Spring Materials Review Notes

Trying to impart our love for 37 books in 1 1/2 hours is much, much harder than you'd think. Last Friday veteran Bear Ponder Carrie Fitz, U-32 Librarian Meg Allison and Jane Knight (the latter two are Dorothy Canfield Fisher committee members) burned the adrenaline trying to make sure each book got equal play time. The books that were highlighted were books that did not get chosen for the 2016-2017 Dorothy Canfield Fisher List-- some books weren't eligible because their authors were not from the U.S. or Canada. But many others were eligible and well-liked by the Canfield Fisher committee, yet still did not find their place on the list. 

Often times there are two or more books in contention for a slot on the list that have similar themes and so only one is chosen to represent that theme. Other potential nominees, like Boy In the Black Suit (by Jason Reynolds) or Paper Hearts (by Meg Wiviott) simply feel a touch too old for the list. 

We started off the morning with a round-up of wonderful books by Vermont authors that were published last year. (Those books are noted as such on the book list in the 'notes' section). Both non-fiction and fiction were covered, and instead of killing your eyesight with a tediously long review of each book, we are making the book list available to view with notes. 

A few of our participants shared their memorable titles of 2015-2016, which included Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman, a middle grade selection for lovers of Mr. Lemoncello. The Epic series by Brandon Sanderson was also highly touted for its high-action appeal to middle school and high school (boys especially) students who love Rick Riordan or The Maze Runner series and are ready for something more complex. 

The new 2016-2017 Canfield Fisher books were also prominently displayed and we lightly touched upon each by genre and specific kid appeal. 

If you missed this Materials Review, we host one each season and they are super fun and (we think) worth your Friday morning. 

For a peek into past Materials Review Sessions:

Early Chapter Books October 2015

Fantastic Fiction 2015

Exciting Non-Fiction that Kids Will Read

And a couple handy lists to of notable books being published in 2016:

Notable Children's Books of 2016 (Publisher's Weekly)

A Literary Calendar of Children's Books 2016 (this one is really fun-- The Guardian)

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We will be hard at work plotting for our Fall Events Schedule over the summer and we'd like to hear from YOU! Got suggestions, ideas or something you want to know more about? Contact Jane at jane@bearpondbooks.com.

And....don't miss our last event of the spring!

Saturday, April 9th 11:00 am - Noon

Poetry with VT Poet Laureate Chard DeNiord

Vermont’s new Poet Laureate Chard DeNiord has a goal of getting schools across Vermont involved in poetry. He’s been involved in many poetry organizations, including the Next Stage Speaks initiative that he founded. He’ll speak about his experiences with Vermont students, in Vermont schools, and what opportunities there are for local teachers and librarians to involve kids in poetry.

Exploring the Boundaries of Genre

Authors Tod Olson and Laura Williams McCaffrey joined us in the Children’s Room on Saturday, March 5th to discuss the intersections of fiction and nonfiction, two genres often thought—particularly by students—to be opposites of each other. On the contrary, as Tod and Laura illuminated through an exploration of their writing processes of historical nonfiction and speculative fiction/fantasy, respectively, authors of nonfiction and fiction often use similar tools when crafting their narratives. As a result, works of nonfiction can function like fiction to draw readers into a story, and fantasy can help us better understand the real world.

The Role of the Nonfiction Writer

As an author and editor of narrative nonfiction for young readers—including the How to Get Rich series and Leopold II: Butcher of the Congo—Tod noted that there isn’t a proliferation of books in that genre to begin with, and those that do exist are often packaged for parents and teachers. (Take one look at Tod’s books and you’ll see that this isn’t the case.) While readers often expect nonfiction to be a direct reproduction of what happened, Tod stressed that history writers rely on the memories of multiple storytellers—via such things as diaries, letters, and oral histories—sources that are rich but extremely unreliable, as scientific research on memory has shown. Each story changes based on whose point of view it is being told from; thus nonfiction is built on hundreds of thousands of unreliable narrators, and there are still large holes in the historical record. As Tod said, nonfiction writers transform the large ball of clay that is the historical record into a sculpture by carving out pieces and shaping what is left into story. What is important for students to understand, Tod stressed, is that there is a line between the research and the craft of writing, but that it varies from writer to writer.

Resources for Fantasy Writers

Laura laughingly commented that she feels like she has the easier job as a writer of fantasy because she doesn’t have to decide who is the hero and who is the villain of a story based on conflicting accounts, nor does she have to worry about rightness. While works of historical fantasy/science fiction/speculative fiction—such as those by Octavia Butler and Jennifer Donnelly, whose novels are set within and comment on the historical record—have more direct connections to historical nonfiction, writers of fantasy draw on similar sources in their own writing processes. Laura, who also teaches writing, and other fantasy writers often rely on historical archives as resources, which are useful even if a text isn’t historical fiction. When writing Water Shaper, historical archives helped Laura understand what existed and what interpersonal relationships were like in the medieval period. Real-world sources such as technology help writers understand social order and structure. Imaginative cultural sources like fairy tales and folklore shed light on how we understand ourselves to be—particularly in terms of what we’re scared of. Ultimately, Laura concluded, human beings and their relationship to stories are at the core of fantasy writing.    

Crafting Narratives in Both Genres

Tod and Laura discussed how writers of nonfiction and fiction structure their narratives in order to make them viscerally appealing to readers. Shifting points of view to vary the story and crafting well-shaped chapters in which something important happens are two ways to do this. One of storytellers’ primary functions, as Tod explained, is to manipulate time. Writers of history can and do play fast and loose with time—making it seem as if it expands and contracts—by spending the longest portion of the narrative on the events that occurred within a smaller window of a larger story. This creates the sense for the reader of time slowing down, something we often experience in life even though, of course, time continues at its normal pace. Tod presented survival stories as a particularly appealing genre of nonfiction for younger and older readers alike because of their easily recognizable narrative progression: a catalyzing event followed by several attempts to resolve conflict and a final resolution. Stories that lack this progression, according to Tod, challenge both the writer and the reader. 

Tod is currently working on a book about the Apollo 13 mission, the research for which includes working through hundreds of hours of audio tapes, as well as multiple first-hand narrative accounts from astronauts and controllers. Despite this seeming wealth of sources, Tod noted the absence of  unrecorded back-room conversations. Marked, Laura’s recently released third book, is a dystopian young-adult novel featuring interspersed graphic novel vignettes. For Marked, Laura drew inspiration from a variety of sources, including fairy lore and photographs of enormous mines in National Geographic.  

