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Children’s Sequoyah Sampler, 2012-2013

1

Angleberger, Tom. The Strange Case of Origami Yoda. New York: Amulet, 2010. 160 p. Gr. 3–6. Tommy and his friends try to decide whether or not a paper finger puppet of Yoda, worn and voiced by their loser classmate Dwight, can really predict the future and give reliable advice. If Tommy follows Yoda’s guidance at the 6th grade dance, will he dance with the cutest girl in school or make a fool of himself? Booktalk:

Dwight has never been part of the popular crowd in Tommy’s class, although he always seems to be on the fringe of the group, trying unsuccessfully to fit in. When Dwight brings to school a paper Yoda finger puppet that he designed and folded himself, his classmates aren’t too impressed even though the origami is very well done. That is, until Origami Yoda begins to make predictions and give advice that seems to hit the nail on the head every time. The 6th graders realize that Dwight is the one speaking, but it seems to be more thoughtful… more practical… more trustworthy when it comes in Yoda-speak. Some think weird Dwight’s Origami Yoda can predict the future, and others think Yoda is nothing but a wad of paper. So Tommy decides to conduct a scientific study on the question, building a case file of funny stories from students who interacted with Dwight and his puppet. Tommy has more than a scientific interest in the question. He desperately needs to know whether or not he should follow Origami Yoda’s advice and ask the prettiest girl in class to the upcoming dance. Can an origami puppet predict the future? If Tommy trusts Yoda, will he have a date for the dance, or will he make a fool of himself? The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, read you must.


2

Behrens, Andy. The Fast and the Furriest. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010. 256 p. Gr. 4–7. Twelve-year-old Kevin Pugh and his beagle Cromwell live the couch-potato life although his former-pro-athlete father disapproves. A dog-agility competition on television and Cromwell’s talent for the sport inspire Kevin to form Team Cromwell and compete; but is it enough to satisfy his father? Booktalk:

Twelve-year-old Kevin, a dedicated couch potato, has a lot to live up to: his father is a former Chicago Bears player and his sister is an excellent soccer player. Kevin prefers to be in the basement with his video games and his lazy dog Cromwell. Kevin plays baseball to keep his dad off his back about sports and after a bad day at his game he comes home and goes downstairs to escape his dad and watch TV. While channel surfing, Kevin comes across a dog agility competition, and just as he is about to change the channel, he notices Cromwell is mesmerized by the show. Soon Cromwell insists on going outside to run around and jump through the tire swing in the backyard. Kevin’s best friend Jack suggests that they find an agility class for Cromwell. Kevin is skeptical, but he decides to give it a try even after his dad tells him that dog agility is not a real sport. Will Cromwell excel at agility? Will Kevin earn his dad’s respect? Read The Fast and the Furriest to find out.


3

Draper, Sharon D. Out of My Mind. New York: Atheneum, 2010. 304 p. Gr. 4–6. Most people think ten-year-old Melody is mentally handicapped because cerebral palsy makes her unable to speak or control her body, but her mind is incredibly gifted. They are astonished when a new adaptive computer lets her show her knowledge, but she must still face a world that is often cruel and always difficult. Booktalk:

“Words.

I’m surrounded by thousands of words. Maybe millions.

Cathedral. Mayonnaise. Pomegranate. Mississippi. Neapolitan. Hippopotamus. Silly. Terrifying. Iridescent. Tickle. Sneeze. Wish. Worry.

Words have always swirled around me like snowflakes—each one delicate and different, each one melting untouched in my hands.

Deep within me, words pile up in huge drifts. Mountains of phrases and sentences and connected ideas. Clever expressions. Jokes. Love songs.

From the time I was really little—maybe just a few months old—words were like lemonade. I could almost taste them. They made my jumbled thoughts and feelings have substance. My parents have always blanketed me with conversation. They chattered and babbled. They verbalized and vocalized. My father sang to me. My mother whispered her strength into my ear.

Every word my parents spoke to me or about me I absorbed and kept and remembered. All of them.

I have no idea how I untangled the complicated process of words and thought, but it happened quickly and naturally. By the time I was two, all my memories had words, and all my words had meanings.

But only in my head.

I have never spoken one single word. I am almost eleven years old.”

