Sunday, October 30, 2016

Module 9 - The London Eye Mystery

Book Summary
Ted and Kate, brother and sister, take their visiting cousin Salim to the London Eye, the great Ferris wheel attraction in the city. Salim hops on board and thirty minutes later, the wheel stops and Salim is nowhere to be found. Ted is a master of statistics but has a hard time interacting or understanding people. When everyone in the book is hard to trust, Ted uses his talents to help solve the mystery.

Reference
Dowd, S. (2008). The London eye mystery. New York. Random House.

Impressions:

This book is largely about Ted, who has Asperger’s and tells his story in first person with all the idiosyncrasies that make the young boy different. Ted also has a hard time understanding idioms and phrases, especially when taken them literally. The book is also written with British English and has many alternate words in meaning. The mystery is really good and plausible and Ted’s quirks help him, rather than limit.  

Professional Review:

Gr 5-8 --Ted and Kat lose their cousin Salim at the London Eye sightseeing attraction, "the largest observation wheel ever built." Given a free ticket by a stranger, Salim enters the ride, but he never emerges. Guilty about their part in the bungled outing, the siblings trace scraps of information that illuminate the boy's disappearance. Ted, who is something of an enigma himself, narrates the story. He has a neurological cross wiring that results in an encyclopedic brain and a literal view of the world. He finds it hard to read motivations and emotions, but excels at clue tracing and deduction. Kat, his older sister, deplores his odd behaviors but relies on his analytic brain while she does the legwork. The result is a dense mystery tied together with fully fleshed out characters and a unique narrator. Good mysteries for kids are rare, and this offering does the genre proud. London Eye is the best sort, throwing out scads of clues for discerning readers to solve the mystery themselves. Add to that Ted's literal translation of our world, his distanced view of an alien landscape of human interactions, and the ways he gains a better understanding of that world through the course of the novel, and the story is even more noteworthy.

Augusta, C. (2008). The London eye mystery. School Library Journal54(2), 113.

Library Uses:


A librarian could really use The London Eye Mystery to teach students about idioms. The main character, ted, as Asperger’s and struggle understanding idioms and phrases. A librarian could also use the book has an introduction to London, since the book contains many facts. The book also contains slang, which could also serve as a great activity for thesaurus work.

Sunday, October 23, 2016

Module 8 - Uglies

Book Summary
In a world where everybody gets to be supermodel gorgeous, Tally Youngblood is all set to have her pretty surgery on her 16th birthday. When Shay, her friend tells her of a secret town where Tally can find the truth about becoming pretty, her future becomes unclear. In the end, special circumstances change Tally’s life forever.
Reference

Westerfeld, S. (2005). Uglies. New York. Simon Pulse.

Impressions:

The book challenged the concept of beauty, when uniformity in appearance limits independence, is at cost. Westerfeld is a little over descriptive and some of the side character stories slow the book down. The science fiction is really cool, and I think that's where Westerfeld shines. Privacy, beauty, and cosmetic surgery are all social issues addressed in the book. The book is a little long and could be reduced. I'm not necessarily eager to continue reading the series, only because these novels seem a little formulaic and the ending was sequel-driven.

Professional Review:

Gr 6 Up-- Tally Youngblood lives in a futuristic society that acculturates its citizens to believe that they are ugly until age 16 when they'll undergo an operation that will change them into pleasure-seeking "pretties." Anticipating this happy transformation, Tally meets Shay, another female ugly, who shares her enjoyment of hoverboarding and risky pranks. But Shay also disdains the false values and programmed conformity of the society and urges Tally to defect with her to the Smoke, a distant settlement of simple-living conscientious objectors. Tally declines, yet when Shay is found missing by the authorities, Tally is coerced by the cruel Dr. Cable to find her and her compatriots-or remain forever "ugly." Tally's adventuresome spirit helps her locate Shay and the Smoke. It also attracts the eye of David, the aptly named youthful rebel leader to whose attentions Tally warms. However, she knows she is living a lie, for she is a spy who wears an eye-activated locator pendant that threatens to blow the rebels' cover. Ethical concerns will provide a good source of discussion as honesty, justice, and free will are all oppressed in this well-conceived dystopia. Characterization, which flirts so openly with the importance of teen self-concept, is strong, and although lengthy, the novel is highly readable with a convincing plot that incorporates futuristic technologies and a disturbing commentary on our current public policies. Fortunately, the cliff-hanger ending promises a sequel.

Hunter, S. W., Jones, T. E., Toth, L., Charnizon, M., Grabarek, D., & Raben, D. (2005). Uglies. School    Library Journal51(3), 221.

Library Uses:

The Uglies series is a wonderful book club suggestion. The book centralizes around themes of identity, freedom, technology and modernization; sure to provoke thought amongst any teenage book club. Librarians that use this dystopian series as part of a book club should be able to create debate and discussion about society and class, and have students empathize or demonize characters in the book. 

