More Know-Nothing Lunacy

If you live in the Wilsona School District, CA it is time to either pack your bags and move or vote the rascals out. When I first read about their trustees decision to "remove" 23 books from school libraries I marveled that they had found the time to read all 23 titles. Of course they didn't and now they are amazed to find that they have banned bilingual versions of Clifford the Big Red Dog and Disney's Christmas Storybook. (LA Daily News-Antelope Valley) They also banned (let's stop using nice words like "removed" and call it what it is) part of a series about the 50 states called, Welcome to the USA California along with some fairy tales and some "princess" books.

Ooops!

Clifford. They banned Clifford? Poor Clifford!
These folks need to read more than the blurb on the jacket flap. When they use terms like "criminal mastermind" as justification for banning Artemis Fowl, I know the flap is the only part of that book they have glanced at.

Apparently the district does NOT have a selection policy and they are going to write one. Heaven knows what it will stipulate when deep thinkers like Trustee Marlene Olivarez comment, "We want books to be things that children would be able to relate to in real life," which results in a ban on fantasy books such as Harry Potter.

One sane parent, Danielle Sweeney stated the blatantly obvious:

Of the Potter, Artemis Fowl and "princess" books, Sweeney said, "The fifth-graders, that's all they're into. They can't afford $30 books. They will lose interest in reading and lose interest in academics."

This really is so sad. Schools in Wilsona School District have just been sanctioned under the California's Immediate Intervention/Underperforming Schools Program "for failing to meet the standards of a voluntary program that gives struggling schools extra money but requires them to improve student achievement for at least two consecutive years."

Suggestion: Develop a sane selection policy and put some books on the library shelves that the kids want to read. That would be a start.

Billy Clikk: Creatch Battler

Billy Clikk: Creatch Battler by Mark Crilley, 2004

Crilley is the author of the very popular Akiko series. This book is the first volume in a series designed to appeal to boys. Billy is a young lad who enjoys extreme sports of all kinds. His parents are called away at odd times because of their Bugs-B-Gone extermination business so he spends a great deal of time home, alone. While channel flipping one evening he is shocked to see his parents on TV in a news story from the Philippines. His parents are not really the mild mannered bug exterminators he thought they were and his pet dog is not really a dog.

He discovers that the real family business is protecting humanity from monsters called creatches. The work is dangerous and exciting and Billy wants to join in. His extreme sports experience will come in handy.

The book is 245 pages but has very wide margins and many comic style illustrations throughout the story. The monsters have gross-out appeal though not the "subtle" humor of Captain Underpants. This is light stuff. Checking for kids' reactions at Amazon (though they usually smack of "my teacher made me do this") I found the Amazon kid reviews were very favorable.

I gave it to a 5th grade friend last night. I am interested to see if he will want to read more in the series.

Mark Crilley's website

The Wand in the Word

Sheila at Wands and Worlds had an interesting review of The Wand in the Word: Conversations with Writers of Fantasy by by Leonard S. Marcus. She says:

This is one of the most interesting and inspirational books that I've read in a long time. Through the interviews and profiles, Marcus' masterfully brings out the best in each author, providing a fascinating look at some of the leading authors in the fantasy genre. Find out how Lloyd Alexander's experiences in the military during World War II influenced his writing, or how Diana Wynne Jones kept Tolkein from finishing The Lord of the Rings.

The book includes profiles of many of my favorites including Lloyd Alexander, Franny Billingsley, Susan Cooper, Nancy Farmer, Brian Jacques and more. This one is going on my wish list.

Edge of the Forest

Issue 2 of Edge of the Forest is now available. It features reviews of books, interviews and Kid Picks. There is also a terrific interview with Jane Buchanan who was a judge for the SCBWI Golden Kite Award about her experience.


My review of the new YA novel Crushed by Laura & Tom McNeal is included.

Kudos to Kelly Herold at Big A little a for putting it together again.

Read, Right & Run Marathon

The Spirit of St. Louis Marathon will include a program pitched at students again this year. The Read, Right, Run Marathon sounds like a great challenge to students' minds, bodies and spirits. Kids at participating schools have been "challenged to read 26 books, “right” the community with 26 good deeds, and run 25 miles over a six month period." They complete their "marathon" on race day, April 8, 2006.

Maureen Houston at the Belleville News-Democrat reports on St. Mary's in Trenton and Trenton Elementary where students are running with their principal, Jay Goble and their P.E. teacher Dawn Musenbrock.

On a breezy March afternoon between rainstorms, student runners dropped backpacks near the school door and took off with their principal and P.E. teacher, running four laps around the school block, about a mile.

They streaked past classmates waiting for a yellow school bus to pull up, jogged past the church and its cross draped in purple for Lent, and tagged the outstretched hand of fifth-grader Dakota Grayling, outside the school entrance.

The kids comments at the end of the piece are terrific. I love hearing what they are reading: Junie B. Jones, Storm Breaker by Anthony Horowitz, Harry Potter, Islands (series) by Gordon Korman and very appropriately, Maniac Magee.

Irish Tales

Some lovely Irish tales for St. Patrick's Day.



The Wishing of Biddy Malone by Joy Cowley, illustrated by Christopher Denise, 2004
Biddy Malone has a fearsome temper. She loves to sing and dance but has no patience for the mistakes she makes or her brothers, who tease her.

