Books in Series - New and Upcoming

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 another preparatory blog post to start the conversation. 

One request we received from our last materials review was to give a quick run down of popular series about to have another installment that we expect will sell well in the store (and, presumably, lend well in school libraries). Okay. We will and also highlight a short list here:

Seeker	Dayton, Arwen Elys	Delacorte	2/10/2015	YA
Island of Dr. Libris	Grabenstein, Chris	Random House	3/24/2015	MG
The Golden Specific	Grove, S.E.	Viking	7/14/2015	MG
The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate	Kelly, Jacqueline	Henry Holt	7/7/2015	MG
Clariel	Nix, Garth	Harper Collins	10/14/2015	MG
Completely Clementine	Pennypacker, Sara	Disney-Hyperion	3/3/2015	MG
Magnus Chase & Gods of Asgard: Sword of Summer	Riordan, Rick	Disney-Hyperion	10/6/2015	MG
Guys Read: Terrifying Tales	Scieszka, Jon	Harper Collins	9/1/2015	MG
Gone Crazy in Alabama	Williams-Garcia, Rita	Harper Collins	4/21/2015	MG

These are all recommended reading.

Here's the missing book: Return to Augie Hobble by Lane Smith, coming out this May. It's not listed in any of our booksellers materials as the first in a series, but surely that's an oversight. As Smith himself said in a Publisher's Weekly interview:

“This book doesn’t end on a cliffhanger; it works as just one book, but it can continue and I would love to do another one.”

Presumably he's already working on it.

Lane Smith may not be established as a middle grade fiction writer yet, but he's already well-known for his picture books like Kid Sheriff and the Terrible Toads, Lulu and the Brontosaurus, and It's A Book (for which this worth-a-watch video made the social media rounds a few years ago). Now he has bumped his spirit and style into an older reading group without any hiccups - at least, not ones apparent in the final book.

Return to Augie Hobble is an illustrated middle grade novel. It's about a kid, working at his family's struggling amusement park, failing his creative arts project, and trying to explain weirdness in the world around him. It's one of those books that's hard to explain because it moves fast and if you give away a plot point, it ruins the magic. So, don't read other reviews, other reviewers might not be so careful. Just buy the book.

Without any plot-like discussions, two noteworthy things about the book:

1.) The illustrations are whimsical, funny, and integral to the plot of the book, not just tacked on as a nod to the author's picture book history (in case you worried). 

2.) This kid Augie may be the most endearing narrator ever. He's likable in the way Olivia of the Olivia picture book series is - you slap your forehead, you think "Oh boy, kid, what are you doing?" and you ultimately wouldn't want him to change. If he were real, you'd describe Augie as A Character (in this context, he's a character and A Character).

Lane Smith is being a little coy when he says Return to Augie Hobble doesn't end in a cliff hanger - it doesn't, it stands on its own, but it's obviously also assembling the team for a longer series. So go ahead and look for Book #2 sometime in the near future.

Want a tour of noteworthy new books in middle grade and young adult fiction? Join us Friday, April 10th at 9:30 am in the Children's Room. Free, with snacks and coffee. 

Historical Fiction Titles

On Friday, April 10th, from 9:30 - 11:30 am, we're hosting a 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 another preparatory blog post to start the conversation. 

Last week Jane wrote about some of the considerations behind choosing the Dorothy Canfield Fisher list, including finding a balance of different types of books. The same is true for our materials review. When Jane read the Top 10 Historical Fiction Titles post on Nerdy Book Club recently, it reminded her of how many great historical fiction titles are not going to fit into our review session. To remedy that, here is a round up of Historical Fiction links:

