Mo and Jo: Fighting Together Forever by Dean Haspiel and Jay Lynch

Mona and Joey are a brother and sister embroiled in sibling rivalry. Who will play the next level on The Mighty MoJo video game? Who can drop the video game fast enough to answer the door first? Everything is a competition. They even argue over who is the Mighty MoJo's biggest fan.

When their mailman, Mr. Mojoski, reveals his secret identity - The Mighty MoJo! - he gives them his super-powered costume and asks one of them to replace him (he's retiring to Miami) in his battle against crime. But which one? In the ensuing tug-of-war, the costume gets split right down the middle.

Right between the Mo and the Jo.

This is where SuperMOM comes to the rescue. (She's really just a normal mom, but she does save the day, just like moms everywhere.) Mom salvages MoJo's costume into two child-sized costumes. The only problem is the Mighty MoJo's powers have been split too. One costume has the magnetic boots, while the other has MoJo's stretchable arms. Who has the better powers?

That's when Saw-Jaw shows up, the Mighty MoJo's arch-nemesis, and he's dead set on ruining the city parade. As he's about to destroy the giant hippo balloon, Mo and Jo each try to stop him before the other does. They compete to stop crime!

Finally, they figure out that cooperation, not competition, is the super power they need. Their selfish actions almost allow Saw-Jaw's destruction to succeed, but their cooperation brings an end to his dastardly deeds.

Hooray TEAM MoJo!

Jay Lynch and Dean Haspiel have combined their super powers to create another great addition to the toon-books collection. Let's hope they, like Mo and Jo, continue to cooperate in the battle against crime and boring books.

The OK Book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Upon first glance, the cover seems clear. The OK Book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. Got it. Simple enough.

Open to the title page and the title has been rotated, now written vertically. Time for a second glance. Hmmm, you think. Vertical. Why's that? Ah, well. On to page one.

"Hi, how are you? I'm OK."

That's it. Page one. It's now, finally, with the third glance, that readers realize they've been looking at the main character all along. There he is, right there on page two, and yes indeed, he certainly is OK.

See? He wasn't lying. He's OK.

Which the main character goes on to explain. It's fun to try things even if you aren't great at them. You might even be just OK at them. This guy is OK at a lot of things. He's an OK skipper, an OK marshmallow roaster (ahh, crispy...), an OK kite flyer (look out for that tree!), and even an OK tug-of-war-er. He's an OK sharer, but...er, uh...you get the smaller half of the PB&J, OK?

In the end OK realizes that even if there are more lightning bugs outside the jar than inside, and even if your toes are the wettest part of your body when you go swimming, and even if there's a boot instead of a bass on the end of your fishing line, someday we all grow up to be excellent at something.

"I don't know what it is yet," he adds, "but I sure am having fun figuring it out."

We had a better-than-OK time with this book in fourth grade. Thanks to the reproducible activities on illustrator Tom Lichtenheld's website, this one especially, we shared our own OK abilities. Here's two examples. One belongs to a student, and one belongs to a grown-up. Or, quite possibly, someone (that'd be me) simply masquerading as a grown-up. Can you guess which is which?

2009 IRC Conference

First and foremost, thanks to everyone who came to the Help Readers Love Reading! sectionals at the IRC Conference. Your enthusiam was wonderful. Thanks also to everyone who took time to share your thoughts and comments with me.

If you requested an additional handout for either sectional, they'll be on the way shortly. Feel free to email me as well if there's a handout you'd still like. (The address is at the top and to the right.)

If you have any questions or comments or "What was that one book, again?" leave a comment on this post or drop me a message. I'm curious to hear more people's reactions to the sectional, the information presented, or if there are any topics about which you'd like more information.

Thanks again for attending and thanks for all you do to Help Readers Love Reading!

UPDATE: Handouts have been sent. Sorry again to everyone who didn't get one at the sectional. If you requested one and didn't receive it, send me a message. You may want to try a personal email address. I have already had one message bounce back marked as spam from a school district.

Thanks to Everyone at OS!

Here's a great big thank you to everyone who welcomed me in Springfield at Our Savior's Lutheran School. It was great fun sharing the chapel message ... Oh, and thanks for making Curious George welcome too. He said he had a great time. I enjoyed meeting everyone and talking books throughout the day. Did you get any ideas about what to read next?

If you have any questions about the books I shared today, the activities we did, or just feel the need to share something, you can email me (my address is at the top of the page and along the right side) or leave a comment at the bottom of this message.

Take some time to look around the site too. There's a ton of great books. They are organized by grade level, author, and my recommendation along the right side. Click around. See what you find.

Thanks again for welcoming me to your school!

Springtime!

The temperature is currently sixteen degrees. We just had freezing rain and snow. The obvious signs say winter is still going strong. But there is one indication that spring has sprung.

