Tag: Andrew Clements

REVIEW: The Friendship War by Andrew Clements

REVIEW: The Friendship War by Andrew Clements

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received an electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Random House in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]

Summary

When Grace spends a week with her grandpa during the summer before 6th grade, she stumbles onto an unusual treasure in an old building he bought to renovate – buttons. Thousands of buttons – all colors, shapes and sizes. Grace has always been a collector of trinkets, so she immediately falls in love with all the buttons. So her grandpa ships them to her on a pallet when she gets back home.

When Grace later shares with a class about the building her grandfather bought, she shows a handful of the buttons she found there. And that’s where the button fanaticism begins.

Soon kids are raiding the family sewing kit for buttons. They’re telling family stories with old buttons. Buttons are traded and turned into jewelry. Kids are playing games with buttons. And scientifically-minded Grace is loving it. She’s watching the fad develop, categorizing how kids are getting involved, and trying to trace the sub-trends. But when Grace is ostracized from her best friend because of buttons, she’s ready for the whole fad to just go away. But how do you kill a fad?

Review

Andrew Clements has written some of my favorite books for kids – Frindle, No Talking, The Last Holiday Concert, The Loser’s Club. In The Friendship War, he has captured kid- and school-culture perfectly once again!

Anyone who remembers the fads of their childhood – or who has raised kids or worked in a school – has seen a fad (or 10) come and go. And Clements describes the process – from Grace’s perspective – perfectly. Grace is probably more analytical than most kids in the middle of a fad, but she owns that. And I think it gave the story a fun and unusual thread that readers will enjoy.

I loved Grace! She’s so bright. And she works hard to be a problem solver. Her choices aren’t always the best, but her intentions are good. Most of all, I loved the things Grace learns in the book, especially about what it means to be a friend.

I highly recommend this – and the rest of Clements’ school stories – for the middle grade readers in your life!

Rating: ♥♥♥♥½

REVIEW: The Loser's Club by Andrew Clements

REVIEW: The Loser’s Club by Andrew Clements

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary

Alec is a reader. He loves getting lost in a story. He reads his favorite books over and over – and he has LOTS of favorites! You would think that Alec’s teachers would love Alec’s affinity for books.

They don’t.

Alec tends to read all the time and everywhere. Including in the middle of class. Like when he’s supposed to be doing an art project or listening to the teacher’s lesson. So Alec is in trouble at school. For reading. If he wants out of trouble, he has to pay attention all the time in every class.

Fortunately, Alec goes to an after school program every day for 3 hours. This is a perfect block of time for reading. But he has to choose an activity from an approved list. Reading alone is not one of them. So Alec starts a reading club. Not a book club to talk about books but a club for reading. For sitting quietly, all afternoon, to read. Alec figures if he calls it the Loser’s Club, kids won’t want to join. Because lots of kids usually means lots of noise and distractions. SO, if he can find one other reader to join his Loser’s Club, he’ll have his after school reading sanctuary. But who would want to join “the Loser’s Club?”

Review

I adored this book. The last few Clements books haven’t clicked for me like my old favorites – Frindle, No Talking, The Last Holiday Concert, etc. But this one fits in perfectly with those older treasures.

Alec is a fantastic character. His description of comfort books could have been written by me (actually, all of chapter 7 is delightful). I loved him as a young man trying to navigate middle school, and I loved him as a reader.

The family Star Wars obsession was icing on the cake for me. SO many fun moments in the story centered around that. Alec’s own “Jedi mind trick” was outstanding fun.

While this is primarily about books and reading, it is also about friendship, dealing with bullies, responsibilities at school, growing up and dealing with reality outside of your favorite fiction. For me, this book was perfect. I highly recommend this for a family purchase, a library purchase and for all middle grade classrooms!

Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥

SATURDAY SMORGASBORD: My Favorite Re-Reads

Posted on by Jaymie

I sometimes have a complicated relationship with books. For the longest time, I kept each book I read. Eventually this created a space issue. Then I decided to just keep the “special” ones. There were no criteria for this designation – just a gut feeling. I kept all of my mystery series for certain. And then books I enjoyed so much I thought I might re-read them. Since I enjoy a lot of books each year, this meant I was still keeping a lot.

