Tandem Insights

Teen Read WeekTM Round Up

Everyone likes to laugh, right?  Well, rubber chickens, whoopee cushions, and handshake buzzers may not be what the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) has in mind for this year’s Teen Read Week^TM (TRW), but you can bet that with a theme of LOL @ your library, people are going to be having a good time.  Good thing too, because TRW’s initiative aims to encourage 12-18 year-olds to “Read For The Fun Of It” and with its 10-year anniversary to celebrate this October 14-20, 2007 you can bet plenty of teens, their parents, librarians, educators, booksellers and other concerned adults will be ROTFL (Rolling on the floor laughing) or at the very least LOL / GOL (Laughing / Giggling out loud).

Who knows you may already have these books on display for this year’s TRW-  GMTA (Great minds do think alike), but if you’re game here’s a round up of some funny YA fiction for MS and HS students:

Sue Limb’s fun and funny British-flavored series that will not disappoint students in Grades 7-10-   Jess Jordan takes us through her teenage life with razor-sharp observations and deadpan humor as a Girl, 15: Charming But Insane, Girl (Nearly) 16: Absolute Torture and Girl, Going on 17: Pants on Fire. The fourth Girl 15 series book, Girl, 15: Flirting for England, is due out in January 2008 and is a prequel to book one.

Fans of the Girl 15 series will also what to check out Louise Rennison's Georgia Nicolson’s diary series.  Georgia Nicolson, like Jess Jordan, is from Billy Shakespeare land, but her diaries include the kind of heartbreaking, embarrassing, and familiar confessions that so many Hamburger-a-gogo land dwellers already find marvey.

Neal Shusteman’s Schwa Was Here is aimed at middle school readers and while being funny teaches readers that even accidental relationships can be better than expected.  This book’s characters are so real and interesting that all readers will want to keep up with this unlikely crew and its adventures.

Tried and true favorite to make you LOL are Richard Peck’s A Long Way from Chicago and companion novel A Year Down Yonder where Joey and his sister, Mary Alice spend nine unforgettable summers with the worst influence imaginable—their grandmother!

     

Please visit Teen Read Week^TM website for more information and ideas.

New and Exciting in September

I’ve been writing about graphic novels all week, but I have one more perfect for elementary students that I really want to mention before I move on…

Babymouse, Vol. 7: Skater Girl! This is a super-cute, super-pink graphic novel series following the daily trials of Babymouse, a school-aged girl mouse whose life never quite works out like it does in her dreams. Her whiskers are curly instead of straight. She has an annoying little brother, lots of homework, and a stuck locker. Then there’s her personal nemesis, the very popular Felicia Furrypaws. The books contrast her dreams, set off by a pink background, with her real life, black and white with the occasional splash of pink.

Also published in September is Newbery Honor winner Shannon Hale’s latest title Book of a Thousand Days. A retelling of an obscure Grimms’ fairy tale, this is the story of Dashti, a peasant maid, and her mistress, Lady Saren. They have been bricked into a tower for years because Lady Saren has refused to marry a man she both hates and fears. As she tries to cope with her temperamental mistress and find a way for them to escape, Dashti ends up falling in love with another of Lady Saren’s suitors, and it is this entanglement that will cause all three the great heartbreak, danger, and hope. I fell fully under the spell of this young adult fairy tale, like I hadn’t done for Hale’s books since Goose Girl.

Another book I grabbed as soon as it came in was Helen Keller: Her Life in Pictures by George Sullivan. Filled with large, black and white images, most rarely seen, this book chronicles Helen’s life, from childhood to her last years. It was fascinating to see all these pictures of a woman I’d read so much about and even seen movies on, but had never really seen. This book complements the many biographies out there on Helen Keller, providing images to go with the words, something Helen herself never had. My one quibble is that I occasionally wish the pictures were better labeled, but I enjoyed it nonetheless, and students from mid-elementary age on up, teachers, and librarians will too.

Here's a list of exciting September releases!

Elephant Appreciation Day Round Up

September 22nd is a big day.  An elephant-sized day, in fact.  As the week lumbers ahead to Saturday, take the opportunity to share these large animals with your students.

Don’t be limited to Dumbo and Babar.  Those are great classics, but don’t miss the newest loveable elephant in fiction from Mo Willems.  Emily posted about the Elephant and Piggie books a few weeks ago, and you won’t want to miss an opportunity to introduce your beginning readers to Elephant Gerald (say it fast… get it?)

Count your way through ten elephants with an increasingly overwhelmed little girl in I’ve Got an Elephant by Anne Ginkel.  Preschoolers through first graders will be hooked by the simple, catchy rhymes and the cartoonish elephants engaged in all sorts of un-elephant-like activities.

Immerse your audience in another era by reading aloud The Elephant’s Ball.  This 19th century poem has been brought to young audiences accompanied by rich and detailed illustrations of Elephant’s glorious ball for all the animals of the land.  As the world’s biggest land mammal, the elephant is not to be outdone! 

