Posted in Humor, Intermediate, Middle Grade, Non-fiction, Tween Reads

Learn how to tell the perfect joke: The Joke Machine

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

The Joke Machine, by Theresa Julian/Illustrated by Pat Lewis, (Oct. 2019, Odd Dot), $8.99, ISBN: 978-1-250-31864-0

Ages 7-12

The Joke Machine is one of those books that’s kind of a no-brainer for my library purchases. Joke books are huge in my library community. A book that teaches you how to build the perfect joke, and manages to squeak in some English lessons while it’s at it? That’s a book my kids need.

Set up like as a trip through a fictional Laugh Lab, The Joke Machine takes readers through 16 “rooms”, each where they’ll learn a new strategy and meet a new joke specialist. They’ll also get to know LOLA, a joke machine whose name stands for Laugh Out Loud Apparatus. There are chapters on such joke techniques as contrast, specifics, being literal, and personalizing jokes to your own sense of humor (“twizzling”), all with dozens of examples. The book contains over 500 family-friendly jokes, many of which have been tested by my second grader and me, with varying degrees of success (everything from a chuckle to “MOM, STOP” – that one was from my too-cool-for-me college student), plus quick and easy ideas for creating your own jokes.

Teaching kids the subtle art of playing with words and helping them fine-tune the magic of exaggeration? Priceless. A note on sarcasm cautions kids about hurt feelings, and encourages them to be positive and respectful when joking. Black and white line illustrations get a dose of orange to liven things up throughout.

Get ready to hear these jokes over and over again – and have some of your own ready to answer with. This one will be a popular selection.

 

 

ollow a cast of fictional funny experts into the Laugh Lab, a hilarious joke-building factory that teaches middle-grade readers how to create their own jokes, puns, silly one-liners, and more. Each chapter explores a different style of joke making, such as surprise, understatement, and exaggeration, and includes hundreds of hilarious examples.

By the end of the book, readers will have a set of tools in their joke belt to make their friends and family actually LOL.

The book includes more than 500 family-friendly jokes—plus zillions that you can create on your own!

 
Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

Maybe shows children their incredible potential

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Maybe, by Kobi Yamada/Illustrated by Gabriella Barouch, (Sept. 2019, Compendium), $17.95, ISBN: 978-1-946-87375-0

Ages 3-7

A girl and her sidekick, a small pig, take readers on an introspective journey in Maybe. Opening with the question, “Have you ever wondered why you are here?”, Kobi Yamada inspires and encourages listeners to think about what each and every one of us is here to accomplish – to invent something? to you build things?- and embrace everything life has to offer; everything we set out to do, from a place of love and the desire to be a force for good. Speak for those who cannot. Shine a light into dark places. Kobi Yamada’s words will fill readers with a sense of purpose; strengthening them against failure by acknowledging that it isn’t how one falls down, it’s how they rise. Gabrielle Barouch’s artwork explores fantastic, surreal landscapes with a hold in the corporeal world: releasing a birdcage filled with glowing butterflies into the night; watering flowers while standing in them.

Maybe is a lovely book to look at, and a book that’s filled with potential, just waiting to share it with others. Share this with your readers; read this to your class visits; let the kids know that, as Kobi Yamada says, “You already have everything it takes to do big things”.

 

Posted in Fiction, Middle Grade, Middle School, Realistic Fiction, Tween Reads

The Tornado takes on a tough question about bullies

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

The Tornado, by Jake Burt, (Oct. 2019, Feiwel & Friends), $16.99, ISBN: 978-1-250-16864-1

Ages 10-14

Fifth grader Bell Kirby loves systems and structure. He uses them to excel in his school’s Creator’s Club, he creates an enviable habitat for his pet chincilla, Fuzzgig, and he stays under the radar, away from the school bully, Parker Hellickson – who also happens to be the principal’s son. When Daelynn Gower shows up – a new kid in town, straight out of homeschool, with rainbow-colored hair and a personality to match – and befriends Bell, she puts all of his hard work and systems at risk. Because Daelynn can’t help but be noticed. But when Daelynn finds herself in the bully’s sights, Bell finds himself at a crossroads: back in Parker’s good graces if he stands by and lets the next kid take the abuse, or stand up for himself and his new friend.

