55. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks - E. Lockhart

For: Young Adults
Published: March, 2008
352 pgs.
Rating: 4/5
Finished: Oct. 30, 2008
2009 Printz Honor

This is a SMART book for young adults. It has feminist overtones, and makes you think.

Frankie Landau-Banks has "blossomed" in the summer between her freshman and sophomore years at Alabaster, an elite private school in northern Massachusetts. Really blossomed. She snags the attention of Matthew Livingston, the cutest and most popular senior, and he quickly becomes her boyfriend. She loves hanging out with his crowd, but when she discovers that he is part of a 50 year-old secret society that is ONLY for boys, something is awakened in her, and she comes up with a brilliant plan to make Matthew notice her for more than her body and her cuteness.

Frankie becomes the mastermind behind all sorts of plots that befuddle the administration, but she does it secretly by pretending, online, that's she's part of the Loyal Society of the Bassett Hounds. "Alpha", Matthew's best friend and the "alpha" leader, takes all the credit. But when Frankie is found out, her plans to impress Matthew with her brains backfire.

The relationship between Frankie and Matthew is not developed enough for me. What in heaven's name does she see in him? She is clever, very smart (she even reads Wodehouse!), and quite a feminist. I could believe how she'd become infatuated with Matthew, but I couldn't believe that it would last very long. She's not superficial, and he is. It was a mesmerizing read, though. Once she began planning her escapades it was fun to watch them all play out.

MOVIE: Zack and Miri Make a Porno

Rating: Fun, Funny, Sweet - and Tasteless, & Raunchy
Viewed: Opening Night, Oct. 31, 2008
Park Place, Halloween Night
Rotten Tomato Rating: 67%
Mine: About the same
EW: C- cag: B
Genre: Comedy
Released 10-31-08
R (1 hr. 41 min.)
Directed by: Kevin Smith
Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks

I'll try to keep this as PG as possible, because I know a couple of my students read this blog.

I love Seth Rogen's voice. You don't expect it.

Zack and Miri have been friends since first grade, and now live together as platonic friends in a 2nd floor apartment in Pittsburgh, where they grew up. As the movie opens they're preparing to go to their Thanksgiving-Eve 10th High School Reunion. It's snowed, it's freezing, icy and blech-y. They're broke. The water's turned off, then the electricity. They're burning trash in a barrel in the living room to keep warm. So Zack (who works at a small, privately-owned Starbucks look-alike) cooks up an idea to create a home-made porno to make enough money to pay the bills. After interviewing and hunting, they gather around them a small group of quirky people to be actors and begin their endeavor. Zack and Miri, too, will take part in the movie, as actors, and with each other. And, although the two have been only platonic friends through the years, they realize that what they feel for each other is far more than that.

I'm glad I'm a stay-til-the-end credit watcher. Just before the music credits there's a two or three minute segment advertisihg Zack and Miri Brown's (hint hint) video company - they will come into your home and video your most private moments so that you don't need to watch anyone else's born. Nice touch.

Good music track. And Elizabeth Banks wears an assortment of winter scarves that are a blast!

MOVIE: Pride and Glory

Rating: A good-murder-mystery on film
Viewed: Oct. 28, 2008
El Con with Sheila
Rotten Tomato Rating: 34%
Mine: What do they know? This was good!
EW: B+ cag: A
Genre: Crime/Cop movie
Released Oct. 24th, 2008
R (2 hrs 9 min.) a long one
Directed by: Gavin O'Connor
Edward Norton, Colin Farrell, Jon Voight


Matinees before 6 pm have gone up to $7.
Dirty cops are everywhere.
Edward Norton and Colin Farrell are really good actors.
All fact, not opinion.

Okay, this movie has a horrible, sappy title. I thought it had something to do with the Civil War when I first heard it. I had no idea it would be a shoot-em-up NYC cop crime thriller. Sometimes these kinds of movies go careening around NY, giving the audience clues that don't fit because they've not understood all the slurred, rapid-fire cop discussion. You understand all that's going on in this one. It's of the "thinker" type. You're rooting for the hero, the good cop, but you're sure he'll have bad secrets or get killed. Yippee, neither happens. Satisfying ending (at least there are no shocking or sad deaths, only ones that fit into a it-had-to-happen-to-make-things-right scenario).

