Monday, February 25, 2013

What To Do With All Those Books
Now That You've Gone Digital

20 comments
by Kris Kahrs

I've been trying to get my hubby to donate some of the numerous books in his collection so that our son can have his room back.  All of our books are currently taking up space in my son's room.  I thought it might make it easier for my husband to let go of the physical books themselves now that he has the digital copies of them stored on various devices.  Hmm, maybe if I gave him some ideas of what to do with them.  Here's what I came up with so far:


Make A Book Chair



Donate Them to the Book Vending Machine


 
Birds Like Books Too



Book Fashionista



Gateway to Another World



Or A Hobbit Hole


See? There are lots of choices.  Oooh, I think he'll like this recipe for book smoothies.  Hopefully we can find some happy solutions here. Write on people!

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Answers To First Lines from Cybil Finalists

16 comments
by Susan Berger

These are the First Lines from the 2012 Cybil Finalists with links to the books.

Five of these of the books also made the Ala List.

Some of my links are Amazon. A few are Goodreads. I am beginning to like the Goodreads links becasue they lead to other sources for the books. Including libraries. I hope you enjoy finding out who wrote these lines and I hope some will make it to your reading list.
1. On a cold afternoon, in a cold little town, where everywhere you looked was either the white of snow or the black of soot from chimneys, Annabelle found a box filled with yarn of every color.


 


ExtraYarn by Mac Barnette. Illustrated by Jon Klassen

Extra Yarn is a also Caldecott Honors Book for 2012

2.    Prologue: May 22, 1950
HE HAD A FEW MORE MINUTES to destroy seventeen years of evidence, Still in pajamas, Harry Gold raced around his cluttered bedroom, pulling out desk drawers, tossing boxes out of the closet, and yanking books from the shelves. He was horrified. Everywhere he looked were incriminating papers-a plane ticket stub, a secret report, a letter from a fellow spy.

Bomb  The Race to build and steal the world’s most DangerousWeapon by Steve Sheinkin

Bomb won the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award for most distinguished informational book for children, ,Newbery Honor and YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults:  This one I have to read.


3. At least look at the picture!” Flora’s dad begged. “Don’t you want to know what to expect?” He pushed the glossy brochure across the table. It had a photo on the cover of a large white house on a very green lawn, and the words “Penrice Hall-Individual Fulfillment in a Homelike Atmosphere.”

Beswitched  by Kate Saunders



4. It was his own grandmother who fed Henri Pierre to the Cabinet of Earths, long ago when he was only four. Don’t misunderstand! It happened like this.

The Cabinet of Earths by Anne Nesbet.


5. When an Irish lad named Frank Browne was seventeen, his uncle Robert gave him a camera. Frank fell in love with photography and before long he was snapping that shutter everywhere he went.


Titanic :Voices from The Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson

Titanic was a finalist for the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award for most distinguished informational book for children, and the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults:


6. MR. BENNETT WALKED into room 212 carrying a plastic bag. He smoothed his sweatshirt that read DEATH TO STEREOTYPES, tucked Claus his rubber chicken under his arm, raised one eyebrow, and jumped on his desk. He opened the bag, lifted a loaf of bread into the air and shouted, “Sell it to me.”

Almost Home by Joan Bauer


7. I AM A COWARD. I wanted to be heroic and I pretended I was. I have always been good at pretending. I spent the first twelve years of my life playing at the battle of Stirling Bridge with my five big brothers, and even though I am a girl the let me be William Wallace, who is supposed to be one of our ancestors, because I did the most rousing battle speeches. God, I tried hard last week. My God, I tried. But now I know I am a coward. After the ridiculous deal I made with SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer von Linden, I know I am a coward. And I'm going to give you anything you ask, everything I can remember. Absolutely every last detail.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein


8. ONE WEEK BEFORE OUR SENIOR YEAR of high school begins, Erin's wearing her basketball practice jersey and I can see her black sports bra through the armhole, which is sort of sexy, at least to me.

Boy 21 by Matthew Quick


9.    I wake up.

Immediately I have to figure out who I am. It’s not just the body-opening my eyes and discovering whether the skin on my arm is light or dark, whether my hair is long or short, whether I’m fat or thin, boy or girl, scarred or smooth. The body is the easiest thing to adjust to, if you’re used to waking up in a new one each morning. It’s the life, the context of the body, that can be hard to grasp.

