One Crazy Summer, by Rita Williams-Garcia

Published June 2, 2013 by Dagmar

One Crazy Summer is an incredible book – not only because much of the book takes place just blocks from my school library in North Oakland, CA – but because the main character, Delphine, is a strong and capable 11 year old girl who really knows how to make the best of a bad situation. I love her strength and her determination. This book ran like wildfire around my school.

Delphine, Vonetta and Fern are three girls, 11, 9 and 7, who live with their father and Big Ma, their grandmother, in Brooklyn, NY. Their mother, Cecile abandoned them when Fern was just a baby. One summer, the girl’s father says the girls need to know their mother and sends them across the country to stay with their mother in Oakland, CA. The girls, who don’t know their mother at all, are greeted by Cecile at the airport. Cecile not only doesn’t hug them, when she takes them home, she doesn’t cook for them or care for them in any way. Cecile sends them off every day to get their breakfast from the Black Panthers kitchen in the neighborhood and tells the girls to spend the day in the Black Panthers’ summer camp. The girls learn all about revolution but also that the Black Panthers feed hungry people. They also discover that their mother, a poet with a printing press, has been asked to print the Black Panther newsletter.

Delphine rises to the occasion. She rejects her mother’s call to eat Chinese food every night and goes to the store so she can cook meals for her sisters. She even plans an excursion into San Francisco so that the girls can actually see something of California, not just “poor people in Oakland”. Delphine is smart. You just can’t help routing her on and hoping that her mother can see all the good that we see in her.

This book is a window into the world of the 1960s and those who believed in the work of the Black Panthers and those in the black community who saw things differently. Delphine is forced to view both worlds, that of her father and grandma and that of her mother Cecile. What a great book. But, don’t just believe me. This book won the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction, the Coretta Scott King Award and a Newbery Honor and National Book Award Honor. Don’t miss it.

I’m excited to read Rita Williams-Garcia’s new book, P.S. Be Eleven.

Velma Gratch & the Way Cool Butterfly by Alan Madison

Published June 1, 2013 by Dagmar

Velma is in first grade. Unfortunately, Velma is the third of the Gratch sisters. Even more unfortunately, both of Velma’s older sisters were incredibly memorable. They were perfect. Velma is constantly reminded of how wonderful her sisters were while no one seems to remember her name. Velma decides she wants to be remembered, too.

When Velma’s class goes on a field trip to the butterfly conservatory, Velma finds out that her sisters never went there. Velma waits and waits for something memorable to happen to her at the conservatory. Then, something does. A beautiful monarch butterfly lands on her finger…and stays there. The butterfly stays and stays on Velma’s finger long after they’ve left the conservatory. Finally, Velma’s principal says, “no one will forget this.” Velma realizes that monarch needs to start its “my-gray-sun”. Velma knows just how to make the monarch leave her finger and takes her monarch to the park.

This book drew applause from my second graders. It’s a great story about rooting for the underdog. The illustrations by Kevin Hawkes are really nice. This was chosen as a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year.

The Shadows: The Books of Elsewhere #1, by Jacqueline West

Published May 31, 2013 by Dagmar

The Shadows is the first book in the Books of Elsewhere series. I love a mystery, and I couldn’t put this book down. My students can’t stop reading at the first book. They go on and read the next two books in the series. Wait until I tell them book 4 is coming out soon!

Olive Dunwoody and her parents move into the McMartin house after Ms. McMartin passes away. Their new house comes with all the McMartin’s possessions. There are lots of interesting pieces of furniture and paintings on the wall. When Olive and her parents try to move a painting, they find all the paintings in the house are stuck to the walls. Olive’s parents leave Olive to her own devices, a lot. Olive is a curious girl. She uses her free time to roam around the house. Inside one drawer, Olive finds spectacles. She discovers that when she wears the spectacles, she can see people in the paintings move. Olive also learns that she can enter and leave each painting in the house. Olive meets people in the paintings. One of the people she meets is a little boy, Morton, who is desperately afraid of a man he says put him in the painting. Olive is determined to solve the mystery of people in the paintings and to discover the secrets of McMartin family and their home. But, it is said that “curiosity killed the cat.” Will Olive survive her search for the truth about the paintings?