The elementary school spring carnival.

That's the topic of my latest column. Here's the printable version.

Skeleton Creek by Patrick Carman

It took me a while to read Skeleton Creek simply because I'm a wimp. There. I said it, and I can't take it back. The day is full of teaching, the evening is full of family, and the only time to read is at night. When it's dark. And, due to the aforementioned wimpiness, I wouldn't read it at night.

So for one day only I decided to blow off reading conferences (another admission) during reader's workshop time and read surrounded by my protective fourth graders.

Skeleton Creek is the journal of fifteen-year-old Ryan McCray. He begins by describing his past two weeks in the hospital, and then proceeds to the events that caused his stay. He and his best friend Sarah Fincher had gone to explore a mysterious, retired gold-mining dredge in the woods where a worker, Joe Bush, had reportedly died. Ryan seriously injures his leg after breaking through a crumbling safety rail and falling.

Ryan and Sarah have now been forbidden from seeing or contacting each other, but in the age of the Internet, contact is hard to stop. Ryan writes. Sarah emails video updates of her continued investigation, available to Ryan only (and readers) at SarahFincher.com via the passwords she sends.

The first video shows Sarah’s first visit to the dredge and their first evidence that someone (the ghost of Old Joe Bush?) is inside. The second video shoes the events surrounding Ryan’s accident. In subsequent videos Sarah lays out her findings – enhanced sound, image comparisons, interviews, and personal commentary. Readers get Ryan’s side of the story by reading his journal. Sarah’s part is presented through her videos and occasional email. It’s a unique concept for a book, this switching between text and video, and readers will enjoy it immensely.

The story continues through the small town of Skeleton Creek. Local history and residents become entwined in Ryan and Sarah’s story as their research unearths a secret society called The Crossbones, cryptic messages in the local newspaper, odd symbols, Ryan’s father, the new park ranger in town, and even the shotgun-toting librarian - and all somehow point to the dredge.

The online element of Skeleton Creek is enhanced by additional information and sites. Easter Eggs (click a window, click a doorway) occasionally appear on SarahFincher.com. Readers question whether Patrick Carman's story is based on real events at SkeletonCreekIsReal.com, and present their evidence. Speculation, news, rumors, and discussion forums are available at SkeletonCreekFans.com. Want to do a little research on your own? Wikipedia includes entries about Old Joe Bush and the original Sumpter Valley Gold Dredge.

Okay, back to the wimpiness. Sarah’s first two video are the creepiest. I could have handled the rest of them at night. Really. I could.

Until that last one…

Anyways, here’s the book trailer. Remember...it's creepy.

Little Hoot by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

So after you get your Little Pea to choke down his candy, what challenge could yet remain for the evening? You've already gotten him to finish his dinner - welcome to the clean plate club! - what more could be coming?

Bedtime.

Now Little Hoot doesn't give his parents any grief about school. He enjoys playing hide-n-seek with his buddies. He even practices his pondering and staring like a good little hoot ought. But bedtime is a different story.

To parents, bedtime is set. Big hand here + little hand there = bedtime. That's just the way it is. Little Hoot is like little hoots everywhere. Bedtime means negotiation. Out come the tactics, tried and true. "All my other friends get to go to bed so much earlier than me! Why do I always have to stay up and play? It's not fair!"

His parents remind him about being a wise old owl and the importance of staying up late. "And besides, I don't give a hoot what time your friends go to bed," his father says while pouring his evening coffee. "Stay up and play for one more hour and then you can go to sleep," says his mother.

A whole hour?!? Before getting to go to bed?!? Life is so unfair.

Playing swords, climbing on the jungle gym, building forts, jumping in piles of leaves, jumping on the bed - Little Hoot can only take it for so long! All this playing, playing, playing! Finally, woo-whooooo! It's bedtime. Before his parents can come with a glass of water and a pile of bedtime books, Little Hoot is out.

Amy Krouse Rosenthal's Little Hoot will match Little Pea in giggles as kids recognize how Little Hoot's bedtime is the opposite of theirs and learn that no matter when bedtime comes, it is always a struggle.

Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

This is a book for families with their own Little Pea.

Little Pea likes rolling down hills super fast. He hangs out with his pea pals. In Little Pea's life there are swings and snuggles and stories and cries of "Again! Again!" when Papa Pea sends him sailing through the air from the end of a spoon.

And just like most little peas you know, there's one thing he doesn't like. It comes at dinner time. There it is on the plate. What is it that your little peas absolutely, positively don't want to eat? Every night threats of "You're not leaving the table until..." and "If you don't eat what you have I'll give you more..." fly across the table. What could this nastiness be?

Candy.