• Top 10 Pulse Pounding, Nail Biting Historical Fiction Titles from the Nerdy Book Club blog
• Epic Reads' YA Historical Fiction List - arranged as a timeline (which makes sense when you think about)
• A list of lists: librarybooklists.org compiles libraries' book lists for different topics. Here is their list of lists for YA Historical Fiction and here is one for Children's Historical Fiction.
• The final installment of Dorothy's List for this year features Prisoner 88, Leah Pileggi's account of a ten year-old prisoner in the Idaho territory in 1885. Historical fiction on the 2015/2016 DCF list:
• The Badger Knight 
• Running Out of Night 
• Actual & Truthful Adventures of Becky Thatcher 
• Madman of Piney Woods.
• Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan on the Classroom Bookshelf Blog - A combination of fairy tale and history tells stories of children in different eras connected by music. A popular book that's on the watch list for possible awards in 2015. Full disclosure: Helen was assigned to read this book for the Materials Review and is just not getting through it. You should probably read this other blogger's post instead of waiting for it to be covered Friday.
• Remember in 2013 when Natalie Kinsey Warnock came to the store to talk about historical fiction? (If you don't, it was great and here's a write up). CLiF recently posted an article about her Storykeepers project that you can read here. 

The Books That Got Away

If anyone questioned Jane's commitment to finding the best in middle grade writing (which no one really questions) how about this - not only did she serve on the Dorothy Canfield Fisher committee this year, selecting books for the master list, but she also went straight from that to reading a new pile of books for our April 10th materials review. That is a lot of middle grade fiction. Possibly more than the rest of us read across our years spent in actual middle grades. Here are her thoughts on some of the books not on the DCF list, but on her list of recommended reading. 

Choosing 30 middle grade books every year for the Dorothy Canfield Fisher award list is easy, and at the same time very difficult. It is easy to find plenty of good middle grade novels each year to read. It is difficult to read almost 100 books in the span of about 9 months.  It is difficult to take a list of about 70 books and whittle them down to a list half as long for the final nominees. It is easy to spend time with other children's book lovers talking about each book and why we like it.

Each year we end up with several books that don't make the DCF list but wish we had extra wiggle room for. Sometimes it is because the book isn't eligible for various reasons. Sometimes it is because we have to create the right balance of book genres and so have to leave off one in favor of another genre. And inevitably there are the personal favorites that just don't get majority vote.

The new 2015-2016 DCF list is made up of great books. Here are a few other notable middle grade novels that did not make the list, but certainly have the chops.

Screaming at the Ump delivers a realistic portrait and engaging story about a boy who lives with his father and grandfather and helps them run a small academy for aspiring umpires. Casey is still stung by his mother's new marriage and subsequent move out of state, and is hoping to finally write for the newspaper at his new school. Many realistic situations are woven into the plot, including his discovery that one of the trainees is a former major leaguer (and someone he had looked up to) who quit under a cloud of drug-use suspicion-- a truly publication-worthy scoop. Vernick uses a light touch to weave multiple threads together in a well-crafted way when Casey realizes the same skills an umpire needs—being objective and fair, knowing the rules, and being in the right spot to make the call—also apply to becoming a good journalist and healing his broken relationship with his mother. There is deep reader satisfaction as Casey comes around to making some good choices for himself.

Accomplished author and editor Andrea Pinkney Davis creates a sensitive mirror into a distant tragedy in her latest novel in verse The Red Pencil. Pinkney was inspired to research and write The Red Pencil after learning about what was happening in Darfur, Sudan, in 2003. Through deceptively simple prose poems, she has 12-year-old Amira tell her story. Living with her family on their farm in South Darfur, the artistic Amira expresses herself in ephemeral drawings on the sand, yet she also yearns to learn to read and write. While her father is supportive, her more traditionally minded mother is not — it is simply not their way. A dutiful daughter, Amira goes along with her mother’s wishes. But one day everything changes. Their village is brutally attacked and many are killed, among them Amira’s beloved father. She and her sister and mother make a long, hard journey, both physical and emotional, to a refugee camp. There, made mute by the horrors she has experienced, Amira is given a red pencil by a relief volunteer and uses it to begin to reclaim her voice and life through drawing and writing. Pinkney's choice to use short prose poems and simple imagery is very effective at guiding young readers through difficult terrain, and paired with Malala Yousefzai's story would make for some solid current events discussion.

One of my favorite fantasy novels from last year comes from a UK author Piers Torday who grew up on the floor of his mum's bookshop in Northumberland. The Last Wild is an inventive and offbeat quasi-apocalyptic fantasy in which Kester Jaynes learns that he is the chosen savior of “the last wild,” the few remaining animals on Earth. The larger world is in tumult, wrecked by global warming and “the red-eye,” which killed off most animal life and threatens humans with extinction. Torday manages to keep the plot from becoming maudlin and infuses deep love in the relationship between Kester and the animals, who save him from the Spectrum Hall Academy for Challenging Children. Boy needs the wild, the wild needs the boy-- the passionate reciprocity between both is palpable.

To learn more about the new DCF list of nominees, and to hear about many other great newly published books for kids from middle through high school, join us on April 10th at 9:30 am in the Children's Room. We'll have a panel of reviewers, including yours truly, and plenty of lively discussion and of course, yummy pastries.

Book Scavenger & All the Answers - Quick Reviews

On Friday, April 10th, from 9:30 - 11:30 am, we're hosting a 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 we've got some preparatory blog posts to start the conversation.

The middle grade books Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman and All the Answers by Kate Messner share an interesting quality: they draw readers almost effortlessly into the game of parsing out how the authors might have invented their stories. Plenty of creative writing lessons instruct students to study texts for clues to the writer's craft; these books make that investigation fun and almost irresistible. They generate a sense of shared excitement at creating stories and the thrilling thought "maybe I can do this too."

All The Answers tells the story of what happens when Ava Anderson finds a magic pencil that answers her questions. Kate used this book as a basis for a school tour teaching about the creative writing process.

The story began with a wish from real life - for a pen that contained all the answers.

From that starting point, Kate began to ask basic questions:

• What would the rules be for a pen like that? In this case, the questions need an actual answer - anything involving future events and humans' freedom to change their minds is unanswerable.
• What sort of character might find this pen? A girl with a lot of anxiety, who is scared of uncertainty and what might happen in the future.
• Where is the tension / problems created by a pen like that? There are a lot of these problems related to the questions the main characters ask, but first off the pen became a pencil so that it kept getting shorter whenever anyone sharpened it, meaning the answers couldn't last forever.
• And how do these conflicts get resolved? Let's not give anything away here.

Kate talks about All the Answers and writing lessons more in this previous post.

In Book Scavenger, the legendary Garrison Griswold is critically injured en route to launching his newest game. His most famous game, Book Scavenger, engages players all over the country who hide books, find books, and solve clues to get to the next book. Now, only one copy of an unusual book remains to give the clues to what he had planned. Needless to say the heroine (Emily) finds this book and must race against the bad guys to solve Griswold's puzzles.

Book Scavenger has echoes of some favorite childhood books. Garrison Griswold is a Willy Wonka-ish character for the book loving set. The world full of ciphers is reminiscent of The Westing Game (oh boy I wish I could read that for the first time as a kid again). There are more modern strands, too. The game framework is similar to geocaching or to the site Book Crossing. Closer to home it could be compared to Valley Quest, which uses clues and treasure hunts to bring participants on an exploration of their communities.

Book Scavenger offers a lesson in taking inspiration from books and other creative activities that spark our imaginations, then running with it. If you read The Westing Game and love the idea of a world full of ciphers, why not build your own world that continues in that spirit? If you try out a game like Book Crossing and imagine something much grander where thousands of ardent fans race to find the hidden books, why not build your own world where that happens?

These types of questions, and this book, would be a great pairing with Kate Messner's World Building virtual workshop.

If you want to fill your imagination with not only the stories an author has written, but also all the possibilities for stories you (or your students) could write, take a look at All the Answers and Book Scavenger.

