Anna and the French Kiss (Module 4)

Summary
Anna has been forced to go to a Parisian boarding school for her senior of high school. Her father (who sounds VERY similar to Nicholas Sparks) wants her to receive an education and a cultural background. Anna must leave her best friend and a boy she has an almost relationship with and start all over again. In Paris, Anna begins to enjoy school, make friends, and finds it is a city filled with classic films. This happens to be very lucky as Anna wants to be a film editor when she graduates. While at school, Anna also finds Étienne St. Clair- a gorgeous, British senior with a very serious girlfriend. There seem to be sparks between Anna and St. Clair, but what can she do when he is taken?

Suggested Activities
This novel could be fun to use in a Study Abroad section of the library, which could have books around focusing on students traveling around the world. This could encourage students to do a foreign exchange program in high school or even college.
Since the book is so lovey-dovey it could also be fun to use it for Valentine's Day programming. The librarian could have students recommend their favorite romantic novels and post them around the library to get everyone in the spirit!

Reviews

This is the first novel from American author Stephanie Perkins. It is written in the first person from the point of view of Anna, 17 year old high school student from Atlanta. Her father has a new lucrative career as a romance author, and has decided that Anna should spend her final year of high school at the School of America in Paris. Anna is very much opposed to the idea, but she soon makes friends.

She very quickly develops a major crush on one of her new friends, Etienne St Clair. It is obvious to the reader that Etienne feels the same way as Anna, but it is not obvious to her. The novel follows the developing relationship between Anna and Etienne, and Anna's growing confidence as she learns to navigate a new city, culture and language.

This is an easy, pleasant read, if a touch predictable. Adolescent girls should be able to relate to Anna, who is an authentic character with an authentic voice. There are also some interesting facts about France, Paris, literature and history scattered in the text, which gives it some extra depth. There are some brief references to sex and alcohol. On the whole it should be a well used addition to an upper secondary school library.

Kemble, R. (2011). Anna and the french kiss. Reading Time,55(2), 36. doi: GALE|A258438950

My Thoughts
Stephanie Perkins: you are no Sarah Dessen. Ok, I may be a little biased, I started reading Sarah Dessen books when I was 14 and honestly I just haven't stopped since then. I basically think Dessen hung the moon when it comes to high school romance novels and I found this one, Anna and the French Kiss, fell short of all my Dessen-like expectations.

There were some qualities I liked. St. Clair seemed dreamy, yet realistic, he was short! I loved that he came off as popular, sweet, funny, charming- but was still short and had a weird home life. That seemed more real then these perfect high school boys most authors create. Anna also had some interests that kept her interesting- she loved classic films, her little brother and was very involved in school. Another plus in my mind, a main character who accepts school and family life and isn't trying to rebel- I think is needed for many readers,  someone they can relate to. I also loved the setting of this novel-Paris, what's not to love? It was charming to read about an American high schooler struggling with French and enjoying the good food.

Now onto the things I didn't love... Anna seemed a little bit like a one trick pony throughout the novel. She loved classic films and she wasn't passionate about much else, except St. Clair. I dislike the depiction of a girl who loves only one thing, and obsesses on that and the boy she likes. Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but in high school my friends were multi-dimensional, my best friend loved ice skating, horses, she had a job at a pizza shop and struggled with low self esteem. And yes, she also obsessed over her crush but she had more character than Anna did while she obsessed. I just hate that readers get this idea that they should be so intensely focused on one thing and not be a well rounded individual.

In general, I also felt this book gave an unrealistic idea of relationships and how they should start to high school girls. I hated that St. Clair was in a relationship, made out with Anna publicly and then left his girlfriend to be with Anna in the end. I just don't agree with what that teaches girls- especially at the age they are reading it, high school age or even younger than that. I think what we should be teaching these girls is that most guys, who have serious girlfriends, and make out with you- won't expect much more from you. They may not make you their girlfriend and instead you are left alone, while he goes back to his girlfriend. Then you have to deal with feelings of rejection and guilt on your own. I would love to see a book that shows high school girls how healthy relationships should start and how they should continue. Unfortunately, I don't think that would be the page turner that Anna and the French Kiss is.