Every day of the week, Monday through Friday, weekends too, it's candy for dinner. Grow up big and strong? Dessert? Not without your candy. What?!? FIVE pieces?!? Just like little peas across the country, this Little Pea chokes them down, squinty-eyed and not without a running commentary on how icky it truly it is. Blech! Candy.

Readers will giggle all they way through once they recognize this nightly struggle through different eyes. And it will certainly make all the little peas out there eager to eat their vegetables every night without complaint.

Ah, who am I kidding? That'll never happen. However, Amy Krouse Rosenthal's book may help all little peas, just like Little Pea in the book, finish that detestable food so they can finally enjoy the best part of the meal. Spina...um...I mean, DESSERT!

Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator by Sarah C. Campbell

“Do we have these around us?” asked the resident seven-year-old after reading Wolfsnail by Sarah C. Campbell.

“Sorry, Buddy. It says here it’s found in the southwestern United States. We live in the northern part of the U.S.”

“But we have hostas! It says he climbed up the stem of a hosta!”

“Yeah, we have hostas, but wolfsnails don’t live this far north. Apparently they’re pretty smart. They don’t like winter.”

“Cool! He’s smart AND he hunts and eats other snails and slugs.”

I’m not sure why he wanted them around our house, but I can imagine him, or any dirty-kneed summer time boy, crouching behind the house studying the wolfsnail as it makes its way across the hostas, hoping like crazy it catches something while he’s watching.

That’s pretty much the way it goes with the book as well. Readers will pay close attention to the text, learning about wonderfully gross things like mucus and slime and tentacles. The photographs are excellent and larger than life. Young boys might think they can climb up and ride these carnivorous monsters, when in reality adults are only 1.5 - 3 inches long. The end of the hunt is especially cool. The wolfsnail stretches to reach the next leaf, finds its prey, attacks (as a snail would…there’s no pouncing here), and dines. Finally, there’s a close-up of the now empty shell.

Wolfsnail was named a Geisel Honor book in 2009. While very different from this year’s Medal winner, Are You Ready to Play Outside? by Mo Willems, it is equally as deserving and engaging to young readers, but in a completely different way.

The Sword Thief (The 39 Clues) by Peter Lerangis

At the end of One False Note, book two of The 39 Clues, Amy and Dan Cahill had narrowly escaped grave danger, outwitted numerous competitors, and uncovered a second clue. Another normal day in the life of a Cahill. The book closes with another meeting between the mysterious man in black and Mr. McIntyre, and readers are told “High above their table, the vapor trail of a jetliner left a white ribbon in the clear blue sky, heading east.” It’s a triumphant announcement – Amy and Dan, once again, are a step ahead of their apparently befuddled competition.

One problem. Amy and Dan aren’t on the plane.

The Sword Thief, author Peter Lerangis’ contribution to The 39 Clues series, begins with Amy and Dan at the airport, worrying about their luggage, carry-ons, security, and why the flight attendant checking their boarding pass has just said, “Un momento?” Note to Cahill siblings: If anyone asks you for un momento, especially in an airport, museum, or library, they’re not just being polite. They’re stalling you, and there’s a cousin or uncle or distant relative – another Cahill – behind it.

Double-crossed by competitors thought to be out of the contest, at least temporarily, Amy and Dan form a reluctant alliance with their uncle, Alistair Oh, if for nothing else than his ability to offer them transportation, a hotel room, Japanese translations, and clean clothes. They eventually make their way to Tokyo following the clue discovered in Salzburg. Once again – twice, actually – they find themselves underground in their search, discovering hidden scrolls, haiku, maps, puzzles, codes, and numerous other “clues to the clues,” all of which, after being deciphered, lead them across the Sea of Japan.

The search for the 39 Clues remains entrenched in history too. In the 1500’s, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was born a peasant but grew to be a great warrior, uniting Japan as a major power. According to Uncle Alistair, he was a Tomas and his descendants, the yakuza, still guard many of Hideyoshi’s hiding places. Unfortunately for Amy, Dan, and Uncle Alistair, his information proves to be correct, with the accuracy of a yakuza-thrown shuriken.

Peter Lerangis adds his own flavor to the series. The shortest book so far, The Sword Thief is still action packed, but moves quickly between scenes leaving readers to draw conclusions as to what happened in between. Near the end of Chapter 4, the Cahills are on a plane preparing to land and refuel. After a three page Irina Spasky update, Dan is stealing ashtrays from a hotel in Tokyo. Dan is also extremely funny, more noticeably so. I will make myself invisible by using ninja mind control, he thinks when stopped by airport security. The book is full of hilarious Dan one-liners.

The hunt for the 39 Clues continues in The Sword Thief without a letdown, and promises to carry on all the way to Egypt in book four, Beyond the Grave by Jude Watson, scheduled for release on June 2, 2009.

