Revisiting Wonder by Reading The Julian Chapter and Looking Over 365 Days of Wonder

I regularly teach Wonder.  As I was preparing to teach it this semester, I decided I'd finally buy 365 Days of Wonder--which includes a quotation or precept for each day of the year along with some observations from Mr. Brown.  On Amazon, I noticed that I could buy an additional chapter--one for Julian, who is the most antagonistic character in Wonder and whose perspective was never included.

I was so excited for this addition.  This excitement was lessened a little when I later learned this chapter is included in the latest edition of the paperback--there I was at the front of the class, exclaiming that there was a new short story with all of my students staring at me, thinking, "Crazy woman, we already read those sections...."  Sigh.  I'll seem way cooler when I teach it again in the fall.

In terms of the actual story, the first half of Julian's story is his perspective for the events in Wonder.  I found this half to be "blah."  It didn't really help me to empathize or sympathize with Julian.  The second half, however, was far more engaging.  Julian travels to France and learns some things about his grandmother's childhood that provides him with a new perspective.  This made The Julian Chapter worth reading.

So, it's nice having this expansion to Wonder.  It really is one of my favorite books to share with future teachers.  I assign it to every single one of the students in my department when they take my class on diversity in schools.  It's the very first work of fiction I assign to them.  It demonstrates the value of empathy.  I also show them this video, which distinguishes empathy from sympathy.

Recently, our department added murals throughout our building.  I was excited, because I got to share my ideas with the artist and a lot of the books I teach were included.

Wonder is included in the mural of giant books
near the entrance to my department.

Now I'll have to teach Wonder for as long as our department is in this building.


Tasty Rating:  !!!

Audiobook Review: Lockwood and Co. (The Screaming Staircase AND The Whispering Skull)

After her career ends tragically, Lucy moves to London looking for a new beginning and a new job as a ghost hunter.  She manages to find a home at the small agency Lockwood and Co.  Her only co-workers are Lockwood himself and a boy named George.  Together they seek jobs to seek out and put to rest ghosts.

Set in a world where iron is sold for its ability to fend off ghosts and where only children and teens can detect ghosts, it's up to those with special senses to seek them out while most of the adults remain safely inside.  Ghost hunters' services are desperately needed, because the world has been faced with "The Problem" of ghosts emerging everywhere for several decades now.

Jonathan Stroud's Lockwood and Co. series is action packed and fun to read.  I stayed up late to finish reading The Screaming Staircase.  Though my excitement dwindled a little with The Whispering Skull, I will be on the lookout for the third book in the series (The Hollow Boy--due out in September of 2015!).

A new friend had recommended this series to me.  She's a children's librarian at at a local school.  I'll admit, part of my goal was to assess her judgement.  I downloaded The Screaming Staircase  on Audible.  At first, I struggled to get into it.  This can probably be blamed on my tendency to multitask more than the story itself.  I actually stopped listening for several days.  But, eventually, I decided it was worth a second chance and restarted the story from the beginning.  This time, the exchanges between Lockwood and Lucy as they battled a ghost caught my interest and I became more hooked as the story continued.   Suffice to say, my friend passed with flying colors and I'll be talking about more middle grade children's books with her.

My biggest issue with this series is the setting.  Not the location--London is perfect for some ghostly adventures.  The timing though.  Every time a television was mention I was taken out of the reading.  It felt like this book should have been set in the early 1900s, or at least before 1940.

As I was reading, I was vaguely reminded of Maureen Johnson's Shades of London series.  (Admittedly, the similarities pretty much end at ghosts + London.  But still, while waiting for the next book in one series, you can get hooked to another.  Story of my life.  Truth.)

Tasty Rating:  !!!. (3.5--four explanation points for The Screaming Staircase and three explanation points for The Whispering Skull)

Quick Review: In Real Life

Doctorow, C., & Wang, J.  (2014).  In Real Life.  New York:  First Second.

175 pages.


Appetizer:  After a guest speaker visits her school and after her mom establishes some rules for her online life, Anda joins Coarsegold, a multiplayer online fantasy game in which participants go on quests, and begins to make money by going on missions for other players.  As she meets people through Coarsegold, she learns that not everyone has the advantages she does and that she may be in a unique position to help a teenager who goes by the name Raymond who is struggling to survive in his job in China.

