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It’s not easy for sixth grader, Jordan, who is an average violin player, not terribly pretty, not a great student, can’t play chess worth a darn—when there are people in her class who are terrific at all those things. Besides, it’s sweltering hot at the end of the year and her central Illinois school has no a/c in “About Average” by Andrew Clements (2012).

“Average” Jordan has mistakenly discarded a list of what she’s great at (not much). Marlea reads it aloud in the girl’s restroom to humiliate our heroine. Babysitting is at the top of the list. The other girls laugh, Jordan is bereft, but we, the readers, are afforded a look inside Jordan’s exquisite thought process—what she’d like to see happen and how she arrives at those wishes.

The author writes, “Jordan’s memory was a powerful force. A moment from the past would sneak up and kidnap her and then force her to think about it until she discovered something she didn’t know she knew.”

Her thought process seems so familiar, so real. It takes a fine author like Clements to uncover the inner workings of this realistic, flawed and loveable heroine. When she’s accused of cheating at chess, we’re told “she sure wouldn’t have wasted any criminal talent on something as pointless as winning a game of chess.”

She has a crush on Jonathan and she has to admit that it’s because he’s so cute. Which make her just as shallow as Jonathan, who likes pretty girls—prettier girls than Jordan. Still she’s sure Jonathan is a good person. Anyway, she would like him even if “he enjoyed ripping the arms off of teddy bears.” Which is something Jordan did once as revenge when her big sister pulled the head off her Barbie doll.

Jordan decides to experiment with forgiveness. In answer to Marlea’s ongoing meanness, she decides to respond with “…industrial-strength niceness. Awesome niceness. Award-winning niceness.”

It’s not easy, but she answers each of Marlea’s quips with just that—awesome niceness. It stops Marlea’s attacks and sets us up for the grand ending when some full blown central Illinois weather whips into town. As a result of her actions, Jordan wins some industrial strength respect.

Besides the pleasure of being inside Jordan’s head, the reader will get a taste of central Illinois, its weather (oh boy), and glimpses of the local blue and orange. Yes, Clements lives in Massachusetts, but he once lived in Illinois.

 

Patricia Hruby Powell (www.talesforallages.com) is a nationally touring speaker, dancer, storyteller, librarian and children’s book author.

 

In “Kindred Souls” by Patricia MacLachlan (Harper Collins-Katherine Tegen 2011) 10 year old Jake lives on the prairie with his family, including his beloved 88 year old grandfather, Billy. When his grandfather longs for the sod house in which he grew up, Jake resists Billy’s idea of building such a house.

A sweet dog appears whom old Billy names Lucy. When Billy is rushed to the hospital Lucy is bereft. Jake, at first, reluctantly, helps his older siblings cut squares of sod, to build the house in hopes that Billy might recover.

MacLachlan (Newbery Medalist for “Sarah, Plain and Tall”) is a master of the seemingly simple and understated. This small book of large print, barely more than 100 pages, runs deep. What a great accomplishment it could be for a new reader to read this serious, at times joyful, profound book.

For a more advanced reader, try the novel, “The Friendship Doll” by Kirby Larson (Delacorte 2010) at 200 pages. Miss Kanagawa was one of 57 dolls sent from Japan to the children of the U.S. in 1927 as a diplomatic offering. That part is fact.

Miss Kanagawa begins the story in a haughty voice, but as she changes the lives of four American girls that span the time of the Great Depression, so, too, does her heart change. Each character comes alive on the page, starting with Bunny from New York City, a privileged child jealous of her friend. Miss Kanagawa helps avert an act of revenge. A few years later Lois Brown of Downer’s Grove, Illinois, encounters the doll at Chicago’s Century of Progress World’s Fair of 1933. The doll is the catalyst for Lois’ epiphany of generosity.

In 1937, the doll shows up at a rich, spoiled woman’s home in Kentucky and comforts the loveable back woods Willie Mae, who has come to read for the old woman. Next Lucy travels the rough road from dust bowl Oklahoma, 1939, with her father to California where she encounters Miss Kanagawa. Finally, Mason encounters the somewhat frayed doll in his attic in present day Washington, at which point the reader discovers Lucy’s fate. It’s a satisfying twist to the story.

In the end matter we’re told that of the 57 original dolls, 13 are missing today. The author challenges her readers to help find those missing friendship dolls. Check out the attic for starters.

It’s difficult not to compare the book to “Hitty Her First Hundred Years” by Rachel Field (1929), winner of a Newbery Medal. Hitty is a wooden doll carved early in the 19^th century, who lives with her various owners in far flung parts of the world and for awhile is lost under the sea.

All three books are well worth reading.

