Pop! The Invention of Bubble Gum by Meghan McCarthy

Pop! The Invention of Bubble Gum by Meghan McCarthy
published May 2010 by Simon & Schuster
40 pages (hardcover), children's nonfiction picture book

How do I express adequately how much love I have for this book? But it's not the gleeful, jumping up and down kind - it's the quiet admiration of a job well done. So well done that I'm a little bit in awe.

The subtitle of this book gives it away - it is the story of how Walter Diemer persevered to create the perfect bubble gum. The topic will be an instant hit with kids, but what I love most about this book is how it tells a story by using actual quotations. No need to put this book in your picture book section, it's as real as they get. Every quotation is cited! And can we talk about the illustrations, please? The sweet, bubble-gum flavored, acrylic illustrations perfectly evoke the 1920s in color and style. And not only is it perfect for a read-aloud, but this is also a book the little ones could read on their own, with just a little help from an adult.

I am so happy when I find a nonfiction book that I enjoy because let's face it, nonfiction has a tendency to either be too dry or tries too hard to appeal to the kiddos. This book is neither - it's confident in its subject matter and tells the simple story of bubble gum's beginning. There is added material at the end for those wanting to know more about Walter Diemer and gum in general.

Check out the Nonfiction Monday Wrap-Up at Wrapped in Foil!

First grade wonders

I've been teaching first grade students the difference between fiction and nonfiction for the past couple weeks, and this week's lesson involved a reading of each type of story. It's no secret that I prefer fiction - I love made-up stories, especially fantasy, so I share that love often. But I may be doing things a little differently from now on.

Beware of the Frog by William Bee
published June 2008 by Candlewick
48 pages (hardcover), picture book

Sweet little old lady, Mrs. Collywobbles, is afraid of the "big, dark, scary wood" near her house - but luckily, she has her pet frog to keep her safe. Monsters leave the forest en route to Mrs. Collywobbles house (goblin, troll, ogre) but are gobbled up by her pet frog before they can make any trouble. In a surprising twist of events, Mrs. Collywobbles gives her pet frog a little kiss of gratitude and is transformed into a frog herself! Whatever will she do?

The kids loved this book - all three classes of first grade students ended this story with a chorus of "Read it again!" Of course it helped that I love this book and used all kinds of creepy, scary voices for the monsters. It was good choice for the fiction side of things because although little old ladies may have pet frogs, 1. their frogs don't eat monsters and 2. humans can't change into frogs. This was an easy concept for some students to grasp - others alluded to The Princess and the Frog, and I had to remind them that that was a made-up story too. But all in all, they were pretty good about telling each other why this book was fiction.

Frog by Moira Butterfield
published October 1991 by Simon & Schuster
24 pages (hardcover), children's nonfiction

Frog is the story of the life of a frog, from egg to tadpole to full-grown frog. Each page has a single sentence with clear illustrations. It's a small book. It's simple. It's easy to understand.

And the students were mesmerized. I read each word slowly and fanned the book to show the illustrations. Not a peep from the children. They were leaning forward, completely captivated by what I was showing them, which totally shocked and confused me. It was so quiet in the library that when I finished the book, I used my whisper voice and asked if this was fiction or nonfiction and why. Students raised their hands and gave articulate responses. Well, knock me over with a feather! I'm only surprised because the previous story brought out the silliness in students and this one sobered them up so quickly. Bad librarian for being so biased! Nonfiction is interesting to the little ones, so I've witnessed. I'll have to bring more of it to my library lessons.

Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix
published April 2008 by Simon & Schuster
320 pages (hardcover), Middle Grade

Glad the public library still had a copy of this book left on the shelf because mine was checked out Friday morning when the fifth graders assaulted our stack of Rebecca Caudill books. I was pleasantly surprised that they were so eager to get their hands on those nominees. Anyway...

Found is the first book in The Missing series. The book begins with a mystifying event - a plane carrying 36 babies appears from nowhere at an airport gate; once the babies have been unloaded, the airplane vanishes the same inexplicable way it came. Thirteen years later, these babies now teenagers in adoptive families begin receiving notes in the mail that they are the missing and someone is coming back for them. A bit ominous, no? So begins Jonah and Chip's journey to find out what these notes mean, who they really are, and where (and when) it is that they're missing from.

I really liked this book. Mostly. Tons of suspense and intrigue, not to mention the emotional turmoil of Chip finding out that he's adopted and Jonah, who has always known about his adoption, attempting to console his new friend while staying at arm's length. The plot moves this book more than the characters, which will always be a shortcoming for me, but it's fast-paced even though there's not a whole lot of action until the very end. Chip, Jonah, and Jonah's sister, Katherine, embark on adventures close to home in order to uncover clues about what the mysterious notes in the mail could mean, and it's all very realistic.