Although a quick read, I struggled to get into In Real Life.  I think I wanted more elaboration into how Anda originally became a gamer (as opposed to how she specifically began playing Coarsegold).  I was a little confused about Anda's beginning situation at the start of the graphic novel.  She'd just moved and didn't seemed particularly happy about it, yet she already also seemed to have a group of friends (and maybe was in a club for gamers?).  This also left me confused as to why Liza McCombs, the guest speaker who originally encourages Anda and other female gamers to join her guild, was speaking to her class.  What class is this?!  (Eventually, these confusions were cleared up:  Anda is in the sci-fi club and her class seemed to be a computer programing one with the assignment that students had to create their own games.  This would have been nice exposition to have before pages 42 and 161 though.)

So, based upon the cover and title, my expectations were a little skewed going into In Real Life.  Instead of the girl making friends online and in real life at a new school narrative that I had been expecting, I got insights into the economics of gaming and insights about those who farm or cheat the system by buying the things that most gamers earn through a lot of work.  Which is also a good takeaway--one that has some uses for in the classroom.  Along with the exploration of economics--which is fleshed out more fully in Doctorow's introduction to the book--I also like the secondary issue of addressing gender in gaming and the encouragement for more empowerment among female gamers.

In Real Life did end up addressing the issues I'd assumed it would (noting that online life is real and economically relevant and showing that Anda can make friends both online and at school).  But, those themes took backseat to examining the economic realities of games and to showing the treatment of a teenaged employee in China.

I would definitely consider using In Real Life in a classroom.  It addresses important issues of economics and social justice in a unique way.  I do, however, think some concepts will need extra support if students are not already familiar with multiplayer online games.

For those interested, here's a link to Doctorow's original story that inspired In Real Life from Salon.com.

Also, for a lighter take on online gamer culture, I recommend watching Felicia Day's series The Guild.  It is fun.  (The series is also on Netflix.)


Dinner Conversation:

Tasty Rating:  !!!.  (3.5 explanation points)

Quick Review: El Deafo by Cece Bell.

Bell, C.  (2014).  El Deafo.  New York:  Amulet Books.

Appetizer:  El Deafo is the memoir of Cece Bell, who after a bout of meningitis was left severely deaf.  She shares about learning to read lips, going to school and wearing a Phonic Ear, and making (and sometimes losing) friends.

Over the years, I've taught a few students who have requested that I wear a microphone.  I was always thankful that one such student warned me that if I wore the microphone to the restroom, she would still be able to hear everything I was doing.  So, I've been able to avoid the embarrassing fate of some of Cece's teachers:

This dates both myself and Cece Bell, but I appreciated that the book went into her school attempting

to teach about emotional intelligence and the way individuals' words can impact others as "warm fuzzies" or "cold pricklies."  I was actually talking to a few friends recently about how I was taught about giving warm fuzzies or cold pricklies to others, and they attempted to complicate it, noting that a lot of people can give one another warm pricklies or cold fuzzies.  As a child, I don't remember a book ever being attached to learning about fuzzies and pricklies, but apparently (and according to Cece Bell) there is a book.  (Now I know what I want for my birthday....)

I found El Deafo enjoyable, but it didn't blow my mind.  It often felt a little unfocused (which often happens with memoirs), which makes it put-down-able.  But having said that, it's still a very valuable book that I will recommend to my students.  This is a great recommendation for readers who like the realistic graphic novel by Raina Telgemeier.


Dinner Conversation:

Tasty Rating:  !!!

Quick Review: The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry (Drink tea as you read this book...make make sure nobody is trying to poison you first...)

I just finished listening to the audiobook version of The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place  by Julie Berry.

Set in the Victorian era, after the seven girls at their finishing school realize that their headmistress and her brother have been murdered with poison, the girls decide to bury the bodies in the backyard.  Fearing that they would all have to return to their families if they summoned the police, the young women scheme to try to run the school for themselves and to find the murderer that may live among them.

