Historical Fiction – Page 7 – Unleashing Readers

Text Sets for Teachers: The Power of Words: Witnessing the Impact of Words

December 20, 2015December 20, 2015 by Kellee

The Power of Words: Witnessing the Impact of Words
Text Set for The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
created by Kelly Markle

I chose this theme because I think that it is very important in The Book Thief and also important for confronting large events that based on control, such as the Holocaust. This theme could be used with almost any Holocaust text to highlight the psychological side of such a horrific time. The idea of “the power of words” is also something that would be very beneficial to talk about inside of a middle or high school classroom because it touches on issues that are extremely relevant to the students’ personal lives. This is a time of many insecurities and judgments, so it is a good way to explore this reality through other sources and texts. When designing the text set, I wanted to have a solid combination of historical and new sources that were relevant to what the students already know. I included musical sources, using a well-known song along with less popular songs that they may not know. I also did this by having a speech from Obama along with a speech by Hitler to highlight the fact that they are both very well spoken people and that they both have power in their words, but those words can be used to influence people differently.

When creating the set, I tried to start by thinking of activities that can be done based on this theme inside of the classroom. Then, I found sources to support those ideas, so that they were not thrown into a list that was nonsensical. This is important to my text set because many of the sources are videos and it is important to remember that there will be follow up activities that ask the students to write, respond, or participate in an activity based on what they are seeing so that it does not feel like they are only getting visual experiences. I also plan to print copies of lyrics to songs and speeches so that my students could read along and reference as the unit develops. I think that this theme lends itself to many different situations so that the discussions differ. There are also many levels of the influence words from a personal to a national level, which is something that is important to show students because one leads to another. This theme is relevant to the subject of English in general because if words did not have power, literature would not exist, and that could be used to help students realize the importance of the class and why books, poems, words endure.

Anchor Texts (although other texts may be used!):
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Novels
brown girl dreaming (excerpt) by Jaqueline Woodson

The Diary of a Young Girl (excerpt) by Anne Frank

Videos/Clips
Kid President: 20 Things We Should Say More Often
Blind Man: The Power of Words
Hannah Brencher’s Ted Talk
Fight Song in Spanish
Why Sign

Speeches
Hitler Youth Speech
Obama Campaign Speech
Obama: “Don’t Tell Me Words Don’t Matter”
Miss Teen USA 2007- South Carolina
“I Have a Dream”

Songs
“Consequence of Sounds” – Regina Spektor
“Same Love” – Macklemore
“A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall” – Bob Dylan
“It’s Alright Ma” – Bob Dylan
“Misheard Song Lyrics”

Poems
“Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carol
“Every Kid Needs a Champion” by Rita Pierson
“The Power of Words” by Letitia Landon

Timelines
Holocaust timeline to represent how quickly Adolf Hitler gained power over the people

Histories
Churchill: The Power of Words

Images

Short Stories
“The Children’s Story” by James Clavell
“The Pledge of Allegiance”

Activities (Some Are Teacher Created/Shared)
How words are added to the dictionary
Word poems
Favorite Song Activity
Mein Kampf– 4 Corners Activity
Word Play (laughter/slaughter)
Label Game: Each student is randomly assigned one word to define
Brenna’s lesson with quotes about technology
Andrew’s mismatch word activity

Guiding Questions

How many words does it take to make a difference?
What is the value in the words that are not said? Is tehre any? When should silence prevail?
Why do words hold such power?
Is this power a good thing or a bad thing? Does the good outweigh the bad, or vice versa?
Do words have the same impact no matter who says them? Does definition of a word matter, or the background and emotion behind them?

Writing Prompts

Have you ever experienced a time when you have been influenced by words in some way? Have you ever used words to influence others?
Create a poem, song, speech, or advertisement that confronts an issue that you find important and use it to convince the readers to feel the way that you do about it through words. Take a strong stance.
After reading The Book Thief and completing this unit, what have you realized about the power of words that you did not think about before?
Make a list of single words that you think have the most power and explain why.
Do you think that you were influenced by words growing up? Whose words? What affect did they have on you? Does this help or hurt society as a whole?

