38. Sadako

Title: Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes
Author: Eleanor Coerr
Publisher: Puffin Books
Copyright Date: 1977
Number of Pages: 63
Reading Level: 10+
Genre: Nonfiction

Summary
All Sadako wants to do is run. The books starts out as Sadako and her family are preparing to go to the Peace Day Celebration. Sadako is always in a hurry to get everywhere and she wants to do everything running. Her father wishes she would slow down and be respectful. Sadako doesn’t want to slow down especially when she finds out that she’s been chosen to represent the bamboo class on field day for the relay race. Her family is so proud of her and they all show up to support her on the big day. After the race was finished and her team won Sadako felt really dizzy. All winter long after she would go running the dizziness returned. She didn’t tell anyone including her best friend Chizuko. Sadako was worried that if something was wrong she wouldn’t be able to race in school the next year. The new year came in and Sadako felt that her wishing had worked because the dizziness was gone for a while. One day Sadako was running and she got really dizzy and fell to the ground. Sadako’s teacher was really worried and sent her brother home to get her father. Sadako was taken to the hospital where they x-rayed her chest and did tests on her blood. The doctors had bad news; Sadako had Leukemia. Sadako was told that she would have to stay in the hospital for a while but this made her sad because she knew she couldn’t run. Chizuko came to visit Sadako and brought her a gift. She folded a piece of gold paper into a crane and reminded her friend the story that if she made a thousand paper cranes her wish would be granted. Sadako believed in luck and decided this was a good idea. Her friend taught Sadako how to make the birds and she set to work. Sadako didn’t get better but she kept making the birds until the day when she died. Her class finished the remaining birds and she was buring with all of them. There are monuments dedicated to Sadako including one in the Peace Day Memorial.

Recommendation
I would recommend this to a class learning about WWII. It sheds light on the perspective of the innocent people who were effected by the war. Its after effects were almost worse than the initial drop.

Problems/Conflict
There is no shielding of the truth and horror that befell those people when the atom bomb was dropped. I don’t think this is a bad thing though.

My Reaction
I cried. This was such a sad book. I hoped that she would pull through and beat the cancer but that’s what makes the story that much more compelling I guess. She really believed that if she made those cranes her wish would have been granted. Hope can be the best healer sometimes. This is a touching story that has widened my eyes to the reality of what our atom bombs did to a nation.

37. Love That Dog

Title: Love That Dog
Author: Sharon Creech
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Copyright Date: 2001
Number of Pages: 86
Reading Level: 9+
Genre: Fiction Journal

Summary
Jack is a boy. Boys don’t write poetry. Or so he thinks. Jack doesn’t understand poetry at first but then he realizes he’s pretty good. He doesn’t want his name on it though because what if the other kids don’t think its real poetry? The teacher wants to hear more about the blue car splattered with mud. Jack doesn’t understand why some kinds of poetry especially that one about the wheelbarrow. Just because you type it up nice and hang it up doesn’t make it poetry. Maybe Robert Frost didn’t know he was writing poetry, maybe someone typed it up nice and said it was. Jack is insecure about having his work hung up but eventually he becomes proud of his work. He enjoys the sounds of some poems and how they make a picture in your head. Jack finds a poet that he really likes and writes a letter to invite him to their somewhat nice school with mostly nice kids. Walter Dean Myers agrees to go to the school and Jack is thrilled. Jack is in awe that someone can speak as good as that Mr. Walter Dean Myers. Jack writes more about his big yellow dog Sky. He finally lets us know that why the blue car splattered with mud is so important is because that car hit Sky. Jack uses the experience with his dog for a lot of his poems and his teacher keeps prodding him for more. In the end Jack puts his own name on his work and says its okay to display it.

Recommendation
I would recommend that a class read this to introduce poetry. Sometimes we don’t understand one kind but there are a lot of different types of poetry out there. I think that this will help those that may think poetry is stupid to take a second look.

Problems/Conflict
The dog dies and that might make people sad.

My Reaction
I love the idea of a kid writing to a poet or an author and they actually respond. What a great experience that would be for a kid as well as being a monumental point in their life. I think a lot of times we think that authors and poets are dead but there are plenty that are alive who would probably visit a school if encouraged enough by a child. We often put stereotypes on things like poetry, often we think that because it involves feelings its for girls. This book helps kids realize that boys can write it too.