The Tierney family cop dynasty. Father, two sons, son-in-law. A head honcho, a detective, a patrol cop, a squad commander. Family men. Good cops. And a bad cop.

I really love the way this movie was shot. Lots of close-ups and unusual angles. It was dark. Set in the Washington Heights section of NYC (way, way north on the tip of Manhattan,under the George Washington Bridge), mostly at night, it was d-a-r-k. Even during the limited daytime shots it was dark. Inside the homes it was dark. It was dark inside the bars and drinking establishments. Well, look at the story. One wife is dying of cancer (these parts may have been the toughest to handle for me), another is up to his neck in bad deeds, another is melancholy and sad. Drug addicts, poverty, murders. Dark. Dark.

Edward Norton plays the detective, the thinker; troubled and sad about the upcoming divorce from a wife he still loves. Cooerced into statements made on the stand in a situation two years earlier that he has always regretted. It's lost him a lot. He's a loner now, smart and thoughtful. He lives alone on a tiny boat that's always rockin' and rollin' on the waves, leaking water, and cold. He's our protagonist.

How far do we go to protect family? What does honesty and integrety really mean? What is this....code....that police officers seem to have that makes them instinctively protect each other even if it's wrong? How can someone be an ultra-protective and loving father one minute and a murderer - maybe even a child murderer- the next? The plot was intriguing, but the things it make you think about are even more important.

This was a good, entertaining, well-acted film. I really don't understand movie critics. What are they looking for?

54. Trunk Music - Michael Connelly

AUDIO Read by Dick Hill
For: Adults
Book Published: 1997
Audio Pub: 2006, Brilliance Audio
13 discs
383 pgs.
Rating: 5/5
Finished: Oct. 26, 2008

Another winner from Michael Connelly! A couple of new characters, a marriage, trips between LA and Las Vegas, Harry Bosch's sharp tongue and inablility to follow orders, twists and turns, intricate plots loops, and Dick Hill's superb reading make yet another winner. I've already reserved Angel's Flight, the next book in the series.

A year has passed since Harry's last outing. He has had his earthquake-ruined house rebuilt and returned to work at the Hollywood Homicide Bureau. He has a new boss, a very likeable female named Grace Billets. Finally, someone who sees how smart and honest Harry is, seems like an honest cop, and trusts him. That alone was quite satisfying.

Dirty movie producer Tony Aliso has been found shot and stuffed in his trunk just off Mulholland Drive. It looks like a gang hit, and his activities are traced to Las Vegas, where he is a frequent visitor. We find out that he is laundering money for the biggest "wheel" in Vegas, has a girlfriend there, and his twenty-year marriage to his wife, Veronica, has been a sham now for many years. Introduce a sleazy strip joint manager (who ends up not being who and what he seems to be), the FBI, a planted murder weapon, and the sudden appearance of a woman from Harry's past, and you have Trunk Music. Just when you think you're heading for the finale, another surprise hits the fan. Good stuff.

Biggest question now, where will Connelly go with the scenario he's set up for Harry Bosch? How much time will elapse between this book and the next? And what will he have happen during that time period, behind the scenes. How many more unheard-of people from Harry's past will suddenly appear? Ahh, I can't wait to find out!

53. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

For: Tweens & YA
Published: 9-14-08
ARC: 407 pgs.
Rating: 5/5
Finished Sat. Oct. 25, 2008

This was one of the many ARC's I got in May at the BEA Conference in LA. I couldn't wait to read it, and once I finally got the chance and started, it was really hard to put down. A real page-turner for sure. Its premise is really horrible, but fascinating. It leaves me with this question: Where are the abundance of reality shows we've been watching multiply in the last few years leading us?

