Archive for Contemporary

Bumpy Ride Ahead! (Double Trouble)

Written by Wanda Brunstetter

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Readers at the fourth and fifth grade levels will love to read about nine-year-old twins, Mattie and Mark Miller. Because of their selfishness, the twins often get into trouble—make that double trouble. When scene after scene in their Holmes County, Ohio, Amish community presents yet another opportunity to get into trouble, the twins do not disappoint. Whether it’s trying to avoid work—as Mark does when he’s expected to help man the fruit stand—or trying to avoid putting extra thought into a writing assignment—as Mattie does when she asks Mark for an idea—the result is disastrous and well-deserved. It’s bad enough when the twin’s selfishness leads to hurt feelings—Mattie abruptly leaves her grandmother with sad eyes after delivering flour and Mark abandons his friend when he doesn’t get the pony ride he expects—but the selfishness reaches an all-time high when it results in injuries to both their little brother and their horse. Will these two ever learn to avoid the bumpy ride and simply share?

Since the twins are Amish, unfamiliar words will strengthen fourth and fifth grade reading skills. The words alone are fun and may even cause the more advanced reader to read aloud to their younger siblings. The glossary at the front of the book could be the basis for a reading worksheet, which would no doubt lead to increased reading comprehension. In addition, the Amish Fiction for Kids website provides ideas for crafts, games, and other fun stuff. Wanda Brunstetter’s Bumpy Ride Ahead! (Double Trouble) should be on any value-based reading list that covers the topic of selfishness.

Author’s website: http://amishfictionforkids.com/

Additional website: http://www.wandabrunstetter.com/

Double Trouble Series: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jumCQOeQKvM

  • Bumpy Ride AheadTitle: Bumpy Ride Ahead! (Double Trouble)
  • Author: Wanda Brunstetter
  • Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc.
  • Reviewer: Bonita Herold
  • Paperback: 154 pages
  • ISBN: 978-1-61626-790-2
  • Genre: Social Studies

Frogged

Written by Vivian Vande Velde

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Another unique and fun fairy tale from the princess of fractured tales, Vivian Vande Velde.  Princess Imogene is almost thirteen, a time when she should embrace her princess-ness and her princess duties.  But she is gangly where most princesses are beautiful, prone to clumsiness and loud outbursts.  As she studies the book, The Art of Being a Princess, she finds that she doesn’t seem to be the kind of princess who is ‘as good as she is beautiful.’  She tries very hard to be good, but she seems to be missing part of the formula.  Trying to escape reading the irritating book, Imogene walks to mill pond.  To her surprise, a frog talks to her.  He convinces her that he is a prince under a magic spell.  Trying to be kind and good, Imogene kisses him to remove the spell.  Too late, Imogene discovers that he has tricked her.  The spell jumps on her, the “prince” is really the wainwright’s son and the only way she can turn back into her human form is to get someone to kiss her.  She has a problem with this solution.  She simply can’t bring herself to trick someone else.  It is so un-princess-like.  So Imogene begins quite an adventure trying to find a way to remove the spell and hoping to get home in time for her birthday.  She becomes part of a traveling band of actors, some she wouldn’t mind turning into a frog, but she stays true to her good heart.  Still the road back to the castle is twisted and long (especially for a frog), but she finds her way home where family helps her find the perfect solution.

Imogene may not be a perfect princess, but she is one that young readers can understand.  She encounters quirky characters from farmers to actors to royalty, but she is always herself.  She talks a lot about not being perfect, but her moral compass is firm.  Lots of humor, interesting plot twists and surprises, this would make a great class read aloud.  Have the students make a chart of all the lies that are told to Imogene and her reaction to them as a literacy activity.

