Intro

Hi and welcome to Books Between - a podcast for teachers, parents, librarians, and anyone who wants to connect middle grade kids between 8-12 to books they’ll love.  I’m your host, Corrina Allen - a teacher, a mom, and just back from a trip to our local greenhouse to pick out flowers for our window boxes. I always feel like summer is finally around the corner when I look out and see geraniums and petunias.

This is Episode #25 and it’s early!  I had the opportunity to chat with Laurel Snyder about her new novel Orphan Island and so many other things - the need for more upper middle grade books, indie book stores, what she’s been reading lately. It was supposed to last for 30 minutes but, well, we got talking, and it was a great conversation and rather than chop it way down and pair it with some book talks or other information for a more traditional show, I thought I’d just give you an episode of all Laurel Snyder.

So here it is.

Laurel Snyder - Interview Outline

Orphan Island is released May 30th and I am really excited for that because now I will have MORE people to talk to about this story!

I’m wondering, what plans do you have for the Orphan Island publication day and having published several other middle grade novels and picture books - do you have certain traditions or routines on days that books are released?

What is Orphan Island about?

I saw your Nerdy Book Club post explaining why you decided to leave the ending rather open and keep some mysteries unsolved. It made me wonder….

Have you had the grownups clamoring for a sequel?

When you were first drafting this novel - did the backstory, the “rules of the island” ever change or did you know right away how it was all laid out?

One of the parts of Orphan Island that particularly resonated with me as a parent and teacher was that tension between being protective and giving children the freedom to make mistakes.

As parent, is that something you’ve struggled with yourself?

If you were to live on the island, what would be your favorite thing? And what would be the thing you found most challenging?

One of the goals of this podcast is to share ideas about how to help kids find (and eventually learn to discover themselves) books that they’ll love.

You mentioned before that you see a need for more really good upper middle grade books...

You’ve mentioned that you are are teaching creative writing this spring in the MFA program at Hamline University. I’ve heard so many people say that you never really know something until you have to teach it to someone else.

How has your writing changed as a result of your teaching?

I have noticed in my conversations with authors and educators and parents a feeling in the past six months that we are living through a critical time in our nation and therefore they feel a shift in their writing or teaching or parenting.

Have you felt that way yourself?

Your Reading Life

You have been an advocate of small independent bookstores. And I’m sad to say that we no longer have one in Syracuse.

What are your favorite indie bookstores?

What have you been reading lately that you’ve liked?

Closing

Okay - that wraps up our show this week. If you have an idea about a guest we should have or a topic we should cover, I would love to hear from you. You can email me at booksbetween@gmail.com or message me on Twitter/Instagram at the handle @Books_Between.

Thank you so much for joining me this week. You can find an outline of interviews and a full transcript of all the other parts of our shows along with all of our previous episodes at AlltheWonders.com.

And, if you are liking the show, please help others find us too by telling a friend, sharing on social media, or leaving a rating on iTunes or Stitcher.

Thanks again and see you soon!  Bye!

Charis Books - http://www.charisbooksandmore.com

Little Shop of Stories - http://littleshopofstories.com

A Capella Books - https://www.acappellabooks.com

The Ivy Bookshop - http://www.theivybookshop.com

The Bird in HAnd  - https://birdinhandcharlesvillage.com

The Children’s Bookstore - http://www.thecbstore.com

The Red Canoe - http://redcanoecafe.virb.com

Avid Bookshop - http://www.avidbookshop.com/welcome

Prairie Lights Book Store - http://www.prairielights.com

The Canning Season

York - Laura Ruby

Rebel Souls

https://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/2017/05/24/what-i-was-thinking-about-by-laurel-snyder/

http://laurelsnyder.com

Intro

Hi everyone and welcome to Books Between - a podcast for teachers, parents, librarians, and anyone who loves middle grade books.  I’m your host, Corrina Allen - a 5th grade teacher, a mom, and a HUGE Guardians of the Galaxy fan! I just saw the second movie last weekend, and I loved how the writers constructed a story to make me love a character I had previously hated. And I loved how this story shows how an empathic character can be deeply powerful without toting a gun or fighting. Plus - my favorite band is Fleetwood Mac!

This is Episode #24 and Today we are discussing lots of ideas for summer reading and I’ll be chatting with author Nanci Turner Steveson about her new novel Georgia Rules.

Main Topic - Summer Reading

Our main topic today is summer reading! For me,  my school year up here in New York doesn’t end for another five weeks but lots of my friends are already wrapping up their school year so I thought it would be a good time to discuss this topic. And whether you are a parent, or a librarian, or a teacher there will be something in today’s show that you will find useful.

First, we’ll talk about defining the purpose of summer reading and the importance of planning. Then we’ll talk about ways to ensure access to books for kids and end with some fun summer reading ideas.

Purpose

The first thing to really think about is what purpose summer reading should serve for kids. In my view, summer reading should be all about fun and free choice and continuing to build a community of readers. And not earning trinkets. The prize should be the book, the shared experience, not some cheap piece of junk from a chintzy looking treasure box.  Whatever you decide to do to encourage summer reading, please keep the focus on fun and not guilt tripping kids into reading. As we approach the end of the school year and kids dive into busy or unpredictable schedules, maintaining that reading momentum is key. If you are like me and saying good-bye to outgoing students, it feels a little like they are fledging and you’ll be encouraging more reading independence. Or, maybe you are thinking about activities with incoming students. In that case, your goal might be to welcome them into a new community of readers and to start to build or maintain those relationships heading into a new year.

Planning

One of the most effective things that you can do to get kids reading over the summer is to help them make some reading plans before school ends and to fill up their To Be Read list with titles they are excited about. Suggested book lists can be nice - especially if they are created by other students. (You know how it is - kids are going to listen to each other way more than they’re going to listen to us!)

If there are some movies coming out over the summer that are based on books, definitely mention those and maybe show the trailers. For example, I know there’s a new Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie and Captain Underpants and then Wonder is coming out in the fall.

One thing that I like to do is to try to get kids hooked into a new series right at the end of the year so they are motivated to read the rest of the books into the summer. My school has started using the Units of Study from the TCRWP and our final unit in 5th grade is Fantasy Book Clubs. So they are totally getting hooked on Gregor the Overlander and Wings of Fire and Warriors and already starting to research the sequels.

And - speaking of Fantasy, have you seen the new Wizarding World Book Club being launched this summer through Pottermore? That sounds awesome and every year I have three or four kids who are just getting started in the Harry Potter series so I feel like I relive reading that series every year.  I’ll include a link in the show notes for all of my fellow Potterheads to check out.  So making a great TBR list is one major part of planning summer reading.

Another part is to think about some Summer Challenges. Maybe share the Reading Without Walls Challenge which encourages readers to expand their reading horizons by reading a book about a character who doesn’t look or live like you, a book about a topic you don’t know about and a book in a format you don’t normally read for fun. Scholastic also has a Summer Reading Bingo Card that might be fun to print out and try with spaces like Read With a Flashlight, Read Outside, or Read Aloud to an Adult - those are fun but what might be even cooler would be to have kids design their own Summer Reading Bingo cards!

One last word about planning. Definitely share your own summer reading plans with your students and your kids. They are really more likely to follow through if you join them and make your commitment public.

Access

Alright so you now know your purpose and you and the kids have a plan. Let’s talk about helping them have access to those amazing books they want to read. One great idea that I know a lot of teachers and librarians are doing is to coordinate a Book Swap at the end of the year where kids bring in books from home, share them in some central spot and then take what they want.

Another idea for teachers is to give each child in your class a book as an end-of-the-year present.  I did this for the first time ever last year. I went to my local Scholastic Warehouse during their year-end sale, and I picked out a book that I knew the child had not yet read but I thought they would really like. And I brought with me my clipboard of Status of the Class sheets from the entire year so I had a record of exactly what they had read and I had a decent idea of what they would like. Then I added a personalized note inside, wrapped each one up, and added a Krazy Straw and a some ribbon. Now, depending on your class size or your budget, that is not always an option. When I taught in a middle school with over 60 students, I just couldn’t do that.  Now, I have just one class and also I don’t buy lots of other things so I can splurge a little at the end of the year.

Another way to get more books into kids hands over the summer is to open up your classroom library or the school library over the summer. Some schools I know have library hours once a week. Some handle the issue of access by letting each child take out ten books over the summer. If you can do this, I think it’s a fabulous idea. Why let the books just sit around?

However, if that is not possible or you’re not there yet another thing you can do is send home a resource sheet to let parents know where they can get books over the summer. List the locations of local libraries, of any Little Free Libraries in the area, and also the links to online places where they access books and articles. Definitely don’t forget about digital reading. Places like Wonderopolis or Newsela or any other online databases or subscription site they use during the school year. Often those passwords will work right over the summer. And don’t forget to plug the audio books! Sometimes a summer trip is the perfect time to try out an audio book.

Bringing books out into the community is another fantastic way to get more books out to more kids. You could set up one or more Little Free Libraries near the school. A lot of my local libraries are placing satellite Little Free Libraries around in various parks. If you’re up for a bit of planning - and maybe it won’t happen this summer but put it in the back of your mind for next year - a bookmobile would be another great method of outreach and making sure that every kid can bump into some books over the summer! Julie, a librarian friend of mine, took a bookmobile out to a local breakfast spot on the weekends. A local ballpark where they have summer rec games going on would be another great spot. I’m thinking of summer festivals and 4th of July spots or the Farmer’s Market!

Basically, you want to make sure kids have books in their hands before they leave school and know exactly where to go to get more.

8 Summer Projects & Activities

Let’s talk about some cool summer projects and activities that you can do with students or your own kids. Here are eight ideas for summer reading projects:

1. Have students write a letter or postcard to you over the summer telling you about a book they loved. You can supply a template if you want and a pre stamped and self-addressed envelope before the end of school.
2. Do a Library Crawl! I chatted with you about this back in January on Episode 14, but my daughters and I challenged ourselves to hit 16 libraries during the summer of 2016. And we posted pictures on social media along the way, included some Little Free Libraries, and it was a lot of fun. This idea is more geared toward parents but you might find a way to do something similar as a teacher or librarian.
3. Host a meetup at your local library or bookstore. Set a few dates ahead of time and join your students for a quick get-together to share what you’ve been reading and pick out some new titles. Usually libraries have summer programs going on, so you could time those meetups to match the library schedule.
4. Meet at school for a Breakfast & Book Swap! Make some pancakes, chat about books, and get some ideas of what to read next.
5. Share your reading on Social Media. You could encourage kids to share pics of their books on Snapchat or Twitter or Instagram and maybe use a school hashtag. Also - if you use Google Classroom or Seesaw, often students can still log-in to use those over the summer. So, why not take advantage of that and continue to share what you’re reading through June, July, and August?
6. Summer Book Clubs! If you have multiple copies of the same book, put together a book club that meets a couple times over the summer.
7. Is an idea called Books on Blankets that I first saw on Stacey Reidmiller’s site Literacy for Big Kids. And basically, they host a get-together once a week over the summer with a read aloud, popsicles, and kids get a free book! Families bring a blanket and sit out on the grass and enjoy a great story together.
8. Is a similar idea but instead of having a read aloud at your school, do a read aloud station at, say, your local Farmer’s Market. It doesn’t have to be for the whole day - maybe just half an hour! Or really, any place where lots of kids gather over the summer. Just gather some books in a totebag, lay out a beach blanket, put up a sign, and start reading!

You may not be ready to take on some of these ideas, yet. I am definitely not quite ready for some of them. But, every year I feel like I’m adding another piece. But - please keep in mind that you don’t have to do everything yourself. I certainly would find it hard to commit to going to my school once a week for the entire summer. But, I could get together with some my colleagues and some PTO members and we could each take one week.  

My challenge to you and to myself is to find one area where you could encourage more pleasure reading this summer. And I know you’ll get just as much out of it as your kids will.

And of course, I want to hear about your summer reading plans and ideas. You can tag me on Twitter, Instagram, and now Facebook - our handle is @books_between or email me at booksbetween@gmail.com and I’d love to see what you’ve got going on this summer.

Interview - Nanci Turner Steveson

Today I am excited to welcome Nanci Turner Steveson to the podcast. She is the author of Swing Sideways and the newly released Georgia Rules.  We chat about why she set her new middle grade novel in Vermont, the theatre, and her favorite kind of pie. Take a listen.

Welcome to the podcast!

I heard that your first novel, Swing Sideways, was nominated for the Wyoming Indian Paintbrush Award! Congratulations!

Georgia Rules

Your second middle grade novel, Georgia Rules, is released today.  I am so honored to be chatting with you on your launch day!

Tell us about Georgia Rules - what is this story about?

At the beginning of the book, the catalyst that prompts Maggie and her mom to move to Vermont is that her step-father has decided to divorce them and have a boyfriend move in. And I just want to say that situation of a family breaking up and one of the parents moving on to a same-sex relationship is becoming more common - or at least more openly acknowledged. And I am glad that it’s in this book - I think Georgia Rules is the first book I’ve read that’s shown a breakup in that way.

There is this tension between the more formal “Georgia Rules” that Magnolia has been brought up with in Atlanta and the more casual, country vibe of Vermont.

Which one is more in line with your upbringing?

I loved the Vermont setting - it reminded a lot of Central New York actually.

Have you ever lived in Vermont?

The Parker family is known for their pies.

What is your favorite pie?

Your Writing Life

You’ve mentioned that you got a late start in publishing and that your first novel, Swing Sideways, wasn’t published until you were older.

Were you writing all along and just stuck with it until you had a breakthrough or did you also come to writing later as well?

What drew you to writing middle grade?

Theatre

I’ve noticed that you are involved in the theatre! =

What do you do - act? Or more technical aspects?

What sort of chapter books did you like to read when you were a kid?

What about have you been reading lately?

Thank You!

Closing

Okay - that wraps up our show this week. If you have a question about how to connect middle grade readers to books they will love or an idea about a guest we should have or a topic we should cover, I would love to hear from you. You can email me at booksbetween@gmail.com or message me on Twitter/Instagram at the handle @Books_Between.

Also, this past week I was honored to be a guest on the What Book Hooked You? podcast where I chatted with Brock Shelly about The Book Whisperer and lots of other things. I’ll link to that in the shownotes if you want to check it out.

Thank you so much for joining me this week. You can find an outline of interviews and a full transcript of all the other parts of the show along with all of our previous episodes at AlltheWonders.com.

And, if you are liking the show, please help others find us too by telling a friend, sharing on social media, or leaving a rating on iTunes or Stitcher.

Thanks again and see you in two weeks!  Bye!

https://www.pottermore.com/news/wizarding-world-book-club-coming-soon-to-pottermore

http://www.cbcbooks.org/reading-without-walls/

http://oomscholasticblog.com/rules/2017ScholasticReadingBingo.pdf

https://littlefreelibrary.org

https://newsela.com

http://www.literacyforbigkids.com/blog/summer-reading-the-authentic-way

Intro

Hi everyone - welcome to Books Between - a podcast focused solely on middle grade readers and to help teachers, parents, and librarians connect them to books they will love. I’m your host, Corrina Allen - a mom of two, a 5th grade teacher and still basking in the glow of getting to see Neil DeGrasse Tyson LIVE when he came to Syracuse! He talked about science in the movies and was utterly hilarious. If you ever have a chance to go see him, please do it!

This is Episode #23 and Today I am welcoming author Victoria Coe to the show and then chatting about two excellent new May releases that you won’t want to miss, and then answering a question about middle grade classics in the classroom.

Main Topic - Interview with Victoria Coe

Today I am honored to welcome Victoria Coe. She is the author of the amazing and fun Fenway & Hattie series which was just picked as one of the 2017 Global Read Aloud choices.  We chat about pets, Beverly Cleary’s Ribsy, what makes an author visit go smoothly, and lots of other things! Take a listen.

Global Read Aloud

We’ve been working on having you come on to the show for a few months now but I am actually glad that the timing worked out for now so that I could talk to you about the Global Read Aloud! I admit, I actually screeched when I saw the announcement that Fenway & Hattie was selected for 2017!

How did you find out that Fenway & Hattie was picked?

From the very first pages, I knew the Fenway & Hattie was a book that begged to be read out loud! Even when I was reading it by myself alone, I found myself mouthing the words and already figuring out where I would pause to let my students figure out what’s happening.

Could you tell us what the book is about for those listening who haven’t read it yet?

It wasn’t until I finished reading the book that I noticed the “1” written on the spine, so I was really excited to know that it will be a series and we’ll get to spend more time in Fenway’s world! I know the second one has come out already - Evil Bunny Gang.

Did I see that Book 3 was announced recently?

In Fenway & Hattie, one of the funny aspects of the story is the names that Fenway gives to the family. So, the dad is “Fetch Man” and the mom is “Food Lady”.

So - in your home, what would your pets call you?

There is just something about dog books that have the potential to connect so deeply with an audience. In fact, you wrote a post on the Nerdy Book Club site called “How Ribsy Changed My Life”.

What was it about that dog and that book that fascinated you?

I follow you on Instagram and Twitter and I have to say that I love and appreciate that you and so many authors share aspects of their life - your writing process, your inspiration, your frustrations sometimes!  Recently I’ve seen a lot of pics of school visits.

What is a Victoria Coe school visit like?

So we have a lot of teachers and librarians listening who plan author visits.

What are some things that you appreciate and like as a visiting author?

One thing that I am always trying to encourage in my students is developing a rich reading life.

How do you make time for reading in your life and what have you read lately that you’ve really liked?

Book Talk - Two Excellent New Novels

In this section of the show, I share with you a couple books centered around a theme and discuss three things to love about each book. This week I want to share with you two fantastic novels just released last week. Both are books about the seismic changes that can happen when someone new comes into your life.  They are Three Pennies by Melanie Crowder and Posted by John David Anderson.

Three Pennies

I will start with Three Pennies by Melanie Crowder. This novel is about an eleven year old girl named Marin who was abandoned many years ago by her mother and has been bounced around the foster system in San Francisco since she was four. And she’s come up with these rules for survival which essentially boil down to this; BE INVISIBLE. Don’t bother the adults, don’t fight with other kids, but that makes for an incredibly lonely existence and a situation where a kid can all too easily get swept aside and forgotten. And at age 11, there’s little chance she’s going to get adopted. All Marin has from her mother are three things: fading memories, a ceramic piggy bank with one coin rattling inside, and a copy of the I Ching. Marin is constantly casting her three pennies and using the book to try to find her way back to her mother. But, the I Ching is also called The Book of Changes and Marin’s eleventh year is full of unexpected turns. Here are three things to love about Three Pennies:

1. Dr. Lucy Chang! She is Marin’s latest foster parent - a kind but clinal woman. And single. The reason why she’s single comes out in a dinner conversation where Marin tries to be rude to Lucy (because she fears being adopted and losing hope of that reunion with her mother.) Lucy is a science-minded surgeon and precise, but I love how she uses that in the service of being kind toward Marin.  For example, she shares these great analogies of the human body. Let me read you a couple.
2. The owl in the story. Every few chapters we get a brief scene from the point of view of a young rehabilitated owl living among the tall buildings in San Francisco and observing what happens below. It’s a quieter and softer part of the book but I love how those chapters weave through the main parts of the story and especially how the owl connects and comes together with the other characters at the end.  
3. And I can’t talk about that owl without mentioning the stunning cover art by artist Victo Ngai. It is vibrant with the golds and warm browns of this owl with piercing teal eyes. It’s a stunner of a cover and the artist has done work for The New Yorker and The New York Times - and her work is amazing. I’ll post a link to her site in the show notes so you can check it out.

Three Pennies is a beautifully written and gentle book about finding family. If you have kids who might love One For the Murphys or Counting by 7s, but you want something a little shorter and maybe easier to read on that same theme, this book is a great option.

Posted

Next up this week is a book I have been waiting to get my hands on - Posted by John David Anderson, who you might know from his most recent middle grade novel - Ms. Bixby’s Last Day. This story is about a tight-knit group of four middle school boys. Their nicknames are Frost, Bench, DeeDee, and Wolf. The story is told from Frost’s point of view. He earned his nickname (from Robert Frost) because he won a poetry contest in 5th grade. His parents are recently divorced. His close friend is Bench and he got his nickname because he’s always warming the bench for every team he’s on. He’s big and kind of their protector. No one messes with them when Bench is around. Then there is DeeDee who’s small, kinda geeky, dramatic and the Dungeon Master when they play D&D. Hence his nickname, DeeDee. And finally, Wolf. He is a lanky, quieter kid who’s a piano prodigy and got his name from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Each of them are kind of outcasts and outsiders in their own way.  But - they have found each other - their tribe as Frost calls it - and support each other. Until a new girl, Rose, shows up and things get thrown into turmoil in unexpected ways. Interconnecting with that dynamic is the fact that all cellphones have been recently banned at Branton Middle School and post-its have become the new contraband form of communication. And what starts off as DeeDee posting fun sticky notes on his friend’s lockers snowballs into this mess of a situation where their friendship is really tested. This is one of those books that the more you read, the more you want to slow down and savor the story, the language - and just spend time with these characters. Well - some of them.  There are so so many things I want to say to rave about this book! I have to limit myself to three - but honestly I could list at least 30. So, just as a small sample, here are three amazing things about John David Anderson’s Posted:

1. How much Anderson GETS middle school and the inner life of middle school kids. Before coming to teach 5th grade in an elementary school, I was a 6th grade teacher in a middle school for 8 years. And I used to joke that middle school is the Social Serengeti. There are predators and prey and you better do whatever you can to get cover within a group. And Posted absolutely captures this. Frost calls it the Middle School Minefield. And, oh the antics these four boys get involved in! From making homemade dynamite in their driveway to accidentally microwaving a can of Spaghettio’s and almost burning down the house. These are the stories every kid can relate to - and I’m sure they have some similar ones of their own.
2. How well Anderson builds suspense by withholding information and slowly revealing it in pieces later on.  For examples, there are these various messages written on post-its throughout the story, phrases thrown at one of the characters, and an awful text that gets a girl suspended (which is the catalyst of the cell phone ban).  Anderson doesn’t reveal what those messages are at first, but describes everyone’s reactions to it.  Or he tells the consequences of a conversation, but the details come out more slowly - I LOVED it!Just like he did with Ms. Bixby’s Last Day, Anderson is masterful at sliding the pieces of the puzzle into your view until you start to see the picture yourself.
3. How this book reminded me of the Netflix series Stranger Things. I know that sounds odd because they’re two completely different genres! But - both are about four close friends used to their own routines when a vulnerable yet powerful girl is suddenly in their midst. And how they handle that disruption and the decisions they make about who to protect could either fracture their friendship or bring them closer together. And - there’s lots of Dungeons & Dragons references!

When you get a new book by an author whose previous work blew you away, you’re almost expecting to be let down. Posted was everything I was hoping for, and I think this one might actually be even more of a winner with kids because the conflicts are centered so clearly on their lives. Ya gotta get this one!

Q & A

Our final segment this week is Question & Answer time.

Question:

This question comes from Annamaria on Twitter “Hi, @Books_Between  I'm looking for "classics" to fill a bookcase in my classroom. Have Dahl, L I-Wilder, CS Lewis, few others. Rec's? Thx!”

Answer:

Alright - yes! Here are a few titles and authors you might want to add.

• The Indian in the Cupboard (and the sequels)
• Harriet the Spy
• All the Beverly Cleary books! (Ramona books, Ribsy books, Mouse & the Motorcycle)
• The Wizard of Oz series
• Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry
• The Wind in the Willows
• Where the Red Fern Grows
• A Wrinkle in Time - that one is also a series
• E. B. White (Charlotte’s Web, The Trumpet of the Swan, Stuart Little)
• The Hobbit
• The Hundred Dresses
• Louisa May Alcott (Little Women and Little Men)
• The Boxcar Children Series
• Christopher Paul Curtis (The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963 and Bud, not Buddy)
• Black Beauty
• Lots of the E.L. Konigsburg (books like From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler)
• Frances Burnett’s The Secret Garden and A Little Princess
• Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys
• Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle Series
• Some really like the Betsy-Tacy series - I haven’t read them but would feel remiss if I did not mention them
• Mary Poppins Series
• Anne of Green Gables books
• Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
• All the Judy Blume books! (well, wait - careful, she does have some adult books out, but definitely Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Blubber)  

You know, in looking at this list, there are so many that I grew up loving but I recognize that in many “classics” lists, the titles and authors do lack diversity and also, where you do find some diverse characters, they’re often not portrayed that well. So in considering including classics in your library, that is an aspect to think about.

So, listeners - I know I have forgotten some. What other “classics” would you add to this list and especially, what are some more multicultural “classics” that should be included?  We will absolutely revisit this again with some updates.

Closing

Alright - that’s it for our show this week. If you have a question about how to connect middle grade readers to books they will love or an idea about a guest we should have or a topic we should cover, please let me know. You can email me at booksbetween@gmail.com or message me on Twitter/Instagram at the handle @Books_Between. Also, we have just launched a newsletter. So if you are interesting in more middle grade goodness, I’ll post a link to sign up for that in the shownotes.

Thank you so much for joining me this week. You can get find an outline of interviews and a full transcript of all the other parts of the show along with all of our previous episodes at AlltheWonders.com.

And, if you are liking the show, please help others find us too by telling a friend, sharing on social media, or leaving a rating on iTunes or Stitcher.

Thanks again and see you in two weeks!  Bye!

Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Nutcracker-Mice-Kristin-Kladstrup/dp/0763685194

https://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/2015/09/15/how-ribsy-changed-my-life-or-it-all-depends-on-your-point-of-view-by-victoria-j-coe/

FENWAY AND HATTIE resource padlet: https://padlet.com/victoriajcoe/mr9wmo96cm65

https://theglobalreadaloud.com/2017/04/07/and-the-winners-are-global-read-aloud-choices-2017-gra17/

Info about my author visits: http://www.victoriajcoe.com/school-visits

author page at PenguinRandomHouse.com where you can click on all three books for a description and order/preorder links: http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2109553/victoria-j-coe

http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780380709557

http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781481492065

Intro

Hi everyone and welcome to the Books Between podcast! If you are a middle grade teacher, a librarian, a parent of a child between 8 and 12 - or anyone who just loves to chat about kids’ books - then you are in the right spot!  Our focus is generally middle grade books but occasionally we veer into picture books or YA.  I’m your host, Corrina Allen - a mom of two, a 5th grade teacher and enjoying our Spring Break! It’s been low key but relaxing.

This is Episode #22 and Today I am welcoming author Adrienne Kress to the show and then chatting about three fantastic books featuring famous people or people who should be famous.

Main Topic - Interview with Adrienne Kress

Today I am honored to welcome Adrienne Kress. She is the author of the newly released action-adventure mystery called The Explorers: The Door in the Alley. And in our conversation we chat about traveling, the difference between writing Young Adult vs. Middle Grade, and high tea. Take a listen.

A few weeks ago as I was preparing to read The Explorers and I knew we would be chatting, I hopped on your website and whoa! You are a woman of many talents - not only an author but an actor, a playwright, producer/director…

How do those roles all work together? What is your day like?

I was reading your bio section in the back of the book and you mention that both of your parents are English teachers and yet I read an article where you described yourself as a reluctant reader as a child.

What was that like for you?

Let’s talk about The Explorers ! Your middle grade book is coming out Tuesday, April 25th.

Tell us what it’s about!

I am excited to get the final version and see the artwork - not only how the artist envisioned the characters and setting, but I was really intrigued by the placement on the pages…

Can you tell a bit about that process?

One of the things that fascinated me about The Explorers Society with the huge multi-floor library built around this giant tree and rooms dedicated to the interests of the explorers. One person explores deserts and one focuses on leaves and another one is interested in sewers.

If you were to join the Explorers Society, what would you dedicate your life to exploring?

You ended this novel with one heck of a cliffhanger!!!

When is Book 2 coming out? Do you know yet?

Not only do you write middle grade books, but you also have YA books out as well.

When you set out to write a book, do you already know ahead of time whether it will be Young Adult or Middle Grade? What is that process like for you?

Coffee or Tea?

What is your reading life like now?  What have you read lately that you’ve really liked?

If people wanted to follow you and find out more about your work , where should they go?

Book Talk - Three Books Featuring Famous People or People Who Should Be Famous

In this section of the show, I share with you three books centered around a theme and discuss three things to love about each book. This week we are focusing on stories about amazing people - both historical and modern. They are Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, Who Wins? 100 Historical Figures Go Head-to Head, and Spy on History: Mary Bowser and the Civil War Spy Ring.

Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls

This week I’ll start with Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls. I’m almost embarrassed to admit where I saw this book first. Umm… it was a Facebook ad. I guess that tells you two things - 1) I spend too much time on Facebook and 2) Facebook knows me disturbingly well!  And - and I guess I’ll add a third - sometimes Facebook ads really do work. I saw Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls scroll across my feed and thought - “Yes! I want that book for my daughters. But - I also want it for me.”  So, let me tell you about it. It is 100 tales of extraordinary women illustrated by 60 female artists from all around the world. It’s written by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo - both women entrepreneurs whose idea for this book stemmed from the fact they wished they had grown up with more female role models. The book became the most funded book in crowdfunding history.

Here are three things to love about Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls:

1. How each one-page biography is written like a mini fairy tale. It’s such a different take on a biography compilation. Let me give you a few examples: “Once there was a little girl who didn’t speak for five years. She thought her words could hurt people and promised herself to never make a peep again. Her name was Maya.” That’s Maya Angelou.  Here’s another one. “Once there was a girl who wanted to drive a car. She lived in Saudi Arabia, a country where religious rules forbid women from driving. One day she decided to break the rules.” - That’s Manal Al-Sharif, the women’s rights activist. I just love them - and there’s something about telling these women’s stories like this that elevates them to a heroic level and makes you feel like you can slay your own dragons.
2. The variety of stories and the women you get to learn about. For instance, the book includes artists like Frida Kahlo and Coco Chanel but also tattoo artist Maud Stevens Wagner. There are well-known political figures like Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Evita Peron but we also get know about Somali politician Fadumo Dayib and Indian Queen and Warrior Lakshmi Bai. There are mathematicians, and surgeons, and drummers, and spies, and chefs, and mountaineers, and one elementary school student - Coy Mathis, born in 2007. And I’ll leave her story for you to discover.
3. And finally - at the very end there is a place to write your own story and draw your own portrait. How powerful is that?

Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls would be a great gift - especially for girls, but could absolutely be enlightening for boys as well. As I was reading some to my daughters, I had my teacher hat partially on and was thinking that this would be great for Women’s History Month next year. We could read one brief story every day and expand our knowledge of some women who should be known and celebrated for their accomplishments.