For more reviews, ideas, and discussion, come to the Materials Review in the Bear Pond Books children's room on April 10th at 9:30 am. This event is free, open to the public, and comes with certificates of attendance for teachers who can apply it to continuing education credits.

Dorothy Canfield Fisher List & Materials Review on April 10th

We're back for another Materials Review next Friday (April 10th) from 9:30 am - 11:30 am. This time, we're focusing on middle grade and young adult fiction.

This materials review in some ways replaces our Dorothy Canfield Fisher list review (see notes on last year's event here). Jane, who was on this year's nominating committee, will do a quick update on what's happening in the DCF world then we'll move on to new titles. If you're worried you won't get enough DCF (and really, it's a common worry) here are some resources:

• The 2015/2016 Master List with short summaries.

• Some 2015/2016 DCF listed books that have won national recognition this year:
• The Crossover by Kwame Alexander won the Newbery Medal, leading to no shortage of coverage, but did you catch this ESPN Interview with Kwame Alexander?
• "Why Everyone Should Read this Graphic Memoir" - Washington Post on El Deafo, with link to Cece Bell on the Let's Get Busy podcast. El Deafo was a Newbery Award finalist
• Port Chicago 50 by Steve Sheinkin on The Classroom Bookshelf blog - this book was a finalist for the National Book Award.

• Two of the authors on this year's list are graduates of the Vermont College of Fine Arts (our apologies if we missed any others, please tell us):
• Julie Berry, The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place
• Robin Herrera, Hope Is a Ferris Wheel 

• Some authors provide a lot of additional information to go with their books online, like:
• Jordan Romero, his blog is full of mountaineering resources
• Lynne Rae Perkins has a blog and site of extras, largely related to her illustrations
• Laura Marx Fitzgerald provides complementary resources for her novel (including separating the facts from the fictional elements)

• Dorothy's List series on Vermont Public Radio, students discuss selected books on the DCF list (2015-2016 segments will start after May)

• From 2014 - you can see Tanya Lee Stone and Linda Urban speaking at the 2014 DCF conference here.

We will provide DCF list order forms at the April 10th review, or e-mail jane@bearpondbooks if you'd like to order from us. We'll be posting some more middle grade and young adult book materials over the next two weeks. In the meantime, mark your calendars for next Friday's materials review!

Post-Review Update: At the Materials Review we had a request to identify DCF books on the new list well-suited to younger readers, including those interested in DCF but not yet in a voting grade. Here's the list:

• Misadventures of the Family Fletcher by Dana Alison Levy - A "day in the life" snapshot of three boys, plus their Dads, in the style of the Penderwicks books.
• El Deafo  by CeCe Bell- Graphic novel memoir recognized by the Newbery Committee this year.
• 14th Goldfish by Jennifer Holm - A science caper after the narrator's grandfather reverses aging and becomes a teenager. Possible pairing with Tuck Everlasting.
• Actual and Truthful Adventures of Becky Thatcher by Jessica Lawson - The story of Becky Thatcher loosely based on Mark Twain's books, a good teaching book for origin stories.
• Seven Stories Up by Laurel Snyder - A bit of time travel helps the narrator understand her grandmother.
• Nuts to You by Lynne Rae Perkins- A fun read aloud in the world of squirrels, possible ecology tie-in for classroom.

Another Look at Fairy Tales

Yeah, we'll start this post by typing the words: Frozen Two.

Also, Cinderella.

Upcoming movie re-tellings of very old fairy tales are part of the context that's inspired authors to hold forth on the relevance (or not) of fairy tales today. For example, Alan Cummings last week in the Globe and Mail "Great Stories, Like Cinderella, Need to Be Rebooted"and recently on NPR "A Girl, A Shoe, A Prince: The Endlessly Evolving Cinderella". The Guardian noted this fall that retelling fairy tales for different audiences is "very much in vogue".