Thus begins Melody’s tale of her experience as an incredibly gifted child trapped in a severely handicapped body. She cannot communicate what she knows, so she is doomed to remain in a special class where they repeat the same basic skills and content over and over.

When her parents learn about Medi-Talker, a new adaptive computer that will give Melody a voice, they don’t hesitate to purchase one for her. This miraculous device opens countless doors for Melody… doors to regular classrooms, to relationships with friends and family, to the school academic team and state competitions. But open doors can still be blocked by cruelty, prejudice and misunderstanding, and a talking computer cannot mend a broken heart. Melody must learn to speak up – and stand up – for herself if she is to cross those barriers in Sharon Draper’s Out of My Mind.


4

George, Jean Craighead. The Buffalo are Back. New York: Dutton Children’s Books, 2010. 32 p. Gr. 2–5.

The story of the buffalo is intertwined with the story of the prairie. Learn how both were nearly lost and how people like President Theodore Roosevelt helped to bring them back.

Booktalk:

Solomon, the king of Israel often called the world’s wisest man, wrote in Ecclesiastes 4:12 that “a threefold cord is not easily broken.” The truth of his words is demonstrated in Jean Craighead George’s brief account of how the bison almost vanished from America. The strands in her cord – and her story – are the American Indians, the buffalo as she calls them, and the grass. Together the three maintained the tall-grass prairie, a biome that covered much of the Great Plains for centuries. George writes, “In the mid-1800s, seventy-five million buffalo roamed in North America. In little more than fifty years, there would be almost none. What happened?”

She then shares the remarkable tale of the symbiotic relationship among the American Indians, the grass, and the buffalo who roamed the tall-grass prairie and how the downfall of one almost led to the disappearance of all three. The drive for westward expansion coupled with settlers’ need for farmland and homes compelled the government to make treaties with the Indian nations, treaties that were routinely broken. When the Indians rebelled, the government struck back by ordering the destruction of the buffalo. As herds dwindled and died, the Indians could no longer survive on the prairie and were forced onto reservations while prairie grasses withered without sharp buffalo hooves to aerate the soil and help the rains to soak deep into the earth. With the buffalo gone, farmers plowed the tall grass with its complex root systems, and when drought came the rich soil blew away in black dust storms.

President Teddy Roosevelt was a nature lover and had traveled the prairie as a young man. His love for the land compelled him to save the great shaggy beasts that were so vital to a healthy prairie. Learn about the efforts to restore the prairie’s delicate balance, to reweave that threefold cord, in The Buffalo Are Back.


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Jenkins, Steve and Robin Page. How to Clean a Hippopotamus: A Look at Unusual Animal Partnerships. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2010. 32 p. Gr. 2–6.

Concise text and Jenkins’ paper collage illustrations create a symbiosis of their own as they show how various animal pairs live and work together to their mutual benefit. Both familiar and lesser known examples are included as well as supplementary material on the creatures’ size, habitant and habits. Booktalk:

Symbiosis is a relationship in which each animal helps the other. Steve Jenkins uses cut paper collage in a comic-book-style layout to illustrate and explain several of these unusual partnerships in How to Clean a Hippopotamus: A Look at Unusual Animal Partnerships. Symbiosis can be found in all classes of animals from mammals to invertebrates. These partnerships are not based on friendship, but are purely selfish, stemming from the benefits each creature gets from the relationship.

Some symbiotic relationships contribute to the animals’ safety. For example, the zebra, wildebeest and ostrich graze together and use their respective keen senses of hearing, smell and vision to keep all three safe from predators. The waterbuck scares up grasshoppers for the egret who, in exchange, alerts the waterbuck to danger. And the giraffe, rhino, deer and African buffalo allow the oxpecker bird to eat the ticks and other parasites from their bodies, and the bird in turn alerts them to the presence of predators.

Other relationships promote the health and cleanliness of the animals, such as the partnership of the Nile crocodile and the Egyptian plover, or toothpick bird. The crocodile lets the bird safely crawl inside its mouth to clean leftover meat from its teeth. A malo malo fish floats on its side in the ocean water, inviting seagulls to land on its body and remove and eat worms and other parasites, while the African helmeted turtle hitches rides atop a hippopotamus to sunbathe and eat algae and other water plants from the hippo’s hide.