An Invitation

I'd like to invite visitors to Help Readers Love Reading! - new folks and the regulars alike - to visit my new site, simply called Help Readers Too!. It's an irregularly updated, miscellaneously contented, sister site. More details are available over there ... well, a few anyway ... but basically it's a place for additional thoughts and opinions that aren't necessarily book reviews.

I'd also like to invite readers, especially teachers and bloggers, to weigh in on a moral dilemma I recently posted involving a highly anticipated book and its release date.

If you feel like clicking on over today or another time, thanks. It's pretty sparse right now, and I plan on tidying up a bit in the future, but I wanted to post this story before it became irrelevant.

And thanks again for visiting Help Readers Love Reading!.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Great books are like a hike up a steep hill with a spectacular view. The heart rate climbs. Breathing quickens. The desire to finish grows, along with the effort put forth to reach that end. And the payoff is remarkable. The Graveyard Book does all these things. I’ve read and reread and considered it greatly for this review. The more I do, the more I’m convinced Neil Gaiman’s book is an incredible choice for the 2009 Newbery Medal.

As I read The Graveyard Book, I felt there were four distinct parts.

Part One: Chapter 1, How Nobody Came to the Graveyard, begins with the creepiest opening in recent memory. "There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife." The whole page is black, save the chapter title, that one line of text, and the knife-wielding hand. A baby boy, 18 months old, has crawled out of his bed. He proceeds down the stairs, through the front door, into the street, and up the hill to protective hands of the graveyard residents.

His family is murdered by the man Jack. The boy is unharmed.

Part Two: Chapters 2-5 each read as a short story - indeed, Chapter 4, The Witch's Headstone, was first published as a short story - and each chapter gives important information about the boy's life in the graveyard. Adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Owens, longtime occupants of the graveyard, and looking like nobody in particular, the boy becomes Nobody Owens, Bod for short.

Five-year-old Bod meets a friend, Scarlett, who is visiting the graveyard, now more park than cemetary. Readers learn the differences between a normal child and one granted the Freedom of the Graveyard. Readers are also introduced to the Sleer, an ancient graveyard resident.

Six-year-old Bod is introduced to this graveyard’s ghoul-gate (every graveyard has a ghoul-gate), what lies beyond the gate, and the lengths to which the dead will go to preserve his life.

A ten-year-old Bod meets a resident witch and begins a friendship. He continues his education, both academic and spiritual. He witnesses and participates in the Danse Macabre.

Part Three: A brief interlude, The Convocation, reminds readers that the man Jack still exists and still wants – needs, in fact – Bod dead. His business associates, for lack of a better term, remind him of his failure and responsibility to finish the business he started.

Part Four: Chapters 6-8 read more as the novel I expected. Bod makes more and more excursions into the world outside the graveyard where, for the most part, he is unprotected. He goes to school, meets bullies, new friends, old friends, and police officers. But all these outside experiences, though beneficial to a boy quickly becoming a young man, make it increasingly difficult for Bod to remain anonymous and hidden from the man Jack.

Anticipation that steadily builds and an inescapable sense of dread work together so readers don’t see the climax coming as much as they feel it coming. So get yourself a copy of The Graveyard Book, block out a chunk of time, and set your bookmark aside.

And make sure the lights are on. Brightly.

The Trouble Begins at 8 by Sid Fleischman

"Mark Twain was born fully grown, with a cheap cigar clamped between his teeth."

So begins Chapter 1 of The Trouble Begins at 8. What? Fully grown? How can that be? And a cheap cigar? Huh? Readers will be engaged from the start, questions quickly forming about Mark Twain, no doubt an author many of them are being "forced" to read in school. An author who, if students are given the opportunity and proper resources, may prove to be equally as interesting as the classic American literature he created.

In the preceding preface, Sid Fleischman offers other intriguing anecdotes. A Nevada minor once introduced Mark Twain by saying, “I don’t know anything about this man. I only know two things about him. One is, he has never been in jail. And the other is, I don’t know why.” Later Fleischman reveals the inspiration for the book’s title. Twain’s first posters advertising his speaking engagements “proclaimed that the doors would open at seven. ‘The Trouble to begin at 8 o’clock.’”

Sid Fleischman does his best to separate the fact from the fiction in Mark Twain’s life, a task in which Twain himself apparently didn’t put too much stock. His autobiography, as noted numerous times, included certain exaggerations and/or additions as well as more than a few exclusions.

The book begins with young Samuel Clemens’ first work in newspaper, where he published a banner headline declaring “TERRIBLE ACCIDENT! 500 men killed and missing!!!” followed by, in smaller type, “We had set the above head up, expecting (of course) to use it, but as the accident hasn’t happened, yet, we’ll say (To be continued.)” He also started a feud with the editor of the local competition, accusing him of “failing to drink himself to death.”