Eventually, I realized there were so many books I wanted to read for the first time that it was unlikely I would actually re-read everything I kept. But there are some…

My comfort books. The ones I go back to because I love the story or the character. Books I associate with certain events or seasons of life. The ones that leave me feeling wistful when I see them and I know it’s been forever since I read them.  Books that make me want to drop everything and dive into them all over again. And every January I try to read through as many of them as I can. It’s like visiting with old friends. Here are some of my favorite re-reads.

1. Andrew Clements books – These are some of the first books for kids that I read and loved. Clements tells great school stories about kids and teachers you want to cheer for. Frindle and No Talking are my favorites, but most of his older books are re-reads for me!

 

 

 2. Wings of Fire series – I remember the year I was setting up my library’s book fair and saw this book. I was captivated by the description and read it right away. Then I told all of my students about it. This is a special series! The first five books deal with the war for Sand Wing (a dragon tribe) succession. The second series picks up with a new set of young dragons living in a post-war world. This series just launched book 9, with book 10 slated for this summer. There’s also a stand alone book that fills in some backstory as well as some short e-books. And I think the series gets better and better as each book releases. I’ve taken to re-reading the books in the second series (books 6+) in anticipation of each new book, and that helps me remember all the cool details that are going to matter when the next book comes out.

3. The Westing Game – I read this mystery as a kid and fell in love with the twists and turns. This is the sort of book that you finish and have to read again right away to see where you missed the clues to the solution. I’m thrilled to say this stands up to the test of time. My son read it and loved it, prompting me to read it again as an adult. It was just as awesome as I remembered. In fact, it has become a go-to re-read for my teenage son as well!

 

4. The Harry Potter Series – I can’t tell you how many times we have re-read or listened to these books at our house! Each of us has a physical set of the books. Then we also have all of the outstanding audio books read by the amazing Jim Dale. The antics of the kids and the fight for good to triumph over evil never gets old.

 

 

5. The Fixer series – I have raved about this series multiple times on this blog in the short time since it went live. Book two is even better than book one. The main character is feisty and sticks up for the underdog and I love her. I look forward to spending time with the characters in these books – sometimes more than once a year.

 

 

 6. The Amber Photograph – I have three books by Penelope Stokes that I re-read periodically (this one, The Amethyst Heart and The Blue Bottle Club), but this is my most consistent re-read of the three. This is my sick-day book. If I’m in bed and don’t care to watch a movie or anything else, I will pull this book out. It’s an emotional one about a young woman driving across the country in search of information about who she is and about another woman hiding from her past. God’s redemption weaves through the whole story. It’s outstanding.

 

7. Deadline – Amazing suspense/mystery with a strong salvation message! This is a long, intricate book that covers a lot of issues including abortion, woven around a mystery of why the main character’s two best friends are dead. I love the passages that show one of those friends exploring Heaven. Deadline is a fantastic and inspiring mystery that I love to read over and over.

 

 

8. Touched by an Alien series – This is a very different book from the last two. And I love these just as much. This is a science fiction/romance series that over time has evolved into a science fiction/romance/mystery/suspense series. In book one, Kitty Katt discovers there are aliens on earth and she helps them take down a major villain. Over the course of the series, Kitty and her friends have to puzzle out who the true villains are and take them down as well. With two books releasing each year, and 500+ pages in each, this series gives readers a LOT to enjoy. I have several volumes in this series that are my ultimate favorites, but I usually re-read the last few before a new release and then re-read my favorite passages (don’t tell – I dog-eared them in my books!) when I want to enjoy some of Kitty’s best moments. Unlike the last two books in my list, this series is not Christian. The world view is much more open and the romantic passages are quite detailed. They are easily skipped over for any reader who isn’t interested in that portion of the story.

9. The Sons of Destiny series – Eight brothers with magical powers are exiled on a remote island because there’s a prophecy that if the eldest beds a woman, disaster will ensue and other prophecies about the other brothers will start to come true. Each book in the series focuses on one of the brothers. Two of the books are told concurrently (a pretty cool idea) but the rest go in order over time so that by the last book, the last of the prophecies are coming to pass. I adore this fantasy series. I have my favorite books and others that are less so, but I love the world where these take place and the main characters are fascinating. This is another book with a secular perspective. The romantic scenes are spelled out in detail, but again are easily skipped past if you want to get back to the magic and the story.

