Reading Youth Literature

  Looking for Alaska by John Green Summary: Miles “Pudge” Halter is looking for "the Great Perhaps" when he leaves the predictable life with his parents in Florida to attend a Culver Creek boarding school in Alabama. Miles is an introvert whose hobby is collecting famous last words.  His roommate, the Colonel, gives him the ironic nickname Pudge since he’s rail thin.  Pudge is introduced to Alaska, the intelligent, beautiful, highly energetic and emotional girl that he develops a huge crush on.  But Alaska has a boyfriend outside of Culver Creek. She is the center of Pudge’s new group of friends that also include Lara, a Romanian girl, and Takumi. The five of them hang out on Strawberry Hill smoking cigarettes and drinking cheap wine, but also learning together.  Additionally, Alaska and the Colonel are notorious pranksters and lead the group into several carefully planned schemes.   Alaska bears the burden of her mother’s death when she was a ...

The Popcorn astronauts and other bitable rhymes by Deborah Ruddell, Joan Rankin (Ill.) Summary: The Popcorn astronauts and other bitable rhymes by Deborah Ruddell (2015) uses verse to describe the four seasons humorously.  Each season has five story poems to describe it with the exception of Fall that has six poems.  In Spring there is the Strawberry Queen, that needs to be addressed as Ma’am, “but don’t say a word about strawberry jam” (p.1); a picnic, a doozie of a smoothie with pickles, snails, a “nubbin of fish,” (p. 4).  Summer includes swimming in a watermelon lake, the story of a picky Ogre that eats only corn on the cob, a recipe to make raisins like “wrinkled rubber rocks...of well-worn pirate socks (p. 9), and don’t forget the summer peaches.  Fall welcomes canoes made of potatoes, a café that serves only toast, a list of 21 things to do with an apple, a menu to eat on a rainy day, and a chance to become a hero by eating the last hardened brownie....

Knights of the lunch table by Frank Cammuso Summary: Knights of the lunch table revolves around Arthur King of Cornwall and his friends, Percival (Percy), and Wayne Kozlowski, and Gwen Lee who attend Camelot Middle School.  Author is new to Camelot and claims to be a dodgeball legend.  When he gets bullied by The Horde, the hoodlums that rule the school, he gets sent to the Principal Dagger’s office. She rules the school by discipline, control, and fear (Cammuso, 2008, p.19).  As a form of punishment, she assigns Author the legendary locker 001XCL that no one has been able to open.  On it is written the words, “If you heart be true and fine, turn the dial left to 9.  27 to the right, gives the owner strength and might. Left again to number 3.  A king to all the students be.” (Cammuso, 2008, p.22).  According, to Percival whoever opens the locker rules the school. Joe Roman, The Horde leader tries with all his might to open it, but fails. Arthur...

Amelia Lost by Candace Fleming Summary: Amelia Lost shares the story of the legendary pilot Amelia Earhart who disappeared on July 5, 1937 while trying to circumnavigate the globe.  The story flashes back and forth between the day of her disappearance and other related events through her life beginning from her birth on July 24, 1897 into a middle-class family in Kansas.  Her family consisted younger sister Muriel, her mother and father who supported her greatly in her aviation endeavors.  After attending an air show with her father, she told him that she’d like to fly.  After six months of flying lessons, she decided to buy her first plane. An ex-army instructor taught her stunt flying, but her parents’ divorce in 1925 put her flying career on hold.  She really attracted the attention of the media and was often in magazines and newspapers. The result was an opportunity to become the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean . This event propelled A...

Module 11:  Leonardo’s Horse by Jean Fritz, Hudson Talbott (Illustrator) Summary: Leonardo’s Horse is the story of Leonardo da Vinci’s unfulfilled dream of constructing a 24-foot-tall horse for the duke of Milan.  The duke of Milan wanted a horse constructed in front of his palace to honor his father.  Leonardo da Vinci wanted to be the one to make it and submitted his resume to show that he was capable of doing it.  In 1482, he was given the job. In order to determine his design, he went to horse stables to study and draw horses and examined other statues of horses.  But the duke wanted a horse three times bigger than originally planned, and Leonardo had to configure the engineering and materials needed to build such a large horse. He constructed a 24-four feet high clay model that was displayed at one of the Duke’s special occasions in 1493.  However, Leonardo did not seem to be in a hurry to finish the job.  He had so many other duties a...

R on’s Big Mission by Rose Blue and Corinne J. Naden, Don Tate (Illustrator) Summary: As a young man Ron McNair dreamed of becoming a pilot. In 1959 he was nine years old and lived in South Carolina.  He wanted to get some books from the Lake City Public Library where Mrs. Scott was the head librarian and he was the best customer.  He usually stayed and read the books, but today he wanted to check the books out and take them home.  Unfortunately, there was a rule that only let white people check books out.  Ron was black.  He was determined to get his books and stood firm even when the police and his mother were called.  Eventually, Ms. Scott made him a card and allowed him to check out the books. My Perspective: This story is shared in the biography of Ron McNair (2005) written by his brother Carl S. McNair.  It provides a few more details, but never mentions the librarian’s name.  For example, Carl McNair points out that the public l...

Module 9: Fish Finelli: Seagulls don’t eat pickles by E.S. Farber, Jason Beene (Illustrator). Summary:   Fish Finelli and his friends are trying to save money to buy a motor for their boat in hopes of winning the Captain Kidd Classic annual boat race. They have heard of Captain Kidd’s treasure that no one has found.  They heard rumors that it may be on Lyon’s island. The developer’s son, Bryce, places a bet that he’ll find the treasure before they do.   Fish and his friends also discover that the director of the Whooping Hollow Library, Mr. E. Mann is also looking for the treasure map., Fish and his two friends are determined to find the treasure before Bryce and Mr. E. Mann do.  If they can find the treasure, it means reward money, but it may also save Lyon’s island from developers since it has nature reserve for the endangered Osprey. My Perspective: Fish Finelli and his two friends go on a real treasure hunt.  The main characters, Fish is a plu...