For further reading on process and genre: 

• Thoughts on the blurring of genre boundaries in young-adult literature from the 2012 Young Adult Literature Symposium 
• Laura's interview with Cynthia Leitich Smith, in which she discusses her writing process for Water Shaper
• Jo Walton discusses subgenres of historical fantasy on Tor.com 

Writing About Tough Topics for Kids - Author Panel

On Saturday, February 6th, authors Kate Messner, Jo Knowles, and Tamara Ellis Smith participated in a panel discussion focused on writing about tough topics for kids. As Jane, our Children’s Room manager, noted in her introduction, the subject of tough topics and how to talk about them with kids is a fraught one, and the differences between the issues kids and adults think kids are ready to explore are striking. The authors discussed this tension and why books that grapple with topics such as loss, addiction, and abuse are important resources for young readers.

L to R: Kate Messner, Jo Knowles, and Tamara Ellis Smith

The panel began with each author discussing her recent works dealing with sensitive and traumatic issues that kids face.


Kate featured two of her works of middle-grade fiction: All the Answers, published in 2015, and The Seventh Wish, coming this summer. All the Answers, in which seventh-grader Ava Anderson discovers her pencil can answer almost any question, deals with the reality of anxiety and catastrophic thinking in kids’ lives, something Kate shared she also experiences. Ultimately, Ava discovers herself asking the pencil questions to which she shouldn’t necessarily know the answer. Kate noted that her work has been criticized for the protagonist having “too many issues” when school, family, and friends converge in her novels. Kate argued that it seems adults often want children’s literature to reflect the lives they wish kids had instead of the lives kids actually have. 

One issue Vermont children increasingly deal with is addiction in the family. The Seventh Wish, Kate’s forthcoming middle-grade novel, is a retelling of the Russian folktale about a wish-granting fish. Kate wondered what contemporary kids would ask for, which would let us know what is really on their minds. The book started as a light-hearted story of a girl asking the fish to help with her dance performance. After learning of a close neighbor’s daughter’s struggle with heroin, Kate’s novel continued in a new direction, delving into how a family member’s addiction affects Charlie, the protagonist. The Seventh Wish demonstrates that not everything can be wished away. Older middle-grade students, Kate maintained, can and do deal with issues like drug addiction in their families, and books are a safe place in which to explore them.

Jo emphasized that she approaches her books from the underside, often focusing on what we don’t see and how it still affects us. For example, in Lessons from a Dead Girl, the story is told from the point of view of a friend of a victim of sexual abuse. Read Between the Lines is her most recent work of young-adult fiction and a tribute to Robert Cormier, author of The Chocolate War. Jo credited The Chocolate War as the first book in which she felt the real world was being shown to her. Read Between the Lines, like The Chocolate War, is a story of bullying told from multiple points of view that exposes life’s complexity. Jo underscored that all of her writing questions how we live with not only what we’re given but also what we observe happening to others, which affects us whether we realize it or not.

Tamara introduced Another Kind of Hurricane, her 2015 work of middle-grade fiction, as a labor of love that she started in 2005 after she took her then 4-year-old son to drop off donations at a Hurricane Katrina food and clothes drive. Her son asked, “Who is going to get my pair of pants, Mom?” Tamara realized that another 4-year-old boy would soon be wearing her son’s pants and imagined what it would be like if he and her son could meet. Another Kind of Hurricane chronicles the intersection of the lives of two ten-year-old boys—Zavion from New Orleans, whose family lost their home in Hurricane Katrina, and Henry from Underhill, Vermont, whose best friend recently died in a tragic accident—who meet after Henry’s blue jeans with his lucky marble still in the pocket make their way to Zavion. In addition to exploring different kinds of loss, the novel asks how and why we connect with other people in places we couldn’t have imagined. Another Kind of Hurricane pulls back the layers society places over us that connect us, creating a map in which kids can identify places of connection.

The panel opened the conversation to the audience, and Jane began the broader discussion by noting that Jo used the phrase “honest places” rather than “dark places” to describe the situations she explores in her writing. Jo answered that her preference for the phrase honest places has to do with the reality of the kinds of issues children experience. Jo contends that books are the safest places to first experience the topics that adults often say children aren’t ready for. Tamara noted that when adults say that children aren’t ready for certain topics, what the adults really mean is that they don’t know how to talk about those topics with kids. The issues of Hurricane Katrina distilled—loss and fear—are issues all kids have experienced in different ways. Kate posited that adults should allow kids to decide if they’re ready for the issues presented in books: kids can and will put books down if they’re not comfortable, and there’s no harm in reading a few pages. If an adult is concerned a child is not ready for a book, he or she could say to the child, “That’s a little edgy; you may or may not like it, ” but not giving kids these books won’t keep away the issues explored in them.

Another audience member inquired about how the authors chose content and context when writing about sensitive topics. Kate pointed out that in The Seventh Wish, heroin use happens off camera. The reader sees the consequences of drug abuse, not the abuse itself. Kate noted that she tackled the issue of heroin addiction differently in this novel written for a middle-grade audience differently than Jo likely would have in a novel for high-school students. Kate referenced her Ranger in Time series as another example of exploring tough issues, this time related to American history. Ranger in Time: Long Road to Freedom unravels sanitized accounts of the Underground Railroad as a highly organized, lantern-to-lantern journey from the American South to Canada. Writing this text challenged Kate to consider how to address the horrific and shameful reality of slavery in America for kids. At the same time, there are aspects of slavery—particularly sexual violence—that she couldn’t talk about in a book for younger middle-grade readers.

The question of whether the books “teach lessons” about tough subjects also arose. Tamara maintained that it’s important when writing to leave space for readers to draw their own conclusions, which creates an interesting collaborative dynamic between the writer and individual readers. Kate added that the big questions explored in all three panelists’ books are more complicated than black and white lessons; she offered “just say no” to drugs as an example of a dictum that we know doesn’t work. Jo said that her books don’t contain lessons, but rather they depict what life is like and how one person navigated it.