Patricia Hruby Powell (www.talesforallages.com) is a nationally touring speaker, dancer, storyteller, librarian and children’s book author. Her book in verse, “Joséphine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker” (Chronicle) will come out January 2014.

 

If you want a good laugh, a chortle, a chuckle, read “Unseen Guest” by Maryrose Woods (Scholastic 2010), the third in the series of “The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place.” Really you should start with the first, “The Mysterious Howling” then “The Hidden Gallery.”

If you’ve already read them listen to the book on disc read by Katherine Kellgren (Listening Library). Kellgren’s regal over-the-top oh-so-dramatic reading is uproarious. What a terrific pairing—Wood’s writing and Kellgren’s reading. This would be a great book on a family trip where everyone could listen to the same thing. Together.

The overarching story is that of three children who were raised by wolves and are being educated to become more child-like, less doggy. The job falls to teenaged governess Miss Penelope Lumley who herself has been educated at the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females. But who are these children really?

In the “Unseen Guest,” plucky Penelope must divert a money-hungry admiral from making her wolfy students–Alexander, Beowulf, and Cassiopeia Incorrigible–into a circus sideshow. And if that weren’t enough, she does her work while they are all hunting down the admiral’s runaway ostrich through the English countryside.

The children, having been raised by wolves, are remarkably fine trackers. And we learn a little about their former lives as wolves, but the mystery is still…well, mysterious.

The reader receives smashing good advice handed down from the Academy’s founder, Agatha Swanburne, such as: “Nest eggs do not hatch unless you sit on them for a good long time.”

And in the course of this Victorian melodrama, we are educated to Victorian ways. For instance, after dinner the gentlemen retire to the study for cigars and brandy. The children’s guardian, Lord Ashton says, “Let the ladies play whist, or stitch advice onto pillows, or whatever it is they do when we’re not around.”

I giggled throughout, but I let out a particularly rude guffaw when Lady Constance Ashton saw a mouse and “let out a squeak that only a bat could hear.”

I’ve reviewed the first and second of the series in April 2011. That’s how good it is. I’m steering it your way again, but this time you might want to listen to it.

 

Patricia Hruby Powell (www.talesforallages.com) is a nationally touring speaker, dancer, storyteller, librarian and children’s book author.

 

Franny, eleven, is enduring, not fire drills, but duck-and-cover drills at school, in the event of an atomic bomb attack. I remember no such drills from my childhood, but Franny lives outside Andrews Air Force Base, Washington DC, which would be a prime target and we’re in the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962, when the U.S.S.R. is threatening to strike the U.S.A.

The novel “Countdown” by Deborah Wiles (Scholastic 2010) begins with “documentary footage” of 1962 America. Handsome charismatic John F. Kennedy is quoted as saying, “We have enough missiles to blow you up thirty times over.” Nikita Khrushchev, Head of the U.S.S.R., on the facing page says, “We have enough to blow you up only once, but that will be enough for us.” The world is in the midst of cold war. Who remembers Khrushchev with a witty comeback?

Franny’s big sister is attending college in DC and involved in mysterious endeavors to “change the world.” What she’s actually doing remains mysterious. Interspersed throughout the book are more “documentary” pages that give the reader the context of the times. And so much was happening. The Civil Rights Movement was in full swing, for instance.

Franny’s little brother Drew is a “saintly” child, but Franny manages to get him to tell a lie, to the extreme grief of her strict, cigarette-smoking, smart mother. I’m delighted to find a formidable mother in a middle grade novel. Franny’s father is a major in the Air Force with the task to “keep America safe.”

Crazy Uncle Otts tries to build a fallout shelter in the front yard. The nation is frozen in the grips of fear while Franny’s fears are those of a fifth grader—her best friend has chosen another, her adored sister is absent, an odd embarrassing uncle, plus the realization of her world in great change.

The documentary pages include advertisements for fallout shelters, lyrics to songs, young Bob Dylan, TV celebrities, the glorious first lady Jackie Kennedy, maps, political cartoons headlines, Havana. This is a very cool format that both kids and adults will appreciate. It gives the context of the times, deepening our understanding of the story. We’re getting the top internet hits delivered just as we need them.

This semi-autobiographical documentary novel is the first in Wiles’ trilogy of the 60’s.

 

 

Patricia Hruby Powell (www.talesforallages.com) is a nationally touring speaker, dancer, storyteller, librarian and children’s book author.

 

Summer is here. Yahoo. Time to play. Time to read. You don’t HAVE to read, you GET to read. These two 150 page novels, liberally sprinkled with black and white illustrations can keep younger middle grade readers reading this summer.

