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Watermark Teacher Feature – March 5, 2008
In this issue:
BOOK NEWS:
* Favorites New to Paperback:
- “Airball: My Life in Briefs" by L. D. Harkrader
- “Stink and the World's Worst
Super-Stinky Sneakers ” by Megan McDonald
FRESH TITLES:
* “Mom & Dad are Palindromes” by Mark Shulman &
Adam McCauley
* “Grace for President” by Kelly DiPucchio &
LeUyen Pham
UPCOMING EVENTS:
* April & May KMUW Literary Feasts
* David Almond event: Thursday, March 13. 1:00 p.m.
* Lisa See reading & signing: Tuesday, March 18. 7:00 p.m.
* Catherine Ryan Hyde reading & signing: Tuesday, April 8. 7:00 p.m.
FEATURED REVIEW:
* “Clay” by David Almond - Author event next week!
* Great American-History Young-Adult Novels
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This and previous issues of Teacher Feature are available on the Watermark Web
site. You can read on-line, complete with pictures and clickable links, here:
www.watermarkbooks.com/teach.html
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Greetings and salutations!
There are three things just burning a hole in my
head this week, and I want to tell you about them all:
First, the fantastic young-reader novel
"Airball: My Life in Briefs" is new in paperback. I've been a fan
of this book since it first came out in 2005, and I never tire of putting it
into the hands of young readers and their families. It has been named a Kansas
Notable Book, and its author, Lisa Harkrader, is one of our coolest Kansas
writers. If you don't already love this one, read about it below and give it a
shot!
Second, and oh so exciting, young-adult author
David Almond is coming next week, and Watermark will host a big reading and
signing with him at Allison Middle School. Individuals and groups are welcome,
and spring break is no excuse! Almond is author of the beloved books "Skellig"
and "Kit's Wilderness," and he's touring to promote the paperback release of his
thrilling and thoughtfully creepy novel "Clay." I spent last Saturday
totally absorbed
in it, and a review is included below. Don't miss this chance to hear him speak.
And finally, I have a list for you: on behalf of
a local high school English class, I recently compiled a short list of great
YA historical novels set in the U.S. prior to 1916. I had a lot of fun
presenting these books to the class, and I thought I would share the list here, too, in
hopes that it would be useful to teachers in other schools. The list is below, and please know that I'm always game to suggest titles in whatever
categories might fit the needs of your students, classes, and reading
groups (and for your own book clubs, too). And if you have a favorite to add to this
list, let me know:
mark.bradshaw@watermarkbooks.com
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NEWSFLASH
Favorites New to Paperback
"Airball: My Life in Briefs" by L. D. Harkrader (Square Fish,
9780312373825, $6.99, 208 pages, ages 9 to 12) Set in the fictional town of
Stuckey, Kansas, this middle-readers sports novel is required reading for every
Kansas kid, and it's especially great for boys, athletic or not. Author Lisa
Harkrader lives in Lawrence and is just as big a fan of Jayhawk basketball as
her characters are. "Airball" scored a place on the current William Allen White
list, and it's a great choice for elementary school read-alouds and book clubs.
Hugely recommended! Read review
“Stink
and the World's Worst Super-Stinky Sneakers ” by Megan
McDonald, pictures by Peter H. Reynolds (Candlewick, 9780763636692, $4.99,
144 pages, ages 4 to 8) Stink is the little brother of favorite chapter-book
character
Judy Moody, but he gets into his own unique brand of mischief and fun. In his
first book, he becomes trapped inside a comic strip. In the second, he wins a
defective jawbreaker that can't even chip his tooth! In this third one, newly
out in
paperback, he competes in a laugh-out-loud contest for the world's most
repulsive pair of stinky shoes. Kids will laugh, and you will cry at the sad
truth of it all:
Read review
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FRESH TITLES
Picture books
“Grace for President” by Kelly DiPucchio,
illus. by LeUyen Pham (Hyperion, 9780786839193, $15.99, 40 pages, ages 5 to
9)
When Grace’s teacher decorates the classroom with
a poster showing every president in U.S. history, Grace has just one question:
“Where are the GIRLS?” This is a fantastically illustrated new picture book that
tells the story of Grace’s run for the office of president—President of Woodrow
Wilson Elementary School. The tale is both exciting and educational: while
readers follow Grace’s campaign for elected office, they also learn how the
Electoral College works!
Read review
“Mom & Dad are Palindromes: A Dilemma For
Words… and Backwards” by Mark Shulman, illus. by Adam McCauley (Chronicle
Books, 9780811843287, $15.95, 36 pages, ages 4 to 8)
This whacky picture book tells a silly tale
illustrating that palindromes—words and phrases that are spelled the same
forward and backward—are all around us, easy to build, and difficult for to
avoid. It's a fun showcase for an interesting quirk of language: Read review
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UPCOMING WATERMARK EVENTS
David Almond Event: Thursday, March 13. 1:00 p.m.