So, I was confused when I saw the Science Fiction sticker on my library book because up until the last few chapters of the book, I thought I was reading a mystery. If you read jacket flaps or back covers, I won't be revealing anything in saying that hey, there's time travel in this book. While Found is the introduction to a time travel series, I much more enjoyed the mystery in the beginning of the book to the science fiction place it led me to. I worry about how my students will feel about the ending too. Time travel is tricky and confusing. But there's bound to be more action as well, I suppose.

Personally, I don't think I'll be reading more of this series, but I did quite enjoy this book, even though the ending was a bit odd for me. All in all, a hearty three purple crayons.

What they said:
Sweet Reads; One Librarian's Books Reviews; The O.W.L.; Peaceful Reader; Becky's Book Reviews; etc.

Reader's choice awards

I'm a fan. Caldecott, Newbery, Printz, and others are just fine for the literary folk (read: adults reading kidlit), but I want to know what the kids actually like to read. So, I've happily begun promoting the Rebecca Caudill Award to my fifth graders. The trouble is, the award is for grades 4-8 - that's a wide age gap. We only ordered 13 of the 20 titles because of this. I wonder how that will play out when it comes time to tally up the votes from schools across the state. If more middle schools and junior highs participate, then we can pretty much guarantee that The Hunger Games will win - everyone loves it. But I certainly wouldn't hand it to a fifth grader. Here are some of the books on the list that I hope to read sometime soon:

The Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull was on my summer to-read list, but that never happened. This was the book that most of my students were interested in reading, just by the cover alone, of course. We'll see how many actually do. I'm more intrigued by Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix - mostly because of this trailer I happened across:

Found Book Trailer from KSD140 on Vimeo.

KSD140 actually has trailers for all the Caudill nominees this year, which were great for me to watch since I hadn't read any of the books I was booktalking. Unfortunately, Vimeo is blocked at school (but YouTube wasn't!), so I wasn't able to share the trailers with students.

Anyhow, Savvy by Ingrid Law has been on my bedside table for months. I won it in a contest at The O.W.L. quite awhile ago, but I just haven't gotten to it yet. Maybe this weekend? I'm just kinda magicked out at the moment. And I don't know too much about Scarlett by Cathy Cassidy, but can I be a kid and say that I like the cover? :)

Whenever I'm settled somewhere, I'd like to create a homegrown reader's choice award, where teachers nominate titles, and students choose a winner. It seems more authentic than a state-wide program because it's tailored to a specific population. And there's a sense of pride that goes toward choosing a school winner - it's much more personal.

Oof, I'm in a sick funk, so pardon the absence and occasional incoherent thoughts. I'm hoping for a weekend of reading, relaxation, and recovery.

August Reading Recap

Because series soothe me
Some Girls Bite (Chicagoland Vampires #1) by Chloe Neill
Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs (Jane Jameson #1) by Molly Harper
Hard Eight (Stephanie Plum #8) by Janet Evanovich
Bewitching Season (Leland Sisters #1) by Marissa Doyle

Because I can't resist new picture books at the library

Dear Vampa by Ross Collins

The Purple Kangaroo by Michael Ian Black

Compost Stew by Mary McKenna Siddals

Dog Loves Books by Louise Yates

The Cajun Cornbread Boy by Dianne de Las Casas

There Was a Coyote Who Swallowed a Flea by Jennifer Ward

Because I like to read to the kiddos

Second-Grade Ape by Daniel Pinkwater

The Twelve Days of Kindergarten by Deborah Lee Rose

Corduroy Goes to the Library by B.G. Hennessy

Beatrice Doesn't Want To by Laura Numeroff

Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen

My Librarian Is a Camel by Margriet Ruurs

Biblioburro by Jeanette Winter

I Took My Frog to the Library by Eric A. Kimmel

Because there are a ton of books about the library

The Library by Sarah Stewart
Library Lil by Suzanne Williams
Wild About Books by Judy Sierra
The Librarian from the Black Lagoon by Mike Thaler


Because I'm such an emo kid

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater (long ago review)
Linger by Maggie Stiefvater (review)




Noteworthy
Do I even need to say that Shiver and Linger were my favorites?

The Purple Kangaroo made me smile and giggle. A grown-up picture book full of the sillies.