This is a strong story about bullying, looking at it from a less examined point of view. What happens when your bully moves on to another kid? Bell struggles with this because he’s relieved, but he knows that even standing by, pretending not to see the bullying, is wrong. When he learns that he was another kid’s relief from being in Parker’s sights, he knows, even more, that he has to take a stand. It’s a topic that can contribute to a meaningful class discussion. Jake Burt gives us fully realized characters here. Bell loves building and creating things to order his world, likely influenced by his military parents, who pass that love for structure onto him: he messages with his father, who’s stationed overseas and sends him engineering puzzles to figure out; his mother, a major in the US Army, is working on her Ph.D. and is referred to as a “mad scientist” by Parker. Parker is an unrepentant bully who uses the fact that his father has his own blind spot when it comes to his son’s bullying, brushing aside repeated complaints and believing the thinnest of excuses while letting readers glimpse into a home life that may not be ideal for Parker, either. His father talks down to Bell’s mother on several occasions, and she needs to correct him about her rank in the Army on at least one occasion, noting that she outranks her husband.

Woven into this story is Bell’s interest in systems and creating, and bringing a great STEAM challenge into the plot. The Creator Club challenge for this school year is to recreate one of Leonardo DaVinci’s creations, DaVinci-era style. No Internet. No electricity. Working by candlelight and looking up information in books. It’s a great subplot about friendship, teamwork, and cooperation. There’s also some great references to The Wizard of Oz throughout the book – see how many you can find, and challenge your readers. The one question that came up for me multiple times throughout the reading: Who is the Tornado here? I don’t know about you, but I got a different answer each time I considered it.

Author Jake Burt’s website offers updates and more information about his books. John Schu has an interview with Jake Burt available at Watch.Connect.Read, and The Tornado has a starred review from School Library Journal.

 

Posted in Uncategorized

Reach for the Stars with Astro-Girl

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Astro Girl, by Ken Wilson-Max, (Sept. 2019, Candlewick Press), $16.99, ISBN: 9781536209464

Ages 4-8

Astrid is a little girl who loves the stars and space.  She and her father act out the challenges that astronauts face in outer space, as they wait to meet Astrid’s mom, who’s coming home from a business trip… of sorts. He swings her around and around like a spaceship orbiting Earth and tosses her up in the air, defying gravity like an astronaut; she eats a cereal bar in place of astronaut food in a tube and conducts her own “experiments” by making rocket ship cookies.

I love Ken Wilson-Max’s bold, bright acrylic artwork, and Astro Girl has plenty of it. Boldly outlined, with bright, bold colors, Astro Girl is as wonderful to look at as it is to read. The story of a family of color is a great STEAM story, too: Astrid’s mom is an astronaut, and Astrid means to follow in her footsteps. Back matter includes the origin of the word “astronaut”, and brief profiles on five women who have gone into space, just like Astrid’s mom. Endpapers show a midnight blue sky, sprinkled with stars, giving kids the same desire to reach for the stars that Astrid is imbued with. The warm colors and bold outlines make this a warm book that draws readers close and talks to them, like Astrid has a secret to share with each reader.

I can’t get enough of Astro Girl, and I guarantee your readers won’t, either. The cover features Astrid, in her bright orange jumpsuit and astronaut helmet – accompanied by her dog – is a striking sight that will grab everyone’s attention. My son asked me if this was a Mae Jemison book when he saw it! Use this as an opportunity to get Mae Jemison’s name, and the names of other astronauts. You can start with the most recent all-female spacewalk:

 

Astro Girl is a must-have for your storytimes, and your STEM/STEAM shelves.

Posted in picture books, Preschool Reads

Join the Red Rover as it wanders Mars

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Red Rover: Curiosity on Mars, by Richard Ho/Illustrated by Katherine Roy, (Oct. 2019, Roaring Brook Press), $18.99, ISBN: 978-1-250-19833-4

Ages 4-7

I am in love with this sweet, factual story about the Curiosity Rover, the robotic rover currently exploring Mars after landing in the Gale Crater in August, 2012. The story is straightforward, yet gives life to the Curiosity by referring to it as the “little rover” and wondering about its habits. Is it looking for water because it’s thirsty? It may seem lonely, but it has friends that came before. The narrator is the planet Mars, who seems to be watching Curiosity and its predecessors with interest. Mars states, “They call me Mars. I am not like your world”, and notes that life is hard for Curiosity: there are sand storms; the air is thin and it’s cold; it’s very, very, red. Through it all, artwork depicts the scrappy Curiosity rover, undeterred from its mission: it collects, its observes, it records. Back matter includes an annotated sketch of the Curiosity; facts about Mars, and brief profiles of the previous orbiters, landers, and rovers that have explored the planet (and that are in progress). There’s a bibliography and websites for further reading.

The story gives the Curiosity a personality of sorts, and the artwork presents a breathtaking artist’s rendering of the Red Planet. The sandstorms are chaotic, and a foldout of the red landscape is just stunning: the Curiosity stands on a cliff, overlooking the barren, beautiful world. Red Rover is a nice introduction for younger readers to the world of space exploration. If you have Wall-E fans, introduce them to Red Rover.