Sunday, October 16, 2016

Module 7 - Stargirl


Book Summary
Jerry Spinelli’s Stargirl is an interesting coming of age story about a free-spirited girl named Stargirl Calloway who comes to challenge the conventions of a lifeless high school, in a book about conformity, empathy, and love. Leo, the narrator of the book is a 16 year-old boy who falls in love with Stargirl and reflects on how Stargirl changes the school, revealing its best possibilities and ultimately its darkest transgressions in how someone different can inspire and/or be ridiculed and ostracized.

Reference

Spinelli, J. (2004). Stargirl. Laurel Leaf. New York.

Impressions:

The book could be believable to middle-school audiences, which this book intends to aim, but is highly far-fetched in the high school setting the book is written. The incredibly unbelievable plot development of a girl who somehow storms a football game, stops gameplay, climbs field goal posts; all without punishment reveals the little adult supervision in this book. 

Most readers will be intrigued by the conflict between Stargirl and the high school bullies and how Stargirl maintains her sunny disposition throughout the book, even under the cruelest mean-spirited incidents she endures.
 
Spinelli seems to use the Stargirl Calloway character to reveal the balance of all the other normal high-school characters in the book, torn with dealing with conformity and acceptance, school spirit and pride, tolerance and empathy for others.

The book is about finding one’s self in not the superficial achievements of teenage experiences in school and acquaintances, but rather a deeper, more meaningful way to look at the world, friendship and ultimately one’s self as a person.

Professional Review:

Gr 6-10-- Stargirl is eccentric, creative, and kind. She strums her ukulele while singing in the high school cafeteria. She's the embodiment of creative optimism and wears her heart upon her sleeve. She is oblivious to the adolescent affront caused by her idiosyncrasies. Then one day she hears the whispered sneers, and Stargirl is no more. Spinelli captures the magic of individualism while encouraging readers to honor differences and avoid the traps of conformity.

Follos, A. (2004). Stargirl (book). School Library Journal, 50(11), 65.

Library Uses:


Grades 7-12: Stargirl could easily be used by librarians looking to recommend books about the pressures of conformity, specifically to middle school students who deal with such pressure. The book is rich with metaphors, and foreshadowing. Nearly every chapter ends with some allusion to what’s to come in the next chapter. The book could also be used in search of fictional resources that tie in with lessons about philosophy. Stargirl, the main character is afforded some long passages about her philosophical outlook on life.

Sunday, October 2, 2016

Module 5 - Chato and the Party Animals

Book Summary
Chato and the Party Animals is the story of Chato, a cool cat that is throwing a birthday party for Novio Boy and all their friends. Everything is ready for the feast, tortillas, beans and rats. The only problem, where’s the guest of honor?

Reference

Soto, G., & Guevara, S. (2000). Chato and the party animals. GP Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers. New York.

Impressions:

As a Chicano, I enjoyed the book and related to the tone and vocabulary choices, where like the animals, I use Spanish words for emphasis of cultural elements of being Hispanic/Latino.
The book features a glossary at the beginning to help translate some of the slang terms. The book is ultimately about friendship and family, but there are themes present where readers, especially with knowledge of gang life may relate to the animal characters living off the streets and bonding to survive. Chato and the Party Animals won the Pura Belpre Award in 2000 for illustrative work that best exemplifies Latino cultural experiences. I believe, Gary Soto as author, helps give the illustrations meaning, with his lifelong experience of writing about Mexican-American culture.

Professional Review:
K-Gr 3 --In this sequel to Chato's Kitchen (Putnam, 1995), the ebullient, jazzy, party-loving homecat decides to throw a surprise birthday bash for his best friend, Novio Boy, who was raised in the pound and has never had a party. Buying the provisions, inviting his friends, decorating, arranging for music-Chato thinks he has seen to everything. The guests begin to arrive and one dog raises a crucial question: "Where's the birthday cat?" Aghast, Chato realizes that he neglected to invite Novio Boy and organizes a search, which proves fruitless. The party turns wake as, certain that Novio Boy has met an untimely end, all the animals remember his good qualities and grieve. In the midst of this, who should turn up but the guest of honor with some new friends in tow. With double reason to celebrate, the party is a wild success. Rollicking language-a completely integrated and poetic combination of barrio slang, Spanish, and colloquial English-carries the story along. Guevara's lively acrylic-on-scratchboard illustrations have a verve and style that will make readers long to join the fun. A glossary of Spanish words preceding the text neatly removes any mystery, rendering this joyous celebration of friendship not only understandable but irresistible.

Welton, A. (2000). Chato and the party animals. School Library Journal46(7), 88.

Library Uses:


Grades 7-12: The book could easily be used for lessons about Latino/Chicano culture. Also, the story for friendship has being more invaluable then growing up with very little is quite moving. The book does have a glossary which allows for vocabulary connections. For cultural studies, students seeking information about Chicano/Pachuco cultural elements of Mexican-Americans growing up in East Los Angeles would certainly love this book.