Teamwork for mutual benefit is another type of symbiosis. Badgers and coyotes often work as a team to hunt prairie dogs. A badger digging at the front door of a prairie dog burrow scares the prairie dogs out the back door into the waiting teeth of the coyote, scaring others back to the front door and the waiting badger. Ravens alert wolves to tough-skinned dead animals, moving in to pick the carcass clean after the wolves finish; and the honeyguide bird leads the honey badger to a beehive, waits while the honey badger eats the honey and then devours the scraps of beeswax and bee larvae.

Jenkins not only introduces these and other fascinating, symbiotic relationships but also provides an appendix with additional information on the size, habitat and diets of each animal in this short but information-packed title.


6

Mone, Gregory. Fish. New York: Scholastic Press, 2010. 256 p. Gr. 3–7.

Twelve-year-old “Fish” Reidy is waylaid while delivering a package for his uncle and soon finds himself on the Scurvy Mistress amidst a crew of crusty, ill-tempered pirates. Fish works to earn the Captain’s trust and must use cleverness, courage and his incredible swimming ability to survive the pirate life and thwart a deadly mutiny. Booktalk:

It’s the early 1800’s, on a busy harbor in Ireland. There are all kinds of boats carrying a vast variety of cargo. Everyone is in a hurry, pushing and shoving to get to their destination. It’s hot and humid with a strong odor of stale fish.

Twelve-year-old “Fish” Reidy finds himself on the docks of the busy harbor with a package to deliver for his uncle. While he is looking for his customer, a thief steals his package! Fish runs after the thief without thinking of his own safety. He can’t let his employer – his uncle – down by failing to deliver the package to the right person. The thief manages to board a departing ship, but Fish is not deterred. He jumps in the ocean and swims after the ship! This might seem like an impossible task, but not for Fish, who earned his nickname due to his incanny swimming ability. He catches the ship, stealthily climbs on board and quietly finds a place to hide. From his hiding place he listens to what is going on around him and soon realizes that he is a stowaway on a pirate ship – a pirate ship that is sailing out into open waters!

What was in the package Fish was to deliver, and will he recover it? Or will the pirates discover Fish and make him walk the plank, or worse? Read the action-packed pirate book Fish by Gregory Mone, to find out.


7

Nelson, S. D. Black Elk’s Vision: A Lakota Story. New York: Abrams Books, 2010. 47 p. Gr. 3–6.

The clash of white and Lakota cultures is clearly depicted in this first-person account of the Battles of Little Big Horn and Wounded Knee through the eyes and visions of Black Elk, a Lakota wachisha wakan – medicine man, as well as his later travels to New York City and Europe with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.

Booktalk:

Black Elk was a Medicine man and well-known seer, a wachisha wakan, of the Oglala Lakota tribe of the Sioux nation. Black Elk was born in 1863 and first began seeing visions when he was only 4 years old. He grew up on the Northern plains, fought at the Battle of the Little Big Horn at about age 12. As an adult he was injured in the Massacre of Wounded Knee and traveled with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show before returning to his reservation to live out his life as a Medicine Man and elder for his tribe.

Black Elk saw what is considered to be his “great vision” when he was about nine years old. In this prophetic dream he saw two men with flaming spears descend from the sky and take him on a cloud to a field where five horses in the colors of the medicine wheel waited. In the vision Black Elk entered a rainbow covered lodge where the six Grandfathers greeted and gave him gifts to plant and grow the great tree of life. The vision ended as Black Elk saw a blue man bring illness to the world and its inhabitants, an illness that could not be healed until Black Elk killed the man. This vision was believed to symbolize the life of the earth and the Lakota people. Today many believe it foretold how Western civilization has polluted the earth, depleting its resources and driving species to extinction.

S. D. Nelson draws heavily on John G. Neihardt’s Black Elk Speaks, a classic of Native American literature from 1932, for this picture book biography. The sources, stylized artwork, and actual photographs combine with Nelson’s identity as a member of the Standing Rock Lakota tribe to lend creditability and authenticity to the work. Black Elk’s life will give students a new lens through which to view Native American history.


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O’Connor, Barbara. The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010. 168 p. Gr. 4–7.

Young Owen discovers a two-man submarine that has fallen off a passing train, and he and his friends plan to launch it in the pond near Owen’s rural Georgia home to search for Tooley Graham, his enormous, recently liberated pet frog. But their plans may fall apart after Owen’s annoying neighbor Viola discovers their secret.