Of course, it's not only the world of cinema and in vogue retellings that prompts us to ponder these stories that have lasted for generations. The essay "Strange Birds" by Kelly Barnhill, posted on Nerdy Book Club, discusses how fairy tales formed her as a writer and reader. The Scottish Book Trust, a source of many interesting resources, posted these 5 Reasons Why Fairy Tales Are Good for Children over the summer. Scholastic has brought together contributions from multiple authors in their Myths, Folktales and Fairy Tales project for educators.

Last spring local librarian Meg Allison gave us a tour of France, Italy, and Fairy Tales in her workshop Why Fairy Tales Still Matter. Check out this Pinterest Board of fairy tale books that we made to go with the workshop. The books are also below (they link through to a full page that's easier to read).

We'll keep our eyes open for more fairy tale discussions.

Writing Teachers' Guides with Katy Farber

Katy Farber is a local sixth grade teacher who has written two previous nonfiction books on education, Why Great Teachers Quit - And How We Might Stop the Exodus and Change the World with Service Learning, along with the e-book Eat Nontoxic: A Manual for Busy Parents. Her first novel, The Order of the Trees, comes out from Green Writers Press this May. It tells the story of sixth grader Cedar, found under a cedar tree, whose life is intrinsically tied to the story of the forest and ecosystem health. As a current teacher, and instructor of graduate-level education courses, we were interested in how Katy approached the process of writing a teacher's guide for her new book. It turns out, the guide is a collaboration between Katy and a local high school student. Here's what she had to say:

1. How did your own experience with using teachers' guides in the classroom shape how you wanted to approach writing one?

I have used various guides and resources for books read in the classroom and always appreciate when I can get my hands on a teacher's guide. I particularly like when they are included within the book so teachers (and students) can have them right there in the book and don't need to track down an additional resource. 

All teachers (myself included) want to inspire students to think deeply about their reading, to connect, make inferences, explore their perspectives and look for themes. I am always looking for or crafting questions that help students learn reading strategies, to practice critical thinking, and to think about biases, new perspectives, and diverse narratives about life and humanity. When [Green Writers Press] intern, Lindsey, shared her questions, they had an authentic young adult's voice and curiosity, so I knew they would work well.

2. How did you and Lindsay connect? How are you collaborating?  

My publisher, Dede Cummings of [Brattleboro-based] Green Writers Press put us in touch. . . she took it from there. Lindsey [a High School Junior in Townshend, VT] said she wanted to read The Order of the Trees and work on the reader's guide questions. She took off with it and wrote many thoughtful questions. Honestly, I wasn't sure how to limit the quantity of them because she shared so many great questions. They were thought provoking and engaging. 

We collaborated on some of the environmental issue questions in the guide. The book deals with deforestation and we played with some of the wording around that issue. She was responsive and completely engaged. We connected via email for our collaboration.

3. What have you learned about the student perspective from this collaboration? How would that shape your approach to future similar projects?

It reminded me of what topics strike a chord with young adults. They are astute observers of the world and can critically analyze text. I found her questions interesting and unique and would likely have not thought of them myself-- I'm too attached to the work and it is harder to objectively look overall and write these questions. I would be interested in teaming with another young adult to create a relevant reader's guide that is usable.

4. Do you have any advice you would give to authors who are not themselves educators on writing teacher's guides? 

The advice I would give would be to try and picture an organic, authentic book group conversation about your book. What would they talk about? What would you want to hear fellow readers explore? Let that be your guide. Go for the juicy, deep and personal elements of the book. These will likely be the ones your readers will want to explore and discuss. In addition, with teachers and students in mind, think of overall themes, character development, setting, and descriptive language. These are concepts teachers must show students how to explore through text and questions-- and so questions about these can be helpful for student learning. 

You can find out about the launch of Order of the Trees and places Katy is appearing at her website http://katyfarber.com. 

Related Articles:

• Picture Books That Explore Nature - Deirdre Gill & Jason Chin
• Students Take on International Wildlife Issues - with Laurel Neme
• Three Small Vermont Publishers Talk Business - Seven Days (featuring Green Writers Press)