Every Day By David Levithan


10. “I’m going to whack a duck,” said Bink 

Bink and Gollie, Two for One By Kate diCamillo and Allison McGhee, illustrated by Tony Fucile

For me, that's a great first line. I want to read this one.
HAPPY READING AND WRITING!

Monday, February 11, 2013

Emotional Level vs Reading Level
What’s Appropriate for your Reader

9 comments
Victoria
by Hilde Garcia

Setting: January 26th.  Mother Daughter Book Event at the Flintridge Bookstore.

Our characters:  One very excited young writer, aged 8.  Mom, another writer, as her partner.

Our story:

“Mommy, am I really going to meet writers?”

“Yes, dear.”

“And we can buy the books they wrote?”

"Yep.”

"Yeah, this is the best day ever.”  (She usually says this about four times a week.)

Jenn Resse
Rookie parenting mistake #1: 

Don’t say yes to buying books unless you know they are going to be a match for your child’s emotional level.

We sit at our first table with Jenn Resse, author of Above World.  She has miniature sea horses as her giveaway and book markers   Victoria is in heaven and is mesmerized listening to Jenn speak about her book.  Victoria wants to buy it.

I say yes.  Are you kidding?  I want to read it as well.

Miniature Sea Horses
Even though Victoria is reading on a 4.8 reading level which is several years ahead of her actual grade level, she is still simply an “8 year old.”  She is young and innocent.  She doesn’t watch TV, she still plays with Lincoln Logs, horses, paints, reads, and loves her dolls.

And yet, she has tackled books like Hugo Cabret, the entire Harry Potter Series and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, along with classics like Matilda, Rikki Tikki Tavi, and Black Beauty.

I figure why not.  But something about Jenn’s book upsets her.  And nothing about the story is any scarier than what she’s tackled already.

“What’s wrong sweetie?” My husband snuggles next to her at bedtime to calm my very distraught daughter.

“The book was scary. Aluna almost got eaten by the Great White. And her friend was dead.”  My daughter cries silently.

“But honey, you know it’ make believe.  It’s just a story.  Just like in Harry Potter and all the tragedies that happened to him.”

“But I was sad when those things happened too, like when George is killed by Bellatrix Lestrange.”

Emotional level vs reading level.  Hmmm.

My husband and I talked that night.  So why would or how could Above World frighten her so?  I think she really connected with Aluna from the first word on the first page, maybe more than in other stories.  I read the first page and felt Aluna’s power.  She was as real to me as she was to Victoria.  Jenn’s writing is smooth and rich and it can’t help but pull you in.

I was hesitant to have her read the Harry Potter series, even though it’s a favorite of my husband’s and mine, (Our son’s middle name is Harry- no joke and no accident; my daughter’s is Anne for Anne of Green Gables- can you see a theme here?), but she was hooked and there was no stopping Victoria, so against my better judgment, and with a lot of supervision and discussion, we allowed her and her twin brother to finish the series.  Victoria was very upset after she finished reading Book 7 and asked me if I was going to die.

A question I wish I didn't have to answer.

After her sad night with Aluna and Above World, I decided it was time to step back in time a bit when things were a different kind of exciting and scary.  I suggested Caddie Woodlawn, The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, Pollyanna, The Secret Garden, The Little Princess, Nancy Drew, etc.  My daughter was furious.

“Mommy, I am fine.  I am not scared now.  We bought the books. I should get to read them.”

Mind you, she had been our guest blogger on Pen and Ink that week and I had allowed her to hand out my cards with her named penciled in.

“I have to read Above World, please!”

I said, “Not right now.  I want you to read a few other books first and work your way up to this one.”

I figured that would allow her emotional reading level a chance to breathe and recoup from some very adventurous and sad stories.  She proceeded to go back to reading Dr. Seuss and any picture book she could find as if to say, “If I can’t read Above World, then I won’t read anything difficult.”

Ahhhh, parenting, it’s such a fun thing, isn’t it?  But, you know, I don’t regret my decision.  I think she got a bit ahead of herself and she needed time to let her soul catch up to her brain.

My best advice is to know your child.  Until now, I had never restricted titles, but being an expert in this field, (I’ve read everything in YA and below), I knew she was making good choices that she could handle.  When Harry Potter became an interest, I thought well, let’s see how it goes.  My daughter was on fire reading it, discussing it with me, and seemed to be handling it.  But that was all on the surface.

“Honey, I know it is hard to understand, but you need to let your heart catch up to your brain.  I will let you know when you can read your new titles.”

(My daughter also bought Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger that day.)

