The Witch and the Ring

Posted on October 8, 2010 by Mrs. N

Well, I can’t say as this is the best written Ruth Chew book I’ve read.  It’s actually pretty marginal.  Charlotte and Walt get a magic ring out of one of those supermarket vending machines designed to lure children into squandering their quarters.  It has the promising name of Fun Chicken. What Walt and Charlotte don’t know is that a witch has been waiting for this ring (acting on a rumor that it would be in the Fun Chicken – a fact which should be hilarious but in the book is quite blah).  The witch takes the form of a cat and follows them home.

So why don’t I love this? First of all, it’s never quite clear what the ring’s magic is.  It clearly has something to do with giving you what you want, but it’s all sort of vague.  I detest vague magic.  It seems lazy on the part of the writer.  Second of all, these kids are totally being followed around and befriended by a weird lady and they aren’t bothered by it.  I know there’s a need for suspended disbelief when dealing with magic,witches, and books written a long time ago, but this woman shows up in one of their BEDROOMS and no one tells mom.  By our current standards of safety, this is CREEEE-PY.  There’s also this totally trippy section where the children and witches are all super small and there are giant ants.  And the end?  The witch decides she’d rather be a housecat than a person.  That has to be a bad message right?

Ruth Chew fans will rate anything by her highly, and kids who love her books will read anything by her, but this is not the place to start them.  Use only in case of desperation.

Advanced readers in first or second grade will find this content to be appropriate.  It’s probably on grade level for third grade.  Some fourth or fifth graders may enjoy it, but I feel sixth and up would find it dull and babyish.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – None. Although there is this super weird line where the witch says “All the while I’ve been longing for you to touch me. And I never knew it!”  Ew!
Profanity – “gyp” – What’s wrong with gyp you may ask?  Well, it’s meaning – to cheat or swindle – seems to have been derived from the word gypsy, which refers to the Romani people who immigrated throughout Europe.  Do you really want to be saying that gypsies are cheaters?  Most kids will be so unfamiliar with the term it will hold no meaning, but you may want to know it’s in here.
Death, Violence and Gore – Walt fights with some boys who are trying to steal their bicycles and also fights with the head witch.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None
Frightening or Intense Things – Unless you are reading this aloud to a very small child, or you have a child who is very afraid of home intruders, this should be fine.

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What the Witch Left

Posted on October 7, 2010 by Mrs. N

What the Witch Left by Ruth Chew

Friends Louise and Katy are playing in Katy’s room when Louise becomes curious about the tall chest of drawers.  Louise pressures Katy into opening the locked bottom drawer where they discover lots of stuff belonging to Katy’s Aunt Martha.  Over the course of the book they explore with magic gloves, a robe with special powers, seven league boots and a box that finds lost things.  The explorations are pretty fun, especially as the girls do make some bad decisions (using the gloves to do schoolwork for them, fibbing to their parents).

This book does smack of old-fashioned though.  Louise draws an Arab.  The girls are in a play with the Pilgrims and Indians (Indians of course wearing blankets, feathers and war paint).  The seven league boots take them to Mexico where they meet a girl, Pilar, her donkey Pepe (who Louise and Katy call Peppy).  Pilar and her grandmother make straw mats to sell at the market where Pilar is skilled at bargaining.  There’s not too much demeaning other cultures, but stereotyping is present.

Good for: Kids with parents who save lots of stuff.  When I was little, I remember what a treat it was to go through dresser drawers or boxes that were filled with old stuff.  I’d find gloves from my grandmother, petticoats from my great aunt, costume jewelry, tiny boxes, all sorts of small treasures.  Any child who likes this sort of play will love What the Witch Left.  Come on, who isn’t harboring a secret hope that somewhere in that jumble you’ll stumble upon something magical?

Sex, Nudity, Dating – None.
Profanity – None
Death, Violence and Gore – None.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None.
Frightening or Intense Things – None.

