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“Lulu and the Duck in the Park” (Albert Whitman 2012) by Hilary McKay is a perfect chapter (early middle grade) book from an author who understands how to make both kids and adults laugh.

The story begins on a school field trip and moves into the classroom, making this a great read aloud in kindergarten through third grades. Especially if it happens to be spring and even more especially if you happen to be hatching eggs in your classroom.

Lulu loves to jump off swings at the highest point so she can fly for a brief moment. She loves animals—furry ones, feathery ones, stick-insect ones. Her teacher doesn’t.

Mellie loses everything. When she loses her sweater, Lulu gives hers to Mellie.

Lulu and Mellie are best friends and cousins. The book begins, “Lulu was famous for animals. Her famousness for animals was known throughout the whole neighborhood.” Sentences are simply constructed and ingenious repetition makes for humor rather than monotony.

“Every few minutes Mrs. Holiday glared over her shoulder at Lulu to make sure she knew she was still in trouble. Every few minutes Lulu looked unhappily down at the ground to show that she did.”

The book is sweetly British. The children are in Class Three, and often in a muddle. The Britishness is understandable and will give American kids a view of a slightly different school culture—but only slightly different.

On to the plot. While Class Three is eating lunch in the park, two big black dogs race through the park trampling the ducks’ nests and wreaking havoc. Lulu secretly grabs one rolling egg and keeps it warm. You can guess what happens, but McKay tells it so delightfully, it’s brand new.

At the end of the day Mrs. Holiday is quizzing, comforting, and convincing her class to leave behind the day’s bad memory of trampled nests. We are going to move on because…? she prompts. Henry responds, “Because the ducks are all dead.” “(The ducks are not all dead).” Please, Good Teachers, read this to your class.

The prequel story, “Lulu and the Dog from the Sea,” (2011) is every bit as good. Lulu and Mellie are on holiday at the seaside with Lulu’s family. The dog catchers are after this menacing, thieving, mangy escape artist (dog). Hilary McKay takes us on a heartwarming hilarious ride to its guessable and satisfying conclusion.

 

Patricia Hruby Powell is a nationally touring speaker, dancer, storyteller,  librarian, and children’s book author.

 

In Kansas, near the end of WWII, Jack’s mother dies. His father, off at war, has Jack sent to a boys’ military school in Maine. There, Jack meets “the strangest of boys” whose name is Early Auden. So begins “Navigating Early” (Delacorte 2013) by Clare Vanderpool (Newbery Winner 2011 – “Moon Over Manifest”).

Early lives in the school basement rather than the dormitory. He rarely attends class. He’s alone. He’s also a mathematical savant. (Today, we’d say he was on the autism spectrum, but such labels were rarely used in 1943). Early is an outsider, but so is Jack, and they become friends.

Early sees colors, textures, and best of all, a story in the infinite number of pi, which begins 3.1415926…The boys’ math professor believes a theory that the number pi is finite, that it can be calculated to completion. Early doesn’t think so. According to Early, the digit 3 is the mother, 1 is a boy named Pi, 4 is his father. Pi then begins his adventure. The numbers tell Early the story of Pi being swallowed by a whale, of being lost on an island, of being cast out at sea, and that’s just the beginning.

During a school break Jack and Early set out on a quest together along the Appalachian Trail. For Early it is a matter of following Pi’s story. First, they are searching for a legendary bear foretold in the numbers. Jack is telling their adventure story and he frequently invokes his mother’s folksy wisdom, such as, “What’s more important? The seeking or the finding?”

But it is Early who tells Pi’s story—and he finds the story by calculating the next digits of pi. That is their guiding light.

Pi’s story seems to be a metaphor for the boys’ adventure. And at first Jack doubts Early’s guidance, but having nowhere else to go, he follows. When the boys meet characters who have been foretold in Pi’s story, Jack begins to believe. Pi has been abducted by pirates on the open seas. Early has taken the beautiful sculling boat from the school’s boathouse saying it belongs to him. On the river, some tough men lure the boys ashore and take their boat. Pirates.

The boys’ adventures are harrowing and at times we’re reminded of the war going on in Europe. The boys get trapped in a cave behind a waterfall. An old woman thinks Jack is her long lost son who died a generation ago. They have major mishaps and Jack recuperates with a mountain man. Early is not surprised by the twists of their quest, because they’ve been foretold in the numbers. The boys’ quest goes from paralleling Pi’s quest to becoming one and the same quest.

It’s hard to believe that Early will find what he’s looking for. He doesn’t get exactly what he wants, but the reader will be surprised by what he does find. Jack finds comfort in his life and gratitude for his odd friend.

All the complex threads of the quests—both real and imaginary—are knitted together in a satisfying end. It isn’t always a fast read, but those who are carried along in the magical realism will have a more than worthwhile adventure.

 

Patricia Hruby Powell is a nationally touring speaker, dancer, storyteller, occasional librarian, and children’s book author. See more on-line at www.talesforallages.com/

“Little White Duck: A Childhood in China” (Graphic Universe 2012) is the fascinating autobiography of Na Liu, illustrated as a graphic novel by her husband, award-winning artist Andrés Vera Martínez.

We are treated to a vision of the disappearing China of Na Liu’s childhood, which began in the city of Wuhan in 1973. In China, children are addressed by nicknames so that bad luck spirits cannot find them by their names. Na was called Qin, which means piano, until her sister came along and she became Da Qin (big piano) and her sister was Xiao Qin (little piano).

Ms. Liu’s story has elements of the mythical as she describes riding with her sister, on the back of an immense golden crane over the nighttime city. The practical is conveyed in the fact that only one child can start in pre-school—and that privilege goes to little sister Xiao Qin.

