Jen Robinson's Book Page

Growing Bookworms Newsletter: April 9

Today I will be sending out a new issue of the Growing Bookworms email newsletter. (If you would like to subscribe, you can find a sign-up form here.) The Growing Bookworms newsletter contains content from my blog focused on children's and young adult books and raising readers. I currently send out the newsletter once every two weeks.

Newsletter Update: In this relatively brief issue I have four book reviews (picture book through middle grade) and two posts with links that I shared on Twitter recently. I also have a post documenting some recent literacy moments with Baby Bookworm. 

Reading Update: In the last two weeks I read two middle grade, three young adult, and five adult titles (one a short story). You'll notice that most of these were read on Kindle or MP3. This is because I've been on a bit of an exercise kick, and the only time I've had for reading has been while on the exercise bike (reading my Kindle) or while walking (listening to my MP3 player). 

• Marcia Wells (ill. Marcos Calo): Eddie Red Undercover: Mystery on Museum Mile. HMH Books for Young Readers. Middle Grade. Completed March 29, 2014. Review to come.
• Richard Capwell: Witches Bureau of Investigation, Book 1. Amazon Digital Services. Middle Grade. Completed April 6, 2014, on Kindle. I just downloaded the second book in this series, and will talk more about both books after I read that one. 
• Shannon Hale: Dangerous. Bloomsbury. Young Adult. Completed March 28, 2014, on Kindle.
• E. Lockhart: We Were Liars. Delacorte. Young Adult. Completed March 30, 2014, digital ARC on Kindle. Review to come. 
• Jennifer Brown: Torn Away. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Young Adult. Completed April 4, 2014, digital ARC on Kindle. Review to come. 
• Maeve Binchy: Whitethorn Woods. Anchor. Adult Fiction. Completed March 30, 2014, on MP3.
• Maeve Binchy: A Week in Summer. Random House. Adult Fiction (short story). Completed March 30, 2014, on MP3.
• Ben Winters: The Last Policeman. Quirk Books. Adult Mystery. Completed April 2, 2014, on Kindle.
• Richard A. Thompson: Lowertown. Forty Press. Adult Mystery. Completed April 8, 2014, on Kindle.
• Laura Lippman: After I'm Gone. William Morrow. Adult Mystery. Completed April 9, 2014, on MP3.

I'm currently reading Hate List by Jennifer Brown on Kindle and Missing You by Harlan Coben on MP3. Baby Bookworm is still enjoying all things Mo Willems. At lunch today, out of nowhere, she suggested a new Willems book: Don't Let the Pigeon Climb a Tree. She was acting it out and everything ("No, Pigeon, you'll fall."). She also still loves Little Critter, Fancy Nancy, and Curious George books. You can check out the complete list of books we've read to her this year if you are interested to see more. 

What are you and your family reading these days? Thanks for reading the newsletter, and for growing bookworms. 

© 2014 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

A Few Recent Baby Bookworm Literacy Moments

My Baby Bookworm is not such a baby anymore. She turned four this weekend (with much celebration, and many cupcakes). So far, our efforts to ensure that she loves books seem to be paying off. Here are a few recent tidbits. 

We were very nearly late for her birthday party (which we held out at her gymnastics place), because she wanted me to read her "just one more" Little Critter book. We incidentally let each child select a book as a party favor. The Fancy Nancy books were the most popular.

She had to stop in the middle of opening presents to ask Daddy to read her the newly unwrapped Mo Willems book (The Pigeon Needs a Bath). Yes, I did get that on video. When things do not go her way, she says: "Hmmpf." She does not seem to realize that she picked this up from the Pigeon. But we do. 

She has started using words like "mischievous" when describing the behavior of her dolls . She doesn't always use big words correctly, but she is clearly trying. 

As for me, I find it rewarding (if occasionally inconvenient) that she requests to have books read aloud at all hours of the day. We've also learned that when she becomes particularly insistent about us reading to her around dinnertime, it means that she is extra-tired. She wants to get her books in before she falls asleep. Because that's what bookworms, whether babies or not, do. 

© 2014 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. This site is an Amazon affiliate.

Ten Eggs in a Nest: Marilyn Sadler

Book: Ten Eggs in a Nest (Bright and Early Books for Beginning Readers)
Author: Marily Sadler
Illustrator: Michael Fleming
Pages: 48
Age Range: 3-7

Ten Eggs in a Nest is an early reader from the Bright and Early Books collection. In my house, we've found it to be quite educational (and fun) for a pre-reader, too. The premise of the story is that Gwen the chicken and Red Rooster are going to be parents. Out of supersition ("It's bad luck to count your eggs before they hatch.") Gwen won't tell Red how many eggs there are. As the eggs hatch, in increasing size batches (starting with one), Red rushes off to the worm store. Each time, before he gets back, there are more chicks, with a total of ten. 