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The Witch at the Window

Posted on October 6, 2010 by Mrs. N

The Witch at the Windowby Ruth Chew

Marjorie and Nick are not the brightest of children.  They befriend a talking bird and think nothing of it.  Clearly they are not able to see the distinction between birds that talk in the form of mimcry and birds that are having a conversation with you.  Maybe all children think a parrot or starling could fly over for a nice chat?  I don’t know.  They accidentally stumble (or tumble) into a witch’s home and experiment with a few spells and magical hijinks ensue.  When the starling appears and confesses she is really a witch,  they seem genuinely surprised.  It’s somewhere around here that you learn the witch is evidently not the brightest of witches.  She has turned herself into a starling by accident and does not know how to undo the spell.  Not to ruin the surprise or anything, but it turns out to be something fairly simple that the children discovered during their magical fun time.

I don’t know if kids will mind the level of simplicity to the problem and solution.  Since Chew’s books are best for a younger audience, it’s quite possible that they will not mind.

Also at this point, it’s fair to say that many of Ruth Chew’s books follow a fairly simple brother+sister+magic+Brooklyn formula.  Kids will enjoy the consistency, and having both the brother and sister as main characters, although parents, expect the boys in the books to do the fighting and the girls to be older and more responsible.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – None.
Profanity – None
Death, Violence and Gore – None.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – There’s a reference to beer cans littering up the lake.
Frightening or Intense Things – Only some mild magic related tension.

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No Such Thing as a Witch

Posted on October 5, 2010 by Mrs. N

No Such Thing as a Witch by Ruth Chew

My copy of No Such Thing As a Witch is so well worn and well loved that it lives its life inside a ziploc bag.  When you take it out little pieces of broken up paper flutter out like confetti.  This is absolutely the kind of book that makes kids fall in love with Ruth Chew.  It’s magic and there’s just the right amount of suspense without being actually scary.  Plus there are animals.  How could you go wrong?

Tad and Nora have a new neighbor, Maggie Brown, who loves animals.  Nora has a strong suspicion that she may be a witch, but Nora’s mother insists there’s “no such thing as a witch.”  When Nora and Tad start tasting Maggie’s fudge, they know there’s something up.  One piece makes you like animals, after two pieces you can talk to them, after more? Well, you can bet Tad and Nora find out.

Children will love hearing the thoughts of the family dog and the mice that live in the walls.  Grown-ups may be a bit disturbed at how freely the children go with a stranger (even a neighbor), but it’s a good conversation to have with your kids.

Great for: Reading aloud to little ones.  This was a huge hit with with my first graders.  This is also a good choice for advanced readers in first or second grade because there is nothing concerning in the content.  Also, because of all the animals, this may capture the interest of some children that are usually racing through Animal Ark and Puppy Place books.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – None.
Profanity – None
Death, Violence and Gore – None.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – Does magic fudge count?
Frightening or Intense Things – There is a small amount of tension as the children try to help Mrs. Brown.  It’s nothing serious.

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October Preview

Posted on October 3, 2010 by Mrs. N

I’ve always been a huge fan of holidays, and Halloween is one of my favorites.  In order to get that feeling to last (hopefully through a whole month of slowly building anticipation), I love to read anything Halloweeny.  This month I’ll be featuring books about witches and wizards, so bake yourself some pumpkin snickerdoodles, grab a mug of hot apple cider and curl up with some magical tales.  I’ll be featuring some old-school Ruth Chew, the delightful Howl’s Moving Castle trilogy by Diana Wynne Jones and of course, The Witches by Roald Dahl, plus much more!

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Bloomability

Posted on September 30, 2010 by Mrs. N

Bloomability by Sharon Creech

Can we discuss how awful that cover on the right is?  I don’t know how you’d convince a kid to read a book with that cover.  Any kid I know would either say “ew” and put it back, or say nothing and sort of sneak it back onto the shelf the minute you weren’t looking.  Luckily, they’ve reissued it!

 

Dinnie’s family has always moved around a lot.  Her father looks for new opportunities.  Her mother packs them up.  But as she’s gotten older, things have gotten tougher. Her older brother Crick is in jail, and her sister Stella disappears for a weekend at age 16 and returns home married to a Marine.  When Stella has a baby, Dinnie gets sent away, to live with her aunt and uncle.  At a boarding school.  In Switzerland.  While many 13 year olds may harbor secret fantasies about running away to a boarding school in Switzerland, the reality is pretty hard for Dinnie.  One of my favorite parts is when she first arrives.  She tries to make a sign for her window saying kidnapped but she needs to look up how to say it in Italian.  In her efforts to get it right she ends up displaying a sign commanding people to take her by force and another one advertising help yourself.