Bibliography
Perkins, S. (2011). Anna and the French kiss. Speak.

Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key (Module 4)

Summary
 Joey is a boy who many would describe as ADD or ADHD. He is always moving, can't pay attention and seems to bother every adult around him. His mother left him when he was little, along with his father, and he was raised by his grandmother. Eventually Joey's mom comes back to raise him and creates a ton of rules for Joey to follow, and tries to help him with medication. Joey wants to be a good kid, but even with medication, he just can't seem to follow the rules.

Suggested Activities
This book would be great in a "Just for Boys" section of the library or even in an all boys reading club. Joey's behavior really comes through in Gantos' writing and would be great for any boy, especially one who has trouble paying attention. So many times there are books focused on girls, or even books with boy characters can come across as "girly". This would be a great book for boys to read and to encourage more boy students to read.

Reviews
Joey knows that he's "wired" and that his medication only intermittently enables him to calm down and focus on school tasks and reasonable behavior. More often he's swallowing his house key on a bet, sharpening everything he can find (including his finger) in the pencil sharpener, and sneaking the special scissors out of the teacher's desk-which results in another student's trip to the emergency room. This drastic event results in Joey's being moved from the special education class in his own school to "intensive counseling at the special-ed center downtown," but it also results in a more comprehensive and ultimately more helpful approach to his problems. The plot has some similarities to familiar learning-disability problem novels, but the treatment is quite different indeed. For one thing this starts after most of them leave off-the problem isn't that Joey's undiagnosed, and mere recognition of the problem isn't enough to solve it. Gantos has a heartbreaking honesty about the lot of a kid treated poorly by fate that makes you realize how much other children's authors tend to pull their punches. Joey's mother really does love him; she also left him for years with his creepy grandmother while she threw her lot in with his alcoholic father (whereabouts of Grandma and her son both currently uncertain), and she has missed several opportunities to improve Joey's situation for reasons we never quite know. Joey's narration is a particular achievement: it offers a vivid insight into his world, making his insistent internal pressure to bounce and fiddle tangible and contagious while also making it completely understandable that adults who deal with him don't really know what to do and are often at their wits' end. Jane Cutler's Spaceman (BCCB 5/97) decorously broke some new ground on this topic; Gantos roars past genre boundaries and takes readers to a place they've probably never been before. DS

Stevenson, D. (1998). Joey pigza swallowed the key. Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, 52(3), 95. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/223712945?accountid=7113

Joey Pigza Swallowed The Key by Jack Gantos

You'll love ft because: Joey Pigza's behavior gets him into loads of trouble. Will he ever get himself under control? You won't stop reading until you find out.

Book nook: Secrets and surprises from the world of books. (2002, Nov). Storyworks, 10, 4. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/213415175?accountid=7113

My Thoughts
 This book broke my heart. I felt so sad reading this book. I have such a hard time relating to ADD or ADHD students in the classroom. I can be overly focused on one thing for too long of time- I just can't imagine my mind being all over the place. Reading Joey's thoughts helped me understand how some of my students must feel. They can't pay attention, they can't sit still- but they want to so badly.  What really made this book hard for me to swallow was the fact that there was no solution. In the end Joey did get some medicine that helped, through a process I found quite extraordinary and in no way believable. I don't know how the public school system could get Joey to all those doctors and appointments. I have seen several students, in Joey's shoes, and when the parents work a lot and aren't able to be as involve,d  there is just no way for a teacher or school to get them to a doctor and brain scans. But besides the unbelievable moments of him finding medicine, I was just hoping it would be give me an answer of how to help these ADD or ADHD kids- and it just didn't.
I did love the message though- that even the most difficult kids can be lovable, likable and special. So many kids don't get that message and just think they are "bad" but Joey can change that idea in kids. And that is something I really liked.

Bibliography
Gantos, J. (2001). Joey pigza swallowed the key. New York: HarperCollins.

From The Mixed up Files of Basil E. Frankweiler (Module 3)

Summary
Claudia lives in Connecticut with her family and decides it's time to run away. She feels stuck in her life and needs to be different, to make a change. She invites along her brother Jamie (because he has money, and she doesn't) and together they hide out in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for over a week. While there they discover a statue, The Angel, which is rumored to be created by Michelangelo. Claudia will stop at nothing to find out if that's true, and she drags Jamie along with her.

Suggested Activities
This book could be used in a literature circle setting about Utopian societies (or Dystopian societies) for students who dislike the futuristic, fantasy genre and prefer more realistic fiction. Claudia believes moving into the museum will make her different and make her life different. But she realizes in her idea of Utopia, things are just the same for her. This would be challenging for students to make that connection but would also help with the genre issues and could be good for lower level readers in middle school.

Another activity for this book would be grammar exercises! There are so many  moments in the book where Claudia badgers Jamie for his bad grammar habits. Mostly they relate to ending a sentence in a preposition, but there are several to choose from. It would be great to take these paragraphs where she is pestering him about his grammar, because she never comes out and says the problem, and have students find a pattern of what he's doing wrong. It would make grammar more interesting and hopefully make students want to read this book.

Reviews
What's your favorite kids book?

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E. L. Konigsberg

-Courtney CoxArquette, star of Friends

What's your favorite kids' book? (2003, Apr). Storyworks, 10, 4. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/213407570?accountid=7113

Two years later, in 1968, the Medal went to E. L. Konigsburg's From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Unlike Treviño's work, this novel remains a favorite title, not only because it is well written and amusing but also because, like Treviño's work, it offers a seductive fantasy of private mastery of public culture, set in more familiar territory: New York City, specifically the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In Konigsburg's story, Claudia and Jamie Kincaid run away from home and hide out in the Met. The novel includes a map of the Met so that readers can follow along. Claudia burns with intellectual curiosity, while Jamie is obsessed with money; Claudia calls him "Mr. Pinchpenny" (96). Capital and the desire for cultural capital inform their every move. They show "cultural goodwill" toward art, sensing "the magic of the name of Michelangelo" (65), and set off to determine the authenticity of a statue named Angel. Is Angel an original work of art, everyone wonders, or is it merely a copy?

Kidd, K. (2007). Prizing children's literature: The case of newbery gold. Children's Literature, 35, 166-190,271. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/195588802?accountid=7113

My Thoughts
 I loved this book. I loved the mystery, the improbability of it all, the idea of running away someplace as fancy as the MET, I just loved everything about it. I really enjoyed the depiction of each of the characters and their strong personalities. Claudia is the uptight planner who follows the rules, Jamie is the mischievous penny pincher, and Mrs. Frankweiler comes across as a grumpy old woman-until the very end. I felt like everyone could relate to someone in this story, and I must related to Claudia. I can be a big planner who allows does everything just so and sometimes I try to escape that persona. But as Claudia learned, it's hard to change your personality.
I also found the book to be full of wise wisdom that young kids could appreciate. One of my favorite lines is from Jamie, when he's talking to Claudia about being home sick, he says, "Yeah, I guess homesickness is like sucking your thumb. It happens when you're not very sure of yourself" (Konigsburg, 1998).I feel like that line really rings true, but it's something I've never thought about. I hope kids stop to understand and appreciate that line while reading. It meant a lot to me.

Bibliography
Konigsburg, E. L. (1998). From the mixed-up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Atheneum.

Esperanza Rising (Module 3)

Summary
Esperanza is the only child of two very wealthy parents in Mexcio, who run a grape farm. Esperanza is about to turn 13 and is looking forward to the huge fiesta for her birthday and the end of the harvest season. A terrible family tragedy occurs, her father dies and her uncles torment her and her mother to get off their property in a multitude of ways. Esperanza, her mother, and their former servant family travel to the United States to work on migrant farms picking fruits and vegetables for very little money. This is a huge struggle for Esperanza, as she is used to having people wait on her hand and foot. When her mother falls ill, Esperanza must work even more than before and adjust to their new hard lifestyle. The story shows Esperanza come out of the struggle and learn what really matters in life.

Suggested Activities
I think this book would be great for a cultural presentation in the library or for classrooms. This story so strongly shows the Mexican culture and families, yet also shows how many Mexican Americans have had to adapt to life in the United States. It would be to have a month, or a section of the library dedicated to different cultures and this book could be there to represent Mexican Americans.