This book was an enjoyable listen.  I was thankful that the girls were given epithets to help identify who they were.  I struggle with names as it is.....

Although, some of the epithets were troubling:  Pocked, Dour, Disgraceful.  But, that was part of the point.

Here's the book trailer:

I thought the ending was a little predictable, but the story was still enjoyable enough that it was good to confirm my suspicions.

The author's note at the end left me wanting to research more about Victorian poisons.    This is a good recommendation for students who love this era in history.

Tasty Rating:  !!!

Quick Review: The School for Good and Evil (Deconstructing )

I just finished listening to the audiobook of The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani.

I really enjoyed it.  The book gave me Harry Potter flashbacks.  It felt like a commentary on how characters from certain houses almost always turned out to be "good" or "evil."  The School for Good and Evil finds best friends, Sophie and Agatha, from a small town forced to attend a school in which the students are automatically sorted into the good side or evil side of the school.  Sophie, who landed in Evil, feels certain that she belongs in Good and Agatha isn't exactly certain that she belongs in Good either.  As the students are prepared to play roles in fairy tales, Agatha and Sophie are uncertain whether their friendship or they themselves can survive.

A former student recommended this book to me almost three years ago.  I certainly took my sweet time in reading the book.  I don't want to be *that* girl, but part of my delay was that the cover didn't impress me.  I know, I know.

I am glad I read it though.  I'll most likely continue with the series and will read A World without Princes at some point.

REVIEW: Diary of a Wimpy Kid The Long Haul (AKA the worst road trip ever)

Kinney, J.  (2014).  Diary of a Wimpy Kid:  The long haul.  New York:  Abrams.

217 pages.


Appetizer:  Inspired by a Family Frolic magazine article, Greg's mom has required the entire family go on a road trip together.  The adventure that ensues will prove harrowing for poor Greg and will feature a piglet, hungry seagulls, a trip to a vet, underpants bandits, lost keys, and a lack of space in the back of the van.

I laughed out loud a few times while reading The Long Haul, which is a step up from several of the previous Wimpy Kid books.  I really liked the description of Choose Your Own Adventure books and Greg feeling like he was faced with a similar choice.  (Although, this element did make me feel like the end of the book lacked a conclusion.  I kept turning the last page back and forth to see what I was missing.)

I also liked the family trip to the vet's office (see the last two pictures below).

This book left me feeling pleased that I don't have any road trips scheduled for awhile....


Dinner Conversation:

Tasty Rating:  !!!

REVIEW: The Surprise Attack of Jabba the Puppett (might make you cheer for Jabba)

Angleberger, T.  (2013).  The Surprise Attack of Jabba the Puppett.  New York:  Abrams.

208 pages.

Appetizer:  *The author of this blog insists you hum or listen to the opening credits of one of the Star Wars movies as you read the following*

It's the start of the spring semester, and Dwight has returned to McQuarrie, but it is still a dark time for the middle school.  The evil empire of school administrators have implemented a new program called "FunTime" to ensure students learn the fundamentals of the core subject areas for standardized tests that are months away.  The actual video-based lessons prove to be anything but fun.  All electives, like music and art, have been abolished.  It falls to a rag-tag band of seventh graders to try to maintain the culture of creativity and Star Wars fandom that they have worked so hard to create.  They must search for other brave students to start a rebellion.

I love this series so much!  It's not just because of all of the Star Wars puppets.  I love the way Angleberger addresses major issues in education (like the ridiculous over-emphasis on standardized testing!) in an accessible way.  Such an important critique.

It does seem that addressing the issues of testing, overuse of worksheets, and test prep programs are taking over this series.  My biggest critique of this particular book is that it seemed to struggle to find a balance between taking on the fight against standardized testing and dealing with the usual issues of the middle school social scene.  A few "does she like me?  Does she like him now?" scenes were forced in.  There should have either been more attention to those concerns near the end (which is the route I would have preferred), or the initial scenes probably should have been cut.

While there is a small resolution at the end of the book in regards to the Origami rebels fight, the characters are left gearing up for a larger battle and I'm very curious to see how Angleberger will take it on in the next book:  Princess Labelmaker to the Rescue.