As the students get to know each other, there are personality and culture clashes.  One character is constantly putting down anyone and anything that is not American.  Bloomability does a great job of celebrating life and our differences, as well as showing how different people compensate for and cope with the struggles in their own lives.  And despite all these deeper themes, it’s still something many kids would actually enjoy reading.  I felt particular affection for Keisuke and how his misuse or misspeaking of English resulted in words his classmates preferred.

Age Recommendation: The content isn’t too racy, and Dinnie is 13.  I think that this would be okay for some middle grades advanced readers, but has enough going on that it will still be of interest to younger (14, 15) year old teens.  There are many foreign phrases sprinkled throughout, some with context or definitions to help you understand, and some left untranslated so that you feel like an outsider the way Dinnie does.

Great for: Smart kids who wish themselves a world away.  Fabulous teachers, amazing friends from different background, learning to speak Italian, and field trips to go skiing? There are lots of kids out there who would gladly trade their own high school experience for some time in the Alps.  Many will end up feeling grateful for what they do have.  That’s the beauty of this book.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – Dinnie’s older sister Stella sees lots of boys before she marries the Marine and has a baby at 16.  Dinnie and her friends talk about having crushes and who they like.  The boarding school’s owner wears low-cut dresses and fishes her lipstick out of the front of her dress.  Several students like each other.  There is discussion of how their parents want them to only like people from the same background or how in some cultures the parents wouldn’t approve of them being friends with someone of a different gender.  A girl, Belen, is 13 but looks 18 in a certain dress.  There is a hug between two opposite sex characters, a kiss on the cheek between a boy and a girl and a kiss on the lips between a boy and a girl.  There is one mention of a teacher having an affair.
Profanity – “crud,” “stupid” used several times, “Lord have mercy”
Death, Violence and Gore – There are a fair amount of light-hearted threats.  From I’m going to kill her, or I want to kill her to Mari saying she wants to chop Lila up into hamburger and put her in a taco and a boy telling Dinnie he’ll chop off her hand if she takes the last taco.  Crick gets into some bad things like throwing rocks, burning down a barn and stealing a car.  There are some broken bones and stitches mentioned in relation to skiing accidents.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – Crick smokes a joint.  Dinnie has been to a school where it was cool to drink, smoke and swear.  When a teacher assigns strange homework a kids asks if he’s drunk or something.  It is mentioned that a teacher showed up drunk at the headmaster’s house.  The boarding school suspends you for drinking or smoking and expels you for and drug use or possession of drug paraphernalia.  Four students are suspended and one expelled.  This is shared with us to show the culture of the school.
Frightening or Intense Things –  Dinnie has lots of anxieties.  She worries about the plane crashing, being near a military practice area in Switzerland, the possibility of an avalanche.  Two students are trapped in an avalanche.  A student is missing for a short period of time.  There’s a whole chapter where the students of the school get hyper aware of world issues and some are deeply affected by all the horrible things happening in the world and how they feel powerless against them.  Included on this list are: ozone depletion, the extinction of species, depleted rain forests, war, poverty, AIDS, famine, slaughter, refugees, being bombed, World War II, child abuse, watching your parent be killed, murder and torture.  None of these are gone into in depth, but they are mentioned.  Dinne’s aunt sends her a card saying she hopes there are no hijackers on Dinnie’s plane (this book is pre 9/11).  Once when Dinnie was a child, her family left her behind, forgot her.  Dinnie also sometimes has disturbing dreams like a baby rolling down a hill or what body part she’d give to save Crick.

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The Strange Case of Origami Yoda

Posted on September 29, 2010 by Mrs. N

by Tom Angleberger

I don’t know about you, but middle school pretty much ranks way up there in the contest for worst years of my life.  The Strange Case of Origami Yoda does an amazing job of capturing all of that preteen angst and misery while giving you a reason to smile.   There’s just about every kind of pre-teen meanness you can remember:  exclusion, peer pressure to ignore less cool kids, mean nicknames, the terror of being unathletic and uncoordinated during gym class, fear of teasing and embarrassment.  It’s really all here.  If you’ve lived through it, you’ll squirm along with them.  For kids that are living it right now, this may just be the reassurance they need that they are normal and it’s going to be okay.