Watermark welcomes acclaimed young-adult author David Almond to Wichita for a
reading and book signing to mark the paperback release of his novel “Clay,”
available March 11. The event will be held at the Allison Middle School
Auditorium at 221 S. Seneca and is co-sponsored by Library Media Services. For
details, including arranging class visits, call Beth Golay at Watermark at (316)
682-1181.
Lisa See Reading & Signing: Tuesday, March 18. 7:00 p.m.
The bestselling author of “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” will visit Watermark
on her tour for the paperback release of her newest novel “Peony in Love.” Set
in 17th century China and based on a true story, this haunting novel uses the
richness and magic of the Chinese afterlife to explore the many manifestations
of love, the bonds of female friendship, and the desire all women have to be
heard. “Peony in Love” is new in paperback this week and is available now!
Shakespeare Aloud: Wednesday, March 19. 5:30
to 6:30 p.m.
This reading group meets every other Wednesday to read Shakespeare's works aloud
together an hour at a time, no experience required. On this date, we'll begin
reading Thomas Kyd’s “The Spanish Tragedy,” a ghost- and revenge-fueled
Elizabethan blockbuster and a pre-cursor to Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” Copies of
the play are on sale in the bookstore at a discount. The group is led by
Mark David
Bradshaw.
April KMUW Literary Feast: Friday, April 4. 7:00 p.m.
The April book will be “People of the Book,” a sweeping historical tale of
religion, sacrifice, and mercy by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Geraldine
Brooks:
Read review
Literary Feast participants will enjoy dinner together, with a menu specially
created by our Watermark chef, then take part in a book discussion over dessert.
Tickets are available at the Watermark book counter or by calling (316)
682-1181. Places are limited, and we recommend purchasing your ticket well in
advance. Read more about the book and author on the
KMUW Web site
Catherine Ryan Hyde reading & signing: Tuesday, April 8. 7:00 p.m.
Join us as we host Catherine Ryan Hyde for a reading & signing of her latest
book, “Chasing Windmills.” Hyde is the author of several books, including “Pay
it Forward” and “Love in the Present Tense.” For more information about the
author, visit her websites at
www.cryanhyde.com and
www.payitforwardfoundation.org
May KMUW Literary Feast. Friday, May 2. 7:00
p.m.
The May book will be “The Commoner” by John Burnham Schwartz, a novel of a
young woman who marries into the Japanese Imperial family and learns the lessons
and sacrifices that come with a life lived apart:
Read Beth’s review
Tickets for the feast are available at the Watermark book counter or by calling
(316) 682-1181. Places are limited, and we recommend purchasing your ticket well
in advance. Read more about the book and author on the
KMUW Web site
For a full listing of Watermark events, including book clubs and art openings,
visit the Events page of our Web site at: http://www.watermarkbooks.com/events.html
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FEATURED REVIEWS
“Clay” by David
Almond (Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 9780440420132, $8.99, 272 pages,
ages 12 and up)
David Almond’s novel “Clay,” new in paperback, is a ghost story given flesh. Set
in a small town in Almond’s native north England, the book follows two young
buddies, Davie and Geordie, as they deal with the problem of bullying in a
singularly creepy and supernatural fashion. At heart, it’s a story about the
lure of violence and the danger that can come from fighting fire with fire.
Davie and Geordie are good but trouble-seeking altar boys always on the lookout
for Mouldy, a great hulk of a guy from the next town over, who has roughed them
up in the past and who is, they’re convinced, out to get them again. Their
chance to pay Mouldy back comes in the form of Stephen, a new boy to town who’s
followed by dark rumors of family madness and dabblings in black magic. Stephen
is a sculptor who claims to be able to bring his clay creations to life, and he
promises Davie that he can make a creature that will take care of Mouldy once
and for all.
Fascinated by this offer and drifting away from Geordie, Davie is caught up in
playing God and Dr. Frankenstein with Stephen. They construct and animate a clay
man that begins to haunt Davie’s dreams, seeking instructions and commands from
its “master.” When Mouldy takes a lethal fall from a seaside cliff, Davie
worries that Clay is to blame, and he begins to realize that his promised
instrument of “defense” has become a deadly weapon responding to his own angry
thoughts.
The clay golem the boys create can be read as a uniquely clever stand-in for the
more mundane weapons available to today’s teenagers: Guns, knives, rumors, and
vicious talk are used by some to strike out when they feel threatened or
ostracized. Like those everyday instruments, the clay man makes Davie’s anger
physical, and like those other weapons, it shows itself to be more damaging than
anticipated, both to others and to its wielder.
“Clay” has thick, lovely storytelling, and it’s rich with thoughts on faith,
anger, and the consequences of violence. Almond depicts young people smoking and
committing religion-inflected crimes here, as when the boys steal items from a
church to animate their creation, but these actions are balanced by the serious
attention he gives to the negative and sobering outcome. The result is a
spine-chilling story that will captivate young-adult readers while spurring them
to make connections with the world they know.