Who Wins? 100 Historical Figures Go Head-to Head

Next up this week is 100 Historical Figures Go Head-to Head created by Clay Swartz and illustrated by Tom Booth. This is an awesomely fun mix-and-match flip book set up as a game where we imagine important historical figures competing in a variety of interesting scenarios. It’s a really sturdy spiral bound book made up of three panels. On the left and on the right are the people. The bottom half features a drawing of that person facing inward toward their opponent and some quick descriptors. For example, we have Harry Houdini (Mr. Magic: Entertainer, Illusionist, Adrenaline Junkie) facing off with Cleopatra (Queen of the Nile: Pharaoh, Feminist, Diva). And  - the bottom lists how each person rates across 7 categories: Wealth, Fitness, Wisdom, Bravery, Artistry, Leadership, and Intelligence. For example, Houdini rates as a 7 for wealth and Cleopatra is a 9. Houdini is a 10 for fitness while Cleopatra is only a 6. So you have some basis for debate. Then the top of each side includes a short biography of each person and a couple “Little Known Facts”.  Then - the middle describes the battle scenario. There are things like: Summiting Everest, Slam Dunk Contest, Rap Battle, Brain Surgery, Wrestlemania, Selling the Most Girl Scout Cookies. On this page, Houdini and Cleopatra are going head to head about who could Sneak Into Area 51! Hmmmm….  I don’t know. Houdini’s really good at escaping from places, and didn’t Cleopatra sneak into see someone rolled up in a rug? Or am I just thinking of the Elizabeth Taylor movie and that is actually a myth.  That’s a tough one.

But that’s what’s fun about this book!  If you’re not already sold, here are three more awesome reasons to love 100 Historical Figures Go Head-to Head:

1. You - and your kids - are never going to get bored with this book! There are 100,000 possible combinations, and I can attest that with my own kids, the conversation starts with the match-up and then spirals into discussing other situations.
2. And did I mention? It’s full color!! It’s gorgeous and really designed well. The three panels are not just basic rectangles - they are done in a zig-zag pattern that somehow keeps the pages from sliding over each other too much. They nestle together.
3. The potential to springboard some cool projects and discussions off this book! Again, I’ve always got my teacher hat on and I kept thinking that it would be really cool to act some of these out. Thomas Edison vs. Mother Teresa in a Hot Dog Eating Contest! Or… if your school is like mine, we often have a biography unit. Perhaps your students could take their biography subject and give them a rating in a few categories and have them face off in different situations. And it doesn’t have to be a lengthy thing, maybe just a quick find a partner and “Okay, Who would do better living on a desert island? You’ve got two minutes to chat and back up your ideas.”  Or - for your own children, this would be the perfect book to stash in your car.

Spy on History: Mary Bowser and the Civil War Spy Ring

Our last book this week is Spy on History: Mary Bowser and the Civil War Spy Ring by Enigma Alberti with illustrations by Tony Cliff.  This is an interactive historical narrative about an African American spy, Mary Bowser, who infiltrated the Confederate administration. She posed as an illiterate slave in Jefferson Davis’ White House during the Civil War and sent information to Union Generals. Truly an unsung hero of American history. This is based on true events and the history is accurate, but it is dramatized into a suspenseful story.  Here are three things to love about Mary Bowser and the Civil War Spy Ring:

1. The interactive part. Readers actually get to solve a mystery in this book! It comes with spycraft materials like a cipher wheel, red acetate paper, and a white vellum sheet that when you line it up correctly can be used to help crack the code on certain pages.  It is SO cool! And comes with a sealed answer key if you get stuck.
2. How this book angles history from the perspective of a black enslaved woman. History is told by those in power and for far too long, we have been denied the point of view of most women and most people of color, and I am so glad children get a chance to meet and know Mary Bowser.
3. And finally, what I liked most about this book was that I couldn’t read it. Now, what I mean by that is that I attempted to read it, but it very quickly got snatched out of my hands. I started reading on the couch and as soon as the words, “OOOoooo...there’s codes in this…” came out of my mouth, my daughters were huddled behind me reading over both my shoulders. Then… they climbed over the back of the couch and into my lap to “help” me flip through the pages. And then they saw the grid of letters and snatched it away to go solve it without me! Argh!

Mary Bowser and the Civil War Spy Ring is a little bit like a combination of a Mail order Mystery and Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales. If you know a kid who loves a mystery, who loves cracking a code, who loves a suspenseful story - then this one is a winner.

A couple quick announcements before we close today. I’ve skipped the Question & Answer segment the last couple of weeks mainly because I didn’t want to have the episodes run too long. I know several of you have sent questions. Thank you! And I’ll be back on track answering those next time.

Also - I discovered new website for you to check out! It’s teacherswhoread.blogspot.com It just launched a few weeks ago and it’s a great site if you’re looking for more middle book recommendations or engaging literacy ideas to try out in your school.

Closing

Alright - that’s it for our show this week. If you have a question about how to connect middle grade readers to books they will love or an idea about a guest we should have or a topic we should cover, I really love to hear from you. You can email me at booksbetween@gmail.com or message me on Twitter/Instagram at the handle @Books_Between.

Thank you so much for joining me this week. You can get find an outline of interviews and a full transcript of all the other parts of the show along all of our previous episodes at AlltheWonders.com.

And, if you are liking the show, please help others find us too by telling a friend, sharing on social media, or leaving a rating on iTunes or Stitcher.

Thanks again and see you in two weeks!  Bye!

http://teacherswhoread.blogspot.com

http://www.adriennekress.com

Intro

Hi everyone! Welcome to Episode 21 of Books Between - a podcast for teachers, parents, librarians, and anyone who loves middle grade books!  I am Corrina Allen - a teacher, a mom, and a big podcast fan.  And I’ll tell you - I have been absolutely sucked into the new STown podcast for the past week! And have probably spend too much time and stayed up far too late looking at pictures of hedge mazes, sundials, and antique clocks. So, I know you like podcasts - definitely go listen to STown.

Since April is National Poetry month, our show today is all about celebrating the power of poetry! I’ll share with you a couple poetry resources to help you enjoy poetry more with your students and kids, and then chat about some fabulous books - from picture books to poetry anthologies to novels in verse.  

Main Topic - Celebrating the Power of Poetry

I will straight up tell you that I was slow to appreciate poetry in the way it really deserves. I was always a voracious reader even as a kid, but I rarely ever picked up any poetry when left to my own devices.  I guess I always thought of it as a complicated puzzle or containing some secret message that I was just too obtuse to figure out.  I even had this ridiculous idea that all poetry was romantic.  Yeah - I know - WRONG!

So, I have been on a mission lately to shed my own misconceptions and make SURE that I am not passing those along to my own children or my own students. It is still very much a work in progress for me, but I thought today I’d share with you a few ideas about how to include more poetry in the lives of your kids - not only during National Poetry Month, but all year long.

Rethinking Poetry

First off, I think that rethinking reading poetry is the biggest step. Helping kids understand that poetry can be about ANYTHING (not just love) is a major step. The best way to to do this? Start by reading lots of varieties of poetry with them. I know we are all pressed for time, but reading a short poem every day (or even start with every week!) would take less than a minute and can often be done in those “gap times” like waiting in the hallway or waiting for the bus to arrive. (And later on, I’ll share with you some places to get those poems.)  Also, I used to think that as a teacher, I would have to hammer the heck out of a poem and make sure my students had yanked that thing apart and knew the theme, the rhyme pattern, the symbols, the point of view of the author and on and on and on until… well, it just wasn’t enjoyable anymore. For me or my students!

The event that recently cemented for me the fact that teaching poetry doesn’t have to be like that was Laura Shovan’s live Facebook Event hosted by The Nerdy Book Club. It was called “It’s National Poetry Month: Let’s Teach Poetry!” and you can find an archive of that event through their facebook page and I’ll also include a direct link to it in our show transcript. So anyway - Laura Shovan is a poet-in-the-schools for the Maryland State Arts Council’s Artist-in-Education program and the author of the novel in verse The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary. In this video, she walks through how to teach the poem “Weather” by Eve Merriam. The whole thing is worth checking out, but I just wanted to share with you a few highlights:

• Read the poem aloud and ask students what THEY notice, what stands out to them, what got them thinking or feeling. And every time I have done this over the past week, my students will catch aspects of the poem I would never have considered.  I love the advice of having students take the conversational lead.
• Reinforce the vocabulary of poetry naturally through the conversation around the poems, rather than a separate stand alone lesson. Incorporating terms like “couplet” and “stanza” into the discussion can save time and solidify their meaning for kids.
• The idea of poetry as layers - layers of sound, of story, of point of view. And how reading a poem several times allows you (and your kids!) to discover more within those multiple readings.

And Laura Shovan makes this wonderful analogy of a poem as a waterfall - some students are going to want to jump into the water and experience it with all their senses, some are science minded and might want to take samples to examine and pick apart under a microscope, and some students want to stand back admire the beauty of that waterfall with awe and wonder.  And all of those responses are are just fine. And we don’t have to do every single one of them every time we read a poem together. If you want to learn more, check out Laura’s website at www.LauraShovan.com -

Another fantastic resource that links reading and writing poetry is Kwame Alexander’s Page-to-Stage Writing Workshop. And I highly recommend this if you want to harness the power of poetry to boost the level of writing excitement with your kids. This is a teacher’s guide that will get your kids writing, publishing, and presenting their poetry - and the best part is that it’s not JUST another book on teaching poetry. It includes videos of Kwame Alexander - both for teachers and for your students to watch. And if you’ve ever had the chance to hear  him speak, you know the energy he brings.  It’s like having a Newbery-Award winning author right in your classroom giving you a mini-lesson on poetry. Actually it’s not LIKE that, it actually IS that!  Absolutely check that out!

I’ll close by quoting a bit from Kylene Beers’ forward of Page-to-Stage, “Poetry - what I’ll call the neglected genre - draws us into ourselves as it simultaneously lets us give back to the world a fresh understanding , a new vision, a re-vision of one moment. Kwame puts it better when he explains that poetry lets us ‘write our own journeys, find our own voices.’”  

So I’m excited and inspired to include more poetry in my classroom and get kids writing more.  As always, I would love to hear what you are doing to foster a love of poetry  with your students and kids.  You can tag me on Twitter, Instagram, and now Facebook - our handle is @books_between or email me at booksbetween@gmail.com and I’d love to hear and share your ideas.

Book Talk - Fabulous Poetry Books & Novels in Verse

In this part of the show, I chat about books centered around a theme and of course this week is all about fantastic poetry books, anthologies, and novels in verse for middle grade readers. And - since National Poem in Your Pocket Day is Thursday, April 27th - this will give you some awesome options for you and your students to tuck in those pockets.

Poetry Books

Bravo! Poems About Amazing Hispanics by author Margarita Engle with illustrations by Rafael Lopez. I really love this book - the drawings are fantastic and bold and each poem is from the point of view of the person being featured so it really feels personal.

One Last Word: Wisdom from the Harlem Renaissance the latest by Nikki Grimes which is a collection of her original poetry interspersed with classic poetry of the Harlem Renaissance. Grimes is amazing - just go ahead and get all the Nikki Grimes - you can’t go wrong with her work!

Speaking of can’t go wrong poets, Kwame Alexander has two new poetry picture book collections out.  The first is called Animal Ark: Celebrating our Wild World in Poetry and Pictures and features photographs of endangered species. This one good for young readers as well as older kids. Then he’s also collaborated with some other poets  (Chris Colderley and Marjory Wentworth along with artist Ekua Holmes to put together a beautiful collection of poems celebrating poets called Out of Wonder.

Another poet to look for is  Lee Bennett Hopkins - his work is simply outstanding. I love his general collections but his themed books are really cool. Check out My America: A Poetry Atlas of the United States - a collection of fifty poems celebrating various regions in the country. Or Marvelous Math - a collection of math themed poems, or Spectacular Science - a book full of poems on all sorts of science topics. What is cool about these books is that if you have them on hand, you can easily flip and find a poem that relates to a subject you are studying in class. A poetry break during Math or Science?  Yes, please!

And if you are looking for something clever and funny, take a look at Keep a Pocket in Your Poem by J. Patrick Lewis. They take classic poems and pair them with a parody poem. So for example, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” is paired with “Stopping by Fridge on a Hungry Evening” . It’s cute, funny, and may even inspire some of your kids to give a parody poem a try!

And if you want to enjoy some excellent poetry with a jazzy, hip hop flair - please, please go snag a copy of Hip Hop Speaks to Children: a celebration of poetry with a beat. It’s edited by Nikki Giovanni and includes a CD with many of the authors reading their poems - including Eloise Greenfield, Gary Soto, Langston Hughes, James Berry - and so, so many more. A couple things I really loved - one, they make the explicit connection between music, lyrics, and poetry and include lots of poems that we might originally view simply as songs.  Like “Rapper’s Delight”! And Queen Latifah’s “Ladies First”! It’s so, so good! And secondly, some of the tracks include the authors introducing their poem and giving you a little background. For instance, before Pedro Pietri reads “Love Poem for My People”, I was really stuck by how he mentioned that he wrote it many years ago and is STILL working on it.  Powerful, powerful messages for kids - you definitely want this one on hand!

Novels in Verse:

Well, you can’t talk about novels in verse without mentioning the amazing Sharon Creech. There are of course Love That Dog  and Hate That Cat - perennial classics in any classroom or library. But, I want to give a plug for her latest novel, called Moo. It’s the story of twelve -year-old Reena and her seven-year-old brother, Luke who are suddenly uprooted from their life in New York City and wind up moving to very rural Maine, and reluctantly trying to bond with a super ornery cow. There were certain aspects that reminded me a bit of Home of the Brave. I think those two would make a great novel-in-verse pairing.

And of course, I would be remiss If I didn’t mention Kwame Alexander’s two novels in verse - The Crossover and Booked. I feel like I have gushed so much about those two books on this podcast and how much students love them that I am almost risking overdoing it. So, you already know they are amazing, right?

Also previously mentioned on the podcast, but definitely need to be included on this list are Ellie Terry’s Forget Me Not, which is a novel that is half verse / half prose from two points of view.  If you want to know more about that novel, I went into more depth in the last show which was Episode 20.  And in Episode #8, I featuring Laura Shovan’s The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, which is fantastic not only for the story but because it has dozens of poetry prompts right in the back. LOVE it!

Another author that writes poetry for kids across a wide range of ages is Nikki Grimes. I already mentioned her picture book work, but her novels Words With Wings and Garvey’s Choice are phenomenal. And accessible to kids who might find the brief poems and open space of each page really appealing. They are quick but powerful reads. A short poem, a short story, can pack a lot of punch.

And of course, Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming and her earlier book Locomotion and so many others are written with such passion and love that they stay with you, long, long after you’ve set aside those books.

A couple novels in verse that I haven’t read yet but have been bubbling up are The Red Pencil by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai. I keep bumping into rave reviews and reflections on these two books - argh - I think I just need to take a reading sabbatical and work through my To Be Read pile. Wouldn’t that be nice?  

Well - I could go on and on - and I know I’ve missed a lot on this list, but I do need to cut myself off at some point. But, that leaves the door open for YOU!  What poetry books or novels in verse are your favorites and why do you love them? I’ll open some threads on our various social media sites and let’s continue the conversation there!

Closing

Okay  - that wraps up our show this week.  If you have topic or a book you think we should cover, please let us know. You can email me at booksbetween@gmail.com or message me on Twitter/Instagram at the handle @Books_Between.

Thanks again for joining me this week. You can get a full transcript of this show and all of our previous episodes at AlltheWonders.com including links to every book and every resource I talked about today. And, if you’re enjoying the show and finding some value in what you hear, please help others find us too by telling a friend, sharing on social media, or leaving a rating on iTunes or Stitcher.

Thanks again and see you in two weeks!  Bye!

https://www.facebook.com/nerdybookclub/videos/1501455839895985/?pnref=story

http://laurashovan.com/2017/04/its-national-poetry-month-lets-teach-poetry/

https://shop.scholastic.com/teachers-ecommerce/books/kwame-alexanders-page-to-stage-writing-workshop-9781338026818.html

Intro

Hi everyone! Welcome to Books Between - a podcast for teachers, parents, librarians, and you! Thanks for joining us today! This is a show all about middle grade books, and raising enthusiastic readers.   I am Corrina Allen. I’ve been teaching for over 13 years mainly grades 5 and 6. And I am a mother of two girls. And we just celebrated my oldests 10th birthday this weekend. She got her ears pierced and I had an amazing FAIL attempting to make a pink and blue checkerboard cake for her. Pictures are on Twitter if you want to see the carnage. All I gotta say is that Wegmans came through in the clutch with an amazing vanilla whipped cream cannoli filled caked.

This is Episode #20 and today we are discussing the new Beauty & the Beast live action movie and featuring two brand new sweet contemporary fiction novels.

Announcement - Book Drive

But first, I have a quick announcement and an opportunity to do something really kind. Some of you may have heard the story about the Pleasant Run Elementary robotics team called the PantherBots. They were competing at their district's high school among a bunch of other schools and got first place. And during the competition and after the challenge as they were leaving and in the parking lot, this group of 9 and 10 year olds and their families, were told “Go back to Mexico” and subjected to other racist comments. Two of the kids are African-American and three are Latino.

So - the reason that I am bringing this to our attention is that author Shannon Hale is calling for a book drive in support of the team and the school. I’ll link to her page  directly, if you want more details, but let me read to you her request:

Hey friends! Like me, many of you were horrified by this news report:

We want to show love for this school and their outstanding robotics team in the form of a book drive. This is a Title 1 school with a very diverse population. Authors, you can sign books to Pleasant Run. Anyone else who can donate is much appreciated! Picture books, early readers, chapter books, and middle grade books most welcome, especially those written by and featuring people of color. Also early readers in Spanish would be a bonus as they have a dual immersion language program for some kindergarten classes. Mail books to:

Pleasant Run Elementary

1800 N Franklin Rd

Indianapolis, IN 46219

If you have books more appropriate for middle or high school, this diverse district would love those too!

And then Shannon lists their address which again, I will link to for you.

I saw that and I knew that you all would want to help. Maybe you have a book on your desk or bookshelf right now that you could spare.

Hey - send it media mail - it’s cheap. For a couple of bucks you can let this community know that they are supported, we have their back, and do something tangible to bend that arc toward justice.

So, I’m going to get on that this week and mail out some awesome books, and I hope you will, too.

Main Topic - Beauty & the Beast

Today I’ll be giving a brief overview and review of the new live-action version of the familiar fairy tale, listing a few other versions middle grade readers might want to check out, and discussing some ways you could do some analysis and comparing with your kids and students.

Have you ever been to a Movie Tavern? They recently opened one up near us and it is decadently wonderful. You can have a full meal, maybe a cocktail (I personally like the milkshakes), and enjoy a movie while you relax in a recliner. It is everything that is wrong and right with America.

Anyway - my mother treated myself and my sister-in-law and my kids to a girls’ brunch and Beauty and the Beast viewing last weekend, and I thought I’d let you all know how it is. I’m making the assumption that you’re familiar with the story so expect a couple plot spoilers.

First off, I do want to acknowledge that the Beauty & the Beast story is - shall we say “problematic”?  I enjoyed the Disney version when it came out when I was a teenager, but later as an adult the sexist and kind of abusive aspects of it always rubbed me the wrong way. So, I was looking forward to seeing how this new movie featuring Emma Watson as Belle and Dan Stevens as the Beast chose to depict the story.

So here are my thoughts:

• I loved the opening which shows the prince (played by Dan Stevens) getting ready for a ball and dressing in full Louis XVI-style regalia with powdered wig, full make-up, and a little black mole. It reminded me a bit of the series Versaille on Netflix. So far so good!
• I’m also noticing now that the cast seems a little more diverse than the original. Madame de Garderobe is played by Audra McDonald and Plumette is played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw - both women of color. The background characters are a bit more diverse so that seems to be going in the right direction but I would have like to have still seen more.
• The other thing that struck me here was the witch’s curse is SO brutal to the poor innocent people working in the palace. Aside from the turning-into-furniture bit, the fact that she erased the memory of them from their loved-one’s minds is just heartbreaking. To know that your family will forget you.
• Then we meet Belle, Emma Watson sings - I thought with a clear, beautiful, natural voice. Overall, I thought her performance was outstanding. Although - there is a moment early on where she is twirling atop a grassy hill singing in her barefeet and my 7 year old leans over to me and says, “She’s going to get a tick on her feet!”
• Belle’s inventor role is explored a lot more here - it’s not just her father. So thumbs up for that. She invents a washing machine which gives her more time for her books and to get in trouble for teaching a young girl in the village to read. (Good point for discussion right there.)
• And - Gaston. His handsome hyper-masculine character is utterly obnoxious and he treats Belle like the ultimate prey. He is just vile! But - Luke Evans does a fantastic job with him. His backstory is more filled out., which is interesting. He was a soldier, and there’s hints of PTSD there with this darker interpretation.  And the “Gaston” tavern number is so much better than the original - full of people and the characters are vibrant and it’s funny. I think probably the best song sequence of the movie.
• During this scene, I also like the new envisioning of the LeFou character (played by Josh Gad, the voice of Olaf). There’s more depth to that role and of everyone, he maybe changes the most throughout the movie. Now, he’s the character that the director has said is involved in a “gay moment” in the movie. And - I guess you could interpret LeFou’s actions toward Gaston in that way, and there’s a scene at the end where he dances briefly with another man. But I think the controversy, if you can even call it that, is really overblown. I’m glad Disney didn’t edit anything out for release in other countries, but on on the other hand, I don’t want to give them too much credit either. The situation is treated like a joke and maybe just another in a long line of gay characters depicted as fools. But generally, I really liked that performance and want to see more of Josh Gad.
• Back to the plot! Belle’s father (played by Kevin Kline) is attacked by wolves - this might be the scariest moment of the film and he takes refuge in the castle, takes a rose from the garden, and the Beast freaks out and imprisons him.   The horse leads Belle back where she tricks her father, takes his place, and the story carries on from there.
• In the castle - Chip is simply adorable and if I were Plumette, I would totally go for Ewan McGregor as Lumiere, too. I was skeptical of how live people would interact with dancing teapots and clocks and such, but it was done well and not as creepy as I worried it would be. And the “Be Our Guest” routine was lovely.
• The relationship between the Beast and Belle has always seemed a weird portrayal as romance, but I had a couple thoughts as I watched this version. First, it reminded me a lot of Pride & Prejudice where it takes Elizabeth Bennet going to Mr. Darcy’s home and seeing how his staff universally loves him and sacrifices for him, that starts to shift her viewpoint. And you see this in the Beauty & the Beast film when Mrs. Potts describes his childhood to Belle and explains how he’s better than his horrendous first impression. Second, never underestimate the allure of a magnificent library and the power of reading aloud to connect people. Belle reads to him and reconnects him with books and that was a point where she started to see his humanity.
• Expanding on Belle’s backstory and explaining what happened to her mother and the symbolism of the rose was another really great part of this movie. It’s a short scene, and I don’t want to spoil it for you but explains why her father is tormented by the memory of her mother.
• A quick word about the famous yellow dress. Here it is thankfully toned down and simplified - no mass of ruffles. I was more enthralled with the jewelry, to be honest with you - especially her climbing earrings. I’ve been seeing more and more of those - you know, the ones that go up the ear. I love those, but I don’t think I could pull them off to be honest with you.
• And I’ll end my thought with a couple serious notes. First, ugh, Gaston’s firing up the villagers who’ve known Belle all their life really brought home how easy it is to get people roused by claiming there’s something dangerous.
• Okay - so, I am known as a bit of a crier at movies. And I held it together for most of the film. Until the end when Mrs. Pott’s is frantically searching for Chip as all the enchanted servants are turning completely into just objects. And she, essentially dies with her last thoughts a desperate worry for her son. But then, as you know - they are released from the curse. And Emma Thompson, who plays Mrs. Potts, wraps her arms around her son and says, “You smell so good!”  and wow - you just realize how these people have suffered - not being fully human. So that was my tissue moment.
• In short - I thought this was a great movie - I liked it way better than the Disney version. And I think I’ve even forgiven Dan Stevens for leaving Downton Abbey.

Analyzing & Comparing other Beauty & the Beast versions

If your school follows the Common Core Standards, one of our major goals is to help students learn how to compare different versions of a story and analyze multimedia representations of that story. Even if your district hasn’t adopted those standards, it is still a worthy goal and one of the more fun ones to teach. And fairy tales like Beauty & the Beast are perfect texts to explore.  They’ve often changed (a lot!) over the years, and each generation and place has it’s own interpretation. What’s more interesting than simply having your students or children point out the differences, is asking them to think about WHY the author decided to change it. A quick word of caution though - those original fairy tales were DARK and much more violent. So definitely preview anything and use your own judgement about what’s appropriate. It’s probably best to start with just comparing one scene a couple different versions and then you can select something that’s okay for your age group.  

For example, in the earliest French version of the story from the mid 1700s, the rose doesn’t drop any petals to mark time, and the Beast proposes to Belle every night in the castle. Also, there is a magic ring that will guide Belle back to the palace. Oh - and all those enchanted objects like Mrs. Potts, Chip, Lumiere, and Cogsworth? They are nowhere to be found in any version before the Disney movie.  Same with Gaston and LeFou. Not mentioned at all.  Instead, the villains of the original story are Belle’s sisters who conspire to keep her away from the Beast out of jealousy.  The whole story about how Disney decided to come up with Gaston is a fascinating read - they even had a contest among the animators to see who could draw his chest hair the best! (Links to that story in the show notes!)

Alright -there’s obviously some great fodder for discussion and analysis. Also - while you wait for this new version to be released outside of the theatre - use the soundtrack and a print out of the lyrics!

In  the meantime, here are a few more versions that are worth checking out.

Let’s start with some Picture Books:

• Beauty and The Beast: A Pop-up Book of the Classic Fairy Tale by Robert Sabuda  This is a gorgeous book illustrated in the style of stained glass.
• Then there’s the new 2017 picture book called Beauty and the Beast by Cynthia Rylant and illustrated by Meg Park. This one has a stronger focus on Belle’s courage and the illustrations in blues and purples are beautiful.
• Then there’s the version by by Max Eilenberg  and Angela Barrett who’s the illustrator with lush watercolors and a curiously creepy depiction of the Beast.
• If you’ want to see something more gilded and ornate, then the version illustrated by Kinuko Craft is worth exploring with your kids.
• There’s also a Beauty & the Beast version set in West Africa by H. Chuiku Lee.
• And Laurence Yep has a Chinese adaptation called The Dragon Prince

If you are looking for a chapter book version:

• I noticed in our recent Scholastic form some backstory books by Disney featuring the villains and the one called The Beast Within tell the story of how he came to become so bitter and monstrous.
• Disney has also released As Old as Time: A Twisted Tale by Liz Braswell that is a different take on Belle and includes more of her mother.
• And finally - for something modern and fun, Wendy Mass’ s third book in the Twice Upon a Time series is a Beauty and the Beast adaptation and is getting really good reviews

But, I am sure there there are many more! I’m always looking for another great fairy tale adaptation, so please let me know your favorite.  You can tag me on Twitter, Instagram, and now Facebook - our handle is @books_between or email me at booksbetween@gmail.com and I’d love to share your ideas.

Book Talk - Two New Contemporary Fiction Novels

In this part of the show, I chat about books centered around a theme and discuss three things to love about each book. This week the two books on my mind the most are two new contemporary fiction releases:  A Boy Called Bat by Elana K. Arnold and Forget Me Not by Ellie Terry.

A Boy Called Bat

Our first featured book this week is a sweet, sweet book called A Boy Called Bat by Elana K. Arnold. It’s about a 3rd grade boy named Bixby Alexander Tam (B-A-T - Bat for short), his older sister, Janie, and their mom who is a vet. Well, one day Bat’s mom brings home a tiny newborn skunk and immediately Bat is entranced and just wants to take care of him - feed him formula and help him figure out how to go to the bathroom, keep him cuddled up in a sling, and basically be with him all the time. But - this baby skunk is scheduled to go to the rescue center in a month. And Bat is going to do whatever he can to keep this skunk himself. It is an adorable book with some deeply poignant touches. Here are three things to love about A Boy Called Bat:

1. How this book understands the challenges of kids with divorced parents. For Bat and his sister, that means every other Friday they go to their dad’s to spend the weekend. His dad calls him “sport”, which he hates, and makes a weird, smelly chili in the crockpot and Bat has to watch baseball on tv. And the change in routine makes Bat feel uncomfortable. And as a kid of divorced parents, I could really relate to some of those scenes. And I am sure that kids you know could also connect to those sections.
2. Bat’s relationship with his older sister. Like a lot of siblings they are a mix of friendly and frustrated. Janie is, I think, in middle school and watches Bat a couple days after school when their mom has to work late. And Bat is particular about his snacks and wants to tell the same stories over and over again and sometimes it’s hard for Janie to be patient. Especially when Bat does something to one of her t-shirts. But then…. there are sweet moments, too. One especially stands out when they are both at their dad’s apartment, stuck watching baseball, and Bat braids Janie’s hair for her. And it’s a small but a sweet moment between siblings that are very different.
3. Bat - he is earnest and kind of quirky. His social interactions are sort of awkward. For example, he’s sometimes too honest and doesn’t quite get most figurative language. He’s definitely a literal thinker. He sometimes flaps his hands when he gets upset, and loud noises tend to bother him. And as those behaviors started to build up throughout the book, I started to wonder - what’s the deal with this kid? Does he have Asperger's or autism? I kept waiting for the author to clarify that, but the more I think on it, the more I’m glad that Elana Arnold did not pin a diagnosis on this boy. And simply let us come to know and love him as an individual. And yet - I’m glad to have another book in our library like Rain Reign or A Whole New Ballgame or Counting by 7s with a character that might be on the autism spectrum that kids can get to know. And it’s at a lower reading level than those other books - probably best for about ages 7-11. But would make a great read aloud for Kindergarten or 1st grade.

A Boy Called Bat is a heartfelt book with characters you love, and I hope that we haven’t seen the end of Bixby Alexander Tam.

Forget Me Not

Our next new release is the middle grade debut by Ellie Terry called Forget Me Not. The setting is Utah and our main character is Calliope - called Calli by her family. Callie is smart, into astronomy and poetry and sensitive. She also has Tourette syndrome (TS) and was given some advice by her doctor and mother to hide that fact from people. But she is so eager to connect with and make a long-lasting friendship. Because Calli moves a lot - her mom likes to just pick up and go once her relationships turn sour - Calli is in this position of starting a new school and trying to mask her tics and noises. But, she has formed a bond with Jinsong - her classmate and neighbor. However, he is not so sure about being open about their friendship, especially as his friends start to target her. Here are three reasons you and your kids will fall for Forget Me Not:

1. How this book is like a duet between the voices of Calli and Jinsong. The chapters alternate between their points of view with Calli’s section in verse and Jinsong’s parts in prose - each with their own font. I really liked how that helped you differentiate between the two characters.
2. I appreciated how this was an honest take on bullying in schools. The children who are harassing Calliope are being cruel, but often have their own story that if you got to know them, you might have some empathy. I know that there is absolutely never any excuse for harassment but sometimes those kids that can be the nastiest are going through some tough stuff. Also - considering the bystander angle, this book really shows how hard it is to stand up to people when they’re being mean - even if you’ve signed one of those pledges like Jinsong has as part of his role as student body president. His choices and regrets I think are a more honest portrayal of how those situations really tend to go down.
3. The gorgeous cover. And I know it’s a seemingly small thing, but when a cover is done right - it draws you into the book and after you read it, the images reveal something deeper than you first noticed. This was one of those books that as soon as I saw the cover, I was entranced by it. So this cover is a deep shaded midnight blue with bright reddish poppies circling the title along with blue forget-me-nots and orange paper lanterns, moon, stars, telescope, rock - all the little mementos from Calli’s story. The more I look at it, the more I just love the sense of a bright garden in the moonlight.