Booktalk:

It starts out as a bummer of a summer for Owen. With his dad out of work, his family has had to move in with his bedridden grandfather who is looked after by a pushy, live-in nurse named Earlene. Soon Owen has captured the biggest, slimiest, most beautiful bullfrog ever seen in all of Carter, Georgia, and names it Tooley Graham. But while Owen is happy with his pet, the frog does not take well to his new home (a bucket), becoming lethargic and taking on a sickly pallor. To make matters worse, Owen’s very bossy and very nosy neighbor, Viola, nags Owen every chance she gets, making him feel guilty about keeping his new pet captive.

In bed late one night, Owen hears something large and heavy fall from a passing train. He hears the crack of wood. And a tumble, tumble, tumble sound. After several days of investigating the woods near the train tracks, Owen makes the most fantastic discovery a kid could ever make: The object that fell from the train is a shiny, red, two-man submarine, the Water Wonder 4000.

“Owen peered through the windows. Inside was an instrument panel with a few glass-covered dials, some switches, and a joystick. In front of the instrument panel were two small seats. A submarine just big enough for two people! Owen had never seen anything like it. He ran his hand along the side of the submarine, feeling the smooth metal…. He examined the top. There were a few small dents here and there. Some scratches in the shiny red paint. But other than that, the Water Wonder 4000 looked perfect. Owen’s heart was racing.” (p. 62-63)

So while Owen and his friends, Travis and Stumpy, work frantically trying to move the submarine to a nearby pond, Viola persistently works to discover their secret, determined to join the boys in their adventure. But no matter how hard they try, the boys can’t seem to even get the Water Wonder 4000 to the pond.

Will Owen and his friends ever get the Water Wonder 4000 to water? And if they do, will they be able to get their wondrous find to work without drowning themselves? Will they have to ask know-it-all Viola for help? And what will become of the sad and listless Tooley Graham?

To find the answers to these questions and others, dive into this fantastic little book.


9

Polacco, Patricia. The Junkyard Wonders. New York: Philomel, 2010. 48 p. Gr. 2–5. Young Trisha looks forward to her new school, where she thinks she will no longer be in a special class, and is dismayed to find she is in Room 206, the “junkyard.” But her wise teacher instills pride and unity in all her “Junkyard Wonders” by showing them that a junkyard is a place of infinite possibilities just waiting to be developed. Booktalk:

She’d always felt different at school, made fun of for her reading problems. But it was different now. No one at her new school would know about her “disability,” and she could be just a “regular” student. But NO! Trisha is heartbroken to find she has been assigned to “The Junkyard” class and once again was getting funny looks from the other students. But The Junkyard was special. The teacher, Mrs. Peterson, was special. And she made sure the students knew THEY were special. When they were called “weirdos” and “retards” and felt like throwaways and junk, Mrs. Peterson clued them in to what a junkyard really is. Not a place for things nobody wants, but a place full of wondrous possibilities…where something bent and broken can be turned into something new, unexpected, surprising! On a class field trip to the town junkyard, each team of students is assigned to collect everything they can find to turn into something new. After several weeks of work, each team shares their creations with the class. Trish’s team has refurbished a model airplane, and the rest of the class helped raise the money for its motor. They plan to fly the plane “to the moon” from a launch point on the school roof at the science fair, but their dream may be dashed when a bully convinces the principal that their scheme is too dangerous. Will the class get to launch their plane? If so, will it really reach the moon? And whatever became of the students in Mrs. Peterson’s Junkyard? Find out by reading The Junkyard Wonders by Patricia Polacco!


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Ramsey, Calvin. Ruth and the Green Book. Minneapolis, MN: Carolrhoda Books, 2010. 32 p. Gr. 2–5.

Ruth, an African-American child, relates her family’s car trip from Chicago to visit relatives in Alabama, the racism they encounter and the help they receive from other African-Americans and the Green Book.

Booktalk:

It’s 1952, and Ruth and her family are going on a road trip. They are going to visit

Grandma in Alabama, and it is a long way from Chicago. The African-American family is

traveling in a brand-new Buick and learns that not all places are safe or welcoming to

their family. Segregation is an issue for families like Ruth’s, especially in the South.

When they stop at an Esso gas station the family discovers Victor H. Green’s Negro

Motorist Guide, an early guidebook similar to the AAA guide. Ruth becomes fascinated

with the book and uses it to help her father find everything from auto-repair places to

friendly motels. While the journey has a scary beginning, it ends with a great experience

that proves hospitality and kindness exist even in the most unwelcoming places.

Victor H. Green, a postal employee and civic leader from Harlem, New York, developed

the guide to show African-American travelers where they could comfortably eat, sleep,

buy gas, find a tailor or beauty parlor, and shop. The Green Book was so useful that it

was relied on for almost three decades, until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed Jim

Crow laws and racial segregation in the United States.

Ramsey’s picture book introduces this little known aspect of African –American history

in a format that spans wide age levels and will be a great addition to most library

collections.


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Resau, Laura. Star in the Forest. New York: Delacorte, 2010. 149 p. Gr. 4–8. Eleven-year-old Zitlally takes refuge in an old junkyard near her Colorado trailer

park after her illegal immigrant father is deported to Mexico. In this metal “forest” she makes a needed friend and discovers and cares for a neglected dog, believing it to be her father’s “spirit dog” that she must keep safe so her father will return. Booktalk:

Zitlally’s life has crashed around her. Recently, her father was pulled over for speeding

and, because of his undocumented status, is deported to Mexico. In fact, Zitlally's entire

family is undocumented and she remembers clearly the treacherous desert crossing a

few years earlier. Suddenly, Zitlally, whose name means “star” in Nahuatl, no longer

feels like talking in school and gives up trying to keep up with her so-called friends. To

escape the reality of her life and the beer-drinking tenants her mother has been forced

to take in, Zitlally flees to the old junkyard near her trailer park.

"There is a forest behind my trailer, through the weeds and under the gate and across

the trickly, oily ditch. It is a forest of very, very old car parts, heaps of rusted metal,

spotted orangey brown, with rainbow layers of fading paint, and leaves and vines poking

and twisting through the holes. Birds and snakes and bugs sometimes peek out from the

pipes and hubcaps." (page 3)

There she finds a dog chained to an old truck. On the back of his neck a patch of black

fur looks like a star, so she shares her own name with him. Although she has been afraid

of dogs since she was attacked by one in Mexico as a small child, she feels a strange

connection with this abandoned animal.

One day, a trailer-park neighbor, Crystal, follows her into the woods. Crystal’s father is

in prison and Zitlally’s old friends despise her. As Zitlally and Crystal nurse Star back to

health, their friendship grows.

Recalling the stories her father told of magical animals connected to certain people,

Zitlally comes to believe that Star is her father’s spirit animal and that as long as she can

keep Star safe, her father will be safe as well.

Meanwhile, Zitlally’s mother sells their truck to raise the funds to bring her father back

across the border. But Zitlally is devastated when she learns that her father has been

kidnapped as he tries to cross the border and $10,000 is being demanded for his

release.

And then Star disappears.

Will Zitlally and Crystal be able to find him? And will finding him ensure her father’s safe

return?


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Singer, Marilyn. Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse. Illustrated by Josée Masse. New York: Dutton, 2010. 32 p. Gr. 3–6. Singer’s original poetic form she calls reversos retell 14 classic folk tales from two viewpoints which are reflected in the split illustrations. Each poem is paired with an inverted version using the same lines in reverse order, changing the perspective and literally turning the tale on its head. Booktalk:

We all know the classic fairy tales like Snow White, Cinderella, and Little Red Riding Hood, but poet Marilyn Singer has turned these tales upside down, literally, in Mirror Mirror, her collection of reversos. A reverso is an original poetry form developed by Ms. Singer in which a poem is presented, and then re-presented with the lines inverted, changing only punctuation and capitalization, to create a related poem that often shares new insight or a different perspective. In Mirror Mirror characters from fourteen fairy tales tell their stories in verse and reverse, often presenting surprising new twists

In “Cinderella’s Double Life” readers hear poor Cinderella, slaving away at home, longing to be at the ball with her stepsisters:

“Isn't life unfair? Stuck in a corner, while they're waiting for a chance with the prince, dancing waltz after waltz at the ball, I'll be shining these shoes till the clock strikes midnight.”

But our Cindy dances a different tune when Singer turns her lines topsy-turvy:

“Till the clock strikes midnight, these shoes! I'll be shining at the ball, dancing waltz after waltz with the prince while they're waiting for a chance, stuck in a corner. Isn't life unfair?”

Or consider the sweet young thing on her way to Grandma’s house in “


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"In my hood skipping through the wood carrying a basket picking berries to eat – juicy and sweet what a treat! But a girl mustn’t dawdle. After all, Grandma’s waiting."

However, in the reverse we find a more sinister outlook…

"After all, Grandma’s waiting, mustn’t dawdle . . . But a girl! What a treat – juicy and sweet, picking berries to eat, carrying a basket, skipping through the wood in my `hood."

The symmetrical illustrations illustrate both viewpoints and enhance the effect of the poems, so teachers or librarians will want to use a document camera or similar device when sharing this book with groups so students can see the poems on the pages of Mirror Mirror by Marilyn Singer.


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Spinelli, Eileen. The Dancing Pancake. New York: Random House, 2010. 256 p. Gr. 3–7.

Sixth-grader Bindi’s once normal life spins out of control when her parents separate, forcing her to move to a new apartment, find new friends and help her mother with a new business venture, The Dancing Pancake. The staff and customers of the café help Bindi adjust to life’s changes, both good and bad, in this novel in verse. Booktalk:

Sixth-grader Bindi’s once normal life is spinning out of control! Her parents have separated, her dad moved to a new city, and Bindi and her mom have to move to an apartment. Moving means finding new friends; except for Albert, he’s always been her best friend. Then, as if those weren’t enough changes, her mom decides to open up a restaurant… a restaurant called The Dancing Pancake.

Bindi’s aunt, uncle and little cousin Jackson are all helping get the restaurant started. Her uncle is forever telling corny jokes, and Jackson is determined that he is going to “work” in the diner, ending up in the way most of the time! Bindi makes some surprising friends from the employees and patrons of the diner. She also learns how to deal with cranky customers as she tries to figure out this “new” family and find herself, too.

Discover how a customer named Grace helps Bindi realize the important things in life in Eileen Spinelli’s The Dancing Pancake.


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Vanderpool, Clare. Moon over Manifest. New York: Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2010. 368 p. Gr. 4–8.

Twelve-year-old Abilene Tucker, the daughter of a vagabond, is sent to stay with her father’s old friend in Manifest, Kansas, where her dad grew up. While her father works on the railroad in 1936, she learns more about him, his past, and the mysteries of Manifest. Booktalk:

It’s 1936 and twelve-year-old Abilene Tucker is sent to Manifest, Kansas, to stay with his old friend Shady for the summer while Abilene’s dad takes a railroad job. Abilene and her dad are drifters, and times are hard during the Great Depression. She’s not even sure he’ll come back for her at the end of the summer.

One night Abilene discovers a cigar box concealed under a loose floorboard in her bedroom at Shady’s house. Inside the box she finds some small tokens, a spy map, and a bundle of old letters that talk about a local spy called The Rattler. This is just what Abilene needed to ignite her interest in the residents of this hot and dusty little town.

Abilene soon makes friends with Lettie and Ruthanne, and the trio is off on a secret mission to find The Rattler. The girls know they are the right track when they find a note nailed to the tree house saying: “Leave Well Enough Alone.” Of course, the girls are even more determined to discover The Rattler’s true identity.

Abilene is hesitant but drawn to Miss Sadie, the reclusive older woman who lives behind the wrought-iron gate that says “Road to Perdition.” She’s been told that Miss Sadie is a gypsy fortune-teller, but learns that she is really a diviner, a person with the ability to read nature. It seems that Miss Sadie empathizes with Abilene’s need to understand her dad’s past and his role in this town. Miss Sadie has a gift for storytelling, and when she realizes the letter in the cigar box parallel Miss Sadie’s stories, she begins to discover the meaning of the items in the box and to unravel the old mystery it contains.

Between Miss Sadie’s stories, the clues, and a bit of detective work, Abilene and her friends solve the mysteries of the letters, the mementos, and the town of Manifest itself. Perhaps more importantly, by summer’s end Abilene finally comes to terms with her own questions as well. Read Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool.


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Wells, Rosemary. On the Blue Comet. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press, 2010. 329 p. Gr. 4–7.