This book works as an early reader. The words and sentence structure are simple (though not boring), and there is plenty of repetition. It also works as a counting and simple addition book. Like this:

"ONE plus TWO makes THREE baby chicks!" said Gwen.
ONE! TWO! THREE!"

And, laterL

"ONE plus TWO plus THREE plus FOUR makes TEN baby chicks!" clucked Gwen.

As a read-aloud, it's enjoyable, though I did find myself skimming by the fourth or fifth read. I think for new readers the repetition will provide scaffolding, and work well. The capitalizing of the text of the numbers helps to highlight those, too. 

I think what made my daughter ask to read it again (and again) was a combination of the fun of doing the counting, and the charm of Red Rooster. He's so proud when his babies are born - it's really adorable. Like this:

"Red strutted into Worm World.
He held his head high.
He puffed his chest out.
Pinky Pig was behind the counter."

There's also repeated humor when Red is surprised and says that you could have knocked him over with a feather. That, together with the "don't count your chicks before they are hatched" gives parents a chance to introduce the idea of sayings.

Michael Fleming's illustrations are boldly colored and inviting, with thick outlines and a spare use of texture. The birds are not representational, but they are all cute, especially the strutting red. My daughter noticed that the sign in Worm World is written with worm shapes, and she was quite charmed by this detail. 

all in all, Ten Eggs in a Nest is an early reader done well. It's definitely worth a look, and worth adding to school and public libraries.I look forward to trying it again when my daughter is actually ready to read. 

Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers (@RandomHouseKids) 
Publication Date: January 28, 2014
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher

FTC Required Disclosure:

This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2014 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

Links I Shared on Twitter this Week: April 4

Here are highlights from the links that I shared on Twitter this week @JensBookPage. There are many links to posts on National Poetry Month, so I've given them a separate category. 

Book Lists

A Tuesday Ten: Girls will be Boys (speculative fiction where girls dress as boys) | Views From the Tesseract http://ow.ly/vmlGA #kidlit

A nice list | Books That My Children and I Treasured When They Were Tiny by @carriegelson @NerdyBookClub http://ow.ly/voN72

Stacked: Get Genrefied: Realistic Teens on the Big Screen (no, it's not all @realjohngreen ) http://ow.ly/vjBvP #yalit

A Censored History of Ladies in YA Fiction by @catagator @bookriot http://ow.ly/vbsnE #yalit

Read Aloud Chapter Books for 3rd Graders - @momandkiddo http://ow.ly/veMcQ #kidlit

Don't miss this week's round-up of Middle Grade Sci Fi and Fantasy from around the blogs @charlotteslib http://ow.ly/vbqkA #kidlit

At Stacked: Girls Across Borders: Reviews from the Outstanding Books for the College Bound List http://ow.ly/v8Nvv #yalit

Diversity

Diversity in Publishers Weekly’s 2013 Young Adult Bestsellers | @diversityinya @malindalo http://ow.ly/vbsjg #yalit via @catagator

Events

Happy International Children's Book Day! @rosemondcates has the scoop! http://ow.ly/vmks5

Planning to attend BEA? See: Thoughts on BookExpo America and BookCon from @SheilaRuth http://ow.ly/v8KUF

Growing Bookworms

12 (Almost) Effortless Preschool #Literacy Activities from @momandkiddo http://ow.ly/voMTo

Not in my house! Are We Rushing Kids Out of Picture Books? | asks ShelfTalker http://ow.ly/vjAQz via @PWKidsBookshelf

How to get British kids reading - Essay at http://FT.com via @librareanne http://ow.ly/vjD3j #literacy

I do look forward to these books! Sunlit Pages: Reading Henry and Beezus by Beverly Cleary to kids http://ow.ly/vfeaH

A parent's experience in growing an initially reluctant reader by @janetgurtler @NerdyBookClub http://ow.ly/vbqCZ

Something I'll keep an eye on | LEGO StoryStarter: Creative New Language & Literacy Tool http://ow.ly/v8NL1 via @TrevorHCairney

Miscellaneous

Forget about the NSA for a minute: The internet of things could kill the little white lie @gigaom via @cmirabile http://ow.ly/vbpGt

National Poetry Month

The Book Chook: Ten Top Tips to Engage Kids with Poetry for #NationalPoetryMonth http://ow.ly/voMKp @BookChook

Tanita Davis will be blogging "Some Kind of Poem A Day" for #NationalPoetryMonth http://ow.ly/vjBJo

Liz Scanlon is doing a Haiku a day for April. Here's Haiku 1: http://ow.ly/vjBFb #NationalPoetryMonty