One audience member asked whether books like Jo’s Read Between the Lines—books that deal with issues current students experience—are being taught in schools. Jo answered that core curriculum standards make it difficult to add new materials, but that teachers often find alternative ways to introduce such books, often via extracurricular reading groups and summer reading programs. Librarians also play an important role in getting middle-grade and young-adult fiction into the hands of students. Tamara stressed the importance of getting literature into classrooms beyond English. For example, social studies classes could use Another Kind of Hurricane as part of a unit on natural disasters and how to fundraise in their wake. Tamara’s Another Kind of Hurricane Project, launching this month, aims to do just this while connecting schools in one part of the country with others in disaster areas in a “reciprocal learning experience.”

At the end of the discussion, Kate asked the panelists to suggest favorite books written by other authors that cover tough topics. Her own nominations were Kekla Magoon’s How It Went Down and All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely, both works of young-adult fiction that deal with issues of race and justice. For younger middle-grade readers, Kate recommended Linda Urban’s forthcoming Weekends with Max and His Dad, illustrated by Katie Kath (available April 5th), about divorce and the transition to two houses. Jo recommended two memoirs for older middle-grade readers: Cece Bell’s El Deafo, because she’s “a fan of the grit,” and Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming, which Jo finds to be a great introduction to free verse poetry. Tamara suggested the recently released Pax, written by Sara Pennypacker and illustrated by Jon Klassen, which is a work of middle-grade fiction that deals with war.

Some links with more information on our panelists, their texts, and author classroom visits:

• Candlewick’s discussion guide to Read Between the Lines
• Jo’s Nerdy Book Club interview about Read Between the Lines
• Kate’s Nerdy Book Club author post about All the Answers 
• Our post about Kate & Jo’s 2014 writing workshop
• Tamara’s interview with VCFA’s The Launch Pad
• Tamara’s interview on Novel Enthusiasts 
• Kate’s School Library Journal post on using Skype in the classroom 
• J&P Volkel’s advice on author classroom visits (both virtual and in-person) 

Heroes - With Will Alexander & Kekla Magoon

On Saturday, November 14th, Will Alexander (Nomad, Goblin Secrets) & Kekla Magoon (Shadows of Sherwood, X: A Novel, How It Went Down) came to our Author-Educator Series to talk about Creating Heroes. You can read more about the authors in this earlier post. 

Okay, we knew that "creating heroes" was a big topic, a topic that undoubtedly has underpinned dozens (hundreds) of careers in sociology, anthropology, folkloric studies, modern literature, and psychology. We'll call this recounting of the workshop with Will Alexander and Kekla Magoon: "Heroes: Discuss" because it brought up many interesting ways to frame thinking about a "hero" for classroom discussion.

As Will noted in his introduction ". . 'hero' - we all know what it means and none of us agree."

Types of Heroes

Will divides the hero world into three basic flavors - the trickster (a hero with agency but no power), the badass (a destructive hero, they break things, they're cathartic entertainment - like most comic book heroes) and the superhero (who builds things, renews, is a culture hero).

You can think of these types of heroes in terms of rites of passage as well. Tricksters have little to no externally derived power or respect and they're not physically powerful either, similar to children. They rely primarily on their wits. The badass is more or less an adolescent fantasy (as a side note, I looked up a more-classroom-friendly synonym for badass and the online thesaurus included "Vladimir Putin"). And a superhero would be the "best kind of grown up."

Will writes about trickster heroes and observes that middle grade fiction is primarily focused on this type of character.

Hobbits are an example of the trickster hero - they're middle aged and frumpy, and lacked heroic tendencies until they found themselves in the middle of a hero story, learning to navigate a world they didn't understand. Children identify with these power dynamics and the need to learn to navigate the world (although perhaps not so much with being middle aged and frumpy). The trickster stories also tell an important flip side of the coin - how to best handle power when you do have it. . . a lesson sometimes taught by counterexample as the heroes encounter powerful villains. As children grow older they're navigating not only the dynamics of possessing limited power, but of changing amounts of power - culturally, intellectually, and also physically.

In Will's books, Rowny in Goblin Secrets is a young, powerless child who doesn't have possess the direct power of casting spells like a Harry Potter character, but rather exercises an indirect magic conjured through masks, performances, and influencing others in that way.

In Ambassador, the protagonists are (as the title suggests) ambassadors, but they reside relatively low in the power structure. They don't have authority to break rules, they can only move around them. But it is very important that children be Ambassadors between worlds in this science fiction novel. As one can observe in ever-popular Unlikely Friendships series, interspecies friendships always begin between juveniles. This structure gives the children important responsibility even if they don't have a large amount of power.

Almost Heroes

There are some murky hero waters. For example, is a hero defined by the situation or by inherent talents? Superheroes in comic books have inherent powers used for good. Hobbits don't have inherent powers, but are heroes due to situations they were forced to navigate. Katniss in The Hunger Games eventually emerges as a hero, but in the first book most of her actions after stepping forward to save her sister were focused on saving herself - she had the goal of surviving the games, not of challenging the power structure. She wasn't out to Do Good in a broader sense, but her actions and what other people made of her actions led to greater good.

Antiheroes and reluctant heroes don't start off with the expected hero qualities of wanting to bravely fight for an important cause, but they may find themselves in that situation over the course of the book. The protagonists' characters usually develop along with their actions to assume more heroic qualities. What if they didn't? Would the actions be enough to qualify?

Heroes Who Develop Across a Series

Reluctant heroes like Katniss can develop across books in a series. The first book of Kekla's Robin Hood retelling, featuring Robyn Hoodlum, just came out this fall and in it the protagonist doesn't yet own her identity as a hero, even though some hero-like actions have come about from her adventures in Book 1. One way of looking at the arc of Robyn Hoodlum and other heroes who develop over the course of several stories is 1. they develop their hero qualities 2. they take ownership of their role as hero and 3. they fully enact their heroism and achieve a major victory for the cause of Good (whatever Good happens to be). 

Heroes Aren't Always Great Role Models 

Hero and role model aren't synonymous. As Will puts it "Is Batman a good person or even remotely on an even keel?" Not really. Destructive, bad ass type heroes offer a smash-things-up sort of catharsis without representing great life choices. They let readers play out in their imaginations all kinds of possible, and also impossible, actions and their consequences. They're faced with larger than life dilemmas, up to and beyond threats like the entire Earth being exploded by alien invaders. Will would argue in favor of readers of all ages letting these scenarios play out in their minds via the written word.