The story continues following Samuel’s life as a riverboat captain, his two weeks in the military, his travel west to Nevada, more work in newspaper, his dabblings in fiction, and the next (and the next and the next...) get-rich-quick scheme. He travels the world and creates imaginary travel companions, passing them off as real. Slowly but surely readers witness the death of Samuel Clemens and the birth of Mark Twain.

Each story is as funny as the next, and each reads as a bit of humor concocted by the man himself. Teachers, get yourself a copy of this book and be sure to use it alongside Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Young readers will enjoy this creatively written story about Mark Twain as much as any story by Mark Twain.

Lincoln and His Boys by Rosemary Wells

I don't think Lincoln and His Boys offers too much new or relatively unknown information about Abraham Lincoln, but it does offer a perspective I haven't seen before. Readers meet President Lincoln through the eyes of his youngest sons, Willie and Tad. The book is divided into three sections: Willie 1859, Willie and Tad 1861, and Tad 1862-1865.

Willie, the older of the two brothers, relates the events leading up to his father's election. There's not a lot of historical facts - it's not a history book disguised as a children's book. Yes, it's the events before the election, but not debates and politics. It's a trip to the tailor and a special trip to Chicago with his father. It's keeping a promise to mother to go see Miss Jenny Lind, the best lady singer in the world, for Willie's edification. But it's also about a father who makes time to take his son to see the Chinese acrobats and jugglers at Metropolitan Hall.

The second section is again narrated by Willie, but tells of the family's travels to Washington on the train after Lincoln is elected and the events of their first year in Washington. The kids build a fort on the White House roof, complete with log artillery, mostly pointed south. The boys bust into Cabinet meetings and are the only cause of laughter for the president.

Tad picks up the narration after the fever that struck both he and Willie leaves his brother dead. His part continues to the end of the war, closing with the two most powerful events - a trip to Richmond immediately after the war's end and the president's command that the army band play Dixie in Washington.

Take time to look at the pictures. Study them. Look at the joy on Lincoln's face when he is with his boys. Notice the glares on the faces of Lincoln's Cabinet members at the same time. P. J. Lynch's illustrations deserve recognition in any review of Rosemary Wells' wonderful book.

iWants and WiiNeeds

New column today. I should have dedicated this one to all the parents who fondly remember Pong and their first 8-Tracks.

COLUMN: WiiOnes caught up in world of video games, electronics or here's the printable version.

Stinky by Eleanor Davis

Stinky enjoys his stinky yet simple life. His cave has bats and bugs and a pet toad named Wartbelly. He has an abundant supply of pickled bananas, pickled eggs, and pickled onions. The moment he leaves his cave, his neighbors call him by name. "Hi, Stinky," says the squirrel and dragonfly. "Good morning, Stinky," says the bird and the porcupine. Even the turtle, frogs, and alligator greet Stinky.

His swamp has mushy, mucky mud and a bottomless pit and an onion patch and wonderfully stinky smell. Best of all, it’s all his. Ah…home smelly home.

Stinky must be careful, however, because on the other side of the swamp is a town. “Towns have kids,” Stinky explains, “and kids don’t like swamps. They like to take baths!” How could a monster befriend anyone who doesn’t like mud or slugs or smelly monsters like him? “I stay away from them,” he declares.

Stinky does all he can to avoid kids, but what can he do when a kid wanders onto his territory? A kid! In his swamp! Stinky tries to get rid of the boy. He tries to stink him out with Wartbelly. He steals his hammer and tries scaring him with a ghost costume. Nothing works. Stinky’s final plan? Give up.

In his frustration Stinky gets himself into quite a predicament – trapped at the bottom of the bottomless pit! (“Well, maybe not a bottomless pit!” Stinky realizes. “But it’s very deep.”) And who is the only person in the swamp to hear his cries? Yep, it’s the boy, Nick.

Now Stinky’s only hope is something he has always tried to avoid. A kid! More specifically, the boy he tried so desperately to run out of his swamp.

Eleanor Davis’ book is a great addition to the Toon Book library, and a great addition to any classroom library with emerging readers, especially readers whose likes and dislikes include mushy, mucky mud, slimy slugs, and stinky smells.

The Gollywhopper Games by Jody Feldman

Is he gonna get to keep the toy factory? I'll bet he's gonna win the whole toy factory. The old owner's probably got some secret hidden in his will or a code written in the toy packaging or something. Yep. Kid’s getting the toy factory.

Those were the thoughts, or some variation thereof, going through my mind as I read Jody Feldman’s The Gollywhopper Games. The similarities to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are numerous, and after reading Jody Feldman’s acknowledgements, it’s easy to see why. A student asked for a book like Roald Dahl’s classic one day when she was volunteering in the school library, and neither she nor the teacher could find one to his satisfaction. The Gollywhopper Games was born.

