Falling
In by Frances O’Roark Dowell
Genre:
Fantasy
Age Level: 8
& up
Isabelle
Bean is a unique, imaginative young girl. After she is sent to the principal’s
office for not paying attention in class, she stumbles into the nurse’s office.
A classmate is frightened by a mouse and tells Isabelle it went in the closet,
so Isabelle turns the doorknob and “falls in” to another world- a world where
children are running to camps away from their houses because they think that a
witch is after them. The witch turns out to be Isabelle’s grandmother, which
explains why Isabelle always felt she was a changeling; taken by fairies as a
baby and switched to another world. Imaginative story, loosely referenced
‘Hansel and Gretel’; two children in the woods being coaxed by a witch, the
main characters names are Hen and Grete. This is a very creative story that
asks young readers to explore their imaginations.
Ella
Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
Genre:
Fantasy
Newberry
Honor Book
Age Level: 8 & up
This take on
‘Cinderella’ is about a young girl, Ella, who was given a curse by a fairy when
she was born. The curse is that no matter what the circumstance, Ella must be
obedient and always follow any commands given to her by anyone. No matter how
much Ella tries to fight the curse, she becomes terribly ill when she doesn’t
obey it. She befriends not only Prince Charmont because of her wit and charm,
but the ogres and elves and other mythical creatures near her hometown Frell. When
her mother passes away her father decides to send her off to finishing school when
she meets her future step-sisters. The ending very much follows the story of
Cinderella such as Ella becoming her evil step-mother and step-sisters scullery
maid and treated badly with the exception of her fairy godmother helping her.
Prince Charmont holds a ball to greet a potential wife, when really he only
wants Ella but she denies him thinking her curse will cause harm. Ella sneaks
off to the ball and loses her glass slipper at midnight…and you know the ending
right? I really enjoyed this version of Cinderella and am glad I had an excuse
to read it for this week because I’ve wanted to for awhile and haven’t had the
chance to.
A Wrinkle
in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Genre:
Science Fiction
Age Level: 10 & up
Meg and
Charles Wallace Murry’s father is a physicist who is on a secret mission for
the government and has been missing for a while. Meg’s brother Charles Wallace
and schoolmate Calvin O’Keefe are brought to Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs.
Which. The three elderly “women” explain to Meg and the two boys that a
tesseract is a ‘wrinkle in time’ or the lines in between space and time. They transport the three children to the
planet Camazotz where the Murry father is being trapped. Before they can reach
or rescue their father though, Charles Wallace gets hypnotized by IT who
controls all of the human’s activities and thoughts. Once Meg breaks through to
get her father to escape, she and Calvin must now see if it is too late to get
her brother Charles Wallace back from IT’s control. Meg also has to face The
Black Thing, an evil darkness, in order to get back to her brother. Science fiction
and books like this might not be my cup of tea, but they definitely get your
brain to think and wonder about things such as life outside of Earth?
The Giver
by Lois Lowry
Genre:
Science Fiction
Newberry
Award Winner
Reading Level: Ages 12 & up
Okay I take
back what I said about not liking Science Fiction books once I realized The
Giver was a science fiction book! I remember reading this book and loving
it as a child. It certainly brings you to think about life outside of what we
know of it. The main character Jonas lives in a community based upon “sameness”
where jobs and basically every decision is assigned. The people living in
sameness are happy because they don’t know any better and have no choices to
make, but they also are deprived of emotions such as love, colors since they
are all colorblind and even knowledge of anything else. Pills and genetic engineering are used to suppress
and manipulate them. The children’s toys and belongings are allocated by how
old they are. For example, Jonas’ sister wants a bicycle but can’t get one
until she turns 9 and so on. Jonas is one of the ‘Elevens’ because he is
eleven-years old, and when he and the others turn twelve they will be assigned
their job by the Committee of Elders based upon their personalities. Jonas is
assigned to be the next ‘Receiver of Memory’ a job that requires Jonas to learn
knowledge outside of his community such as memories and pain and pleasure. He is
trained for his job by the last Receiver of Memory, the Giver. The Giver
introduces many things to Jonas through memories; violence, loss, family,
beauty, animals. He gives Jonas the knowledge of life outside of what he knows,
which makes Jonas start to think what would happen if he left the community and
shared all of his memories? This is an amazing book with great details and I highly
recommend everyone, regardless of age/gender/reading preferences, to read.