Compost Stew deserves all the rave reviews it's getting. Not only does it cover environmentalism, but it's also an ABC book, and the rhyming is flowy and flawless.

My Librarian Is a Camel disappointed. A book about how children around the world get their books? Awesome. Too bad that it reads so dryly.

Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs is about a children's librarian-turned-vampire. You now see the appeal.


September Aspirations
I'm going to stick with my August goal of reading one novel from my own collection at school per week, maybe per two weeks. I'm not finding a whole lot of time to read for myself besides the weekend, and that's only when I'm not traveling. Maybe instead of going home for a nap after school, I'll head to a coffee shop for some afternoon reading. This month, I will read The Help. I will! And I'm re-reading The Hunger Games and Catching Fire so that when I get my turn at the library, I'll be caught up and ready to read Mockingjay. Good goals, I think. Attainable.  Hello September, here I come...

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater
published July 2010 by Scholastic
362 pages (hardcover), YA

If you haven't read Shiver yet, please leave. Not because I don't like you anymore but because it's the first book in the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy, and I'm writing about the second. You've been warned.

Linger picks up a few months after the end of Shiver. Sam is just Sam, even though the winter has nearly passed. Grace and Sam are still very much in love. And we're introduced to the new wolves that Beck made, one of which is a leading voice in this book, Cole, a burned-out musician at the ripe, old age of 19. Told through four alternating perspectives (Grace, Sam, Isabel, and Cole), we learn more about the wolves and why they are the way they are because the four almost-friends have no choice but to figure it all out. Why does Sam get to stay Sam? Why do some wolves change more often than others? Why did Grace get to stay Grace? But really, who cares about all the stuff that happens in this book? I think the plot is just fine, but my love is for the characters and the writing.

I wasn't too keen on the addition of two narrator voices, I won't lie. I didn't care much for Isabel in Shiver, and I wasn't happy about a new character. But after the first few chapters, I was glad for the break from the sickeningly sweet Sam and Grace story. And I found that I really liked Cole and Isabel. Separately and together. Cole's bad boy lifestyle is quite the match for Isabel's self-pity and self-loathing. These two balance the truly-madly-deeply couple-in-love nicely. Minor characters kind of fell away in this book (and Grace's parents were just annoyingly normal parents for once), which I didn't mind at all, especially having to keep four perspectives straight. I'm not one for large casts of characters, but I felt like I did get to know Grace, Sam and mostly Isabel better while catching up with Cole's life story.

Do I even need to say how much I love Maggie's writing? Great characters. Good plot. Amazing words and flow. It's not even about putting together a fantastic scene, but really putting together a fantastic sentence and then stringing a bunch of those together. I wish I took note of them, but alas the library would not appreciate my sticky notes. And Sam's songs! Beautiful. Makes me want to read poetry again. I don't know what else to say about it. I'd like to go buy a copy and read it again.

So, I thought I'd hop on the rating bandwagon and add my own. I already do on GoodReads, but I never shared it here for some reason. It's absolutely subjective - not all fives are equal, that's for sure - but it's something people enjoy, I suppose. Anyhow, Linger gets five purple crayons.Which means that I love love loved it. Will buy it (gasp!) and definitely read again. Perhaps at the same time next year before the release of Forever, the final book in this trilogy.

Other people said:
Presenting Lenore; Jen Robinson's Book Page; Teens Read and Write; Pure Imagination; Bookworming in the 21st Century; Tattooed Books; All About {n}; GreenBeanTeenQueen; Book Crazy; Parajunkee's View + many more

Book love

I just finished re-reading Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. This is a BIG deal. For me, at least. I don't re-read. As much as I love a story, I don't feel it's fair to all the books I have not yet read for me to read a novel twice. But I made an exception. I've been drooling over Linger for quite some time now, but I told myself that I'd have to first read my personal copy of Shiver (because of course I bought it after I read and loved my library copy) before I could indulge in the green font.

So how was the second telling of Shiver, you ask? I didn't think I would, but I love it just as much as the first time around. Don't be fooled, this is not a review. I can't do that with this book. It's too emotional of an experience, lending itself to many romantic sighs and sad but happy tears. Maggie's writing is lovely. The last thing she writes in this book is a thank-you to her husband, who made the romance in her words come alive. Isn't that just heart-tickling?

There are only a handful of books that affect me in grand ways, and this is one of them. And I know that that's just a really personal thing to say, but this blog is rather personal. I don't pretend to be objective, and there's no way that I could with this book. I wish that I knew better how to describe all the ways that it just gets me. I'm so happy that I broke my rules and read it again before reading Linger. It's exactly what I needed right now. A soft, cozy, happy place to go to.