Are Protagonists Always Heroes?

Lots of protagonists aren't heroes, but in books where Stuff Happens and there's a fair amount of action and overcoming of obstacles, it's hard not to apply some hero framework to the characters. Many children's or YA books have storylines that lend themselves to heroic protagonists.

Kekla tries not to write about heroes. Her early books set during the Civil Rights movements of the last generation focused on average citizens, not the big name heroes like Martin Luther King Jr. who we learn about in school. It's the people who showed up to listen to the I Have a Dream speech, not the person who delivered it. That begs the question whether these characters still count as heroes? We have a cultural understanding now of "everyday heroes" and popular culture highlights the concept of aggregating lots of very small actions from thousands of people for large impact.

In Kekla's book How It Went Down she tells one story from 19 perspectives, which takes away even the structure of a single main character to navigate the story.  But each of those people has their own story, with its own arc, and actions and consequences.

In another book, X: A Novel, Kekla writes about Malcolm X before he was a popular hero. He made a lot of bad choices - it's a hero origin story when the hero comes from a somewhat dubious origin. She wanted to strip away hindsight and show a time when Malcolm X had no way of knowing how his life would turn out, and hero status seemed very unlikely. It makes it clear that he wasn't born into his role, like Superman was born to be Superman, but rather arrived there through a complicated life path.

Heroes in the Classroom:

Will and Kekla's talk offered several ways to examine fictional characters in classroom books. Here are some of the points they brought up, in question form:

• Is this main character a hero? 
• Where does the main character's power come from? Compared with other characters in the story?

• Does this character begin with an inherent heroic quality? (Like secretly being a wizard)
• Does this character acquire heroic personal qualities across the course of the story?
• Is this character's heroism defined by actions? What actions and what choice led to those actions?
• If you think this character isn't a hero, what changes would make them a hero? How would that change the story? (Not necessarily for the better, since presumably the author wrote it this way for a reason)
• What about the characters who aren't the main character in the story, what if they became the main character? Would they become heroes? (In the new book The Rest of Us Just Live Here Patrick Ness does this with characters who would otherwise be "extras" in a Chosen One style story about battling supernatural evil)

Short Version of the Fiction Book Review

How would we summarize the books discussed in last Friday's Material's Review in just a sentence or so? Here's how.

Note that these are just the books we talked about, there were some that were mentioned but not reviewed and for everything please refer to the full lists found here.

Also note, at the event Jane identified the Dorothy Canfield Fisher books that skewed towards the younger end of the age range, and would be appropriate for some kids not yet in 4th grade. You can find that list over at an updated Dorothy Canfield Fisher post.

These books are listed in the order in which we discussed them at the event. Thank you to the panelists (left to right) Deb from Candlewick Press, and Jane, Carrie, and Helen from Bear Pond Books

Smashie McPerter & The Myster of Room 11 by N. Griffin: A search for a classroom's missing hamster in highly styled writing with a sophisticated vocabulary - for fans of Kate DiCamillo. Younger middle grade, grades 2-5. 

Cody and the Fountain of Happiness by Tricia Springstubb: A strong writer with a story similar to the Clementine books, following Cody through her summer vacation in the start of a new series. Young middle grade, grades 3-6. 

Ruby Redfort - Catch Your Death by Lauren Child: Book #3 in this kid-detective series, for kids interested in intrigues and codes. Grades 5+

Paper Things by Jennifer Richard Jacobson: The young narrator leaves the home of her guardian to live with her 19 year old brother, who is homeless. One of top books of the season, deals with serious issues of kids and homelessness. Grades 5+

Half A Man by Michael Morpurgo: In this semi-autobiographical book, a grandson, Michael, tells the story of his grandfather who was badly burned in WWII. Illustrated. Grades 5+

Vango by Timothee de Fombelle - A Bear Pond Books pick for the holiday season, good for teens and also adults, a romantic (in the classic sense) espionage escapade that one reviewer calls "steampunk without fantasy." The sequel will be published in August.

The Great War by Jim Kay: Authors were given items from WWI and wrote stories around them, a very useful classroom book. Grades 5+

Into the Grey by Celine Kiernan- Could be an adult book, a ghost story about a displaced family and a possessed twin. It's very scary. Mature teen readers.

Eden West by Pete Hautman- Dystopian fiction about an insular cult (we'll let you know when there's a book about a not-insular cult). If you liked Godless check this out. Mature teen readers.

Read Between the Lines by Jo Knowles: A story from multiple narrators, all involving the middle finger. Jo spoke at Bear Pond about writing this book last spring, see the article here. Grades 7+

Tight Rope Walkers by David Almond - A complicated coming of age story in the shipyards of northern England. For older teens, or even adults. Many starred reviews.

X by Ilyasah Shabazz and Kekla Magoon - A novel about Malcolm X's youth by his daughter and co-writer Kekla Magoon who lives in Montpelier, what more could you want? Grades 9+

Sign of the Cat by Lynne Jonell - An "old fashioned romp" with secret princes and princesses, evil villains, and a scene where the villain eats cats that upset Carrie, but her kids (ages 9 and 11) thought she was overreacting. Grades 3-7

Moonpenny Island by Tricia Springstubb - An isolated island where first the narrator's closest companions move away and then a mysterious geologist arrives. Strong sense of place, gently addresses topics like abandonment and alcoholism. Grades 4+

Fuzzy Mud by Louis Sachar - Story of a scientist who creates a replacement for oil that comes with its own ecological disasters. Carrie didn't love it, thought it was a little pat, but suspects that Louis Sachar knows his middle grade audience spot on and they will like it. Good for kids who are ready for the content, but are not necessarily strong readers.

Question of Miracles by Elana Arnold - Iris' best friend dies in a car accident, after which she moves to a new state with her family and befriends Boris - an odd kid who should have died as a baby but "miraculously" recovered. His Aunt is now petitioning for full miracle status. Rebecca Stead-esque. Ages 9-12.

Cartwheeling In Thunderstorms by Katherine Rundell - By the author of Rooftoppers. A true wild child in South Africa is sent to British boarding school and has to make the best of the situation. Boys will like it if they can get past the girl-centric cover. Ages 9+

Like A River: A Civil War Novel by Kathy Canon Wiechman - A story of two young teens enlisted in the civil war - one a boy and one a girl pretending to be a boy. Told first from the boy perspective, then the girl. It's cheesy, but in an enjoyable way. It's not too graphic, so would work for younger kids. Strong author's notes and photos to go with the fiction story. Good to use in the classroom after learning about Civil War. Grade 6+

When My Heart Was Wicked by Tricia Stirling - For readers who like Raven Boys, Alice Hoffman. The narrator had an evil (both in a fairy tale evil sense and also abusive) mother who taught her wicked spells, then she was abandoned and learned good spells, then the mother reclaims her. It does have cutting. Otherwise, not much mature content. Grades 9+

Jackaby by William Ritter - Sold well at Bear Pond over the holidays. A young woman abandons society life in London and lands in colonial Massachusetts. She starts working with Jackaby, an eccentric detective with an interest in the occult. Funny, smart, will appeal to anyone who likes Sherlock. Ages 13+

Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir - Getting a lot of buzz, written by a journalist based on some of her experiences. It's a fantasy, Roman world. The protagonist couldn't save her brother when soldiers came to take him and so she joins the resistance movement. Meanwhile, the son of the woman who leads the martial rulers wants out of his life as a soldier. And you can probably guess they fall in love. It's violent but not graphic. Ages 14+

Seeker by Arwen Elys Dayton- A sci-fi, fantasy book with a decent dose of realism that follows the intersecting stories of 3 teenagers in Scotland and Hong Kong. There will be a sequel. It's expected to be a top seller. Ages 14+

Return to Augie Hobble by Lane Smith - Illustrator Lane Smith's debut novel, very funny and endearing narrator Augie Hobble is working in an amusement park that's seen better days when weird things start happening. Fast moving. Pictures play an important part. Grades 3+

Unusual Poultry for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer by Kelly Jones - Narrator writes in letter form about her new life on a farm where she discovers, and cares for, magic chickens. It's not the strongest writing - a lot of set up without follow through (why are the chickens magic, for one thing) and pictures that don't add much, but kids probably won't care. Recommended because it's a more modern look at being a farm kid, not nostalgic, feels like it's 2015 not 1955. Lots of tie-in potential for classroom lessons. Grades 3-6

All the Answers by Kate Messner - Solid book with a straightforward plot, easily read and enjoyed by a wide range of reading levels. The simple set up is that the narrator finds a pencil that answers any question she writes. We had an earlier article with Kate Messner on using this book to teach writing, linked here. Grades 4 - 7

Listen, Slowly by Thanhha Lai- A Valley Girl-ish 13 year old is sent to Vietnam for the summer with her grandmother, who hasn't returned to her home country since the war. Fresh look at rural Vietnamese life, feels current and interesting. The writing has some glitches, it could have used another edit, kids who aren't strong readers or don't feel comfortable skipping over the dull parts might get hung up on that. Ages 11 - 14 (the publisher says younger, but we're not sure why)

Good Bye, Stranger by Rebecca Stead- Three friends enter Junior High School at different stages of development, particularly in their relations with boys, and navigate staying friends. That sounds cliched, but it doesn't read that way. Rebecca Stead continues to be a great writer with unique, fully fleshed out characters. This book lacks the mystery element of her earlier books and (to be honest) probably won't appeal to boys. Some reviewers have bumped this up to YA, but we're standing strong that it's 6th - 9th grade.

Glory O'Brien's History of the Future by A.S. King - Wish we could recommend this. A.S. King is wonderful, the starting concept is intriguing: the narrator and her best friend drink a powdered bat and can see all the ancestry (moving backward and forward) of other people. King doesn't spend much time on the interesting bits, though, and a lot of the plot isn't plausible (even for those of us happy to go along with the premise). Read other A.S. King books! Read her next book! We feel bad being lukewarm here.

We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach - Oh it has the trifecta for teenage angst - teenagers, teenagers with "labels" (as the uninspiring publisher's blurb explains), an asteroid with a 66% chance of destroying all life on earth in 10 days. What makes this book great is the writing - a debut by a super smart, funny author who will undoubtedly have many a great book over the rest of his career. Yay. Ages 14+, probably would need to be a mature 14.

My Near Death Adventures! (99% True) by Alison DeCamp - Stanley's mother brings him to his uncle's logging camp in 1895 where he really wants to learn to "be a man" like he imagines his long lost father is, but he's scared of everything. Scrapbook entries heighten the level of amusement. Strong boy narrator, strong girl character opposite him, highly entertaining. Grades 4+

The Honest Truth by Dan Gemeinhart - Debut book that will probably get a lot of attention. The set up is a boy who has cancer who runs away to climb Mt. Rainier with his dog, while his best friend who stays behind struggles with whether to tell the adults where he's gone. To an adult reader, it's pretty hokey. Kids probably won't mind. Grades 4 - 7

Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt - The story of a girl who doesn't realize she has dyslexia, just feels "stupid" and uses her other strengths to hide the fact that she can't read. A new teacher helps figure out what's going on. There aren't a lot of great books about dyslexia, so this should be an excellent addition. Grades 5+

Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson - Two (if not more) thumbs up. A solid girl power story about growing apart from a best friend and joining roller derby. Will be compared with Raina Telgemeier. Grades 4-7

Chasing Secrets by Gennifer Choldenko - Intriguing historical fiction story about the bubonic plague in San Francisco - includes medical mystery, quarantines, social / economic / ethnic stratification, political cover ups, and vaccines. Ages 9-12

War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley- We love it. A lot. Another solid historical fiction, this time about a girl who has a club foot and has never been allowed out of the apartment by her abusive mother. She runs away when children are being evacuated from London to the countryside. Another book with a resiliency theme, not overwritten and not as bleak as it sounds. Ages 10+

Bone Gap by Laura Ruby- Summarized as "feminist magical realism", sort of a Persephone story set in an Indiana small town. For older readers, wouldn't recommend below 9th grade.

And, this just in. . . 

We didn't have a copy in time for the review, but local author Linda Urban has another chapter book en route to bookstore shelves near you (September 1st): Milo Speck Accidental Agent. There's a magic sock, there's a land of ogres, there's a plot against children everywhere, and giant turkeys. Basically, it's a funny and fun book for the 4th - 7th grade age range. Linda's previously-new book The Center of Everything is a Dorothy Canfield Fisher nominee. And Linda will be at the store doing a book signing on Saturday, May 2nd, at 11:00 am, for her other new book, a picture book: Little Red Henry.