During the Great Depression 11-year-old Oscar Ogilvie and his father lose their house and beloved train sets. Oscar must live with stern Aunt Carmen when his father goes west to find work, and his loneliness leads him on a great adventure through time and space aboard the Blue Comet. Booktalk:

Cairo, Illinois, 1931: The Great Depression has hit hard for Oscar. His widowed father has lost his job, the bank has repossessed their comfortable little house on Lucifer Street, and, worst of all, Oscar and his dad have had to let go of the fantastic and cherished Lionel model train layout they had worked years perfecting in their basement. And now, Oscar’s dad is going to California to look for a job, so Oscar has to stay with his dour Aunt Carmen and thumb-sucking cousin Willa Sue. Oscar's only comforts are a few toy train tickets stashed in his wallet and the afternoons he spends alone in his aunt's kitchen improving his math skills and making pancakes. Now Oscar wonders if he and his dad will ever get to take that long planned cross-country trip on the sleek and speedy Blue Comet.

Suddenly things change for Oscar when he meets a mysterious drifter named Mr. Applegate who works as a night watchman at the bank where Oscar’s beloved trains are now on display and has a copy of The Fireside Book of Poetry borrowed from the Cairo Public Library. On Christmas Eve Oscar visits his trains after the bank closes and is chatting with Mr. Applegate when two armed men enter through the door Oscar forgot to lock behind him and overpower his friend.

"That's when one of the men saw me. He held the muzzle of a pistol straight out from his body. It was aimed directly between my eyes. In that exact moment, Mr. Applegate pulled off his blindfold. He rasped from the floor, 'Jump, Oscar! Jump.'

Not five feet away, I saw a nail-bitten index finger settle over the gun's trigger. I smelled the oil from inside its barrel and panicked.

Facing the train layout at eye level, I tucked my chin, squeezed my eyes shut, and dived forward. Behind me somewhere, the gun went off like a firecracker."

Oscar hears more shots and confused cries from the robbers who can no longer see or hear him and quickly realizes that, in escaping the crime scene, he has been magically catapulted into the world of the train set he and his father created, a world that is becoming very real and where Oscar is on a train headed to California. Even more strange, when he arrives he finds himself ten years older. World War II has broken out and Oscar's in danger of being drafted, although he is only eleven inside. Fortunately, with the help of a young man called “Dutch” whom he met on the train when he was eleven, Oscar ends up in the palatial Hollywood mansion of none other than Joan Crawford (her children have a Lionel train which Oscar needs to get home). There he


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thwarts army recruiters by again magically escaping aboard a Lionel train, this time into the past. He's still not home, though, and his last adventure, in the company of a solitary girl he meets on this last train is his strangest yet.... Join Oscar on his adventure as he travels through time and space riding the rails on his beloved Blue Comet and meets famous people from Hollywood and banking history who help him in his search to find his dad and his way home. Along the way you might just find yourself memorizing the words of Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem “If.”


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Not Quite Sequoyah, 2012-2013 Crum, Shutta. Thomas and the Dragon Queen. Illustrated by Lee Wildish. New York: Knopf, 2010. 272 p. Gr. 3–5. A dragon has captured the princess, but all the knights are away at war; so Thomas, the smallest of squires, is promoted to knight and charged with saving the princess from a horrible fate. As twelve-year-old Thomas undertakes the quest he must overcome trials, monsters, and — most of all — the dragon of self-doubt. D'Agnese, Joseph. Blockhead: the Life of Fibonacci. Illustrated by John O'Brien. New York: Henry Holt, 2010. 40 p. Gr. 2–5. Leonardo Fibonacci is now considered one of the greatest Western mathematicians, but as a child he daydreamed about numbers so much that people called him "Blockhead." This first-person account of his life points out there's nothing stupid about following your passion. Greenberg, Jan and Sandra Jordan. Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring. Illustrated by Brian Floca. New York: Flash Point, 2010. 48 p. Gr. 2–6. The successful collaboration of choreographer Martha Graham, composer Aaron Copland and set designer Isamu Noguchi is presented in first person narrative and watercolor illustrations that capture the spirit of the ballet as well as the creation process and the value of teamwork. Gutman, Dan. Roberto and Me. Baseball Card Adventures series. New York: HarperCollins, 2010. 192 p. Gr. 4–7. Stosh is time traveling again, using a 1969 Roberto Clemente card in hopes of saving the Pirates star from the 1972 plane crash that took his life. Along the way he visits Woodstock, warns Clemente, and learns that sometimes you may change history, and sometimes history changes you. Halls, Kelly Milner, and Sumner, William. Saving the Baghdad Zoo: A True Story of Hope and Heroes. New York: HarperCollins, 2010. 64 p. Gr. 4–7. As war rages in Baghdad in 2003, U.S. Army Captain William Sumner undertakes a dangerous mission to rescue the abandoned animals of the Baghdad Zoo and palace grounds. Sumner works for years with an international team of zoologists, veterinarians, conservationists, and others to rehabilitate the neglected lions, tigers, and other exotic animals. Holm, Jennifer L. Turtle in Paradise. New York: Random House, 2010. 191 p. Gr. 4–6. During the Great Depression eleven-year-old Turtle is sent to live with relatives in Key West after her mother is hired to keep house for a lady who dislikes children. Florida is like paradise to Turtle, who finds herself emerging from the cocoon she has woven around her.