One evening, "it was the soft hour between day and night," Biddy stumbles into the land of faerie. The music and dancing are wonderful and Biddy meets the most beautiful boy she has ever seen. When he offers her three wishes she asks for the ability to sing, to dance and for a loving heart to soothe her temper. Biddy returns to her world where she discovers two months have passed. Initially, her wishes do not seem to be working but she practices every day and her singing and dancing improve. Once the fairies get hold of your heart it is hard to move on though and Biddy must find her way back to the love of her life.

This is an interesting folk tale without a tidy ending. Are our abilities the result of talent and gifts or the result of hard work and practice?

Christopher Denise has filled with book with glowing images. His colors are in the tradition of N.C. Wyeth, Maxfield Parrish and Howard Pyle. I realized I knew his artwork from the Redwall books, The Great Redwall Feast and A Redwall Winter's Tale.




O'Sullivan Stew: A Tale Cooked Up in Ireland by Hudson Talbott, 1999

This is probably my favorite story for a St. Patrick's Day read aloud. The village of Crookhaven is cursed when the local witch's horse is stolen by the king. Kate O'Sullivan and her father and brothers try to steal the horse back but are captured. It is up to Kate to weave a series of tales to get them all off the hook by describing other "true" stories where her family was in a "worse spot" than this one. The King is amused and enthralled by Kate's tales until the last one and all her work is about to be undone until an astonishing secret is revealed.

Hudson Talbott's illustrations are a riot of color and action. The expressions of the characters are so evocative you will laugh out loud.

Grab some Irish music to play in the background and share the story with everyone. The story will compell you to read with an Irish brogue even if you never have before.

Hudson Talbott books are like having a storyteller sitting at your elbow. The pacing of the story as it interplays with the illustrations is perfect. Please look at his website to check out his other books. He is BRILLIANT!

For more on St. Patrick's Day enjoy The History Channel site.

Free Baseball

Free Baseball by Sue Corbett, 2005

Felix Piloto misses his dad so much. He thinks about his dad all the time. He feels close to his father when he is playing baseball. Felix and his mother are refugees from Cuba. His father, a famous baseball player for the Cuban national team, did not escape with them to the U.S.

Living in Florida, Felix's mami is working long hours at a computer company help desk and going to school. Felix is alone a great deal of the time. His mom does not have time to come to his baseball games or even take him to the hometown team's season opener when he wins free tickets. He is so anxious to go to the game that he agrees to the supervision of a loathsome teenage babysitter whose goonish boyfriends pick on Felix all night. When the game is over, he gets to go down on the field and run the bases. Curiosity leads him into the visiting team's dugout where he is mistaken for their new batboy. Felix seizes this opportunity to make a change in his life and stows away on the team bus.

This is such a warm-hearted story. The reader aches for Felix and his mom. As he finds acceptance and happiness with the team, he must reconcile with his mother and learn the real story about his family and his father.

I loved this book. It will have huge appeal to elementary and jr. high readers. Your heart does not have to thrill to baseball to enjoy this beautiful story but if you are a fan, you will enjoy it even more.

Author: John Reynolds Gardiner

Sadness:
John Reynolds Gardiner has died, the LATimes reports.

Stone Fox was a book on my children's lit course reading list (which I took less than 10 years ago.) As I finished the last chapter I burst into tears. I can't remember boo-hoo-ing like that with a book since.

A teacher friend was using the book as a novel study with her third graders. They had been reading the book aloud as a class but she stopped at the last chapter and let them read it silently. The entire class was completely silent as they read towards the end of the story. Suddenly, one of the more boisterous boys in the class leaped out of his desk and charged towards the teacher’s desk. He grabbed at the Kleenex box repeating, "Tissue moment!" as he returned to his desk while dabbing at his eyes. It gave the rest of the class, especially the guys, permission to give in to the emotion of the final pages.

Author: Katherine Paterson

In case you haven't heard -- From USAToday:

American author Katherine Paterson was named Wednesday the winner of the annual Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for Literature.

The $640,000 prize, established by the Swedish government, is the biggest international award dedicated to writers of children's books.

Girls' series

Bloggers are discussing the Naomi Wolf article from the NYTimes about the Gossip Girls, A-List, Clique and other copycat series. Susan at Chicken Spaghetti has a post with a good round up of other blogs commenting on the topic.

Wolf analyzes these series and acknowledges the changing focus of "girl" books.

Since women have been writing for and about girls, the core of the tradition has been the opposition between the rebel and the popular, often wealthy antiheroine. Sara Crewe in Frances Hodgson Burnett's "Little Princess" loses her social standing and is tormented by the school's alpha girls, but by the end of the story we see them brought low. In "Little Women," Jo March's criticism of "ladylike" social norms is challenged by an invitation to a ball; while Meg, the eldest girl, is taken in by the wealthy daughters of the house and given a makeover — which is meant to reveal not her victory as a character but her weakness.

This tradition carried on powerfully through the 20th century. Even modern remakes, like "Clueless," show the popular, superficial girl undergoing a humbling and an awakening, as she begins to question her allegiance to conformity and status.

My very few cents worth on the subject are:

1) I have not read them. I have a copy of the A-List that I picked up at TLA a few years ago. I will have to add it to the stack. My entlings have always preferred books about girls who "kick butt" (quote from Tamora Pierce) with wands or swords or are martial arts experts.

2) Parents may be "shocked, shocked" at the content and themes of these books but I would bet good money that while daughter dearest is reading Gossip Girls and the A-List upstairs, Mom and Dad are watching Desperate Housewives or Footballers Wives (if they are BBC Americans) downstairs. Maybe they are all watching it together as a family. When shows like The O.C. and their ilk get the ratings, it is not a surprise that it spills over into our teens reading material. Publishers are just trying to compete.