Katniss Everdeen lives in the future, in what is now considered Appalachia, coal country. It's called District 12. America is no longer America, it's called Panem, with a new capital called...The Capitol. She is 16 and has been the food provider in her family ever since her father died in a coal mining accident years before. However, before his death he'd taught her how to sneak into the woods (strictly forbidden) to trap and kill game. She has become an outstanding archer, and with her friend, Gale, is able to provide their critically impoverished, very hungry families with food and supplies, though not much. The entire district is poor, poor, poor.

Every year Panem holds "The Hunger Games". Two young people between the ages of 12 and 18 are chosen by lottery each year to represent their district. Thus, 12 boys and 12 girls leave their homes to take part in the "games", televised throughout the entire country, mandatory to watch, and, like any sporting event, bet upon. The goal? Fight . to . the . end. Be the last person of the 24 left and you become the winner, the hero of Panem. Brutal? Yup. Scary? Yup. Unbelievable? You'd think so, until you read this story.

Of course, because this is the story being told, Katniss becomes the female competetor for District 12. The boy chosen is Peeta, the baker's son (who we find, has had a crush on Katniss since he first saw her as a five-year-old). In a way there are no suprises, since this is the first book of a series of three, we're almost certain that Katniss is going to win. But what about Peeta, who we come to care about and route for? And how will her family survive without her? And what's going to happen in the next two books?

Suzanne Collins has created an intricate story with twists and turns (I kept asking myself :how many ways is she going to have kids die?) Creatively. Expressively. Violent, but not devastatingly so. Sounds really horrible, grizzly, ridiculous - especially to me, an extreme peacemonger. But I couldn't put this book down. It's like Twilight - I hated that the young girl could become so lovestruck that she would do anything to be with a young man, but I couldn't stop reading. Romance? Yes, The Hunger Games also has romance, but a romance with a lot of question marks. I can't believe how much I enjoyed a book with so much violence. But how many of us, in our own minds, ask: What is this world coming to?

Stephen King has written a great, detailed review of the book in Entertainment Weekly, which is also on the Amazon website for the book. If you want to know more, read it at this address: http://www.amazon.com/Hunger-Games-Suzanne-Collins/dp/0439023483/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1225039782&sr=8-1

This book has had quite a few starred reviews, but I think it's going to be viewed in the same way as Twilight. I may be very wrong (I usually am), so we'll see. Happy reading!

Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson IN PERSON

Wednesday was my last day off of the Jewish high holiday season. I haven't been up to the Phoenix area in forever, so I loaded my friends Brenda, Shane, and Rachael into my car and we headed north. After spending a delightful morning in Queen's Creek at the wonderful olive oil farm there, then making a stop at IKEA (who can resist?) we headed for Scottsdale. After visiting a couple of Scottsdale shops, wandering around Old Town Scottsdale (another first!), and a stop at a yummy gellato shop, we headed for The Poisoned Pen Book Shop (still in Scottsdale), where we had front row seats to listen to the extremely entertaining duo cited above.


I've watched all four or five seasons of Dave's World, read a number of Ridley Pearson's mysteries, inhaled many of Dave Barry's columns, and even watched a video of the Rock Bottom Remainders (the "rock" group they're in with Stephen King, Barbara Kingsolver, Amy Tan and someone-else-I-can't remember, and they're right, they're awful, but really, really fun). So listening (and watching) the two of them in person, promoting Science Fair, their new book for middle schoolers, was a real treat. After a few photos, a few anecdotes, and some fun sparring back and forth, they treated us all to a couple of their own science experiments. Oh, yes, when Mentos are dropped into a bottle of Diet Coke, the soda really takes off. Check out the front of my white shirt to see for sure! We stood in line to have books signed, then hit the road home. I crawled into bed about 12:30 - and made it to school on time yesterday morning - very, very glad that I spent my last vacation day of the season on a road trip. Lots of fun. No regrets.