Recommended for tween readers who love a good, exciting mystery.

Of Thee I sing, by Barack Obama

Published May 30, 2013 by Dagmar

I find this book incredibly inspiring. Many thanks to Amelie’s Bookshelf for the recommendation. I went out and bought it and used it for my final week of library classes. I read it to students in grades 1-5.

President Obama’s book is a letter to his daughters about the people that made our country wonderful. He starts, by saying, “Have I told you that you’re creative?” and then talks about Georgia O’Keefe. Each page, he talks about a quality exemplified by the person he highlights, including Helen Keller, Cesar Chavez, Neil Armstrong, Jackie Robinson, Martin Luther King, Jane Addams, Abraham Lincoln, Maya Lin, Sitting Bull and others. Some people, like Georgia O’Keefe, Maya Lin, Jane Addams and Helen Keller were less familiar to my students. It was nice to have the opportunity to talk about these amazing people and the importance of their work. Most importantly, President Obama finishes the book by saying that America is full of people of all different races, religions and ideas.

This book is a beautiful, touching book. It’s especially great to share. The illustrations by Loren Long are wonderful. My students quietly while I read the book to them (good quiet, not bored quiet). Afterward, we went from student to student and talked about which person or people inspired them the most. I loved hearing students talk about the people that inspired them, particularly when they mentioned people they’d first learned about in the book.

Bone: Out from Boneville, by Jeff Smith

Published May 29, 2013 by Dagmar

I can’t believe I haven’t read Bone until now. This is an embarrassing thing to admit as a children’s librarian, because Bone may be the most popular set of books in my library. I usually invest my time reading books that I feel won’t circulate unless I “sell” them to my students. This series definitely does NOT need selling. It is a perennial favorite in my library with students from 2nd to 6th grade.

Phoney Bone is the richest Bone in Boneville. Unfortunately, he’s also a swindler who has cheated the townspeople left, right and backwards. When he is run out of town, his two cousins, Fone Bone and Smiley Bone, help save him. Fone Bone is kind, polite and resourceful. Smiley Bone is funny and not the brightest Bone in the bunch. Escaping with only one backpack full of prized possessions but no food or water, the three cousins wander in the desert. Attacked by locusts, they run, only to be split up from one another. Fone ends up crossing a mountain pass and finds himself in a valley, containing terrible rat creatures, a friendly red dragon, a possum family and a nice girl named Thorn and her grandma who take him in. Fone finally finds Phoney Bone, who is a disaster when it comes to manners. Fone Bone and Phoney Bone set out together to find the still missing Smiley Bone.

I love the wit and the dialog in this very funny book. The characters, particularly the “not terribly smart” rat monsters and the wry red dragon with “Seuss-like” fluffy ears are absolutely great. I can definitely see why these books are so popular and why any elementary school library needs a set of these books. I think any child, second grade and up would enjoy the series, but that the students will understand more of the author’s wit if they are in fourth grade or older.

There are eleven books in the original Bone series, counting the prequel, Rose, and Tall tales. The author also wrote another series called Quest for Spark. Don’t miss them!

Big Nate: In a Class by Himself, by Lincoln Peirce

Published May 28, 2013 by Dagmar

The first of the Big Nate series, my students recommended that I read this book. I’m glad I did! It’s perfect for fans of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. Like the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, it’s funny and is a blend of graphic novel and text. This series is really popular with boys from 4th-6th grade who are always lobbying for me to get more books in the series…anything to keep them reading!

Big Nate (COMIX!) is also now a graphic novel series, so Big Nate flies off the shelves in my fiction and my graphic novel sections. Highly recommended for tween boy readers who like to laugh.