Ellie Terry’s Forget Me Not is warm and good-hearted and offers a unique point of view for kids, and I love that this novel can shape their opinion about those with Tourette syndrome and hopefully widen their perspective beyond the unfortunate stereotypes. Terry herself has TS, and I’d love to read you just a bit from the Author’s Note in the back:

Closing

Alright - that’s it for our show this week. Don’t forget to show the students and robotics team at Pleasant Run Elementary some love.  If you have topic you think we should cover, I would really love to hear from you. You can email me at booksbetween@gmail.com or message me on Twitter/Instagram at the handle @Books_Between.

Thanks again for joining me this week. You can get find a transcript of this show and all of our previous episodes at AlltheWonders.com.  And, if you’re enjoying the show and finding some value in what you hear, please help others find us too by telling a friend, sharing on social media, or leaving a rating on iTunes or Stitcher.

Thanks again and see you in two weeks!  Bye!

http://www.movietavern.com

http://shannonhale.tumblr.com/post/158705257850/book-drive-for-school-of-robotics-team-champs

Intro

Hi and welcome to Books Between - a podcast for teachers, parents, librarians, and anyone who loves middle grade books.  I’m your host, Corrina Allen - a mom of two daughters and a 5th grade teacher in Central New York. My goal is to help you find fabulous books for your kids and help create a community where we all can support each other as we build those readers.

This is Episode #19 and today we are discussing ways to get away from reading logs and featuring three incredible science fiction/fantasy graphic novels.

Main Topic - Rethinking Reading Logs

Our main topic today is rethinking reading logs. This topic has been on my mind for a couple of years but I recently got fired up about it again when I came across a great article by Shaelynn Farnsworth called “6 Alternatives to Reading Logs”. (As always, I’ll link to that in the show notes.)

First, we’ll define what a reading log is, chat about why they are popular and sometimes valuable, we’ll discuss some potential problems with traditional reading logs, and then I’ll share eleven great alternatives that you can start using tomorrow.

What is a Reading Log?

Traditionally, reading logs are a worksheet where students record the titles of books they’ve read, including a daily tally of minutes or pages. Usually, teachers ask parents to sign them. For example, my 2nd grade daughter has a weekly sheet where she colors in a box for every ten minutes she’s read at home. She writes a reflection on the bottom and we’re supposed to sign it every week. Lately this kind of reading log has gotten some pushback - from both teachers and parents. You probably have an opinion about them.

Why are Reading Logs popular?

What’s the purpose and the benefit? Some of it may have to do with teachers just going on autopilot and using practices they are familiar with from colleagues or their own schooling. That’s why I used them for so long. I think also we teachers are looking for tangible evidence that kids are reading and reading outside of school. Also, reading logs are a way to communicate the importance of reading to students and parents and an attempt to get families involved in nightly reading routines. Because many strong readers do record at least some aspects of their reading, and we have this instinct to track habits we want to encourage in ourselves - your eating habits or steps on a Fitbit. Also - sometimes Reading Logs are used to try to motivate kids to read more and to award prizes. I think that can work for short periods of time - we recently had a two week reading challenge at my school where everyone - kids and staff - were challenged to read 100,000  minutes in two weeks. It was quick and fun but not for the whole year. Tracking reading can be a powerful tool when kids know the purpose and it’s for their own reflections and not a “gotcha”. If you want to learn more about some authentic ways to track reading, we covered that in Episode 8. I’ll drop a link to that in the show notes or you can just scroll back down in your app after you’re done with this episode.

What are some downsides to Reading Logs?

Reading Logs - especially the year long parent signed minute tracking type can be problematic. You and I know that lots of them are faked. Heck - I’ve even “fudged” my own children’s! Now - to be clear - I didn’t lie about how many minutes she read or faked a signature or added on more time. But sometimes it got to be Sunday night and we’d forgotten to jot down the minutes and so we’d estimate how much she read each night and use different colored pens so it’s not obvious we filled it all in the night before. If I am doing that, you know for darn sure that most families are doing something similar at least some of the time. And if there’s a penalty for not turning them in, it creates a situation where kids are punished for home environments that make it difficult for them to get daily signatures. And it can create contention at home. And I never want reading time to be a battle. Also - when the numbers of minutes or books read are publically displayed with a child’s name attached  - that can be embarrassing for kids. I have a FitBit and I am trying to get in more steps daily. I recognize that my health is important, but I’m not doing great with that yet. Do I want my stats posted all over the walls of the school for everyone to see? No - I do not. So please don’t do that to kids.

What can we do instead?

Because responding to reading, signaling the value of reading, and getting students, families, and communities involved in building reading habits are worthy goals. I’m coming at this from a place of wanting to do better myself and specifically to use more technology.  So here are 11 ideas you can start using tomorrow instead of reading logs:

1. Reading Journals Have children keep a journal of their reading instead. Keep it simple and have them record a quick thought about their reading a few times a week and then share. That’s even more powerful if you keep a reading journal, too!
2. Status Updates Do a daily “Status of the Class” where each kid (and yourself) does a quick share of the title, page number and what’s happening in the book they are currently reading. For my class, that’s our daily routine after lunch as kids are getting resettled.
3. Quotes Have students share thought-provoking quotes from their novels or powerful facts from their nonfiction reading on a “Graffiti wall”. Basically you dedicate a white board or put up some black bulletin board paper and get some fun markers and have your class (and you!) mark down your thoughts.  Status of the Class and the Graffiti wall, I think were both originally mentioned in Donalyn Miller’s The Book Whisperer.  If you have not read that book yet, please please go do that before anything else.
4. Books Talks Invite students to give brief book talks sharing and promoting books they’ve recently read. Often, kids are going to listen to their peers more than you. I like this idea because it helps them practice showing excitement about books, and I hope they’ll carry that enthusiasm out into the world and feel more comfortable talking up books with their family and friends because they’ve practiced doing that in the classroom.
5. Blogging Get students blogging about their books and reading lives. There are so many possibilities here: book reviews, top ten lists - or top 3 lists (keep it simple!), drawings, you know those BuzzFeed quizzes that ask you which Harry Potter character are you most like? Students could make their own! There are so many cool things kids could do that if you just put it out into the world with a real audience, their engagement and incentive to actually do deep reading and quality work will go up. For me, this is my main goal the rest of this school year. And I am inspired by fellow teachers who have spoken about the powerful things that happen when outside people and authors comment on those blog posts and engage with their students.
6. Seesaw - I have fallen in love with this app. It’s awesome. Essentially it’s a digital portfolio that students all ages can use. It’s free and kids can get to it on tablets, phones, computers, or Chromebooks. The feed can stay private to your class or be published on a blog. There are SO many ways kids can respond to reading with Seesaw - I’ll just name a few.  They could take a picture of themselves holding their current read and then add an audio clip of them reading aloud a favorite scene. They could snap a picture of a page and annotate it with drawing tools - maybe circling some powerful language or a favorite quote. They could record a video of themselves doing a booktalk. It’s an incredible tool.
7. Social Media Have students share their thoughts about their personal reading on Social Media - whether that’s a class Twitter account, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat - and whatever else is the next new thing! You could have kids snap a pic of the cover of their book and write a 140 character review. Or share a powerful quote. If they have photo editing software or are using Seesaw, they could mark it up and annotate it. In Shaelynn Farnsworth’s article “6 Alternatives to Reading Logs”, she mentions the hashtag #BookSnaps to connect with other readers and for you adults listening - check it out to get some really game-changing ideas. I want to make sure to mention #BookSnap founder Tara Martin - she’s my exciting new Twitter Professional Development find this week so absolutely go follow her and get inspired.
8. Interviews - Students can interview a classmate (or sibling or parent) about a favorite book or a current read. Come up with a couple questions, record the interview in a journal, or record a video, and share. This one takes more time and you probably won’t be to do it everyday but it’s a fun way - maybe every month or every quarter -  to change it up and have kids practice having conversations with each other about books and reading.
9. Online Trackers - Instead of a traditional reading log, have students track their reading on a site like Biblionasium or if their older, Goodreads. These are sites where kids can make recommendations, write reviews, participate in challenges, and really take something boring and dry and turn it into a practice that can last beyond the school year.
10. Book Trailers - This is a huge favorite. Have kids create a video promoting a book they love. If they can share it with a wider audience than just your classroom, even better.
11. Pictures from Parents & Family - A couple weeks ago we had a week long Winter Break at my school. And the day before, I sent an email home asking families to send me a funny or interesting or cozy picture of their kid reading over winter break. I just did it on whim, and honestly - I wasn’t expecting too much. BUT - over break, my email box was flooded with pictures of kids reading in snow forts, reading to their little sister or their puppy - one boy was reading on the ferry with the Statue of Liberty in the background. I was crying over these pictures - I was so moved by how many families embraced this and were joyful about sharing those images with me. Now we are going to take those photos and make a video to promote reading in our school.

I hope that you were also inspired by these ideas and now have a seed of something exciting you want to try in your school or with your kids. Some of these ideas I’ve been doing, but I’m starting to see that any one of them will eventually lose its appeal and it’s good to have a variety so kids can see all different ways that reading can be important in their lives and maybe they’ll carry on one of these ideas on their own. And as always, we are learning together and helping each other out, so please share with us your ideas for alternatives to traditional reading logs.  You can tag me on Twitter, Instagram, and now Facebook - our handle is @books_between or email me at booksbetween@gmail.com and I’d love to share your fabulous ideas.

Book Talk - Three Amazing Science Fiction / Fantasy Graphic Novels

In this section of the show, I share with you three books centered around a theme and discuss three things to love about each book. This week is all about the graphic novel - specifically science fiction / fantasy graphic novels. And I can attest - these books are going to be winners in your classroom, library, or home. They are Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi, Hilo by Judd Winick, and the newly released One Trick Pony by Nathan Hale.

Amulet

I am starting with Amulet. I am going to admit that I was slow to the Amulet series and didn’t even have a set in my classroom until this year. I know, I know - how I could have overlooked this series is, in hindsight, beyond me. But at some point last summer a friend chided me saying, “Really, you teach 5th grade and don’t have Amulet in your room?” She was right!  Alright - some background about the plot. The story revolves around a young girl named Emily.  After a horrific family tragedy in which her father dies, she and her younger brother Navin and their mom move to a mysterious house once owned by Emily’s eccentric - and missing - great-grandfather. While cleaning up and investigating the house, Emily and her brother find a powerful amulet, end up trapped in another dimension, and have to save their mother from a gruesome tentacled monster - all while fighting their own monsters along the way. With some help from some unexpected, umm….  creatures. Here are three things to love about Amulet:

1. The color palette. This is just a gorgeous book to immerse yourself in! There are cool shades of blues and grays, touches of teals mixed with warm ambers and browns and pinks. Like the colors of a hazy sunset over a blue-gray ocean. Just vibrant, rich warm and cool colors playing off each other.
2. The creatures and plants in the Amulet world are COOL. Giant pink parachuting mushrooms, a skulking silver eyed elvish villain, adorable rose colored slugs, a menagerie of weird robots, and an unexpected pink bunny(?) named Miskit. I think he’s a bunny - my students thought he was a robot maybe I’m wrong there.    
3. How completely Amulet sucks kids in. When I was basically TOLD to get this series for my students, I had planned to read book one first. Uh - no. They immediately snagged it from me and from there every book in the series was passed from kid to kid to kid - this web of children all connecting around this one incredible story. At one point in my class, over half my students were reading an Amulet book. It’s one of those moments in your class when you see them forming a community of readers and it just makes your heart sing. So - finally, last week, most of my class was far enough into the series that book one, which is called The Stonekeeper by the way, was finally available. I took it home before anyone could snag it again. And my 9 year old swiped it from the coffee table. And my 7 year old snatched it after that. Honestly, it’s a miracle I’ve gotten to finish the thing!

Amulet is clearly a must-have graphic novel for any classroom library grades 3-8. It’s kind of like a mix between Journey to the Center of the Earth and Zita the Space Girl. And - a bit of advice. Don’t even bother just getting book one - get the whole series because you and your kids won’t be able to stop.

Hilo

Our next science fiction graphic novel is Judd Winick’s Hilo. This is a fun, fast-paced, sometimes wonderfully silly series of three books (so far!) about a young kid named DJ who discovers a robot boy, called Hilo, who fell to earth. And DJ and his friend, Gina, have to help this kid figure out who he is and what he’s doing on Earth. And of course - have awesome adventures fighting off menacing robots. My kids and my students really enjoy these graphic novels. Here are three reasons why we all love Hilo:

1. The diverse cast of human characters. Our main guy is DJ Lim - an Asian-American kid surrounded by high-achieving siblings and just discovering his own confidence. The story is told from his point of view. The scenes at DJ’s home with his family are some of my favorite parts. His best friend is an African American girl named Gina. It’s nice for middle grade kids to see a strong friendship between a boy and girl. And Gina has some similar struggles going on with her family. She also feels a bit in the shadow of her driven cheerleading twin sisters. DJ and Gina make a great duo.
2. The “fish out of water” details in the story. Hilo is a robot from another dimension who looks and sorta acts like a boy, but he doesn’t really know his powers and certainly doesn’t know how to behave in the human world. Or at school. He is very, uh enthusiastic about eating weird combinations of food like rice and milk - and he’s enthusiastic and loud about everything really! He takes apart DJ’s dad’s car and paints his house polka dots.
3. The humor and hilarious catch-phrases. Hilo shows up wearing silver underwear  - at one point his head flies off his body. There are fart and burp jokes galore and Hilo loves the words Outstanding and Hazzah! Really  you’ll be smiling through this whole book.

Judd Winick’s Hilo series is cheerful, positive, laugh-out-loud funny and great for kids who love books like Big Nate and Bone. It’s kind of like a cross between Calvin & Hobbes and Mork and Mindy.

One Trick Pony

Our final featured sci fi / fantasy graphic novel is one that I have been waiting and waiting to read. It is called One Trick Pony - by Nathan Hale. You might know Mr. Hale from his awesome Hazardous Tales historical graphic novel series. If you don’t - you’re gonna love those too! This novel is set in a post-apocalyptic near future where alien invaders are devouring every last trace of human-made metals and electronic devices. All that’s left of humanity are small bands of survivors trying to outwit and outrun the aliens.  The main character is a girl named Strata who finds  a beautiful and rare robot pony when she’s out scavenging with her brother and her friend. Strata insists on keeping the horse even though the presence of something technical makes them a target of the aliens who are soon chasing after them. Here are three things to love about One Trick Pony:

1. Kleidi, the robot pony. She is gorgeously golden and pops out in Nathan Hale’s distinctive two tone yellow/gray coloring for this novel. She adds comic relief when she only listens to Strata and no one else. And plays a surprising role at the end of the book. I gotta say, the ending shocked me - in a good way. It took a twist I was not expecting at all.
2. The aliens. These are seriously scary multi-limbed, disjointed, frightening giant blobbing aliens called Pipers that release bubbles to capture electronics they scavenge from the earth. And if you’re holding to that technology - you could lose your limb. They are like a cross between the creature from the Alien movie and an Hieronymous Bosch painting. It’s creepy good!
3. The concept of the caravan. The main character, Strata, lives with this traveling band of “digital rescuers” who save data and technological devices before the aliens can get to it in the hopes that one day civilization can be rekindled. That idea is so, so powerful and timely when you think of efforts to suppress scientific data now. Our own digital rescuers are heroes. I know all you teachers and librarians and book lovers listening can relate when I say that the burning of the library at Alexandria stills shatters a part of my soul to think of all that knowledge lost. And I love how Nathan Hale captured that concept in this graphic novel.

In One Trick Pony, Nathan Hale has masterfully combined two seemingly disparate elements - a girl and her pony story and a fierce science fiction battle book. And it is wonderful! It releases tomorrow - Tuesday, March 14th so go treat your kid, your class, yourself with this fabulous book.

Closing

Alright - that’s it for our show this week. If you have a question about how to connect middle grade readers to books they will love or an idea about a guest we should have or a topic we should cover, I really love to hear from you. You can email me at booksbetween@gmail.com or message me on Twitter/Instagram at the handle @Books_Between.

Thank you so much for joining me this week. You can get find a transcript of this show and all of our previous episodes at AlltheWonders.com. While you are there, check out the recent post featuring 20 Books About Refugee & Immigrant Experiences. And, if you are liking the show, please help others find us too by telling a friend, sharing on social media, or leaving a rating on iTunes or Stitcher.

Thanks again and see you in two weeks!  Bye!

http://alicekeeler.com/2017/01/30/6-alternatives-reading-logs-shfarnsworth/

http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780470372272

http://www.tarammartin.com/resources/booksnaps-how-to-videos/

http://www.allthewonders.com/books/books-for-better-stories-of-immigrants-and-refugees/

Intro

Hi and welcome to Books Between - a podcast for teachers, parents, librarians, and anyone who wants to connect middle grade readers between 8-12 to books they’ll love.  I’m your host, Corrina Allen - a 5th grade teacher, a mom of two girls, and enjoying a gloriously (and weirdly) warm Winter Break. It hit 70 degrees today. In Syracuse. In February. Hey - I’ll take it!

This is Episode #18 and today we have a interview with genre fiction book critic Paul Goat Allen, I’ll discuss three novels featuring spunky female leads, and then I’ll answer a question about the books featured on our last episode on March Book Madness.

Main Topic - Interview with Paul Goat Allen

Today on the show I am welcoming book critic extraordinaire, genre fiction writing professor, writer, and my husband - Paul Goat Allen!  

Here are some of the books we talking about in the interview segment of today’s episode:

• Fenway & Hattie by Victoria Coe
• Wings of Fire Series by Tui Sutherland
• Harry Potter Series by JK Rowlings
• Midnight Without a Moon by Linda Williams Jackson
• Ghost by Jason Reynolds
• Percy Jackson Series  by Laurel Snyder
• Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
• Orphan Island by Laurel Snyder
• Scar Island by Dan Gemeinhart
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• A Canticle for Leibowtiz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
• The Inquisitor’s Tale by Adam Gidwitz
• The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkein
• The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock
• The Earthsea Trilogy  by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkein
• 
  
  

The elements on the  “The Genre Fiction Book Reviewer’s Hierarchy of Needs”

• Readability (narrative clarity, fluidity,a coherent storyline, brisk pacing)  
• Immersion (focus on world building, overall description)
• Characters Depth ( three dimensional , interesting, and emotionally connective characters)
• Plot Intricacy (Impressively constructed storyline replete with plot twists)
• Originality & Innovation (innovative narrative element - unconventional protagonist, new twist on an old mythos, etc.)  
• The Message (profound, spiritual, existential enlightenment)

Book Talk - Three Novels Featuring Spunky Girls

In this part of the show, I share with you three books centered around a theme and discuss three things to love about each book. This week I’ll be talking about three fantastic contemporary debut middle grade novels featuring female protagonists who are full of spirit and determination. Even if, for a couple of them, it takes some time to embrace and harness that inner courage. The books this week are Gertie’s Leap to Greatness by Kate Beasley, Frazzled: Everyday Disasters and Impending Doom by Booki Vivat, and A Rambler Steals Home by Carter Higgins.

Frazzled: Everyday Disasters and Impending Doom

This week, I’ll be going in order of release date so I’ll start with the September 2016 debut Frazzled: Everyday Disasters and Impending Doom by Booki Vivat. Doesn’t that subtitle perfectly capture that middle school feeling where everything seems awful but the adults in your life just blow it off as no big deal?  That is precisely the problem the main character, Abbie Wu, faces as she grapples with starting middle school. To Abbie, middle school is just another awful “middle” thing - like the middle seat in the car, the Middle Ages, and… being the middle child. She is stuck between her soccer star perfect older brother and her cute can’t do anything wrong younger sister. I knew this book was a winner when my daughter started reading it over my shoulder. Here are three things to love about Frazzled:

1. How perfectly this book captures the frustrations of that first middle school year. Like the awful lunches, that awkward feeling of not knowing the kids in your class, and not knowing which electives to pick. Abbie’s two best friends are Logan, genius gamer kid who joins the Coding Club. And Maxine, confident Teen Vogue reader who, of course, chooses drama as her elective. But Abbie doesn’t have a clear “thing” that’s she good at like her friends and so she gets stuck in the doldrums of Study Hall where eventually she becomes the center of a Lunch Revolution.   
2. Frazzled is fun to read! Now, I love a heavy, deep books, but with the world as complicated as it is right now, it is a joy to jump into such a book that makes me laugh out loud. There are playful and clever illustrations on every page, and I love Booki Vivat’s hand lettered style to the drawings with different textures and patterns to the words. And the self-deprecating honesty of Abbie’s character and how she describes the personalities of her family and teachers is just perfect. This is the type of humor that adults and teachers will like, too. Well - at least I did, anyway! I guess I can’t speak for anyone else! For example, here’s Abbie describing her new Vice-Principal:  “A woman in a frumpy suit walked up to the podium and introduced herself. Mrs. Kline looked nice, but she also looked really tired, kind of like the “before” version of ladies on those makeover shows or like one those grown-ups who always complains about needing coffee.”   
3. How Frazzled handles anxiety with a light touch. I read a statistic recently that anxiety is the number one mental health issue facing kids today. From what I observe in my own classroom - it is A BIG problem. And I appreciate that a kids’ book tackles it from a place of humor. For example, the giant “Welcome Packet” that arrives from Poindexter Middle School that has Abbie’s mom excited about school shopping has Abbie in near panic mode from information overload. Abbie has nightmares before school starts and attempts to stay home from school. Her Aunt tries to get her to meditate.  At one point, Abbie says, “Like whenever we talk about school, Mom always tells me the same things over and over again - “It’ll be great!”, “Nothing to worry about!”, “Just be yourself!” - as if saying it will somehow make it more true.”   For a worrier like Abbie, when you are surrounded by ever cheerful people telling you that “Everything will work out for the best!” it can feel like you are not even being heard.

Frazzled is a fantastic book for kids dealing with everyday middle school frustrations and anxieties. AND - I hear there is a second book coming out September 26th, 2017 so keep that on your radar!

Gertie’s Leap to Greatness

Our next debut middle grade book featuring a determined female protagonist was released in October of 2016 - Gertie’s Leap to Greatness by Kate Beasley. This book, and this girl, just worked their way into my heart last fall.  Gertie is one of those kids that you just want to yank from the pages and take home with you. She lives in an Alabama town with her father and her Great Aunt Rae. Her mother, basically abandoned her when she was a baby, but she still lives in the same town. However, Gertie is rocked to find out that her mother is getting married and moving away. So - she has this mission to become the greatest 5th grader ever. To show up at her mother’s door and just say, “Ha! I don’t need you anyway!” Well, obviously, things don’t go as planned. Especially when an overachieving new girl shows up - literally in Gertie’s seat - to thwart her plans.

Here are three reasons why I adored Gertie’s Leap to Greatness:

1. Her Great Aunt Rae. This lady is gold. She is Gertie’s main caretaker since her dad is on an oil rig for weeks at a time. She lets her have Twinkies for breakfast and every day as Gertie leaves for school, she calls out “Give ‘em hell, baby!” And there’s a moment toward the end when she has Gertie’s back in such a fierce way. Every kid should have Aunt Rae!
2. How well this book understands how kids can turn on each other - or as Gertie says, they’re “fickle”! I teach 5th grade and can attest - those social dynamics can be complicated. One day things are good and then the social landscape shifts and you are on the outs with your former friends. Even Gertie has this moment when she says an unforgivably awful thing to Audrey - the 5 year old her Aunt Rae baby-sits. And she has to come to terms with that.
3. The Swiss Chocolate Meltdown. Oh. My. God!!  I know it was wrong, but I just wanted to cheer! I don’t want to say too much but it reminded me of the chocolate cake scene in Matilda. Oh, it’s good! Read the book just for that scene!

Kate Beasley’s Gertie’s Leap to Greatness is a fun and touching story that’s like a beautiful blend of Ramona and Raymie Nightingale.  These three girls would absolutely be friends - or drive each other crazy. Either way, there would be an adventure. I don’t think this one is scheduled to have a sequel, but I for one would love to jump back into Gertie’s world again.

A Rambler Steals Home

The final book this week is A Rambler Steals Home - Carter Higgins’ middle grade debut. Even though I read it during one of the worst snowstorms we’ve had up here in New York, it immediately swept me away to hot Virginia summers filled with baseball and frog-catching.  The story centers around the traveling Clark family - the dad, Garland, the young brother named Triple, and our main character - 11 year old Derby. Their family drives around in a Rambler car, selling Christmas trees in the winter and selling hot chocolate and gingersnaps and apple cider and cinnamon sugar donuts out of an old concession stand trailer. But - in the summers, they make their home in Ridge Creek, Virginia where they set up a concession stand in the parking lot of a minor league baseball team. But this summer, Derby is confronted with some difficult changes and some secrets to uncover. Here are three things to love about A Rambler Steals Home:

1. The sweet, homey pace of the story. Now - don’t get me wrong - I do not mean that the storytelling is slow but rather we savor the details of eating an oatmeal cookie on a front porch. We linger over sweet potato fries and a swipe of Christmas Nutmeg lipstick. This is the perfect book to read stretched out in a backyard hammock.
2. The names are awesome! Carter Higgins has that same magical knack for naming characters as Kate DiCamillo. So, I already mentioned Garland, Triple, and Derby. Derby’s middle name, by the way, is Christmas. But we also have Goose and Scooter and Ferdie and the Skipper and Betsy and Lollie. And of course, a banjo named Twang. How perfect is that?  And not only do these characters have fabulous names, but you enjoy spending time with them. They are the kind of people you just want to surround yourself with in your own life.
3. The gorgeous, poetic, twangy flavor of the language. Like this line describing the baseball team: “The Rockskippers scattered the field in their blue-and-whites while they stretched and spat and scratched.”

This book is heart-warming and charming and one you and your kids won’t want to miss. It is due to be released Tuesday, February 28th - the day after this episode is out so tomorrow - head over to your favorite bookstore and grab yourself a copy.

So if your middle grade girls - and guys! - are looking for a novel with a spunky female lead, they will really like Gertie’s Leap to Greatness , Frazzled, and A Rambler Steals Home.

Q & A

Our last segment of the show is Question & Answer time.

Question:

After our last episode about March Book Madness was released, I posted a picture on Twitter featuring last year’s tournament bracket from my class to give an example of what a starting bracket could look like. And one of our followers, Eric Carpenter, replied “hope you talk about why only one of these 16 books in this bracket is by a POC. #OwnVoices “

Answer:

So - absolutely.  And just so you all can picture what Eric was referring to, I’ll add a photo of that bracket to the shownotes and the website, but here are the list of the 16 books included on that bracket: The One and Only Ivan, The Honest Truth, I Funny, Big Nate, Hatchet, Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood, Home of the Brave, Auggie & Me, The Crossover, The Hunger Games, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Smile, Flying Solo, El Deafo, Wonder, and Sunny Side Up.

So - he’s right. The Crossover is the only book on that list from a person of color. So - why is that? I’ll start by describing how those books were chosen and then analyzing why there might be a lack of diversity, and then discuss some ways to change that.  

First - how were the 16 books selected?

Those 16 titles were nominated and voted on entirely by my students last year. I give them total control over that process, simply asking them to nominate books they’ve read and liked. Their favorites. I think kids having ownership of that is important. If I picked the books, I don’t think they’d be as excited about participating. However, I think there is a way to honor students’ choices while still including a more diverse range of authors and characters that not only reflects the community but our society. More on that a little bit.

Second - why was there a lack of diversity in those choices?

Well, I have a few thoughts on that. One might be that the books my students included may reflect the general lack of diversity among the most “popular” middle grade titles. A second thought is that some of the books, like Hatchet and Wonder and Flying Solo and Home of the Brave may have been nominated because my students read them in class as part of the curriculum and book list that my school follows. And only one of them features a non-white main character (Home of the Brave) but that book, while excellent, is still not written by a person of color. Essentially, those books are not featuring enough diversity and not enough stories told by diverse authors. Another piece to that, and probably the largest one - my students are simply not surrounded with enough diverse books written by Native Americans, written by black authors, written by men and women from ethnic, cultural, and religious minority groups. Among many, many other diverse groups. And within my classroom, that is entirely on me. But taking that responsibility means that I have the power to change it.

Alright - if our students and kids aren’t listing diverse books as their favorites, how can that be changed?

A couple very quick ideas knowing that this is just the beginning of a much longer conversation:

• As you stock your classroom library, as you make purchases for the kids in your life, pick more diverse books written by authors writing from their own experience. Over the last few years, as I have committed to having a vibrant classroom library, my focus needs to shift from just getting any books to being more aware of who is represented in that library. And making better choices. One good place to start is weneeddiversebooks.org and by following the Twitter hashtag #OwnVoices  Scholastic also has a We Need Diverse Books catalog that’s a good resource, too.
• Don’t just stick those books in your library - read them aloud, book talk them, and build that excitement. If you are excited about a book, the kids will often latch onto it, too.
• Reexamine those books that are in your curriculum. Like a lot of other districts, my school is thankfully moving away from the one-book-fits-all approach which leaves more space for student choice and for teachers to select more diverse books. Be an advocate for that in your schools. And parents - please speak up, too!
• Finally - bring this conversation to your students and your children. I plan on sharing Eric’s tweet with my class and asking them to think about it. And in considering March Book Madness, perhaps instead of simply asking students to nominate favorite books, I could have framed the tournament a little differently and asked them to nominate favorite books that represent the diversity of our community and society. So you are still having the books be their choice, but guiding them to be more aware. Also, I read this fabulous blog post last year on Lee & Low Books where a teacher had her students pull every book from her classroom library off the shelves and work in groups to analyze the diversity in the books they had available. It was a powerful exercise - both for that teacher and her students. So I’ll link to that in the show notes so you can check it out yourself.

Now, I acknowledge that we are really just scratching the surface of this topic and we will be chatting a lot more about it on future episodes. And I’d like to get your input and ideas about that. What do you see as the challenges to getting your students to read more diversely? And what concrete things can we do as teachers and librarians and parents to help kids develop deeper connections to more diverse books?

Closing

Okay - that wraps our show this week. If you have a question about how to connect middle grade readers to books they’ll love or an idea about a topic we need to cover, I want to hear from you. Please email me at booksbetween@gmail.com or message me on Twitter/Instagram at the handle @Books_Between.

Thank you so much for joining me this week. You can get find a transcript of this show and all of our previous episodes at AlltheWonders.com. And, if you are liking the show, if you are finding some value in them, I’d love it if you left a rating on iTunes or Stitcher.

Thanks again and see you in two weeks!  Bye!

Links:

http://weneeddiversebooks.org

http://blog.leeandlow.com/2016/07/07/part-1-having-students-analyze-our-classroom-library-to-see-how-diverse-it-is/

http://www.scholastic.com/parents/blogs/scholastic-parents-raise-reader/special-edition-weneeddiversebooks-scholastic-reading-club

Intro

Hi and welcome to Books Between - a podcast for teachers, parents, librarians, and anyone who wants to connect middle grade kids between 8-12 to books they’ll love.  I’m your host, Corrina Allen - a teacher, a mom, a college basketball fan, and a lover of all things science. Coming from my dad’s side, I grew up on a steady diet of Syracuse games and highlighted brackets scattered all over the house every spring. And on my mom’s side, I grew up with a steady diet of David Attenborough documentaries and trips to just about every planetarium and nature center in the state.

This is Episode #17 and today I’m chatting with you about March Book Madness and featuring twelve fabulous books about science and scientists.

