The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp by Kathi Appelt

You guys. I just read the most whack-a-do book in the entire world and I loved everything about it.

 
So you've got two raccoon brothers, out on their own for the first time as sworn protectors and early warning detectors for the Sugar Man Swamp. They live in the rusted out shell of an old car with a radio that only works when lightening strikes and spend their nights (raccoons are nocturnal, duh) trying to figure out exactly what being a scout means. A few miles out of the swamp is Chap, a 12 year old boy who learned to love the swamp from his grandfather and now needs a literal boat full of cash to save his mother's bakery from a greedy land developer.

Then there's Sonny, said greedy land developer who, with a world renown alligator wrestler, wants to pave over the entire swamp and turn it into an alligator wrestling theme park. Out in Louisiana, and making their way towards the Sugar Man Swamp as fast as they can (rumble, rumble, rumble) is a pack of the biggest, meanest, most wild, wild hogs the world has ever seen. They've heard rumors of the sweet cane break sugar that gives the swamp it's name and they'll stop at nothing (except the occasional mud hold) to gobble it all up.

And of course there's the Sugar Man himself, the living breathing embodiment of the swamp. A great mythical creature, a distant relative of the Yeti. Sugar Man is old and tired though, and he's been asleep for 40 years, curled up deep in the swamp with his rattlesnake best friend, secure in the knowledge that his scouts will warn him of any potential danger.

As all of these forces converge on the swamp, Appelt deftly weaves their separate plot lines into a charming and deceptively simple folk tale. It was announced yesterday that The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp is on the long list for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature and I can't think of anything I've read this year that deserves to be on the list more. I've never read any of Kathi Appelt's previous books, but before I even finished True Blue I put them all on hold.

Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City by Kristen Miller

 

  Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City 

 I want you to close your eyes for a minute and picture this:

Imagine that it's early on a Saturday morning, so early that no one else is awake and you're not sure why you're awake either. As you go to the kitchen for a glass of water you happen to glance out the window and you see it. A great, big, giant hole. I'm talking swallowed the side walk and a couple of park benches, glad there wasn't a house there because it would be GONE sized hole. There's no one outside, no caution tape around the hole, no workers trying to fill it in. You may be the very first person who has ever seen this gigantic hole. Until. Out of the corner of your eye you see a small girl, a child really, sneak up to the edge of the hole, look around like she's trying to figure out if she's being watched, and then jump in.

What do you do? Do you go get your water and come back to bed? Maybe try to find a Saturday morning cartoon? Do you wake up your parents or call the police? Or do you sneak back to your room, pull on some clothes and follow that girl down the hole to see what you can find?

That's the choice that Ananka Fishbein is faced with in the first few chapters of Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City . And since the book last longer than those first couple chapters I'm sure you can guess what her decision was. But it's what follows that's truly amazing.

Read Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City to discover what Ananka finds inside the hole- including but not limited to millions of rats, secret tunnels, rooms full of treasure and plague and a band of delinquent girl scouts.

Favorite Picture Books for Older Kids

Who says picture books are just for the pre-school set? Uh-uh, no way siree bob. I love using picture books with older kids, usually during school outreach visits, to stimulate discussion and keep the interest of everyone in the class, from the overachievers to the ones still struggling with reading. Everyone loves to be read to and watching older kids make connections between text and illustrations .

Since school visits are usually pretty short, no more than half an hour or so, I usually start with a spiel about the library and all the cool things that we have. Then I demonstrate with one of my favorite picture books and finish up by book talking a few of our other awesome options, either more picture books, great non-fiction titles, or chapter books depending on the age of the class and what I've been brought in to talk about.

Here are my absolute favorite picture books, titles that I've found work really well with large groups of kids with varying attention spans, all the way from 1st to 5th grade.

by Mac Barnett and Adam Rex

So the key that I've found is silly and random. Keep the kids guessing as to what is coming next, because the worst thing a read aloud in a room full of know-it-alls can be is predictable. When Billy Twitters doesn't clean his room, his punishment is a blue whale to take care of. But how do you take care of something so big it doesn't even fit in your house?