36. A Year Down Yonder

Title: A Year Down Yonder
Author: Richard Peck
Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers
Copyright Date: 2000
Number of Pages: 130
Reading Level: 10+
Genre: Fiction

Summary
Mary Alice has to leave home to go live with her Grandma Dowdel because her family can’t afford to keep her. She arrives on a train in hick town and Grandma Dowdel picks her up. They walk straight to the school. Mary Alice is mortified when she is sat next to the school bully, Mildred Burdick. Mildred insists that Mary Alice owes her a dollar so she follows her home to get it. Grandma Dowdel makes Mildred take off her boots and says to come in the house to “discuss” the dollar. Grandma Dowdel gives Mildred some buttermilk. Grandma asks about Mildred’s family and steps out to get her some jam to take home. Grandma comes back in empty handed and tell Mildred that she better get going, it’s going to be a long walk home. Mildred runs out the door and sees her boots are gone and her horse was let loose. Mildred takes off running. On another occasion, Halloween, Grandma sets up a trap for a bunch of boys who’ve been tipping and destroying everyone’s privies. Grandma makes up a paste and pours it over one of the boys heads and takes his knife. Later Grandma uses the knife to cut a piece of pie for that boy. His dad grabs him and says he took on the wrong privy. Grandma Dowdel also has her own way of getting around a bargain. Old Man Nyquist said that Grandma could have all the pecans that had fallen on the ground below his tree. One night Grandma and Mary Alice sneak into his yard and Grandma gets on his tractor and drives it into the tree. All the pecans come tumbling down and so she didn’t pick any straight from the tree. Mary Alice starts to think like Grandma when Valentines rolls around and she makes three valentines for Ina-Rae. This makes Carleen angry because she didn’t get any extra valentines and didn’t get one especially from Royce McNabb. When its time for Mary Alice to go Grandma Dowdel tries not to look like it matters to her but we know it does. Mary Alice comes back a couple years (?) later and marries that Royce McNabb right in Grandma Dowdel’s front room.

Recommendation
I would recommend this to girls and boys. I think that Grandma Dowdel is such a loveable character that anybody would get a kick out of this book. I think kids that don’t have a “normal” home would enjoy this book because their situations can often prove to be hard and Mary Alice learns to love her grandma even though she doesn’t always understand why she does things.

Problems/Conflict
Grandma Dowdel does steal, although she has her own way of repaying those that she steals from.

My Reaction
What a hilarious book! I want to read the first one now really bad. This book has the grandma that everyone wishes they had and the people who have one probably won’t appreciate until their older. What a tough lady who comes off as the do it all kind of woman who doesn’t need anybody but herself. I am in love with the relationship that Mary Alice and Grandma Dowdel have at the end of the book.

35. Beauty

Title: Beauty
Author: Robin McKinley
Publisher: Harper Trophy
Copyright Date: 1978
Number of Pages: 247
Reading Level: 10+
Genre: Fantasy

Summary
Three girls were born to a mother and a father they were named Grace, Hope and Honour. Honour didn’t like her name so she decided she wanted to be called Beauty. Unfortunately while growing up she turned out to be the plainest boyish looking of the three girls. Grace becomes engaged to one of her father’s most esteemed workers and Hope is in love with Gervain who only stays in town to be close to her. The family falls on hard times when Grace’s intended, Robbie, is lost to sea and almost all of their father’s fleet is lost as well. The family has to auction off all their valuables including many of Beauty’s beloved books. Gervain goes to them one night and asks for Hope’s hand in marriage and offers a solution for them all to go and live with him and Hope where he grew up. The family takes the offer because they have no other options and they know that Ger offered in earnest because he cared for them. They pack up the things they have remaining to go and live in the country. The trip is long and once they get to their new home they are met by Melinda who had told Ger about the opened blacksmith place and suggested he come. The family is welcomed and they settle into their new lifestyle but Beauty seems to adjust the best to the harder labor. Word comes that one of father’s ships returned so he sets out to settle the sale of the ship and whatever came back on it. When he returns father is distraught and carries a rose. He tells them that he has a month to either send his daughter back to live with a terrible beast or return himself. Beauty volunteers to go and with great reluctance from the family they allow it. Her father escorts her to the Beasts castle and immediately Beauty is dazzled by the enchanted castle. The beast is kind but every night he asks Beauty to marry him. Slowly Beauty starts to care for the Beast and at times she thinks more of him. On one occasion the Beast mentions her family and says that he sends them dreams. She asks if he can see them and he shows her a mirror. She sees that Robbie is alive and insists that she leave for a short time to go and tell Grace before she marries another man. Beauty promises if he lets her go she will never leave him again. He gives her a week. Beauty leaves immediately and takes her time while at home not wanting to rush the news. Finally when it is time to return to the castle Beauty has a hard time finding it because the Beast usually helped those that were lost to find the castle but because she had left he was dying. When Beauty finds the Beast she says that she loves him and he turns into a handsome man and he shows her that she had been changing as well the whole time she was at the castle. They get married as well as her father and Melinda and Robbie to Grace.