Main Topic - March Book Madness

It is almost that magical time of year when a little March basketball mayhem can be harnessed into a fun competition that celebrates children’s literature. Of all the book related activities that I tried with my students last year, participating in March Book Madness was by far the most engaging thing we did. My 5th graders loved it, the students across the hall were talking about it, the teachers walking by our class were making predictions - it was fantastic. It got kids reading and promoting books to each other. And mostly - it was just fun.

So today, I’ll discuss three things: what is it, how can I participate, and where can I get resources and more info? A quick heads up before I begin - as always, I have your back and every resource and website I mention will be linked in the show notes and on AlltheWonders.com.

What is March Book Madness?

March Book Madness is a bracket-type tournament modeled after the NCAA tournament where you have books going head-to-head to see which one will advance to the next round. Typically, you start with 16 books and then week by week narrow them down to the final match-up. Usually the brackets are created with a big display in a classroom, hallway, or library. I think a public place is best so you really create that community buzz about the books.

For each round, you have students vote on each match up to determine which book makes it to the next round. Last year, I had a meeting with my class to determine which books to start with. They each had their reading journals in their lap and we hashed out the top 16 books that most of the class had read. Our picks last year were: The One and Only Ivan, The Honest Truth, I Funny, Big Nate, Hatchet, Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood, Home of the Brave, Auggie & Me, The Crossover, The Hunger Games, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Smile, Flying Solo, El Deafo, Wonder, and Sunny Side Up. Generally if a lot of books in a series were recommended, we just put in the first book to represent all of them.

Before we got going, I had every student fill out a bracket to predict who would win and the kid with the most points for each round would get a free book from our next Scholastic order. Once we got going, we voted via a Google form and my rules were that in order to vote on a match-up, you had to have read BOTH books. So - that really got students reading books that they might not have picked up themselves so they could participate and vote for their favorites, too.  But - you can handle that however you think is best. Last year in our class, The Crossover narrowly beat out The Honest Truth. And I can’t wait to see what they pick this year.

How Can I Participate?

It’s easy, hardly any supplies are necessary so it’s an activity with lots of bang for your buck. So - option 1 - poll your class and decide on your 16 starting books that way. Or, option 2 - participate in the 2017 March Book Madness already set up online by the amazing Tony Keefer and Scott Jones. If you head over to marchbookmadness.weebly.com these two 5th grade teachers from Central Ohio have set up this awesome website with three different tournaments you can join - Picture Book, Middle Grade Novel, or YA.  I think my class will be doing their Picture Book  tournament this year as well doing our own middle grade one. They conduct voting through Google forms also and you can have students vote individually or submit your choices as a class. There’s really no wrong way to do it, as long as you and your kids are having fun and talking up books. Also on their site, they have printable forms for each bracket showing the covers of the books AND for the Middle Grade books - there are book trailers for each one. That’s a great resource any time of year!  If you decide to join in with them, the voting there starts on March 1st, 2017. So if you are interested, head over to that site and check it out. Their sweet sixteen books this year are: Roller Girl vs. Counting by 7s, Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library vs. Sisters, Brown Girl Dreaming vs. The Honest Truth, Echo vs. A Night Divided, The War That Saved My Life vs. Booked, Fish in a Tree vs. Pax, The Fourteenth Goldfish vs. El Deafo, and Absolutely Almost vs. Crenshaw. Whoa - some tough match-ups this year.

Resources

Okay - once you decide which books you are starting with, the next step is to gather a few resources and make a display. I’m going to offer you some advice - keep it simple and use the free resources already out there to save yourself some time. Last year I found a free download from Catherine Reed of The Brown Bag Teacher that looked great. (I’ll link to that resource in the shownotes.) And then I made some quick orange paper basketballs with white letters on them saying Tournament of Books and printed off the covers of our 16 starting titles, So then I was ready to set up our brackets in the hallway. I ended up using black electrical tape for the lines connecting our brackets and that worked out great.  I really do recommend you put your bracket in a public spot and not just in your classroom. I promise you - kids, teachers, parents - everyone will be talking about it. And if you are active on Twitter, join in by taking photos of your brackets and tweeting using the hashtag #2017MBM.

If you have done a book bracket before or are thinking of participating this year, I would love to see what you’ve got going on. You can tag me on Twitter or Instagram - our handle is @books_between and if you have an engaging activity that gets kids reading and talking about books, I would really love to chat with you about it so please email me booksbetween@gmail.com.

Book Talk - Fabulous Science Books

It’s time for our book talk segment! In this section of the show, I share with you several books centered on a theme. This week, I am recording on Charles Darwin’s birthday, February 12th, celebrated across the world as Darwin Day. It is a day to to reflect and act on the principles of intellectual bravery, perpetual curiosity, scientific thinking, and hunger for truth as embodied in Charles Darwin. So today I am sharing with you 12 science themed books.

You know, science sometimes has this bad reputation somehow of being cold and distant and just about hard facts. But to me, science has always been a story. It’s personal and ever so important.

Science is about changing your ideas in the face of facts. It’s my grandmother helping my 16 year old self admit that, yeah… it wasn’t actually a raven I saw in our backyard and just a big crow.

Science is exploring and observing every bit of the world around us. It’s my grandfather taking my 7 year-old self on a nature walk and showing me four decades worth of wildflowers he’d picked and tucked between the pages of his Peterson field guide.

Science is tackling the most challenging problems our society faces. It’s my Uncle Tim, taking my 12 year-old self on a tour of of his lab at the Harvard Brain Bank, gently placing a brain in my hands, and explaining how his team is trying to understand what causes Alzheimer’s disease.

Science is about instilling awe and wonder and always encouraging that “Why?” question. It’s my mom driving my 9 year-old self out to some cold, dark field to see Haley’s comet or dragging my cranky 13 year-old self out to Howe’s Caverns and Niagara Falls to see for my own eyes what the power of time and erosion could do.

And yeah - I didn’t appreciate all that nearly enough at the time, but… like that slow drip that eventually ends up as a stalagmite, all those experiences add up to a life filled with wonder and questioning and then seeking out books that would feed that curiosity.

So, science is deeply, deeply important to me. And every year, I’m disappointed in myself that I don’t spend as much time as I really want in our class studying and doing science. Those of you that teach all subjects in an elementary class like I do, can maybe understand how that sometimes frantic focus on Reading, and Writing, and Math can often edge out science and social studies, even why you try to blend them together. So, if there is ever a way we can bring more science into our classrooms, our libraries, our homes, let’s do it. Because our kids, our society, need those stories right now.

Okay - I’m getting too emotional. On to the books! This week I was helped by our incredible Twitter community who weighed in on my request for favorite science books. We got a lot of great suggestions today so I am featuring 12 terrific books with a science theme.

So, let’s start with some fiction, and I’ll save the nonfiction until the end.

Fiction

A quick note - I have numbered them to make it easier to keep track of, but that doesn’t mean they are ranked. Every single one is a winner.

1. Space Case by Stuart Gibbs

This is a murder mystery that takes place on the moon. It’s funny and fresh and a clever speculation about the future of NASA and life in space. If you know a kid who loves astronauts and maybe loved the movie The Martian, this would be a great book for them. And the second one in the series, Spaced Out, was just released last year.

2. Hoot by Carl Hiassen

I’ve always felt that between about 9 and 12 is when kids start to get more socially conscious. I remember for me that’s when I started harassing my parents about recycling although my dad would tell you that I still left every single light in the house on. And Carl Hiasson’s books are the perfect kindling for that fire. If you know a child who is into environmental science and climate change and standing up to the forces trying to put money ahead of our future, then Hoot is the perfect book. And then they can check out Hiasson’s other eco-thrillers Chomp and Flush and Scat.

3. The Friendship Experiment by Erin Teagan

The girl in this story, Madeline, is one of those kids that you can just see winning a Nobel and being the next Marie Curie. She is immersed in science, from her parents, her beloved grandfather who recently passed away, and even is the subject of her own self-study of a rare genetic disease that she and her sister are both grappling with. But, this is a middle school story so friendships are a focus. And when Madeline takes that analytical mindset and starts writing down her observations and developing Standard Operating Procedures for her life and friends, you can only imagine where things start to go. It’s a great read.

4.  When I put out a call for favorite science themed books, dozens of people recommended The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin. This is a first person story told by Suzy - a girl whose world is shaken by the drowning of her friend. And the idea that “sometimes things just happen” is simply not acceptable to her so she sets off to attempt to figure out what really happened. She has this theory that her friend was stung by a rare jellyfish and so interwoven through the story are these fascinating facts about the ocean and jellyfish. Fabulous, fabulous book.

5. Keeping with our aquatic theme, another favorite science themed novel is The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer Holm. This book is full of wit and wonder and a celebration of science. It’s about Ellie and her young grandfather, Melvin, who draws her into his research. Inspired, she and the reader learn about Oppenheimer, Curie, Salk, Galileo, Newton, Pasteur and how science is like a love story involving people and possibility.

6. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

Oh how I loved this book! It’s set in rural Texas in 1899 and is the story of an 11 year old girl growing up in a well-to-do family with six brothers. As the only girl, she has a lot of expectations set on her by her mother. And her time and even her body are beginning to be constrained by things like corsets, and cooking, and needlepoint. But Calpurnia is drawn to scientific expeditions with her cranky grandfather who secretly slips her a copy of Darwin’s Origin of Species. A friend of mine who helps coordinate our local Darwin Day events listened to the audio of this book with her two sons and they absolutely loved it and the sequel. Plus - if you have younger kids, Jacqueline Kelly now has the Calpurnia Tate Girl Vet series which are illustrated chapter books. So there’s lots to love here.

Okay - on to our six science themed nonfiction titles!

Nonfiction

1. Science Comics Series published by First Second.

I have fallen head over heels for this series. There’s one on volcanoes, bats, dinosaurs, coral reefs, plague - awesome stuff! Each volume is 128 pages chock full of science, fabulous illustrations, and an exciting adventure story to keep your kids turning those pages.

2. Pink is for Blobfish: Discovering the World’s Perfectly Pink Animals by Jess Keating

This book was probably mentioned the most by folks on Twitter. It is playful and gross and is one of those books that appeals to kids from kindergarten to middle school. It reminds me a tad of the book When Lunch Fights Back - with how it really pulls kids into the science with that “eww” factor. Look for Jess Keating’s new book, Shark Lady, when that comes out this June 2017. Also - if you haven’t done it yet - check out her Animals Are Awesome videos on YouTube. They’re two minute snippets of science. They are perfect to binge watch with your kids or get your students excited about some cool animals. My favorite is the Sparkly Bat Poop episode.

3. A picture book called Star Stuff: Carl Sagan & Mystery of the Cosmos

Oh do I have a soft spot for all things Carl Sagan and Cosmos. This is a sweet and inspiring narrative biography formatted a bit like a graphic novel with panels and thought bubbles. It’s a great science book to kindle the spark of curiosity in your child and introduce them to an amazing scientist.

4. A pair of books by Theodore Gray called Elements and Molecules

I love these books because kids get out of them whatever they’re ready for. At first, maybe it’s just the pictures. Then they start to read the descriptions and then notice the molecule diagrams on a reread. Plus - they are simply gorgeous to look at! Every page has this velvety black background with bright pictures of the elements and molecules. In the blurb on the back, Jamie Hyneman from Mythbusters says that you feel like you’re holding a jewelry catalog. A great science book for a coffee table or tucked in the back seat of your car.

#5 What is Evolution? By Louise Spilsbury and Illustrated by Mike Gordon.

I first bumped into this book at our Scholastic Book fair last spring and immediately had to snag it for my students. Having a basic understanding of the concepts of evolution is so crucial to even start to understand the world around us. A book like this - presenting evolution in a fun, colorful, and quick way at 64 pages is a must for every classroom and library. This book is full of details about Darwin, and natural selection, and genetic mutations, but it’s also got funny pictures and lots of text features that keep it readable.

#6 Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World by Rachel Ignotofsky

I have been hearing everyone rave about this book, but I didn’t appreciate its scope and beauty until my sister-in-law, Jackie, brought it to our family book club and I actually held it in my hands. The design and layout are outstanding. And I know I’m not going to do it justice, but I just want to describe it a little bit for you. So each of the 50 women are featured on a two page spread. Throughout the book, the background is consistently a deep coal color with a different featured color for each scientist - yellows and teals and oranges and pinks - it’s stunning. On the left is a large gorgeous drawing of each person at work with the various tools of their profession and one of her memorable quotes written across the bottom. On the right side is a one page description of her life and accomplishments with smaller sketches in the margins illustrating those moments. It’s hard to describe how beautiful it is and not just the sketches but the stories of those groundbreaking women who fought against those forces trying to hold them back and nevertheless persisted. Absolutely pick it up!

Closing

Alright - that’s it for our show this week. If you have a question about how to connect middle grade readers to books they’ll love or an idea about a topic we should cover, I really would love to hear from you. You can email me at booksbetween@gmail.com or message me on Twitter/Instagram at the handle @Books_Between.

Thank you so much for taking the time to join me this week. You can get find a transcript of this show and all of our previous episodes at AlltheWonders.com. And while you are there, check out Matthew’s interview with Raina Telgemeier - it’s one you won’t want to miss.

Thanks again and see you in two weeks!  Bye!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Book-Madness-A-Tournament-of-Books-1714992

http://brownbagteacher.com/book-madness-march-book-display/

http://www.allensteachingfiles.com/2016/03/march-book-madness.html

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC31PBmBfs_2ndHPLd9fkjZw/videos

Intro

Hi and welcome to Books Between - a podcast for teachers, parents, librarians, and anyone who wants to connect middle grade kids to books they will love.  I’m your host, Corrina Allen - a mom of two young daughters, a 5th grade teacher, and… whew - coming off a tiring couple of weeks. How are you all holding up? I feel like I’ve been through the wringer, honestly. But - even though my entire family (and half my students) are battling colds and respiratory things and the news has been…. um..concerning, there have been some much needed bright spots. I took my first trip ever to DC last Saturday, and I watched the Youth Media Awards live webcast with my students last Monday morning.

This is Episode #16 and Today we are discussing the Youth Media Awards and the featuring the 4 books that won Newbery Awards.

Main Topic - 2017 Youth Media Awards

Last Monday morning at 8am, I sat with my 18 pajama clad 5th graders and we had donuts and watched the Youth Media Awards live through the American Library Association website.  They had their favorites that they were rooting for - The Wild Robot and Pax among them.  But honestly, the day wasn’t really about the ultimate winners of those awards.  To me, it was about honoring ALL children’s literature and showing my students that books for THEM, for an audience of children and teens are worthy of stopping everything and making a big deal of it.  And, they learned about a lot of great books while they watched. They knew about the Caldecott and the Newbery, but now they know about the Alex Award, the Schneider Award, the Coretta Scott King Award and so many others that recognize the diversity in children’s literature.  There were gasps when March got its fourth award and suddenly, every kid in that room wanted to know  - wow, what is THAT book about? And when they learned about the Stonewall Award and that one of their all-time favorite authors, Rick Riordan, had won it for Magnus Chase - there were some opened minds that morning.

Some of our favorites didn’t win - but that wasn’t really the point.  The point is having a favorite that you are passionate about and discovering new books and authors that are going to stay with you forever.

Book Talk - 2017 Newbery Award Books

For our book talk segment this week, I’m going rebroadcast the two segments about the Newbery books that I have already featured on the show and then talk about the two others that earned recognition this past week.

The novel that won the Newbery Award this year was Kelly Barnhill’s The Girl Who Drank the Moon. And -  yeah - I think I may screamed a tad when it was announced. Here’s what I had to say about this book back on episode 15.

The Girl Who Drank the Moon

Our second featured book today is The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill. This is also an adventure survival story but a fairy tale fantasy with powerful witches, a poetic swamp monster, and a seemingly small dragon. The start of this story takes place in a gloomy village along a bog called The Protectorate run by a group of unscrupulous men called The Council of Elders. Each year, on the Day of Sacrifice, these elders take the youngest baby in the village and leave it in the woods. They do this, they claim, to appease an evil witch. Well, it turns out that there is actually a witch, a kind witch named Xan, who rescues these poor babies and feeds them on starlight while she journeys across the dangerous volcanic mountain to find a new home for them. Except one year, she accidentally feeds a baby moonlight instead of starlight and enmagicks the child who grows to be uncontrollably powerful. The rest of the story is about Xan’s attempts to help her adoptive granddaughter harness that power, and what happens to the villagers left behind in The Protectorate - including a young Elder-in-Training named Antain who starts to have doubts, and the girl’s mother who ends up going mad and being locked in a tower with secrets of its own. It is beautiful and powerful. And here are three more things I loved about Kelly Barnhill’s The Girl Who Drank the Moon:

1. The magic. This is not your typical sparkly, wand summoned magic. It’s earthy and primal and often exists as something almost separate from the characters. Flowers spring from footsteps. And there is a flock of paper birds that swarm and cut and lead and protect in a way that is both beautiful and terrifying at the same time. I loved how unique the magic in this book was.
2. The love you feel for the characters. Somehow Barnhill has written them in a way where you feel this deep sense of warmth and protectiveness and empathy for them. Xan, the witch, is getting older and she desperately wants to impart all of her knowledge that she can to her granddaughter, who she’s named Luna. But that same spell that protects her makes it so that she can’t get through to her. And you keep hoping that Luna will discover who she is and maybe be reunited with the mother she was so brutally ripped away from. And all the people in the village - especially Antain and his wife - who are under the thumb of the Council of Elders. I just felt so much love for this characters.
3. What this story has to say about truth and power. In this book, there are some who feed off of other people’s misery. Those who raise themselves by putting others below them, by controlling what stories get told, and by spinning lies. But - there comes a time when the people start to realize how much power they actually have when they band together to use it. Loved it.

The Girl Who Drank the Moon  is lush and quirky and whimsical and funny and full of adventure. And I can’t wait to read everything else Kelly Barnhill has ever written because this was one powerhouse of a book.

Freedom Over Me

      The first Newbery honor book announced was  Freedom Over Me by Ashley Bryan. Well, I was totally wrong when I predicted that a picture book would not be included this time. And I’ll admit that this gorgeous and powerful picture book slipped by me this year. When I got this book, one of the first things I noticed was the cover featuring the images of eleven enslaved black men, women and children whose faces appear in the links of circled chain. Wow. And then flipping open the book and skimming, my heart stopped when I noticed the prices under each face. $300, Stephen age 32. Or $400, Charlotte, age 30 and her child, Dora, age 8. Whew - I hadn’t even read the text yet and this book had struck me. Before I talk about the text, the illustrations are gorgeous bright yellows and purples and greens in a Van Gogh style where you can see the swirls and textures on the each page. And in the background of several of the pages are images of legal documents showing the sale of these people as property.   

       Okay - the text. Freedom Over Me is a book of poems - each one from the point of view of an enslaved man, woman, or child who live on the same plantation and are about to be sold. They share remembrances of their homes and childhood in Africa, their work on the plantation, and their hopes and dreams for the future.

      What’s fascinating is that the seeds of this book came from real slave-related documents that the author had acquired and his wish to honor the humanity of these people lost to history. It’s beautiful, and moving, and just stays with you a long time.

Also receiving a Newbery Honor this year was the incredible The Inquisitor’s Tale. Here’s what I had to say about this book back in Episode #10.

The Inquisitor’s Tale

Our final book featuring an abundance of surprising twists is The Inquisitor’s Tale by Adam Gidwitz. I have been texting, tweeting, and talking about this book so much in the past month that when I type the letter I into my phone, it automatically suggests “Inquisitor” as the first option. This novel is a medieval adventure story about three magical children (and a dog) who are pursued by various agents of the Inquisition. The first is a young girl named Jeanne (sort of like a young Joan of Arc) who has fits and sees visions. Then we meet the talkative and tall monk-in-training, William - an eleven year old whose unusual dark skin is likely the result of a relationship between his crusading father and a North African woman. Since this is 1242 France, his appearance and supernatural strength immediately have people seeing him as dangerously different. And finally, there’s little Jacob - a wise Jewish boy reeling from the recent death of his parents and just starting to realize his powers to heal others.  Eventually all three are both hailed and condemned as saints and have to outwit and outrun their pursuers. The story is so gorgeously detailed and interconnected that any description I give you of this novel is NOT going to do it justice. You just have to get it and read it yourself.  The fact is there are so so many big and little things I loved about this book, but I have committed to limiting myself to three.

1. I have to start with the illustrations. Just like many real medieval texts had illuminations in the margins, The Inquisitor’s Tale includes dozens and dozens of intricate sketches by Hatem Aly. There is so much to explore there but I think what is most fascinating is the note at the beginning of the novel explaining that the drawings might actually contradict or question the text.
2. That profound mix of humor, philosophy, and yes - savagery. There are gross jokes galore in this book. And I love how that is mixed in with deep philosophical and religious discussions between the children. At one point, Jacob asks that eternal question: Why would a good God let bad things happen?  This is a book about saints and at some point it dawns on the children that most saints are martyred. In high school, I worked evenings in the rectory (the office) at St. Cecelia’s church and during down times, I would read this dusty old copy of Lives of the Saints. And the stories in there were appallingly gruesome - and this novel doesn’t really shy away from the awfulness of that. But, it does give some hope that people with intensely different beliefs might still find a way to work together and be friends.
3. The character twists! I don’t want to say too much and ruin it, so I’m really holding a lot back here, but all throughout this book, you meet the most vile, nastiest characters and then suddenly… it flips and one of the narrators helps you see their point of view. And even if they’ve still DONE terrible things, you have more empathy for them. Then you realize that one of the key characters that have been telling you this story - You. Can’t. Trust.  Ahhhh!  I LOVED it - this book had me gleefully yelling at the pages.

The Inquisitor’s Tale would make a fantastic read aloud, and I’ve heard the audio version is phenomenal. I think this novel is probably best suited for upper middle grade readers about ages 10-14 but I am sure any teen or adult who likes an historical adventure with some awesome fart jokes thrown in is going to really love it!

Wolf Hollow

     And finally,  the third Newbery honor book is one that you will not soon forget -  Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk.  I think just about every librarian I knew had this book in their hands at some point over the past year, and I finally started it last week and immediately knew I should have read it months ago. For some background, it’s an historical fiction set in 1943 rural Pennsylvania. And it’s about a 12 year old girl named Annabelle whose steady life gets derailed when this vicious, manipulative girl, Betty, arrives in town. She’s horrendous. You hate to speak ill of a child - even a fictional one, but - errr - she is clearly a sociopath or emotionally disturbed. The chain of lying that starts when this girl comes to town is tragic and yet - you could see it coming. I’ve got to say that I adored this book, but there were some times in the beginning that I had to put it down for bit when it got too intense. I can handle almost anything, but when kids are in danger - especially children the same age as my own - I have a bit of a tough time. There are these heart-rending moments when Annabelle is faced with moral dilemmas that would have adults cowering. And - it’s small but there’s this scene where Annabelle is in a clearing in the woods near her home and looking at this large stone with clear quartz veins running through it. And it suddenly hits her that this rock has been there long before her and everyone she knows and will be in the same place long after everyone is gone. And her life is nothing more than a flicker in time.  It’s that moment of cosmic realization that we all eventually go through. I’ll just read a small passage from that page:

“And I decided that there might be things I would never understand, no matter how hard I tried. Though try I would.

And that there would be people who would never hear my one small voice, no matter what I had to say.

But then a better thought occured, and this was the one I carried away with me that day: If my life was to be just a single note in an endless symphony, how could I not sound it out for as long and as loudly as I could.”

That’s the line that I’m carrying forward with me today, this week, and for a long, long time.

Closing

Thank you so very much for taking the time to join me this week. You can get find a transcript of this show and all of our previous episodes at AlltheWonders.com. And lots of other fantastic resources to lighten your heart and connect the children in your life to books they’ll love.

Thanks again and see you in two weeks!  Bye!

Intro

Hi and welcome to Books Between - a podcast for teachers, parents, librarians, and anyone who wants to connect middle grade kids to books they will love.  I’m your host, Corrina Allen - a mom of two and a 5th grade teacher.  My students worked so hard this week that we took a break Friday afternoon and watched the first episode of A Series of Unfortunate Events together on Netflix and then when I got home my daughters wanted to watch it. The performances were great and of course, Neil Patrick Harris is hilarious as Count Olaf. If you liked the Lemony Snicket books, I think you’ll be pleased and a whole new group of kids are now going to be hooked into the series, which is always fantastic.

This is Episode #15 and Today we are discussing how the Newbery Awards work, two fantastic adventures, and I’ll answer a question about this year’s top contenders for the Newbery Award.

Main Topic - How the Newbery Awards Work

There are lots and lots and lots of Children’s Book awards but without question, the most prestigious award that recognizes quality children’s literature is the Newbery. Right now, we are almost exactly one week away from finding out which books from 2016 will earn medals this year.  So today we are diving into the who, what, where, when, and how of the Newbery Awards. And I’ll also chat about some of the controversies and include some great resources where you can find out more.

What is the Newbery?

The Newbery is an annual award given by the Association for Library Service to Children - abbreviated ALSC - so if you see those four letters, that’s what they mean. The ALSC is a part of the American Library Association - the ALA. A little interesting side note - the Association for Library Service to Children has changed it’s name a couple times and so the Newbery medal itself still says “Children's Librarians' Section.” which doesn’t actually exist anymore.  The award is almost a hundred years old - it was established in 1922 and named after John Newbery, an 18th century British publisher and bookseller who was well known as one of the first publishers of children’s books.  And - the Newbery was the first children’s book award in the world.

Alright - the criteria. Let me read exactly what the ALA website says: “ The Medal shall be awarded annually to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children published by an American publisher in the United States in English during the preceding year.”

So the award goes to a children’s book that is distinguished, noted for significant achievement, marked by excellence, and contributing something special to American literature. It has to be an original work, in English, and the author has to be a citizen or resident of the U.S. The focus is really on the text of the work and not any illustrations and it could be any genre. And notice that it doesn’t say that it has to be a novel or even fiction. Last Stop on Market Street, last year’s Newbery winner was a picture book. And boy - were there some shocked folks last year!  The ALA criteria only states that it has to be a book for children, which is defined as up to and including age 14. So that’s a wide range to consider.

Every year there is one Newbery Winner and usually between about two and four Newbery honor books. Although - they don’t have to award any honor books and some years they have not. So that will be something interesting to look for this year.

Where & When is the Newbery awarded?

The Newbery is awarded once a year in January during the American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting. Don’t you just love how that sounds? “Tis a “widwinter meeting” - I’m imagining everyone wearing long luscious cloaks and carrying chalices filled with hot cocoa - and marshmallows. Sigh - it’s not really like that, is it? Alas - that’s how I’m picturing it in my head anyway. And if I ever have a chance to attend, I will wear a fancy cloak and bring some hot chocolate - with marshmallows.

So - the ALA Midwinter Meeting & Exhibits (we can’t forget the exhibits) is in Atlanta this year. Last year was Boston, previously Chicago and Philadelphia so they change location every year. The conference lasts about five days and within that time, the members of the Newbery committee meet in seclusion for two very, very full days to discuss, and vote, and eventually decide … and call the winners in the early hours of the morning the day that they are announced.  This year, the announcements are made on the morning of Monday, January 23rd from about 7:30-9 EST - along with several other fantastic awards, including the Caldecott.  And you can see it live right through the ALA website - ala.org ! Definitely have it streaming in your classroom or library or at home!

Who decides the Newbery Award?

It’s a committee of 15 people and the members are public - posted right on the ALA website. But that’s about all that you’re gonna get to know! Well - you know the process and the people, but the details of the deliberation are all secret. So, let’s talk about those 15 people and then we’ll discuss their process. So how do you get to be on the Newbery Committee and be in the room where it happens? You have to be a member of the ALA and the Association for Library Service to Children.  Then there is a ballot in the spring where the members of the association elect 8 members to be on the Newbery committee. Then the ALSC president appoints the chair and six more members to make a total of 15.  If that interests you, join the ALA and the ALSC and start getting involved and see where that takes you. But - I have to say, from all that I’ve read and seen - it is an incredible amount of work. You are committing to reading as much as possible of what’s published in one year. And doing some incredibly deep analysis of those titles.

How are the books determined?

Well, we’ve talked about the Who - let’s move on to the How. How in the world do these 15 committee members decide on the “most distinguished” book for children? How is the winner picked? And how do they decide on the honor books? Essentially there are three stages: 1. Nominating, 2. Discussing, and 3. Balloting.

First up, Nominating:  There are three rounds of nominations, one in October, one in November, and one in December. After many months of reading and rereading and taking notes with the Newbery manual at their side, it’s now October and members nominate three titles and include a write-up of why they think it’s worthy of the award. In November, they nominate two more with the same process, and then two more in December - making it 7 total nominations per person. So that allows for the committee members to spend October - December reading and reexamine books nominated by others so they are ready for the January debate and voting process.

The next step is Discussion. This happens right at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in January where the 15 members are secluded over two days and discuss the merits of every book nominated. Then likely, they’ll move on to the potential negatives of each book under consideration and then the comparisons start. There are guidelines to the discussion (and I’ll link to those in the show notes), but essentially they debate and analyze and constantly refer back to the criteria of the award until they’re ready to start narrowing things down.

The final step: Balloting

Each member of the committee writes down their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choices on a ballot. 1st place vote is worth 4 points, 2nd place vote is 3 points, and a 3rd place is 2 points.  The winning title must have a majority of members (at least 8) place it as #1 and have an 8 point lead over all the other books.  If that doesn’t happen, the committee has to have another discussion, and they may decide to take some titles that got low points off the table.   And then they’ll  vote again (and maybe again) until they arrive at a winner.  After that, the Newbery committee decides if they want to choose any honor books from the nominations either selecting from the final ballots or redoing the whole process again.

Ah - what I wouldn’t give to be a fly on that wall!

Controversy about secrecy and Child-Friendliness

BUT - the Newbery award is not without its critics and controversies. Some claim that a lot of the picks are unreadable and unappealing to most kids. And there’s been a recent debate over the secrecy of the deliberations. Right now, members are not allowed to reveal anything about that process ever - which books were initially nominated, why they were rejected, or how contentious the voting might have been. Former Newbery and Caldecott committee members, Kathleen Horning  and Ed Spicer, both wrote articles about the benefits of time-limits on the confidentiality of the selection process.  They make excellent points about  the benefits to readers, authors, and to history. On the other hand, Caldecott winner Dan Santat argues that releasing that information is not really a good idea. No one knows how the Academy Awards or Grammys get picked so really, what’s the big deal? I’ll link to those articles in the show notes - they’re worth reading and might offer a good debate topic to your students, and I think the ALA is considering a change to that policy.  So that’s something to keep an eye out for. And - if you want to know more about the how the Newbery Award works, there are a lot of great resources I’ll share on the website. A special shout out to Heavy Metal - the Mock Newbery Blog run by two former committee members. Excellent resource - definitely check it out!

So - I want to know what you all think!  Do you think the Newbery award books are unappealing to kids? Do they read them? Do you think the Newbery selection process is TOO secretive? Let me know what you think! You can send me an email at booksbetween@gmail.com or tag me on Twitter or Instagram with the handle @Books_Between.