 

by Oliver Jeffers

Stuck is the story of an exceptionally strong boy and an exceptionally grabby tree. When Floyd's kite gets stuck in a tree, he throws item after item into the tree to try and free his kite. The escalation of items thrown and the misuse of seemingly obvious ideas (if you get a ladder, you climb it, duh) keeps kids guessing and groaning until Floyd is in bed, the entire adventure but a hazy memory.

 

by Adam Rubin and Daniel Salmieri

Grumpy old men and silly, silly squirrel antics. Everyone can scream "THOSE DARN SQUIRRELS" as they shake their fists. Good times abound.

 

by Adam Rubin and Daniel Salmieri

Another Adam Rubin and Daniel Salmieri. This is actually the first book of theirs that I found. It's the randomness of this book that makes it so winning, tangents break off the main story line, mimicking a children's train of thought consciousness perfectly.  

 

by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean

What constitutes a fair trade is a pretty solid discussion topic. Suspending disbelief for a second that anyone's father would abide by such a trade, are two goldfish worth as much as a dad that sits on the couch and reads his paper all day? What about an electric guitar? A gorilla mask? Bunny rabbits!?! The illustrations in this book add a lot to the story so it's worth passing the book around afterwards so everyone can see all the small details.

by Jonah Winter and Majorie Priceman

Of all the non-fiction books and bios I've tried as classroom read alouds, this one always plays the best. The text is sing-songy, call and response-y like a great jazz song and the story of Josephine Baker's life has different points of interest for kids at all different ages. The race riots section and the discussion of black face were useful with 5th graders talking about segregation while EVERYONE zooms in on the illustrations of her pet cheetah. 

Honorable Mention:

 

by Satoshi Kitamura

Millie's Marvelous Hats has such detailed illustrations that it's a pass around, point out kind of book for sure. The amount of imagination lends well to group discussion and dramatic play afterwards. It skews a little younger, say kindergarten to 2nd grade. 

 

by John Perry and Mark Fearing

I've talked before about my love of The Book that Eats People, I only include it in Honorable Mentions because it also skews younger. Children older than 3rd grade are sometimes too cool to be scared by a book like this and it looses it's effectiveness exponentially in grades thereafter. 

 

by Jonah Winter and Red Nose Studio

And finally, a great read that skews older. I usually use this one with 4th and 5th graders, due to the sheer length. In terms of readability, Jonah Winter once again proves himself as the master of short form non-fiction. Finding the obscure story of a boat filled with garbage, the poor man who had to haul it around and all the towns/cities/ports that rejected it was a stoke of luck. Winter wields a deft hand in making this call for ecological sustainability way more exciting than it is preachy.

And that's it for me. Have you got any favorite picture books that you use on class visits or with older kids? Tell me!

Pacific Rhythm Dancers

We were lucky enough to welcome the family dance troupe Pacific Rhythm Dancers  to our library at the beginning of June to help kick off our summer reading program. Think the Von Trapp Family Singers if they were from new Zealand and not trying to outrun Nazis. The entire family, right down to their youngest, 3 year old son, entertains with traditional dances from several Polynesian islands while educating about Polynesian culture. There's a great audience participation factor and by the end everyone was swaying and bopping along. And at the end, after the coconut has been split if half with a grunt and a sharp rock, everyone goes outside where Mika, the patriarch, busts out some fire sticks and goes absolutely crazy with a Fire Knife dance from Samoa.

Our program drew mostly a pre-school set, although the older kids who had shown up for the computers quickly got on board, and everyone had an amazing time. I've heard kids talking about the dancers, especially the Fire Knife dance, in the month since they were here, and it was a really great introduction to a culture that doesn't really get a lot of coverage in school or pop culture.

So what did I do? I made a reading list for further exploration of Polynesian life.

 
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Oh favorite childhood book, it's nice to see you again. The last girl left on her island, Karana has to learn to fend for herself, survive and even thrive all by herself as she attempts to synthesize what she already knows and understands about her people's way of life into useful, practical information. It's a little like survival great Hatchet but with a girl protagonist and a sweet wolf-dog best friend.