A special thanks to Kelly for this phenomenal text set! We think this text set would be useful for many anchor texts! What do you think?

and `1111`

Author Guest Post!: “Where Are You From? Honing Research And Evaluation Skills With A Family Tree Project” by Lissa Johnston, Author of The Dala Horse

April 21, 2018December 13, 2015 by Ricki

“Where Are You From? Honing Research And Evaluation Skills With A Family Tree Project”

by Lissa Johnston

It’s human nature to be curious about each other. In our caveman days, the ability to detect whether someone was similar to you or very different from you (friend or foe?) was an important survival skill. These survival instincts remain with us today, but we go about evaluating ourselves a little differently. We still observe and make judgments about our fellow humans based on previous experience. As mankind has evolved, we have added the wonderful gift of language – now we can also ask questions! Among adults we see this in the tried-and-true conversation starter,‘what do you do’? With kids, that question doesn’t work as well because most of them ‘do’ the same thing – they’re students. More (and better!) questions are required. A similar question that works well in this process of discovery is not, ‘what do you do?’, but rather: ‘where are you from?’

You may think this is a simplistic question, yielding little in the way of learning opportunities. Everyone knows where they are from, you might be thinking. What’s so special about that? I would argue this one simple question can be more enlightening than it seems, for at least two reasons. One: not everyone, especially not children, are aware of where they are ‘from’. Secondly, when I ask ‘where are you from?’, I hope to encourage you to dig into your family tree and tell me where you are really FROM.

The cool thing about this seemingly nosy inquiry is that it works equally well when turned upon one’s self. One of the main sources of inspiration for my latest book, The Dala Horse, was discovering one branch of my family tree was Norwegian. As a Native Texan growing up in a big city, it was something of a surprise to discover I had Scandinavian roots. The closest I had ever come to anything Norwegian was when the Cowboys played the Vikings, and that wasn’t very often.

Occasionally my younger school-age cousins will reach out to me with questions about our family tree for a class project. I am so thrilled that family tree projects are becoming commonplace in the classroom. It’s the perfect learning opportunity. It combines history, math, sociology, geography, and the golden ingredient: it’s all about the student!

The beauty of a family tree project is that it easily incorporated Into your existing reading plan. There’s no need to add or adjust the reading schedule unless you just want to. Once you start looking at your current assigned reading projects through family tree glasses, opportunities for tying into a family tree project abound. The connection is pretty obvious with social studies, history, or historical fiction books. But if you dig a little deeper, it can also be made with more mainstream books. Most have characters with a variety of ethnic backgrounds. If not, they may take place in locales that vary from yours. Either is a great jumping off point with this simple and adaptable question: ‘[character] in [book] is from [location]. Where are you from?’ And if your current assigned reading is somewhat homogenous, ask the students to write their own version of the story, putting it in a different locale or time period that has some connection to their own family tree.

Some additional ideas for incorporating a family tree project into your lesson plans:

Have students work up a family tree project going as far back as they can. It’s okay if it’s only two or three generations. Question marks in the family tree are okay. That happens to professional genealogists all the time!
Pre-select a 20 year time period (1900-1920; 1960-1980). Have the students create a fictional biography about one of the family members who was born within that time period. Extra credit if the story correlates with the age that person would have been within that era. For example, if teacher has selected the era 1940-1960, and Uncle Kenneth was born in 1941, his bio should focus on what he would have been doing from age 0-19. Hint: best to keep this within the last 100 years to make family tree research a little easier.
Create some tickets, each with different eras written on them. Number of tickets should equal or exceed number of students in class. For example if you have 30 students, create 35 or so tickets. Divide total number of tickets into 3-4 different eras. Write the eras on the tickets and have students draw out of a jar for what era they will be writing about, again featuring a member of their family tree who lived within that era. This helps spread the research around so that everyone is not looking for the same handful of books on a narrow slice of shelving in your library. You can have them work together in groups, or as individuals. The groups can be organized so that each group is working on the same era so that you have a horizontal storyline. Or, group composition can be completely random so that you might end up with a more vertical storyline for the project within that group: one from 1920-1940; 1940-1960; 1960-1980; and so forth.
Students select a person from their family tree. Match something about this person with a similar topic from your school library and write a review of this book. Be sure to include the connection with your family/why you chose it. For example, perhaps Granny Louise grew up on a dairy farm. Select a book about farms, or cows, or the state or city where she lived.
Occasionally some students will have some difficulty tracing their family tree back very far. To avoid this issue, make the entire project about fictional or non-fictional characters that THEY get to choose. Create an imaginary family tree for that person going back three generations (self, parents, grandparents). Although the characters will be fictional, their significant life events (birth, marriage, school, death), geography, occupation, etc. must line up more or less correctly with the fictional character. So for example a fictional family tree based on Abraham Lincoln would have a very different set of facts than, say, a fictional family tree of LeBron James.
I did mention math, up there, didn’t I? So I better include a few math suggestions. Compile a list of the various ethnic identities in your class based on what the students have uncovered going back to their grandparents’ generation. Which group is the largest? Smallest? How would you calculate these two numbers into percentages? Extra points for determining how your class’s stats line up with similar statistics locally and/or nationwide. Extra points for discovering what other parts of the country have similar groups. In other words, if the smallest percentage represented in your class is of Italian ancestry, where are the largest concentrations of Italian immigrants in the US?
Place all ethnic groups represented by your students in a jar. Draw three. Have students research whether there are any businesses such as shops or restaurants in your area that share a common heritage with these three.
Reverse that project. Have the class compile a list of several shops and restaurants in your town. Have them research the ethnic groups they represent.
Family tree programs and software are very popular now. If your students are old enough, you may lead them in researching family tree records online. In order to avoid any privacy concerns you can easily keep it very general and just look at for example census records for your town going back however far. A fun activity with census records is looking at people’s professions. If accessing these programs is not possible, allow family interviews instead.
One of the activities I suggest in the book is a good example of demonstrating how cultural traditions persist through time. Cultural traditions of Norwegians in Texas might seem an obscure subset, until you start brainstorming how many of our traditions we follow and enjoy share today had their roots in other ethnic groups. Challenge students to list the various ethnicities represented in the classroom. Pair these with traditions familiar to many. For example, St. Patrick’s Day is an Irish tradition. Mardi Gras = French. Kwanzaa = African American. I mentioned the Minnesota Vikings earlier. Sports teams often have ethnic cultural connections and are very familiar with many students.
Popular songs, artists, even instruments are a great resource for cultural variety. What are the origins of the guitar? Drums? What type of music is traditional in Poland, or India?
I’ve saved my favorite activity for last. After completing their family tree research, each student must find something in their research that connects them with at least one other student. For example, perhaps student 1 had a grandfather who was in the Navy during World War II, and student 2 had an ancestor who emigrated to the United States after World War II. Be lenient with the connections. This is a great activity for class-wide brainstorming. A spider diagram on a white board or any display that could be left up for a few days would be ideal for this. The project is complete when each student’s name is represented and linked to someone else’s in the spider diagram.

My wish for students is that they experience the eye-opening discovery that even though some of us may look very much alike on the outside, we may be very different on the inside. And of course, the opposite is true! Sometimes the people who look the most different from us on the outside are the ones with whom we find we have the most in common. There may not be many of you reading this now who have Norwegian ancestors who settled in Texas, like I do. But I bet there are plenty of you whose ancestors came here from somewhere else – also like me!

About The Dala Horse

10-year-old Kaya Olson lives in a small Norwegian immigrant settlement in
post-Civil War Texas. When her mother is killed in a stage coach robbery,
Kaya feels responsible. Can she uncover the secrets her family is keeping
to solve the mystery surrounding her mother’s death?

Thank you to Lissa for these great research and evaluation skills!

and

Like Water on Stone by Dana Walrath

October 1, 2015 by Ricki

Like Water on Stone
Author: Dana Walrath
Published: November 11th, 2014 by Delacorte Press

Summary: Blending magical realism and lyrical free verse, this is an intense survival story of three siblings caught up in the horrific events of the Armenian genocide of 1915.