Final Review Preview

On Friday, April 10th, from 9:30 - 11:30 am, we're hosting our semiannual materials review. There will be books to look at, giveaways to enjoy, and a panel of Bear Pond staff, plus our rep from Candlewick Publishing, talking about particular Titles Of Note. The focus will be on middle grade and YA fiction. We know from our fall review that there is not enough time for everything everyone wants to say. . . so here is our final preparatory blog post to start the conversation, from Helen. 

A final, super-quick review before the Big Review Day (ie. tomorrow) - this one posted early because I realized that what I had to say about the book makes more sense with links.

So. We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach.

Don't read the publisher's blurb.

My apologies to whoever wrote that description, possibly the author himself (who I'm going to say nice things about soon), but it sounds hokey and does not at all capture the strengths of this book:

"Before Ardor we let ourselves be defined by labels - the Athlete, the Slut, the Slacker, the Overachiever. But then we all looked up. And everything changed. They said the asteroid would be here in two months. That gave us two months to leave our labels behind. Two months to become something bigger, something that would last even after the end. Two months to really live."

Eh.

What you should really read is what the author has to say in his own words. I recommend browsing the short pieces Wallach has published elsewhere (linked here) to put you in the appropriate mood for tackling his debut novel.

Wallach is funny. He's sharply funny and has the perfect perspective to bring to a (let's face it) depressing book about the possible end of civilization as witnessed by a group of teenagers who  already suffered angst before any asteroid appeared. He has also written a book that is clearly YA literature. It's not an adult book with teenage characters grafted in, or a middle grade book bumped up a category for "mature topics". We All Looked Up is a smart and thoughtful and thoroughly, satisfyingly, young adult book.

If you have any old Pearl Jam CDs hanging around, and are of an age to have listened to those as a teen, I recommend dusting them off. You'll want to listen to them again. It won't feel like a cliche, I promise.

I whined a bit when I drew this book as part of my Materials Review stack. That blurb - you can tell, it bugs me still. But the author's letter at the start of our reviewer's copy changed my mind. I thought, "Well, if I'm going to read a book about an asteroid hitting Earth, this is the guy I'd like to have telling the story."

For example, I think every debut author should include a list of ideas that didn't work:

"I wrote my first novel during my freshman year in college. It was a Douglas Adams-inspired work of science fiction about sending all of Earth's ugliest people to another planet. It did not sell. I know: shocking. Since then I've written a book about a family breakdown told in the form of a grad school application; a book about a personal assistant to a B-list movie star, whom she accidentally kills. . . " [a long list follows here] ". . Then, like a bolt out of some color other than blue (because good writing is about avoiding cliches!) an idea came to me."

And voila several years later, We All Looked Up.

The important part: Tommy Wallach is a really good writer. He'll probably be an even better writer in his next book. And his next. And maybe he'll return some day to that B-list movie star book because I really want to read that one.

Want to learn more about exciting YA and Middle Grade fiction for 2015? Come to the Bear Pond Books Children's Room at 9:30 am Friday, April 10th. 

Crafting Classroom Writing Prompts - Gary Miller & Deb Fleischman

First, a prompt from local authors and writing instructors Gary Miller and Deb Fleischman. Set a timer (an actual timer, not planning to look at the clock to track time) for seven minutes and follow this prompt:

"When this winter is finally over. . . "

The goal of the prompt is to write a description using all the senses.

. . . and seven minutes later. Here are some things that the participants in Saturday's workshop noticed in this exercise. That when someone gives you a task, sets a timer and says "Go!" there's an instinct to get to work and not stop. Seven minutes is actually a pretty long time. At the end of seven minutes, if you write straight through and don't worry about getting the wording right and resist circling back around to finesse sentences, you end up with a whole lot of words on the page. And all that content could lead to some strong finished products - one example is linked at the end of this article.  

Then, there's what happens after sharing the responses to prompts. The diversity of how the group interprets the same starting point might inspire new ideas. Plus, if what you get in seven minutes isn't a great foundation for moving forward, then you can probably spare another seven minutes to try again.

The broad goal of writing prompts is to unlock the creative process. Gary and Deb have built from this starting point, and their own experience of what students produce in response to prompts, to develop a thoughtful approach to using short prompts as a way to teach writing skills and engage students who might be reluctant to write. 

Designing a Workshop Around Short Prompts:

When Gary Miller and Deb Fleischman began their Write Mondays workshops for middle and high school students, Deb had the rule "no homework" - everything they did had to happen in the classes. After all, these workshops already asked kids to add an extra class to their day, adding homework seemed like too much to ask. And with that rule, they developed a basic format for using prompts their workshops:

1. A quick (10 minute) lesson on some element of writing craft. For example, they might go over dialogue and three ways to create dramatic tension within dialogue - disagreement, confusion, silence. 
2. Provide a prompt with a clearly stated goal and give 7 minutes for students to work on that prompt. For example, they might show the start of a scene of a movie and ask students to continue the conversation. Or a starting line and a conversation that flows from there.
3. Students share what they've written and discuss it, with the ground rule to focus just on positive feedback.

This simple structure can be modified and applied to different lesson goals. Gary borrows the "fail fast" motto from entrepreneurial business models to describe it - you get a lot of ideas out quickly,  learn from the ones that don't work, and each successive attempt brings you closer to getting the result you want. "You're not writing to perfection," Gary says, "You're learning from experience." Students who track their writing over time see their progress as the many short practice assignments add up.

A structure built on immediacy like this one has some advantages over traditional writing assignments designed to be "do later" homework.  

The more time students are left with an assignment, and left alone with an assignment, the more time they have to think of all the things that they could do wrong, reinforcing a fear of failure. In the context of a quick prompt, there is no "wrong" - you're brainstorming and thinking creatively. Grammar, punctuation, refining your best ideas, these come much later in the process. 

The interval between class and the task of writing can dissipate any enthusiasm for the writing built in the classroom.

Using writing prompts means that students respond quickly to an assignment, then share, then get to talk with each other about what's working right and what the possibilities are. They also get to see the different ways other students responded to the prompt.  Gary and Deb find that even students who are reluctant to share at first end up being eager to share - not only is the emphasis is on the positive parts of their contribution but they have much more time to spend on the discussion of their ideas than in a typical classroom format of short answers to specific questions. 

Phones, computers, social media, television - distractions that lure students away from their writing work (and that they may be using at the same time as their writing) don't interfere with in-class prompts. The amount of time for writing with prompts is relatively short, the pace is quick. Students don't have to write anything, but students who don't start intending to write often have an idea come to them following a well-crafted prompt. It can be hard to resist that race start of "Go!" and a timer. (Gary notes that for truly disruptive students in the past he's had them write cuss words over and over. . . and after a very short time that task begins to feel stupid and the student moves on to some new ideas).

Designing the Prompts:

Part of prompt design is setting it in the goal of the lesson and stating that goal clearly for students. That comes with the mini-lesson beforehand, or simply saying "the goal is a description using all the senses" like in the opening prompt.

For the wording of the prompt itself, Gary and Deb have developed the idea of what they call "positioned prompts." Many textbook and test prompts are not positioned - they are asking the student to figure out how to approach the assignment, analyze available information, take their own position on a topic, then build the argument for their writing piece from that position. Those are important analysis skills. But the writing prompts Gary and Deb use have a slightly different goal of focusing on the writing itself, and to unlock creativity in the responses. This goal applies to both fiction and nonfiction. They want to make that creative thinking and writing practice easier for the students by embedding a position and perspective in the prompt. Gary calls this "filling the pool" for students to dive in. 

Take this example - the poem "Where I'm From" by George Ella Lyon (available from the author's website here). It's a poem in list form, a quickly intuited perspective and tone.

Imagine the non-positioned prompt that would elicit this information:

"Write a poem about your background. Tell readers about where you are from, and who your family members are. Give examples of special family traditions, events, and times."

Or the positioned prompt:

"I am from. . . ."

Gary gives more examples of the difference between positioned and non-positioned prompts in his notes for the workshop (linked below) and you can read about an exercise in creating prompts that the group did here.

You can tailor prompts even further for different goals. Deb has students in Upward Bound fill out a brainstorming sheet about who they are, generating lots of possible material to respond to the "prompts" posed by college essays. Or you can choose different media for prompts. Deb and Gary have also used the first two scenes of a movie and asked students to write out a third scene (Deb says "Breaking Away" both has a dramatic opening and most students haven't seen it already).

Well crafted prompts, used effectively, can transform writing instruction. As Gary said in his description for the class "Can you spare seven minutes to change the writing lives of your students forever? In just that tiny window of time, a good prompt can build critical skills and make even reluctant writers look forward to picking up a pen."

Resources: 

Response to "When this winter is finally over. . . " by John Gower (this is a final draft of a piece, not a 7 minute brainstorm)

Handouts From 2/14/15 Workshop:

• Overview of Process with Examples of Prompts
• "I Am From" Poem and examples of responses

Gary also uses prompts in his Writers for Recovery workshops (focused on addiction recovery) - you can read about the workshops in this Burlington Free Press article and hear Gary interviewed on VPR.

You can read an example of Sarah Stewart Taylor using short writing prompts / exercises to explore what makes an engaging opening to a story here.

Some recommended books about writing (these are for older students):

• Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
• On Writing - Stephen King
• What If? - Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter

For some more creative thinking and writing exercises that work in classrooms, see this follow up post: New Ideas - Creative Jumpstarts that Work in the Classroom

Short and Sweet - The Power of Writing Prompts, Feb 14th

Short writing prompts are the staple of many writing workshops. They offer a quick way to get into a writing mode and start creative thinking. This week, we look more carefully at how short writing prompts can be effective classroom tools in the workshop "Short and Sweet" with Gary Lee Miller and Deb Fleischman (founders of Write Mondays) happening at 11:00 am on Saturday, February 14th..Valentine's Day appropriate snacks will be served.

 "A good writing prompt isn't just 'tell me about summer vacation,'" Gary points out. It requires knowing what the goals of the prompt are, framing that for the students, and having a plan for sharing and using the work resulting from the prompt. Getting these components right can lead to a tool that accomplishes things assigned papers for future submission cannot. Gary writes:

Giving students a “Do Later” writing assignment can create all sorts of barriers to success. In fact, “Do Later” assignments:

• Distance students from the teaching that comes before the assignment.
• Give students a chance to explore and reinforce their fears of failure.
• Waste any enthusiasm for writing that you have built in the classroom.
• Make students feel that they are alone with a disagreeable task.
• Allow cell phones, social media, and other “screen time” at home to distract
students from their work.

Immersive writing prompts offer a productive alternative to “Do Later” assignments. An
immersive prompt puts students on the spot, and force them to leap immediately into
writing. But they don’t leap into a long or complicated assignment, with big risks and
consequences.

Author Kate Messner adds another good way writing prompts help in the classroom - they're a quick way to engage teachers in practicing their own writing.

Kate came to the store last year to lead a writing workshop for educators. Her virtual Teachers Write! summer camp builds from the premise that to teach writing, teachers should be writing themselves. Over 2,000 teachers from around the world signed up to participate in the most recent camp - and they teach all sorts of subjects. One of the most frequent contributors is a math teacher in Michigan. Some are school principals and other administrators. The participants read lessons, challenges, and prompts from guest authors who work with Kate. They can do the exercises on their own and follow quietly, or share their work and engage in an online conversation. Some go on to form their own writing groups.

Kate has collected writing prompts and short exercises from Teachers Write! into a new book from Stenhouse Publishers called 59 Reasons to Write. It offers writing prompts and mini-lessons to get teachers into the habit of writing every day. It's not a question of whether the writing is "good" - it's a daily habit of practicing writing.

Jo Knowles is one of the contributors to Kate's summer program. Jo posts writing prompts every Monday on her own blog. You can read how she walked participants through a very brief exercise at her Bear Pond workshop here.

If you're interested in learning more about how to use writing prompts effectively in the classroom, then join us on Saturday, at 11:00 am! It's free, with the aforepromised snacks, and we provide certificates of attendance for educators who can use it towards continuing education credits.