  • FroggedTITLE: Frogged
  • AUTHOR: Vivian Vande Velde
  • PUBLISHER: Harcourt
  • REVIEWER: Risa Brown
  • EDITION: Hardcover, 198 p.
  • ISBN: 978-0-547-94215-5
  • GENRE: Fantasy, adventure

 

Arctic Aesop’s Fables: Twelve Retold Tales

Written by Susi Gregg Fowler
Illustrated by Jim Fowler

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These fables vary from tales of understanding our self-perceived importance, to selfishness and greed. The reader will learn how working together we can accomplish what we can’t do on our own. Another tale tells how a problem was solved; while yet another reminds us not to expect from others what we are unable to do ourselves. You will also be reminded that sometimes slow and steady will get you farther in the long run. These are just some of the wonderful fables to experience in this book.

Aesop’s Fables have always been excellent tales to help children learn important morals and “rules” of life without realizing they are actually learning anything. This book is an excellent adaption of twelve of the hundreds of fables attributed to Aesop. By using native animals from the Great Northern Tundra, and the Arctic landscape and culture, you not only to get to enjoy the tale, but you can experience a little of what Alaska is like.

The illustrations are excellent renderings that bring the landscape to life and help to visualize the story.

These are excellent tales for young and old readers alike, however, it may require at least a fourth grade level of maturity to fathom the morals behind the fables.

  • Arctic Aesops FablesTitle: Arctic Aesop’s Fables: Twelve Retold Tales
  • Author: Susi Gregg Fowler
  • Illustrated by: Jim Fowler
  • Publisher: PAWS IV, Sasquatch Books
  • Reviewer: Carole Robishaw
  • Paperback: 32 pages
  • ISBN-10: 1570618615
  • ISBN-13: 978-1570618611
  • Genre: Fables, Literature, Fiction, Culture

World Rat Day: Poems About Real Holidays You’ve Never Heard Of

Written by J. Patrick Lewis

Illustrated by  Anna Raff

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What is your favorite holiday?  Christmas?  Independence Day?  National Skunk Day?  What?  You have never heard of National Skunk Day?  Why, it comes around every year on June 14.  To commemorate this momentous day, J. Patrick Lewis wrote this poem.  “If the skunk did not exist, then the skunk would not be mist.”

National Skunk Day not your cup of tea?  What about Dragon Appreciation Day on January 16?  “At every meal, bow your head, fold your wings, and say ‘Graze’.”  Still not ringing your bell?  What about National Hippo Day or Bulldogs are Beautiful Day?

Whichever new holiday you find to your fancy, you will certainly find many, many uses for this hootin’,  hollerin’ book in your classroom library.  Children can connect what they read with their own lives.  For instance, cats on Happy Mew Year for Cats Day may eat Mice Crispies while the children eat rice crispies.    What about when they play “mewsic”?  Pulling several of these out would provide loads of fun reading activities.

Our language can be a little frustrating to fourth grade children.  Good and food should rhyme.  Why don’t they?  Well, before you get too frustrated, turn to page ten and read about World Rat Day.  “The Rat Is…the mous-tache in the trache, the wrong-doer in the soer.”

Too often creative writing is stifled due to fears of breaking grammar rules.  Reading this book to your children should give them more confidence in writing what is in their heads without worrying about grammar mistakes.  We have textbooks to help with that part.

The illustrations are adorable and appealing to readers of all ages.  But beware.  This is a book that should be read by the teacher before being read to the class.  All kinds of hysteria might erupt if the teacher were to celebrate Limerick Day (May 15) by reading, “A mother baboon is a beauty, her baby baboon is a cutie and the whole baboon troop starts to whistle and whoop when the baby starts shaking her booty”.  Oh so much fun.  Pump some poetry into your day with this book.  You won’t be sorry.

J. Patrick Lewis attempts to visit 50 elementary schools each year.  For more information about both him and his schedule visit http://www.jpatricklewis.com/ .

More illustrations by Anna Raff can be found at http://www.annaraff.com/World-Rat-Day .  Her blog (http://annaraff.blogspot.com/ ) is full of fun stuff and information.