The book is told primarily by Tommy, about his friend Dwight.  Dwight is enough of a dork that even the other dorks aren’t so sure about him. But everything gets turned upside down when Dwight makes an origami Yoda and sticks it on his finger.  Now everyone is interested in what Yoda has to say, even people who would never have listened to Dwight.  Tommy conducts interviews and asks friends for their opinions all in the hunt to figure out what’s really going on with Dwight and his strangely omniscient finger puppet.

Age Recommendation: Grades 4-8.  Kids need to be old enough to really connect with the peer issues and the beginnings of “liking” someone.  But there’s not really content that would be inappropriate for third grades.  (Full Disclosure: I’ve had third graders complain about hand holding in books before as icky, so those third graders would probably not be thrilled).

Great for: Anyone who’s ever felt like an outsider. Likely,  you’ll be able to sell this to Diary of a Wimpy Kid fans, because it’s aimed a similar audience and has some cool doodly pictures. I like this much, much better though, so I should probably say, do your best to wean readers off of Wimpy Kid and onto this!

Sex, Nudity, Dating – A good portion of the book revolves around liking a girl and wanting to know if she likes you back.  This of course might involve dancing with her, thinking about kissing and flirting.  There is a kiss.  There is some handholding.
Profanity – “fartface,” “jerk,” “bejeezus.”  Also, there is a picture of a squirrel saying “I like nuts.”  Believe me, the kids are going to get it.  I refuse to admit whether or not I snickered.  All right.  I did.  I can’t help it.  This book completely made me 13 again.
Death, Violence and Gore – There is a fight between two students and some punching.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None
Frightening or Intense Things – Does a middle school dance count as frightening or intense?  Because it’s been a long time, but I seem to recall it being both.

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Extra Credit

Posted on September 28, 2010 by Mrs. N

Extra Credit by Andrew Clements

Books about school are Andrew Clements’ thing.  It’s what he does.  I’d fully intended to devote a whole week to him, but then September kind of got away from me.  So I’m going with his latest, Extra Credit.

When Abby Carson finds herself on the verge of failing sixth grade, she’s assigned extra credit to help her pass.  She needs to choose a country and write to a pen pal.  She picks Afghanistan because she wants to learn more about their mountains – she may not be good at school, but Abby loves rock climbing.

I absolutely will be the first to admit that I do not have an in depth knowledge of the situation in Afghanistan, however, I felt that certain things didn’t ring true.  Her pen pal is from a small village near Kabul.  A group of men in the village decide that since Saheed is the best English student that he will assist his sister in writing the letters, since it is considered inappropriate for Saheed to write himself.  Literacy rates for women in Afghanistan are pretty low (according to UNICEF/UNIFEM), so I was surprised that his sister would not only be literate, but also know English.  I also was unsure about the mixed gender schools – although I’d love information on this if anyone has any.  There is a part of the story where Saheed is accosted by an anti-American man.  The villagers feel threatened by him, even though they decide he is not Taliban.  Because they feel threatened they have Saheed stop writing.  I felt that having the anti-American feelings all being attributed to this one scary man was oversimplifying the situation.  There are many good people in Afghanistan that are anti-American; it is not just dangerous evil men.  I would have much rather had one of the respected village men voice his opinions on the American presence in their country, so that people could understand the gray areas of the situation.

There is some rock-climbing specific vocabulary that is very difficult and will not make sense to most readers.  Clements refers to the Taliban once with no explanation whatsoever about what it is. This concerns me, because the students attempting to learn the meaning of this via internet may easily come across materials that are unsuitable for children.  It would be best for parents or teachers to address this in their own way.

While third graders that are strong readers would be able to comprehend Extra Credit, I believe older students will be able to do more critical thinking about the issues being raised and therefore will get more out of this book.

Good for: Fans of Andrew Clements will probably like this latest offering.