Sherry at @semicolonblog is launching #NationalPoetryMonth with a post about Anaphora poems http://ow.ly/vjBML

March into spring with #NationalPoetryMonth by Angela Verges at the family that reads together http://ow.ly/vjBWw

On Beyond Haiku: New Forms for #NationalPoetryMonth — @fuseeight http://ow.ly/vmlem

.@KellyFineman is reviewing #poetry books for #NationalPoetryMonth | FIREFLY JULY by Paul B. Janeczko http://ow.ly/vmkBA

The first entry in her Our Wonderful World #poetry series from @MaryLeeHahn on Giza Pyramids http://ow.ly/vjBXQ #NationalPoetryMonth

Day 2 of @MaryLeeHahn #NationalPoetryMonth celebration of Our Wonderful World features Stonehenge http://ow.ly/vmkVi

The #nationalpoetrymonth Our Wonderful World celebration from @MaryLeeHahn visits The Colosseum http://ow.ly/voNhK

At The Miss Rumphius Effect, first of Science Poetry Pairings for #NationalPoetryMonth - Darwin and the Galapagos http://ow.ly/vjCI4

Today's Science #Poetry Pairings at @missrumphius = Frogs and Toads http://ow.ly/vmlsV #NationalPoetryMonth

Continuing Science #Poetry Pairings for#nationalpoetrymonth, @missrumphius looks at the Nature of Science http://ow.ly/voNu6

First of Thirty Days of Student Poetry from @JoneMac53 at Check It Out http://ow.ly/vjCGk #NationalPoetryMonth

For the launch of #NationalPoetryMonth, @KirbyLarson has @JoneMac53 talking about #poetry http://ow.ly/vjBRe

At GottaBook, @gregpincus first post for 30 Poets/Day 1 - Jack Prelutsky and Alice Schertle http://ow.ly/vjCEi #NationalPoetryMonth

On Reading, Writing, and Publishing

Thoughts on Newbery from @medinger | sparked by Patrick Ness’s point on "Crappy Books About Important Things" http://ow.ly/vbs0G

I could relate to this post by @snarkywench on Unplugging from John Green & Rob Thomas. I want the story, not process http://ow.ly/vbrSh

Schools and Libraries

Berkeley Eighth Graders Raise Over $78K on Kickstarter, Build a School Library | @sljournal http://ow.ly/vjDeH

Shanahan on #Literacy: To Play or Not to Play (in K and Pre), That is the Question http://ow.ly/vfdO1

Teacher-tested strategies for encouraging boys to read, from @ReadingWithBean http://ow.ly/veAED #literacy

Interesting ideas! Social Media and Libraries: The Case of the Overdue Library Book | @molly_wetta http://ow.ly/vbqdO

© 2014 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook.

The Spy Catchers of Maple Hill: Megan Frazer Blakemore

Book: The Spy Catchers of Maple Hill
Author: Megan Frazer Blakemore
Pages: 320
Age Range: 8-12

The Spy Catchers of Maple Hill is a historical mystery novel set in a small Vermont town in 1953. Hazel Kaplansky lives with her parents in a home adjacent to the graveyard that they manage. She's prickly and smart, and doesn't fit in very well, despite having grown up in Maple Hill. At a time when everyone is nervous about Russian spies and possible nuclear attacks, Hazel is suspicious of the new gravedigger, a man with the too-banal-to-be-true name of Mr. Jones. Hazel soon enlists lonely new kid Samuel Butler in her investigation. But she soon learns that Samuel has secrets, too, which everyone seems to know about except Hazel. Hazel and Samuel's developing friendship is set against a backdrop that includes a McCarthy investigation of the men in the local factory, and corresponding swirl of local rumor and innuendo.

I think that Blakemore does a nice job integrating the historical time period with Hazel's story. She introduces lots of details, but keeps all of them tied closely to Hazel's perspective. For instance, she captures Hazel's mortification when she sneezes during an air raid drill. The Spy Catchers of Maple Hill covers everything from the scars that remain from the depression and influenza epidemic to how people treated unwed mothers during and after World War II to the fear and gossip triggered by McCarthyism. And she slips in little tidbits, too, like the fact that Alaska isn't a state yet. 

There is a bit of an old-fashioned feel to The Spy Catchers of Maple Hill, as you would expect from a book so decisively set in the 50s. Bike riding, microfiche searches at the library, only mothers expected to show up at school events, etc. I think that the presence of a graveyard, together with active spying, will still keep kids interested, but there's always that risk with historical fiction that it will appeal more to adults than it does to the kids. There's a pretty clear sub-text in some of the scenes, where the adults, particularly Hazel's parents, talk over her head. I suppose that kids who understand this will have the chance to feel superior. Certainly I would expect young readers to be surprised at how different the world was 60 years ago. 

