Book Review- Chapter Book, Award winner

Chapter book for fourth to fifth graders. "Bridge to Terabithia," by Katherine Paterson. Winner of Newbery Medal. This book is about the friendship between a boy and a girl. They initially bond because they both can run fast. They build an imaginary kingdom, Terabithia, where they reign as king and queen. This book is very well written, however it has a sad ending. When I read this book as a child I didn't like that there was a death. To me this death was different than reading some fantasy book where someone dies. This death seemed more real.

Book Review- Chapter book, Award Winner

Chapter book for nine to twelve-year-olds, depending on their reading level. "A Wrinkle in Time," by Madeleine L'engle. A Newbery Medal winner.

Girls, as well as boys, should like this book. The book is literally about a wrinkle in time. Two children look for their father, a scientist, who has mysterious disappeared while working on tesseract, a wrinkle in time, for the government. My brothers bought me this book as a child and I enjoyed it. However, I had a friend at school who didn't understand what all the hullabaloo was about this book. She didn't care it won an award. Though I recommend this book for children, not every book, as distinguished as it may be, is for every child. A child who likes bug books and adventure stories might be bored out of their mind with a book about how cars were invented. Each to their own. There is a book for everyone.

Book Review- Award Winner

Chapter book for third to fifth graders. "The Whipping Boy," by Sid Fleischman. New Newbery Medal winner. A short chapter book. Once again here's a book I've known to be on the reading requirement list in a grammar school. It's a fast read and has a good plot. It takes place about two hundred and fifty years ago, when princes and kings ruled Europe. A poor boy named Jemmy is the whipping boy for a bratty prince. In this kingdom whenever the prince misbehaves the whipping boy gets the punishment. Can't say I'd like it one lick. And in fact Jemmy in the beginning would like the Prince to get what he deserves. However, nice boy that he is Jemmy changes his mind later when the two boys run away after being taken hostage. Jemmy feels sorry when the Prince is whipped by a cutthroat. Because he knows how it feels.

Book Review

It's a tearjerker week. We had Old Yeller for a movie and now "Sounder" for a book.

"Sounder" is a chapter book for nine to eleven-year-olds, depending on their reading level. The author is William H. Armstrong. This is an A one book. Thus, a Newbery Medal winner. It's not a thick book so it can be easily read in a week. The story is about a poor African-American boy living in the South. What happens to this boy and his dog, Sounder, stirs the reader. The boy's sharecropping father is taken off to jail. Sounder tries to jump in the sheriff's wagon to be with the father, but instead is shot by the sheriff. You keep reading and hoping Sounder will be okay. He survives, but loses an eye and is crippled. After all this he still has faith in human kindness. I have known some grade school kids who had to read this book for class. This isn't a bad idea. Not all kids have near perfect lives. Learning about the sorrows and prejudices that other kids face can make a child more emphatic to others plights.

Tomorrow there will a Father's Day arts and craft project.

Book Review- Award Winner

Chapter book for forth to sixth graders. "Holes," by Louis Sachar. A Newbery Winner. If your child has seen the movie then have them read the book. Or visa versa. This book is about Stanley, a boy who is sent to an all boy's reform camp. It was that or jail. He chooses Camp Green Lake, a place where Stanley finds out you have to dig holes day after day. And since there is no lake there you can't even take a cold dip after a hard days work. All this digging is supposed build character. But Stanley thinks there is more than meets the eye about that. A very interesting book, which delves deep into the shadowy recesses of the human mind.

Book Review- Award Winner

Chapter book for forth to seventh graders. "Johnny Tremain," by Esther Forbes, a historian. A Newbery winner. Not to be discriminatory, but to be honest this book is better suited for boys. As a child I read this book because I had a many greats, great-grandfather who signed the Declaration of Independence and I was interested in just why we went to war.
The story takes place just before the American Revolution. It's about a boy, Johnny, who gets caught up in all the commotion of pre-war and the early parts of fighting. History does come alive in this book, but it's not for all kids. It's not easy, fast reading. And some children might get bored and stop reading it.

Book Review- Award Winner

From time to time I will list award winning books.
Chapter book for forth to seventh graders. "Island of the Blue Dophins," by Scott O'Dell. Winner of the Newbery Medal. A grand book. Story taken from an actual fact that an Indian girl spent eighteen years alone on an island. This book is about an Indian girl, Karana, who's unintentionally left behind on an island. She waits year after year hoping to be rescued by her people. Until then she has to do a lot to stay alive. Using her wits she makes her own shelter, obtains her own food and makes weapons to keep off the island's feral dogs. A truly inspiring and amazing book. Karana is a real life, Survivor.