10. The Katie Chandler series – The last of my re-reads list is another fantasy series. Katie lives in a contemporary New York City and discovers that wizards, fairies and other magical beings really exist. Katie, though, is an immune. She has no magic whatsoever, so not only can she not DO any magic, but she can see through the illusions that the magic community uses to stay hidden. This makes her an important asset to the magical community when less-than-ethical forces try to take control. I just started reading through these again and I was thrilled to discover an 8th book came out at the end of 2016! So not only do I get to enjoy re-reading a favorite series, but I get a new installment at the same time!

 

So, those are my favorite re-reads. Do you have any books that you go back to time and time again?

SATURDAY SMORGASBORD: My Favorite Teachers in Children’s Lit

Posted on by Jaymie

 

Today’s post is all about TEACHERS! I love teachers. I loved being a teacher (One year I taught history and science to a split class of 2nd and 3rd graders. I taught a creative writing club to elementary students for 3 or 4 years.  And I was a teacher/librarian at an elementary school for five years. It was my most favorite job ever!). My father was a teacher for over 30 years as was my father-in-law. Many of my friends are teachers. Teachers are rock stars!

There are several literary teachers that I adore and I wanted to post about them today. Here they are:

The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds Vashti’s Teacher in The Dot

The woman never gets a name but she is a key component to how Vashti thinks about art. She challenges Vashti to make her mark and own it. And her encouragement gets passed on to another young artist through Vashti.

Teachers are inspiring.

 

Mrs. Granger in Frindle Frindle by Andrew Clements

At the beginning, Mrs. Granger calls Nick out for trying to distract her at the end of the day. Kids probably aren’t sure they like her at the beginning. Adults might cheer that she gets Nick with a pretty awesome consequence. This is not a soft and sweet teacher. She is tough. Her expectations for her students are high. But as the Frindle story unfolds, you start to wonder what those looks in her eyes might really mean. And at the end, you find out she was rooting for Nick all along!

Teachers see things in their students that the students don’t yet see in themselves and then try to call those things out.

Mr Terupt in Because of Mr. Terupt  Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea

Mr. Terupt is the rookie teacher for a group of fifth graders including the class clown, the genius, the kid who hates school, the mean girl, the new girl, the “fat girl,” and the outsider. These seven students share the story of their school year together with Mr. Terupt – their struggles, their triumphs, the times they grow, the times they fail, and the accident that changes things for all of them.  And this is just the first of three books where we get to watch these particular students grow. But we also get to see the impact Mr. Terupt has on them. He wants more for his students than occupying space in a classroom. He challenges them to creative projects to really cement the learning for his students. Mr. Terupt is inspiring!

Teachers are creative and innovative.

Ms. Bixby in Ms. Bixby’s Last Day Ms. Bixby's Last Day by John David Anderson

I posted about this book earlier this week here. You don’t get a lot of information about Ms. Bixby right off the bat, but as you read, you discover why she makes such an impact on her students, especially these three boys.

Teachers care about their students lives outside of the school day. 

 

Mr. Howell in Surprise Attack of Jabba the Puppett (Origami Yoda 4)   The Surprise Attack of Jabba the Puppett by Tom Angleberger

If you aren’t familiar with this fun series, you should really check it out. It starts out as a series about a kids with an origami Yoda puppet that gives advice. But the series becomes so much more  when the emphasis moves to the school’s program to improve standardized test scores. In this particular book, the students (with a plethora of origami Star Trek characters) stage a rebellion against the school’s inane test prep program. I can’t say too much about Mr. Howell’s role, because that would be a big spoiler. I’ll just say this:

Teachers go to bat for their students.

Mrs. Twinkle in Chrysanthemum  Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes

Chrysanthemum feels special and loved. She especially likes her name. But when she gets to school, the other girls tease her for being named after a flower and for having such a long name. Poor Chrysanthemum starts to wilt at school. But when Mrs. Twinkle arrives and says how much she adores the name, how she is also named after a flower, and that she might even name her baby Chyrsanthemum, the other girls change their tune. And Chrysanthemum can bloom at school once again.

Teachers are clever, and understand group dynamics and how to diffuse difficult situations.

Do you have a favorite teacher from children’s literature?