She passes the books on my bookshelf and runs her fingers over the cover, wistfully.

“Fine.”

She exits my office with a sour look and a disposition to match.  And yet, even though it breaks my heart to see her restricted temporarily on some book choices, I know in my heart I am doing the right thing.  I need to preserve that little soul as long as I can before life does a number on her.

I know my young reader well.  Get to know your young readers too and don’t always rely on reading level for appropriateness. Sometimes, you have to know the impact of the story before you say yes.

My mistake was that I hadn’t had time to read the story first before I said we could buy them.  That same weekend, my daughter had bought Lin Oliver’s Almost Identical and Leslie Margolis Maggie Brooklyn Series.  She finished each one in one night.  I can’t pre-read most titles for her because she can out read me- oh to be a child without laundry duty.

Victoria with Lin Oliver
Bottom line, older kids don’t always like stories that have angst, younger readers sometimes read it and compute it on a superficial level so it doesn't seem to wound their soul, other kids are in between.

Reading is very personal and every reader has to find a connection, but those of us that are in a position to guide can do best by treating each reader as one, and helping guide them accordingly.

I learned a lot from this experience.  I hope that it affords you some insight as well.

Happy Reading.

Monday, February 4, 2013

First Lines - 2012 Cybils Finalists.

14 comments
by Susan Berger

The Cybils are the Children’s Book Awards given by bloggers. Here is a link to the full list:

I decided to take first paragraphs from the Cybils finalist list. Four of these of the books also made the ALA List. This list includes the Newbery and the Caldecott among others. Here's the link to The 2013 American Library Association Youth Media Awards:
1. On a cold afternoon, in a cold little town, where everywhere you looked was either the white of snow or the black of soot from chimneys, Annabelle found a box filled with yarn of every color.

2. Prologue: May 22, 1950
HE HAD A FEW MORE MINUTES to destroy seventeen years of evidence, Still in pajamas, Harry Gold raced around his cluttered bedroom, pulling out desk drawers, tossing boxes out of the closet, and yanking books from the shelves. He was horrified. Everywhere he looked were incriminating papers-a plane ticket stub, a secret report, a letter from a fellow spy,

3. At least look at the picture!” Flora’s dad begged. “Don’t you want to know what to expect?” He pushed the glossy brochure across the table. It had a photo on the cover of a large white house on a very green lawn, and the words “Penrice Hall-Individual Fulfillment in a Homelike Atmosphere.”

4. It was his own grandmother who fed Henri Pierre to the Cabinet of Earths, long ago when he was only four. Don’t misunderstand! It happened like this.

5. When an Irish lad named Frank Browne was seventeen, his uncle Robert gave him a camera. Frank fell in love with photography and before long he was snapping that shutter everywhere he went.
6.     MR. BENNETT WALKED into room 212 carrying a plastic bag. He smoothed his sweatshirt that read DEATH TO STEREOTYPES, tucked Claus his rubber chicken under his arm, raised one eyebrow, and jumped on his desk. He opened the bag, lifted a loaf of bread into the air and shouted, “Sell it to me.”
7.  I AM A COWARD. I wanted to be heroic and I pretended I was. I have always been good at pretending. I spent the first twelve years of my life playing at the battle of Stirling Bridge with my five big brothers, and even though I am a girl the let me be William Wallace, who is supposed to be one of our ancestors, because I did the most rousing battle speeches. God, I tried hard last week. My God, I tried. But now I know I am a coward. After the ridiculous deal I made with SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer von Linden, I know I am a coward. And I'm going to give you anything yoole, which sort of sexy, at least to may ask, everything I can remember. Absolutely every last detail.

8. ONE WEEK BEFORE OUR SENIOR YEAR of high school begins, Erin's wearing her basketball practice jersey and I can see her black sports bra through the armhole, which is sort of sexy, at least to me.

9. I wake up.
Immediately I have to figure out who I am. It’s not just the body-opening my eyes and discovering whether the skin on my arm is light or dark, whether my hair is long or short, whether I’m fat or thin, boy or girl, scarred or smooth. The body is the easiest thing to adjust to, if you’re used to waking up in a new one each morning. It’s the life, the context of the body, that can be hard to grasp.

10.    “I’m going to whack a duck,” said Bink.

(Number 10 is a personal first line favorite.)

Do you recognize any of these lines from your reading in 2012? Any of them call out to you?
In my next post I'll link you to the books. Until them I'll be working on some of my own first lines...and middle lines...and chapters....and last lines....

Write On.