I was wrong. Nobody wins the Golly Toy and Game Company. And, different from Charlie, the children know they are involved in a competition. There are 25,000 chances to win. That’s 500 instant winner tickets in Golly products, 20,000 randomly selected winners, and the first 4,500 kids in line at University Stadium. Gil Goodson’s plan is wait it out in line.

Once inside, players are eliminated through stadium-wide multiple choice questions, then cut to ten finalists through a lengthy math question involving Golly toy products and company history, a nursery rhyme, and board games. Gil makes the cut.

Day two begins with the ten finalists split into two teams to compete against each other. When Gil grabs the immunity idol, he’s safe from that night’s vote, but the alliance he’s formed with…nah, just seeing if you’re paying attention. But there are two teams of five. One team is eliminated, leaving five individuals competing to win.

The contest goes throughout the Golly toy factory. There are blinking arrows on the walls and life-sized stuffed animals around every corner. There’s the Kaleidoscope room, eight stories tall, dancing with color. There are funhouse mirrors and palm trees and hot-air balloons and dancing skeletons and floating panda bears and random showers of gold confetti. Think Willie Wonka, toy maker.

The competition is a 50th anniversary celebration for the Golly Toy and Game Company with prizes including a college scholarship, Golly products, “plus other stupendous prizes and experiences too fabulous and too numerous to name!”

But it’s more for Gil. Winning will allow his family to escape Orchard Heights, his and Golly’s hometown. His father, a former employee, was arrested and charged with embezzlement just under a year prior. With no job and no income, Gil’s family is stuck in a town that loves the Golly Toy and Game Company, a town that followed Gil’s family like the Playskool Paparazzi during the trial, a town that still harbors ill will to the Goodson family despite Mr. Goodson’s acquittal.

Kids will cheer for Gil, hoping he will succeed, but they’ll do it because Gil is a great character, the contest is so engaging, and the book is simply fun. Codes, puzzles, physical challenges, memory, races … all in what seems to be the world’s coolest toy factory and all designed for reader interaction. That’s what will get and keep kids’ attention.

How I Learned Geography by Uri Shulevitz

In my initial reactions to the Newbery medal and ALA Youth Media Award winners, I said I was waiting for a copy of How I Learned Geography and asked, "Did I read right, though? A family flees war and finds poverty?" Lesson learned: Don't judge a book solely upon any three sentence blurb found on Amazon.

Yes, this autobiographical book is about Uri Shulevitz as a young boy of four or five fleeing Warsaw, Poland after the Warsaw blitz in 1939. Yes, the book is about how they fled east, settling in the city of Turkestan in the Soviet Union, what is now Kazakhstan, living in one room with barely enough to eat. But there's more. It's also the book of how a father's spur of the moment decision and the author's childhood imagination helped him escape nevertheless.

That wasn't clearly stated in that bit I rushed to read on Amazon.

All of the details listed above are from the Author's Note at the end. The story itself is much simpler. One day Father went to the bazaar to buy food, but didn't return until late. When he arrived, he announced, "I bought a map." No bread. No food. Only a gigantic map that, when displayed, filled an entire wall. After the boy gets over his initial disappointment and frustration, he learns...well, the book is called How I Learned Geography, isn't it?

The boy travels the world via the map. He studies the fascinating names and creates a rhyming verse out of them, sort of a magic chant that transports him around the world. He travels to deserts, beaches, and mountains. He sees palm trees, fruit trees, and birds of all colors. He visits a rain forest and a temple and a large metropolitan city. All through the map.

Yes, the story starts with war and poverty, but ultimately the story is about the power of a boy's imagination, and how it allows him to escape his difficult life, if just for a while. "And so I spent enchanted hours," he says, "far, far from our hunger and misery."

The Surrender Tree by Margarita Engle

The events of The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom span 50 years, from the childhood of Rosa and Lieutenant Death to the end of the War for Independence. Rosa is a child who learns the healing powers of the plants of the forest. Lieutenant Death is the son of a slave catcher who learns from his father how to hunt escaped slaves. These two characters share the narration, all told in verse, in Part One (1850-1851).

Part Two tells the events of the Ten Years' War (1868-1878), again with Rosa and Lieutenant Death (now adults) sharing narrative duties, adding Jose, Rosa's husband, and two pages from a Lieutenant-General from Spain. Rosa tells of healing the sick and the injured. Lieutenant Death continues his father's job of hunting slaves.

Parts Three and Four continue through the the Little War (1878-1880) and the War of Independence (1895-1898). Silvia, a young girl who lost her entire family in a reconcentration camp, is added to the narrative mix, expressing her desires to learn the art of healing from Rosa, now a Cuban legend.

Part Five (1898-1899) closes with the events after the War of Independence, telling of Spain's exit, and the United States' involvement and subsequent occupation. Characters are still left with a desire for freedom, feeling they have only exchanged one "foreign tyrant" for another.