Anyway, I quite liked Hazel, despite (or perhaps because of) that fact that she isn't completely likable at all. She makes mistakes, she runs away with her assumptions, and she is flat out wrong about most things. But she's smart and loves books and doesn't really try to fit in - she is utterly herself. When a popular girl invites Hazel, unexpectedly, to a birthday party, she attends only so that she can conduct her investigation. She attempts to turn a mausoleum into a fallout shelter. She does remind me a bit of Harriet the Spy, writing things down in a little notebook, though the lives of the two girls are quite different. 

Here's a snippet, to give you a feel for Hazel:

"What was in that box?

Hazel sat up in the tree chewing her lip. Something was not on the up-and-up. Last year she had read every single one of the Nancy Drew mysteries, and just like Nancy always did, she had a hunch, but you didn't need to be a young sleuth like Hazel and Nancy to know that when a person locked something up, he was hiding something. And just like that, Hazel had her first real mystery." (Chapter 2)

and:

"It should come as no surprise that Hazel loved the library. She loved everything about it, even the smell, like paper, and paste, and sometimes, when Richard Begos was there, a little bit like pipe smoke." (Chapter 6)

Despite the presence of some mean-spirited, gossipmongers in the town, there are several wonderful adult role models for Hazel, including a service station owner and a librarian. I also liked the fact that the conflict that Hazel has with a couple of mean girls is not resolved to any great degree. This comes across as realistic, and Hazel never feels like she needs their approval anyway. 

A hint of a mystery is left open at the end of The Spy Catchers of Maple Hill. It's not a cliffhanger, just something to keep the reader guessing. Kids who enjoy mysteries or realistic historical fiction (like Gary Schmidt's Okay for Now) will definitely want to check this one out. I enjoyed it as an adult, and I think that I would have loved it when I was ten (having been something of a geek like Hazel). Although this is Hazel's story, the engaging cover should help it to appeal to boys, too. Recommended! 

Publisher: Bloomsbury (@BWKids)
Publication Date: May 6, 2014
Source of Book: Advance review copy from the publisher

FTC Required Disclosure:

This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2014 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

Shel Silverstein Books for National Poetry Month

I remember one of my nieces having a huge Shel Silverstein phase a few years back. They were the first books that she was excited to share with us, and I appreciated them for that. My grandmother also developed a strong enjoyment of Silverstein's poems late in her life. I still have her copy of Where the Sidewalk Ends. That is the beauty of Silverstein's work - his poems are timeless and appeal to people of all ages. 

This year, Harper Collins has released 40th and 50th anniversary editions of a number of Silverstein's books, including a special edition of Where the Sidewalk Ends that contains 12 extra poems. You might consider any of these for your National Poetry Month commemoration. Though I don't think there are very significant differences from earlier editions, these new editions are very crisp and shiny. I'm happy to have them for my daughter (with thanks to HarperCollins). 

1. Don't Bump the Glump! and Other Fantasies: 50th anniversary edition. These are particularly quirky, featuring short, illustrated pieces like this:

Long-Necked Preposterous

This is Arnold,
A Long-Necked Preposterous,
Looking around for a female
Long-Necked Preposterous.
But there aren't any

2. Where the Sidewalk Ends: 40th anniversary edition with 12 extra poems. This book contains lots of classic, kid-friendly Silverstein, including the Boa Constrictor song. I remember listening to Peter, Paul, and Mary's version of this when I was young (on a record player). The 12 extra poems were not in the original edition, but were apparently added as part of the 30th anniversary edition, and included here. And of course this:

"... Yes, we''ll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends."

3. Lafcadio: The Lion Who Shot Back: 50th anniversary edition. This one is an illustrated story (told in chapters), and not a collection of poems. Though Silverstein does certainly play with language. Here's the start:

"And now, children, your Uncle Shelby is going to tell you a story about a very strange lion--in fact, the strangest lion I have ever met. Now, where shall I start this lion tail? I mean this lion tale. I suppose I should begin at the moment when I first met this lion." 

4. A Giraffe and a Half: 50th anniversary edition. This is an illustrated, cumulative nonsense-filled story, suited to younger listeners. Here's a snippet from mid-way through:

"If he put on a shoe
and then stepped in some glue...

you would have a giraffe and a half
with a rat in his hat
looking cute in a suit
with a rose on his nose
and a bee on his knee
and some glue on his shoe."

5. The Giving Tree: 50th anniversary edition. While this story of continuing self-sacrifice is not my personal favorite, there are certainly people who like it. 

This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you). These books were received from HarperCollins. 

© 2014 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook.