Module 10: Olive's Ocean

Book Summary: This is a book about a girl named Martha, who receives a disturbing note from the mother of a girl named Olive.  Olive was hit by a car and died a month before and was not a popular girl.  In fact, she was bullied and teased at school and Martha was the only one who she thought was nice to her.  The note that her mothered delivered was written in Olive's journal and stated that she thought that she was the only one nice to her and she wanted to be her friend.  The note also went on to proclaim the dreams that Olive had which were to go to the Atlantic Ocean and write a book.  Martha was confused by the note and was on her way to visit her grandmother "Godbee" and did not know how to shake off the thought of this mystery note.  While visiting her grandmother she spends as much quality time with her frail grandmother, gets tricked by a mischievous fourteen year old boy, and falls in love again with another boy.  She has her first kiss and her first heartbreak all in the same moment.  She decides to save a jar of water for Olive to give to her mother and it helped to take her mind off the heartbreak.  When she returns home, she searches for Olive's mother, but had no luck.  She ends up realizing that she was just happy to be at home and couldn't wait to go visit her grandmother again and to see her new love interest.

Reference: Henkes, K. (2003). Olive's ocean. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.

Impression:This was a quick and easy book with a great storyline that kept you turning the pages.  The chapters are short which would be ideal for a younger reader, however, some of the content may not be suitable for them.  I can see on one hand why a parent would challenge this book because of the mentioning of sex and some of the language.  Then again, I feel the message behind this story is powerful and the other things will not matter once you begin reading.  It will be as if you heard you teacher say "damn"in class on accident.  You will be shocked for a minute and then move on.  The journey that Martha goes on to try and basically find her voice and reason for existing is interesting and familiar for children her age.  The back and forth love hate relation between her and her brother and her crush is frequent in the lives of adolescents today.  They will have their heartbroken in one breath and find another in the next.

I would recommend this book to ages 10-14 because of the nature of content but also because these are the ages of the main characters in the story.  They will be able to relate to them and learn a valuable lesson.

Professional Review:
From Booklist
 More than anything Martha wants to be a writer. The problem is that her father does, too. Is there room for two writers in a single family? This is only one of the many questions that beg to be answered during Martha’s twelfth summer. Here are others: Is Godbee, the paternal grandmother whom the family is visiting at Cape Cod, dying? Why is Martha’s father so angry? Could Jimmy, the eldest of the five neighboring Manning brothers, be falling in love with her (and vice-versa)? And what does all this have to do with Olive, Martha’s mysterious classmate, who died after being hit by a car weeks earlier? Olive, who also wanted to be a writer and visit the ocean, and hoped to be Martha’s friend. Like Henkes’ Sun and Spoon (1997), this is another lovely, character-driven novel that explores, with rare subtlety and sensitivity, the changes and perplexities that haunt every child’s growing-up process. He brings to his story the same bedrock understanding of the emotional realities of childhood that he regularly displays in his paradigmatically perfect picture books. Thisisn’t big and splashy, but its quiet art and intelligence will stick with readers, bringing them comfort and reassurance as changes inevitably visit their own growing-up years. — Michael Cart

From Publisher's Weekly
A journal entry of a classmate killed in an accident sends 12-year-old Martha on an unintended pilgrimage. In our Best Books citation, PW wrote, "Readers witness Martha's maturation as she appreciates life anew and finds a way to give something back to Olive." Ages 10-up. (May)

Reference:
Cart, M. (2003). [Review of the book Olive's Ocean, by K. Henkes]. Booklist.com. Retrieved from http://www.booklistonline.com/Olive-s-Ocean-Kevin-Henkes/pid=383775

Publisher's Weekly. (n.d.). [Review of the book Olive's Ocean, by K. Henkes]. Retrieved from http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-053545-2

Library uses:
This book would be great to read as a read aloud in the middle school grades and then have the students to re-write the ending to what could happen differently.  Students could published their own stories electronically and have their own "journal" just like Martha and Olive in the story.