Related Posts:

• Writing Workshop with S.S. Taylor
• Writing Workshop with Kate Messner & Jo Knowles
• Essential Library - Books About Writing

mini-lessons, writing prompts, and bursts of inspiration designed to get you writing every day - See more at: http://www.stenhouse.com/html/59-reasons-to-write.htm#sthash.gCXMGSJ0.dpuf

mini-lessons, writing prompts, and bursts of inspiration designed to get you writing every day - See more at: http://www.stenhouse.com/html/59-reasons-to-write.htm#sthash.gCXMGSJ0.dpuf

mini-lessons, writing prompts, and bursts of inspiration designed to get you writing every day - See more at: http://www.stenhouse.com/html/59-reasons-to-write.htm#sthash.gCXMGSJ0.dpuf

Garret Keizer - Getting Schooled

Sutton resident Garret Keizer has tackled issues as diverse as noise pollution, anger (the "sometimes deadly sin"), the nature of help, his experience becoming an Episcopal clergyman, noise pollution, and, most recently. school systems. Getting Schooled is an account of Keizer's year of teaching at Lake Valley Regional High School, a place he'd left classroom teaching 14 years earlier. He returns to find his former students as Principal and School Board members, and significant changes in education, including technology, testing, and the current culture of being (and towards being) a teenager.

A feature article in the Times Argus by Kevin O'Connor (10.19.14) interviewed Keizer about his new book:

* * *

"Anybody who looks to this book for a 10-point plan will be disappointed,"
Keizer says.

Instead, the author poses more questions than answers as he prods readers to
inquire if the root cause of what's ailing public education is society
itself.

"If I'm in a supermarket and somebody says, 'Kids today ...,' I'm hell on
wheels. One of my hopes is that people will read the book and think maybe it
would behoove them to take some time before holding forth on schools to walk
into one."

* * *

These questions place school in the context of a national debate about education, in the context of changes to society, and importantly in Keizer's personal experience. He stresses that this is principally a memoir. And it's one full of insightful reflections on larger issues - we're particularly fond of the observation that: "If you want kids who can read and write, you need a culture that prizes books."
You can hear more of Keizer's thoughts in some of the interviews and articles surrounding the publication of Getting Schooled:

• "Garret Keizer Goes Back to School" Interview on Vermont Edition
• "Sticking Up for Teachers" Interview on WNYC
• Q&A with Deborah Kalb
• A Level Playing Field at School Can't Make Up for a Broken Democracy, Los Angeles Times op-ed

You can read more writing by Garret Keizer at his website http://garretkeizer.com/ But wouldn't you rather hear him talk in person? You can: Tuesday, October 28th, 7:00 pm at Bear Pond Books. It should be a great discussion. It's free and open to the public - join us!

Combining Passion and Research for Compelling Nonfiction

Tanya Lee Stone talks at Bear  Pond 9/28/13

Tanya Lee Stone did not begin by writing nonfiction that she felt passionate about. Instead, she began as an editor, editing hundreds and hundreds of books of other people's nonfiction, then moved on to writing contracts for series of books for the library market. The first book that began in her own imagination that she then pitched to publishers was Elizabeth Leads the Way, about Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her campaign to bring women the vote.

This book began as a well researched, solidly written story about one of the early founders of the women's suffragist movement. But it wasn't finding a publisher. So, Tanya set it aside, until one evening when she was watching a movie about women's rights and realized that the story had been lacking her own passion about the subject. She got off the couch and wrote what would become the first page of the finished book:

What would you do if someone told you you can't be what you want to be because you are a girl?

What would you do if someone told you your vote doesn't count, your voice doesn't matter, because you are a girl?

Would you ask why? Would you talk back? Would you fight. . .for your rights? Elizabeth did

When Tanya goes into classrooms, her first message to kids is to write on topics they care about. That's sometimes difficult, it calls for flexible assignments that, for example, don't assign students to write about "Italy" but instead ask them to find a country they're interested in and write about that.

Starting with a personal interest in a topic can not only make a more compelling final piece of writing, it also sustains the effort needed for solid research into that topic. Students writing a report on Italy may not put in the years, even a decade, of research Tanya will devote to her books, but it's still important to learn good research skills - to not open a Wikipedia page and call it a day.

Detailed research can back up an author's passion. When Tanya wrote her book Almost Astronauts about 13 women who demonstrated women could be astronauts, a former NASA employee followed her on the Internet dismissing the book as feminist propaganda. But the story was backed up by research, and librarians and teachers quickly came to Tanya's defense. Today NASA has its own web page telling the story of the "Mercury 13."

Research also uncovers new things - even topics that many people have researched and written about before have new information waiting to be uncovered. When Tanya and illustrator Boris Kulikov were working on Sandy's Circus about Alexander Calder, they needed to figure out what the castle he'd built for his little sister looked like. Other people had mentioned the castle, but no one knew what it looked like. Until, finally, Tanya discovered that Calder's sister (the one who received the castle) had written a book. . . and described the gift. Now the world has a picture of the mysterious castle.

Tanya worries that the market's current push for quickly producing a high volume of nonfiction that young readers will find entertaining discourages deep research. A related problem is finding serious market space for well-researched nonfiction - marketing it to children and adults, or moving from hardcover to paperbacks that will appeal to a broader audience. The changes happening with Common Core standards may help or hurt the situation. On one hand, these changes are partially feeding the push to get more entertaining nonfiction onto shelves quickly. On the other hand, they are building a bigger market for creative nonfiction. Some presses are even bringing back previous titles in paperback versions. This may be a sign that well researched, deeply thought out books will find more readers.

Tanya's final advice to students writing: start with your own passions, do good research, then get a first draft down without worrying about whether it's "good" (or going to get a good grade) and revise!

Want to learn more about making the most of visits from authors like Tanya in your classroom? Come to the store on Saturday, October 26th at 11:00 am for Jon and Pam Voelkel's talk about how to get the most from author visits (including Skype visits).


Recommended Resources:

• I.N.K. Blog - 30 nonfiction authors (including Tanya) write about interesting nonfiction for kids.
• Background for Tanya's Talk - Post from Bear Pond Books
• Pairing Fiction and Nonfiction - Post from Bear Pond Books
• Elizabeth Leads the Way -  Reading Guide 
• Almost Astronauts - Teacher's Guide
• Sandy's Circus -Teachers' Reading Guide
• Teacher's Guide for Courage Has No Color

Tanya Lee Stone & Jane Knight kick off the author-educator series for the 2013-2014 school year