  • World Rat DayTitle:  World Rat Day:  Poems About Real Holidays You’ve Never Heard Of
  • Author:  J. Patrick Lewis
  • Illustrator:  Anna Raff
  • Publisher: Candlewick Press
  • Reviewer:  Sandi Waymire
  • Hardcover:  36 pages
  • ISBN: 978-0-7636-5402-3
  • Genre:  Humor

Angelina Jolie

Written by Michael A. Schuman

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Most people know of Angelina Jolie from tabloid reports, but the tabloids often don’t even get the basic facts correct. So, anyone who wants to know her at all needs to read this wonderful biography, part of the “Celebrities with a Heart” series. Jolie is the daughter of two actors, Marcheline Bertrand and John Voight. Her parents split shortly after her birth, though she did spend time with each of them during her childhood. She was a troubled teenager, experimenting with drugs and self-cutting. Even when she ended that phase of her life, Jolie had a tendency toward self-destruction. For example, she would fall in love with a co-star then lose interest after the project ended. Her acting career has also had its ups and downs. But she is genuinely interested in helping refugees and others less fortunate than she is. Working with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), she has made more than thirty trips to refugee camps throughout the world, shining a light on the refugee situation and helping out where she can. She’s also contributed a great deal of money to this cause and adopted three children from refugee camps.

Fourth graders will enjoy this biography, though some of the details are harsh enough that parents will want to discuss them with the readers. In particular, the conditions, including genocide and rape, in some of the locations Jolie visits may need further explanation. But the author in no way dwells on these subjects. To aid in comprehension and giving added value, the author includes a table of contents, excellent chronology, a filmography, a list of Jolie’s goodwill trips, chapter notes, a comprehensive list for further reading, and an index.

  • Angelina JolieTitle: Angelina Jolie
  • Author: Michael A. Schuman
  • Publisher: Enslow Publishers, Inc.
  • Reviewer: Sue Poduska
  • Paperback: 128 pages
  • ISBN: 978-1-59845-203-7
  • Genre: Middle grade, Biography

The True Story of Sea Feather

Written by Lois Szymanski

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As a new reviewer, I was hesitant to start out with a fourth grade level book. However, having read both Misty of Chincoteague, and Stormy, Misty’s Foal, I felt a connection to this book and decided to jump in with both feet. Although this is a chapter book, the chapters are short enough to make this a quick read aloud book.

Shannon and her family had visited Chincoteague Island every year for the annual Pony Penning. This year she had saved nearly four hundred dollars in hopes that she could finally buy a pony of her own. When her sister Ashley added her own money to Shannon’s they had almost five hundred and fifty dollars. Their hopes were dashed when they not only did not win the raffle pony, but when they were not able to buy that pony from the winner. At the auction, pony after pony was sold for more than what they could pay. What an incredible gift they were given when a lady they did not know wanted to help them buy a pony. Miss Carollynn was a cancer survivor and because her life had been given back to her, she wanted to give back to others. With Miss Carollynn’s help, they were able to buy the pony that the girls had decided was the perfect horse for them. Shannon and Ashley learned a valuable lesson and were quick to start looking for ways that they themselves could help make another child’s dream come true.

This precious story connects the history of Chincoteague Island portrayed in the previous Chincoteague horse stories to modern times. The glossary and horse information at the back of the book makes comprehension easier for the reader who has little knowledge of horses. It teaches about working hard and saving for the things you want as well as working together to achieve a goal. This would be a good book to kick off a class project where students must work together and pool resources.

More books about the Chincoteague ponies can be found at http://www.schifferbooks.com/newschiffer/search_results.php.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge website offers further information about http://www.fws.gov/northeast/chinco/ponies.html.

  • Sea FeatherTitle: The True Story of Sea Feather
  • Author: Lois Szymanski
  • Publisher: Schiffer Publishing Ltd.
  • Reviewer: Sandi Waymire
  • Paper back: 48 pages
  • ISBN: 978-0-87033-595-2
  • Genre: realistic fiction

A Place for Turtles

Written by Melissa Stewart

Illustrated by Higgins Bond

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Beautifully painted and poetic, this picture book is part of “A Place For” series that follows different animals. In this case, Stewart and Bond focus on the eleven different species of turtles and they make the book work on several levels. It can be a read aloud for children who haven’t yet reached the fourth grade reading level, and it can be a resource for older children researching environmental issues.