And now I can read Linger!

What's on your nightstand?

1. I'm alive and well. Just trying to get settled into my new life.
2. I've not been reading much else besides back-to-school & library-themed picture books.
3. I miss blogging, but there aren't 26 1/2 hours in a day - which there should be.
4. So, I present you with a new-to-me meme that I quite like for the moment. 

5. Because it's easy to post a picture.
6. I leave you with a view of the tower of books on my nightstand.

7. No, I won't read them all. Maybe not even half.
8. But I am reading those top two.
9. Three, four. 
10. What's on your nightstand?

Okay reading

The last nine (NINE!) books I read were just okay. Not bad, but not wowing either. Not much to write about there. Not much of a reaction. Just a steady enjoyment throughout with little thought involved. Which I suppose is normal for summer reading, but I'm a bit tired of it now that I'm back home and nearly back at work. I'd like to be wowed, thank you very much.

I have a few books checked out that I think will do it for me, but I'm scared to dive into them because what if they don't wow? It's too much pressure. It's just not fair to them. Here they are anyway:

Countdown by Deborah Wiles
Newbery predictions for this one - I hesitate mostly because I rarely agree with the Newbery committee. And really, I've had my fair share (and yours too) of 1960s fiction.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Again with the 1960s fiction, but this one's for adults, so I guess I should give it a try. So many people and their mothers have read and raved about this one. And I currently have it checked out after being on an eons-long waiting list, so I HAVE to read it. The first page is always the hardest.

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater
I don't know how I've resisted the temptation to absolutely devour this one. But I really want to re-read Shiver first and actually savor Linger. And I don't think I can do that right now. Oh, but the font is green!


So, this is just a little note to say, Hi! I'm still here and reading! Just haven't had much to say lately. Hope that changes soon!

June/July Reading Recap

Summer usually goes by pretty quickly, and this one was no exception. I didn't read as much as I thought I would but enough to keep me sane.

Read in June

Radiant Shadows by Melissa Marr
The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan
Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder
A Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee
  
The Thirteenth Princess by Diane Zahler
Seven Up (audio) by Janet Evanovich
Alison Dare, the Heart of the Maiden by J. Torres
Alison Dare, Little Miss Adventures by J. Torres

Read in July

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Scones and Sensibility by Lindsay Eland

Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder

 

Voices of Dragons by Carrie Vaughn

Burned by P.C. Cast

After by Amy Efaw

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

Because I haven't blogged in awhile, I thought I'd also share some quick thoughts about my summer reading.

Eat, Pray, Love was by far my favorite book of the summer. It was one of those right books at the right time for the right me. Sometimes you just know what books you need to read at certain parts of your life, and this one was it for me. What else can I say about it? It's just too personal. But it does hit the big screen in a couple weeks, which is part of the reason I read it in the first place.

After is a book that I would not normally pick up on my own. But I had read reviews of it that made it sound enticing - it reminded me of an extreme version of The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Teen girl gives birth, not knowing that she was pregnant, and throws her baby out in the trash. Here's my Goodreads reaction:

I read out of my comfort zone with this one, so I'm not surprised that I didn't love it. But I did appreciate it. Devon is a 15 year-old girl with goals (pardon the pun) and ambitions - you know the type: motivated, straight A student, great athlete, babysitter, all-around good kid. But she makes a mistake-several-that change her life path. It's heartbreaking and mystifying. I found myself wanting to shake her and ask her what the hell she was thinking, but in the end, I felt for her. And I could understand how she ended up where she did. But it does leave me wondering, what happens after? How will she cope?

I just finished reading One Crazy Summer, and I have to say that I was left a little underwhelmed. Perhaps this is because I had read so many rave reviews of it, even some predictions of it winning the Newbery, but I just wasn't feeling it. Set in the Black Panther era, three sisters are sent to spend a month with their absentee mother in Oakland in an attempt to get to know the woman who left them. Though she wants nothing to do with the girls, Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern make the best of their summer across the country. Don't get me wrong - I liked the book, and I do think it was written rather well, but I didn't feel connected to it at all.

August Aspirations
Still on vacation, my first week in August will be spent relaxing, reading Fast Food Nation and perhaps a short fantasy or two. Once I start school mid-August, my goal is to read at least one children's novel from my own collection a week as well as a handful of picture books. And I'm going to keep pushing for more adult books because summer extends into August even though school is starting so early this year. I've fallen so behind in reading blogs that I'm hoping to do some catching up in that area this upcoming month too. We'll see how it goes!