Your nonfiction fans will gravitate to the photographs in African Elephant: The World’s Biggest Land Mammal by Kirsten Hall and Travels With Tarra by Carol Buckley.   Take on the subject of responsible animal care with Just for Elephants, also by Carol Buckley.  Even if you can’t take a trip to Buckley’s Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee this Elephant Appreciation Day, you can read all about it and even watch the elephants roam free in this natural refuge online via the “elecam.”   

Celebrate Grandparents' Day!

Here are some great titles featuring grandparents and grandkids.

Sitti’s Secrets, by Naomi Shihab Nye (Gr. K-3) Mona, an American girl, travels to the Middle East to visit her Palestinian grandmother, known as Sitti.

Morning on the Lake, by Jan B. Waboose (Gr. K-3)  A contemporary Ojibway grandfather takes his grandson on an early morning canoe trip and introduces him to sacred traditions and beliefs.

Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech (Gr. 3-6) – A contemporary classic! While on a car trip, Sal tells her beloved grandparents a story about her best friend, which is ultimately a way for Sal to share her own feelings about her mother’s decision to leave her father and move away from Sal.

Olive’s Ocean, by Kevin Henkes (Gr. 5-8) – Martha spends the summer with her family at the beachfront, where she begins to feel caught between the worlds of childhood and adulthood. Martha’s wise and trustworthy grandmother encourages her to take ownership of her feelings and to be who she is.

A Long Way from Chicago and A Year Down Yonder, by Richard Peck (Gr. 7-12)Grandma Dowdel has my vote as the single most memorable grandmother in the history of literature. Follow the adventures of her teenaged grandkids as they spend summers “down south” at her farm.

 

New and Exciting in August

All week I’ve been featuring romantic, fantasy, vampire-centric YA chick fic. While I do enjoy that genre, I don’t confine my reading exclusively to it. So here are a couple of my favorite non-romance/fantasies that came out in the month of August.

Another Book about Design: Complicated Doesn't Make It Bad is Mark Gonyea’s follow-up to A Book about Design: Complicated Doesn't Make It Good (which didn’t come out in August, but is still an exciting book, if not new). These all-ages books explain good design, be it complicated or simple. Using bright colors and basic shapes, Gonyea covers composition, line, color, and contrast and how to get across what’s really important.

Bone #6: Old Man's Cave continues the reprinting of Jeff Smith’s Bone series in gorgeous, rich, full color, and the intense red eyes of the rat creatures continue to freak me out. Color is also used to great effect when several of the villagers attempt to throttle Phoney Bone for swindling them (guiltly) and destroying their town (not guilty). Full of humor and suspense, Book Six features the beginning of a showdown between the Hooded One and the people of the valley. Rock Jaw from Book Five is back, much to Thorn and Fone Bone's dismay. The Bone series is a perfect way to start a graphic novel collection, as it can appeal to anyone from mid-elementary age on up.

For some fun, browsing-friendly nonfiction, try Richard Platt’s They Wore What?!: The Weird History of Fashion and Beauty and They Played What?!: The Weird History of Sports and Recreation. The weird and wacky are, let’s face it, highly entertaining. And these books should provide lots of amusement for elementary and middle school age kids. Among the other crazy facts contained in the bright, photo-filled pages are a ball game in which the losing team was murdered and corsets so tight they cracked ribs!

Here's a list of exciting August releases, and, yes, it does include a romance or fantasy or two.

Women's Equality Day Round Up

According to a proclamation by the President of the United States of America:

“Our Nation is grateful for the bold leadership of American women who have opened doors of opportunity for women of future generations. On Women's Equality Day we honor the suffragists and all those who seek to expand equality in our world.”

This week marks eighty-seven years since the 19th amendment was ratified, and it is a great opportunity to highlight some of the women who have fought for equality. 

A group of women that really stood out to me were those who changed the way female journalists were viewed in the 1920s and 1930s.  Women like Margaret Bourke-White, Lee Miller, and Dickey Chappelle weren’t the “sob sisters” whose stories were relegated to the Women’s sections of newspapers.  They wanted to be where the action was, and they didn’t stop until they got there.  Catherine Gourley tells the stories of these and other women who set the stage for female journalists today in War, Women, and the News: How Female Journalists Won the Battle to Cover World War II.  Middle and high schoolers with an interest in history or journalism will be hooked by the daring adventures of these women.

Elementary and middle schoolers get an A to Z introduction to a determined group of women in Amelia to Zora: Twenty-Six Women Who Changed the World by Cynthia Chin-Lee.  Some of these women your students have probably heard about a million times, but others will be new to them.  The illustrations by Megan Halsey and Sean Addy are a striking complement to the text. This is a great first stop to whet readers’ appetite for more information on these amazing women.

Younger readers interested in politics might be interested in knowing more about Jeannette Rankin, the first woman to win a seat in the House of Representatives. Jeannette Rankin: First Lady of Congress by Trish Marx tells the story of Rankin’s fight for suffrage, her election to office, and her commitment to peace.  This illustration chapter book biography is a simple introduction to a woman who spent her life working to better the lives of women and children. 

Expand your students’ knowledge of these diverse and determined women in their efforts to change the world as they knew it with these books this Women’s Equality Day.