One of the reasons I love showing this series to my education students is because all of the books are framed as being an inquiry.  In The Surprise Attack of Jabba the Puppett, one of the main characters, Harvey, who is often the nay-sayer of the group, attempts to do an experiment to track the learning of himself and his cousin.  At one point, Harvey's dad pipes in with a critique of the experimental design.  The plot also features several of the characters doing a variety of calculations to determine how many students have to get certain scores for their testing rebellion to have an impact.  So many across-the-curriculum connections!

As always, the end of the book provides the how-to steps to create finger puppets.  This time both an illustrated guide for Jabba AND an Ewok are included.  Here's a picture of the Jabba I made from the cover page of a draft of my tenure-track portfolio for work.  I'm thinking of handing it in with the final portfolio:

Dinner Conversation:

"Me and Kellen knew we would be starting a new case file when Dwight got back.
We just didn't know what it would be about.
I mean, you never, never know what to expect from Dwight." (p. 2)

"Today was January 6, the first day of the spring semester.
We found out that there are going to be a lot of weird changes at school.
Judging by how excited Principal Rabbski was about them, they could not possibly be good.  And judging by the posters that were going up around school--"Get Ready for a Fun Time with FunTime!!!!"--they're probably really, really bad." (p. 3)

"Instead of going to your elective classes each day, you'll be assigned to a new classroom, where you'll use the FunTime system to prepare for your upcoming state Standards of Learning tests." (p. 13)

"The first thing on the worksheet was the exact same problem that the Professor had done on the video.  Then there were nine more very similar problems.  It took about twenty seconds to do the whole thing.  Like I said, we all learned how to do these a long time ago.
When we were all done, Mr. Howell hit the play button and Gizmo went over the answers....very, very slowly...and showed us how to do each one...very, very slowly.
And then he sang!" (p. 20)

"By the time we all met in the cafeteria for lunch, we were all thinking the same thing:  How is Origami Yoda going to get us out of this?" (p. 22)

"'It is time for faithfulness...solidarity...courage...all the qualities of a Jedi.'
"But for what?" Kellen and I asked at the same time.
Origami Yoda looked at each of us...even at Dwight.  For a second I thought about how crazy it was, all of us sitting there staring at a finger puppet and then the finger puppet staring back at us watching while the finger looked at the guy who owns the finger.
But something else told me it wasn't crazy.  When Origami Yoda looked at me with his crinkly eyes, I knew what he was going to say.  And I knew I was going to agree.
"Come the time has...." Origami Yoda said slowly, "for rebellion."
Snort," snorted Harvey." (pp. 25-26)


Tasty Rating:  !!!!

I'm Alive I Swear! And REVIEW: Diary of a Wimpy Kid Hard Luck

*Brushes the dust off the blog.*

Oh, hello there!

Please excuse the lack of posting.  It proved to be a crazy semester.

Whenever I wasn't reading for my classes, I was reading for the Cybils YA fiction award.  I've been sharing all of my thoughts on the books with my fellow panelists.  Let me tell you, we have some wonderful contenders for the book award this year!

As the book judging winds down, I hope to focus in a little more on reading for the blog.

On to my first review in the post-crazy-semester haze:

Kinney, J.  (2013).  Diary of a Wimpy Kid:  Hard luck.  New York:  Amulet Books.

Appetizer:  In the eighth book of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, Greg spends March and April dealing with the fact that his best friend, Rowley, is in a relationship (the boy-girl kind!), and no longer has a lot of time for Greg.  Left alone, Greg struggles to shape another friend into the best friend that Rowley had been to him.

He also must deal with an impending visit of relatives from his mom's side of the family (including one aunt who hates children, another whose children are monsters, and yet another who relies heavily on a psychic).  During the Easter visit, most of the relatives engage in a desperate hunt for a missing heirloom that has pitted sister against sister.

Frustrated with all of the difficulty little and big decisions he faces, Gregg turns to an old Magic Eight Ball for answers.  What could possibly go wrong?