At the top of each spread Stewart writes about a threat turtles are facing. Some turtles, for example, cannot make nests because invasive plants change their habitat. The facing page has the solution: “When people find ways to control new plants, turtles can live and grow.” The solution is very important because otherwise this becomes another depressing problem book. With the solution, the book empowers the readers.

If this were all Stewart wrote, it would be a short, albeit, pretty book. And for a kindergarten class, the top section might be all one reads  — students would soon join in on the refrain: “turtles can live and grow.” But each spread also has a short sidebar highlighting specific species from different parts of the continental United States.  Stewart explains how the Western Pond Turtle was near extinction, but with managed care, is coming back. She also tells about loggerheads, who died in fishing nets, but are doing better since Congress required fishing nets to have a turtle excluder device.

This type of specific information will work well for early-elementary reports. More specifics cover the front and back flyleaves, where each turtle’s habitat is shown in a colorful map. With that kind of information, parents and teachers could devise reading activities, asking, for example, which turtle lives close to us? The book closes with “Turtle Tidbits,” showing the bone and shell structure, as well as a bibliography and list of more resources.

Other Resources

Visit Melissa Stewart’s website: www.melissa-stewart.com

Visit Higgins Bond’s website: www.higginsbond.com

For another story of rescuing turtles look at the Smithsonian:

http://news.neaq.org/2010/04/smithsonian-look-at-sea-turtles.html

  • Place for TurtlesTitle: A Place for Turtles
  • Author: Melissa Stewart
  • Illustrator: Higgins Bond
  • Publisher: Peachtree Publishers
  • Reviewer: Amy S. Hansen
  • Hardcover: 32 pages
  • ISBN: 978-1-56145-693-2
  • Genre: nonfiction: science, nature

 

 

 

Cake

Written by Joyce Magnin
Illustrated by Olga and Aleksey Ivanov

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Wilma Sue is wary of the world and she is only twelve. She has been in and out of foster homes since she was a baby. She can’t figure out why no one wants her. She longs to fly like a bird somewhere, anywhere to get away from this feeling. But for now she has to go where the home sends her and this time they send her to two sisters who have spent many years in Africa as missionaries. This is no ordinary place where Wilma Sue finds herself. Ruth is always working at one of her causes. Naomi is always baking cakes for people in the neighborhood who needs a special gift. And Penny, the little girl next door, says awful things to Wilma Sue for no good reason. Wilma Sue tries so hard to get along and do the right thing, but things go wrong so easily. For instance, there is the time that Wilma Sue’s garter snake gets away from her in church and makes a mess of the service. She loves taking care of the chickens and helping with the baking, but she just can’t make sense of why Penny seems to hate her. Then, the chicken coop catches fire. Penny goes so far as to say Wilma Sue did it. Wilma Sue may have to go back to the home after all, just when she was starting to love being with Naomi and Ruth.

The voice of this first-person narrative is charming, a rather modern day Anne of Green Gables. She has a big vocabulary and an almost encyclopedic way of expressing herself which is explained by the fact that she had no friends her age and spent her time reading. The sisters are eccentric but loving, the adult characters they visit have funny names and Penny is really unpleasant, which makes most wonder why Wilma Sue would even try to be friends with her.

One suggested literacy activity would be to make a list or a chart of the cake-recipients and explain the hidden meanings of their names, paired with the hidden meaning of the hymn that Naomi sings when she bakes that person’s cake. Penny’s name alone will get a lot of interesting discussion: Pigworthy. This would make a good book for a class read aloud or book discussion group in a private school, church group or a home school. There are discussion questions at the end of the book along with a glossary and a recipe.