It's a book about war. All the events you'd think should be in there are there: atrocities, death, murder, revenge, betrayal. There's also Rosa's desire to do good, always good, healing everyone, both friend and enemy, and never accepting payment, for healing comes from God. Events are told in only enough detail so the imagination will fill in the rest, often times with the most gruesome details. I'm not big on filling in gruesome details of war with my imagination.

Whether or not The Surrender Tree is a Newbery-quality distinguished book is a debate I'll leave to others. Regardless of the results of their debate, I don't see this book flying off classroom library shelves or being passed student to student.

A River of Words by Jen Bryant

A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams is a hard book to classify. Is it a poetry book with additional background information about the poet for older readers? Is it a story book for younger readers featuring an introduction to poetry? Or should we just give it to the art teachers?

In a word, yes.

The endpapers feature some famous Williams poems. There's The Red Wheelbarrow we've all come to know and love and This is Just to Say, recently featured in a picture book of the same name. Older readers, once familiar with the poems, may enjoy learning about the author, and no doubt will appreciate the simpler text after tackling poetry in class.

Younger readers will enjoy learning about the young man who enjoyed playing outside and staying outside. They'll like the boy who raced everywhere, always in a hurry, but would slow down to enjoy the sound and rhythm of the poetry read aloud by his teacher, while images played across his imagination. How that boy decided he could write poetry too, all about ordinary things in his life. (And why can't you?) How that boy, now a young man, became a doctor, but no matter what, continued writing poetry.

Art teachers will find plenty (and pardon my artistic ignorance if it is glaringly obvious). There are watercolor illustrations of Williams throughout his life. There are also collages, many of them featuring words and lines from poems, and many containing objects from the poet's life at the time. There are pages from medical books, notebook paper, the spine of an art textbook, newspapers, pages from a spelling book, and a report card all included in the pictures. Art teachers, are there some potential lessons there?

Jen Bryant's book and Melissa Sweet's illustrations fit in many categories, but instead of trying to find all the proper classifications, it's nice to have this simple one: Caldecott Books.

The Postcard by Tony Abbott

When Jason’s grandmother dies, he travels from Boston to St. Petersburg, Florida to help his father do whatever needs to be done. Funeral arrangements, house cleaning, house fix-ups, and eventually, house sale. Grandma’s death only heightens the stress between his father and mother, a relationship Jason fears is crumbling.

As Jason learns more about his grandmother, whom he never really got to know, he also learns more about his father’s history. The absent father. The hospitals. The fortune? How could these things not affect his father, and how could they not affect his parents’ relationship?

When Jason receives a mysterious phone call asking, “How smart are you?” and directing him to his grandmother’s desk, he discovers a postcard. It features the Hotel DeSoto, which his great-grandfather supposedly once owned. It’s blank, but upon further investigation, Jason notices some cryptic markings. Then Jason discovers an old magazine featuring a story by Emerson Beale. The story features a … postcard. And a woman named Marnie. His grandmother’s name was Agnes, but someone called her Marnie at the funeral.

Deciding it’s too much to be coincidence, Jason sneaks into the soon to be demolished Hotel DeSoto, following the clues left on the postcard, to find chapter 2 of Emerson Beal’s story. Soon the trail of clues leads to more story chapters, more family history, and more connections between the two.

The Postcard is a bit tidy the way all the clues and Jason’s good fortune seem to fall together, but Jason’s willingness to follow the clues makes it seem that his bold actions create his good fortune. A detective never gets any breaks if he doesn’t follow any leads in the first place, right?

Jason gets help with his family and literary mystery from Dia, a new friend from his grandmother’s neighborhood, who accompanies him on much of his search. When Jason gets frustrated, she encourages him to continue, sometimes simply through her eagerness and excitement.

Emerson Beal’s story is written in the book, so as Jason reads each chapter, so do readers. Jason discovers the first chapter in Bizarre Mysteries, a magazine from October 1944. The stories “were about kidnapping and murder, robbery and murder, robbery and kidnapping and murder, murder and murder, and just plain murder. And they were all written in rugged, tough-guy language.” I’m not an expert on the genre, but Tony Abbott does a good job of recreating it. I can see why kids of the 1940’s would be drawn to it, and why it probably would have caused the teachers and librarians of the time to make a face like they’d just smelt something disagreeable wafting from the mystery section. Readers will anticipate Emerson Beal’s next chapter as much as Jason does.

On A Personal Note:
What are the chances of this? Emerson Beal mentions “The Secret Order of Oobarab.” That name, coupled with descriptions of the more interesting members of the Order, led me to immediately predict what it took the characters 261 pages and Google to figure out. Of course, they didn’t have the fourth grade field trip experience that I’ve had here in central Wisconsin. Okay, that’s all I’ll say, but man, do I want to give it away. It seems nuts, but kids in Wisconsin may have a distinct advantage solving a piece of this mystery about a kid from Boston, Mass and his family in St. Petersburg, Florida.