MOVIE: Bottle Shock

Rating: Lots of fun
Viewed: Friday, Oct. 24, 2008
Crossroads (Good 'ole $3.25 movie)
Rotten Tomato Rating: 45%
Mine: Higher, at least 75%
EW: D+ cag: A-
Genre: Comedy/Based on a true story
Released Aug. 6, 2008
PG-13 (1 hr 46 min.)
Directed by: Randall Miller
Freddy Rodriguez !

Set in 1976 Napa Valley, this movie tells the story of a California winery just getting on its feet and a snobby Brit with a Parisian wine shop who, in order to improve business, holds a "blind" competition pitting French wines against California wines. This Brit, played snazzily by Alan Rickman (yup, greasy Snape from Harry Potter) comes to America to search out the best tasing wines. He is surprised at how good they are! That's the main plot, I guess. A secondary plot is the relationship between the father (Bill Pullman) who is totally in hawk trying to start his winery, and his "loser" son (Chris Paine). My biggest complaint - this guy's long blonde "hippy" hair was the fakest looking do I've seen in a long time. A third plot, the one I liked the most and would have loved to see more, was about a young Mexican American employee of Chateau M......(can't remember the exact name, what a dunce) (Freddy Rodriguez). who loved making wine and was a real afficienado. Happy endings all around, our California vineyard won first place, which made them popular all over the US and gave it the boost it needed to get on its feet.

Filmed in Calistoga, Glen Ellen, Napa, and Sonoma (I've been to all those places! !) with soaring birds-eye-view flights across gorgeous vineyards, the setting was realistic and believable. I went to the movie to get lost in someone else's story for a little while, and that's exactly what happened. I enjoyed this movie a lot, and don't agree at all with many of the reviews I read on the Rotten Tomato sight. As usual.

Go see it. There doesn't seem to be much else out there right now that appeals (to me), this was entertaining, interesting, and loaded with great actors.

Willow - Denise Brennan-Nelson & Rosemarie Brennan

Illustrator: Cyd Moore
For: Kids, K-1-2ish
Published: 2008
Rating: 4.5
Read: October 22, 2008
Endpapers: Purple that's cooly and completely covered with doodles in white.

Think outside the box. My all-time favorite motto.

Take an uptight art teacher and a free-thinking young girl who loves art and what to you get? This story. I've known a few Willows through the years. And I've known a few Miss Hawthorn's!

The art teacher, Miss Hawthorn, wants all the kids to draw in the same uniform, realistic way. A tree that's a brown trunk and mass of green above. Not a pink tree, or a tree with one big blue apple for the leaves, Willow is the only student to draw what she sees when she closes her eyes. And she brings in her "famous art" book to share with a frowning Miss Hawthorn. Kids aren't allowed to talk or daydream or look out the window in her class. And when Christmas comes, all the other teachers receive presents, but she receives none. But wait! This year, after all the students have left for the Christmas break and the school is empty, she returns to her desk and finds a beautifully-wrapped gift. It's from Willow. And it's her "famous art" book.

Since there's no one waiting fomr Miss Hawthorn at home, she sits down and reads the book. Then she pulls out paper, paint, colored pencils, and begins to doodle. She really gets into it. She must spend the night right there at school, experimenting with color and technique. And when the kids return to school after the break, they return to a completely changed art room....and a completely changed teacher.

Fanciful and fun fun fun. Now let's talk about the illustrations. And the font. Cool font. Artistic but easy to read. Some of teh illustrations are encircled in a water-colory way on the page with the text. Quite a bit of white on those pages, which brings more attention to the story. But the single-page and double-pages that are completely covered in color and detail - such detail- are lots of fun. Lots. This is another book where I'd like to take some of the illustrations and frame them, placing them all over the house and my classroom to make me happy. They're happy pictures.

Great book. The change is Miss Hawthorn is a little unbelievable - most of the art teachers I've met have not been uptight and afraid to think outside the box. But it's a great book to discuss what might have happened to make her this way. Real things happen to real people, and a teacher who loved art enough to teach it would certainly have the creativity and love of color that the Miss Hawthorn-at-the-end-of -the-book had. Yup. This was a good one.