Although this may start discussions about the current situation in Afghanistan and the role of women in Islamic countries, I think it would be wiser to chose a book written by someone more familiar with the situation if you want to read about Afghanistan.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – Abby writes that she does not have a boyfriend. Saheed is happy to hear this.  His sister teases him and calls him romantic.  In my opinion this is one of the silliest parts of the book.  I didn’t see any benefit or need to push a romantic angle between these two, and it really doesn’t make sense.
Profanity – None.
Death, Violence and Gore – As expected with a book taking place in a war zone there is some violence.  A man shows where he lost fingers from a Russian grenade explosion.  Sadeed writes about bombs, shooting and hearing people scream, and watching people cry about the death of their loved ones.  When Abby receives this letter, her friend’s reaction is “Ew”.

There is also some gore and death associated with mountain climbing.  Abby asks about climbing in the Himalayas and learns that some people die and others lose body parts to frostbite.

Abby makes bow and arrows for hunting.  A man carries a rifle in Afghanistan.

Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None
Frightening or Intense Things – Afghanistan is a war zone.  Saheed is accosted by a man who tells of horrible things (hanging) that happen to people who are pro-American. The Taliban is mentioned, but not explained so anyone looking for more information on that might be exposed to material that is not appropriate for the reading level.

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The Homework Machine

Posted on September 26, 2010 by Mrs. N

The Homework Machine by Dan Gutman

It’s only been a few years since I finally was able to walk away from a book. I’ve always been a finish it at all costs kind of reader.  So, I’ve always been pretty tough on my students in that respect.  I don’t let them stop reading any book that bores them.  Attention spans are very short these days, and many children have the idea that they can just stop doing something just because they feel like it.  So in order to quit reading a book, a student of mine has to have a pretty serious chat with me.

Last year one of my top students and dedicated readers came up to me and asked if he could quit reading this book.  He wrote me a really well done letter explaining how boring it was and how nothing particularly happened and he just wasn’t interested.  I let him stop.

So I didn’t have very high expectations coming into this.  It wasn’t bad, but I can see his point.  The book is written with multiple narrators – it switched back and forth every few paragraphs, which I’m guessing will be very hard to follow for some readers.  There is a nice clear bold heading when we switch, but it’s easy to skim past that.  While we mainly hear from five people (four students and their teacher), others come and go requiring even more focus on the part of the reader.

The basic premise is that these kids start using a homework machine.  They hang out even though they’d never be friends otherwise (very Breakfast Club if you ask me).  One of them learns chess, and then there are some sections on chess strategies that I’d guess are probably completely mind-numbing to kids.  People become suspicious of our small group of friends and they are caught.  All of this is done with an incredible lack of suspense.  Because the book starts with them being caught, you already know what’s going to happen, so there’s nothing really driving you to go on, unless you really care about the characters.  And since you move back and forth between them so much, and they are clearly types, you just don’t care that much.

This is also a book that raises the question of stranger danger, but the kids handle it in a very irresponsible way.  This is absolutely something you would want to address with your students or children.  While the kids are involved with the homework machine, several of them are contacted online by a stranger who asks them to get in touch with him.  He knows details of their personal lives.  He even calls one.  A man approaches one of the girls while she is biking home and they assume it’s this same man.  The children talk about how they were going to tell someone, but they never do.  One of the students is clearly aware of the possible danger because he says he doesn’t respond to the guy because he might be a child molester.  It’s really scary to me that none of the students involved told an adult, and most of the time they didn’t even tell each other.  If anything like this happened in real life, I would hope that kids would understand that they absolutely must tell an adult and get help. In the end, he turns out to be harmless, but that might even bother me more. How often is it that an adult who is stalking you online, knows details of your personal life, calls you at home and follows you in person is really someone safe?

Also, this is book is pretty light in tone, the cover is cheerful and fun. Except then a character’s father is killed in a war. It’s pretty incongruous and doesn’t seem to serve any real purpose. I’m not sure why it was thrown in.

Age Recommendation: Although I wouldn’t actually recommend this book, it is the right reading level for students in Grades 3-6.  Third graders would need to be reasonably advanced (or closer to the end of the school year).