  • CakeTITLE: Cake
  • AUTHOR: Joyce Magnin
  • ILLUSTRATOR: Olga and Aleksey Ivanov
  • PUBLISHER: Zonderkidz, 2012
  • REVIEWER: Risa Brown
  • EDITION: Hardcover, 221 p.
  • ISBN:
  • GENRE: Middle-grade fiction

Ivy Takes Care

Written by Rosemary Wells
Illustrated by Jim LaMarche

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Despite some incredibly exciting passages, this book was written about a quieter time and place. It has a lot to say about responsibility and following your dreams.

Ivy lives on a 1949 Nevada ranch, where the guests are all people awaiting divorce decrees. Her one true love is animals. Her best friend is away for the entire summer vacation at a fancy camp in the East, so Ivy’s only companion is the incredibly annoying and irresponsible Billy Joe, son of the ranch’s maid. When the local vet encourages her to work toward becoming a vet herself, Ivy realizes she’ll have to save for college. She starts looking for jobs taking care of animals. Her first assignment is to care for a horse while the owner vacations. She discovers a mother fox in the barn and attempts to help her. Of course, Billy Joe learns about the fox and wants to kill her for her pelt. Next, Ivy and Billy Joe help a ranch resident train a puppy. Billy Joe lets out the prized German shepherd, who is attracted to a porcupine. Last, Ivy encounters a blind former jockey and a thoroughbred at a local ranch. Written as three short stories which could be read separately, the text nevertheless holds together well. LaMarche’s gorgeous and realistic drawings of Ivy and her animal friends help make this a winner.

The fourth grade reader will particularly enjoy the excitement caused by Billy Joe’s rattlesnake hunting. The text would fit in well with reading activities related to the American West and the era following World War II or even pet care.

  • Ivy Takes CareTitle: Ivy Takes Care
  • Written By: Rosemary Wells
  • Illustrated By: Jim LaMarche
  • Publisher: Candlewick Press,
  • Reviewer: Sue Poduska
  • Hard Cover: 200 pages
  • ISBN: 978-0-7636-5352-1
  • Genre: Historical Fiction, Animals, American West

Sir Gawain the True

Written by Gerald Morris
Illustrated by Aaron Renier

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An entertaining adaptation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, this is the second book in the Knight’s Tales series. In this story, King Arthur’s court is struggling with how to behave. They have skills like bashing each other with long pointy sticks called lances. But more and more the knights are expected to be polite. Being courteous is an idea that doesn’t make sense to the men of action. When Gawain rescues a woman from a dragon and boasts about his feat, he is confused by her irritation. Then, when King Arthur is also annoyed, Gawain begins to examine his behavior for ways he could have reacted differently. Then a green giant crashes King Arthur’s New Year’s Eve party, although he is polite about it, and offers a strange game. Trade blows with his axe. He will take the first axe-strike and Gawain will get his turn this time next year. Gawain accepts the challenge and promptly chops off the giant’s head. The giant simply picks up his head and says, “See you this time next year.” Through a series of unexpected meetings, Gawain is able to redeem himself with the lady he first offended and trick the giant while still honoring his word and learning a few manners along the way.

Told with humor that will appeal to young readers, the story is accessible and can even teach a thing or two about the value of courtesy and friendship without being preachy. The black and white drawings pick up the humor to illustrate the story with the same sassiness that is found in the text. This is a good class read aloud or appropriate for a fourth grader to read to a younger reading buddy. The plot twists and turns are well-laid out. A possible literacy activity would be to make a chart of turning points and then pose the question, “What would change if Gawain made a different decision?” Students could write their own discussion questions for this one because of the great discussion potential.

  • Sir GawainTITLE: Sir Gawain the True
  • AUTHOR: Gerald Morris
  • ILLUSTRATOR: Aaron Renier
  • PUBLISHER: Houghton Mifflin/Sandpiper
  • REVIEWER: Risa Brown
  • EDITION: Paperback, 118 p.
  • ISBN: 978-0-544-02264-5
  • GENRE: Adventure, Historical Fiction, Classic adaptations
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