Book Talk - Two Heart-Racing Adventures

In this part of the show, I share with you a couple books centered around a theme and discuss three things to love about each book. This week we have two adventure stories that will get your pulse going! They are each very different - one is a more of a traditional action/adventure survival story and the other is a fairy tale fantasy adventure. But - despite their differences, they do have a surprising amount in common, which is why I thought they would make a good pairing today. Both include characters hidden away in towers, folded paper birds, and secret libraries.  Have you guessed yet? They are: Scar Island by Dan Gemeinhart and The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill!

Scar Island

Let’s start with Scar Island. I was already a big fan of Dan Gemeinhart - in fact The Honest Truth was one of the very first books I ever featured on the podcast back in episode 2, so I was really, really looking forward to Scar Island. This is a new release and just out this month. It’s about a kid named Jonathan who we meet as he is on a tiny boat being delivered to this impenetrable fortress on an island called Slabhenge Reformatory School for Troubled Boys. It’s basically Alcatraz for kids and run by a nasty crew of guys lead by a cruel man called The Admiral. He makes each kid write these daily wonderful letters home to their parents hiding the fact that he is actually denying them food and worse. We also have this tough group of 15 misfit kids - all imprisoned on this island for their crimes. Then suddenly, something happens where all the adults are gone from the island and the kids are left on their own and have to figure out what to do. It’s about survival and freedom and redemption - and just so good. If that hasn’t already got you hooked on reading this book, here are three more things I loved about Dan Gemeinhart’s Scar Island:

1. Colin. He is this little pip of a kid who has a lisp and is an admitted kleptomaniac. That’s why he’s at Slabhenge Reformatory. But, when he steals some food, he gives it to Jonathan even though Colin is hungry himself. He’s also into origami and makes these little paper cranes that appear at important parts later on in the story. I just loved him. But - one little note about his lisp. I was conferencing with a student a couple days ago who was reading this book and he had a tiny bit of trouble reading aloud and interpreting Colin’s dialogue, so I had to talk about how the “th” is replacing his “s” and model a bit what that sounded like. So just a heads up about that.
2. The Library. This is verging on giving away too much, but I’ll say that during one of the character’s journeys through the labyrinth of corridors in this stone fortress, we discover a library and there’s a character who surprises us and knows the exact right book to recommend.  
3. The buildup of suspense. There are these five threads that run through this story creating this tension as you read it. One - the weather. What starts off as a bad storm becomes this hurricane that threatens everything on the island. Two - the rats. Eventually you discover that there’s more going on with the rats than meets the eye. Three - the key. At a critical point, one of the characters ends up with the key to the Admiral’s office which contains lots of chocolate, alcohol, and… all the boys records. So throughout the story we are wondering - who has the key now? And - what are they going to do with it? Four - the forbidden door hiding this monstrous, noisy… thing. Five - the suspense of figuring out why on earth Jonathon is on this island. What did he do?? We know he feels like he deserves to be there. And we get glimpses of his previous life in his letters home and we have scenes where the author almost reveals what happened, but then pulls back. So - the weather, the rats, the key, the door, what did he do? - argh! - this book has you turning those pages!

Scar Island is kind of like Lord of the Flies meets Holes with a twist of pirate in there. Already I have a waiting list for it in my class and I’m sure it’s going to be a favorite with your kids, too.

The Girl Who Drank the Moon

Our second featured book today is The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill. This is also an adventure survival story but a fairy tale fantasy with powerful witches, a poetic swamp monster, and a seemingly small dragon. The start of this story takes place in a gloomy village along a bog called The Protectorate run by a group of unscrupulous men called The Council of Elders. Each year, on the Day of Sacrifice, these elders take the youngest baby in the village and leave it in the woods. They do this, they claim, to appease an evil witch. Well, it turns out that there is actually a witch, a kind witch named Xan, who rescues these poor babies and feeds them on starlight while she journeys across the dangerous volcanic mountain to find a new home for them. Except one year, she accidentally feeds a baby moonlight instead of starlight and enmagicks the child who grows to be uncontrollably powerful. The rest of the story is about Xan’s attempts to help her adoptive granddaughter harness that power, and what happens to the villagers left behind in The Protectorate - including a young Elder-in-Training named Antain who starts to have doubts, and the girl’s mother who ends up going mad and being locked in a tower with secrets of its own. It is beautiful and powerful. And here are three more things I loved about Kelly Barnhill’s The Girl Who Drank the Moon:

1. The magic. This is not your typical sparkly, wand summoned magic. It’s earthy and primal and often exists as something almost separate from the characters. Flowers spring from footsteps. And there is a flock of paper birds that swarm and cut and lead and protect in a way that is both beautiful and terrifying at the same time. I loved how unique the magic in this book was.
2. The love you feel for the characters. Somehow Barnhill has written them in a way where you feel this deep sense of warmth and protectiveness and empathy for them. Xan, the witch, is getting older and she desperately wants to impart all of her knowledge that she can to her granddaughter, who she’s named Luna. But that same spell that protects her makes it so that she can’t get through to her. And you keep hoping that Luna will discover who she is and maybe be reunited with the mother she was so brutally ripped away from. And all the people in the village - especially Antain and his wife - who are under the thumb of the Council of Elders. I just felt so much love for this characters.
3. What this story has to say about truth and power. In this book, there are some who feed off of other people’s misery. Those who raise themselves by putting others below them, by controlling what stories get told, and by spinning lies. But - there comes a time when the people start to realize how much power they actually have when they band together to use it. Loved it.

The Girl Who Drank the Moon  is lush and quirky and whimsical and funny and full of adventure. And I can’t wait to read everything else Kelly Barnhill has ever written because this was one powerhouse of a book.

Q & A

Our final segment this week is Question & Answer time.

Question:

Well - the big question being asked right now - “Who do you think is going to get a Newbery this year?”

Answer:

I’m a little reluctant to answer because inevitably, I am going to be wrong. But … I can tell you who others think are some top 2016 contenders, and I’ll venture to make a prediction or two.

So, one place I go to get a feel for some of the books getting Newbery buzz is the Mock Newbery Group on Goodreads. They read a book a month and then vote in January. What’s cool there is that you can see the discussions going all the way back to 2012 and take a peek at the reactions to the real winners. That’s enlightening. This year their second round list includes, in order,: Wolf Hollow, Ghost, The Inquisitor’s Tale, The Wild Robot, The Girl Who Drank the Moon, Some Kind of Courage, and Pax.  

Over at the Heavy Medal Blog, they have analyzed “Best of” lists on other sites to put together a “Best Books” post naming and ranking the contenders with the most mentions. So, some of the top books there that I haven’t mentioned already are: Some Writer: The Story of E.B. White, The Best Man, March, Book 3, Ms. Bixby’s Last Day, Raymie Nightingale, Samurai Rising, The Lie Tree, and School’s First Day of School.

And now, a few predictions from me:

• I think there will be a lot of honor books this year. I’m saying at least 4.
• I don’t think they are going to give the award to a picture book this year. Not that I disagreed with the decision last year, but I have a feeling it will go to a book with an older audience.
• I think you’ll see a shiny seal on at least a couple of these books: Wolf Hollow, The Girl Who Drank the Moon, The Wild Robot, Pax, and… I almost don’t want to admit this to you because it sounds silly, but I dreamt I was watching the live streaming of the awards and the winner was - The Inquisitor’s Tale! So maybe something’s going on in my subconscious! Or not! We’ll see in a few days!

Closing

Alright, that’s it for the Q&A section this week. If you have a question about how to connect kids between 8-12 to books they’ll love or an idea about a topic we should cover, I really would love to hear from you. You can email me at booksbetween@gmail.com or message me on Twitter/Instagram at the handle @Books_Between.

Thank you so much for joining me this week. You can get a full transcript of this show and all of our previous episodes at AlltheWonders.com. And, if you have a moment, it would mean so much to me if you left a rating or review on iTunes or Stitcher so others can find us.

Thank you and see you in two weeks!  Bye!

http://www.ala.org/alsc/aboutalsc/alscfaqs

http://2017.alamidwinter.org/awards

http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/newberyterms/newberyterms

http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/newberyhonors/newberymedal

http://www.slj.com/2016/06/opinion/debate/awards-ufd/why-you-dont-want-to-know-more-about-the-newbery-and-caldecott-up-for-debate/#_

http://www.lindasuepark.com/fun/new_answ.html

https://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/top-ten-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-newbery-award-by-monica-edinger/

http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/2016/12/30/how-does-a-book-win-part-1-nominations/

http://blogs.slj.com/heavymedal/2017/01/08/how-does-a-book-win-part-2-discussion/

http://www.hbook.com/2012/06/choosing-books/the-search-for-distinguished/#_

https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2008/dec/19/newbery-medal-children-elitism

Intro

Hi and welcome to Books Between - a podcast for teachers, parents, librarians, and anyone who wants to connect middle grade kids to books they’ll love.  I’m your host, Corrina Allen - a 5th grade teacher, a mom of two daughters, and happy to be DONE with 2016 and onward to 2017! Typically we have a New Year’s Eve party at our house - last year was a disco theme - but this time my kids were not feeling so great and instead we had a quiet night. I set up my new bullet journal with my reading goals, played canasta with my kids, crocheted, and just cuddling on the couch under the heating blanket. I know - NOT a very cool New Year’s Eve celebration. But - it was wonderful and I hope yours was as well. So - hello to 2017!

This is Episode #14 and today we are discussing some fun reading challenge ideas to kick off your new year, the most anticipated middle grade books coming out in 2017, and I’ll answer a question about what books to recommend for a 5th grader who has a high school reading level.

Main Topic - Reading Challenges for the New Year

One of the best things about the New Year is the reset that happens when December flips over into January and you have a full twelve months laid out in front of you with all the possibilities in the world! You’re past the indulgences of the holidays and ready to refocus, make some resolutions, build better habits, and set some goals.  So today I’m going to talk about a few fun ideas for reading challenges this year that can help you connect with your community, keep you motivated, and maybe spur you to stretch yourself as a reader in 2017.

Now our conversation today is geared toward personal reading goals for you, but these same ideas can be shared with the students and the children in your life. And as the lead reader in your library or classroom or home, sharing your own reading goals shows that you take your reading life seriously and that we’re all in this reading community together. I know that my first day back with my class, I’ll be sharing my Reading Challenge list with my students and helping them set up their own. So - if you are thinking about doing a reading challenge this year, here are a few ideas for you:

Challenge Idea #1 - Set a number goal.  Maybe that’s forty books or sixty books or a hundred books! Something that’s a bit of a stretch but still doable for you.  Last year, I participated in the #SixtyBooks Challenge  - I happened to see the hashtag last January and I thought, “I can do that!” And it’s been fantastic. One thing that kept me motivated was connecting to others doing the same challenge on Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads. So - if you decide to do any kind of challenge, connecting with other readers through social media helps keep you stay excited about it through the year. And if you want to join me this year, just check out #SixtyBooks and we can support each other!

Challenge Idea #2 - Set a goal based on type of book.  These can be found all over the internet this time of year. They are usually focused on adult books but you can easily read middle grade books within those categories and maybe make just a couple adjustments.  A really great one is Book Riot’s yearly Read Harder Challenge which this year features tasks like read a debut novel, read a travel memoir, read a superhero comic with a female lead, or  read a book by an immigrant or with a central immigration narrative.  Those last two are definitely going on my list.  I’ll leave a link to that in the show notes and what’s nice about the Book Riot challenge is that they have suggestions for each category, a Goodreads group, and in-person meetups throughout the year.  

Another Reading Challenge that my friend Emily told me about is the one from PopSugar. They feature 40 book categories with this year’s theme of diversifying and expanding your reading - love it! Some of their reading prompts are a book involving a mythical creature, a book recommended by a librarian (I love that one), a book by or about a person who has a disability, a book with a main character who is a different ethnicity than you, and some fun ones like a book with a red spine or a book set in a hotel. PopSugar also has an extra twenty prompts for those hardcore readers who finish early. They also have a Goodreads group and printable lists, and I’ll link to their site too so you can check that out.

Another 2017 Reading Challenge that I discovered last week is one hosted by a site called Modern Mrs. Darcy. (Now - already with that name - I’m in!) What I really like about this challenge is that there are two paths you can follow: Reading for Fun or Reading for Growth.  Each have just 12 tasks so they are doable and you might even have time to do both! On the Reading for Fun list are topics like a juicy memoir, a book you chose for the cover, and a book by a new favorite author. Those all sound comfy and great. On the other hand, if you want to stretch yourself and go for the Reading for Growth path there are options like a book that addresses current events, a book by an #ownvoices or #diversebooks author, or a Newbery Award winner or Honor book.  That all sounds exactly what I need this year.

Challenge Idea #3 - Create a Reading Time Capsule for the year.  I wish I could remember where I saw this so I could give them proper credit, but this idea is similar to the practice of families jotting down happy memories throughout the year and tucking them into a jar to read on New Year’s Eve. This idea is to jot down favorite quotes and inspiring ideas from the books you’ve read throughout the year. I’m thinking that a nice adaptation would be instead of putting it in a jar, write it down in a journal or if you want to go more 21st century - challenge yourself to post on social media one inspiring quote or idea about every book you’ve read this year.  And that could also make a very cool classroom project.

Challenge Idea #4 - Do a Library Crawl!  Unlike a pub crawl, which is typically done in one night and you can’t bring your kids. Or well, you really shouldn’t bring your kids. A Library Crawl can span the whole year, the summer, or maybe just Spring Break. And it’s way better when you bring your kids!  Basically you challenge yourself to visit a set number of libraries in a set amount of time. Last summer, I was looking for some inexpensive things to do with my girls that would be fun, educational, and get us all out of the house and away from the electronics. So we challenged ourselves to visit 16 libraries during the summer of 2016. And we almost made it! I have a lot more to share with you about Library Crawls, how to do them, some fun ideas, and the unexpected benefits that I think I need to do a whole episode on it.  

Challenge Idea #5 - Little Free Library Challenge.  Oh how I love Little Free Libraries!  They are popping up all over my community, my friends are all getting them, my school is putting one up this spring, and that is our family summer project. There are a couple ways you could go about doing a Little Free Library Challenge. One idea is to simply visit as many as you can this year and maybe document your travels on social media. If you go to the Little Free Library website, you can find listings of all your local registered libraries shown right on a map.  If you wanted to extend that into a Pay it Forward challenge, you could donate one book to each Little Free Library you visit.

Challenge Idea #6 - Design Your Own Reading Challenge!  Think of it as a 2017 Choose-Your-Own-Reading-Adventure.  Take the best ideas of the options out there and create something for yourself. And these ideas are easy to layer.  So you can set a number goal, participate in say, the Book Riot challenge or pick your own categories to read from the options you like, and maybe pick up those books while you do your library crawl.  

Whatever you decide, get your kids and students involved, too and I’d love to see what you’ve got planned for the year!  You can send me an email at booksbetween@gmail.com or connect on Twitter or Instagram with the handle @Books_Between.

Book Talk - Most Anticipated Middle Grade Books of 2017

In this segment, I share with you a few books centered around a theme. This week I’m highlighting some of the most anticipated books of the upcoming year.  Some are new books in favorites series. Some are by favorite authors. Some are by debut authors. And some just sound fantastic! So, get ready to add to your wish list. And just a reminder - that you can find every book mentioned here AND a picture of the covers AND a link to pre-order them right through the Books Between Podcast link at AlltheWonders.com.  So, no need to scurry and write things down. I’ve got your back, I know you’re busy, so it’s all right there for you.

One quick note before I start - publication dates do change, so while I’ve mentioned the month each book is expected to release - things sometimes change.

All right - let’s get to it!

http://www.readbrightly.com/middle-grade-books-2017/

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/74235.Middle_Grade_Novels_of_2017

Coming in January…

• Scar Island - a new action adventure by Dan Gemeinhart. So if you liked his other novels The Honest Truth or Some Kind of Courage (which I know you did!) , definitely get this one.

• A new Jerry Spinelli novel - The Warden’s Daughter. It’s set in 1959 Pennsylvania and oh it looks fantastic!

• Also in January, we’ll get the third Terrible Twos book - The Terrible Two Go Wild by Mac Barnett & Jory John. And the second Audacity Jones Book - Audacity Jones Steals the Show.  AND another Victoria Coe Fenway & Hattie book - the Evil Bunny Gang!

• If you were a fan of Counting by 7s, like I am - then look for Holly Sloan’s new novel called Short - it’s about a small-for-her-age girl who gets cast as a Munchkin in a production of The Wizard of Oz. So fans of Oz will have something to love in this book, too!
• One book I’ve been really looking forward to this year is the short story collection put together in partnership with We Need Diverse Books. It’s called Flying Lessons & Other Stories and features authors like Grace Lin, Matt de la Pena, Jacqueline Woodson and so many others.

• If you’re like me, and part of your Reading Challenge this year is to read more nonfiction and to read more diversely, then there’s two books to look for this January

1. Pathfinders: The Journeys of 16 Extraordinary Black Souls by Tonya Bolden
2. Loving vs. Virginia by Patricia Powell.  It’s the story of the civil rights case set up as a novel in verse. That should be amazing.

Coming in February …

This time I’ll start with nonfiction:

• We have Bats: Learning to Fly - the newest volume in the nonfiction graphic novel series called Science Comics.
• Then we have Kwame Alexander’s latest called The Playbook: 52 Rules to Aim, Shoot, and Score in This Game Called Life. A great nonfiction pairing for fans of Booked and The Crossover.

• Also in February, the highly anticipated Judd Winnick graphic novel Hilo 3 - huzzah!  

• And the debut middle grade novel by picture book author and All the Wonders friend Carter Higgins. It’s called A Rambler Steals Home and it’s about baseball, and family, and friendship, and sweet potato fries - it’s incredible - you absolutely need to get this one!  In fact, if you preorder A Rambler Steals Home from the Once Upon a Time Bookstore, Carter has offered to sign it for you before they ship it out to you. It’s a win-win-win! You get a signed copy of an awesome book, you support an independent bookstore, and you support an author you know and love. So, I’ll include that link in the show notes for you.

In March, there are four books I am really looking forward to:

• Gone Camping: A Novel in Verse by Tamera Wissinger, which is the companion book to the 2015 book Gone Fishing.
• Forget Me Not by debut middle grade author  Ellie Terry featuring a science-loving main character, Calliope, who has Tourette syndrome.

• A Boy Called Bat by Elana K. Arnold This one is about a kid who ends up caring for a baby skunk and tried to convince his mom to let him keep it.  What could go wrong?

• And - we get a new Nathan Hale book this year!  It’s not a Hazardous Tale’s book. In fact, it’s almost the opposite of that. It’s set in the future and Earth is being attacked by aliens who suck up the energy from electrical devices leaving our civilization under threat. And there’s a robot pony. It’s so different from Hale’s work that I’m familiar with, but it looks original and fresh and amazing and I can’t wait to read it.

In April we have:

• The first book in a new mystery series by Adrienne Kress called The Explorers: The Door in the Alley. My students are really loving mysteries this year so this will make a great addition to my classroom library.
• Tito the Bonecrusher by Melissa Thomson. This is the story of a boy who seeks out the help of his favorite lucha-libre wrestler / action star to save his father from being deported to Mexico. That sounds fantastic and funny and... timely!

May is going to be a stellar month for reading:

• Georgia Rules by Swing Sideways author Nanci Steveson
• And a new Lisa Graff novel called The Great Treehouse War.  So if you liked Absolutely Almost or Lost in the Sun, look for this one this spring.
• A new Gordon Korman stand-alone novel called Restart about boy who was a bully who loses his memory and gets a fresh start. What an interesting premise!
• Another May release that I am so so excited about is Posted by Ms. Bixby’s Last Day author, John David Anderson. I loved Ms. Bixby so much - I can’t wait to see what Anderson has in store for us next!
• Then there’s a nonfiction book about Hamilton! It’s called Alexander Hamilton: How the Vision of One Man Shaped Modern America by Teri Kanefield
• And finally - mark your calendars and pre-order Orphan Island by Laurel Snyder because this book has been getting all the buzz. This novel keeps popping up everywhere I look!

In June we have:

• The third book in Phil Bildner’s Rip & Red series!  This one is called Tournament of Champions. My students are going to psyched about this one!

• A fun book in a new non-fiction series called Two Truths and a Lie: It's Alive! So, basically the reader is presented with three stories about the natural world and you have to guess which one is the lie. Sounds fun - and good practice for life.

It’s a good thing I have July off from school, because there are some seriously awesome books being released that month:

• Including a new Comics Squad!  Comics Squad #3: Detention I love these! They’re fun, they’re quick, and they introduce kids to new writers.
• Another book to look forward to in July is Our Story Begins : Children’s Authors and Illustrators Share Fun, Inspiring, and Occasionally Ridiculous Things They Wrote and Drew as Kids Oh - now that should be good!
• And also in July, we’ll get Spirit Hunters - the first middle grade novel by Ellen Oh - this one is the first of a new ghost story series. Can’t wait for that!
• And - I am also excited for July because that’s when Abby Cooper’s second novel, Bubbles, comes out!   In this one, the main character can see other people’s thoughts. Oh god - can you imagine?

August

• August is going to be fabulous because we get a new Cassie Beasley book. If you liked Circus Mirandus, her new novel is called Tumble & Blue and it’s about a curse, a swamp, and a golden alligator.

So after August, publication dates get a little hazy. BUT - I hear there’s a new Katherine Applegate book coming called Wishtree.  Also - there’s a fourth Al Capone at Alcatraz book coming out in the fall called Al Capone Does My Dishes.  

And the Rick Riordon’s third Magnus Chase book: The Ship of the Dead .

And the third Mr. Lemoncello's Library - the Great Library Race

And of course - I’ll keep you posted about all the amazing books headed our way so we can stay up to date.

Those were some upcoming titles to look forward to in 2017. But. If I had to guess - the one book that you fall in love with this year, that one new book that your kids can’t put down. Is one that isn’t on this list and isn’t even on your radar right now. Most of my favorites of last year, I wasn’t even aware of them this early. And that’s exciting! There is so much to look forward to!

Q & A

Our final segment this week is Question & Answer time.

Question:

After sharing our Top 20 Middle Grade Books of 2016 list last week, I got this question from Jane: “Do you have an idea what book to get a 10-yr-old boy who reads on a 12th grade level?” And she added, “He is currently into the Warriors series.”

Answer:

That can be a tough situation. He CAN read Young Adult or Adult books, but you’ve got to be careful of the content, which might not be okay for a 5th grader.  

A quick example / horror story about that: when I used to teach 6th grade in a middle school, one of the reading assessments we gave was a computer program that would determine a reading level and would then print out a recommended list of titles for each kid. Sounds great, right? Well. I noticed that the kids who scored the highest were being recommended A CLOCKWORK ORANGE! I never ripped a piece of paper out of kid’s hand so fast! (Can you imagine if that went home?)

So - anyway - just because the reading level is a good match, does not mean the book is a good fit.

But - there are lots of middle grade books that have a higher reading level. And if he likes Fantasy, then there are some great books that I think he’ll like.  I might try the Wings of Fire series. It has some similarities to Warriors - there are clans and battles and shifting alliances - but it’s dragons instead of cats.  He might really like The Inquisitor’s Tale by Adam Gidwitz or maybe The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin or even The Lord of The Rings which is more “high” fantasy.  Another option that a friend recommended is The Riverman Trilogy by Aaron Starmer.

So, Jane - let us know how things go and if you’ve found something that hits the mark.

Closing

Alright, that’s it for the Q&A section this week. If you have a question about how to connect kids between 8-12 to books they’ll love or an idea about a topic we should cover, I really would love to hear from you. You can email me at booksbetween@gmail.com or message me on Twitter/Instagram at the handle @Books_Between.

Thank you so much for joining me this week. You can get a full transcript of this show and all of our previous episodes at AlltheWonders.com. And when you are there, check out Matthew’s interview with Cozy Classics creators Jack and Holman Wang. I cannot stop reading and rereading these adorable little board books. And, if you are liking our show, I’d love it if you took a second to leave a rating or review on iTunes or Stitcher.

Thanks, Happy New Year, and see you in two weeks!  Bye!

Intro

Hi and welcome to Books Between - a podcast for teachers, parents, librarians, and anyone who wants to connect middle grade kids between 8-12 to books they’ll love.  I’m your host, Corrina Allen - a teacher, a mom of two daughters, and totally into binge-watching the Netflix series The Crown. I’ve seen them all twice now.

This is Episode #13 and today we are all about celebrating some of the best middle grade books published in 2016.

Main Topic - The Top 20 Middle Grade Books of 2016

2016 has been a phenomenal year. For middle grade books. (Not so much for anything else, really!)  And for me, 2016 has been a standout year not only for the amount of books I’ve read, but for the quality of those books.  I’ve already exceeded my sixty book goal and I’m up to 75 at the time of this recording but not only that, I don’t think I’ve rated a book less than three stars all year. Maybe I’m doing a better job of picking things I’d like, but I just think there’s been some exceptional books published this year.

So - just to give you some context of where this top 20 list comes from, here’s a bit of information. In the past year, I’ve read 60 middle grade books as of 12/19.

Of those 60 - 31 were published in 2016 - so just about half of what I’ve read was new.  I will say that this year was light for me with nonfiction. I gotta work on that next year. So this list is all fiction and unlike other “Best of” lists out there, I did not separate out novels in verse or graphic novels. Everything’s all together.

Alright here we go - these are my Top 20 middle grade novels of 2016.

#20 - Hour of the Bees by Lindsay Eager

I’m not typically a huge fan of the magical realism genre but this novel took me on such a sweet journey last spring. I loved the sparse dangerous beauty of the New Mexico desert and the poignant story of Carol and her family caring for the grandfather who’s losing himself in dementia. This was a debut novel, and I can’t wait to see what else this author has in store!

#19 - Rookie of the Year by Phil Bildner

This novel is the second in the Rip & Red series - the first was A Whole New Ballgame. If you are into the Kidlit community, if you consider yourself a member of the Nerdy Book Club, then you are going to love this book because the teacher, Mr. Acevedo- he’s one of us. If he existed, we’d be following him on Instagram and bumping into him on #TitleTalk chat the last Sunday of the month on Twitter. This book is fun, warm and diverse without being about diversity. It’s simply great, and I can’t wait for book #3.

#18 - Sticks & Stones by Abby Cooper

Such a memorable book with a main character that you just want to wrap up in your arms and hug. Elyse suffers from a rare disorder where the words others use to describe her are imprinted on her skin - including her own thoughts about herself. This is a book about friendship, and courage, and learning to be kind to yourself.

#17 - Like Magic by Elaine Vickers

This is one of several fantastic books that came out this year that featured friendship trios, but these three girls took awhile to come together. Jade, Grace, and Malia each end up at the same library, at different times, and find something they need in this mysterious secret treasure box that the librarian has tucked away in the Lost & Found drawer. I think what I loved so much about this book was how it spoke to the power of libraries and librarians to bring people together. And how libraries can be sanctuaries for children and a place to find yourself.

#16 - Eleven and Holding by Mary Penney

First - this book made me laugh. The main character, Macy, is a riot. It was heartfelt but not saccharine and it had lots of mysteries to solve. And is it weird to say that I had a mini crush on Switch - the skateboarding bad boy? Yeah, that’s probably weird. Let me rephrase that. My 12 year-old self would totally have fallen for that kid.

#15 - Wish by Barbara O’Connor

12 year-old Charlie is sent to go live with her aunt and uncle in what she considers a “hillbilly” town in the Blue Ridge Mountains. And she’s unruly and angry and yet…. The folks around her show such patience while she tries to sort everything out. It’s lovely and I liked that more rural setting. There’s also a dog that, actually - now that I think about it, follows a similar journey to our main character.

#14 - The Tapper Twins Run for President by Geoff Rodkey

The third novel in this series is all about the hilarity that ensues when Claudia and Reese Tapper both run for class president. It’s funny and oddly truthful about politics and running for office. Plus - I loved the twist ending.

#13 - Children of Exile by Margaret Peterson Haddix

This first novel in a new series had me on the edge of my seat for days. Cliffhanger after cliffhanger that build to this jaw-dropping moment that had me furiously calling and texting my friends who had already read it. So - go read it so you can tell me what you think!

#12 - Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier

Unlike Smile and Sisters and Drama, Ghosts is not based on Raina’s real-life but instead features a young girl named Catrina and her little sister, Maya who is living with Cystic Fibrosis. It touches on some hard-hitting themes (childhood illness and death) but somehow stays light at the same time. Again I was reminded of how much I love Telgemeier’s style - those crisp lines, curves, and great color palette. Already this book has disappeared from my classroom so I guess I’ll buying another one!

#11 - Save Me a Seat by Sarah Weeks and Gita Varadarajan

Featuring alternating narratives from Joe and Ravi, this book really gets what it’s like to flounder in school and to be the target of a mean kid.  I love that it takes place over one week, I love the humor, and I love the recipes in the back. This is a great choice for kid’s book clubs - it’s not too, too long and there’s a lot to discuss.

#10 - Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo

I got this novel last April when Kate DiCamillo came to Syracuse as part of a “lecture” series where, of course, she did NOT lecture. Instead, she focused on the kids in the audience. And not only answered the children’s questions in a way that made them feel heard and understood and but deftly framed those questions so that that both kids and adults left inspired and knowing a lot more about her and her writing process. At this event, she talked about how her family moving without her father coming along was inspiration for this story about a girl whose dad has left town with a dental hygienist. And Raymie is trying to figure out a way to get him to come back. As part of her grand plan, she ends up taking baton twirling lessons with these other two girls who each bring their own joys and pains to the story. It is wonderful and quirky in that beautiful diCamillo way.

#9 - The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary by Laura Shovan

This is a book that I recommend over and and over again - for so many reasons.  I love the poems, I love the storyline about kids coming together to try to save their school from being ripped down, I love how the different narrative pieces all fit together, I love how you see the characters grow and change through their poetry. It’s so, so good!

#8 - Finding Perfect by Elly Schwartz

Another incredible novel by a debut author. And a book that so many middle grade readers will be able to relate to - whether that’s navigating friendship with two very different people, eating take out for days when your family is overworked and too busy, or living with anxiety or OCD like the main character does.

#7 - Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story by Nora Raleigh Baskin

Every once in awhile you read a book where the characters are so vivid and so real that months after you’re done reading the novel, you wonder about them. Will and Naheed and Aimee and Sergio would be in their twenties now. With all that’s going on in the world, I wonder what they would be thinking at this new turning point in our country’s history.

#6 - The Seventh Wish by Kate Messner

There’s so so much to love about this book and later on in the podcast I’m going to go into more detail about. But - I have to share with you the best summary of this book from the Author’s Note in the back. She calls it a “ magical-ice-fishing-Irish-dancing-heroin novel for kids.” Yes, it is! And it is glorious!

#5 - When the Sea Turned to Silver by Grace Lin

This is a book that you finish and you set down and immediately want to go read everything else that author has ever written. I’ll share more in the book talk segment later on in the podcast.

#4 - The Inquisitor’s Tale by Adam Gidwitz

Three unlikely saints, an awful character who turns out to be good, a good character who turns out to be bad, disgustingly delicious French cheese, and…. a farting dragon. Now - don’t you want to know how all those connect? From what I hear, the audio of this novel is incredible - and you get to hear “The Song of Hildebrand” and other new music by medieval scholar and musician Benjamin Bagby. BUT - then you’d miss out on the dozens of medieval style illuminations by Hatem Aly in the paper copy. I think you just have to do both to get the full experience.