The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson

After The House in the Night won the Caldecott Medal, and having just finished a student-selected mock Caldecott with my fourth graders, I read the book aloud to my class. Their response? Shifty sideways glances. A few unintelligible mumbles. Mostly just awkward silence. Finally one brave girl slowly raised her hand and said, "Well, it was kinda boring."

Fair enough, I thought. This is the bunch that overwhelmingly favored A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever and Beware of the Frog in our mock election. Plenty of humor, bold pictures, and enough text to keep the ten year old mind interested. One student described The House in the Night as a lullaby (a great observation), gold is the only color, and it has fewer then ten words per page.

To be fair, they appreciated it more after we discussed how the pictures were created using scratchboard. Some students pointed out that the bird in the girl's book seemed to grow larger each page until the outline of the bird was incorporated into the other illustrations, then got smaller until it was back in its book. Some saw it, some didn't, but good art does that to the observer, doesn't it?

Our art teacher, however, had a different opinion. I showed her the book, and she refused to return it. (It's not even my copy! I got it at the public library.) I saw it the next day, open and upright on a table in the art room, as sixth graders studied the pictures before beginning their own scratchboard projects. They were captivated by the detail and accuracy of the etchings.

The House in the Night had found a home in the art room. That shows the Caldecott worthiness of Beth Krommes' illustrations. It also will be at home in the bedroom, just before lights out, as little ones curl up on a parent’s lap to share the girl’s teddy bear, her story, her goodnight kiss, and her good night’s sleep. And that proves the kid worthiness of Susan Marie Swanson's story.

One Boy by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

I walked out of the library and passed One Boy to the resident first grader sitting in the backseat who, in his mind, has become quite a book critic, not afraid to speak his mind. After a few minutes I asked, "Whadja think, bud?"

"I didn't like it at all."

Well, so much for the critical review.

That night before bed, however, we read it together. Each page has cut-outs revealing part of the next page's illustrations (think Joseph Had a Little Overcoat or The Very Hungry Catipillar). Guess who was trying to remember what was on the next page based on the little bit that was visible? "Wait, wait, wait! Don't turn the page yet!"

The cut-outs reveal part of the illustration on the next page, but after the page is turned, they also leave part of the previous page's text visable. These still visable letters become part of the next page's text. Again, guess who, after he understood how the cut-outs worked, was trying to guess what part of the text would reused on the next page? We'd read "SEVEN CANDLES," and I'd hear him murmer, "Candles...candles." He'd think some, then continue, "...andles...can...cand...AND!" We'd turn the page and sure enough, "AND A CAKE."

The book begins with "ONE BOY." The next page shows him seated, seemingly bored, and "ALL ALONE." The word ONE is now part of ALONE. Later we read "THREE APES" followed by "BIG ESCAPE." This time APE becomes part of ESCAPE. At the end, "ANTS" becomes part of "PANTS," but I'll leave the visual and context of that one to readers.

So, yeah, apparently the boy didn't like it. He didn't like it so much that he told me when to turn pages and was guessing and predicting on each page. Congratulations, Laura Vaccaro Seeger, on writing a thouroughly...eh-hem...unenjoyable book.

(And woe to anyone who quotes that last paragraph out of context!)

Are You Ready to Play Outside? by Mo Willems

Piggie and Gerald are ready for an outside adventure. Will they run? Will they skip? Will they jump? Yes, yes, and yes! “NOTHING CAN STOP US!” declares Piggie.

Unfortunately Piggie doesn’t see the coming rain. Rain! On a day when they were going to do everything. Everything! What can be done? How can the day be saved? How can there be any fun?

But…the worms…they seem to have fun. Okay, they don’t run – being worms and all – but they do jump and splash. They are having fun, so why not Piggie and Gerald? They discover that everything they were planning on doing in the sun is just as fun in the rain. Everything! Quite possibly even more fun.

Playing in the rain is so much fun that when it stops, as most rain eventually will, Piggie’s tune changes. “I DO NOT LIKE RAIN!” has now become “I like rain – and now the rain has stopped!” Gerald, however, comes to his friend’s aid, creating a rainstorm just for Piggie.

Are You Ready to Play Outside?, just like the other Elephant & Piggie books, is a great read aloud for partners. Student and student, teacher and student, teacher and librarian, parent and child, all would be successful. Children will be laughing with one another, grown-ups can enjoy books with their kids, and teachers can launch a new book for their readers. Most importantly, readers of all ages will have fun reading, which, of course, is pretty much assumed when the cover says Mo on the front.