It brings back Fly on the Wall (Lockhart), where the protagonist's artistic style is so disliked by her art teacher, and how that art teacher tries to change her style. Ridiculous.

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once grown up." -- Pablo Picasso

My Friend, the Starfinder - George Ella Lyon

Illustrator: Stephen Gammell
For: Young kids, I guess
Published: 2008
Rating: 2
Read: Oct. 211, 2008
Endpapers: The galaxy - stars and meteors and colors...

I'll probably be the only children's book lover who does not like this book. It didn't work for me. It didn't flow. I have very much enjoyed other Lyon books, but this one just didn't do it for me. I reread it twice after the first reading. Didn't get any bettter. Based on a real old man that she knew as a kid, Lyon remembers how he told her about catching a falling star and bringing it home, and about flying through/with a rainbow. It ends abruptly and weirdly. At least I didn't get it. Maybe kids will. Maybe I'm overtired, but I read it for the first time 24 hours ago. I'll have to revisit it at some future time.

Some of the illustrations are pretty cool, some are gloomy and boring.

Both the author and illustrator are award-winning, admired, and very, very good. But this time out just didn't do it for me. Oh well. Maybe next time...

2008 National Book Award Finalists

On October 15th the announcements for the National Book Award Finalists were made. The "Young People's Literature" category was added back in 1996, and there have been interesting choices and winners ever since. The winners will be announced on November 19th. Think I can read any of these before then?

This year's finalists are:

Chains (Laurie Halse Anderson) I have an ARC waiting on my coffee table, and I love Anderson's work.

The Underneath (Kathi Appelt) Got it from the library but couldn't bring my self to read it, I'm not a big anthropormorphism fan AT ALL (usually hate 'em, actually), so even though this is slated to win numerous awards ths year, I'll be a reluctant reader.

WINNER! What I Saw and How I Lied (Judy Blundell) This is a WWII historical fiction - and Judy Bludell is writing 39 Clues Book #4! Know nothing about her yet, though...and the book won't be published until November 1st!

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (E. Lockhart) I've read three Lockhart's in the last month, but not this one, darn. At least the library has it.

The Spectacular Now (Tim Tharp) Male protagonist. Sounds really interesting, maybe even Stargirlish? Another not-yet-published book, this one we have to wait until Novemer 11th to buy. The library will take FOREVER!

The judges are: Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket!), chair, Holly Black, Angela Johnson, Carolyn Mackler, and Cynthia Voigt.

And, just because I WANT to be an adult and read adult books (but never have the time), I'll include the five fiction finalists for the National Book Award:

The Lazarus Project (Aleksandar Hemon)
Telex from Cuba (Rachel Kushner)
Shadow Country (Peter Matthiessen) WINNER!
Home (Marilyn Robinson)
The End (Salvatore Scibona)

Silent Music - James Rumford

A Story of Baghdad
For: Kids
Published: 2008
Rating: 4.5
Read: Oct. 21, 2008
Endpapers: Dark Blue

Interestingly enough, James Rumford created the illustrations for this book in pencil and charcoal, then did all the enhancements on the computer. The book is filled with Arabic calligraphy, whether as a background embellishement or written boldly in black across the page..."the letters loop together and make beautiful shapes all by themselves." Arabic mosaics, Arabic designs, money, stamps, postmarks, motifs, are spread throughout the book so that the reader gets a wonderful mideastern feel from beginning to end. I love calligraphy, so the notion of creating this beautiful, flowing writing from right to left completely fascinates me.

The story is about Ali, a boy who loves to write and doodle, proudly practicing the calligraphy of his language as he continues to learn it. Although he loves to play soccer, dance, and listen to loud music like other kids, he is drawn to calligraphy, "I love to make the ink flow - from my pen stopping and starting, gliding and sweeping, leaping, dancing to the silent music in my head.". He tells about Yakut, the most famous calligrapher in the wold, who lived in the 13th century. The last picture is of Ali and his family, mom, dad, sister, grandad (cat and rabbit!), all in Iraqi garb and sitting on a bench with beautiful mosaics behind them. The entire books depicts Iraq and the middle east beautifully making this an expressive multi-cultural picture book on every level.