Reviews
Esperanza is born to a life of privilege-she could never have anticipated the life-changing circumstances that follow her father's sudden death. She immigrates to America with her mother, and pursues a lif, apart from the oppressive uncles they leave behind in Mexico. Raised as the daughter of a wealthy rancher, she has always had servants who waited on her. The sudden transition to being a farm laborer and living in the labor camps is a life for which she is ill prepared. Through all of the seemingly unbearable tests that Esperanza faces, she manages to keep her integrity. 
Yokota, J., & Cai, M. (2002). Esperanza rising. Language Arts, 79(3), 270. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/196896499?accountid=7113

Esperanza's life as the cherished only daughter of a rich Mexican rancher changes abruptly when her father is killed and her land-hungry uncles begin to pressure her widowed mother. They flee to the U.S., accompanied by their loyal housekeeper, Hortensia, and her son, Miguel. California in 1930 has little to offer penniless Mexican immigrants but hard agricultural labor, and the four settle in a work camp. Esperanza's pragmatic mother turns to field work while Esperanza struggles with an unpleasant learning curve, realizing that she at thirteen lacks the most basic practical skills that her eight-year-old campmate Isabel takes for granted. Things get worse: strikes loom, pressing the workers to take sides; Esperanza's mother falls ill, forcing Esperanza to become la patrons of the family; and Esperanza's dear friend Miguel disappears with the money she's saved. Based on Ryan's grandmother's experiences, this is an unusual story that steers clear of some romantic pitfalls. Though the piquant riches-to-rags element will draw readers, there's no authorial condescension towards Esperanza's campesino fellow workers, and Esperanza's gradual shedding of her own prejudices towards them is perceptively delineated. The discussion of the strike isn't one-sided, though the book does support Esperanza's decision to keep working, and there's some edifying information about the heterogeneousness of the Latino population in the workforce and their forced repatriation and even migration (some U.S. citizens were sent to Mexico as well). Wide-eyed but thoughtful Esperanza makes an attractive agent for these discussions, and her inevitable pairing with Miguel (who took her saved money in order to bring her beloved grandmother from Mexico to join the family) provides both a touch of romance and an illustration of what Esperanza has gained by coming north.
Stevenson, D. (2000). Esperanza rising. Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, 54(4), 160. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/223694599?accountid=7113


My Thoughts
 I knew this was going to be a good book when I brought it in to a restaurant and the waitress told me it was a great book before saying anything else to me! She was right- it was a page turner!
I really fell in love with Esperanza and her family as the story was told. She started out a little spoiled (OK, a lot spoiled) and turned into such a strong, smart young woman. Once her mother got sick at the migrant camps, she really pulled it together and became the strength, the backbone to keep it all going. I love that the author Pam Munoz Ryan showed the reality of the situation and showed how someone can keep their spirits high through it all. It was great to show that the mother faced depression in the face of all the struggles her family went through, and also showed that Esperanza could help find a way to solve the problem by going to work herself.

I also loved that the novel didn't have a typical ending where Esperanza and her mother went back to being wealthy and living the good life in Mexico. Instead, they changed. They learned what was really important, family and friends, instead of money. What a wonderful lesson to learn at such a young age.

Bibliography
Ryan, P. M. (2000). Esperanza rising. New York: Scholastic Inc.

The Sweetest Fig (Module 2)

Summary
The Sweetest Fig is a story of dentist in Paris, France. He does not seem like the nicest man around and can be cruel to his dog when he does something wrong. One day, an old woman comes in begging for help with her tooth ache. The dentist helps her by pulling a tooth and she tells him she has no money, instead she gives him 2 figs that will make his dreams come true. The next day after eating a fig, he realizes she meant this quite literally as his dream of walking down the street in his underwear comes true! He begins to train himself to dream of being the richest man in the world and plans to eat a fig to make his dreams come true. Instead, his dog eats the fig and finally gets back at him for being a cruel owner!

Suggested Activities
This would be a great story to use at a story time event. It could be introduced by having kids share about their pets and maybe the things they do wrong. Then the story could be read to them and finally we could do an activity of what would happen if our pets dreams came true! Kids could draw pictures of what their pets dreams are or write a story about it. If kids don't have pets,they could write about animals at the zoo or at animal parks.

Reviews

Chris Van Allsburg's The Sweetest Fig (Houghton Mifflin, 1993) leads students to explore a powerful theme-empathy. When this work is paired with Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game," a popular short story often included in ninth grade anthologies, students study the same theme across different genres.

In The Sweetest Fig, a self-centered dentist, Monsieur Bibot, is furious when a patient can pay for his services with only two figs and a promise that the figs will make his dreams come true. In anger, he ushers her out of the office, refusing to provide pain medication. After he eats the first fig, Bibot is shocked when the woman's promise is realized; however, Marcel, his ill-treated dog, devours the second fig before Bibot can reach it. As Marcel's dream of taking his master's place becomes a reality, the reader is led to believe that Bibot will learn, firsthand, how his callous behavior has affected those around him.

Matthews, R., Maria, C. M., Zuidema, L. A., Mascia, E. G., & al, e. (1999). What picture books do you recommend for use in the english language arts classroom? English Journal, 88(4), 27-33. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/237279010?accountid=7113

My Thoughts
I have to admit I am biased about this book, as I was turning the pages the drawing of the dog shocked me. It looks exactly like my dog! I love my dog more than healthy amount and seeing a replica in a picture book got me very excited. (I included a picture of both in this blog entry. I might look for a framed print of the dog so that I can always have a picture of my dog in my home!)

                Twin dogs!

Chirs Van Allsburg books just simply amaze me. The artwork is just incredible. As I was reading through this I kept thinking, "How does he not win a Caldecott for every single book he creates?" I was a huge Jumangi and The Polar Express fan as a child. His artwork is just so realistic and beautiful. It really is the star of the show!

The story, I felt, might be a little hard to grasp for younger kids. There was some terminology that might be confusing for 2nd grade and under. However, it's a great way to teach older kids some new vocabulary. It's a funny story that makes us think about what our pets really think!!

Bibliography
Van Allsburg, C. (1993). The sweetest fig. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Module 2)

Summary
Hugo, an orphaned boy, runs the clocks in a Parisian train station. His only connection to his father, who died tragically, is an automaton- like a robot. His father left behind this automaton that seems to be able to write, yet it is broken. Hugo begins stealing from the toy maker in the train station as an attempt to repair the automaton and is caught. He begins working for the man, Georges, and befriends his daughter, Isabelle. Together the two of them get the automaton to work and it draws a wonderful picture. This leads them to the movies and a wonderful secret about Georges that has been hidden for many years.

Suggested Activities
This book is a wonderful way to show older children, perhaps 4th-8th grade, how powerful pictures are in addition to a story. I think this story is made great because of it's wonderful pictures. And it would be a wonderful way to discuss the use of color with more advanced students, or even older students, since the whole book is in black and white. I would like to use this book as an example for the power of pictures combined with story and then have the students write their own story with powerful pictures. I think that would be a wonderful activity for students to do inside or outside of the classroom, maybe in a book club.

Reviews

Brian Selznick has created a bit of an anomaly: though his book is a blend of visual and textual narrative, it isn't a graphic novel, it is hundreds of pages longer than the average picture book, and the term "illustrated novel" doesn't really address its particular nature. Specifically, unlike most of the books in any of the three aforementioned formats, the drawings and text in this novel work not in synchronous partnership but rather sequentially, with the story handed off from pages of text to pages of visual narrative, resulting in something that evokes an intricate and tension-filled silent movie.

These alternating narrative media tell the story of twelve-year-old orphan Hugo, a boy who desperately misses his recently deceased father and who struggles to hold his life together after a new tragedy, the disappearance and likely death of his uncle, Hugo's guardian. Hugo had been acting as an apprentice to his uncle, learning to set the clocks in a Paris train station; as long as he keeps the clocks set properly, suggesting his uncle's continued presence, he can hide the fact that he is now living alone, stealing food to survive, and scavenging bits of machinery to pursue his dream: the restoration of a complex automaton that his father had found in a museum. At first, Hugo works from a notebook of diagrams that his father left behind, but after this is taken from him by an irate toymaker who catches Hugo stealing, he eventually discovers that he is talented enough to continue without it. The story also hints at broader mysteries with curious connections: the toymaker immediately recognizes the sketches of the automaton, a necklace worn by the toymaker's granddaughter is the last item needed by Hugo to complete the restoration, and the drawing that the automaton eventually produces has a dramatic impact on all of the characters.