 
Call It Courage

It's not okay to be the scaredy-cat of your seaside village, especially when your father is a chief renowned for his bravery. Unfortunately, Mafatu has been afraid of the ocean ever since his mother drowned when he was a small child. Determined to prove himself, Mafatu takes a big risk, makes some poor decisions and ends up in several impossible situations before he eventually finds out what courage actually means and is able to make his way home. Like Island of the Blue Dolphins, this book was written by a western man and supposedly based on actual myth. The "othering" of Polynesian culture is pretty rampant and troubling if you're reading with a critical eye. Still it's one of the classics of the genre; like Babar and the racist caricature islands he visits.

 
Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World's Strangest Parrot (Scientists in the Field Series)

Endangered species, sweet conservation technology, passionate individuals charged with a daunting mission, non-fiction can be totally edge-of-your-seat, thrill-a-minute and this book is a prime example. Plus, relly pretty pictures.   

And because there's not a whole lot to chose from, here are a few young adult and adult titles as well...

 
The Whale Rider

The movie based on the book made a big splash (PUN!) in the early 2000s and the book shares the same place building that the movie capitalized so well on. So many Polynesian books take on this view of the outsider looking in and Whale Rider is exceptional in how it makes Polynesian culture accessible to outsiders while still being written by and for insiders.

 
Guardian of the Dead

Body acceptance protagonist, asexual best friend, Maori legends come to life? There's a whole lot to unpack in Karen Healy's modern day fantasy, that weaves in Maori legends. I had a lot of trouble following plot strands, but it's an engaging and suspenseful read with a pretty dead-on mastery of atmosphere. Don't look to hard at the man behind the curtain and you'll be fine. It's notable in that Guardian of the Dead is the only book I know of that tries to translate Maori legends into contemporary YA and the fact that i find it so confusing could very well be due to my lack of background knowledge. 

Top Five Children's Books in 2012

Lions of Little Rock by Kristen Levine

I loved this story, and over identified with Marlee, when I first read this book back in May and nothing's changed since then. I worry a little bit about kid appeal- I've been trying very hard to make this book a thing in the children's room and while every adult that I've booked-talked into it come back with rave reviews, no kids have taken it yet- but I'll just have to love it enough for all of us.


Remarkable by Lizzie K. Foley
Jane Doe is the most ordinary girl in the world and she has the misfortune of living in a town where everyone is remarkable in some way. But when the REMARKABLY bad Gimlet twins get kicked out of the gifted school (and join Jane as the only students in the regular, public school) and a mysterious pirate captain (who doesn't seem to like his job very much) shows up at the same time as the city is getting ready to celebrate a new milestone, it may be up to Jane to save the day in her ordinary way.



Stonewall Hinkleman and the Battle of Bull Run by Sam Riddleburger and Michael Hemphill



Video games and time travel don't really mix. Neither do skeptical teenage boys and evil senators hell-bent on reversing the course of history and ensuring that the south wins the Civil War this time around. But sometimes you're just minding your business, looking for a new bugle to blow at your parents dumb civil war battle reenactment, and all of a sudden you're back in 1861 looking for a way home, a way to save your ancestor (not to mention the entire course of history), and maybe impress the girl. You know, if you have time.  

Wonder by RJ Palacio

This book has had a lot of press and some pretty beautiful book trailers. There's not much that I can add to the discussion about this beautiful book about a boy with a severe facial deformity joining society for the first time. EXCEPT I read Wonder on a plane to a job interview and, like Code Name Verity, I started crying on the plane, freaking out the guy sitting next to me. Then I book talked it during my interview without having finished it and every single person on my panel wrote down the title and author to go check out later.




The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy
 You hear a lot about Cinderella and Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, you know, the princesses in the stories. But when was the last time you heard a proper story about Frederic, Liam and Duncan, the princes that saved? Come to think of it, when was the last time you heard anything about what went down after Happily Ever After? Not too often by my count, but here comes Christopher Healy and The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom to remedy both of those issues at once.