Aah…April in New England! Crocuses blooming, the smell of spring rain, and the return of baseball. Here’s an all-star roster of nine (of course!) baseball titles to read between innings or during that inevitable rain delay.
The classic narrative poem.
Jackie faces powerhouse batter Babe Ruth.
Jackie Robinson breaks the color barrier in Major League Baseball.
Compare baseball in the USA and Japan.
The amazing story of the Negro Baseball League.
Travel back in time and meet baseball great Roberto Clemente.
A revolutionary approach to the game is met with skepticism.
Pike’s Book Squad voted on Tuesday for their choice in the annual Massachusetts Children’s Book Award – here’s a peek at our top vote-getters! We’ll need to wait until April 1st to find out the state-wide results, but in the meantime, here are some student comments about these fabulous books…
Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea – “This book is about a rookie teacher who knows how to make school fun. Everything was great until Peter threw the snowball. I liked this book because each chapter was from a different student’s perspective.”
The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens – “Read this book if you like adventures, mystery, or Harry Potter. It’s about three kids who discover they can time travel and have to defeat the Countess. I loved that you couldn’t put it down.”
The Candymakers by Wendy Mass – “It was exciting and full of cliff-hangers, secrets, and surprises. I liked how all the kids didn’t know each other in the beginning but in the end they’re all good friends.”
Book Squad students will be going to the polls next week to vote in the annual Massachusetts Children’s Book Award. Voting day is always a huge thrill – the excited debate over the nominated titles gives way to the expectant hush while the all-important choice is considered. Judging by the buzz in our group, I have to think that one of the top contenders will be this delectable book by Wendy Mass, The Candymakers.
Four lucky twelve-year-old kids have been chosen to compete in a national candy making competition: Daisy, Miles, Philip, and Logan, the candymaker’s son. They all have talents – and secrets. We hear about the opening days of the competition from each person’s point of view, learning just how important the competition is for each of them. Of course, there’s plenty of mouthwatering candy-making action, as the contestants practice boiling sugar mixtures and molding chocolate. When the factory’s secret ingredient is stolen, it’s up to all four contestants to put their desire to win aside and solve the mystery. There are plenty of twists and turns before everyone’s secrets are revealed and a new candymaker is crowned.
Of course, Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is the gold standard of confection adventures (I still have my hardcover copy from 4th grade), but The Candymakers is every bit as good. Will it be enough to be a Massachusetts Children’s Book Award winner? Only time will tell.
Well, it’s been a busy January so far, and the best is yet to come! The annual 3rd grade Mock Caldecott election, all the award announcements from the American Library Association, and a visit from author and illustrator Grace Lin – all in the next two weeks. Phew!
Grace Lin has been writing and illustrating books since 1999, when her first book, The Ugly Vegetables, was published. Let’s take a look at her newest book, Starry River of the Sky, a companion novel to her popular Newbery Honor book, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.
Rendi has run away from home in a merchant’s cart, but in The Village of Clear Sky, he is discovered and thrown out. Luckily, the innkeeper offers him a job and lodging, both of which Rendi grudgingly accepts. He is ill suited for his new life and can’t wait to leave the village. The innkeeper’s daughter, Peiyi, bosses him around but is sad about her missing brother. The villagers seems to bicker all the time. Although he hates this strange place, he starts to wonder why the moon doesn’t appear in the sky, and who or what moans so sadly at night. Most strange of all, he is the only one who notices!
One day, a mysterious traveler arrives at the inn. Madame Chang tells stories and tales that fascinate Rendi. Gradually, Rendi reveals details about his own unhappy past and comes to realize that his destiny is to help restore the moon to The Village of Clear Sky. But where will he find it? How will he accomplish such a task? He will have to face his heritage and accept help from unexpected places if he is to succeed.
Grace Lin’s luminous illustrations bring the characters and the village to life, but it’s the interspersed tales that reveal a deeper layer of meaning while giving us glimpses into the villagers’ lives. Key details come to light at just the right time for us to make connections. When at last Rendi begins to tell his own story, we sense momentous events on the horizon.
I have so many questions for our visiting author, and I know you will too! Until then, here’s Grace Lin discussing the story behind the story.
Well, it’s that time of year – time to rev up my reading for the Massachusetts Children’s Book Award. Fresh out of the box is The Robe of Skulls, which definitely gets an award for coolest cover. Check out our villain Lady Lamorna’s hair! And there are – yes, you guessed it – skulls decorating her robe.
Owning a robe like this is Lady Lamorna’s dream. The only problem is, she needs a lot of gold to pay the Ancient Crones to make it. Her servant troll, Gubble, provides the inspiration for a dastardly plan: turn the princes and princesses of the Five Kingdoms into frogs and demand a hefty ransom for their return. The robe is as good as hers!
Enter our heroine, Gracie Gillypot. She’s a spunky girl whose stepfather and stepsister treat her cruelly, so when a cheery bat approaches her with the chance to have an adventure, she jumps at the chance. Along the way she encounters Marcus, a stubborn prince who just may turn out to be more help than he seems. Because there is another villain in the wings just waiting to outsmart Lady Lamorna, and they will need to stick together if they have any chance of restoring order to the Kingdoms.
This is the first title in Vivian French’s series Tales from the Five Kingdoms. I’ve got to get the next books in the series!
I recently had the pleasure of meeting with 4th grade Language Arts classes to talk about reading picture books – a format that’s easy to forget about when fabulous series like The Mysterious Benedict Society are around. Picture books have a lot going for them – illustrations to explain a foreign country or the Civil War, challenging vocabulary, and occasionally, a sophisticated sense of humor. Here’s a look at my current favorite picture book for older readers, Chloe and the Lion by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Adam Rex.