Module 10: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul

Book Summary: Greg and his family are on their way on a family road trip that his mother coordinated from her favorite magazine Family Frolic.  Greg knows it will be a disaster because everything she gets from the magazine turns out terribly bad.  Everything goes wrong from the start of the trip when his father decides he wants to take his boat which has a tree growing underneath it and piles of junk that has to be unloaded before they can get it out of the garage.  Once they have loaded up  the boat and car, Greg is stuck in the back and has no room to move or breathe.  They run into more problems from gum getting stuck in the sunroof, bad hotel room where Greg sleeps in the closet, and coming encounter with a tough and rough family that seems to be following them! When they lose their locker key at the water park and now mom and dad have no money or phones and their cars radiator is damaged because Rodney had an accident in it while driving.  They decide to go back home and end their trip, but not before Manny decides to go by and pick up the pig that he won at a fair that was not car or house broken.

Reference: Kinney, J. (2014). Diary of a wimpy kid:The long haul. New York, NY: Amulet.

Impression: I laughed out loud literally at this book and truly enjoyed its humor and flow.  It was a great example of a graphic novel with just the right amount of text and illustration.  Each picture went along with the text and the sentences were two to three lines in sets across the page.  You were able to turn the pages easily without getting distracted by the illustrations.  There was just the right amount of positive and negative space on each page to make this book your ideal graphic novel.

I can see why boys especially are drawn to these books because they can relate to the mischievousness and annoyance of Greg and Rodney.  You have two brothers who are different from each other and have the typical sibling rivalry.  The characters are believable along with the events that occur in the book as well. I would recommend this book to ages 8-13 because of the ease of reading the style that it is written in.

Professional Reviews:
From Publisher's Weekly
Could a Heffley family vacation ever be anything but a series of escalating tribulations that would test Job's resolve? In this ninth Diary of a Wimpy Kid outing, Kinney detours from the more episodic nature of the earlier books to trace the family's doomed-from-the-start road trip, spurred by Greg's mother's subscription to Family Frolic ("There must be something wrong with our family," Greg muses, "because we can never measure up to the ones in the magazine"). Kinney maintains his knack for getting the details of family life just right (naturally, the only available lounge chair at a wildly overcrowded waterpark is the one with several broken straps). But between the inadvertent acquisition of a pet pig, an attack by a flock of seagulls, Greg getting medical attention at the vet, and baby brother Manny managing to knock the parked family car into drive, there's more out-and-out absurdity in this installment than in previous books. Readers won't care, though, and their own family vacations will look downright blissful by comparison. Ages 8–12. Agent: Sylvie Rabineau, RWSG Literary Agency. (Nov.)

From Kirkus Review
You’d think that if anyone would know better, it would be Greg Heffley’s mother.
But no. When she reads an article in Family Frolic magazine about wholesome family road trips, she insists on taking one right now. What ensues is the kind of totally over-the-top mayhem that the Wimpy Kid’s fans have come to expect—and more. The family packs too much stuff to fit into the car, so they decide to tow Dad’s utterly unseaworthy boat as extra cargo space. Mom insists on educational enrichment (learn-to-speak-Spanish CDs, lame-o car games), “real food” (brown-bag “Mommy Meals” instead of fast food) and “authentic” fun (a country fair with no rides but a guess-the-pig’s-weight contest in which the prize is the pig; baby Manny wins). They spend the night in the absolute quintessence of a cruddy motel. Two slapstick driving sequences are both Hollywood-ready and extremely funny, especially in Kinney’s accompanying cartoons; Greg’s free-associative riff on humorless do-gooders who seek to censor such potty-humor classics as a wink-and-a-nod–disguised Captain Underpants will find an appreciative audience. By taking the Heffleys on the road, Kinney both gives himself an almost universally familiar experience to lampoon and places Greg in the rather unusual position of being almost entirely justified in his misanthropy, which is downright refreshing.Every kid—and every parent—who’s ever suffered through a family road trip will feel as one with Greg. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)

References:

Kirkus Review. (2014). [Review of the book Diary of a wimpy kid: The long haul, by J. Kinney]. Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jeff-kinney/long-haul/

Publishers Weekly. (n.d.). [Review of the book Diary of a wimpy kid: The long haul, by J. Kinney]. Retrieved from http://www.publishersweekly.com/9781419711893

Library Uses: I would use this book in a display for graphic novels and as a read aloud for a discussion on family.  After reading this book, I would have students to create their won graphic novel similar to this one, that depicts events that occur in their lives on a day to day basis.