Far from feeling coincidental or forced, however, the plot unfolds in satisfying layers, like a dramatic mystery film. And indeed, the careful pacing, heavy black frames that outline each page, and the sequential views that zoom in on a single image produce a remarkable cinematic effect. The nearly 300 pages of elegant pencil drawings, most combined in pages-long sequences, pick up where the text leaves off and sweep the reader along until the story is picked up again in words, sometimes twenty pages and several scenes later. The film influences are apparent in both the plot (the toymaker is the prolific filmmaker George Méliès, considered the father of science fiction movies) and in the visual images, several of which are photographed stills from Méliès' movies.

Avi's elegant Silent Movie (BCCB 4/03) recently explored this alluring genre, and Selznick ably picks up the thread, offering an engaging novel and intriguing end matter (author's note, film credits, and further reading list) that all but guarantee interest in the subject of silent film. It may well elicit some rather unexpected library requests for more information on early twentieth-century filmmaking; better yet, any library lucky enough to still have 16mm films in their collection will be perfectly equipped to offer young readers a rare glimpse into the quirkiness, beauty, and near magic of early moving pictures.

Dspite that sophisticated artistry, this remains a book firmly and appealingly intended for its young target audience. True, adults are likely to find it intriguing, and they will enjoy some of the subtleties that kids may miss (Remy Charlip posing as Georges Méliès, for example). However, the pacing, plot, and characters are all geared to young readers, who will find Hugo, the intrepid orphan racing against time and toward his goals, as compelling as the artistic tribute to cinema and forgotten filmic geniuses. Nor are they likely to mind the book's multiple layers; instead, they'll appreciate the ambition, embrace the complies, and revel in the rare experience of an original and creative integration of art and text. 

Spisak, A.Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Volume 60, Number 8, April 2007, pp. 321-322 (Article)

Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press DOI: 10.1353/bcc.2007.0234

My Thoughts
 A few months ago, I watched the first half of the movie version on Netflix and it just didn't hold my interest. I got up and left half way through to read a book! (My father on my other hand was very engrossed. He loved the movie. I believe he said, "This is a masterpiece! Does anyone else know how wonderful this is??")
I was hesitant to read the book, but my fathers rave reviews stuck in my head and I wanted to see if I could agree with his claims of a master piece.
I enjoyed the story. But I found myself racing towards the pictures and then staring at them for minutes at a time. It felt like the pictures told the real story of Hugo and Isabelle.  They were captivating for being so simple and in black and white. It seemed every time something crucial was happening the pictures explained in all, and explained it so well.

What I really loved though was the story of Papa Georges and his movie making career. It was such a surprising detail that created such a strong ending to the story. I was also surprised to learn Georges was a real person, too! I will need to do more research on his history!
Bibliography
Selznick, B. (2007). The invention of Hugo Cabret, a novel in words and pictures. Scholastic.

Bread and Jam for Frances (Module 1)

Summary
 Bread and Jam for Frances is a story of Frances the Badger. She is a young girl and the story focuses on her at meal time. Everyone else is raving about the food they eat- but Frances just wants bread and jam, at every meal. Her parents play a little trick on her to get her out of her habits.

Suggested Activity
I think this book would be great for 1st or 2nd grade students. I would think kindergarten would be good, too, however it's a little long and may not keep the attention of the littlest students. For this activity, I would have students start by drawing a picture of their favorite meal in the whole world. They could show it to their friends and talk about it as a class. Then I would read the story of Frances to the students. I would ask them to write a few sentences about what it would be like to eat the same food everyday, with no other choices! I think the kids would really enjoy thinking about that.
I also think this story might be a good one to share with a parent who has a kid who will only eat one thing! Hopefully they could read this and learn the same trick Frances' parents tried to stop her from eating bread and jam!