Addendum: January 24, 2009: I attended a five-hour workshop at the University of Arizona today, taught by Kathy Short and Seemi Raina. It was entitled MidEastern Culture Children's Literature. At the very beginning, Seemi, a doctoral candidate who came to the US eleven years ago from Pakistan, read this book aloud. Her lovely, lilting Urdu accent and added information made this a real treat. As the young boy is surrounded by fallling bombs, he calms himself by prcticing calligraphy..."I filled my mind with peace." At the conclusion of the day, Seemi wrote out each of our first and last names in Arabic calligraphy for us to keep. It was a fantastic five hours, including a wonderful lunch from Ali Baba restaurant.

M is for Mischief - Linda Ashman

POETRY
An A to Z of Naughty Children
Illustrator: Nancy Carpenter
For: Kids, not too too young, though
Published: 2008
Rating: FIVE
Read: Oct. 21, 2008
Endpapers: Purple

This is going to be a favorite. An ABC book with alliteration, sophisticated vocabulary, poetry, and illustrations that have a little extra something, a different technique, very subtle and very fun. Nancy Carpenter uses what appears to be photographs of real items as part of her drawaings. Now maybe I'm wrong, but check out the pink cowboy boots from Evesdropping Eva, the orange frisbee from Fiendish Frankie, the shrubbery in Hiding Hal, the first place ribbons and trophies from Blustering Buster. A close examination of each page is in order!

Six to twelve-lined poems using alliteration and incredibly good vocabulary tell the stories of 26 very naughty children. Cleverly. Very cleverly. The poems stand alone, but the illustrations are a blast. I just want to read, and examine, and share, share, share. The middle schoolers loved it. The humor, the rhythm, the rhyming, the wording. They wanted to read it aloud to each other.

I always look forward to the letter X. This can be very telling about the cleverness and ingenuity of a writer. Check out Linda Ashman's X:

Experimenting Xavier

Xavier gets excited mixing extracts in the sink.
Mama takes exception, says, "You'll make us all extinct!"
Explains to him explicitly, "You lack the expertise
To execute experiments as difficult a these."

Xavier exclaims to her, "It's just a simple potion!"
But Mama cannot hear him on account of the...
EXPLOSION!

and I love Eavesdropping Eva (and NOT because it's primarily purple and lime green pages):

Eva enjoys hearing every exchange.
She creeps up to eavesdrop at very close range,
While people are eating, or out on a date,
At public events, or a private estate.
A whisper, an echo, and Eva appears,
Eagerly listening, straining her ears.
She'll sneak under tables, or lean from a ledge -
Uh-oh! Now Eva's gone over the edge.

Definitely, one of my favorites of the year.

Blake Shelton

What's goin' on?
Sitting on my living room floor wrapping Christmas gifts last December, I nonchalantly flipped on the tv. Another reality show...Clash of the Choirs...was just beginning. It was to last four or five nights, featuring five different singers from five different American music genres who had hand-picked choirs from their hometowns. Okay. Nick Lachey is cool, the rest I could take or leave (Patti LaBelle, Michael Bolton), two I'd never heard of. One was Blake Shelton, whose Oklahoma City choir was diverse and interesting. And boy, they sounded great. I was taken by Blake Shelton's voice, and then his charm, and when I finally actually looked up from my wrapping---his...ahem...appearance...talk about beautiful packages! Yup, that's right. I actually said it. It all started then.

I have NEVER enjoyed country music. It was always twangy and drawl-y and, well, generally yucky. I would turn the channel or station immediately upon hearing that twang. But somewhere, somehow, last March or April I heard "The More I Drink" by Blake Shelton. Catchy, catchy , sing-along song. I looked it up on ITunes. I donwloaded the video, the song. I blasted it through the house and danced to it as I loaded the dishwasher. So I decided to actually try out a country music CD. I purchased Pure BS. I listened to it...over and over. And I couldn't get enough. I love this CD. It's the first time in years I've found a CD I love like this, and listen to it over and over. So I spread my wings and purchased the Blake Shelton CD, then the Blake Shelton' Barn and Grille. I download the videos of Some Beach and Old Red.