As with other installments of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, I'm impressed by Kinney's ability to access issues that are currently huge in elementary and middle schools.  (In this case the positive reinforcement movement in anti-bullying campaigns and the "Find a Friend" station on the school playground come to mind.)

At this point, you should know what you're getting if you pick up a Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.  Hard Luck maintains the selfish protagonist, humor, fun perspectives, and amusing drawings that readers have come to expect for the series.  Hard Luck isn't my favorite in the series, but it's still an enjoyable read.  It definitely made me chuckle out loud a few times in the cafe where I was reading.

This page was the main chuckle culprit:

You'll have to read the book to find out how Greg's Dad got in this situation.


Dinner Conversation:

Tasty Rating:  !!!

REVIEW: Drama

Telgemeier, R.  (2012).  Drama.  New York:  Scholastic.

233 pages.


So, after getting stranded in reading In Darkness for months and after going through getting the chance to act in a production of Five Women Wearing the Same Dress at my local community theater, Drama seemed like the perfect graphic novel for me to jump back into reading and blogging with, especially since I enjoyed Telgemeier's debut Smile so much.


Appetizer:  Callie and her friends work back stage in all of her school's drama productions at Eucalyptus Middle School.  As they prepare to put on Moon Over Mississippi, their final production of the year, just as much drama occurs backstage as on stage as crushes, in-likes, dislikes, realizations about sexual orientations, and fights unfold.

I really enjoyed this graphic novel.  The structure of the book mirrored that of a performance with an overture, acts and an intermission.  I also really liked that the focus was on the people who work behind the scenes of a musical instead of on the actors (which is what the audience usually focuses on).

Telgemeier does an excellent job of bringing the experience of middle school to life (I remember being equally impressed with this in Smile).  There's the crushes, new relationships, and heartbreaks of realizing your crush is interested in someone else (so much unrequited love!).  There's the embarrassing family members who you still love dearly.  There's the commitment to a club and the ceaseless effort to get it right.

I liked Callie as a character and her commitment to set design.  I think it could really encourage readers to think about what they're passionate about.

As Callie makes new friends with twins Jesse and Justin, I found that keeping the twins straight was the biggest difficulty of reading this story.  They do have different hair styles, but I found myself wishing that they didn't both have names that began with J's.

I also struggled a little with the character of Bonnie, a mean girl who auditions for one of the main roles in the musical.  There is no redemption for her.  Since so much of the story was about revealing who you are and what you want, I was hoping that at some point there would be more insights or empathy for why Bonnie was the way she was.


Dinner Conversation:

Tasty Rating:  !!!!

REVIEW: A Tale Dark & Grimm (Don't miss this one!)

Gidwitz, A.  (2010).  A Take Dark and Grimm.  New York:  Dutton Children's Books.

249 Pages.

Appetizer:  This expansion of the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale features a pushy narrator who uses a lot of false endings (see the pictures below) and who weaves together multiple stories inspired by some of the Grimm originals to share the siblings' complete adventure of betrayal and forgiveness.

The story begins before the birth of the twins Hansel and Gretel to a king and queen.  You see, the king and queen were only able to marry due to the help of a servant named Johannes who helped them to avoid three potential curses upon their wedding by sacrificing himself.

The only way to free Johannes is to behead Hansel and Gretel.

Understandingly upset about their beheadings, Hansel and Gretel decide to leave their parents and the kingdom of Grimm to find parents who will treat them better.  What follows is a journey that will involve sacrifice and a whole lot of courage.

Returning some of the violence and icky-bits to fairy tales, there are passages of A Tale Dark & Grimm that live up to the title and made me cringe.  But the narrator always provided proper/humorous warning to get wee-readers out of the room for those parts, thereby properly preparing any and all older readers for the gruesome bits.

That pushy narrator reminded me strongly of the narrator from The Tale of Despereaux.  I think the books would be wonderful to pair together since the themes of forgiveness and yearning for family run through both books.

What is more, since each chapter of A Tale Dark & Grimm could be read as its own individual fairy tale (beginning with "Once upon a time...," of course), each chapter would lend itself to a read aloud thereby allowing a teacher or parent to help kids manage the ickier passages.