Module 9: Bronx Masquerade

Book Summary: This is a book of poems and situations form teens in a urban school in the Bronx.  They are taking an English class where the teacher, Dr. Ward wants them to write poems and express themselves.  Once student suggests that they have a poetry sessions in class to share their poems on Friday's.  Well this takes off into a sessions where everywhere expresses how they feel about their images, parents, living situations, friends, and more.  They begin to learn about each other things that they did not realize.  The most popular jock actually would rather read books and the prettiest girl feels that she is not that pretty.  By the end of the book they have an assembly where they share their poems for the school in a Poetry Slam.

Reference: Grimes, N, (2003). Bronx masquerade. New York, NY: Speak.

Impression: This book was enjoyable and insightful on the thoughts and minds of teens.  Grimes does an excellent job of creating characters from different ethnicity's and economic backgrounds to relate to the teens of today.  Each character portrayed a "problem" that you hear the average high school student going through.  The poems spoke volume in portraying the thoughts of the teens at the moment in the book.  I like how she gave a "background story" before going into the poem.  It was as if you were reading the thoughts and reactions of the teens to each other as they read their poems.  

The poems were in a verse style and rather told stories than just speaking about a thing.  The metaphors and similes used added depth to the poems and made you think about the meaning.  

The nature of content may not be appropriate for middle school aged children and I feel that it would not be suitable for elementary as well.  High school aged (13-18) would be my recommendation as far as who should be reading this book.  The appearance of sex, drugs and violence would not go over well with parents who may not want their children exposed to this content at an early age.  However, if you are in high school these are things that you are coming more encounter with and could relate to.

Professional Reviews:

Amazon.com Review
Open Mike Friday is everyone's favorite day in Mr. Ward's English class. On Fridays, his 18 high-school students dare to relax long enough to let slip the poets, painters, readers, and dreamers that exist within each of them. Raul Ramirez, the self-described "next Diego Rivera," longs "to show the beauty of our people, that we are not all banditos like they show on TV, munching cuchfritos and sipping beer through chipped teeth." And while angry Tyrone Bittings finds dubious comfort in denying hope: "Life is cold. Future?...wish there was some future to talk about. I could use me some future," overweight Janelle Battle hopes to be seen for what she really is: "for I am coconut / and the heart of me / is sweeter / than you know" They are all here: the tall girl, the tough-talking rapper, the jock, the beauty queen, the teenage mom, the artist, and many more. While it may sound like another Breakfast Club rehash, Grimes uses both poetry and revealing first-person prose to give each character a distinct voice. By book's end, all the voices have blended seamlessly into a multicultural chorus laden with a message that is probably summed up best by pretty girl Tanisha Scott's comment, "I am not a skin color or a hank of wavy hair. I am a person, and if they don't get that, it's their problem, not mine." But no teen reader will have a problem with this lyrical mix of many-hued views. (Ages 12 and older) --Jennifer Hubert --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers WeeklyWhen a high school teacher in the Bronx begins to host open-mike poetry in his classroom on Fridays, his students find a forum to express their identity issues and forge unexpected connections with one another. Grimes's (Jazmin's Notebook) creative, contemporary premise will hook teens, and the poems may even inspire readers to try a few of their own. The poetic forms range from lyrics penned by aspiring rapper Tyrone to the concrete poem of a budding Puerto Rican painter Raul (titled "Zorro" and formed as the letter "Z"). Ultimately, though, there may be too many characters for the audience to penetrate deeply. The students in Mr. Ward's English class experience everything from dyslexia and low self-esteem to teenage motherhood and physical abuse. The narrators trade off quickly, offering only a glimpse into their lives. Not even Tyrone, who breaks in after each student's poem to offer some commentary, comes fully to life. The students' poems, however, provide some lasting images (e.g., overweight Janelle, who is teased for her "thick casing," writes, "I am coconut,/ and the heart of me/ is sweeter/ than you know"). Any one of these students could likely dominate a novel of his or her own, they simply get too little time to hold the floor here. Ages 12-up.

Hubert, J. (n.d.). [Review of the book Bronx masquerade, by N. Grimes]. Amazon.com review. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/Bronx-Masquerade-Nikki-Grimes/dp/0142501891/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1439345124&sr=1-1&keywords=bronx+masquerade

Publishers weekly. (n.d.). [Review of the book Bronx masquerade, by N. Grimes]. Retrieved from http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-8037-2569-0

Library uses: If I were in a high school setting I would use this book in Banned Book week to highlight how poetry can help express thoughts and feelings in a creative way.  I would then have students to create their own poems and have our own Poetry Slam to perform.