It is 1914, and the Ottoman Empire is crumbling into violence.

Beyond Anatolia, in the Armenian Highlands, Shahen Donabedian dreams of going to New York. Sosi, his twin sister, never wants to leave her home, especially now that she is in love. At first, only Papa, who counts Turks and Kurds among his closest friends, stands in Shahen’s way. But when the Ottoman pashas set their plans to eliminate all Armenians in motion, neither twin has a choice.

After a horrifying attack leaves them orphaned, Shahen and Sosi flee into the mountains, carrying their little sister, Mariam. Shahen keeps their parents’ fate a secret from his sisters. But the children are not alone. An eagle named Ardziv watches over them as they run at night and hide each day, making their way across mountain ridges and rivers red with blood.

Review: This is a beautiful book in verse that is set in the Ottoman Empire during the 1910s. It blends genres of magical realism and historical fiction. The point of view alternates with each poem, so I came to understand the differing perspectives of the family depicted in the text. The horrific genocide against Armenians is not common in literature, and this text sheds light on a time period that should be depicted more often. The strength of the children in this book will be inspirational to readers.

Teacher’s Tools for Navigation: I would recommend using this book as a literature circle text. Each group could be assigned a text that depicts a different genocide. This would provide rich opportunities to discuss parallels and differences across texts. Then, teachers might consider having students examine both historical and modern genocide. This might involve critical conversations about how we might work to promote social justice. They might even critique conceptions of social justice, such as slacktivism.

Discussion Questions: What does this story teach us about humanity?; How might a feminist read this text? What issues of gender emerge? Is this acceptable due to the historical setting of the text?

We Flagged:

“Hate makes jagged spikes of light,

and blame can crack the sky.

As pierced with wounds

from sharp white teeth,

the Ottoman air had ruptured.

Massacres would come again

as the drum-capped rulers

spread their hate” (p. 17-18).

Read This If You Loved: Tree Girl by Ben Mikaelsen; Audacity by Melanie Crowder; Requiem: Poems of the Terezin Ghetto by Paul B. Janeczko; Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys; Night by Elie Wiesel; A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

Recommended For:

Review and Author Interview!: Cold War on Maplewood Street by Gayle Rosengren

October 22, 2015August 4, 2015 by Ricki

Cold War on Maplewood Street
Author: Gayle Rosengren
Published August 4, 2015 (Today!) by Putnam

Goodreads Summary: Cold War anxieties play out in a sensitively told story set during the Cuban missile crisis in the 1960s, perfect for fans of Gary Schmidt and Kristin Levine.

Joanna can’t get over how her brother broke his promise to never leave like their dad did. Sam is thousands of miles away on a navy ship, and no matter how often he sends letters, Joanna refuses to write back. When she makes a promise, she keeps it.

But then President Kennedy comes on TV with frightening news about Soviet missiles in Cuba—and that’s where Sam’s heading. Suddenly Joanna’s worries about being home alone, building up the courage to talk to a cute boy, and not being allowed to go to the first boy-girl party in her grade don’t seem so important. Maybe sometimes there are good reasons to break a promise.

The tense timeline of the Cuban missile crisis unfolds alongside a powerful, and ultimately hopeful, story about what it means to grow up in a world full of uncertainty.

Ricki’s Review: Cold War on Maplewood Street highlights a time period that isn’t common in the genre of historical fiction. I was intrigued from the very beginning because I have read few books focused on the Cuban missile crisis. The author excellently balances narrative and history in this engaging, thought-provoking text. Joanna is a strong girl who is ashamed of the way she treated her brother when he left for war. She makes a realistic mistake and tries to work through her emotions regarding her treatment of her brother and also the frightening events of war. There are many concepts for teachers to draw upon in this text—family, friendship, war, and fear, to name a few—and teachers will find this text offers rich opportunities for classroom discussion.