The Painter and the Bird, by Max Velthuijs

Published May 26, 2013 by Dagmar

Here’s an oldie but goodie that I found on the shelves of my library. It can be easy to dismiss books, because they aren’t current. In this case, you would miss a wonderful story. The dedication, “To those of us who have ever been lost or lonely” is touching. This book really moved my students and led to great discussions about the value of friendship.

The once was a painter who was very poor. He had one favorite painting of a strange and wonderful bird. Then, a wealthy man comes and wants to buy the painting. The painter does not want to sell his favorite painting. When the wealthy gentleman offers more and more money, the painter, who needs money desperately, accepts the money and sells his painting. The wealthy man hangs the bird painting in his fancy house. The bird, who is magical, misses the painter and flies out of the painting. The bird begins a long search for the painter. In the meanwhile, the wealthy man goes to the painter’s house demanding his money back, because the bird left his painting. Now, the painter has no bird and no money. At last, the bird finds its way back to the painter, and the painter promises never to sell the bird painting again.

This is Not My Hat, by Jon Klassen

Published May 24, 2013 by Dagmar

Here is another fabulous picture book by Jon Klassen, the author of the very the very funny I Want My Hat Back. I love the dark, dry humor in this and I Want My Hat Back.

A little fish has taken a very big fishes’ hat. He swims confidently to the place where the plants grow big and tall and close together. He is sure that the big fish will not know where he is and that the crab that saw him swim by will not tell the big fish where to find him. Oops. This book has great pacing and is perfect for my “too old for picture books” students. They love it as do I.

Jon Klassen is also the illustrator of Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett, one of my favorite picture books. C

Dear Dumb Diary, by Jim Benton

Published May 23, 2013 by Dagmar

I love Dan Gutman’s My Weird School series for younger readers, because it is so irreverent. Kids say things in the books that they would actually say to each other, instead of the more “pc” things they say around their parents and teachers. I think that’s what makes the series so successful with its 2nd and 3rd grade fans.

Well, here is the series for older readers – the same snarky, irreverent humor that so appeals to kids with My Weird School, appears in Jim Benton’s Dear Dumb Diary, a real favorite with my 4th-6th graders looking for a funny book. This series tends to be read more by girls.

In her note at the beginning of her “dumb” diary, Jamie Kelly writes, “Dear Whoever is Reading My Dumb Diary, Are you sure you’re supposed to be reading somebody else’s diary? …If you are my parents, then YES, I know that I am not allowed to call people idiots and fools and goons and halfwits and pinheads and all that, but this is a diary and I didn’t actually “call” them anything. I wrote it. And if you punish me for it, then I will know that you read my diary, which I amnot giving you permission to do.” So begins Jamie’s diary and her hatred of “perfect” Angeline, a kid named Mike Pinsetti who has the power to create embarrassing nicknames, and her search to help her good friend Isabelle pick a new “signature” lip gloss.

Ok, the series is NOT deep; but, it is really funny. This series flies off my shelves with its fans reading every book in the series.

Chopsticks, by Amy Drouse Rosenthal

Published May 22, 2013 by Dagmar

A pair of chopsticks have been friends forever; in fact, they are inseparable, until one day while karate chopping a spear of asparagus, one chopstick breaks. He is “whisked” away to recuperate. His chopstick friend never leaves his sick friend’s side until one day, the hurt chopstick urges his best friend to venture out alone, as a single chopstick. Unsure of himself, the healthy chopstick begins to find new things to do. He learns that he can test muffins to see if they’re done, play pick up sticks with a set of pick up sticks, direct a band and pole vault over cookbooks. In fact, he becomes stronger without his best friend. Then, when his best friend has healed, they realize that, together, they have so many new things to share. Knife called for a “toast”. This book has the double entre that older readers just love. It’s a story of friendship – a funny one. Great illustrations by Scott Magoon. Enjoy!

Kids' Lit Corner

Books kids will love!