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McElligott, Matthew and Larry David Tuxbury. Benjamin Franklinstein Lives! New York: Putnam, 2010. 128 p. Gr. 4–7. Benjamin Franklin never died; but was preserved in a suspended animation chamber hidden in the Philadelphia building where, 200 years later, young Victor Godwin lives and has prepared a sure-fire science fair-winning project. But what’s a budding scientist to do when Ben is reanimated by a lightning strike and accidentally ruins Victor’s project? Paulsen, Gary. Woods Runner. New York: Wendy Lamb, 2010. 164 p. Gr. 5–8. Samuel, 13, returns from hunting to find his Pennsylvania settlement has been ravaged by British soldiers and Native Americans. When he discovers his parents are being held prisoner in New York City, Samuel determines to find and free them. San Souci, Robert D. Haunted Houses (Are You Scared Yet?). New York: Henry Holt, 2010. 276 p. Gr. 4–6. San Souci weaves ten chilling, multi-cultural tales around a diverse group of haunted houses, including a doghouse, a doll house, an old Japanese tea house, a long-deserted mansion, and a hunting lodge in the woods. Schwabach, Karen. Storm before Atlanta. New York: Random House, 2010. 320 p. Gr. 5–8. Jeremy, a young indentured servant, longs for the excitement of battle, so he runs away to join the Union army, where he experiences the grim reality of war, sees the cruelty of slavery and befriends a young Confederate soldier and a slave girl. Together they discover the Peace Society, an underground organization of Confederate soldiers with Union sympathies that has profound effects on all their lives. TenNapel, Doug. Ghostopolis. New York: Graphix, 2010. 272 p. Gr. 5–8. Garth, a terminally ill boy, is accidentally pulled into the ghost world without dying first. In this bizarre environment he meets both good and evil characters –including his own youthful grandfather – and cannot return to his own world until the mistake that brought him there can be corrected. Wallace, Sandra Neil. Little Joe. New York: Knopf, 2010. 192 p. Gr. 3–6. Nine-year-old Eli is thrilled at the prospect of raising his first calf, a large Angus bull he names Little Joe. His father and grandfather help him learn to properly care for the animal and accept the realities of farm life in this contemporary realistic parallel to the fantasy of Charlotte’s Web.


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Wells, Rosemary. My Havana: Memories of a Cuban Boyhood. New York: Candlewick. 2010. 65 p. Gr. 3–4 Architect Secundino Fernandez recalls his childhood and draws images of his home in Havana during the rise of Fidel Castro’s regime and his family’s later move to Spain and finally to New York City. Wiles, Deborah. Countdown. New York: Scholastic, 2010. 400 p. Gr. 5–7.

Franny Chapman, like most eleven-year-olds in 1962, must not only learn to handle issues with friends and family but also cope with the nationwide fear of Communism and nuclear war. Bits of actual speeches, song excerpts, news articles and period photographs draw readers into the tale and the tension of the Cold War. Williams-Garcia, Rita. One Crazy Summer. New York: Amistad, 2010. 224 p. Gr. 4–7.

Eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive in Oakland in the summer of 1968 to visit the mother they barely know. The cold welcome they receive foreshadows a difficult month of learning about their mother’s life as poet, printer and fringe member of the Black Panthers and why she resents their intrusion into it.

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