Module 10 Review - Gingersnap

Gingersnap / by Patricia Reilly Giff

Bibliographic Citation:

Giff, P.R. (2013). Gingersnap. New York, NY: Wendy Lamb Books.

Summary:

Gingersnap is a story about Jayna, a young red-headed girl that was orphaned when her parents were killed in a car accident. After many years in foster homes, her older brother Rob finally turns 18 and comes to take her home with him, to be a family again.

The story is set toward the end of WWII and after a year of being a family, Rob is sent off as a cook on a U.S. Navy destroyer. Before Rob leaves, he tells Jayna that he has a box of family stuff to show her when he returns. While he is gone, Jayna stays with Celine, their landlord. One day, Stuart, the man from the telegraph office, brings Jayna a telegraph that says the destroyer Rob was on was hit by a Japanese kamikaze plane and that Rob is missing. Jayna goes to their house to find the box with a recipe book and a picture. She packs her things and her pet turtle Theresa and follows the clues and ends up in Brooklyn at a Bakery with Elise. Jayna finally learns about her family and Elise, though not the grandmother Jayna thought her to be, was her grandmother’s best friend and takes Jayna in.

Jayna makes friends in Brooklyn, makes soup to sell in Elise’s bakery and eventually her brother Rob comes home to her.

Impressions:

This historical fiction novel takes the terrible realities of war such as destroyers being sunk of the coast of Okinawa, Japan by Japanese kamikaze bombers and the rationing of food staples such as sugar, eggs and meat and wraps it into a story with fictional characters. While Jayna, Rob, Elise and all the others are made up characters alongside a fictional situation, similar situations occurred as men and boys were killed or missing in action after destroyers and other naval vessels were sunk. Families at home struggled to survive the rationing and the uncertainty of whether their loved ones were coming home or not. Seventy years after the end of WWII, this book gives a slight insight into the lives and struggles of those at home waiting and hoping for their family members to return, along with the search for oneself, for family and identity.

Library Use Suggestions:

This book could be used to introduce/discuss the U.S. involvement in WWII and it’s interaction with Japan.

It can also be used to look at recipes and how food can be used as a comfort, the way Jayna used her soup. Discussion: when you are happy, upset or sick, what is a food that you want your mom or grandma to make for you?

Reviews:

Giff is one of few writers who can entwine an odd lot of characters, set them in Brooklyn during World War II, flavor the story with soup recipes, add a ghost and infuse the plot with a longing for family—and make it all believable.

When Jayna’s brother leaves for submarine duty, she’s left to stay with their cranky landlady (their parents died in a car accident). She remembers an old, blue recipe book inscribed with a name and address in Brooklyn and becomes convinced the woman in a photo standing in front of a bakery named Gingersnap (her nickname) is her grandmother. With her pet box turtle, Theresa, in a cat carrier and the recipe book in her suitcase, she takes a bus into New York City and the subway to Brooklyn. Through a series of misfortunes, she finds the bakery and its owner, Elise. Is Elise her grandmother? Will Rob return from the war? Who is the ghost wearing Jayna’s toenail polish with only her hands and feet visible, and can she connect with Rob? Will Theresa survive? Jayna’s eight tasty soup recipes befit the circumstances as they unfold: Don’t-Think-About-It Soup, Hope Soup, Waiting Soup and so forth. The author’s note to readers refers to her own childhood war memories, lending dimension to the characters and plot. Unfortunately, the cover image of a girl with a suitcase walking by brownstone houses won’t entice readers, though the story itself is riveting.

While the outcome is foreseeable, Jayna’s journey is a memorable one.

(2012, November 15). [Review of Gingersnap]. Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/patricia-reilly-giff/gingersnap/

Assignment B - Book Trailers

The Humming Room



 Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

 Hatchet



Book trailer image references:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TT6g3tekDi4xX40kHm5MS_zHLrZRrkpP6ZXaVjs3PaU/edit?usp=sharing

Module 9 Review - The Humming Room

The humming room / by Ellen Potter.

Bibliographic Citation:

Potter, E. (2012). The humming room. New York, NY: Feiwell and Friends.

Summary:

After her dad and his girlfriend are murdered, Roo finds herself to be an orphan. After a time in foster care, she is shipped off to live with an uncle she didn’t know she had who lives in an old children’s hospital on a lonely island. Roo is given a room in the west wing of the house and told to stay out of the east wing. She doesn’t meet her uncle until the day after she arrives, but he shows very little interest in her.