I.....WAS.....SOLD.

I love this guy. I love his music. I love his guitar playing. I like the songs he chooses to sing. My favorite is still The More I Drink. But I love Austin, and I Thought There Was Time, I Have Been Lonely and I Don't Care, She Wouldn't Be Gone and She Don't Love Me, She Doesn't Know She's Got It, and on and on. I can't think of one song I don't like. Great beat. Great rhythm. Great voice. I'm in love!

When Dede and I road-tripped across Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas this summer, Blake Shelton screamed from the open windows as we hit that Oh-My-God-Can-You-Believe-the-Speed-Limit-is-EIGHTY highway. What a blast! And the best news of all - he has a new album out on November 18th! It's called Startin' Fires. He sure starts mine.

Friday My Radio Flyer Flew - Zachary Pullen

For: Kids
Published: 2008
Rataing: 3.5 for kid appeal, 5 for my use as a teacher
Read: October 2008
Endpapers: Pale Cranberry
Very large/almost oversized

I love picture books. I love the art. When the text is good or more-than good, I celebrate. I look for text that I can use in my middle school classroom to draw out responses from kids when I'm teaching figurative language or genre. My fifth graders are always weak when it comes to identifying genre. This is a perfect book to use to begin that discussion. It's short and is full-full-full of alliteration and snazzy verbs to boot! I've ordered a copy, I just wish it would fit up and down on my bookshelf, but it's too tall.

One Saturday I searched... (yeah, elipses! I love elipses!)
...and my dad's old Radio Flyer surfaced.
That Sunday we went for a stroll.
Then on Monday morning I got motivated.
Maybe that old Flyer could really move. (Okay kids, let's talk about capitalization...)
So all day Tuesday...
...I tinkered....
...and by twilight my Flyer twinkled.
But Wednesday was wet. We had to wait.
On Thursday I tried to take off...
...but took tumble after tumble.
Finally on Friday...
...I focused...
...flew...
...and flew...
...and flew!

And oh, the illlustrations! Big and bold and in-your-face and FUN! I could look and look. They're done in oil paints and walnut medium. Now THAT'S interesting. Walnut medium? Zachary Pullen also illustrated The Toughest Cowboy (John Frank). I'm going to have to look for that one.

I took this book in to school a few days ago and shared it with my 8th graders. Two of the boys grabbed it immediately, and I'm not sure what they were looking for, but they quickly read it and put it aside. Would it have been different if it had been read aloud to them? I'm going to have to read it aloud to a class and see the reaction. And younger kids? I'll have to experiment with that, too.

So this book will go beside Weslandia, Violet the Pilot, Come On, Rain, My Mama Had a Dancing Heart, and Sleeping Ugly on my teaching bookshelf. Big grin.

The Day Leo Said I Hate You - Robie H. Harris

Illustrator: Molly Bang
For: Young kids
Published: 2008
Rating: 4.5
Read: Oct. 19, 2008
Endpapers: FRONT: Orange with messy chalk drawing of a frowning mom, BACK: Lavender with a purple drawing of a neat, smiling mom.

BRIGHT BRIGHT BRIGHT
Textures are drawn to look like you should, and could, touch them. Mom's verigated sweater, Leo's colorful quilt and handknit socks add a subtle homey tone.

Imagine if all you heard all day was NO. Frustrating or what? Never mind that the NO's are for squishing tomatoes, dropping string beans into the fish bowl, squeezing toothpaste down the toilet, and drawing with crayon on your bedroom wall. Leo explodes! And after he tells his mom to go to her room for "one hundred whole days", the horrible "I hate you" flies out of his mouth in giant yellow/orange words on a very purple page - and he can't take them back.

After they have a good discussion about the difference between saying you hate broccolii and saying that you hate a PERSON, all is resolved with love.

No white! Great book.