Module 9: Take Me Out of the Bathtub and Other Silly Dilly Songs

Book Summary: This is a fun book of poems that are to sung to the tunes of traditional folk songs.  There is a rendition of "Go Go Go to Bed" (to the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat), which is about a mother who wants her anxious and hyper son to go to bed. Then there's "I'm So Carsick" (to the tune of "Oh Susanna"), which is about a boy who is on his way to visit his grandmother but his father is driving slowly and he really does not want to go.  There are vibrant and exaggerated illustrations throughout the pages and can make your stomach turn in laughter or disgust from the content (but in a good way).  

Reference: Katz, A. (2001). Take me out of the bathtub and other silly dilly songs. New York, NY: Margaret K. McElderry Books.

Impression: I enjoyed this book because I am a former music teacher who loved different renditions of old folk tunes to share with children.  I wish I would have had this book while I was teaching music because it would have been extremely helpful!  The poetry is very catchy and "sing-song" with it's style and flow.  Katz makes sure that this book will appeal to a younger audience by having the lines rhyme and the content to be humorous and playful.  

The illustrations fill the page and provide you with color and animation to go along with each poem.  He over-exaggerates the characters eyes and the actions to give the poem appeal.  

The poems are not long in length and can be read easily by a child who was from the age of 6-8, but I would recommend the book for ages 5-10  because it can read out loud to the younger and enjoyed by the older with it's humor.

Professional Reference:

From Publishers Weekly

Songwriter and television comedy writer Katz provides ludicrous lyrics to 14 traditional tunes, offering playful parodies on some familiar routines. To the tune of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," a boy wearing roller skates claims he has been soaking so long in the tub that he "used one, two, three bars of soap/ Take me out... I'm clean!" Other amusing entries include "I've Been Cleaning Up My Bedroom" (sung to "I've Been Working on the Railroad"), in which a girl tidies her room by shoving all of her belongings "out the door," which Catrow (She's Wearing a Dead Bird on Her Head!) interprets quite literally (he shows her bureau, goldfish, etc., piling up in the back yard), and "Give Me a Break" (sung to the tune of "Home on the Range"), introducing a child whose library book is long overdue. A few songs do not scan so well (e.g., this verse set to the tune of "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean": "My brother flicks peas with his fork and/ They zip down my shirt with a splat/ Next I see a big piece of pork land/ On my head like it's a new hat!"). But the subjects (a sibling with a stinky diaper, a youngster who refuses to go to bed, a cranky poodle think "Yankee Doodle") teamed with Catrow's outlandish illustrations, as hyperbolic as the words, will have kids giggling as they sing. Ages 2-6.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Ages 3-6. Katz, a comedy writer who has worked on children's programming for Disney and Nickelodeon has created his own "silly dilly" versions of beloved childhood tunes. Kids will rejoice in the hilarious, "I'm Filthy, I'm Dirty," sung to the tune of "It's Raining, It's Pouring," and parents have songs to celebrate, too: "Go Go Go to Bed" is a clever remake of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." With the possible exception of the lesser-known "Polly, Put the Kettle On," most children will be familiar with the original versions of these songs, which will make it easy for them to join right in. Catrow's animated double-spread pictures are at least as silly as the song lyrics, offering action-filled scenes bursting with odd-looking creatures. For an easy enrichment activity, have kids create a silly-dilly adaptation of their own. Lauren Peterson

Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved 

Peterson, L. (n.d.) [Review of the book Take me out of the bathtub and other silly dilly songs, by A. Katz]. Booklist. Retrieved from http://www.booklistonline.com/Take-Me-Out-of-the-Bathtub-Alan-Katz/pid=1098610

Publisher's Weekly. (2001). [Review of the book Take me out of the bathtub and other silly dilly songs, by A. Katz]. Retrieved from http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-689-82903-1

Library Use: I would use this book to introduce poetry to first graders and second graders.  When they get to third and fourth grade they will have knowledge of the genre and how it can be used in a different format.  
I would also use this for an icebreaker for a library night or family event where the parents could repeat after me as I sing the poem, and show them how they can use songs to create poems to help their child at home.