Module 8 Savvy by Ingrid Law Summary:  Mississippi Beaumont (Mibs) has been anticipating her thirteenth birthday. In her family, that is the age that your savvy, or special skill, manifests. She wondered if her savvy would be as powerful as her brother Rocket who could set off electrical power or her brother Fish who creates water storms.   Mibs was hoping for something as exciting.  However, her savvy comes quietly and internally.  She thinks she has the power to wake up people and animals after she wakes up her younger sister and a pet turtle they thought was dead.  She knows that she can use her savvy to wake up her father who is in a coma after a car accident.  She makes her plan by becoming a stowaway on the bus of a bible salesman.  The preacher’s son and daughter decide to go with her, her protective brother Fish insist on going, and the brother Samson is already hiding on the bus.  The meek bus driver found himself taking thi...

Module 7:   Hatchet by Gary Paulsen Summary: In Hatchet (Paulsen, G., 1987) the protagonist is a 13-year-old Brian Robeson that survives an airplane crash after the only other passenger, the pilot, suffers from a fatal heart attack.  Miraculously, he survives, and finds himself stranded in a Canadian forest.  He is faced with surviving until he is rescued.  If they come to rescue him.  However, faced with the need to survive, he draws on what he has read in books or seen on tv in order to find food and shelter.  He learns that to survive he must build a shelter, gather berries, make fire, make tools to catch food.  Fortunately, he is equipped with a hatchet that proves to be a useful tool. He also encounters a porcupine attack, a skunk spraying, and a moose beating.  From each experience he gains wisdom on dealing with the wilderness animals.  He ends up being out in the wilderness for 54 days alone before he is rescued.  This sur...

Module 7: Umbrella Summer by Lisa Graff Summary:   In Umbrella Summer , (Graff, L., 2009) Annie Richards is a 10-year-old who is determined to protect herself from pain.  She has become paranoid of contracting every possible disease because her 12-year-old brother, Jared, died earlier that year from an undiagnosed heart condition.  She is depressed and living under a cloud of sadness. Annie’s extreme worrying is her way of coping with her brother’s death.  It keeps her mind from thinking about him.  Things seem to be going downhill until she befriends the new neighbor, Mrs.Finch.  Mrs. Finch tells her, it’s time to stop hiding under her umbrella, take it down, and enjoy the sunshine.  Annie in turn helps Mrs. Finch, and both her parents to take down their umbrellas as well. My Perspective: This story is about Annie who is struggling with depression after the sudden loss of her brother five months earlier. She is not dealing well with her sa...

5720 Module 6: Click, Clack, Moo Cows that type by Doreen Cronin, Betsy Lewin (Illustrator)  Summary: Farmer Brown has a problem.  His cows like to type.  They begin typing messages to him with demands.  It’s cold in the barn at night, and they want electric blankets.  When Farmer Brown refuses their request, they go on strike refusing to give milk.  Further, the chickens also want electric blankets, so they go on strike by refusing to give eggs. Finally, Farmer Brown types his own message to the cows and sends it via the duck who is a neutral party. The cows agree to give up the typewriter in exchange for the electric blankets.  Farmer Brown considers that a fair deal and agrees.  However, instead of the ducks delivering the typewriter they have their own demands.  The pond needs a diving board!  My Perspective: This is one of my favorite picture books due to the humor.  The idea of cows typing with hooves is funny ...

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz.                                        Summary:  Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is the story of two 15-year-old boys growing up in El Paso, Texas in the 1980’s. The story revolves around Aristotle "Ari" Mendoza and Dante Quintana who meet at the pool one hot summer day.  The two boys are very quiet opposite in character. Ari is a loner who has never really had a friend, he is uncomfortable with sharing his feelings.  He represses his anger against not knowing what happened to his older brother. His father refuses to discuss the past, especially his time in the Vietnam War.  Dante is talkative more open about his feelings.  Dante’s father is a University professor and very affectionate.  As Ari and Dante get to know each other, Dante introduces ...

One Crazy Summer by Rita William-Garcia Summary: Delphine and her two younger sisters, Fern and Vonetta are sent to spend a month with their mother in Oakland, California in the summer of 1968.  Sent by their father in Brooklyn, New York so that their mother, a poet and a printer, can get to know each other.  She is less than thrilled to have them even for a month.  Instead of welcoming them, she sends to a summer camp run by the Black Panthers. Meanwhile, Delphine takes her sisters to the nearby summer camp run by the Black Panthers and Mother Mukumbu.  A rally is planned to protest the injustices committed against two of the Black Panther members.  The campers will participate in the talent show.  The sisters decide to recite one of their mother’s poems at the rally.  Just prior to the rally, their mother and two black panther members are arrested.  The girls are taken care of by some neighbors while their mother is in jail.  At...

Book Trailers These are great books for middle school students. Click on the links to find out more about these great books.  The Crossover by Kwame Alexander (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014) https://spark.adobe.com/video/RYIvmwu47zfQ1 The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (New York: Scholastic, Inc., 1978) https://spark.adobe.com/video/wlEplyRsAchQ1 Hoot by Carl Hiassen (N ew York: Scholastic, Inc., 2002) https://spark.adobe.com/video/1YBqpvedXkeSk Monsterland by James Crowley (New York:  Penguin Young Readers Group, 2017) https://spark.adobe.com/video/ rZXxWRmYMfNbt CIA:  Operation Golden Llama by Sam Bond (California: Bound Publishing, 2013) https://spark.adobe.com/video/uoUak1MFIpVu0