Sex, Nudity, Dating – There is the above mentioned reference to a child molester. A character gets her belly button pierced. Two characters end up dating and hold hands.
Profanity – “darn,” “jerk,” “sucks,” “heck,” “load of bull,”
Death, Violence and Gore – The police chief explains how a gambler was forced to parachute into the canyon and almost died. Miss Rasmussen tells how students used to be hit on the knuckles with a ruler in school. We learn that catapults could be used to fling dead bodies at the enemy. When Ronnie asks Sam about why he’s hanging out with Brenton, he threatens to bust his head open.  Judy’s family talks at dinner about moral issues including when is it okay to attack someone with a baseball bat.  Kelsey tells how she saw her father get hit by a snowmobile and die.  Sam’s father is sent to war. He tells people “my dad is going to shoot guys.” Sam asks his father if he’s shot anyone yet.  Sam’s father is killed in the war. They tell how the vehicle he was in was ambushed. They talk about his remains being sent home.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – Judy talks about how her mother became addicted to smoking and how she later quit when she was pregnant.
Frightening or Intense Things – Since this book is fairly current, Sam’s dad is killed in the Middle East.  For children of our servicemen and women this book might really trigger some serious worries and fears. The strange man who keeps contacting the children may bother some readers.

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Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger

Posted on September 25, 2010 by Mrs. N

Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger by Louis Sachar

Yet another installment of the Wayside School series.  After two hundred and forty three days, the yard teacher, Louis, has finally fixed up the school after a cow invasion.  The students are relieved to be back, but soon learn that their beloved Mrs. Jewls is having a baby, leaving them in the hands of substitute teachers.

Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger features the same twisted humor as the first two books, but this time it’s a teensy bit more adult in tone.  Not so much that I’d stop a kid from reading it, but enough that I wouldn’t use it as a classroom read aloud.  Also of note, there’s a chapter where Kathy, the always-mean girl,  tells the other children that there is no Santa.  The other children aren’t sure one way or another.  While this will not likely be any problem for middle grades students, it may pose a problem for some younger readers.

Louis Sachar again includes a whimsical chapter – no reading backwards this time, but there’s a story where all the children bring their pets to school.  The pets have the names of other students, proper nouns and even question words.  The result is a highly confusing chapter that seems a bit “Who’s on First” inspired.  The end of the story includes a list of the children and their pets’ names so readers can try to sort out what really happened.

Age Recommendation: Grades 3 and up.  This will be challenging for some third grade readers, but the stories will definitely catch their attention.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – A lady’s husband doesn’t want to kiss her because she smokes and her breath stinks.  After she’s quit smoking they kiss and make up when they fight.  Eric thinks Brazil is “one of those things women wear on their bosom.”  The teacher corrects him to say that he’s thinking of a “brassiere,” and a few children repeat the word.  Mrs. Drazil tells the children she’s kissed 31 men.  Paul licks Leslie’s ear.  When Louis, the yard teacher, shaves his mustache the girls think he’s handsome and one says she’s in love.  Dr. Payne and her husband hug and kiss.  Girls talk about boys being cute and ask each other “are you going to marry him”. Xavier and Wendy (who are adults) talk about marriage and Xavier nibbles Wendy’s ear.  The kids tease Louis about liking Miss Nogard.  They ask if he loves her, tell him to put his arm around her, tell him to take her dancing and hold her real close.  They tell Miss Nogard that he dreams of her every night.  Miss Nogard speculates that Louis’s mustache would tickle if they kissed.  The students tell Louis that she is hot for him and wants to kiss him. Eventually they kiss in front of the class.
Profanity – “darn,” “jerk,”
Death, Violence and Gore –  At one girl’s school she reports that the teacher would kill you if you didn’t spell exaggerate correctly.   A woman slaps her husband every time he says potato.  Mr. Gorf’s nose is sneezed off and Miss Mush takes it to cook.  While doing a show and tell about a shoelace, Mac talks about bleeding blisters, bloody footprints, nailing shoes to your feet and peeling off layers of your skin.  Terrence gets a bloody nose.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – A woman is successfully hypnotized to stop smoking.  Dr. Payne’s husband’s name is Sham.
Frightening or Intense Things – None

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