Our story starts off smoothly enough with Chloe, who sets off toward the forest and encounters – a dragon? Mac, the author, wants to know who changed the story. It turns out that Adam, the illustrator, thinks a dragon is way cooler than a lion. The stage is set for a hilarious showdown between author and illustrator, who just cannot agree. Finally, Chloe takes matters into her own hands and moves the story along, much to Mac and Adam’s dismay.
In real life, Mac and Adam are good friends, but they create a believable feud within the story while showing us the collaboration needed between an author and illustrator.
We are oh-so-excited about our upcoming Book Fair and this year’s visiting author, David Kelly! He combines two of my favorite things – baseball and mysteries – into fabulous chapter books, each one featuring a different Major League ball park.
In The Fenway Foul-Up (my favorite!), cousins Kate and Mike are excited to visit Fenway Park and take advantage of all-access passes before watching the Red Sox game. When a star player’s lucky bat goes missing before the game, Kate and Mike are on the case, going into the locker room, behind the scoreboard, and even to the gift shop in search of Big D’s bat. Will they find it and save the game?
What I love most about David Kelly’s books is how he includes details about the ball parks while giving us an intriguing mystery to try and solve along with Mike and Kate. He has even created a blog from Mike’s point of view that has ballpark facts, baseball news, and updates on new titles.
Mr. Kelly will be visiting Pike on Wednesday afternoon, November 14th after school to talk about his writing and hopefully give us a sneak peak at what ball parks he’s writing about next! He’ll also take time to sign books – a very special memento of what’s sure to be a fabulous event.
Long before the smart kids of The Mysterious Benedict Society and the plucky orphans of A Series of Unfortunate Events, two cousins waged battle against their evil guardian in The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken. This thrilling adventure was published 50 years ago and sets the standard for high adventure and gothic drama.
Bonnie and Sylvia are looking forward to a lovely visit together in Bonnie’s lovely manor near London, even though fierce wolves roam in terrifying packs. Bonnie’s parents are away on a sea voyage and Miss Slighcarp, a distant cousin, has been asked to watch over the girls and the household. As you may have guessed, the devious Miss Slighcarp has other plans – together with her partner Mr. Grimshaw, she fires the loyal household staff and packs the girls off to a filthy orphanage where they are made to work from dawn until dusk.
All is not lost for our heroines – their clever and faithful friend Simon is hard at work on a plan for escape. Will he be discovered by the matron of the orphanage? Will Bonnie’s parents survive a suspicious accident at sea? Pick up this page-turner and find out!
Other Joan Aiken adventures I’ve enjoyed: Black Hearts in Battersea and Nightbirds on Nantucket.
It’s rare that a book sticks with me – the next book in my “to-read” pile usually calls insistently to me. But I need to stay a little longer with Code Name Verity, the haunting young adult novel I’ve just finished.
It’s 1943, and the British are fighting Hitler any way they can. Two women have caught the eye of intelligence officials: one is named Maddie, a no-nonsense tomboy who loves to fly planes; the other…well, she has many names, and both her charisma and her skills of deception are extraordinary.
As “Verity” begins her story, she is a prisoner in a Gestapo headquarters in northern France, under orders to turn over key information or face execution. What follows is her funny, sarcastic, terrifying, and sometimes misleading account of how she and Maddie met and came to be with British Special Operations (in other words, be spies). And what about her mission? Does she reveal it? Can she manage to save herself? The narrative shifts abruptly and we see the the same chain of events told through the eyes of “Kittyhawk.” Gradually, we come to understand how many ordinary French citizens defy and sabotage the Nazis through a systematic Resistance movement. The tension builds as, impossibly, the mission may have a chance of success, and in one heart-stopping moment, terror, love and sacrifice collide (yes, I’m crying again just remembering it).
I had the great pleasure of hearing author Elizabeth Wein talk about her book at a recent conference, where she said that she always wanted to write a female soldier story. We are so lucky that she has.
Just in time for International Talk Like a Pirate Day, here’s a rip-roaring adventure from a brand-new author, Geoff Rodkey.
Deadweather and Sunrise is the first in a planned series about Egg (short for Egbert), who is a nice guy but hated by his family. They live on a dreary island inhabited mainly by pirates, farming their fruit plantation until one day, their father comes home with an odd expression and a scrap of parchment, announcing a surprise trip to the neighboring, prosperous island of Sunrise.
Little does Egg know that his father has stumbled upon valuable information – information which his father’s powerful new friend Mr. Pembroke is willing to kill for. Egg is thrust into a cat-and-mouse game, surviving a cliff-side “accident” only to be captured by the most dreaded pirate of them all, Burn Healy. Imagine Egg’s surprise when Healy, instead of killing him, gives him this advice: “Roger Pembroke’s not a man who gives up easily. If I were you, and he was that bent on killing me…I’d think seriously about killing him first.”
Can Egg manage to unravel the mystery of the parchment and escape Pembroke? You’ll have to hop to and hunker down with the book to find out! While you’re at it, take a minute to visit the Chronicles of Egg web site where you can play games and explore the islands of the Blue Sea.
We are librarians at The Pike School in Andover, Massachusetts. We love reading, dogs, and chocolate! Most of all, we love sharing great books with our students.
Favorite Quote
"I have sought for happiness everywhere, but I have found it nowhere except in a little corner with a little book."
~ Thomas Kempis
author, Geoff Rodkey.