Contemporary Realistic Fiction: Clementine

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Pennypacker, Sara. 2006. Clementine. Illus. by Marla Frazee. NY: Hyperion Books for Children. ISBN: 0786838825.

BOOK REVIEW
In this delightful beginning chapter book Pennypacker has captured the essence of a “not-so-common” independent and creative third-grader named Clementine through a humorous and fresh first-person narrative and a catch phrase of “okay, fine.” After helping cut off the perfectly straight hair of her fourth-grade friend Margaret with a pair of plastic art room scissors, young Clementine is having a bad week, okay, fine, a horrible week. With numerous meetings with the school principal, having her teachers tell her to “pay attention” to them instead of other important things like seeing the janitor and the lunch lady in a “disgusting” embrace in the parking lot, and having no luck in making Margaret (and her mother) feel better about her lack of hair with such attempts like coloring what is left with a Flaming Sunset red permanent marker and even cutting off her own hair, Clementine is sure that her parents are going to get rid of her. However, despite her tendency of getting into trouble, her observant and innovative nature leads to thoughts “sproinging” into her head and she becomes a problem solver and accepts the uniqueness of her family and her friendship with Margaret. Frazee’s pen and ink illustrations express the very spirit of the story and its main character. Perfect for reading aloud or alone, this entertaining book is a welcomed addition to any young reader’s collection.

CONNECTIONS
*Continue to read and be entertained by Clementine with Pennypacker and Frazee’s two books The Talented Clementine and Clementine’s Letter (available April 1, 2008).
*For more books with an energetic young heroine read the Judy Moody series by Megan Mcdonald and illus. by Peter H. Reynolds and the Ivy and Bean series by Annie Barrows and illus. by Sophia Blackall.

Contemporary Realistic Fiction: The Quigleys

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Mason, Simon. 2002. The Quigleys. Illus. by Helen Stephens. NY: David Flicking Books. ISBN: 0385750064.

BOOK REVIEW
The Quigley family is like any other not-so-perfect British or American families. In this intermediate chapter book, the four episodic chapters individually introduce each of the family members: Dad, Lucy, Mum and Will, through stories of little adventures and misadventures like how Dad temporarily lost one of the neighbor’s kids that he is babysitting, Lucy making her own bee costume to wear to a wedding rather than the typical bridesmaid dress that Mum wants her wear, turning Mum’s birthday from an “awful day” where she misses the ballet to a fun-filled evening of a ballet performed by Lucy and Will and refreshments concocted by everything from the liquor cabinet, and, finally, Will’s lesson in undertaking the sometimes harsh consequences of helping a friend even if it means possibly losing the Christmas present he’s been wanting since summer. The simple black and white drawings that are sprinkled through out the book help expresses the moods of the characters and situations during each of the stories (Lucy’s reveal of her bee costume is a great example). Though some readers and parents may find the British lifestyle (Dad likes to swear and Mum likes to drink) and lingo, although accurately represented, odd and perhaps offensive, Mason’s first attempt at children’s literature is perfect for those who are not yet up to full-length novels and will find this humorous and true-to-life.

CONNECTIONS *Read more stories about this quirky Brit family with The Quigleys at Large, The Quigleys: Not for Sale and The Quigleys in a Spin.

Contemporary Realistic Fiction: The Penderwicks

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Birdsall, Jeanne. 2005. The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy. NY: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN: 0375931430.

* Winner of the 2006 National Book Award For Young People’s Literature *

BOOK REVIEW
In her first-ever book Birdsall has captured the charm of a family spending the summer away from the city that is reminiscent of many classic stories, including Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women and Francis Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden. With the wonderfully light yet strong narrative the story follows the Penderwick sisters – twelve-year-old and responsible Rosalind, spirited Skye, age eleven, Jane a ten-year-old budding writer, and the shy little four-year-old Batty – as the spend their summer up in the Berkshire Mountains in a rented cottage on the Arundel estate with their widowed botany professor father and faithful dog Hound. The adventures begin immediately upon the friendship with Jeffery, the son of the snobby owner Ms. Tifton, and the teenage gardener Cagney. However, despite the fun had by all the tension of the impending time when Jeffery, who is a talented pianist, is to be sent to military school grows stronger (especially with the help with Ms. Tifton’s “creepy” fiancé Mr. Dupree). Through strong bonds of family and friendship, however, the sisters help Jeffery gather the courage to finally tell his mom what he wanted to do with his life and the girls learn more about themselves. Like so many books before it, The Penderwicks will enchant readers for ages to come.