Kellee’s Review: What I think Ms. Rosengren does so well in this book is tell a real story with a piece of history as the backdrop. This is a Cold War/Cuban Missile Crisis story, but that isn’t what the book is all about. This book is about Joanna, her family, and her best friend. Her characters are very real and show the real emotions that must have been running through so many peoples’ veins during this tense time. Because of how well this book is crafted as a narrative within a historical time period, I believe it would be a great introduction to this time period for middle grade readers. Many will have never heard of the Cold War or Cuban Missile Crisis, so learning about it through Joanna’s story is perfect.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: Teachers might consider using this text to ask students to examine their regrets. Students could begin by closely examine characters that have regrets. Who are they? Do their regrets impact others? Then, the students could consider world leaders or pop culture to consider regrets that famous people might have and how these regrets impacted their lives. Finally, the students might journal to make connections with the text by examining mistakes they have made or regrets they hold in their personal lives.

Another interesting aspect of this book is the theme of communication. Students could compare the lack of communication of some of the characters in the book (which led to a major issue) and the lack of communication which led to the Cuban Missile Crisis. How could communication have helped either of these situations?

Discussion Questions: How would you react if your sibling went to war? Is Joanna’s reaction realistic? Is it fair?; How does war impact the lives of those who stay home? How do the characters of this text react differently from each other? Do you think the war impacted the choices Pamela’s family members make?; What is Mrs. Strenge’s role in the novel? How does she enhance our reading of the story?

Author Interview!:

Unleashing Readers: What interested you in the Cold War, specifically?

Gayle Rosengren: When I wrote the first draft of Cold War on Maplewood Street–twenty years ago(!)–itwas to share a singular experience from my childhood, the Cuban Missile Crisis. But for several reasons, the manuscript never made it to an editor and I had to set it aside.

Years later I decided to revisit it with a different objective in mind. Now, I wanted to tell a story in which the crisis was the backdrop for a story about how poor communication can destroy relationships. The Cold War itself was an example of a break-down in communication on such a major scale that it very nearly led to destruction on a global level. In my novel, poor communication is demonstrated by main character Joanna’s failure to write to her brother and apologize for the terrible things she said to him when he left for the Navy. It’s also shown in her avoidance of a new tenant in their building, an old woman Joanna finds frightening for several reasons; and it’s demonstrated in her best friend Pamela Waterman’s family, when Mrs. Waterman runs away instead of confronting her husband about how desperate she is to see Paris.

UR: What does your research process look like?

GR: My research began with plumbing my own very vivid memories of the week of the crisis. I was twelve, and I was scared, especially since–although they tried to conceal it–I could see that adults were scared too.

But the major source of the historical details in Cold War on Maplewood Street came from the Chicago Tribune’s archives and actual headlines, photos, and articles that appeared in what was then The Chicago Daily Tribune. Remember, I wrote the first draft of the manuscript over twenty years ago. Pre-computer. And given that newspapers and television newscasts were the primary news sources of the day, I felt it was a solid source for my facts. I have a fat file full of copied newspaper pages that provided everything from the news to the weather and the television schedule. (All 4 channels!)

Today we know more about what was going on during that infamous week (in particular the note that Kennedy sent to Khrushchev agreeing to remove our nuclear weapons from Turkey) but I wanted Joanna to know only what anyone else living in the U.S, and specifically Chicago, would have known at the time.

UR: Did you decide on your time period or your protagonist/narrative first?

GR: This was an instance where the time period was clearly the inspiration for the story, and the protagonist and voice followed. I originally wrote this manuscript in the third person, rewrote it in first person, and then went back to third as I struggled to discover the character and voice that would best serve the story.

UR: Did anyone in your life inspire your characters?

GR: I modeled Joanna’s and Sam’s relationship on my close relationship with my brother Dennis. He was in the Air Force at the time of the missile crisis and based relatively safely in Okinawa, Japan, but I imagined that he was in the Navy, on a ship off the east coast of the U.S., and likely to be swept into action as part of the Cuba quarantine and blockade. I imagined how terrified I would have been for him. And then, to up the stakes, I imagined that when he’d left, Joanna in her hurt and anger accused him of deserting them just like their father had years before. The guilt she would feel knowing she might never get to apologize would be overwhelming.

Joanna’s mother was modeled after my single mother who always worked hard and scrimped to take care of us. Pamela was every good friend I ever had with a normal (which at the time meant two-parent) family.