Reviews

This point immediately made me think of another exception, and a telling one: Russell Hoban's Bread and Jam for Frances (1964). Surely the story's entire plot revolves around revulsion (though never showing it directly), down to the many verses (published separately, too!) that Frances sings about her absolute disgust toward eggs: "I do not like the way you slide, / I do not like your soft inside, / I do not like you lots of ways, / And I could do for many days / Without eggs" (6). But I also see a pattern here, a gendering one: isn't Frances (and the audience-child who chooses to identify with her) being socialized to consume delicately, moderately, in a balanced and tasteful way? This message is far from the masculinized subtexts above: eat for strength. It is about taste, not strength or even sustenance. Frances is supposed to be aconspicuously tasteful consumer.
Honeyman, S.(2007). Gingerbread Wishes and Candy(land) Dreams: The Lure of Food in Cautionary Tales of Consumpion. Marvels & Tales 21(2), 195-215. Wayne State University Press. 



My Thoughts
I was initially surprised by this book and the message it sends. I went into reading it thinking it was a light hearted, silly book about a badger eating bread and jam. I noticed first how wordy each page was and felt like some kids may lose interest in the story because of it's length.  In my mind this was a book for much younger kids than how it actual appeared to be.
Once I finished the book, I felt like it was more intended for parents really than kids. I think lots of kids go through what Frances does- eating the same foods, trading lunches, not liking what your mom cooks for dinner. I think that frustrates parents more than it frustrates kids, and this book showed the opposite. I really don't feel like many young students can relate to this book, I think one would need to be older to appreciate the story line.

Bibliography
Hoban, R., & Hoban, L. (1964). Bread and jam for frances. China: HarperCollinsPublishers.

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret (Module 1)

Summary
This novel tells the story of a young girl, Margaret who is simply no religion. Her mother was Christian and her father was Jewish, and when they married they decided Margaret would choose for self what to be. Margaret moves from big city New York to a suburb in New Jersey, she instantly joins a club and finds friends. Throughout the book Margaret begins to question her religion, as well as her ever changing body.

Suggested Activities
I think this book would be great to be used in a after school club for 4th, 5th, or 6th grade girls. It would be great if they could be in an all girls reading club- and the books would help them focus on their lives and all the changes going on around them at this time. Since this book talks so much about puberty, and how every girl hits milestones at different times it would be wonderful for this book to be used in a setting where the librarian could talk to girls about these issues.

Reviews
Ca n you name the author at the right,
creator of Deenie and Are You There,
God? It's Me, Margaretl Hint: Her last
name is a homophone for bloom.
If you're thinking Judy Blume, you're right. (Did you
"Fudge" the answer? Get it? Fudge, the character? Oh, well.)
Blume's books have sold more than 75 million copies and have been
translated into 20 languages. This month, she's honored at the 55th
annual National Book Awards ceremony in New York City as the
winner of an honorary National Book Award for contributions to
American letters. (That's big, really big.)
This is the first time a young-adult fiction author has taken the prize.
Last year, Stephen King won. in 2000, the winner was Ray Bradbury.
It's You, Judy!. (2004). Read, 54(7), 4.


My Thoughts

I have always wanted to read this book. The title alone is just so catchy but I just never got around to it. Seeing it on the reading list made me jump instantly at the chance to finally read it. I found this book sweet and endearing. Margaret is easy to like, and voices the questions and concerns every young 11 year old girl has. I loved the focus on her religion as well. I think it's a great way to show kids that it doesn't matter what religion you are, you can still have conversations with God. And that even if your confused you can go looking for the answers.
However, at times I found the book to be wildly outdated. The way Margaret's friends cared about Hebrew School or Sunday School, and how they cared that Margaret didn't go to either- just seemed not necessarily true for this day in age. I work in a suburb and have noticed children talking about church activities and youth groups, but never being shocked or worried when someone didn't attend. I felt like kids would be able to relate to having "no religion" but probably couldn't relate to the peer pressure of friends and religion.
Overall, this book will stand the test of time and help girls everywhere know they are not alone in their fears and their worries.



Bibliography

Blume, J. (1970). Are you there god? its me, margaret. New York: Yearling.