seattle and that's not usually the kind of thing I gravitate towards, but Hicks also does a fairly nimble job of incorporating a book within the book as she has Stuart identifying with Bilbo Baggins while he reads the Hobbit. The book is very contemporary which means it will probably age quickly but for now I think its currency makes it relevant for our students.

I imagine that a lot of the kids who like Raven/Lizzie Maguire would like this...it's kind of tailored to fourth and fifth graders who want to read about seventh and eighth graders.

Here's a profile of author Betty Hicks.

Mr. Chickee's Funny Money, by Christopher Paul Curtis

I just finished Mr. Chickee's Funny Money, an old new book from Christopher Paul Curtis. (His website reveals that this book was written at the same time as The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963, but was only published at the end of 2005.)

Despite the book's place on NYPL's 100 books from 2005 list, I have to say that this book is kind of a mess.

The book centers on Steven, nine year old founding member of the Future Detectives of Flint and the second smartest id in his class. When Steven receives an envelope from Mr. Chickee, a senior citizen for whom Steven runs errands, he doesn't expect to be chased through the streets of Flint by Treasury Department agents.

This book also involves a massive dog, a talking dictionary, James Brown's conk, mind control, and a mother who is forever reading library books about the needs of gifted children.

Parts of Mr. Chickee are very funny, but it is all over the place, starting right after the action's climax and flashing back through the story.

I'm not sure what kids would make of this story; I almost doubt that they would get the parts that I thought were funniest. But maybe I'm wrong? I think this book is a mess, but it is fun watching it turn into a mess. So for that reason, I'd encourage anyone else to read it so that I can hear what you think.

More Tor

After enjoying Brainboy and the Deathmaster, I went to NYPL to try and find some more titles by Tor Seidler.

I really wasn't familiar with Mr. Seidler's books, and a lot of the titles seemed to deal with talking animals. I am generally not too fond of talking animals, but I checked out Mean Margaret (a National Book Award finalist in 1997) which has talking animals and Brothers Below Zero (2002) which has no talking animals.

I don't think I enjoyed either of these as much as I enjoyed Brainboy. I think Mr. Seidler comes across as too gentry at times, for me.



Mean Margaret got off to a bit of a slow start for me, with Fred, a fussy woodchuck who decides he needs to get married after a week of sleepless nights. But things pick up quite a bit when Fred's neat burrow gets invaded with his new bride's adopted child, a human terror who renames herself Margaret.

Despite my reservations about talking animals, this was actually pretty enjoyable. I think it might be a nice teacher read aloud to third graders, but I don't know that it would appeal to most of the kids who are in the market for a short chapter book. The pictures by Jon Agee are a nice bonus.



Brothers Below Zero features a helicopter rescue, but it's not nearly as exciting as the helicopter happenings in Brainboy. It's basically a nice enough story about Tim, a seventh grader who is in the shadow of his more athletic and academic sixth grade brother. Tim finally finds something to shine at thanks to his Great Aunt Winnie, but she is soon taken from him. The book is a nice enough holiday time tale of brothers finding common ground, but it comes across as pretty unessential.

Am I off base on talking animals and Mr. Seidler? Are you familiar with another of his titles that you recommend?

Any new-to-you authors worth reading? Share!

First Boy

by Gary Schmidt

Cooper never knew his parents--his grandparents have raised him on the Jewett family farm since he was a baby. When Cooper's grandparents die within weeks of each other, he is left alone to tend to the cows, barns, fields, and house. This would be work enough, but then there's school, cross country, and the mysterious Black Sedans that start following him around his quiet New Hampshire town.

His schoolwork suffers, as does his running… The farm is overwhleming. Neighbors are worried.
And then strange things start happening. Very Big Men in suits lurk in shadows around the property, snapping photographs. Someone breaks into his house and rummages through his grandfather's desk. The North barn burns to the ground. The electricity and phone go dead, and Cooper finds himself, with his arm twisted behind his back, being threatened by intruders. And Senator Wickham, the sleezy Presidential candidate, holds a private meeting with Cooper to see if he'll join the campaign.
Cooper starts to figure out that there might be something unusual about the mother and father he never knew.

Meanwhile, all he wants is to keep the farm--he funnels all his sadness and loneliness into keeping the farm, insisting that he can manage it. The mystery unravels, as Cooper balances the farm, school, and his grief, with the help of some neighbors.
There are a few great escape scenes and heart-thumping chase scenes.

I'd recommend this book to 5th-6th graders. The writing is simple…but compelling. The last few chapters are a great payoff for a book that drags a bit at first, and feels a bit self-conscious in its use of New England. (I don't know--I felt a little embarrassed by the self-conscious new englandy farmy backdrop, because it seemed maybe too easy. but then I'm happy to have a book be about a contemporary kid and a farm… I guess the second part wins. especially for the good ending.) I was caught off-guard when I finished the penultimate chapter on the subway tonight and sort of started crying. (Don't worry--the throat-chokey part is chased by a final chapter of crazy excitement and reassuring resolution, so readers shouldn't be put-off by the crying-potential. ha.)

Oh, also…I don't want to wreck it for you--but you should definitely read it until page 126. There's a surprise there that's done very well.

ADDENDUM:
will some else please read this?? pleeaaassse? see comments.
(also--there's page 126....)