Recommendation
If you love Beauty and the Beast you’ll love Beauty. I think that it is a wonderful retelling of such a classic tale. I would recommend this to mostly girls who feel out of place in the world who feel they can do great things. For a girl who feels plain but whom I know is beautiful on the inside.

Problems/Conflict
In the end Beauty is beautiful and the Beast turns into a handsome prince. I felt like this could be taken wrong and interpreted as you can only have true happiness if you are beautiful. Beauty is all that matters.

My Reaction
I loved this book the first time around. It had me completely enthralled and I talked about it endlessly afterwards. This time I was a little disheartened because it seemed so lengthy in descriptions. I guess I’ve grown to be impatient. I also took some new meanings from it that I wasn’t as happy with like I mentioned in the problems and conflicts part. I felt that they had to be beautiful to be happy even though I knew it was inner beauty that was shining out. It just came off different this time.

34. The Story of Ruby Bridges

Title: The Story of Ruby Bridges
Author: Robert Coles
Illustrator: George Ford
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Copyright Date: 1995
Number of Pages: 27
Reading Level: 9+
Genre: Autobiography

Summary
Ruby Bridges was a little girl who was growing up in a time when white children and black children didn’t go to the same schools. A judge ordered that four black girls go into white schools and Ruby was one of them. She went to a school all by herself when she was only six years old. Her family went to church and they prayed that everything would be all right for Ruby. When Ruby went to the school there were angry white people outside in crowds and they were rude and called Ruby names. They didn’t want a black child to go to the same school as their kids. The local police said that they wouldn’t help protect Ruby so federal marshals were called in to make sure that she was safe. Ruby studied hard when she was at school but there were no other children there, the parents made them stay home because they were so angry about Ruby. Ruby’s teacher was impressed with her and didn’t understand how a little girl could be so strong. The teacher wondered if eventually the threats and anger would get to her to the point of her not wanting to go to school anymore. One morning the teacher looked out the window and saw Ruby in the big crowd. It looked like Ruby was talking to them but it was hard to know what was going on because the people were yelling so loudly. Her teacher asked Ruby when she came in what had happened. Ruby explained that every morning she prayed for those people but today she forgot and remembered when she was in front of the school. Ruby said that she repeated this prayer twice a day. Finally white kids are sent back to school by their parents because they are getting into mischief. The parents realized that they were cheating their own kids out of an education.

Recommendation
I would recommend this to kids who are interested in time in American history when African Americans were struggling for their human rights. I think that this will help them to understand the severity of some of the attempts to desegregate schools.

Problems/Conflict
Many people would rather not hear about how colored people were treated in America during the times of desegregation. I glad they didn’t put in any of the names that the white people called Ruby as she passed through the crowds in the morning. This book has a lot of praying and religious contexts.

My Reaction
I wish the story would be a little more elaborate. How did the kids interact with Ruby when they came back to school? I want to know more about Ruby’s life. I was impressed that such a little girl could cause so much confusion, anger and discord. I am also amazed to know that this happened. What a stain on our history of how African Americans were treated when they just wanted basic human rights.