As for Joanna, she was a lot like me at 12–childish and thoughtless one moment, grown-up and sensitive the next, taking awkward steps toward adulthood and all the while longing for the protective cocoon of childhood that was forever left behind in that unforgettable week. Like Joanna, I too loved horses and dogs and hated being alone in the house at night.

We Flagged: “[S]taying positive and hopeful—even pretending to—was much better than giving in to fear.” (p. 142)

Read This If You Loved: Countdown by Deborah Wiles; Paper Cowboy by Kristin Levine; What the Moon Said by Gayle Rosengren; Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick; Spy Catchers of Maple Hill by Megan Frazer Blakemore

Recommended For:

and

**Thank you to Penguin for providing copies for review and Ms. Rosengren for the author interview!**

Freedom Summer by Deborah Wiles (Kellee’s Review)

July 15, 2015 by Kellee

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday is hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy and was started to help promote the reading of nonfiction texts. Most Wednesdays, we will be participating and will review a nonfiction text (though it may not always be a picture book).
Be sure to visit Kid Lit Frenzy and see what other nonfiction books are shared this week!

Disclaimer: This book is technically historical fiction, but I felt it belonged on a Wednesday because of its base in fact (see “A Note About The Text”).

Freedom Summer
Author: Deborah Wiles
Illustrator: Jerome Lagarrigue
Published January 1st, 2005 by Aladdin

Goodreads Summary:

John Henry swims better than anyone I know.
He crawls like a catfish,
blows bubbles like a swamp monster,
but he doesn’t swim in the town pool with me.
He’s not allowed.

Joe and John Henry are a lot alike. They both like shooting marbles, they both want to be firemen, and they both love to swim. But there’s one important way they’re different: Joe is white and John Henry is black, and in the South in 1964, that means John Henry isn’t allowed to do everything his best friend is. Then a law is passed that forbids segregation and opens the town pool to everyone. Joe and John Henry are so excited they race each other there…only to discover that it takes more than a new law to change people’s hearts.

My Review: Deborah Wiles amazes me every time I read something by her. I think I need to get everything she has written and devour it. Her books make me a better person. This one is no exception to these statements. Freedom Summer starts with a personal story of Wiles’s and sets the stage for the book: What would it be like to have a best friend who is black in the South in 1964? Do you know what it is like? Any other friendship! Except many people felt that it was wrong and you cannot go places together. Freedom Summer is about Joe and John Henry. They are both young boys. They both like to swim. They both love ice cream. However, only one can go to the pool and only one can buy ice cream from the store. I think what makes this story so impactful is that Wiles sets the stage of the friendship as something so normal (because it is!!) then shows how different their lives are. So powerful. Made me cry. It’s lyrical writing, soft and beautiful illustrations, and powerful message are so moving. Go read it if you haven’t.

You can view Ricki’s review of Freedom Summer here.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: This book belongs in classrooms. It will start discussions and make students think. Luckily, Deborah Wiles helps us out a ton by sharing so many resources with us on her Pinterest board https://www.pinterest.com/debbiewiles/ and her website http://deborahwiles.com/site/resources-for-educators/.

Discussion Questions: Why was the pool being filled with tar?; What do you think will happen after the end of the book?; Based on Joe’s parents letting him be friends with John Henry, what can you infer their viewpoint of integration is?

We Flagged:

freedom summer spread — from http://books.simonandschuster.ca/Freedom-Summer/Deborah-Wiles/9781481422987

Read This If You Loved: Revolution by Deborah Wiles, Seeds of Freedom by Hester Bass, Separate is Never Equal by Duncan Tonatiuh, The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine, Sin-In by Andrea Pinkney

Recommended For:

2015 Big Book Summer Challenge: Revolution by Deborah Wiles & East of Eden by John Steinbeck

July 8, 2015 by Kellee

Big Book Summer Challenge is a challenge hosted by Sue at Book by Book. The inspiration behind the challenge is to push the bigger books to the top of the TBR pile during summer time.