Always a loner who never felt alone, in her new home with an uninterested uncle and staff that mostly leave her be, she finds herself lonely and beginning to hear eerie noises and humming coming from another room in the west wing. A teacher / caretaker is brought in to school Roo and follow her wherever she goes. In her search for a break, she finds a little hidey-hole under a rock and hides from her teacher for hours, falling asleep and waking up the next morning to find that her teacher had been fired for losing her.

Roo goes back to her exploring to determine the source of the humming and finds a hidden garden 

that is close to death. Roo decides she will save the garden and begins toting water up from the river. Jack, known as The Faigne because he lives on the river and comes and goes like a ghost, befriends her and offers to help her restore the garden.

One night, Roo wakes up to screaming and in her search for the source finds a boy, her cousin Phillip, who has been confined to his room since the death of his mother. Phillip is rich, spoiled and weak because of his self-confinement. When he doesn’t get his way, he responds by acting out. When he is calm, Roo spends time with him and finds that her uncle built the hidden garden for his wife, Phillip’s mother, and then destroyed it after she died. One day, Roo takes Phillip to see the garden, which he hadn’t seen since his mother died, and he began to feel a sense of peace. Roo’s uncle was upset when he found out that Roo had taken Phillip to the garden, but was amazed when he saw it flourishing again and that it was helping Phillip with his grief, the reason for his self-confinement.

Impressions:

Roo has been a loner with no real authority for a long time. When she gets to her uncle’s house, the staff is continually threatening to send her back to foster care because of her lack of obedience. The eerie noises beckon to Roo, begging her to find them and despite the warnings, she cannot stay away.

I think this book has the right amount of mystery/suspense and adventure to draw young readers in and keep them interested. While it does mention Roo's dad's drug use and the subsequent murders of him and his girlfriend, the detail is minimal. Roo is full of sass, grit and determination and the reader gets wrapped up in Roo's aloneness, her search for the eerie noises, and her desire for human/familial connection. 

Library Use Suggestions:

Read aloud parts of the book such as when Roo is searching for the humming and have students make predictions about what is causing the humming. Discuss why her uncle might be away all the time and why her cousin is confined to a hidden room.

Do you have a place that you like to go to be alone, that makes you feel safe? Where is it and why did you choose it?

Reviews:

A young orphan finds herself in a remote mansion that hides many secrets.
Roo’s childhood has been traumatic; she is ill-fed, ill-clothed and too small for her age. She spends much of her time hiding in cavelike spaces, with her ear to the ground listening intensely to the movements within the Earth. When her drug-dealing parents are killed, she is sent to live with an uncle on an isolated island—Cough Rock—in the St. Lawrence River in upstate New York. The local inhabitants are earthy and superstitious and seem to hark back to an earlier time. Her uncle stays away for months at a time. A newly discovered cousin screams and cries and rarely leaves his room. There is also a mysterious, long-neglected garden that calls to her. The characters and events are nearly exact counterparts to those found in the classic The Secret Garden. Potter intentionally evokes the earlier work, capturing its bittersweet emotions and fey qualities. But it is not a clone in modern dress. The author has created a fresh tale with a strong-willed heroine. Though Jack is no Dickon, Roo might be more likable than Mary Lennox.            
An homage to a cherished classic that can work as a companion piece or stand alone as a solid, modern tale for young readers in the 21st century.

(2011, December 15). [Review of The humming room]. Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ellen-potter/humming-room/

Module 8 Review - The Adoration of Jenna Fox

The Adoration of Jenna Fox / by Mary E. Pearson.

Bibliographic Citation:

Pearson, M. E. (2008). The adoration of Jenna Fox. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company.

Summary:

Jenna Fox wakes up and a year has passed her by. Following an accident, Jenna was in a coma for a year and when she finally wakes up, she doesn’t remember herself, her family or anything about her past. Her mom and dad are adamant that with time, her memories will come back and Jenna will be Jenna again. Lily, the nana who was once Jenna’s confidant can hardly stand to be in the same room as her, makes Jenna wonder why she is hated.

Jenna has always been the center of her parent’s life and they would do anything for her. Her mom Claire gives Jenna 16 videos of her life to help her remember her past. As the days pass and Jenna watches the videos, she slowly starts remembering things from her past, including things that she shouldn’t, like her baptism at a very young age. Jenna starts to question her past, her injuries and her recovery. The more she learns, the more Jenna discovers about just how far her parents would go to save her.