The historical is conveyed from a child’s perspective when her parents violently grieve over the death of Chairman Mao in 1976. Na Liu flashes back to her parents’ childhood, which would have been the early 50’s.  Old China is depicted in sepia-tones and tells a heart-warming story. Na’s mother contracted childhood polio. In spite of her poverty, the state funded multiple surgeries, which resulted in a cure and she became a teacher. Her father, also a poor peasant, had his education funded and he became a successful agricultural scientist.

Stories of childhood pranks show that Chinese children are not so different than children anywhere. We get a view of Chinese houses, food, Chinese New Year’s celebrations. Martínez, who has visited Wuhan annually with his Chinese family, takes us, with Na Liu, on a visit to her father’s family in a distant village. We see yet another China, so foreign, even to Na Liu.

On the occasion of that journey Martínez paints in the style of ancient Chinese landscapes where the trees limbs corkscrew and end in little puffs, just so. The beautiful Chinese calligraphy is translated into English throughout the story.

My one objection is the frequent over-the-top grimaces of the little girl characters, but this is the status quo in graphic novels. And since I’m enjoying graphic novels more all the time, perhaps I’ll learn to appreciate the extremes of emotions depicted. I love the glossary, timeline, author biography and maps. This book is a pleasure for all ages.

 

Patricia Hruby Powell is a nationally touring speaker, dancer, storyteller, occasional librarian, and children’s book author.

“Wonder” (Knopf 2012) by R.J. Palacio is the story of August who has a radically deformed face—no ears, his eyes at cheek level, a cleft palate which has required numerous surgeries. He’s smart and funny, but you can almost imagine the torture he endures from children and adults both, especially when he starts school for the first time in the fifth grade.

Early in the book August resists having to go to school. He says, “I miss being a baby, not knowing stuff.” Innocence is blissful—particularly for August.

August tells his story, but so do others, deepening and widening the reader’s understanding of August’s life and the many lives he affects. Some voices are of fellow fifth graders.

Summer befriends August. She doesn’t think he looks so scary.

Jack, on the request of the principal, befriends August. Jack forgets about August’s odd appearance and they seem to be friends. But his painful betrayal feels true to life.

August’s older sister, Via, 14, just starting high school, adores August. But how complicated it is to always have to make sacrifices for him. His problems are always bigger than hers and he always gets more attention from their parents. She understands this, of course, but sometimes she needs attention, too.

Via’s ex-friend, Miranda, cherished August when they were younger, but now she’s moved on to have friends other than Via, which is hard for both Via and August.

Via’s new boyfriend sheds light on August’s loving family and makes the reader see that, yes, things are rough for August, but people adore him in a way most people aren’t adored. He says, “The universe takes care of all its birds.” It’s hard not to love these characters.

Both family and school scenes feel authentic. There’s no cuteness. The author understands feelings, their subtleties, and when our behaviors surprise us, especially in adolescence. We don’t always know why we act as we do, but we can feel the consequent emotion immediately—for instance, shame.

Mr. Browne, the English teacher, asks his students to observe monthly precepts. September’s precept: Given the choice between being right or kind, choose kind. This story, without being pedantic, is the perfect anti-bullying book. Every class should read it.

The book shows people behaving both badly and wonderfully. I guess that’s why the name is so apt. “Wonder.” I loved this book.

 

Patricia Hruby Powell is a nationally touring speaker, dancer, storyteller, occasional librarian, and children’s book author. Her new book “Joséphine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker” will be released by Chronicle Books in October 2013.

“Liar and Spy” by Rebecca Stead (Wendy Lamb 2012) has my vote as the next Newbery winner, the highest honor given to a middle grade book. We’ll know what the committee decides nest week, January 28. I haven’t read EVERYTHING this year, so I might have missed something, but this is a great novel, as are all of Rebecca Stead’s three novels.

Georges is a seventh grader, a city kid, named after the post-impressionistic artist Georges Seurat who painted A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte in millions of colored dots. That ‘s’ at the end of Georges is enough for class bullies to call him Gorgeous, bump him in the cafeteria, and tease him mercilessly. His mother has often told him that these small incidents are each like one small dot in the Seurat painting. They don’t much matter. The big picture is made up of millions of tiny dots of color. Stand back so you can see the complete picture. In a few years everything will change.

His dad says, the individual dot—what’s happening now—is important. The reader knows that both viewpoints are true—the one dot (or point) and the larger picture they create are both important. Pointillism.

Georges’ upstairs neighbor, Safer, who is homeschooled, introduces Georges to his Spy Club. Georges wonders at the boredom of having to endlessly observe (spy on) the image projected from the foyer webcam, watching for Mr. X to enter the building. Safer says, “Boredom is what happens to people who have no control over their minds.” Safer,

besides having an odd name, seems wise and mysterious.

Moral issues are addressed in a real way. When Georges visits the candy store, he says, “I debate the morality of eating a Starburst before the pack is paid for and decide not to.” That’s small but the issues become much larger. What about the moral ground of ‘breaking and entering’ a stranger’s apartment?

Candy, Safer’s little sister, another wonderfully odd character, named after her dearest love, also homeschooled, always answers their apartment door wearing pink pig slippers, but everything else changes radically—overalls, flowery dress—sometimes changing every fifteen minutes.

Apart from some hilarious scenes, the feel of the story is slightly dark, but it’s the dark inside a New York City apartment building. And in the end, with a twist that knocked me off the chair, in its way, brings a flashflood of light.

 

Read more about the Seurat painting and pointillism at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Sunday_Afternoon_on_the_Island_of_La_Grande_Jatte

Or it’s possible “Wonder” by R.J. Palacio could win. That will be my next review, due out February 10, 2013.

Patricia Hruby Powell is a nationally touring speaker, dancer, storyteller, occasional librarian, and children’s book author.