The Details:

Anything over 400 pages qualifies as a big book.
The challenge will run from Memorial Day weekend (starting May 22 this year) through Labor Day weekend (Labor Day is September 7 this year).
Choose one or two or however many big books you want as your goal. Wait, did you get that? You only need to read 1 book with over 400 pages this summer to participate! (Though you are welcome to read more, if you want.)
Choose from what’s on your shelves already or a big book you’ve been meaning to read for ages or anything that catches your eye in the library – whatever peaks your interest!
Sign up on Book by Book.
Write a post to kick things off – you can list the exact big books you plan to read or just publish your intent to participate, but be sure to include the Big Book Summer Challenge pic above, with a link back to Book by Book.
Write a post to wrap up at the end, listing the big books you read during the summer.
You can write progress posts if you want to and/or reviews of the big books you’ve read…but you don’t have to! There is a separate links list below for big book review posts.

Today, we are combining the last three bullet points–we both have finished our big books!

Kellee

Revolution
Author: Deborah Wiles
Published May 27th, 2014 by Scholastic Press
538 pages

Goodreads Summary: It’s 1964, and Sunny’s town is being invaded. Or at least that’s what the adults of Greenwood, Mississippi, are saying. All Sunny knows is that people from up north are coming to help people register to vote. They’re calling it Freedom Summer.

Meanwhile, Sunny can’t help but feel like her house is being invaded, too. She has a new stepmother, a new brother, and a new sister crowding her life, giving her little room to breathe. And things get even trickier when Sunny and her brother are caught sneaking into the local swimming pool — where they bump into a mystery boy whose life is going to become tangled up in theirs.

As she did in her groundbreaking documentary novel Countdown, award-winning author Deborah Wiles uses stories and images to tell the riveting story of a certain time and place — and of kids who, in a world where everyone is choosing sides, must figure out how to stand up for themselves and fight for what’s right.

*A 2014 National Book Award Finalist

Kellee’s Thoughts: What is so amazing about this book is that it doesn’t feel like a big book. Well, it FEELS like a big book because it is heavy and thick, but when you are done reading, it doesn’t feel like you had to trudge through anything. Not once did I feel like there were too many pages. Wiles does an amazing job filling each and every page with important information for the historical context, characterization, or plot development.

Revolution is a perfectly-crafted look at one of the toughest times in American history. What Wiles does is truly delve into the emotions felt during the Freedom Summer and some of the smaller actions that may not have made the history books. One of my favorite things about Wiles’s Sixties Trilogy books is that she includes historical resources throughout the book that truly puts the story in context. The primary sources/stories and other embedded pieces of history really show that the narrative she has created is not truly a work of fiction. It may include fictional characters, but the setting, the feelings, the conflict, the time period, the history–those are all fact.

Revolution couldn’t work without the Sunny and her cast of characters though. This book could have gone terribly wrong if the voice, thoughts, and feelings of our protagonist were not so believable since Wiles was having us learn about such a tumultuous time through the eyes of a child. However, no need to worry about that because Sunny is perfect. She is easy to connect to and seems true. My favorite characters are those around her that push her and help change her: Annabelle, Jo Ellen, and Ray. Annabelle is so patient, truly loves Sunny, and has some of the best lines in the book; Jo Ellen is so head-strong, forward-thinking, and intelligent; and Ray is just crazy but also overwhelmingly brave.

I am part of an informal Twitter book club, and our June read was Revolution. Deborah Wiles even stopped by to chat with us! If you are interested in reading it, I archived it here. Warning: There may be spoilers if you haven’t read the book. Some of my favorite quotes from the chat that truly show the impact of the book are:

“What a brilliant idea Deborah Wiles had with these books–to embed all of the history.” -Carrie Gelson

“Sunny’s story hit my heart.” -Michele Knott

“Countdown and Revolution are like…seeing beyond the headlines.” -Cheriee Weichel

“So hard to read how something you think people could do (register) but couldn’t because of effects (lose job, name in paper, etc.)” -Michele Knott

“It took Sunny witnessing the civil unrest to grow up and realize how to accept her own life.” -Kellee Moye

“There is so much about the Civil Rights Movement that seems like it should be easy, but ignorance stops it.” Kellee Moye

“Immerse as much as possible.” -Deborah Wiles, referencing part of her research process

Favorite quote from the book: “Everything is connected. Every choice matters.Every person is vital, valuable, and worthy of respect.” pg. 361

Recommended For:

Ricki

I also plan to tackle Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick, as well, but I am not sure if I will make it by the end of the summer. East of Eden was quite an epic read!