The
Hit-Away Kid by Matt Christopher
Genre:
Sports
Grade Level: 2 & up
While Barry
McGee is playing baseball for the Mudders team he makes a catch in the outfield
and then proceeds to drop the ball, but no one sees the ball roll out of his
glove except his sister. Instead of telling the truth, Barry decides to pretend
he didn’t drop the ball and gets away with it. Then Barry’s rival Alec, the
pitcher of another team, steals Barry’s younger brother’s statue and will give
it back if Barry hits two homeruns off of him. Barry hits one homerun off of
Alec, and then on another hit he misses touching second base but keeps running.
He decides to be honest and tell the truth and gets himself out because he
remembered how it felt when he had lied about catching that ball. Not only does
Alec respect Barry’s honesty about missing second base and gives back his
brother’s figurine, but the message is clear to the young readers: that being
honest even if no one else saw what happened but you, is always the right
choice to make.
The Big
Field by Mike Lupica
Genre:
Sports
Age Level:
10 & up
Being a
shortstop means everything to Keith Hutchinson a.k.a. Hutch. His hero is Yankee’s
player Derek Jeter and Hutch’s own dad was even a professional shortstop back
in the day, but that all changes when the great Darryl Williams joins the team
and Hutch is put at second base. Not only does Hutch feel inferior to Darryl
because he’s a great player and took over his position, but he can’t seem to
get along with Darryl at first no matter how hard he tries because of Darryl’s
attitude. Then when Hutch discovers his dad, who seems to have no interest in
Hutch or his baseball playing, hitting ground balls to Darryl he feels horribly
betrayed. Not only is this a good story for a baseball lover to read, but it
covers strongly the subject matter on how fathers and sons struggle in their
relationships. Hutch and his father share this love of the game, yet something
is hindering them from bonding. I think that many young boys would like this
book and others by Mike Lupica even if they are not athletic or have father-son
issues.
Heat
by Mike Lupica
Genre:
Sports
Reading Level:
ages 10 & up
Michael
Arroyo is not your typical twelve-year-old baseball player. He has an arm
comparable to ‘El Grande’ the Yankees’ most prominent pitcher (fictional character).
Michael and his best friend Manny play for the South Bronx Clippers, a youth
male summer baseball team that is headed to the Little League World Series. This
has been Michael’s dream for as long as he can remember and he should be
thrilled with this opportunity- but there’s a deep secret that Michael and his
brother Carlos have been keeping from everyone. No one but their neighbor Mrs.
Cora and Manny know that their father had passed away from a heart attack,
leaving Michael and Carlos alone in New York City. Carlos and Michael don’t
want to be split up and decide to not tell anyone of their father’s death. It has
been working out for them until a rival baseball team’s jealousy of Michael’s “heat”
(great pitching arm) challenge him by asking to prove he is twelve years old. Michael
must come up with a birth certificate in order to be allowed to play in the
World Series. With no relatives in America to help, and his birth certificate
being lost when they emigrated from Cuba, how will Michael prove he really is
twelve? Or more importantly, can he keep the secret from getting out and
separating him and Carlos? This was an awesome book; many references to
baseball (my favorite sport) and the Yankees (my favorite team). If you like
baseball you’ll love this book.
Out of
the Dust by Karen Hesses
Genre: Verse
Novel
Newberry
Winner
Age Level: 9
& up
Out of
the Dust is written in poems, or free-verse form, from the perspective of fourteen-year-old
Billie Jo who lives in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl years of the Depression. The
dust storms are completely destroying their lives and making life harder and
harder each day. Then due to a horrible, tragic accident, her mother and unborn
baby brother die. The accident also leaves Billie Jo with her hands damaged and
with guilt that she played a role in the horrible accident that killed her
mother. The despair of these storms comes through in Billie Jo’s poems; how the
dust is ruining everything around her and how miserable it must have been for
these people that lived through this. This book made me curious to research the
dust bowl years because I only remember them vaguely from school. I liked Hesse’s
writing style of diary entries put in poems, and she tied in Billie Jo’s love
of piano and what that meant to her. Although a sad subject, this book was
cleverly written, and can help students learn about this terrible time period
of American history.
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