33. Children Just Like Me

Title: Children Just Like Me
Author: Barnabas and Anabel Kindersley
Publisher: DK Publishing
Copyright Date: 1995
Number of Pages: 79
Reading Level: 9+
Genre: Nonfiction

Summary
Children Just Like Me is an educational book to help children from one culture to understand children from other cultures. Each section begins by introducing the continent that the children come from. Then the organization pretty much stays the same throughout the book. Each child is introduced with name in bold at the top. They have them write their name as well somewhere on the page. The child’s family is pictured and their relationship to the child is listed. Often a child is pictured in large with siblings. There is generally an image of their home which shows a little of what surrounds them and what circumstances the child lives in. Sometimes the child’s religious affiliation is mentioned and in some cases their church is featured. Their specific area is talked about. How they are educated is a big portion, including what their notebooks look like, how they get to school and sometimes what the school looks like. Food is a large part of culture so the child’s favorite dish is usually shown at the bottom. Often times the child will have chores to do or have animals so this is a normal section on each child. The clothes that they wear will be described and then the authors had each child write what they wanted to be when they grow up. Some children like Celina don’t wear a lot of clothes sometimes but this is because she lives in the Amazon where its really hot. Other featured children have elaborate dress that stands out when you turn the page.

Recommendation
I think that the dramatic differences in lifestyles will intrigue children, even if all they do is look at the pictures. I would recommend this to kids who are interested in being educated about other people who live in different places in the world.

Problems/Conflict
I felt that this book had a hidden agenda sometimes when talking about these kids who want the adults to take care of their planet. I felt like there was a lot of information scrambled around and I kept wondering if I had read it all so I would scan back over just to see if I had.

My Reaction
I enjoyed reading about so many different children. I wish there could have been more of a story for each one rather than just random facts. I would like to see a new version made every twenty or so years to see how styles change in each part of the world, particularly in dress. I was amazed at how extremely different some lifestyles were from my own.

32. The Spiderwick Chronicles - The Seeing Stone

Title: The Spiderwick Chronicles – The Seeing Stone
Authors/Illustrators: Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Copyright Date: 2003
Number of Pages:108
Reading Level: 9+
Genre: Fantasy

Summary
Jared is already getting in trouble again and at the beginning of book two has to stay after school. When he gets home his twin brother Simon’s cat has gone missing. Simon goes out to look for him as Jared sneaks upstairs inside the closet to get to Arthur Spiderwick’s secret library. As Jared is wandering through the library he looks out the window to see Simon kicking and being dragged by invisible beings. Thimbletack can see them and says they are goblins. Jared has to find a way to see the creatures so he can get his brother back. Jared has to steal the seeing stone, a round stone with a hole through the middle, in order to see the goblins. Thimbletack puts up a fight before Jared can get the stone from him. Jared and Mallory head out into the yard and Jared has to tell where to stab at the goblins with her rapier in order to get past them. They head into the forest and come to a stream. Mallory decides to wade across but takes a few steps and is completely submerged by water. A troll comes out of the water but just in the knick of time the two escape but without their swords. Jared and Mallory continue onward until they come upon the goblin camp. They first saw Simon’s cat being turned on a stick over a fire and lots of cages in the air. One of the cages contains Hogsqueal who blackmails Jared to free him first or he’ll alert the goblins below. Hogsqueal spits into a handkerchief and tells Jared to rub it in his eyes. This gives Jared the sight to see all the magical creatures without using the stone. Once Simon is out and they are about to leave Simon sees a wounded griffin and decides they need to rescue it. Hogsqueal makes a diversion for them but the goblins see the kids and start to chase them. The kids lead all the goblins to the stream and into the watery lair of the Troll. Before Simon will go home he insists they go back for the griffin and let the other animals that were caged out. The kids carry the griffin back to the house. All the kids have to make up a story to explain why they were all scratched up, wet, bruised and had articles of clothes missing. Their mom grounded them for the rest of the month.

Recommendation
I think that kids who want a quick adventure would love this book. Of course they would need to read the first book in order to follow this one. These are not books that can be read out of order.

Problems/Conflict
I recently watched the movie and there were quite a few things left out and I find the book far more enchanting. The creatures are pretty gruesome and some of the pictures are gross. Hopefully kids don’t get nightmares about these creatures.

My Reaction
After reading the first one I really wanted to continue the adventure and I really enjoyed how fast-paced book two was. It was primarily action now that the whole story had been introduced in book one. I plan to read the others over the break if I have time. Love how imaginative all of the creatures and some of their names are.