CONNECTIONS
*Read the sequel to The Penderwicks: The Penderwicks on Gardam Street.
*Read Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women and discuss the similarities between the two books.

Contemporary Realistic Fiction: The Wright 3

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Balliett, Blue. 2006. The Wright 3. Illus. by Brett Helquist. NY: Scholastics. ISBN:0439693675.

BOOK REVIEW
In the sequel to her acclaimed “Da Vinci Code for kids” book Chasing Vermeer Balliet continues the adventures of sleuths Petra and Calder who are now joined by Calder’s old friend Tommy who has returned to Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood after living New York for a year. Despite the initial tension between Tommy and the new mystery-solving two-some, resentments begin to dissolve away when Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House is doomed for demolition with its parts being sent to museums around the world. Working together, the sixth-graders begin to crack the codes to the secrets that surround the house as they learn about is history, the story of its famous architect, the appreciation of art and through the combination of their unique personalities and abilities (Petra’s literary mind, Tommy’s talent of scavenging for items, especially where he shouldn’t be and the fact that he lives next door to the house, and Calder’s brain-tickling pentominoes). Intertwining some of culture’s famous “works of art” – Wright’s house, Hitchock’s film Rear Window, and H.G. Well’s The Invisible Man – and secret codes like Fibonacci, Balliett has written yet another exciting book fueled by mystery, risk-taking, and the true-to-life dynamics of friendship. With the extra punch by Helquist’s detailed full-page illustrations that also have their hidden challenge, The Wright 3 is excellent for engaging readers of any age in an exciting and even an educational narrative.

CONNECTIONS
*Read the prequel to The Wright 3: Chasing Vermeer
*Read the sequel to The Wright 3: Calder Game that will be released May 1, 2008
*Have some fun and create your own secret codes as well as the play around with the Fibonacci code.
*Make your own pentominoes by gluing together little blocks, and with a picture for help, try to recreate the Robie House.

Poetry for Children: Sky Words

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Singer, Marilyn. 1994. Sky Words. Illus. by Deborah Kogan Ray. NY: Macmillan Publishing Compnay. ISBN: 002782882.

BOOK REVIEW
In Sky Words, it is through Singer’s remarkable use of words that each poem paints a visual picture and strong emotions of adventure of skywriting, fear when a tornado roars through the landscape, intrigue during a Monarch butterfly migration, and a haunting sensation of being out at twilight. Written in various rhyming and free verse forms, the poems are easy yet captivating to read due to the rhythms that are set by word play that nearly sing off the tongue. Perfectly complementing the fifteen poems about skies from various seasons are Deborah Kogan Ray’s soft illustrations rendered in watercolors and color pencils and come in various cool, warm and vivid colorings. Through the both the textual imagery and the corresponding artwork, the readers are drawn into each of the settings and immediately wrapped into poem’s emotions. A striking example is in “Fog” where there is a sense of mistrust in the verses “No one is your friend/in the fog/ The sky is a liar/The ground is a sneak/All footsteps belong to strangers/even your own,” and where illustration presents a indistinct and blurry cityscape that would make a city dweller question each sound and movement. This is an excellent selection for powerfully affective use of poetry and imagery of skies during the dynamic seasons year round.

CONNECTIONS *Read Jane Yolen’s book about more natural scenery: Horizons: Poems As Far As the Eye Can See.

Poetry for Children: Monumental Verses

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lewis, J. Patrick. 2005. Monumental Verses. Washington D.C.: National Geographic Society. ISBN: 0792271351.

BOOK REVIEW
"A bow to all who hoist the spirit high/And carve imagination into stone/…/A thought: No matter who the builders were,/ They gave to time a timeless monument/A human star-chitecture signature." These verses come from the introductory poem that sets the mood for this collection of thirteen poems that pay homage to the awe-inspiring architecture from around the world. For each of the thirteen well- and little-known monuments, which include Stonehenge, Easter Island, the Great Pyramid of Cheops, the Empire State Building, the Arc de Triomphe, Rose City of Petra, Mount Rushmore, and Palace of Versailles, Lewis works his craft and presents the readers with an array of poems that vary form and range from blank verse, acoustic, shape, rhyming and more. Along with a chosen form, Lewis also matches the magnificence and sometimes mysterious feeling that is expressed by each monument. A beautiful example of this artistry is seen in the poem for Machu Piccu: "Above the raintree country of their birth,/In ancient days the Inca hid from earth/A testament–'Old Peak'¬–in massive stone/A secret sacred city all their own/Invisible to enemies below." Along with each of the poems are dramatic photographs of each monument that were taken during different times of the day, angles, and weather, to provide an extra punch of impressive imagery that is already seen in the text. With information of location, chief engineer or builder and physical facts and epilogue that includes a world map, additional details on each monument and a message from the poet himself, this is an extraordinary example of combining the art of poetry and education of geography that everyone will enjoy and learn from.