Having taken multiple folklore classes, I thought Gidwitz captured some of the essential elements of traditional folktales:  The pushy narrator help the reader to feel as though he or she is being told this story.  There is a lot of repetition of three's in terms of the structure and events of the story.

A Tale Dark & Grimm also serves as a powerful allegory for trust and forgiveness within a family.  I found that Hansel and Gretel's adventure could be traced onto the experience of children having to go into foster care and being shuffled from place to place, trying to find a sense of home and forgiveness of what their parents had done.

The book itself avoids trying to answer why bad things happen, but still totes the power and capabilities of children.


Dinner Conversation:

"Once upon a time, fairy tales were awesome.  I know, I know.  You don't believe me.  I don't blame you.  A little while ago, I wouldn't have believed it myself.  Little girls in red caps skipping around the forest?  Awesome?  I don't think so.
But then I started to read them.  The real, Grimm ones.  Very few little girls in red caps in those.
Well, there's one.  But she gets eaten." (p. 1)

"You see, there is another story in Grimm's Fairy Tales.  A story that winds all throughout the moldy, mysterious tome--like a trail of bread crumbs winding through a forest.  It appears in tales you may never have heard, like Faithful Johannes and Brother and Sister.  And in some that you have--Hansel and Gretel, for instance.
It is the story of two children--a girl named Gretel and a boy named Hansel--traveling though a magical and terrifying world.  It is the story of two children striving, and failing, and then not failing.  It is the story of two children finding out the meaning of things."  (pp. 2-3)

"Once upon a time, in a kingdom called Grimm, an old king lay on his deathbed.  He was Hansel and Gretel's grandfather--but he didn't know that, for neither Hansel nor Gretel had been born yet.
No hold on a minute.
I know what you're thinking.
I am well aware that nobody want to hear a story that happens before the main characters show up.  Stories like that are boring, because they all end exactly the same way.  With the main characters showing up.
But don't worry.  This story is like no story you've ever heard." (p. 5)

"Once upon a time, two children left their home and walked out into the wide, wild world.
The land was dark as Hansel and Gretel made their way across the level turf beyond the palace moat.  They had never left the palace by themselves before, and they knew little of the great world beyond its walls." (p. 39)

"For, as you well, know, the baker woman was planning to eat them.
But she wasn't a witch.  The Brothers Grimm call her a witch, but nothing could be further from the truth.  In fact she was just a regular woman who had discovered, sometime around the birth of her second child, that while she liked chicken and she liked beef and she liked pork, what she really, really, liked was child.
I bet you can figure out how this happened." (p. 43)


Tasty Rating:  !!!!!

REVIEW: Diary of a Wimpy Kid--The Third Wheel

Kinney, J.  (2012).  Diary of a Wimpy Kid:  The Third Wheel.  New York:  Amulet Books.

217 pages.

Appetizer:  Beginning with Greg recounting his life while he was still in utero, the seventh addition to the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series features Greg babysitting, avoiding a Mad Pantser, trying to find a date to go to his school's Valentine's Day dance, a visit from Uncle Gary, an avoidance of Chicken Pox, among other misadventures.

The parts of The Third Wheel that stood out to me the most included Greg's time at the school dance.  Being an NPR-nerd, I was strongly reminded of an episode on Middle School by This American Life that I heard recently.  It also reminded me of my own first middle school dance--wearing a ridiculous shiny shirt, dancing to Pony by Genuwine, and joining a flock of girls to go to the bathroom even though only one or two of them actually needed to go. Good times.

My favorite illustration was on page 186.  Greg's best friend, Rowley, may be sick and Greg fears that he may have had contact with some of Rowley's germs:

Hahaha, oh, germaphobia.

I wouldn't say that The Third Wheel is my favorite of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.  Alas, this book doesn't really feature any critiques of children's books that I have come to love so much.  I suppose there is a section or two that I could use as an example of human growth and development, but it's not as much fun.

I did appreciate, however, that the beginning and end of the book compliment one another, giving the book a feel of having come full-circle, a nice conclusive ending that some of the other books in this series are lacking.


Dinner Conversation:

Tasty Rating:  !!!