If you have readers who want more on Mars, Kiddle has Curiosity Facts for Kids; NASA’s Space Place has the Mars rovers broken out into trading cards with stats; and NASA’s FunZone has coloring sheets.

Posted in picture books

A tall tale about Mother Goose from Chris Raschka

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Mother Goose of Pudding Lane (A Small Tall Tale), by Chris Raschka/Illustrations by Vladimir Radunsky, (Sept. 2019, Candlewick), $17.99, ISBN: 9780763675233

Ages 4-8

We’ve all grown up with Mother Goose: usually the British vision of a goose wearing a tall black hat, glasses down on her beak, and a shawl; sometimes, it’s a kindly old woman. But was there a real Mother Goose? Caldeott Medalist Chris Raschka and illustrator Vladimar Radunsky introduce the “real” Mother Goose: Elizabeth Foster, who, in 1692, married Isaac Goose – a widower with 10 children – in Boston and became Mother Goose. She sang songs and made up rhymes for her children (she and Isaac Goose went on to have four more children), which were published at a print shop on Pudding Lane in Boston. Although no copies of the original Mother Goose compilation exist today, we’ve all grown up with adaptations and additions to the legend. Here, Chris Raschka and Vladimir Radunksy recreate some of Mother Goose’s best-known, most beloved pieces while creating new poems and illustrations that recreate the life of Elizabeth Foster Goose, the Mother Goose of Pudding Lane.

Vladimir Radunsky’s playful, colorful gouache and pencil illustrations infuse the story with a sense of fun and joy: animals and people in colonial dress act out some of Mother Goose’s best-known rhymes, like “There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe”, “Old King Cole”, and “Baa Baa Black Sheep”. The story of Elizabeth and Isaac Goose is told in rhyme throughout, from their courtship to their old age. Endpapers include sketch art of a young Mother Goose in front, and an alphabet rhyme reprint in back.

A sweetly done fictional biography of a beloved figure in children’s literature.

Mother Goose of Pudding Lane has starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and Booklist.

Posted in Middle Grade, Tween Reads

STEAM project fun: Super Robot

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Super Robot, by Arnaud Roi, (Oct. 2019, Schiffer Kids), $12.99, ISBN: 9780764358302

Ages 6-12

This is one of those books that makes me think back to when I had punch-out paper doll books. They’re still around, albeit a little tougher to find, so I was really excited to get a copy of Super Robot in the mail from Schiffer Kids! Artist Arnaud Roi uses his love of the 1950s aesthetic to create a vintage-looking robot that kids can punch out and put together, creating a 2-foot-high paper structure.

Assembly instructions are detailed and take readers, step-by-step, through assembly; the assembly process is helpfully illustrated so you don’t get too turned around in the building process. The paper is sturdy and scored where necessary, to help with folding and assembling. The robot is a bright, bold combination of primary colors.

Younger scientists and paper artists will need a helping hand, but bigger creators should be able to work on this, no problem. It’s a fun idea for a Discovery Club activity, and small groups can work on one robot at a time, if your budget permits you to buy a few copies. Create a robot army, or an army of one – either way, Super Robot is a fun build that get kids working with their hands.

Pair with Adam Rubin’s Robo-Sauce, one of my favorite robot books: the book transforms into a Robo-Book. Have some Legos, and some robotics books around for your readers who are ready to explore more. I recommend NatGeo Kids’ Everything Robotics and National Geographics Readers: Robots.

 

Posted in Animal Fiction, Fiction, Middle Grade

The Great TBR Readdown Continues: Real Hamsters Don’t Bite

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Real Hamsters Don’t Bite, by Alexis Cleoford, (May 2017, Amazon Digital Services), $7.99, ISBN: 978-1548365233

Ages 8-11

My TBR read-down continues with this short novella from author Alexis Cleoford, who generously emailed me a PDF of her book, Real Hamsters Don’t Bite. It’s the first book in an humorous animal series, Mighty & Brennon. Mighty and Brennon are two housecats who are not thrilled about being sent to a “pet hotel” while their humans are on vacation. When they arrive home, Mighty – the leader – decides it’s time to strike out on and find Cat Land, a sort of paradise for cats, where they’re treated as they should be (remember, people used to worship cats: they have never forgotten this). They also stumble onto a mystery: hamsters are attacking cats! But… real hamsters don’t bite, do they?

Real Hamsters Don’t Bite is a novella – only about 50 pages – and is available via ebook or paperback through Amazon. Narrated in the first person by Mighty, the bolder cat of the two, there’s some humor and a sense of adventure. Brennon is the more cautious of the two, giving readers a nice little dramatic – and fun – foil to play off of. Black and line drawings throughout add some interest. Give Real Hamsters Don’t Bite a shot if you have animal fiction fans.