CONNECTIONS
*Read more geographic poems with J. Patrick Lewis’ book A World of Wonders: Geographic Travels in Verse and Rhyme.
*For teachers, create a fun “quiz” by reading the poems to the students and have them guess at which monument it is about.

Poetry for Children: Here’s a Little Poem: A Very First Book of Poetry

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Yolen, Jane and Andrew Fusek Peters. 2007. Here’s a Little Poem: A Very First Book of Poetry. Illus. by Polly Dunbar. Mass: Candlewick Press. ISBN: 9780763631413.

BOOK REVIEW
In this delightful anthology, poets Jane Yolen and Andrew Fusek Peters introduce the beauty and fun of poetry to very young readers with sixty-one little poems. Organized into four parts, “Me, Myself, and I,” “Who Lives in My House?,” “I Go Outside” and “Time for Bed,” the collection exudes the playful, imaginative, rambunctious and even peaceful thoughts and actions of children in their everyday life with poems that range from the disgust of green veggies ("Soggy Greens") to the love of pets ("Cat Kisses") and grandparents ("Grandpa") to playing at the beach ("Sand House") and to getting ready for bed ("After a Bath"). Despite the various rhythms and rhymes, with the lively use of words, which are especially seen in "Rickety Train Ride": "It’s an ever so rickety trickety train,/And I honestly thickety think/That before it arrives/At the end of the line/It will tip up my drippety drink," and themes like playing in mud, all the poems radiate fun and humor for everyone to enjoy. Dunbar’s mix-medium (vibrant watercolors with accents of handmade paper collages) artwork fill this over-size formatted book and provides amazingly wonderful illustrations of children doing what they do best and that complements each of the poems. With works written by many of the contemporary and well-known poets, which include the Nikkie Grimes, J. Patrick Lewis, and Jack Prelutsky, as well as the famous authors/poets from by—gone years like Langston Hughes, A.A. Milne, and Robert Louis Stevenson, readers of all ages, including adults, will be enchanted by the refreshing charm of these beginning poems.

Poetry for Children: Pío Peep! Traditional Spanish Nursery Rhymes

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ada, Alma Flor and F. Isable Campoy. 2003. Pío Peep! Traditional Spanish Nursery Rhymes. Illus. by Vivía Escrivá and Eng. Adapt. by Alice Schertle. NY: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN: 0688160190.

BOOK REVIEW
Pío Peep! Is a beautiful collection of traditional nursery rhymes collected from the rich Spanish-speaking cultures of Latin America and the American Southwest. The twenty-nine popular and loved rhymes capture the images of the world, its inhabitants, and the playful life that revolve around childhood. Through the simplistic flow of rhythm and rhyme that resonate off the page, rhymes like "Tortillas for Mommy": "Mommy like tortillas/steaming hot and yummy/Make them round and nicely browned/for Daddy’s hungry tummy" encourages the readers to recited aloud and share with each other. Through the talented work of adapter Alice Schertle the English versions are “poetic re-creations” rather than translations in order to maintain the charm and allure that is seen in the originals. Presented in double-spreads, the Spanish and English rhymes appear side-by-side and are surrounded by the soft and colorful watercolor and pencil illustrations that embody the imagery of the rhymes. Perfect for learning new games and finger-plays, for fun and educational way for learning a second language, and for reading any time of the day including bedtime, this bilingual book will be a welcomed addition to any school, library or home.

CONNECTIONS
*Read more Spanish-English poetry and finger-play books like the following three: Momá Goose by Alma Flor Ada and Isabel Campoy and Illus. by Maribel Suarez,, Tortillas para Mamá and Other Nursery Rhymes by Margot C. Griego, et al. and Illus. by Barbara Cooney, and Diez deditos = 10 Little Fingers & Other Play Rhymes and Action Songs from Latin America by Elisa Kleven and Jose-Luis Orozco.