The paperback of “Clay” will be released on Tuesday, March 11. Watermark will
host a visit by author David Almond on Thursday, March 13.
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American History Young-Adult Novels
These selected novels are set in America prior to
1916. The first two are for ages 9 and older, "March" is an adult novel with
appeal for high school readers, a the rest are written for ages 12 and up.
“Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy” by
Gary D. Schmidt (Yearling, 9780553494952, $6.50, paperback)
In Maine in 1912, Turner Buckminster is a preacher’s son, and the whole town
disapproves of him. His only friend is Lizzie Bright, the daughter of former
slaves who live on nearby Malaga Island. When Turner’s town decides to make that
island into a tourist spot for whale-watchers, he and Lizzie and their
prohibited friendship are all that stands between her community and forced
eviction. This book was a finalist for both the Newberry and Printz awards.
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“Bread and Roses, Too” by Katherine Paterson
(Clarion Books, 9780618654796, $16.00, hardcover)
Based on real events in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1912, this novel tells of a
historic labor strike declared by mostly-immigrant mill workers against unfair
and dangerous working conditions. During the difficult work stoppage, young Rosa
Seruttis and other children of the workers are sent one town over to live with
volunteer families until matters are resolved. Separated from their kin, the
young people learn the costs of injustice and ethnic rivalry.
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“A Northern Light” by Jennifer Donelly (Harcourt Paperbacks,
9780152053109, $8.95, paperback)
In 1906 in the Adirondacks, Mattie Gokey has a talent for writing and has been
accepted by the Barnard College for women in New York City, but she feels held
back by her responsibility to her family and by her feelings for the handsome
Royal Loomis. When a young couple drowns in a boating accident near the hotel
where Mattie works, she finds herself in possession of letters that may be the
key to explaining their deaths. Her story reveals much about young women’s
lives, feminism, romance, and young motherhood at the start of the Twentieth
Century.
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“March” by Geraldine Brooks (Penguin, 9780143036661, $14.00, paperback)
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, this novel follows Mr. March, the absent father of
Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women,” as he becomes a chaplain in the Union Army
during the Civil War. March’s radical abolitionist beliefs cause friction within
the military and within his family, as shown in his diary entries and in the
terse letters he exchanges with his wife. His experiences are fraught and
fascinating as he ministers to war-time “contraband”—former slaves who are
compelled to continue working Southern cotton plantations for the benefit of the
Union army: Read
review
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"47" by Walter Mosley (Little, Brown Young
Readers, 9780316016353, $7.99,
paperback)
This novel mixes history with science fiction to create a story unlike anything
else: On a Georgia cotton plantation in the early 1800s, a young boy known as
slave number Forty-seven endures a hard life until he meets a strange visitor
who claims to have sailed from a place beyond Africa in a ship moved by
sunlight. The stranger tells Forty-seven that he’s come to help him fulfill his
destiny as a hero who will fight a great battle to save the world:
Read review
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“Fever 1793” by Laurie Halse Anderson (Aladdin, 9780689848919, $5.99,
paperback)
This novel follows 16-year-old Mattie Cook, a young woman caught in the yellow
fever epidemic that wiped out ten percent of the population of Philadelphia in
1793, when that city was still the nation’s capital and home to Thomas Jefferson
and George Washington. As Mattie loses people close to her, she begins to grow
into a capable businesswoman while watching her young nation struggle to survive
the virulent sickness. (Also: “The American Plague” by Jim Murphy is an
award-winning non-fiction book that gives background on the yellow fever
epidemic.)
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“The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: Volume I -
The Pox Party” by M. T. Anderson (Candlewick, 9780763636791, $10.99, new in
paperback January 2008)
Winner of the National Book Award, this novel has the best title ever. It’s set
in Boston just before the American Revolution and follows the life of a young
boy raised in secret and tutored by a band of eccentric academics to be an
American prince. Octavian soon learns, however, that his pampered life is lie
and that he and his mother were kidnapped into slavery from Africa. As smallpox
sweeps the region, he takes the greatest risk of his life when he runs away to
join the war and fight for his freedom:
Read review
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“Copper Sun” by Sharon M. Draper (Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing,
9781416953487, $8.99, new in paperback January 2008)
Fifteen-year-old Amari is about to be married when slavers attack her village,
kill her family, and take her to be sold as a property. After a harrowing
journey across the Atlantic, she is purchased by a Carolina plantation owner as
a gift for his son. In her new life, Amari befriends a white indentured servant,
and the two girls work together to cover up their mistress’s secret pregnancy.
This book is a fast-paced adventure story that gives a fascinating look at the
lives of both slaves and indentured workers during America’s early years. It’s
also the 2007 winner of the Coretta Scott King Award.
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Past reviews and archived issues of Teacher Feature can be read on-line on the
Watermark Web site at:
http://www.watermarkbooks.com/teacharchives.html
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Later educators,
Mark David Bradshaw
Click here for the Teacher Feature Archives
Peruse
back issues of teacher feature since its inception in April
2003.
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