Impressions:

Imagine waking up from a year-long coma and not remembering who you are, what you were like or who your family is. As a reader, I could feel the overwhelming sense of not knowing that Jenna felt. Having lost loved ones, I can relate to the pain and grief that Jenna’s parents would have felt at the prospect of losing her forever. I question to what extent I would go to save the person I love. Would I take the route of Jenna’s parents and save anything possible, even it if was only 10% of the brain and recreate the rest using whatever available technology, such as BioGel in the story. Would the desire to prevent my own grief and pain outweigh the complications that could come from employing uncertain scientific advances? The internal battle would be strong. I ultimately think that Jenna’s parents were doing what was best for them, thinking very little of their daughter’s future reality.

Library Use Suggestions:

Book Talk – how far in the future do you think this story takes place? How likely do you think it is that something like BioGel will someday be available to recreate a human body that can function as a normal human does? If something were to happen to you and BioGel was an option to save your life, would you take it or not?

Reviews:

Jenna can't remember her past after emerging from a coma, but pieces of her memory begin to return as she recuperates. The novel is set in a future with advanced biomedical technology, and characters wrestle with the attendant ethical implications. With faith and science woven throughout, this provocative thriller is heightened by its portrait of a family under enormous stress.

(2008, January 1). [Review of The Adoration of Jenna Fox]. The Horn Book Guide. Retrieved from http://bookverdict.com/details.xqy?uri=Product-85172449.xml Jenna can't remember her past after emerging from a coma, but pieces of her memory begin to return as she recuperates. The novel is set in a future with advanced biomedical technology, and characters wrestle with the attendant ethical implications. With faith and science woven throughout, this provocative thriller is heightened by its portrait of a family under enormous stress.

Module 7 Review 2 - The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

The sisterhood of the traveling pants / by Ann Brashares.

Bibliographic Citation:

Brashares, A. (2001). The sisterhood of the traveling pants. New York, NY: Delacorte Press.

Summary:

Four girls, born within 19 days of each other from the end of August to the middle of September, have been friends since birth and spend every summer together. However, the summer of fifteen turning sixteen finds them all going off in different directions. The night before Lena, Bridget and Carmen leave Tibby behind at home for their summer adventures in Greece, Baja California and Charleston, South Carolina, the four discover magic in a pair of thrift store blue jeans that fit them all, and make them all look and feel good. They create a list of ten rules and determine to mail the pants back and forth to each other over the summer.

The four girls write letters back and forth, but none fully reveals the struggles the summer presents. The pants provide a welcome relief each time one of the girls receives them, providing a connection to each of the other three and giving something that each needs, including courage, truth and even some healing.  

Impressions:

The four girls in the story have a strong bond that most girls desire. They are different enough that many young readers will be able to identify with one of them in some way. The different struggles that each girl faces are struggles faced by many young girls, making the characters relatable.

Library Use Suggestions:

I think this would be a good book to use as a late middle school or high school girls book club selection. For older students, discuss the importance of friendships. How did the pants help the girls stay involved in each other’s lives even when they were far apart?

Reviews:

Four teenagers—best friends since babyhood—have different destinations for the summer and are distressed about disbanding. When they find a pair of "magic pants"—secondhand jeans that fit each girl perfectly, despite their different body types—they take a solemn vow that the Pants "will travel to all the places we're going, and they will keep us together when we are apart." Rules for how to pass the Pants among them are devised, along with a list of general usage rules ("You must never say the word phat' while wearing the pants. You must also never think I am fat' while wearing the pants"). Sources for the quotes separating chapters range from Tolkien to Seinfeld; a quote from Winston Churchill states the book's theme: "You will make all kinds of mistakes: but as long as you are generous and true and also fierce you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her." The girls make some big mistakes in the Pants, but wrongs are eventually righted, and the friends learn some life lessons: look beyond appearances, be honest about feelings, have some self-control, and have the courage to love. This first novel has the same foolproof formula as bestseller adult books about intense lifelong friendships (i.e., Rebecca Wells's Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood). A posse of loyal girlfriends has enormous appeal; add in the dream-come-true perfect pair of jeans and you can't lose. Good friends, like good pants, should make you feel fabulous; Brasheres takes the two and creates a breezy feel-good book.

