Too busy

I've been grumping lately.....I don't know where I got the idea that summer was supposed to be a slower time of year than the rest.....but it's NOT TRUE!  During the school year, I push projects and ideas I have off toward summer because there's supposed to be time to get things done then. Nope. Summer for me is being available to four children...that I love...and want to be available to. However, this means all that time I thought I would have is still a day dream. sigh.

Thank goodness for books on CD. I'm as embarassed as happy to report that I've finally gotten around to The Color Purple by Alice Walker. This book took the world by storm in 1982 when I was still in high school. I simply never got around to it in college or later and now am enjoying it. There's not a thing I could say that hasn't been said about this amazing story. My impression of it all is summed up in the word intense. I'm so glad I've finally gotten around to this story.

I wandered over to Alice Walker's incredible website. It contains her blog and much, much free poetry. For sure, I'll be back there to soak up some poetry and learn more about the author and her writings.

http://alicewalkersgarden.com/

Maybe after this next week of camp---four out of six of us are registered for camp and three of us are registered for two camps next week--things will settle down so that I can get back into the book that I can turn the pages of. I miss them.

Walker, A. The Color Purple. New York: Recorded Books. 2010. Audio.

My Vacation Reading

On vacation I listened to a book and read a book. Both are for grown-ups and good stories. But, I think I’ll go back to YA books.


Little Bee by Chris Cleave is an incredible journey of two women who become friends through a traumatic circumstance. Little Bee, a young Nigerian girl, is witness to atrocities committed by government soldiers securing land upon which newly discovered oil fields lay. Because she is witness, she is targeted for death. Sarah Sommers is a hip British magazine editor on holiday in Nigeria trying to save her marriage. When the women meet, they are bound together in a terrible event that will require them both to seek the strength of the other to survive.

As Little Bee tells her story she admonishes: “We must agree that scars are beautiful. Scars are beautiful because the wearer has survived. Likewise, stories, even difficult ones are beautiful because the teller has survived to tell the tale.”

Little Bee takes readers from Nigeria to England back to Nigeria through the journeys of an illegal alien and a wealthy woman. It’s tough to consider how much or little we in the modern, civilized, first –choose your adjective—world do or not do for the less fortunate. This fiction book was very prickly to listen to.

More about Little Bee: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPI54Kl0NIg


Little Bee has earned the praise of many in the publishing world:
*NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

* Shortlisted for the 2008 Costa Novel Award

* Nominated for the 2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book

* Long listed for IMPAC Dublin Literary Award

* A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice

Cleave, C. Little Bee. Connecticut: Tantor Media. 2009. Audio



Burning Bright is written by Tracy Chevalier. The essential question of this book is fascinating. What was it like to live in England during the time of William Blake? Of course, the answer is not easy. Industrialization was beginning to drive the lives of thousands and across the channel; France was caught up in its Revolution. Poets such as Blake respond to their times as poets do….without the benefit of freedom of press.

“Tyger tyger burning bright”

Blake’s story is told through the eyes of neighbor children caught up in lives of their times. I picked this book up because Chevalier is one of my favorite authors. She wrote Girl with a Pearl Earring. However, this book didn’t hold me as others as hers have.

More about this book and author Chevalier: http://www.tchevalier.com/burningbright/index.html

Chevalier, T. Burning Bright. New York: Dutton. 2007. Print.

2011 Adult Books with Teen Appeal

Yay! It is another snow day in Northern Virginia. In between calls of "mom, MOM," I am catching up on some reading. I just started this year's Newberry Winner: Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool and am enjoying being snowed in with a great story.

I also caught up on some American Library Association reading and saw a list of the Alex Awards. Alex Awards are given to the 10 best adult books that appeal to teen audiences by the American Library Association. I thought my several friends with pre-teen and teens might want to see these titles. Please know that I haven't read even one of these books. I cannot endorse any of them yet. If you read one or if your child read's one or more, please let me know what thoughts are on the book(s).

• The Reaper's are Angels: A Novel by Alden Bell
  
• The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake: A Novel by Aimee Bender
  
• The House of Tomorrow by Peter Bognanni
  
• Room: A Novel by Emma Donoghue
  
• The Vanishing of Katharina Linden: A Novel by Helen Grant
  
• The Radleys by Matt Haig
  
• The Lock Artists by Steve Hamilton
  
• Girl in Transition by Jean Kwok
  
• Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard by Liz Murray.
  