 

Posted in Animal Fiction, picture books, Preschool Reads

Ready… Set… Go! The Big Race is on!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

The Big Race, by David Barrow, (Sept. 2019, Kane Miller), $12.99, ISBN: 9781610678803

Ages 4-7

The Big Race is a very tough race in which only the fastest, biggest, and strongest animals participate. So when little Aardvark decides she’s going to sign up to compete, she gets laughed at. Her competitors – a lion, cheetah, buffalo, and crocodile – all laugh at her, and tell her she’ll never finish, but she will defy them all. She’s not competing to win; she’s competing to have fun. The story shows each of the bigger, stronger animals pushing themselves to get to the next level in this triathalon-type race, but Aardvark? She’s pushing herself, and giggling, laughing, and enjoying the journey. Aardvark may not be the biggest, strongest, or fastest, but she has enough heart to power her through the finish line.

Originally published in the UK in 2018, The Big Race is all about embracing the journey rather than the destination, listening to the inner voice that tells you “I can!”, and doing the thing that may be a little overwhelming. It’s about self-empowerment and self-reliance. The other animals jeer at Aardvark, but they’re the ones arguing over the grand prize while Aardvark stands, surrounded by her friends, and receives her medal for finishing. It’s a sweet story about challenging oneself, and testing one’s limits.

The mottled artwork is bright, and the contrast between tiny Aardvark and her hulking co-competitors makes for a big visual. Remind kids to be present, and to adjust expectations once in a while.

 

Posted in Non-Fiction, Teen, Young Adult/New Adult

Blog Tour: Writers in the Secret Garden – Fanfiction, Youth, and New Forms of Mentoring

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Who would have ever imagined that fanfiction would not only go mainstream, but be so popular? In the last 5 years since I’ve been librarianing, I’ve been to academic and pop culture panels on fanfic in the library; I’ve seen fanfic programs for middle graders and teens bring kids into the program room, I’ve seen novels like Carry On go meta and be about fanfic within a YA world, and I’ve seen my friends’ kids starting their own fanfic accounts so they could contribute to their fandom. It’s a wonderful thing to behold. One of my colleagues wrote her MLIS thesis on fanfiction. Now, University of Washington professors Cecelia Aragon and Katie Davis have given us Writers in the Secret Garden: Fanfiction, Youth, and New Forms of Mentoring; an in-depth exploration of how teens and tweens support and learn from each other through their participation in online fanfic communities like fanfiction.net and AO3.

Writers in the Secret Garden: Fanfiction, Youth, and New Forms of Mentoring, by Cecelia Aragon and Katie Davis,
(Aug. 2019, MIT Press), $25, ISBN: 978-0262537803
Ages 16+

 

Writers in the Secret Garden was sparked by a conversation in 2013, after a slew of news storied claimed young people couldn’t write/weren’t writing. Aragon and Davis extensively studied what was happening on fanfiction.net from both education and human-centered data science perspectives. Some of their findings include:

  • Most adults either have a negative view or are unaware of fanfiction, and the impact it is having on the lives of many young people today.

  • On Fanfiction.net alone, 1.5 million authors have published over 7 million stories and shared over 176 million reviews of those stories.

  • The median age of authors on the site is 16, with over 87% between the ages of 13 and 25.

  • 84% of authors on the site are female; and more fanfiction authors identify as gender-nonconforming (9%) than male (7%).

  • Young people are teaching each other how to write through the feedback they give. This new type of mentoring is unique to networked communities. Called “distributed mentoring,” it is described in detail in the book.

  • The quality of the writing improves in response to the amount of distributed mentoring the author received. (650 reviews predicts as much growth as one year of maturation).

  • Despite the fact that readers post reviews anonymously, comments are overwhelmingly positive, with less than half of one percent gratuitously negative.

The discovery of this vast and vibrant resource for kids who have something to say has been especially meaningful to Aragon as she recalls her own hidden efforts. When Cecilia Aragon was ten years old, she read The Lord of the Rings and fell in love with the world Tolkien created. But, in her opinion, there weren’t enough female characters, and she also had some ideas for scenes that should have been in the books. So, she sat down and wrote her own version in a spiral notebook that she kept hidden. No one ever saw it, and she never told anyone about it until recently, because she thought it wasn’t “real writing.”

“Fanfiction is a private universe — a secret garden — that has become a welcoming community, particularly for those from marginalized groups,” says Cecilia Aragon.  “In it, young people are mentoring each other to become skillful writers and thoughtful readers – and they are doing it entirely on their time and their own terms.”

The research group at the University of Washington maintains a Tumblr about their research.