(2001, November 1). [Review of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants]. The Horn Book. Retrieved from http://vywwllb.bookverdict.com/details.xqy?uri=Product-99291223.xml Four teenagers—best friends since babyhood—have different destinations for the summer and are distressed about disbanding. When they find a pair of "magic pants"—secondhand jeans that fit each girl perfectly, despite their different body types—they take a solemn vow that the Pants "will travel to all the places we're going, and they will keep us together when we are apart." Rules for how to pass the Pants among them are devised, along with a list of general usage rules ("You must never say the word phat' while wearing the pants. You must also never think I am fat' while wearing the pants"). Sources for the quotes separating chapters range from Tolkien to Seinfeld; a quote from Winston Churchill states the book's theme: "You will make all kinds of mistakes: but as long as you are generous and true and also fierce you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her." The girls make some big mistakes in the Pants, but wrongs are eventually righted, and the friends learn some life lessons: look beyond appearances, be honest about feelings, have some self-control, and have the courage to love. This first novel has the same foolproof formula as bestseller adult books about intense lifelong friendships (i.e., Rebecca Wells's Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood). A posse of loyal girlfriends has enormous appeal; add in the dream-come-true perfect pair of jeans and you can't lose. Good friends, like good pants, should make you feel fabulous; Brasheres takes the two and creates a breezy feel-good book. Four teenagers—best friends since babyhood—have different destinations for the summer and are distressed about disbanding. When they find a pair of "magic pants"—secondhand jeans that fit each girl perfectly, despite their different body types—they take a solemn vow that the Pants "will travel to all the places we're going, and they will keep us together when we are apart." Rules for how to pass the Pants among them are devised, along with a list of general usage rules ("You must never say the word phat' while wearing the pants. You must also never think I am fat' while wearing the pants"). Sources for the quotes separating chapters range from Tolkien to Seinfeld; a quote from Winston Churchill states the book's theme: "You will make all kinds of mistakes: but as long as you are generous and true and also fierce you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her." The girls make some big mistakes in the Pants, but wrongs are eventually righted, and the friends learn some life lessons: look beyond appearances, be honest about feelings, have some self-control, and have the courage to love. This first novel has the same foolproof formula as bestseller adult books about intense lifelong friendships (i.e., Rebecca Wells's Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood). A posse of loyal girlfriends has enormous appeal; add in the dream-come-true perfect pair of jeans and you can't lose. Good friends, like good pants, should make you feel fabulous; Brasheres takes the two and creates a breezy feel-good book.

Module 7 Review 1 - Frindle

Frindle / by Andrew Clements.

Bibliographic Citation:

Clements, A. (1996). Frindle. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Summary:

Nick Allen is a smart kid who is always looking for ways to get out of working at school. Mrs. Granger, the fifth grade language arts teacher loves dictionaries and students spend the whole year learning words. On the first day of school, Nick tries to outsmart Mrs. Granger when he asks where all the words in the big classroom dictionary came from. Instead of falling for his ploy, Mrs. Granger gives Nick an extra homework assignment to do a report the next day about the origin of words. Nick takes on the challenge and uses most the next class day to give his report. At the end of his report, Nick says that he still doesn’t understand why all words mean different things and how d-o-g came to mean the animal what barks. “Who says dog means dog?” Nick asks. Mrs. Granger replies that he does and she does and everyone else does who accepts and uses the word d-o-g to mean the animal that barks.

Later that afternoon as he is walking home, his friend Janet Fisk, picks up a pen off the sidewalk. Nick gets an idea and the next day when he went to the Penny Pantry, he asks for a frindle. As time goes on, all of Nick’s friends start calling the thing we know as a pen, a frindle. The word eventually spreads outside of the school and makes the state, national and international news. A man in Nick’s town even starts a company to make and sell frindles.

At first, it appears that Mrs. Granger is angry at Nick for not giving in or giving up on calling the pen a frindle, but years later, he learns how truly proud and inspired she was by him and his determination to make a word mean something.

Impressions:

This is a fun story. I had no idea what the book was about before I read it. The pen on the cover should have been a clue, but I honestly didn’t pay that much attention to it. Nick is such a clever boy to come up with the ideas he has to get out of work. He appears to be a bit stubborn to when the frindle game seems to have gone on long enough and Mrs. Granger appears to be losing her patience. But at that point, even though Nick says he would stop it if he could, frindle had taken on a life of its own. Years later, Nick (and the reader) finds out that Mrs. Granger was rooting for him all along.

The wonderful reality to this book is that kids can make a difference in the world. They may not create a new word for an ordinary item, they may not end up on the news and with a huge trust fund, but they can make a difference. Even a small difference can be huge to another person.