In “Letters to Leo” by Amy Hest (Candlewick 2012), 4^th grader, Annie Rossi writes a diary to her dog, Leo. Annie is an opinionated, loveable 4^th grader. She feels the injustice of the world in a high-spirited and entertaining manner. All those rules—no eating in the library, no drinking, no loud talking, no dancing, no dogs in the library. (She should come to my library (the Urbana Free Library) where we eat (in some areas) and on occasion entertain dogs by reading to them). On top of that Annie’s best friend is moving away.

At times, Annie is angry and no wonder. Her mom died in a prequel, “Remembering Mrs. Rossi” (Candlewick 2007), but it’s not necessary to read the earlier book to appreciate this light lovely romp. Usually, Annie’s exuberance trumps her low spirits and even her old professor dad (he’s 40) is cheered.

Julia Denos’ zippy child-like illustrations add to the fun of this book.

“Bless This Mouse” by (Newbery winner) Lois Lowry (Houghton 2011) and illustrated by (Caldecott winner) Eric Rohmann is written in a slightly old-fashioned style and could be a classic-in-the making.

Hildegarde, Mouse Mistress of St. Bartholomew church, must keep the church mice safe. They know the Great X is coming. The adept reader will discover on his own that the X is the Exterminator—Pest Control—No-More-Rodents. Not only is the Great X on the way, so is the Blessing of Animals and that will surely mean cats right inside the church. Alas, dangers abound.

Clever Hildegarde has a master plan. She also has a nemesis, Lucretia, who wants Hildegarde’s job and high status. In the end Lucretia gets her come-uppance, but Hildegarde will be more-than fair. Ignatius, an erudite and worldly mouse, advises Hildegarde, as does Roderick, who has a crush on Hildegarde. The plot includes brave rescues from a mouse’s point of view, keeping it fun and light hearted and gently Christian.

An audio version is melodramatically but nicely read by Bernadette Dunne.

Read read read. And parents, read to your children even if they can already read themselves. They’ll remember it forever.

AND FURTHERMORE: (This is the part that’s not in the Champaign Urbana News Gazette) My mom used to read to my sister and me after dinner, when we were in elementary school–books like Charlotte’s Web and  Hitty, Her First Hundred Years, (Monica, what else?) and my brother, a good deal older and in high school would come out of his lair (his bedroom where he studied physics and did chemistry experiments), come downstairs and stand in the doorway and listen to my mom read. She was a great reader. Reading great books.

Patricia Hruby Powell (www.talesforallages.com) is a nationally touring speaker, dancer, storyteller, librarian and children’s book author. Check out her website at: https://talesforallages.com/

And if you really want to humor her, you can follow her tweets @hrubypowell

Have you ever wondered about the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings? Kimberly Brubaker Bradley’s book of historic fiction, “Jefferson’s Sons: A Founding Father’s Secret Children” (Dial 2011) is the most insightful account of slavery and life at “Master” Jefferson’s estate, Monticello, that I’ve yet to encounter.

The story is told in the voice of the first son, Beverly, changes to the second son Madison and then moves to another slave, Peter. It tells the story of Master Jefferson living in the big house and Mama (Sally Hemings) and their children who live in the choice slave quarter, Mulberry Row.

Sally Hemings gets the best for her children and she assures them (and us, the reader) that this is not altogether slavery. Slavery is a runaway slave being whipped once he’s caught. Mama makes her young children watch such a whipping so they understand the privilege under which they live.

Are the children recognized as the Master’s children? In ways. Jefferson gives the oldest son, Beverly, a violin to play and each of the boys learns to play it. Two of them are good players, and in time there will be another violin. But for the most part, the children are an embarrassing secret—a secret that everyone on the plantation knows, yet it is unspoken. These are Jefferson’s invisible children.

Mama is promised freedom for her children when they each turn 21. Three are so fair-skinned, they plan to “pass” or enter into white society. What does one have to do in order to pass? Give up one’s past entirely. Keep the secret of who they are and absolutely never tell a soul, never look back, and never visit their people who are black slaves.

Mama pushes her children who can “pass” to observe, learn, and enact the manners of white society. It’s essential for their future lives and for keeping their secret.

What does it mean that Thomas Jefferson famously wrote, in the Declaration of Independence, “all men are created equal.” Yet he keeps slaves. Every night Mama beds with the master, yet she is his slave.

If the 360-page book is daunting, listen to Adenrele Ojo’s exquisite reading [Listening Library]. http://www.randomhouse.com/book/213798/jeffersons-sons-by-kimberly-brubaker-bradley

Find out more at http://www.monticello.org/ where the author did a good deal of her research. At the end she describes how she used this resource, what is fact, what is her speculation.

 

Patricia Hruby Powell (www.talesforallages.com) is a nationally touring speaker, dancer, storyteller, librarian and children’s book author.