#3 - Booked by Kwame Alexander

Yes, this story is about 12-year-old Nick and his first real love, and his relationship with his parents, and soccer, and middle school bullies. BUT. It’s also about a bold librarian who slowly kindles in Nick a passion for books - often without Nick even quite realizing it.  

#2 - Ms. Bixby’s Last Day by John David Anderson

Oh how I loved this book. How I wished it wouldn’t end. This novel is another 2016 release featuring a trio of friends. Topher, Brand, and Steve band together to bring the last day celebration their teacher, Ms. Bixby missed when she had to leave school early.  Along the way they battle bakery owners, a creepy guy who tries to steal their money, and sometimes….each other. For me, the mark of an exceptional book, is one that can make me sob and laugh out loud and this book had me doing both.

And, my #1 middle grade book of 2016 is:

#1 - The Wild Robot by Peter Brown

This is the first middle grade novel by picture book author and illustrator Peter Brown - and boy did he hit it out of the park! I have so much I want to say, but I’m going to hold off a little bit and save it for our book talk segment.

So - those are my top 20 middle grade reads of 2016!  Now, I can already sense the emails coming my way saying, “Corrina - seriously - a best of 2016 list and you didn’t mention Wolf Hollow or Counting Thyme or The Rat Prince?”  And you know what? You’re probably right. Had I had a chance to read all those, they likely would have made this list. In fact, I’m halfway through Kelly Barnhill’s The Girl Who Drank the Moon and oh - if the ending holds out - a powerhouse of a book. I want to read everything Kelly Barnhill has ever written,will ever write, including her grocery lists.  I know I missed some awesome ones. So a quick shoutout to some 2016 releases that are on my To Be Read list:

Top Want to Read Books from 2016

Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk

All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook by Leslie Connor

The Key to Extraordinary by Natalie Lloyd

The Rat Prince by Bridget Hodder

Maxi’s Secret by Lynn Plourde

Counting Thyme by Melanie Conklin

Maybe a Fox by Kathi Appelt

Paper Wishes by Lois Sepahban

Gertie's Leap to Greatness by Kate Beasley

The Best Man by Richard Peck

Swing Sideways by Nanci Turner Steveson

Ghost by Jason Reynold

Annnd…. Likely lots more that I am missing! So - I want to hear from YOU - what were your favorite 2016 reads and which ones should be bumped up on my to be read list? You can pop me an email at booksbetween@gmail.com or connect on Twitter with the handle @Books_Between.

Book Talk - Three Amazing Books from 2016

In this part of the show, I share with you three books centered around a theme and discuss three things to love about each book. This week is all about the cream of the crop of 2016. Many of the titles in my Top 20 list, I’ve already featured on the podcast in previous episodes, and some I’ve talked about more than once. But there are a few of my favorites from 2016 that either didn’t fit into a theme I was focusing on for that show or they were very recent reads. The three of my top 2016 picks that I want to talk about with you are  The Seventh Wish, When the Sea Turned to Silver, and my #1 pick of the year - The Wild Robot.  

The Seventh Wish

First up is Kate Messner’s The Seventh Wish.  I read this book over the summer but it feels right to be talking about it in the winter. The book starts with this gorgeous image of ice flowers blooming on a frozen lake and takes place over one winter in the life of Charlie Brennan. And it’s a difficult winter for her. Her bright athletic older sister, Abby, develops a heroin addiction at college, her mother has a challenging new job, and suddenly everyone else’s problems have pushed her concerns way over to the side. And one day - while out ice fishing with her neighbors - she catches a fish that grants wishes. And Charlie has to figure out just how far that magic will go.  So here are three things I loved about Kate Messner’s The Seventh Wish:

1. The “I’m thinking of a word” game - So, Charlie and her family play this game where one person will announce “I’m thinking of a word.” and the rest of the family tries to guess what that word is. And whoever comes closest is the winner. And it sounds simple - and it is - but the true brilliance of this game comes in trying to justifying why “flashlight” is closer to “sunflower” than “rebellious” is!  It’s a lot of laughs, it gets you thinking and is now one of our favorite games to play in the car.
2. The Irish Dancing - A major part of Charlie’s life is competing in Irish Dance competitions called feiseanna (“feesh-ee-AH-nuh) - the singular of that is feis (“fesh”). This is a completely foreign world to me, but suddenly I’m into hard shoes vs. soft shoes, the hornpipe and treble jig, strange uses for glue, and the ranking systems in competition. I love books where you can immerse yourself in something new.
3. The Familiar Wintery Feel - So while all the Irish dancing details were totally new to me, the cold, blustery atmosphere of the setting was not. I live in Central New York - just outside of Syracuse, often touted as the Snow Capital of the United States. We get on average, 128” of snow every year.  Charlie’s family goes snowshoeing and ice fishing, and they wonder if when the sun comes out it will warm up from minus 22 degrees to a balmy zero. I think the setting is Northern New York or maybe Vermont, but it felt like it was written about my home. Charlie bundling up in layers of sweaters, snow pants, her puffy jacket, and two scarves is oh-so-familiar to me.

The Seventh Wish is not only a phenomenal and fun book, but also an important book. I’m not sure how things are in your community, but mine is struggling with a daunting heroin problem. And a book that addresses that in a realistic but hopeful way that is completely perfect for a middle grade reader is a necessity right now. It’s simply a fantastic book.

When the Sea Turned to Silver

The second book I want to tell you more about, and one that I just finished a few days ago, is Grace Lin’s When the Sea Turned to Silver.  And I need to admit to you - this is the very first Grace Lin book I have read. And argh - why have I waited so long?! It was beautiful and lightly intricate and inspiring.  And I am sure if you have read the companion novels 2011’s Newbery Honor book Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and 2014’s Starry River of the Sky - you will get even more out of it than I did. But don’t feel like you have to read those other two first - I obviously didn’t and still understood and loved this book. This novel is about a young girl’s quest to rescue her grandmother from a cruel and vindictive Emperor, who is keeping the grandmother (and others) captive. The girl’s name is Pinmei and her grandmother is a famous Storyteller so as we are following Pinmei and her friend Yishan on their voyage to get back the grandmother, interspersed throughout that narrative are these traditional folktales.  Here are three things I loved about Grace Lin’s When the Sea Turned to Silver:

1. The interconnectedness of the stories. It is this slow crescendo of the main narrative and the folktales that come crashing together at the end. And all along the way, you know they are starting to connect to each other and characters and settings from one story are popping up in others - and STILL I was utterly surprised by how everything came together at the end.
2. The focus on Honor.  Sometimes it seems like there’s a shortage of self-sacrificing, honorable people today. (Or maybe our culture doesn’t revere them as much as it should.) But this novel is full of characters like the scarred servant or the King of the Bright City of Moonlight who learn, eventually, to do the right and honorable thing even when it means danger and maybe death for themselves.
3. It’s rereadability (is that a word?) - I don’t know but this was a book that as soon as I turned that last page, I had to go back and reread some of the stories now that I knew more about the characters and how the tales all connected. It reminded me a bit of when I finished the YA novel Challenger Deep - now that I know the secret, I want to go back and catch everything I missed and experience the story again with new eyes.

If you have a child that loves folk tales with lots of adventure and twists along the way, then When the Sea Turned to Silver would be a great recommendation for them.

The Wild Robot

And I saved my best, my favorite of 2016 for last. Peter Brown’s The Wild Robot. “Our story begins on the ocean, with wind and rain and thunder and waves.” Oh - that first line gets me. You know how some books just happen to come into your life at the right moment to connect with you? That’s how this book was for me and my daughters. The first I heard of it was on the All the Wonders podcast when Matthew Winner interviewed Peter Brown and there was something so intriguing about the scenario of a robot stranded on a hostile, remote island, becoming a mother, and trying to survive and thrive. I immediately drove over to my bookstore, got a copy, and started reading it out loud with my girls that very night. We finished, a few weeks later, on Mother’s Day - and maybe that’s why the story of Roz sacrificing so much for the island - and the island sacrificing for her - touched us so much on that particular day. It was our first family book cry. We had to get more tissues and my husband rushed into the room wondering why we were all sobbing! It’s an incredible book and difficult to narrow it down to just three things to love, but here are a few things that I thought were exceptional about The Wild Robot.

1. The illustrations - First, there are tons of them - every couple pages in every sort of perspective and shape: tall trees along the sides with a bear dangling over the text, an action scene charging across the bottom, two page spreads of a single crucial moment with just a small paragraph to the side, small inserts of just one animal, or one leaf. Peter Brown’s skill in picture book composition is clear in the layout and balance of the drawings and the words. The robot, Roz, is made of simple shapes and lines that really make it feel like it could take place at any time. And of course, I love his style of splatters and shading.
2. The existential questioning that happens with this book. There’s just something about robot stories that lends itself to deep thinking about ethics and morality, the nature of the soul, and what it means to exist. So, I grew up in a Star Trek household. My mom is a trekkie and once got me a signed picture of my crush, Wil Wheaton, from a convention. I loved Next Generation, and particularly the episodes featuring Data, the android - there’s something about pushing the boundaries of programing that is intriguing. Putting a machine in a challenging, new environment and seeing what happens. At one point in the story, Roz and her adopted gosling son wonder what will happen if they push the button to turn her off.  Will she remember him if she turns back on? Will she be the same? Roz is devoid of emotion and yet she brings out so much tenderness and emotion in the reader.
3. How fun and easy it is to read out loud. The chapters are really short so it’s nice to have those natural stopping points when you might just have a few minutes at home or in school.  And the character’s are vibrant and fun with great personalities to give voices to. I did Roz with the voice of Siri, which was loads of fun to do. I channeled Julia Sweeney for the goose, Loudwing and the fast-talking chipmunk, ChitChat was hilarious. The writing just has this great rhythm and it’s a joy to read out loud.

Absolutely go get The Wild Robot - I promise you won’t regret it.

Closing

Okay, that’s our show for the week - and the last one of 2016. Look for our next episode on Monday, January 2nd, where I’ll be discussing the most anticipated middle grade books coming out in 2017 and some fun reading challenge ideas to kick off your new year!  

And, If you have a question about how to connect kids between 8-12 to books they’ll love or an idea about a topic we should cover, I really would love to hear from you. You can email me at booksbetween@gmail.com or message me on Twitter/Instagram at the handle @Books_Between.

Thank you so much for joining me this week. You can get a full transcript of this show and all of our previous episodes at AlltheWonders.com. And when you are there, look for the other Best of 2016 lists to get more reading ideas. And, if you are liking the show, I’d love it if you took a second to leave  a rating or review on iTunes or Stitcher.

Thanks and see you in two weeks!  Bye!

Intro

Hi and welcome to Books Between - a podcast for teachers, parents, librarians, and anyone who wants to connect middle grade kids between 8-12 to books they’ll love.  I’m your host, Corrina Allen - a teacher, a mom of two, battling a sore throat, but excited that I finally got to see the Fantastic Beasts movie last weekend! I gotta say - Jacob & Queenie were the best part for me.

This is Episode #12 and today we’re talking about gift ideas for middle grade readers, three novels with incredibly brave protagonists, and I’ll answer a listener’s question about keeping kids engaged when you read out loud.

Main Topic - Gifts Ideas for Middle Grade Readers

December is here and for many, December brings holidays that involve gift-giving. So if you have a child between the ages of about 8 and 12 on your list this year, I have some bookish ideas for you.

My first suggestion is, whenever possible, ask the child what they’d like that would be book related. And gift cards to local bookstores are always perfect as well so they can pick something they will love themselves. A friend of mine follows the philosophy of limiting holiday gifts to four categories: Want, Need, Wear, and Read. He gives each of his children a piece of paper divided into four sections and they list some items they want, some things they really need, some ideas of what they’d like to wear, and a list of things they want to read. Want, Need, Wear, Read. I really like that idea of giving children a focus, and of course the emphasis it places on reading.

But - if you’re not sure what books they’d like or you want to surprise them, here are four suggestions for you.

#1 - Try a biography that is connected to their hobbies or interests. For example, if they like art, you could get them the Who Was Frida Kahlo? Biography. (I haven’t read that one myself, but if my daughter sneak reading it under her blankets with a flashlight is any recommendation for you - it seems pretty good!)  If they are into sports, a really great collection of real-life stories is Rising Above: How 11 Athletes Overcame Challenges in Their Youth to Become Stars. If you have a young dancer if your life, definitely get them the new Misty Copeland biography called Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina. That one is brand new and out December 6th.  For the science-loving tweens and teens on your list, Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science is awesome! Who can resist a book with “gruesome” in the title?

#2 - Build on a book they already like. For example, you could get a Diary of a Wimpy Kid calendar or one of the many fantastic Harry Potter coloring books. My girls loved those when we were listening to the audio books.  You can also get their favorite book as a charm to put on a bracelet or necklace. I’ll link to that Etsy shop in the show notes. Another idea is to get them the audio version of a favorite book so they can experience the performance of that story. And hey - maybe even get them their own Audible account.

#3 - Pair a book with another gift so you build on the excitement. What I mean by that is if you give your nephew a LEGO kit, also get him the bold and colorful book 365 Things to Do with LEGO Bricks. If you get your daughter a science kit, include a biography of Marie Curie as some inspiration. You might pair an apron and set of cookie cutters with Cooking Class: 57 Fun Recipes Kids Will Love to Make (and Eat!). If you are getting your child a telescope, maybe add a copy of The Everything Kids’ Astronomy Book. A hot gift for my 9 year old lately are those fashion kits where she can make her own headbands and bracelets - you know, the stuff that leaves beads scattered all over your house! But - a great book to pair with a present like that is The Fashion Book by DK Publishing. It connects historical trends with modern fashion - it’s pretty cool. That’s one of those books that I want to buy for my kids so I can read it, too.

#4 - Get them a Mail Order Mystery. Now - I want to say upfront that I have no connection to this company. They are not paying me. I simply saw their ad online, got it for my girls as something fun to do over the summer, and it was great. Every week for about six weeks, my daughters got personalized wax-sealed letters describing the mystery they had to solve, artifacts connected to the story, riddles, and a code to crack that my whole family was working on together. It was so much fun - for all of us! The final package included a book that tied everything together.  And if you have more than one child - no worries - they can share it and work together and the company will include all their names on the personalized items. So here’s how it works. You go to MailOrderMystery.com and pick one of three mystery options. The first two are Treasure Hunt (which is a pirate adventure) and The Enchanted Slumber (which is the mystery we did and it was fairy tale themed). The new mystery, which was revealed in their newsletter last week is called Spies, Lies, and Serious Badguys and will feature a secret safe disguised as a book, a personalized secret agent ID card, invisible ink pen, and so much other cool stuff. So after you’ve decided which of those three mysteries you want, you pick who it’s for, and then you get to decide when it will start.  Also - if you are sometimes a last-minute shopper, this is a perfect quick gift. You just sign up online, print out a cool looking certificate to tuck in a card or roll up into a cool scroll, and BAM - awesome gift.   It’s really tailor made for kids between 8 and 12.

I hope you’ve gotten some fresh ideas for any middle grade reader on your list this year. And I would love to get your ideas and share them with everyone else!  You can tag me on Twitter or Instagram or email me at booksbetween@gmail.com and I’ll share your ideas, too!

Book Talk - Three Books Featuring Brave Girls

In this part of the show, I share with you three books centered around a theme and discuss three things to love about each book. This week I’m featuring three books with courageous female leads: Finding Perfect, Sticks & Stones, and Rain Reign.  

Finding Perfect

The first book this week is one that I have been wanting to share with you since  - jeesh, I think June! Finding Perfect is by debut author Elly Schwartz. And actually, I should clarify that - this is Schwartz’s first published novel but not the first she’s written. This novel doesn’t read like a first effort - it’s crafted like a novelist at the top of their game. Okay - I could keep gushing, but you probably want to know what the book is about. So a quick summary. Finding Perfect is about 12-year-old Molly Nathans who is always striving toward perfect. Perfectly sharpened pencils, perfectly crisp white paper, perfectly aligned glass figurines, and a perfectly safe and together family. And that last wish for family perfection is the one that seems to set her on a downward path when her Mom moves out and Molly spirals into her OCD.  So here are three things to love about Finding Perfect:

1. Poetry  - Molly is a poet and one element of her story is how she participates in her middle school’s Poetry Slam Contest. She gets past the first round with an incredible poem that starts with the word “Sorry.” And as Molly’s compulsions toward organization and neatness start to take over her life and she feels herself unraveling - her writing starts to reflect that. It’s so powerful. Here’s a line from one of her poems:

“As time slips, it’s hard to hide

 To keep my crazy tucked inside.”

1. Molly’s friends Hannah and Bridgett. Hannah is her best friend, cheering Molly on and waiting for her when Molly spends hours rearranging her room instead of meeting up like she promised. And Bridgette, who often says the wrong thing and is obsessed with obituaries. But - oh, when Molly finds out WHY Bridgette collects obituaries, she realizes that every person has something hidden. The thing is though that Hannah and Bridgette do NOT like each other.  And this book really captures that difficult dynamic when you have friends anchored to the same person and they have to find a way to get along.
2. Finding Perfect fills an incredibly important niche in middle grade fiction. A book that tackles anxiety and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder from the point of view of a kid. I love that this book is written in first person and we get to experience Molly’s challenges and dilemmas. She wants to be a good friend and go help Hannah with her bracelet business plan. But… she is compelled to straighten up her bedroom first - which starts to take longer and longer and longer until finally Molly does the brave thing and admits to herself that it’s a problem. I am not sure if the statistics really bear this out, but it does seem to me that I have more and more students every year who are trying to overcome some level of either anxiety or compulsion. This book would be perfect in their hands - and for anyone else who could use a look into another child’s experience to help them understand each other better.

Finding Perfect reminded me a bit of Raymie Nightingale and I have to give a shout out to the cover design. It is simply perfect - and has the BEST spine design I have ever seen.

Sticks & Stones

Book number two this week is Sticks & Stones by Abby Cooper - another debut author who seems like she’s been around forever. This is the story of middle schooler, Elyse, who has this very unusual condition where the words that people say about her appear on her skin. It’s called, well, I can’t pronounce it - and honestly I don’t think Elyse can either. But it’s shortened, mercifully, to CAV. Now, I will say at first that the rational, scientific side of my brain had a hard time suspending disbelief about verbalized words getting etched into skin. BUT. Once I could shush that side, I just fell in love with this story and with Elyse. So, the main character has this condition, she’s starting middle school, her friendships are shifting (like they do in middle school), and with the encouragement from an anonymous person writing her mysterious notes, Elyse decides to be brave and go for this elite position in her school called Explorer Leader.

And in the midst of all this, her disorder takes a turn and it’s not just others’ words that are etched into her skin, but her own thoughts about herself start to appear on her arms and legs. How powerfully symbolic is that?

So, if you’re not sold already, here are three more reasons to love Sticks & Stones:

1. Elyse’s notes to herself. Every month as part of an English assignment, she writes a letter to her future self in her journal. In her first September note, she jots down four goals. Which are:

1. Stop thinking about the folded paper until I can finally open it after class.
2. Stop obsessing over Liam, because he is done liking me.
3. Instead, obsess over boys like Nice Andy who do seem to like me.
4. Stop thinking about the folded blue paper until it’s time to open it!

In each letter, Elyse reflects on how things are going and lists some new goals. I really loved how those letters anchored the story.

1. The boy she calls “Nice Andy”. Because - there is a point in the book where he could have been not-so-nice. Now - I’m going to give a small spoiler here, which I try not to do - but this one isn’t so major. But, if you’d rather not hear it, just pause and fast forward about a minute. Okay? Alright, so - Elyse ends up dating Nice Andy for awhile. And he IS wonderful, but she realizes she just doesn’t feel THAT way about him. And I simply LOVED how he handles things when she tells him that she would rather be good friends. He says, “Oh! Okay, don’t worry about it.”  That could have gone very differently. I think kids could use a model of a graceful and respectful breakup, so thumbs up for that scene!
2. I really love how Sticks & Stones embodies this idea that having a bigger purpose in your life and striving for something important can break you out of self-doubt and worrying so much about yourself. For Elyse, it’s her goal of becoming Explorer Leader that starts to get her out of her own head a bit. And ironically, by getting busy and NOT thinking so much of what others are saying about her, she becomes more confident. In one of the later mystery notes that Elyse receives is this advice:

“Remember, someone is always going to have something bad to say. But can you remember the good you’ve done? The good you ARE?”

I think that message is so important for middle grade readers who are sometimes focused so much on other people liking them. I remember those years myself - they were rough.

Sticks & Stones is about friendship, and boys, and learning what actions to take to be more comfortable with yourself. This book would be particularly powerful for middle grade girls.

Rain Reign

Our final featured book this week is Ann M. Martin’s Rain Reign. For the last two years, I don’t think there’s been a month that’s gone by where I haven’t been conferencing with a student who has been reading this book or reading it out loud to my daughters. One of the joys of being a teacher is getting to dip back into those favorite books. So, Rain Reign is a story told by 5th grader Rose Howard, who loves routines, collecting homonyms, and prime numbers. She lives with her dad, who is not the best care-taker for her. And she lives with her dog, who she calls Rain. And, in her own words says “My official diagnosis is high-functioning autism, which some people call Asperger’s syndrome”. One night, after a hurricane has caused flooding and destruction, Rose’s father lets Rain outside and now she’s missing. Because of that, Rose has to be brave, break out of her routine, and try to find her dog. And that’s just the beginning of her bravery. Alright, so - here are three fantastic things about Rain Reign.

1. Rose’s straightforward storytelling. It’s astonishing how well we get into Rose’s head. For example, in the first chapter she says: “This is how you tell a story: First you introduce the main character. I’m writing this story about me, so I am the main character.”  And later on she says,

“ Some of the things I get teased about are following the rules and always talking about homonyms. Mrs. Leibler is my aide and she sits with me in Mrs. Kushel’s room. She sits in an adult-size chair next to my fifth-grade-size chair and rests her hand on my arm when I blurt something out in the middle of math. Or, if I whap myself in the head and start to cry, she’ll say, ‘Rose, do you need to step into the hall for a moment?’”

I think most people who have spent any kind of time in a school will find that scene very familiar. Having it told from the point of view of the child with autism is so important.

1. Rose’s Uncle.  While Rose is very unlikely in who she ended up with as a father, she lucked out with her Uncle Weldon. It’s hard to believe that the two of them are brothers. Rose’s dad is impatient, an alcoholic, neglectful, and… worse. Thank goodness Rose has her Uncle who picks her up from school, patiently answers her many repetitive questions, and helps her deal with her dad.
2. How much kids simply love this book.  In fact, I decided that since I just happen to have two of those kids on hand right here in our house, I’d invite them to tell you what they liked about Rain Reign.

Q & A

Our third and final segment this week is Question & Answer time.

Question:

Today’s question is from Sarah in Arlington, Texas.( And Hey Sarah - thanks for listening!) She asks, “My kids don't seem like they’re paying attention when I read aloud. How can keep them more interested?”

Answer:

First of all, I hear ya! Between my own kids and “kids” at school - I feel like I am always assessing their attention and interest.  So I have a few thoughts, and hopefully you, listening, might chime in as well.

• First, I’m wondering - did your kids get to pick out the book? If they have some say, that can help. At home, I usually book talk a few that I think would be winners and then let them decide. I do understand that with more than one child, that choosing process can be tricky. We’ve certainly had some drama and high stakes negotiations about that at my house.
• A second thought - give them something to do with their hands while they’re listening. I have adult friends who just can’t sit still for that long. So try giving them some paper and crayons or play-doh. Maybe tinkering with LEGO’s or doing a  jigsaw puzzle.
• And finally - there is the possibility that they might be paying more attention than you think. I had this epiphany last year when I was reading aloud Matilda to my girls. And one of my daughters was driving me nuts because she was bouncing all over the bed, the book is shaking, she’s twisting around in the blankets - I could not get her to settle down.  And I am getting annoyed - this is supposed to be our calm, mother-daughter time bonding over classic children’s literature. NO. So after a few nights of me getting mad, I thought, “Okay - I’m just going to ignore it and she’ll stop. Right?’” So I continue to read, but I’ve got one eye on her the entire time. And then suddenly it hit me - she was acting out what was happening in the book. She was SO involved in the book that she was physically experiencing it.

SO I know sometimes that we have this idealized image in our mind of our loving children nestled in our lap, taking in every word of what we’re reading, but - truthfully that doesn’t always happen that way. The main thing is to not give up on that daily read aloud time.

Closing

Alright, that’s it for the Q&A section this week. If you have a question about how to connect kids between 8-12 to books they’ll love or an idea about a topic we should cover, I really would love to hear from you. You can email me at booksbetween@gmail.com or message me on Twitter/Instagram at the handle @Books_Between.

Thank you so much for joining me this week. You can get a full transcript of this show and all of our previous episodes at AlltheWonders.com. And when you are there, take some time to read a great post about Raina Telgemeier’s Ghosts by Mel Schuit. And, if you are liking the show, I’d love it if you helped others find us by sharing on social media or leaving a rating on iTunes or Stitcher.

Thanks and see you in two weeks!  Bye!

Intro

Hi and welcome to Books Between - a podcast to help teachers, parents, and librarians connect kids between 8-12 to books they’ll love. I’m your host, Corrina Allen - a 5th grade teacher, a mom of two hopeful girls, and  - and here. With you.  And doubling down on everything that is good in this world. On being that champion for books and for readers and an unflinching advocate for all children.

During this time of intense national division, it seems appropriate to pause, to reflect, to reassess, and ultimately to set some new priorities.

But, the version of that quote that I like best, the one that spurs me on now, is President Barack Obama’s from his 2008 speech commemorating Martin Luther King Jr’s March on Washington. He said, “The arc of the moral universe may bend towards justice, but it doesn’t bend on its own.”

How can I, as a reading advocate, work to bend that arc?  

What do I need to change within myself?

And how can I help children see beyond their bubble and into the lives of others in a way leads them to empathy and action?

First - we adults should read books that make us a little uncomfortable. We need to take a look within and ask ourselves, what pieces of the human experience have I overlooked? Seek out other perspectives, share those books with friends, and be vocal about what you are learning from them. Over the last week, I’ve been compiling lists of adult memoirs and nonfiction that will start to help me better understand the point of view of folks not like me. This week that started with reading Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. I’m hoping for new insight for myself and to pass along to the children in my life.  

Second - find your reading crew. And gather to inspire each other and sometimes push each other to think in new ways. Now, I’m in a women’s book club with some close family members. We’ve been meeting for 10 years. Last month, my sister-in-law recommended the YA novel, Challenger Deep by Neal Schusterman. I don’t often have time to read much Young Adult and I never would have picked it up myself, but reading that novel has forever changed the way I view mental illness. And helped me to have more patience and compassion.

And a final thought - if you want inspiration, if you want a testament to how incredible the kidlit community is, check out two things: 1. The hashtag #hugsfromkidlit and#2 The Declaration in Support of Children at thebrownbookshelf.com

The statement begins with the following:

Children’s literature may be the most influential literary genre of all. Picture books, chapter books, middle-grade and young-adult novels all serve the most noble of purposes: to satisfy the need for information, to entertain curious imaginations, to encourage critical thinking skills, to move and inspire. Within their pages, seeds of wisdom and possibility are sown.

Therefore we, the undersigned children’s book authors and illustrators*, do publicly affirm our commitment to using our talents and varied forms of artistic expression to help eliminate the fear that takes root in the human heart amid lack of familiarity and understanding of others; the type of fear that feeds stereotypes, bitterness, racism and hatred; the type of fear that so often leads to tragic violence and senseless death.

With paintbrushes and pens in hand, we, the undersigned, will continue to press toward the goals of equality, justice, and peace. We will write. We will draw. We will listen to the children. We invite you to join us. In the words of Ella Baker, “We who believe in freedom cannot rest.”

https://thebrownbookshelf.com/2016/11/14/a-declaration-in-support-of-children/

And I will simply add, that if we want to bend that moral arc we have to pull on it with all our might. And harness our strengths and our passions to work joyfully toward equality and justice.

Thank you again and we will be back in two weeks!  

Intro

Main Topic - Common Classroom Library Mistakes (And How to Fix Them) - Part 2

#1 - Not getting rid of old books.

#2 - Not having an easy check-out system.  

#3 - Not changing how books are displayed

#4 - Not having enough non-fiction

#5 - Not having a clear organizational system

#6 - Not having student input into what books are included in the library  

#7 - Not having the second book in a series

There are few things more frustrating as a reader than finishing a book on a cliffhanger and having to WAIT to get your hands on that second book.  There’s also no more exciting thing than that anticipation! But… if you want readers to delve deeply into a series or make a connection with an author, it helps to have some of the next books available. I think that’s especially important when a more picky reader finally finds a series that they like. You really want to keep that momentum going and get them into that next book quickly before their enthusiasm wanes or they forget parts of the plot. I’m not saying you have to have EVERY single book in a series, but at least the first few of popular ones like Warriors, Dork Diaries, or the Percy Jackson series are good to have on hand.

#8 - Not having enough diversity

This is so, so important. And always has been, but finally there’s more attention being paid to this issue now. I started to ask myself, Does my classroom library reflect not only the students in my school but also the wider world? Will they find characters like themselves in those pages? And will they be the main character and not just the sidekick.  Diversity can take so many forms: race, ethnicity, gender, family structure, religious views, gender identity, and disability (which is such a broad term but encompasses so many things from physical and cognitive disabilities to addiction). Campaigns like #WeNeedDiverseBooks and websites like disabilityinkidlit.com help keep the conversation going and provide resources and recommendations. One enlightening thing you can do with your students is to have THEM analyze the diversity in the classroom library. There’s a phenomenal blog post from Jess at Crawling Out of the Classroom with complete instructions and downloadable tally sheets you can use to make this really easy if you want to give it a try. I’ll put a link in the shownotes for you but I am definitely doing that this year. I think it will be eye-opening for me, and eye-opening for my students.

#9 - Not having anything other than books

I’ll say up front that I am still working on fixing this one. But some of the teachers I know with the most inspiring classroom libraries also make sure they include some up-to-date magazines, audio books, or travel brochures. I wish I could remember where I heard it or read about it, but one teacher or librarian collects sports car brochures that they nab from dealerships for their kids to read. How cool is that?

#10 - Not having a variety of levels

As I have mentioned on a previous episode - don’t dis the picture books!  Picture books, easier Chapter Books, more challenging higher level MG - all should have a home in well-stocked classroom library.  It embarasses me to admit, but when I used to buy books for my class, I would envision the typical on-grade-level reader and mainly get books targeted there. Now, I’m really trying to expand that out and also book talk more picture books and short chapter books so kids realize reading all kinds of books is okay.

#11 - Not taking care of the books

This is another lesson that took me WAY too long to learn. I would just get a book from the store or Scholastic, pop my name inside, and simply put it on the shelf and hope for the best.

And you never want to get mad at a kid for accidentally wrecking a book or getting it dirty - I mean - heck - many of my books have chocolate smears or stains from spaghetti sauce.  But - it’s worth some time and a bit of money to protect the investment of the books. So, teach kids how to care for books - using a bookmark, not bending corners of pages, and being gentle with them.  One thing I do now is cover all the new books I get with clear contact paper. I always have a couple rolls on standby near my dining room table so whenever I have a spare minute I can toss aside the tablecloth and cover a few books.