East of Eden
Author: John Steinbeck
Published in 1952
601 pages

Goodreads Summary: Set in the rich farmland of California’s Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families—the Trasks and the Hamiltons—whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel. Here Steinbeck created some of his most memorable characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity; the inexplicability of love; and the murderous consequences of love’s absence.

Ricki’s Thoughts: I’ve had this book on my to-be-read list for several years. In fact, I realized I own three identical copies of it, so I have considered reading it for quite some time. I love Of Mice and Men and Grapes of Wrath. In fact, I love the six or so Steinbeck books I’ve read. I’d heard this book was related to the Cain/Abel story, so I never got around to reading it because I thought I knew the ending. As an aside, I didn’t, but even if all of my predictions were accurate, it still would have been well worth the read.

The book consists of several interwoven stories and families. Two good friends (who aren’t avid readers) listened to this book in the car, and they continually urged me to read it. When I finally started, they kept saying, “We know which character you will love.” Sam Hamilton is a good man–a salt of the Earth kind of man. He reminds me of Slim for Of Mice and Men. Essentially, he teaches us what it means to be good to the very hollows of our souls. Another character who will stick with me forever is Cathy. Phew. She is quite a complex character—a sociopath, I would say—and her evilness makes my skin crawl. She is unlike any other character I’ve ever read. I could continue forward and describe more characters, but it feels as if I won’t do them justice.

The story does meander at times, but anyone who appreciates Steinbeck’s work knows that this is, in fact, a positive quality. His stories feel very true to life. We don’t follow plot diagrams. I will never forget reading this book. The story and its characters will stay with me forever. I highly recommend it.

A few great quotes that depict the beauty of Steinbeck’s words:

“I believe a strong woman may be stronger than a man, particularly if she happens to have love in her heart. I guess a loving woman is indestructible.”

“All great and precious things are lonely.”

“I believe that there is one story in the world, and only one. . . . Humans are caught—in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too—in a net of good and evil. . . . There is no other story. A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well—or ill?”

“There’s more beauty in truth, even if it is dreadful beauty.”

Recommended For:

Thank you to Sue for hosting the challenge and pushing us!

What big books do you have planned for the summer? You should join in the challenge too!

and

Blog Tour with Review, Author Guest Post, and Giveaway!: The Vanishing Island by Barry Wolverton

September 25, 2015June 19, 2015 by Kellee

The Chronicles of the Black Tulip: The Vanishing Island
Author: Barry Wolverton
Published September 1st, 2015 by Walden Pond Press

Goodreads Summary: Does the Vanishing Island really exist? And if so, what treasure—or terrible secret—was hidden by its disappearance?

It’s 1599, the Age of Discovery in Europe. But for Bren Owen, growing up in the small town of Map on the coast of Britannia has meant anything but adventure. Enticed by the tales sailors have brought through Map’s port, and inspired by the arcane maps his father creates as a cartographer for the cruel and charismatic map mogul named Rand McNally, Bren is convinced that fame and fortune await him elsewhere. That is, until his repeated attempts to run away land him a punishment worse than death—cleaning up the town vomitorium.

It is there that Bren meets a dying sailor, who gives him a strange gift that hides a hidden message. Cracking the code could lead Bren to a fabled lost treasure that could change his life forever, and that of his widowed father. But to get there he will have to tie his fate to a mysterious Dutch admiral obsessed with a Chinese legend about an island that long ago disappeared from any map.

Before long, Bren is in greater danger than he ever imagined, and will need the help of an unusual friend named Mouse to survive. Barry Wolverton’s thrilling adventure spans oceans and cultures, brings together the folklore of East and West, and proves that fortune is always a double-edged sword.

My Review: Whoa! Quite a book! