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 Journal, 54(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.

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 16^th 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 Journal, 51(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. 

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.

Module 6 - Skippyjon Jones

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 Journal, 46(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.

Module 4 - The Crossover

Book Summary

A book that flows like a basketball game is how the story of twelve-year old Josh Bell plays out in this great book about twin brothers who work as a team on the court but struggle to remain brothers when girls and challenges come. This verse novel is filled with basketball rules that inspire, family dedication and a plenty of emotion in the lead up to the final buzzer.

Reference

Alexander, K. (2014). The crossover. Ernst Klett Sprachen GmbH. New York

Impressions:

This book a great coming of age novel told in verse. The book had a nice rhythm and the story is really heartfelt. I didn’t think the book had any stereotypes and was honestly authentic. Alexander does a really great job of keeping the book light but also delving into really important matters like family, friendship, morals and winning. The book is philosophical at times which I really appreciate, knowing middle schoolers are beginning to tackle the meaning of life. I strongly recommend this book to athletes and poetry lovers.

Professional Review:

Twins Josh and Jordan have always been friendly rivals on the basketball court, where they are following in their basketball legend father’s footsteps. Over the course of the season, though, Josh finds his world rocked by small and large changes: he loses a bet that results in him having to cut off his lucky locks, he feels abandoned when Jordan starts hanging out with a girl, and his mother and father are fighting. When his anger and frustrations get the best of him, Josh lashes out at his brother on the court, and his mother, a principal at his school, suspends him from the team—and things get worse from there. Alexander fully captures Josh’s athletic finesse and coming-of-age angst in a mix of free verse and hip-hop poetry that will have broad appeal. The lively basketball poems in particular beg for energetic oral performance, while the free verse shows the multidimensionality of a teen wordsmith figuring out the shifting conditions of life on and off the court. The book draws additional strength from the portrait of Josh’s father, a strong but flawed role model who’s so haunted by his own father’s early death that he won’t take steps to guard his health. With pithy poems that use basketball as a metaphor for life lessons off the court, two-voiced poems that highlight the ebb and flow of conversations that say too much and nothing at all, and poems inspired by vocabulary words that require extended definitions to tease out their emotional relevance and force, this will inspire budding players and poets alike.

Coats, K. (2014). The crossover by Kwame Alexander (review). Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, 67(6), 303-303.

Library Uses:

Grades 7-12: The Crossover can be used for performance pieces since the book is written in verse with a rap style. A librarian would find a way to record students performing different sections of the book. The book mention famous basketball players which can engage students interested in sports but not necessarily books.

The book also incorporates many different styles of poetry which can be used for poetry lesson in ELA classes. Couplets, Tanka, List Poems, Free Verse, Tercet and other styles are all present in this book.

Module 3 - Tuesday

Book Summary

Tuesday is a nearly wordless picture book that unfolds the story of a small town being inundated with frogs, and with each illustration requiring the reader to determine the difference between what is real and fantasy. Wiesner’s brilliant illustrations use watercolors to paint one of the most vivid picture books to ever win the Caldecott Award. In one mysterious night, the frogs come and go, leaving the town and reader wondering, di that just really happen? and could it happen again?

Reference

Wiesner, D. (1991). Tuesday. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. New York.

Impressions:

A surreal book nearly completed told in visuals. The story of a Tuesday evening in a town being inundated with frogs is a great example of the power of illustrations developing plot without text. The night time scenes are exceptional with rich dark blues and forest greens. While a breakthrough book, some modern Caldecott winners have expanded the expression in animal faces with better detail to develop character feeling and mood. I’m not sure a book like this could be made today, because Wiesner's surrealist art is in a league of its own. The only three time Caldecott winner. Incredible two page spreads, comic books style, brilliant detail.

Professional Review:

K-Gr 4--As the full moon rises over a peaceful marsh, so do frogs on their lily pads levitating straight up into the air and sailing off, with surprise with some laundry, hovering briefly before a TV left on. A dog chases one lone low coasting frog, but is summarily routed by a concerted amphibious armada. Suddenly the rays of the rising sun dispel the magic; the frogs fall to ed but gratified expressions. Fish stick their heads out of the water to watch; a turtle gapes goggle-eyed. The phalanx of froggies glides over houses in a sleeping village, interrupting the one witness's midnight snack, tangling the ground and hop back to their marsh, leaving police puzzling over the lily pads on Main Street. In the final pages, the sun sets on the following Tuesday--and the air fills with ascending pigs! Dominated by rich blues and greens, and fully exploiting its varied perspectives, this book treats its readers to the pleasures of airborne adventure. It may not be immortal, but kids will love its lighthearted, meticulously imagined, fun-without-amoral fantasy. Tuesday is bound to take off.

Dooley, P. (1991). Tuesday (Book). School Library Journal, 37(5), 86.

Library Uses:

Grades K-8: For younger readers, Tuesday can be used for readers interested in wordless books. The illustrations allow for plenty of discussion and examination of the fine detail in Wiesner’s work. For older readers, study of the graphical layout of Wiesner’s storyboards, will help readers ultimately understand how illustrations can carry plot, climax and conclusion without words. A neat exercise for librarians could be allowing students to voice the book and bring the frogs and characters in the paintings to life. Librarians could also extend conversation about the book as to what could occur in the following days after that surreal Tuesday evening.

Module 2 - The Westing Game

Book Summary

The Westing Game is a mystery novel, about 16 tenants of an apartment building trying to solve who is the culprit of Sam Westing’s demise. At stake, his 200 million dollar fortune. This Newbery Medal winner is sure to have you quickly turn pages anticipating every new clue to find the villain amongst all the characters in this book.

Reference

Raskin, E. (1978). The westing game. New York: Dutton.

Impressions:

The Westing Game is very fun to read. The book has many characters and I appreciated how Raskin introduces them as apartment dwellers, helping me see them in some physical space. Raskin does a great job describing things and spaces with simple adjectives. The book feels like a screenplay written in small sections, one after another, aiming to develop characters and push the story along. From the perspective of a mystery novel, each section leaves the reader with something unresolved, but intriguing enough to keep reading. The puzzle of the book is the layers that Raskin writes into the characters as well as the mystery to solve.

Turtle, a young character and heroine of the novel novel will certainly allow young students to want to read the book. She’s feisty and a great role model for young mystery readers.

Keeping up with all the characters can be difficult and reading the book, chapter by chapter will require a break, here and there, to digest each new development in the 30 chapters. I really appreciated that Raskin thoughtfully used all the characters in the book to solve the puzzle. I would have been frustrated otherwise.

Professional Review:

A supersharp mystery, more a puzzle than a novel, but endowed with a vivid and extensive cast. In the Christie tradition, Raskin isolates a divers group of strangers--the  mysteriously hand-picked tenants of a new apartment building within sight of the  old Westing  mansion--and presents them with the  information that one of them is the  murderer. Actually, it turns out that there is no corpse, but no one is aware of that when they are all assembled for a reading of old Westing's  fiendish will, which pairs them all off and allots each pair four one-word clues to the  murderer's identity. As the  winning pair is to inherit Westing's  fortune, there is much secret conferring, private investigating, far-out scheming, and snitching and scrambling of the  teasing, enigmatic clues. (For example, those of black judge Josie Jo Ford, which she takes for a racial insult, read SKIES AM SHINING BROTHER.) As a result of the  pairings, alliances are made and suspended, and though there is no murderer there is a secret winner--the  pigtailed youngest of the  "heirs"--plus extravagant happy endings for all. As Westing  had warned, all are not what they seem, and you the  reader end up liking them better than you expected to. If Raskin's crazy ingenuity has threatened to run away with her on previous occasions, here the  complicated game  is always perfectly meshed with character and story. Confoundingly clever, and very funny.

THE WESTING GAME. (1978). Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved from https://libproxy.library.unt.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/916900507?accountid=7113

Library Uses:

Grades 5-12: The book serves as a brilliant example of the mystery genre and would allow librarians to discuss the elements of mystery fiction, all present in this novel. The book is also an opportunity to talk about lying, since the reader is challenged to determine who is telling the truth. Since the book was written in 1979, there are opportunities to teach vocabulary words, by chapter. The book is perfect for character analysis exercises and activities, with plenty of choices for a class to choose from.

Module 1: The Plot Chickens

Book Summary

The Plot Chickens is the story of Henrietta, a chicken that writes a book that no one will publish. Using literary elements found in a writing guidebook, Henrietta develops her story with the help of her friends. Eventually, Henrietta finds a way to share her story, and finds that one bad review can't stop a good book from finding an adoring audience.

Reference

Auch, M. J., & Auch, H. (2009). The plot chickens (1st ed.). New York, NY: Holiday House.

Impressions:

The Plot Thickens is a great children's picture book to help students understand the important elements of a good story. The book's humor seems aimed towards writers and audiences much older than children but the ending will provide a strong laugh from younger readers.

• Visual 

The illustrators drawing of the characters' eyes gave some heartfelt personality to Henrietta and the Librarian. The visuals accurately reflected the text on page and in some cases did an excellent job of developing the story between dialogue in speech bubbles and Henrietta the Chickens typewritten text. The use of bold words to highlight adjectives and descriptive language to reinforce the rules of writing.

• Text

The story does a great job of unfolding the rules of writing without becoming too technical for early readers. The use of humor is egg-cellent. The story also reflects the tenacity of the main character in trying to create a book even after rejection and self-doubt.

Professional Review:

K-Gr 2 --Henrietta the chicken, star of Souperchicken (Holiday House, 2003), is an avid library user and decides that because reading is so much fun, "writing books must be eggshilarating." She finds a manual of writing rules and creates her own story-with the unsolicited help of the other fowl. When it is rejected by a publisher, Henrietta decides to self-publish. She takes a copy to her librarian, who tells her to send it to The Corn Book Magazine for review. Henrietta gets another rejection: "odoriferous." Then she wanders into the library at storytime and sees that her book was chosen best of the year by the children. Henrietta is asked to read it aloud. "She read with dramatic expression. Of course, all the children heard was BUK, BUK, BUK...." The illustrations, a combination of oil paints and digital technology, are bold and colorful. The pictures are busy, with Henrietta at her typewriter while her friends cavort around her. There are imagined scenes in cloud shapes, word balloons, and jokes aplenty. A droll chicken with a repeating line adds to the humor. This offering works on two levels. It's a funny picture book that could be used as a manual on writing.

Bates, I. (2009). The Plot Chickens. School Library Journal, 55(3), 105.

Library Uses:

Grades 3-6: The Plot Thickens should be used as a resource when beginning the writing process with young students. The book can also serve as a great resource for teaching strategies involving prediction. The book has plenty of examples of humorous play on words involving the word egg.