Library Use Suggestions:

I think this would be a great book to do a book introduction to get kids interested in reading it. I would introduce the title and ask if anyone knows what a frindle is, have them make predictions, etc. After giving a short review to promote the book, I would direct students to a few items and tell them that they can be like Nick and create new words for different objects too and challenge them to think of new words to represent the objects provided.

Reviews:

Nicholas is a bright boy who likes to make trouble at school, creatively. When he decides to torment his fifth-grade English teacher, Mrs. Granger (who is just as smart as he is), by getting everyone in the class to replace the word "pen'' with "frindle,'' he unleashes a series of events that rapidly spins out of control. If there's any justice in the world, Clements (Temple Cat, 1995, etc.) may have something of a classic on his hands. By turns amusing and adroit, this first novel is also utterly satisfying. The chess like sparring between the gifted Nicholas and his crafty teacher is enthralling, while Mrs. Granger is that rarest of the breed: a teacher the children fear and complain about for the school year, and love and respect forever after. With comically realistic black-and-white illustrations by Selznick (The Robot King, 1995, etc.), this is a captivating tale--one to press upon children, and one they'll be passing among themselves.

(1996, July 1). [Review of Frindle]. Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved from 

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/andrew-clements/frindle/

Module 6 Review - Mr. Lincoln's Way

Mr. Lincoln's Way / by Patricia Polacco.

Bibliographic Citation:

Polacco, P. (2001). Mr. Lincoln’s way. New York, NY: Philomel Books.

Summary:

Everyone thought Mr. Lincoln was the coolest principal ever, except for “mean Gene” the school bully. “Mean Gene” was always in trouble for being mean to the other kids and rude to the teachers. Mr. Lincoln thought and thought of a way to get through to him. One day, Mr. Lincoln saw Eugene “Mean Gene” looking at the birds in the school’s atrium. Mr. Lincoln asked Eugene about birds and Eugene said his grandpa taught him. Eugene helped get all the right plants into the atrium so more birds would come and was very excited to see the result. Eugene has stopped being mean until one day in the lunch line when he was bullying two kids from Mexico. He told Mr. Lincoln it was because he got in trouble for being late coming home after helping Mr. Lincoln with the birds in the atrium. Mr. Lincoln asked Eugene how he could love all the different kinds and colors of birds but hurt other people because they were different colors. Eugene began to understand that differences aren’t bad.

Impressions:

Mr. Lincoln shows that all children can be reached if you take the time to figure out what makes them tick. Eugene’s love for birds and the school atrium gave Mr. Lincoln the right combination for how to reach and teach Eugene about loving the differences in people just like the birds. By taking time with Eugene, Mr. Lincoln also showed him that he was important also. When Eugene leads the ducks out of the atrium and through the school to the pond at the end of the book, you see how much he has changed due to the influence of a caring principal.

Library Use Suggestions

Discussion about ways you can show kindness to other people.

Felt board of the school – students can help show the path of the books from out of the atrium all the way to the pond by placing felt ducks on the map.

Reviews:

A "cool" principal helps a bully become a model citizen and conquer his racism by capitalizing on the boy's interest in birds. Although the illustrations are engaging, the story of the bully's transformation is both sanctimonious and unconvincing. Eugene is too self-aware for his age, and Mr. Lincoln is too flawless to be interesting.

(2001, January 1). [Review of Mr. Lincoln’s Way]. Horn Book Guide. Retrieved from http://bookverdict.com/details.xqy?uri=hbg/14211.xml In her many books, Polacco has dealt sensitively with a broad spectrum of circumstances and issues. Here she tackles both intolerance and bullying. Mr. Lincoln is the "coolest" principal: he is Santa at Christmas, lights the menorah at Chanukah, and wears a dashiki for Kwanza and a burnoose for Ramadan. The author chronicles his attempt to reclaim "Mean Gene," a child who sasses his teachers, picks on other children, and makes ethnic slurs. "He's not a bad boy, really, ' Mr. Lincoln said. Only troubled.'" However, the distinction is not clarified. When the principal discovers that the boy is fond of birds, he capitalizes on this interest. He involves him in attracting the creatures to the school atrium while at the same time showing him that just as the differences in the birds render them beautiful, so do the differences in people. While the theme is an important and timely one, Polacco has allowed her message to overwhelm both plot and character development. The story emerges as didactic, laden with heavy-handed metaphor, and too simplistic a solution to a deep-rooted problem. The book may be useful to schools in need of a springboard for discussion of the topic and is graced with impressive watercolors, but it is not up to the author's usual literary standards