#12 - Not having anything new

Up until last year,  I would never purchase a new release - hardcovers are expensive! And sometimes you don’t know if they’re going to like it or not! But I have come to change my mind. Having a fresh new book that first week or even first day it’s released - it’s exciting! You’re in on the buzz about that book! Some of my students last spring were actually counting down the days to Kwame Alexander’s release of Booked because they loved The Crossover so much. And when I brought that book in the DAY it was available and cracked open the pages and we smelled the fresh new book smell - every kid in class signed up to get that book. Having new books also gets students paying attention to the work of their favorite authors and they’re on lookout themselves for new releases. I see some teachers even post a book release calendar in their classroom to boost that excitement. I am totally stealing that idea! Plus, it signals to kids that books aren’t old, dusty, unchanging things. There are fresh, new exciting books being born into the world every Tuesday.

My hope is that you won’t make the many mistakes I did when first starting to gather titles for a classroom library and that your collection will start off in a much better place. Now, already, I am sure there are things I have missed, so please let me know. You can tag me on Twitter or Instagram or email me at booksbetween@gmail.com and I’ll share some of your thoughts and ideas in an upcoming episode!

Book Talk - Three Novels with Surprising Twists

In this segment, I share with you three books centered around a theme and discuss three things to love about each book. This week I’m sharing three novels with shocking plot twists: The Children of Exile, Be Light Like a Bird, and The Inquisitor’s Tale.  These three books are very different - one is science fiction, one is contemporary fiction, and one is historical fiction. But all three had my jaw dropping at some point in the book.

The Children of Exile

The first book I want to share with you today is Children of Exile by Margaret Peterson Haddix. You may be familiar with her previous book Among the Hidden, which is the first novel in her Shadow Children series. Children of Exile is the first of what I am told will be a trilogy. It’s about 12 year old Rosi, who is being raised with her little brother in a small, structured, safe Utopian community called Fredtown. Due to some mysterious event in the past, Rosi and all the other children in her community were taken away from their home and their biological parents as infants and are now being raised by adults called “Freds”. Rosi and her estranged friend Edwy are the two oldest kids and are expected to look out for all the younger children. But that task gets incredibly difficult when abruptly they are sent back home to a world that is anything but safe, structured, and nurturing. So here are three things to love about The Children of Exile:

1. Fredtown  - I am not sure what it says about me, but I wanted to go live in Fredtown. There is order, reasonable rules, gentle parenting, and I particularly liked the guidelines around consent and power. Children are taught to ask permission before touching or tickling and they learn that it is immoral to overpower those that are younger or weaker than you. I would totally sign up to go live in Fredtown! And they memorize founding principles that are secular and based on the best human philosophies. For example, one of their principles is “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”  And another is “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” Which has you wondering… how did sayings from Martin Luther King, Jr, and Nelson Mandela find their way into this society?
2. Big Themes - There is so much good stuff packed into these 43 chapters. This would make an excellent book club selection. There’s so much to talk about: racism, prejudice, human extinction, sacrifice, acceptance, religious tolerance, and how a common enemy can bring people together in ways you wouldn’t expect.
3. The Cliffhangers - Haddix is a master at getting you to turn the page! Just a sampling, here’s the last line of Chapter 6: “Then someone grabbed my shoulder.” (Ahhh!) And later, at the end of Chapter 19: “...sneak out and meet me. There’s something I have to show you.”  And I defy you to get to page 266 and stop reading. At that point, you are IN IT until the end.

The Children of Exile is unputdownable and will have you reeling in those final chapters.  It’s kind of like The City of Ember with a twist of The Twilight Zone and a great science fiction title to offer your middle grade readers.

Be Light Like a Bird

The second novel I want to talk about is a quieter book but the narrative builds to this moment of surprise that suddenly has you rethinking every character interaction that came before. Be Light Like a Bird by Monika Schröder is the story of Wren, a 12 year-old girl whose life is unraveling after her father suddenly dies in a plane crash. Her mother, instead of comforting her only child, is angry and decides to rip the girl away from her home and take her in the car across the country looking for a new start.  They finally end up in Michigan where Wren makes unexpected friends, finds a cause to get behind, and slowly learns the truth about her mother’s erratic behavior.  Here are three reasons to love about Be Light Like a Bird:

1. How well the author gets that school setting.You can tell that Schröder has experience as a librarian and teacher in the descriptions of classroom life and interactions between the kids. Just as one example, there is a scene where Wren’s new teacher announces “Our next assignment will be a partner project.” And let me read to you what happens next:  

Everyone in the class quickly sought to make eye contact with their prefered partner. I looked over to Carrie, but her eyes were locked onto Victoria’s.

“I will assign the partners,” Mrs. Peters said as she handed out the papers.

Last week partners had been assigned randomly, with the help of the sticks of doom - Popsicle sticks that had our names written on them in black marker. Mrs. Peters would close her eyes and pull out two sticks, then read the names aloud, and that was that. It seemed fair to me. At least chance determined whom you had to work with. But this time, Mrs. Peters announced that we’d be working with someone at our table. As she went around the room assigning team partners, I held my breath and squeezed my thumbs inside my fists, hoping for a miracle.

1. How nature brings the characters together. One of the reasons that I really connected to Wren was that she’s a bird watcher - something I don’t do as much now, but just like Wren - I had a bird book by my side and recorded the date, location, and time of my bird sightings. (Personally, I was never very good at it. One day I spent 10 minutes looking at a pinecone through my binoculars trying to figure out what rare sparrow I was seeing my backyard.) Wren’s new birdwatching spot is Pete’s Pond - a quiet, calming place for her. Until it’s threatened and that it the catalyst which finally gets her to start connecting with other people and attempt to save it.
2. How well the author understands grief and represents it as this cloud that hovers over Wren.  There’s a scene where Wren is sitting in her father’s old car and inhaling the scent that is tied so intensely with her happy memories of him. When she starts a new school, she doesn’t tell anyone that her father recently died - not because she wants to forget it, but because she doesn’t want to be defined by that and also other people’s reactions are hard to deal with. And the importance of a friend who will simply let you cry by their side.

Be Light Like a Bird is about family and friendship and grief. And ultimately - grief over what we had that was lost, but also grief over what we thought we had. It’s a beautiful book.

The Inquisitor’s Tale

1. I have to start with the illustrations. Just like many real medieval texts had illuminations in the margins, The Inquisitor’s Tale includes dozens and dozens of intricate sketches by Hatem Aly. There is so much to explore there but I think what is most fascinating is the note at the beginning of the novel explaining that the drawings might actually contradict or question the text.
2. That profound mix of humor, philosophy, and yes - savagery. There are gross jokes galore in this book. And I love how that is mixed in with deep philosophical and religious discussions between the children. At one point, Jacob asks that eternal question: Why would a good God let bad things happen?  This is a book about saints and at some point it dawns on the children that most saints are martyred. In high school, I worked evenings in the rectory (the office) at St. Cecelia’s church and during down times, I would read this dusty old copy of Lives of the Saints. And the stories in there were appallingly gruesome - and this novel doesn’t really shy away from the awfulness of that. But, it does give some hope that people with intensely different beliefs might still find a way to work together and be friends.
3. The character twists! I don’t want to say too much and ruin it, so I’m really holding a lot back here, but all throughout this book, you meet the most vile, nastiest characters and then suddenly… it flips and one of the narrators helps you see their point of view. And even if they’ve still DONE terrible things, you have more empathy for them. Then you realize that one of the key characters that have been telling you this story - You. Can’t. Trust.  Ahhhh!  I LOVED it - this book had me gleefully yelling at the pages.

Q & A

Our third and final segment this week is Question & Answer time.

Question:

Last week we had our first round of parent-teacher conferences, and the reading specialist and I were asked the following question: “I keep buying my son tons of books. He seems excited about reading them, but then he rarely finishes. What can I do?”

Answer:

So here were our suggestions.  My thought was to help them build some momentum in the book by reading it with them to start off. So, you might read aloud the first few chapters together - maybe alternating who is reading it out loud. Then, make a plan where you each read the next chapter on your own and meet up to chat about it in a couple days. Then you might increase that to two chapters or three or pull back if they are getting confused.

My colleague, Kelly, recommended finding books with shorter chapters. It’s easier to stay focused when the reading chunks are smaller.

And we both agreed that helping kids understand that every book has a slow part is important. But, if you can shepherd them through that part, it does pick up again.

Closing

Okay that’s it for the Q&A section this week. If you have a question about how to connect kids between 8-12 to books they’ll love or an idea about a topic we should cover, I really would love to hear from you. You can email me at booksbetween@gmail.com or message me on Twitter/Instagram at the handle @Books_Between.

Thanks and see you in two weeks!  Bye!

Intro

Hi and Welcome to Books Between - a podcast to help teachers, parents, and librarians connect kids between 8-12 to books they’ll love. I’m your host, Corrina Allen - a 5th grade teacher, a mom of two girls, and super excited about my Hermione Granger Halloween costume this year!

This is Episode #9 and today we’re talking about common classroom library mistakes (and how to fix them), three spooky series, and I’ll answer a question about read aloud options for a 4th grade class.

Main Topic - Common Classroom Library Mistakes (And How to Fix Them) - Part 1

It’s pretty clear just how important it is to have a library within your classroom. In fact, our main focus of Episode #2 was all about why your students need that vibrant classroom library. But I will admit that I’ve made some major mistakes that really limited how effective my classroom could be.  In fact - when I went to go list them all, it ended being too much for one episode. So this one will be a two-parter. And if you are a librarian or parent listening today, there’s still a lot you can take away from today’s topic when thinking about your books and other materials you have for your kids.  So here are six common mistakes that teachers sometimes make with their classroom libraries - and some ideas on how to fix them.

#1 - Not getting rid of old books.

This took me so long to learn. It literally still PAINS me to even think about just throwing away a book.  But about a year ago, I started to notice that copies of old, yellowed, dusty titles with ripped pages and outdated cover art were taking up a lot of precious real estate in my class. And for no reason - they were NEVER getting checked out. They just didn’t have any curb appeal. And they were bringing down the overall vibe of our library.

So give yourself permission to purge. Finally just last year I let myself take the 12 tattered copies of The Voyages of Dr. Doolittle and those other musty old books and box them up and put them away. And I truly felt guilty about that. Some were donations from parents or other teachers.  It’s okay to recycle them.

#2 - Not having an easy check-out system.  

I’ve tried just about every system on the block - from a simple form on a clipboard for name, date and title to using the Booksource App where students scan the barcode on the book to check out and then check it in.  But eventually I found that even the seemingly quick and simple act of writing down their name and the title of the book was slowing down that free exchange of books and had the unintended effect of kids not wanting to check books out of the library because it was too cumbersome.  Also - it added a small element of tension when kids would forget to sign a book back in or keep it out too long. And I want the tone of our library to be all positive.

I do know that many teachers are having success with quick procedures and systems to check out books.  I just have never been able to make it work. So as much as I would love a beautifully ordered library where I know the whereabouts of every title - it’s more important to me that kids can swap books easily with each other and there’s no barrier to trying something. For example, just yesterday I pulled a stack of 5 books that Logan might like, set them on his desk, and he was free to browse them leisurely and bring one or two home to read.  Do I have books Missing in Action?  Yeah - you bet! But I’m willing to risk it so my students have more access to books. And they also really appreciate being trusted in that way.

#3 - Not changing how books are displayed

So for example, for months I had my bins of Realistic Fiction front and center in my classroom library. They were top shelf - most visible and most checked out.  While my biographies and historical fiction languished on the bottom shelf. And I didn’t even think anything of it until I switched them on a whim one afternoon and noticed that - a ha! -  more kids were taking out the biographies and historical fiction when they didn’t have to bend over to get them. Also - if you have your library organized by bins - another idea is to switch which title is in the front sometimes.  

#4 - Not having enough non-fiction

I have to say - this has been a major error on my part, and I’m still working on fixing it.  I tend love the story - a heartfelt narrative. And I didn’t intend to ignore non-fiction, I just had blinders on.  But I’ve been hearing from a lot of other teachers who are in the same boat.

So - I’ve made a conscious effort to get more informational books for my students and listen for topics they are interested in. The more I started to pay attention to non-fiction, the more I realized how many fantastic titles are out there now. And I made a deal with myself that I would get at least one non-fiction title every time I bought books.  

#5 - Not Having a Clear Organizational System

It’s tough to keep a classroom library organized - our days are hectic, and it’s all you can do sometimes to keep up with everything. But having some system in place is really key. Whether you alphabetize by author’s last name, sort by genre, or pick a different route - make sure your students know where to find things and also how to put them back. Another fantastic idea that I’ve seen is to get your students’ input about how to organize the classroom library and have them in charge of it. If you do that at the beginning of the year, what an amazing way to have them examine every book offered and take some ownership of it.

#6 - Not having student input into what books are included in the library.  

When I first got my own classroom, I could not wait to stock it full of my own favorites from my childhood - Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden mysteries, all the Little House books, my extensive (and yellowed) collection of Baby-Sitters Club novels, and tons of Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary books.  But honestly, the 6th graders I had at the time rarely checked them out.

Instead - have your students help you. One thing I’ve seen teachers do is post a Wishlist on the wall next to your bookshelves so when students have an idea of a title you should have, they just jot it down.  Then you can take that list with you when you’re headed to your local bookstore or submitting your Scholastic order, and you KNOW you’re getting books they want to read. It also helps to simply listen when they rave about a favorite series or author so you can include those as you build your library.  Making sure that the student’s choices are at the forefront really drives home the fact that this library is THEIRS - not all about you. And I think they’re more likely to get attached to that library when they know their voices are heard and their opinion matters.

This is a big topic and we’ll continue it in the next episode. But for now, what classroom library mistakes have you made and more importantly - how did you go about fixing them? Let’s connect and learn from each other. You can tag me on Twitter or Instagram or

email me at booksbetween@gmail.com and I’ll share some of your thoughts and ideas in an upcoming episode!

Book Talk - Three Spooky Series

In this segment, I share with you three books centered around a theme and discuss three things to love about each book. This week I’m sharing three delightfully spooky series: The Haunted Library, 43 Old Cemetery Road, and The Books of Elsewhere.

The Haunted Library

The first book we’re talking about today is The Haunted Library by Dori Hillestad Butler. It’s about a young ghost named Kaz who finds himself separated from his ghost family when the old schoolhouse they were living in is demolished and they are all carried off in different directions by the wind. Kaz ends up in a library where he meets a girl named Claire - unique because she can see ghosts and hear them when they talk. Among his problems, Kaz doesn’t like to pass through objects or walls like other ghosts so his movements are limited. And Kaz is very afraid of Claire and all the non-ghost humans he encounters. At least at first. Eventually Claire and Kaz do team up to figure out the identify of the ghost who is haunting the library. So here are three things to love about Dori Butler’s The Haunted Library:

1. Fun Glossary  - At the front of the book is a one page list of really cute ghostly terms used in the novel. Again - this is a cute spooky and not a scary spooky book. For example, “skizzy” is when a ghost feels sick to their stomach - like when people walk through Kaz. At one point he even pukes on Claire! And “Solids” are what ghosts call living humans and animals and also objects they can’t see through.
2. Illustrations - There are lots of black and white drawings throughout the book, and I love that vintage 50’s style that Aurore Damant has captured here. It fits the tone perfectly. Plus the little details of the dotted scrolls around each page number and the matching chapter headings add that special touch of ornamentation that makes you feel like you are reading something well put-together.
3. The fun of figuring out the rules of the supernatural system in this series. That is part of what I think makes fantasy so fun to read because you have to figure out that world. Just like when I start a new vampire book and I ask myself, Okay - are these sparkle in the sun Twilight-type vampires or are they sizzle in the sun Sookie Stackhouse-type vampires? Or something entirely different? In The Haunted Library, we’re asking ourselves - Can the ghosts eat? Do they sleep? Can they make sounds that humans can hear? And most interestingly here - where do they come from? Typically, ghosts are presented as the souls of once living people, but in this world, they seem to have no memory of a past life and they have families with kids and grandparents. Almost like they are from another parallel dimension. There is SO much to explore in this series and so much get your kids wondering.

The Haunted Library is really cute and not too scary. At 125 pages with larger print, it’s perfect for younger middle grade readers or older kids who want something light and playful.  And there are at least 8 in the series so there’s plenty of semi-spooky fun to look forward to.

43 Old Cemetery Road

Another fun and spooky series is 43 Old Cemetery Road by Kate Klise with illustrations by M. Sarah Klise, her sister. The first book in the series, Dying to Meet You, is the story of a formerly-famous children’s book author, Ignatius B. Grumply, who rents an old run down Victorian house on Cemetery Road. He thinks he’s getting a quiet place to write his latest overdue novel so his publisher will get off his back and he can get out of debt. Instead, he discovers that he is sharing the house with a ghost (he doesn’t believe in ghosts), a young boy (he hates kids), and a cat (he’s allergic to cats). And there begins the conflicts and hilarity. This series had some of my most devoted fans last year. And with good reason. Here are three reasons my students and I loved about this book and this series:

1. Character’s Names - The wordplay in these books are oh-so-clever - especially with the names of the characters. Grumply’s publisher is called Paige Turner, his real estate agent is Anita Sale, the young boy living in the house is Seymour Hope, and the ghost is Olive C. Spence.  It’s just a really fun read.
2. How letters and articles tell the story - The 43 Old Cemetery Road series is the perfect way to introduce your kid to the term “epistolary novel.” And boy do they get it right here. The letters from each character have their own clear tone and their own individual font. Your kids will love the articles and drawings that go with the letters and it’s a book that you can read quickly.
3. The authors - Kate & Sarah Klise are sisters and have teamed up to write an impressive number of really fun books like The Three-Ring Rascals series and the Regarding series, which are also mysteries told in letter form. My students really got into exploring their website and blog last year where they share letters they get from fans and pictures from their travels. I just LOVE them - and they make such a great team.

If you want to know more about the 43 Old Cemetery Road books, take a peek at their website kateandsarahklise.com. And I’ll pop a link to that right in the shownotes for you.

The Books Of Elsewhere

Our last featured spooky series this week is The Books of Elsewhere by Jacqueline West. The first book, The Shadows, is about an eleven-year-old girl named Olive who has recently moved into a spectacularly creepy house. When the previous owner, Mrs. McMartin, died without heirs, everything was left behind - including books, clothes, and dozens of mysterious paintings that will not budge from the walls. Olive’s parents, both genius Math scholars, are a little distracted and Olive has the run of house. So she sets off to explore every nook and cranny and eventually notices that there are windows on the outside that don’t match the rooms on the inside. When she finds an antique pair of spectacles, she realizes that she can go into any painting in the house. And the story gets deliciously dark from there…  So on to three things to love about The Books of Elsewhere:

1. The Cats - Like any great paranormal mystery, there are strange cats in this novel. In fact, I just realized that all the three books I’ve talked about today have cats in them. In this book - we get three: Horatio, Harvey, and Leopold.  Olive first discovers that something is magical in this house when Horatio jumps through her bedroom window and has a conversation with her about being on her guard in the house. What I enjoyed the most about the cats were that you couldn’t tell whose side they were on.
2. Morton - Morton is a young boy who Olive discovers hiding in one of the creepiest, darkest paintings in the house - the one big painting of the moonlight and dark forest. Morton is dressed in an old-fashioned white nightshirt and when Olives tries to ask him questions, he’s both confused and stubborn all at the same time. Eventually we piece together the clues about where (and when) he might have come from, and oh - poor Morton!
3. The House - Much like Jason Segel and Kristin Miller’s book Nightmares and Clive Barker’s The Thief of Always, the house in this book seems to have its own personality. It’s beyond haunted and seems to try to lure Olive into its grasp. Like many old Victorian houses, this one has a terrifying basement. And a chilling secret.

The Haunted Library, 43 Old Cemetery Road, and The Books of Elsewhere are three great paranormal series for getting into the perfect creepy mood - whether that’s in October or anytime of year.

Q & A

Our last segment this week is Question & Answer time.

Question:

Within the span of a week, I had two friends ask essentially the same question: “What are some great and engaging read-alouds for 4th graders?”

Answer:

I have three suggestions. (If you haven’t noticed, I kinda like the number three….)  

Suggestion #1 - Deborah and James Howe’s Bunnicula

I am reading this out loud right now to my own 4th grader, and it has really held up well from my own memory of it. And I had totally forgotten that cool editor’s note at the beginning that says the manuscript was dropped off by a dog who claims to be the author. So now you have to wonder - is this dog really a reliable narrator or does he have his own agenda?

Suggestion #2 - Phil Bildner’s A Whole New Ballgame  

I’ve talked about the Rip & Red series previously in Episode #4 but it is worth another plug. This book is fast-paced fun with likeable characters going through real-life school related stuff. I have no doubt 4th graders would love it.

My third suggestion that would be a phenomenal 4th grade read aloud is Peter Brown’s The Wild Robot - It’s about a shipwrecked robot named Roz who gets washed up on the shore of an island inhabited only by animals. And she ends up caring for an orphaned gosling and making a mark on the island. It’s just so different than anything else out there and the small chapters work perfectly to read aloud during the small moments of your day. Plus - doing the voice of Roz is a riot. I had more fun reading this book out loud than any other novel I’ve ever read aloud.

Those are my three suggestions for awesome 4th grade read alouds - Bunnicula, A Whole New Ballgame, and The Wild Robot. You can’t go wrong any of them!

Closing

Alright - that’s it for the Q&A section this week. If you have a question about how to connect middle grade readers to books they’ll love or an idea about a topic we should cover, I really would love to hear from you. You can email me at booksbetween@gmail.com or message me on Twitter/Instagram at the handle @Books_Between.

Thank you so much for joining me this week. You can get a full transcript of this show with links to every book and resource I talked about today by going to BooksBetween.com/9 which will take you to our home at All the Wonders where you can discover other wonderful kidlit resources. And, if you are liking the show, please help others find us too by telling a friend, sharing on social media or leaving a rating on iTunes or Stitcher.

Thanks and see you in a couple of weeks!  Bye!

Intro

Hi and Welcome to Books Between - a podcast to help teachers, parents, and librarians connect kids between 8-12 to books they’ll love. I’m your host, Corrina Allen - a teacher, a mom of two girls, and so excited to announce that this podcast has a new home at AlltheWonders.com - the place for readers to discover fabulous new books and experience those stories in amazing ways. I am beyond thrilled to be part of their team and help inspire more connections to books and authors. And to celebrate that, we have a gorgeous new logo designed by the incredible illustrator and author Brianne Farley. Her new picture book, Secret Tree Fort is a huge favorite in my home.  Also - we are celebrating with a great giveaway which I’ll tell you more about at the end of the podcast, so stay tuned!

This is Episode #8 and today we’re talking about keeping track of your reading life, three incredible new school-centered novels, and I’ll answer a question about how to talk with kids about their book when you haven’t read it.

Main Topic - Tracking Your Reading Life

Lately I have noticed a lot of conversation and push back against the practice of requiring students to keep a daily signed-by-parents reading log to attempt to hold kids accountable for their reading.  As a parent and a teacher, I understand that impulse to encourage our children to read every day and to have something tangible as evidence of that. But I do think there are more authentic ways to help kids track their reading life that are based more on what strong readers actually do in real life.  

I think about this conversation today as having two layers. First is tracking your own reading life to get more out of your reading and to be a strong role model for the children in your life. And second, guiding children to keep track of their reading lives.

So with that in mind, today we’ll discuss why you and your students should consider keeping track of your reading, thoughts about what to track, and then finally a few ideas for different digital or analog ways to track your reading life.

Why You Should Keep Track of Your Reading Life

To begin with, let’s talk about why you should keep track of your reading. I have gone through periods in my life when I am recording all different aspects of my reading, and there have been times when I’m not. But when that’s going well, you feel such a sense of accomplishment. It’s fulfilling to look back and see how many books or pages you’ve read. And that motivates you to keep going. Another thing that naturally comes out of recording your reading is that you start to notice patterns that otherwise you might miss. For me, I noticed that I was reading a lot of fantasy and very little historical fiction. Bringing awareness to those patterns and ruts can lead you to set goals and strive toward them. Another benefit of tracking your reading life is that it helps you remember more details about what you read, especially if you jot down a little bit of information about the setting, characters, or topics in a nonfiction text. Having that information really helps you make better recommendations to children and when they are recording what they read, they can make better recommendations to each other. And that’s really what you want to see - kids connecting kids with books.  And one more long-term benefit of tracking your reading is that after many years, those documents become nostalgic. They are a snapshot in time of who you were at that moment. One of my most treasured items from high school is the “To Be Read” list I started my senior year when I was really inspired by a teacher to push my reading in a different direction. So hang on to them!

What to Track

Now that I have hopefully persuaded you to track your reading and encourage the children in your life to do the same, let’s talk about what you could track. A good place to start is the basics of what you read: title, author/illustrator, date you started and finished. I also like to include a rating, a note about genre and who recommended it to me. Those are all items that I also ask my students to record as well. Another great thing to record is an ongoing TBR (To Be Read) list of books you want to read so you’re never left with that “I don’t know what to read next!” feeling. Of course, sometimes you can have the opposite problem of having TOO many awesome books to read next.  Also - recording progress toward reading challenges can be fun. I participate in the #SixtyBooks challenge and many of my students are doing the 40 Book Challenge so they keep track for that. Jotting down inspiring quotes or “Wow!” moments from non-fiction as well as your own reflections and connections to books, can be another way to get the most out of your reading life. And encouraging students to do that as well keeps things authentic.

Reading habits are another really interesting thing you can record. For example, you could record the number of minutes you read each day, the number of pages, numbers of days in a row that you read at least 20 minutes, or track the genres you’ve read over a certain time frame. Some adults and some children really love to get into the nitty-gritty with keeping track of all kinds of things. During last summer’s library reading program, my older daughter got into setting a timer and inputting all the minutes she read into the computer to watch that number grow. And if something like that inspires a kid to read more, then great. For me, I’m always thinking of the balance between reading time and recording time and putting the emphasis more on the reading. Especially in the classroom where time is so precious.

Ways to Track Your Reading Life

Finally, let’s chat about some different digital or analog ways to track reading. Let’s start with digital. Some favorite spots for adults and older children are websites like Goodreads or LibraryThing where you can track books read, participate in challenge groups, and connect with other readers. Those sites are nice because they generate great statistics for you about your reading habits. If you are looking for something similar to Goodreads but for younger kids, Biblionasium and Bookopolis are worth checking out. A spreadsheet or word document works, too - and Google Docs are nice if you want to share your lists with someone else. There are also some apps you can use like Book Crawler, Litsy, or BookBuddy or even a basic To-Do app with “reading” as one of the items you track. I notice too that more and more people use Instagram and Snapchat as a spot to post the books they’ve read. All of those can be really engaging ways for you and your kids to connect with others about their reading.

On the other hand, you could go with a pen and paper analog method. During the first week of school, my students and I set up our reading journals with sections to record the books we’ve read, our TBR lists, and our new colorful circle genre tracker. If you are interested in taking a peek at that, I’ll post a picture in the shownotes and a link to where you can download the student version. The kind of notebook you use is really all about your preference. My students use spiral notebooks but composition notebooks are good, too. For me, I am very attached to my black Leuchtturm 1917 dotted hardcover notebook which I use as my bullet journal. So, if you’re not familiar with bullet journaling, it’s essentially a combination of planner, to-do list, and habit tracker. I use my bullet journal to keep track of everything including my reading life. I’ll post a few pictures on the website if you’re interesting in seeing how that looks.

However, I’m really interested in seeing and sharing your ideas. What benefits do you see for tracking your reading life and what methods do you prefer? If you have a second, email me at booksbetween@gmail.com or tag me in a photo on Twitter or Instagram to share how you keep track of your reading life.

Book Talk - Three Incredible New School-Centered Novels

In this segment, I share with you three books centered around a theme and discuss three things to love about each book. This week I’ll be talking about  three fabulous school-centered novels that I have not stopped talking about this summer: The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, Save Me a Seat, and Ms. Bixby’s Last Day.

The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary

The first book I want to share with you and that I hope you share with your children, is The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary by Laura Shovan. This is a novel in verse, but it’s not like most other poetry narratives. The premise here is that the 18 children of Ms. Hill’s fifth grade write poems about their year to put in a time capsule to commemorate the closing of their elementary school. So the story is told one poem a day from the point of view of each of the students as some deal with personal struggles and some take on the task of saving their school. So here are three things to love about Laura Shovan’s The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary:

1. There are tiny square sketches of each student to accompany their poems. And it’s a small thing, literally, but that touch really helped me imprint each different voice with the image of that character. It made it easier to recognize the narrative threads that pop up in later poems.
2. How the author presents the problem of the school being torn down with nuance. It’s not that the Board of Ed is evil and selling out to some faceless corporation. And not all the students agree that it’s a bad idea. And yet, this novel truly recognizes how deeply meaningful a building can be. My middle school was torn down about ten years ago and even though my middle school years were rough, I felt so sad to see that building ripped down. It was beautiful with hardwood floors and a cool spiral staircase in the back. Don’t tell anyone, but I actually stole a brick from the construction site when they were tearing it down.
3. Putting on my teacher hat now - the poetry resources in the back of this book are phenomenal. I got ridiculously excited when I saw them. You get great descriptions of every type of poem used in the novel, topic suggestions for kids, and it tells you the page number where you can find the examples of that kind of poem in the book. Also - it has 15 poetry writing prompts that I’m really excited about sharing with my students this year. This is a book that teachers are going to want within reach when planning to teach some poetry - either within a full poetry unit or throughout the year for some fun writing exercises.

It takes so much skill to tell a cohesive story from multiple points of view and so much skill to convey a narrative through poetry that this novel amazed me.

Kids who really like that growing field of novels in verse are going eat up this book. And if you know a kid who likes to write, this book would be the perfect one to put in their hands to inspire some creativity.

Save Me a Seat

Another new and wonderful school - centered novel released recently is Save Me a Seat by Sarah Weeks and Gita Varadarajan. This is another multiple point of view book, alternating between the perspectives of two 5th grade boys -  Joe and Ravi. Joe is tall, a little awkward, and is working through a learning disability. Because of that, he’s a target for the popular, thieving school bully, Dillon Samreen. At least, he is until Ravi arrives. Ravi is small, self-confident (at first), and as a recent immigrant from India, he is a bit socially awkward. I read Save Me a Seat as our bedtime read aloud at home with my daughters over the summer. My nine-year-old loved it so much that she swiped it from my nightstand and snuck it into her bedroom with a flashlight to finish reading it on her own.

Here are three reasons why we all loved this book:

1. The authors recognize the importance of pronouncing names correctly.  My youngest daughter, Helena, and I both have names that are often mispronounced and I deeply appreciate people who try to get it right. My former principal called me “Core-IN-uh” for the entire time I knew her. And she was wonderful and fiercely protective of her staff but I was so intimidated by her as a young new teacher that I just couldn’t bring myself to tell her that she was saying it wrong. So, I think a lot of kids can relate to Ravi’s frustration when everyone calls him RAH-vee instead of Ra-VEE.
2. Story structured around the lunch menu for the days of the week. The novel only takes place during the first week of school but so much happens that I had to go back and double check. At first I thought, “Oh, that’s a cute device” that the first part is Monday: Chicken Fingers, Tuesday: Hamburgers, but when I got to Wednesday:Chili, I started to realize how the lunch food each day ends up playing a much bigger part than I first thought. At the back of this book, there are also two recipes that also play a part in the story: Apple Crisp and an Indian cookie named Naan Khatai (NON-cuh-tie).
3. In this book, there is that rare and perfect balance of tension and humor. Often, the reader knows the trouble that’s coming because Joe is well aware of Dillon Samreen’s bullying and thievery.  But Ravi doesn’t know all that. And Ravi reasonably thinks that Dillon might be a good friend and ally - he’s also from an Indian family and Dillon has been smiling and winking at him. Dillon is a great villain and you just want to keep reading to see if he gets what’s coming to him.