• The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To by DC Pierson
  

For an amazing and complete list of Youth Media awards presented at the American Library Association Mid-Winter Conference 2011, go to: http://www.ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/news/pr.cfm?id=6048

Joseph Bruchac, author of Code Talker and so much more

Code Talker and more by Joseph Bruchac
A funny thing happened to me on my way to Ms. Jones' Reading class. I was preparing a book talk, which is a short talk about one or several books for students as a way of introducing them to titles they may be interested in reading. As I was preparing a list of books to talk about tomorrow, I noticed a book titled Squanto's Journey in a book display I arranged for November. Ooooh. I thought, this is the week before Thanksgiving I should include that book. It's a beautifully written picture book of the Thanksgiving story told through Squanto's point of view. The perspective is interesting and historically accurate. Then, I was cataloging some donated books and saw the author of Squanto's Journey's name, Bruchac, again on The Dark Pond. I picked it up and read it. It was a great story….a bit scary but centered on a Native American character from upstate New York.
Since I'm a native New Yorker and fascinated by Native American tales, I thought I'd look up this author, Bruchac, and find out what other books he's written as I enjoyed the first two books so much. I was wowed by the author's official website. Joseph Bruchac is the author of Code Talker and 70 additional books for children, teens and adults. All of his books are related to the Native American experience. Bruchac writes these books with the authority of being born of Abenaki, a Native American tribe from New York State's Adirondack region.
I immediately picked up Code Talker and couldn't put it down. The story is told through the narrative of a fictional grandfather Navaho code talker in World War II to his grandchildren. The story begins when the main character, Ned Begay, is six years old and sent away to a mission boarding school where he is instructed to forget about being Navaho in every way. Historically, Native American children such as Begay
were indeed punished for speaking or connecting to their native culture while living at white boarding schools all over the US.
Ned Begay survives his years of schooling by being smart, quiet and polite until during the early years of World War II when Navaho Americans were recruited by the US Marine Corps to use their native language for military code during the Pacific Island Hopping campaign. Begay lies about his age to join the Marines and becomes part of the secret code talking Navaho force.
Despite the irony of being called upon to save the lives of thousands of Americans through mastery of a language they were forced to forget as children, real code talkers during the war served with incredible distinction and bravery. The historical detail in this novel written for Middle to High School students is thorough and enthralling… far more interesting and in depth than any Social Studies book I ever taught from as a Social Studies teacher years ago. This book is equally captivating for adults and should be read by anyone wanting to understand how the US was able to win against the formidable war machine that the Japanese empire was during the war.
Notes from the author at the end of the book about Bruchac's inspiration for writing Code Talker are amazing….more than amazing but I don't know the words to adequately describe the awe I am in for this author's passion for researching and preserving Native American history, culture and society through his gifts and talents as a writer. It is an honor to read this book and absorb this part of Navaho and American history. I will enthusiastically encourage Middle Schoolers to read it and find out more about the importance of Code Talkers in defending and preserving our nation. I recommend it for high school and adult reading as well.
Two websites are worth mentioning for further learning about this author. The first is Joseph Bruchac's official website that describes more about him and how his life is work and his work is his life. I highly recommend a visit there: http://www.josephbruchac.com/published_books.html
The second site is a 2005 interview of Joseph Bruchac by Cynthia Leitich Smith about his journey in writing Code Talker: http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/2005/09/author-interview-joseph-bruchac-on.html
Joseph Bruchac has won numerous awards for his novels, picture books, non-fiction works and poetry. He is definitely an author to explore! I can't wait to get my hands on another one of his books.
Bruchac, Joseph. Code Talker. New York: Penguin Publishing, 2006. Print.

The Secret Life of Bees

The Secret Life of Bees

I told my facebook friends that I was reading this book and a response from a friend was that her son was encouraged to read this book as a ninth or tenth grader for summer reading. Her observation that it was not a book designed for young teen boys. I have to agree with her on that. This book is heavily laden with woman's thought, woman's love, loss, grief, gain and power. I would never expect a young teen boy to connect with this book in a meaningful way….I wouldn't expect my forty-something husband who's been trying to figure out "girl stuff" for fifteen years of marriage now to really connect with this book. The Secret Life of Bees, in my opinion, is also the secret life of women. If a young man reads it and enjoys it, more power to him…..but I'd never force it. That being said, I would definitely include The Secret Life of Bees in a high school collection. My favorite line from the book is one that would do all the world good to understand: "And when you get down to it, Lily, that's the only purpose grand enough for a human life. Not just to love—but to persist in love."(p. 289).

Add Secret Life of Bees to your summer reading, girls. It's a book to be enjoyed in hot weather with a teaspoon of honey mixed into your tea.

Kidd, S. (2002). The Secret Life of Bees. New York: Penguin.