Save Me a Seat is a fantastic book for kids who enjoy humor mixed in with a really inspiring story. And - you can try out some recipes when you’re done reading, too.

Ms. Bixby’s Last Day

Our final school-centered book this week is John David Anderson’s novel Ms. Bixby’s Last Day. This book is amazing and there hasn’t been a day that’s gone by since I read it that I haven’t thought about it.  It’s about three 6th grade boys (Topher, Brand, and Steve) who find out that their teacher, Ms. Bixby, has cancer and her last day at school will be next Friday. The whole class plans a going away party for her but she unexpectedly ends up in the hospital earlier than she thought. And so, these three boys decide to bring their amazing “last day” celebration to her. I’ve read a lot of great books this summer, but this one was different. I found myself slowing down as the pages dwindled because I didn’t want to let those characters go. I just wanted to spend a little more time with them.  There are so many fabulous things to say about this book that it’s hard to narrow it down to just three, but - here we go:

1. How much the storyline is a Quest - Topher, Brand, and Steve are three intrepid heroes braving dangerous territory (skipping school and taking a the bus downtown alone) to collect their sacred objects to make their farewell to Ms. Bixby as perfect as possible. Throughout their journey they have side excursions into dusty old book shops, a bakery, and even a run-in at a liquor store.
2. It’s a small thing, but if you have the hardcover and peek under the dust jacket, you will see a little hidden message from the boys. I think it is so fitting because at the end of the story as you learn more and more about the boys’ relationships with Ms. Bixby through their flashbacks, it’s revealed that Topher, Brand, and Steven each have a small but powerful moment with her that they have kept secret.
3. Topher’s breakdown of the six kinds of teachers you get like the worksheet loving Zombies, the jittery fast-talking caffeine-addicts, the strict Dungeon-Masters, or the Spielbergs who just show movies all the time. But - Ms. Bixby is what he calls a Good One. And he names a few cool things about her like her pink hair and her python. But I think this paragraph gets at the heart of it. Let me read you a bit from page 30. “There were other things, too, little things. Like how she always chose The Hobbit as the class read-aloud and had different voices for every character. How she could be strict when she needed to be and sweet when she wanted to be and kind of a smart aleck all the times in between.  But mostly there was the way she listened to you, giving you her full attention. All the other teachers, they’d keep looking around the room when you talked, but Ms. Bixby fixed you with her eyes and waited for you to finish no matter how long it took you to figure out what you wanted to say.”

This is a book that will live in your heart and your students’ hearts for a long, long time. As a side-note - I SO want a taste of that white-chocolate raspberry supreme cheesecake!   You and your students are going to love Ms. Bixby’s Last Day. And at the end of the show today, I’ll tell you how you can get a chance to win a class set of this book.

Q & A

Our last segment this week is Question & Answer time.

Question:

Last week at my school we had Parent Information Night and one of the questions asked of my teammate was, “How can I talk to my child about their reading, if I haven’t read the book?”

Answer:

We chatted about it for a little bit that night, but I didn’t get across what I wanted to, and I have been stewing about it for the last few weeks. So, if I had a do-over, here is what I would say:

First, it’s fantastic that you’re making time to connect with your child about their reading. Simply expressing interest and enthusiasm about their book is more important than any particular question you could ask. Sometimes a simple comment like, “That book looks interesting - what’s it about?” opens up the conversation in a more natural way than if you try to read off a set of predetermined questions that never changes. Or, if you want to ask more targeted questions, instead of “Please describe three traits of the main character.” you could say “Tell me more about Ramona. What kind of person is she?”

I think that’s especially important at home when you want to keep reading time enjoyable and not a chore that they start to dread.

Closing

Okay - that wraps our Q&A section this week so on to the details about the giveaway! To help us celebrate our relaunch of the Books Between podcast at All the Wonders, Walden Pond Press has so kindly offered a set of Ms. Bixby’s Last Day. The contest runs from October 10th - October 24th, 2016 and the winner will receive one class set (30 hardcover copies) of Ms. Bixby’s Last Day by John David Anderson. You can enter by heading to the post for this episode at AlltheWonders.com and entering the giveaway at the bottom of our page there. Good luck and I just know you and your class will LOVE this story.

If you have a question about how to connect middle grade readers to books they’ll love or thoughts about any of the topics we’ve discussed today, please email me at booksbetween@gmail.com or message me on Twitter/Instagram at the handle @Books_Between.

Thank you so much for joining me this week. You can get a full transcript of this show with links to every book and resource I talked about today by going to BooksBetween.com/8 which will take you to our new home at All the Wonders. And, if you are liking the show, please help others find us too by telling a friend, sharing on social media or leaving a rating on iTunes or Stitcher.

Thanks and see you in a couple weeks!  Bye!

Intro

Hi and Welcome to Books Between - a podcast to help teachers, parents, or librarians connect kids between 8-12 to books they’ll love. I’m your host, Corrina Allen - a 5th teacher, a parent, and after taking the new Pottermore quiz, I discovered that my Patronus is a…..hedgehog. WHAT?  I was totally expecting something mighty and fierce like a panther or an eagle! But - a hedgehog? I guess it could be worse - it could have been a salmon.

This is Episode #7 and today we’re discussing Tips & Resources for talking about the Presidential Election, three election themed books, and I’ll answer a question about picture books for middle grade students.

Main Topic - Tips & Resources for Discussing the U.S. Presidential Election

So, in case you haven’t noticed, we here in the United States are in the midst of  rather lengthy presidential election season. And even my international friends are following this election with much interest. This will be my twelfth full year teaching so the 3rd presidential election that I’ve experienced with students.  And I have never seen kids so…. passionate about the two main candidates: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Even last spring when it was still the primaries, my 5th graders wanted to talk about it.  The emotional intensity toward these two candidates are sometimes tricky to navigate in the classroom and in your own home.

If you are planning lessons or some reading around the elections and candidates this fall, here are some resources and some thoughts about how to guide those conversations which seem to be uniquely charged this election. We’ll discuss why you should consider talking about the election with children, some tips on how to make those discussions go more smoothly, and then finally some print and online resources to anchor those conversations.

Why talking about the presidential election is important.

First let’s talk about why discussing the presidential election is even necessary. So maybe you’re thinking - why even go there? Politics is always cited as one of those topics that you really shouldn’t bring up in polite conversation. In my view, we have an obligation as parents, teachers, and citizens to make sure our children are as informed as possible about the system of government in their country. Not only do we owe them that knowledge, but honestly it’s in our own self-interest. I don’t know about you, but I want a well-informed public in charge of the society that I’ll grow old in.  One that knows at least the basics of the electoral system and has had a little experience researching candidates and examining claims made by campaigns. Also, those skills are transferable to lots of other arenas in kids’ lives way beyond what happens in school. And honestly, you can’t assume they are getting the information anywhere else. In the U.S., presidential elections are only once every 4 years so harness that excitement while you can. And boy is there excitement this year!

Tips for Political Discussions

So now for a few tips about how to handle those discussions in your class or library or even at home. Even under the best circumstances, talking politics with one person can seem like a minefield. So attempting to channel the conversation of 20+ kids with widely differing viewpoints and backgrounds can be challenging.

My first suggestion is try focusing the discussion more on issues rather than personalities. So, start the conversation more broadly. For example, you might ask “What a makes a good leader?” rather than “Do you like Clinton or Trump?” so they can hopefully express views that are grounded in what they truly value and think beyond preconceived ideas.

A second suggestion is to set some ground rules about how to debate a topic without getting nasty. And then, practice with a less emotional topic first, like what animal makes a good pet or best pizza toppings.

A third suggestion is to include the third party candidates in your discussions so that it doesn’t turn into such an “us” vs. “them” but acknowledges other voices and viewpoints. And the fact that there is a lot less coverage of Jill Stein or Gary Johnson or the dozens of other presidential candidates is a lesson in and of itself.

And a final thought - try try try not to reveal who you are voting for or telegraph that information through your tone or body language. Mainly because it doesn’t matter what WE think. It’s been said before, but it’s worth repeating - It is more important to teach children HOW to think rather than WHAT to think.  Also, we should model open-mindedness and a willingness to change our point of view when we learn new information. And especially don’t bash a candidate (as much as you may need to bite your tongue). As a parent, I would be upset if a teacher was doing that in my child’s class, and I want to make sure that every kid feels welcomed in class and that we have an environment where we can examine issues and disagree without being disagreeable to each other. Because this election will end, but these children will have to work together for many more years.

Resources

On to some presidential election resources for you! I am going to say up front at as far as books go - there isn’t much on the middle grade level for Donald Trump. I have been hunting and searching all summer, pestering all the librarians I know, and the only kid focused Trump book I found turned out to be a spoof book! So, I’m really glad I realized that before buying it. However, there are some workarounds for you.

First, let’s talk about books. For Hillary Clinton, there is the new biography in the “Who Was” series titled Who is Hillary Clinton?. I’ll be talking more about that in our Book Talk segment later. For students wanting something more in depth, there’s a new middle grade / YA biography called Hillary Rodham Clinton: Do All the Good You Can by Cynthia Levinson. That was just released this summer. There are also a couple picture books worth checking out like Hillary Rodham Clinton: Some Girls are Born to Lead by Michelle Markel. An interesting side note about that book. Almost every single one of the 104 reviews on Amazon for that book are either 5 stars OR 1 star. Interesting. There is no middle ground there. For Donald Trump, one way to work around the lack of middle grade biographies available is to provide excerpts of the adult biographies. So there’s his famous The Art of the Deal and the newly released autobiography, Great Again, which would contain more up-to-date information for students. Obviously, you will need to read those chapters yourself first to make sure the content is okay for kids.

Of course, instead of focusing on the candidates, you could focus on the election process with books like Honest Abe’s Guide to Presidential Elections. Or you could focus on presidential history with a book like National Geographic’s Our Country’s Presidents or Presidential Pets by Julia Moberg. Or, maybe you could focus on some fun reads like Bad Kitty for President, Dan Gutman’s The Kid Who Ran for President or a huge favorite of mine The Tapper Twins Run for President. (More on that one later in the Book Talk segment.)

Biographies are just one avenue for learning about elections and current candidates. Scholastic has Election Skills Books for various grade levels. And I’ve ordered the Grade 4-6 version for my class. They also have lots of activities right on their website - linked right in the show notes for you. PBS also has a really great website called Election Central 2016 with video and other resources to help you examine the elections. I did notice that the PBS website is geared for grades 6 and up. And finally, Newsela has a Students Vote 2016 Teacher Guide where you can find articles. And the great thing about Newsela is that you can adjust the reading level of the articles so everyone gets the same content but at a level comfortable for them to absorb the information.

I am really excited about harnessing my students’ energy and enthusiasm this year to help us all learn something new.

Book Talk - Three Election Themed Books

In this part of the show, I share with you a few books centered around a theme and discuss three things to love about each book. This week, we have three election themed books: the picture book When Penny Met Potus, the biography Who is Hillary Clinton? and the novel The Tapper Twins Run for President.

When Penny Met POTUS

When Penny Met POTUS is a picture book with words by Rachel Ruiz and illustrations by Melissa Manwill. It is a cleverly constructed story about a young girl, Penny, whose mother works in the White House. And Penny is super excited because today she gets to go to work with her mom, and try to find a way to meet this mysterious POTUS. She imagines him as a friendly suit-wearing monster and practices what she’s going to say and do when they meet until finally in her wandering through the White House, she comes face-to-face with POTUS. And the ending is so cute and clever - I’ll leave it for you and your kids to discover together.  But, here are three great things that I can say about When Penny Met POTUS:

1. The real-life basis of the illustrations. While Penny is searching in the White House, she imagines meeting POTUS in his own airplane, having a tea party together, and helping him solve the world’s problems.  And in each case, the drawings are accurate. From the paint on Air Force One to the inset cabinets of the China Room where they have tea, to the famous intricate carvings of the desk in the Oval Office, it’s all authentic. The only detail I couldn’t quite confirm was the fish tank.
2. How the author and illustrator worked together to really show you how kids can sometimes fill in the gaps of their knowledge with the most imaginative things. You and I who work with kids a lot or have children of our own, know how those misunderstandings over figurative language or in this case definitions of acronyms can lead to some pretty hilarious results.
3. The ice cream at the end.  I know it’s a small moment but I just loved that final page when Penny and POTUS are together and you catch a glimpse of this fully stocked freezer that is top to bottom packed with an awe-inspiring assortment of ice cream. I am a huge ice cream fanatic so if that’s what a White House visit is like, count me in!

Who is Hillary Clinton?

A second election themed middle grade biography is Who is Hillary Clinton? by Heather Alexander.  This is a new release in this really popular series and it just came out on August 2nd. It starts off with Clinton’s dream at age 13 of some day becoming an astronaut. She writes a letter to NASA and they flat out tell her, “We’re not interested in women astronauts.” From that formative experience, the biography steps back in time and covers her birth, her difficult family life as a child, her education and social justice work, and her tough political experiences as First Lady and then later Senator and Secretary of State. This biography goes all the way up to her winning the Democratic Party’s nomination for President of the United States.  Here are three things that my students and I loved about Who is Hillary Clinton?:

1. How the same format of this series makes them all easy to read. You already know the layout and text features before starting. As a teacher, I truly appreciate non-fiction series like that and as a reader, I feel like I can absorb more of the info since my mind isn’t working on the side to decipher the organization of the text. For example, all the chapter titles are between two thin horizontal lines. In the back, there’s always a one page vertical timeline of the person’s life right next to a one page vertical world timeline so you can place their life events in context. All of the illustrations are black and white sketches - and no photographs.
2. It’s not too long. It’s a slim book and when you pick it up, you don’t feel like it’s going to be a major time investment.  I think most children could read this book in a few hours. And if they are inspired to know even more, there’s a great bibliography in the back.
3. Even though it’s a short biography, Who is Hillary Clinton? is packed with great information for students. I especially like the side articles about the Equal Rights Amendment, Political Parties, and previous Women Who Ran for President. So not only are we learning about Hillary Rodham Clinton, we are also getting lots of other great history as well.

The Tapper Twins Run for President

And finally - The Tapper Twins Run for President! I think this one might be my favorite of the three - it just SO FUN to read! So, this novel is Geoff Rodkey’s third book in the series and was released a couple weeks ago. But you don’t have to have read the other two to really enjoy this one. And - I don’t know how he did it, but somehow this books touches on many of the same notes that the current Clinton/Trump election is hitting. It’s uncanny!  If you’re not familiar with the series, essentially it’s about 6th grade twins Claudia and Reese, who are very different from each other. Claudia is studious, intensely focused, and has been building her school political career since Kindergarten to run for 6th grade class president. (Qualities not unlike Clinton.) Then there’s Reese - popular, soccer jock, no political experience at all, and insanely competitive. (Qualities not totally unlike Trump.) So when Claudia and Reese get into an argument about playing soccer on the roof of the school, Claudia says, “If you don’t like the way I’m representing you as president, there’s an election coming up.” Meaning - you should vote for someone else. Well, Reese, viewing things in a competitive way, took that as a throw down to run for president himself. And things get hilariously crazy from there. Here are three things I just loved about The Tapper Twins Run for President:

1. Side Characters: There’s Ashley, their incompetent baby-sitter who is always on her phone. Then their well-meaning but sometimes frazzled parents who send these frantic and funny text messages back and forth to each other. And my favorite - Xander Billington. As Claudia says, he’s from a “very-old, very-rich, and very brain-dead family” that came over on the Mayflower. And he talks likes he’s in a rap battle. If you ever seen the TV show Parks & Rec, just picture (and hear) Jean Ralphio. That’s Xander and he’s Reese’s running mate. It is wonderfully hilarious!
2. You actually learn a lot about political campaigns in this book. But - not in an educational and didactic kind of way. It’s always primarily about fun. So for example, when talking about the difference between a democracy and a dictatorship, Claudia says, “Two good examples of dictatorships are North Korea and our apartment.”  Reese also gets a campaign manager and tries to stay on message. The two sides work out the details of a debate - which goes horribly wrong. Claudia and Reese are each trying to get the media to write about them in a favorable way and convince voters to show up on election day. It’s really clever and well crafted.
3. Illustrations & Drawings: This is what made me fall in love with this series - the realism and the variety of the pictures. There are screenshots of chat logs when they play MetaWorld (a Minecraft-like game where some of the events happen) and pictures of hand-drawn campaign posters. My favorite photographs though are the ones of real locations in New York City. So there is a picture of the Shake Shack and the Hot and Crusty pizza joint on 86th street where the twins have campaign meetings. Photographs of the back seats of the M79 bus and a yogurt shop called 16 Handles. This series makes me want to take a Tapper Twins inspired road trip to New York City.  

So if your students or children like this book, the second book, The Tapper Twins Tear Up New York is all about a scavenger hunt gone wrong through the streets of New York City. It is fabulous!

So those are three different styles of book that you could include in your election themed discussions or displays in your class, home, or library.

Q & A

Our last segment of the show is Question & Answer time.

Question:

A few conversations that I’ve had lately in real life and on Twitter have essentially boiled down to this question: “What about picture books for middle grade readers?”

Answer:

To answer that quickly - YES! Please don’t dis the picture books when recommending titles to your tween children and students. And when you are selecting read alouds for home, school, or library, make sure you’ve got some great picture book options. I’ll admit that my classroom library is weak in that area but I’ve been inspired to improve. And I think in the future, I’ll do a longer segment about picture books because I’ve been learning a lot lately that I’d like to share with you. But a couple quick points:

1. Older kids still love them!
2. They are great reads for smaller time slots or in between longer books.
3. Older readers bring a more sophisticated eye that notices more than if they had read that same book even a couple years ago.
4. In a shorter amount of time, you can expose them to a huge variety of genres, plots, characters, and themes for them to build their background and later connect those ideas to their other reading.

So, definitely don’t skip the picture book section the next time you are at your library or bookstore.

Closing

Okay - that wraps up our Q&A section this week. If you have a question about how to connect children between 8-12 to books they’ll love or some thoughts about why we should all still read picture books, I would really love to hear from you. You can email me at booksbetween@gmail.com or message me on Twitter/Instagram at the handle @Books_Between.

Thank you so much for joining me this week. You can find a full transcript of this show, and all the other episodes, at our website - BooksBetween.com  with links to every book and resource I mentioned today. And, if you have gotten some value out of this show, please tell a friend or share it on social media so others can find us as well.

Thank you again and see you in two weeks!  Bye!

Intro

Hi and Welcome to Books Between - a podcast to help teachers, parents, or librarians connect kids between 8-12 to books they’ll love. I’m your host, Corrina Allen - an elementary school teacher, a mom of two daughters, and excited to be back at school! Last Tuesday, I welcomed a brand new batch of 18 5th graders and we have had a great week reading picture books like School’s First Day of School and Sam & Dave Dig a Hole, setting up our fresh new reading journals, and taking time to get to know each other. It’s going to be a fantastic year!

This is Episode #6 and today we’re discussing the Global Read Aloud project, the two read aloud novels featured at the middle grade level, and I’ll answer a question about the origins of the podcast.

Main Topic - The Global Read Aloud Project

As September has rolled around, and teachers, librarians, and homeschool families are making plans for the year, I thought now would be a good time to discuss The Global Read Aloud Project - also referred to as GRA. If you’ve been hearing about the Global Read Aloud Project and want to know more, then this is the perfect podcast for you. I first heard about the GRA last summer on Twitter and was immediately intrigued, but at the time,  I was already piloting a new reading program so didn’t want to take on another new thing. But this year, I am ready to go and really excited to be participating for my first time. The questions we’ll answer for you today are: What is the Global Read Aloud project?, What are the books?, Why should I participate?, and finally How can I jump in and get involved?

What IS Global Read Aloud?

First of all - what IS the Global Read Aloud Project? The GRA was started by educator Pernille Ripp in 2010 as a way to connect the world around one fantastic book. In 2010 that book was The Little Prince and after that, it expanded to include more than one book to target different reading levels, so more children can participate.  It really was a bottom up, grassroots project that has expanded every year. This year there are more than 600,000 students signed up already. The Global Read Aloud runs each fall from early October to the beginning of November and teachers, librarians, and parents participate by reading that year’s featured book out loud to their kids over a six week period. This year the GRA kicks off on October 3rd, but you can definitely jump in after that date. The suggested reading schedule is posted on the Global Read Aloud website, which I will link to in the show notes.  During that time frame from about early October to early November, your class connects with at least one other group of children, and hopefully more depending on how in-depth you want to go. That connection might involve a Skype session, doing a joint project in a Google Classroom, asking and answering some thought-provoking questions in a shared Edmodo group, or maybe connecting on Twitter.

What are the 2016 books for GRA?

As I mentioned before, the GRA has expanded beyond just one book to feature several across various age ranges so you can find a good fit for your child or your class.  I will be participating as both a parent with my 7 and 9 year old and as a teacher with my 5th graders. The youngest grades do an author study and read six picture books over the course of the project. This year’s featured author/illustrator is Lauren Castillo -you might know her books like Nana in the City, The Troublemaker, and a recent favorite in my house - Twenty Yawns. I defy you to read it aloud without yawning joyfully all through that book! My girls and I will probably end up reading those as well. The next GRA book option recommended for ages 7 and up is Roald Dahl’s BFG. I think that’s a great fit with the Spielberg movie released last summer and a huge perennial favorite among adults and kids. The next read aloud choice recommended for ages 9 and up is Pax by Sara Pennypacker with illustrations by Jon Klassen. Either the BFG or Pax would be perfect for middle grade readers, and I’ll be talking much more about them in our Book Talk segment in a few minutes. If you are looking for something for readers ages 12 and up, then this year’s book is Orbiting Jupiter by Gary Schmidt. And the Young Adult book this year for about ages 15 and above is All American Boys by Jason Reynolds & Brendan Kiely. I have not yet read either of those books but so many of my friends keep talking about them - they are bound to be excellent.

Why should you participate?

Really the answer is two-fold. It’s great for children AND it’s great for you, too! Participating in the Global Read Aloud is an excellent way to have students connecting and collaborating with other kids and classrooms across the nation (and maybe world!) through social media and other online tools. And old-fashioned pen and paper, too if you want!  We are a global society and the GRA is a perfect way to build those 21st Century skills we all know are crucial for kids’ success. Aside from benefits for students, there are also lots of benefits for teachers. All the teachers that I’ve spoken with who have done the GRA in the past have loved the connections they make with other educators. It really builds your professional network and also pushes you a bit to try to expand your digital literacy in a new directions. So maybe that’s Twitter, Skype, or Padlet. But whatever direction you decide to go in to make your connections, I know you won’t regret participating.

How can you participate?

So now that I have got you excited and hopefully sold on trying out the Global Read Aloud project this year, how do you join? The first thing to do is grab a copy of whichever book you decide to read and then go to the GRA main website - www.theglobalreadaloud.com - and sign up right on that main page. It’s really easy to find, and - by the way, totally free. From there, you can find the Google Group and Facebook Group. Also - one of the best places to make connections with other teachers and classrooms are the Edmodo groups designated for each book. There is also an online shop where you can buy this year’s Global Read Aloud merchandise - and all kinds of other reading themed t-shirts and accessories. If you listened to Episode #3, you already know that I went a little crazy there and bought 3 shirts from the shop already. GRA is also on Pinterest (of course!) and you can connect on Twitter using this year’s hashtag #GRA16.  Each of the individual books also have their own hashtag for easier sorting - the middle grade novels are #GRABFG and #GRAPAX for Pax.  There is lots and lots of other great information on the website - and I’ll link to everything I’ve mentioned right in the show notes.

I am really psyched to be joining the Global Read Aloud movement this year and I’m looking forward to seeing all the exciting connections and cool projects that you all are doing as well.

Book Talk - Two Middle Grade GRA Choices

In this part of the show, I share with you a few books centered around a theme and discuss three things to love about each book. This week, I’ll be talking about the two middle grade Global Read Aloud options: The BFG by Roald Dahl and Pax by Sara Pennypacker.

BFG

Roald Dahl’s 1982 novel The BFG is about a Big Friendly Giant (that’s what the BFG stands for) who roams the streets of London with his magical trumpet which he uses to blow dreams into children’s ears. One night a young orphan, Sophie, sees him outside her window. So the BFG snatches her up and carries her off to Giantland. There Sophie realizes that there are nine other giants who are WAY bigger than the BFG and not so friendly. They set off each night to the far corners of the earth to gobble up children. Eventually, Sophie and the BFG come up with a plan to try to stop these man-eating giants. A plan which, by the way, involves the Queen of England. In true Roald Dahl fashion, it’s funny but also pretty dark gruesome actually. So here are three things that I find very intriguing about the BFG.

1. The Language. The BFG speaks in this funny mishmash of semi-English, using words like “filthsome” to describe something yucky, “kiddles” for children, or “human beans” to mean human beings. Really good dreams are called “phizzwizards” and nightmares are “trogglehumpers” - it’s just fun and playful.   And of course, my daughters now enjoy using the term “whizzpopping” which means - farting.
2. The potential for some deep conversations. For example, it turns out that Sophie is not the first child that the BFG has essentially abducted. There was a little boy who lived with the BFG for awhile and was eventually discovered by the other giants and eaten. I found that to be deeply disturbing and it raises big moral questions. Should he have taken her? As does the idea that the giants are totally and completely evil for eating people. I mean - are lions evil for eating a gazelle? Are humans evil for eating bacon? There are those ethical questions that this book can raise about our choices in what we eat.
3. The Movie - This past July, Disney and Steven Spielberg teamed up to create The BFG film. It was a beautiful and well crafted movie that does downplay the darkest elements of the book while generally staying pretty true to the main plot points. Also - if you are Downton Abbey fan, Penelope Wilton (who plays Mrs. Crawley) does a phenomenal job as Queen Elizabeth II.  It’s worth watching just for that!  And I think the DVD will be released by this November, so the timing should work out to watch the film after you read the novel.

Pax

The second middle grade option for the Global Read Aloud is Sara Pennypacker’s Pax. The novel starts off with a heart-wrenching scene of a boy, Peter, intentionally abandoning his pet fox by the side of the road. Eventually, you come to realize that Peter can’t keep the fox, named Pax, because his father has enlisted in the army and so Peter has to go live with his grandfather. The chapters alternate between Peter’s point of view and the perspective of the fox as he tries to survive in the wild and desperately hopes his boy returns for him. And after a guilt-ridden couple of days, Peter does run away to try to find him.

Here are three things I really found so fascinating about Pax:

1. The novel is set in an undefined place and time, and I found that aspect of the book to be really interesting. It could be the United States or maybe Canada and there are clues along the way that help you narrow it down a bit. For example, there are modern-ish vehicles and they mention the kids playing baseball. But you’re never really sure, and I think that dimension of this book could lead to some deep conversation and debate with kids.
2. How this novel explores the concept of being inseparable. When Peter first arrives at his grandfather’s house, he discovers an old picture of his dad as a kid with a pet dog. The grandfather describes them as “inseparable” and that idea of being inseparable gnaws at Peter and he almost becomes obsessed with the idea. I just love how the book explores that idea from all different angles - the father who left to fight in a war, his own mother who died just recently, and now leaving his tame and vulnerable fox on the side of the road. It really asks us to think about whether or not being inseparable is the highest form of bonding and love.
3. The perfect symmetry of the ending. And - I don’t want to spoil it at all by revealing what happens, but oh my gosh - it is powerful and not at all what I expected to happen.

Pax is so much more than I’ve just described - I haven’t even mentioned the characters Vola or Gray or all the issues that come as Peter and Pax try to make their way through this worn-torn country to find each other. Pax is so good. It’s about war, and loyalty, and loss. I’m excited and intrigued to see what this novel brings out in my students this fall.

I hope you decide to sign up for the Global Read Aloud this year with your students or read aloud with your kids. I’ll be doing both - reading Pax to my 5th graders at school and my 9 and 7 year old at home.  But even if you don’t do the GRA, these are both excellent books to put in the hands of a middle grade reader.

Q & A

Our last segment of the show is Question & Answer time.

Question:

Now that the Books Between Podcast has been out for awhile and more people are listening (thank you!), I’ve had some people ask “What made you decide to start a podcast?”

Answer:

Two things really came together to push me to into launching a podcast about middle grade readers and middle grade books. First, I simply LOVE listening to podcasts. I have a 30 minute commute to work each day and podcasts like Stuff You Should Know, RadioLab, and Serial make my drive bearable. If I’m doing the dishes or cleaning, I pretty much always have an earbud stuck in my ear. And last year I started to listen to more kidlit focused podcasts like Let’s Get Busy (which is now All the Wonders), The Yarn, Scholastic Reads, and KidLit Drink Night. So I knew how much a podcast could have an impact and really give value to someone.  But there wasn’t a podcast that solely focused on middle grade books and readers.

Second, I started to become more open and interactive about my reading life both online and in person. And take my role as a reading advocate more seriously. So, on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram, I’d share what I was reading with my students and my daughters. And I’d ask for others suggestions, too. Essentially, wherever I went, I was talking to people about books kids would like and how to get them reading.  And I noticed that I was having similar conversations over and over again. For example, last June I had a parent stop me in the hallway at school to ask for summer book recommendations and then a few days later, my friend Ilona messaged on Facebook with the same question. Last spring I was swapping ideas with a librarian in our district about March Book Madness and some creative ways she had to get students recommending books to each other, and then I’d have the same conversation on Instagram when I posted photos of our book brackets. And I kept thinking, “Oh, I wish you had been there when we were just talking about this!”  I really wanted a way to share the essence of those conversations with more people. So that - combined with the thought that there seemed to be a space in that middle grade podcast niche - pushed me to start this Books Between Podcast last summer - a podcast focused on readers between 8 and 12.  I decided to teach myself the basics of GarageBand and get over the fact that I hate the sound of my own voice, and push myself to do something new and little uncomfortable. I am truly humbled by how many people have reached out to say they’ve enjoyed the episodes so far and are finding value in the podcast. So stay tuned because I have lots more interesting topics planned for upcoming weeks, fantastic new books to talk about, and an exciting announcement which I can’t wait to share with you.

Closing

Alright - that wraps up our Q&A section this week. If you have a question about how to connect children between 8-12 to books they’ll love or an idea about a topic we should cover on a future episode, please email me at booksbetween@gmail.com or message me on Twitter/Instagram at the handle @Books_Between.

Thank you so much for joining me this week. You can find a full transcript of this show, and all the other episodes, at our website - BooksBetween.com  with links to every book and resource I mentioned today. And, if you have gotten some value out of this show, I’d really appreciate a quick review or rating on iTunes or Stitcher so others can find us as well.

Thank you again and see you in two weeks!  Bye!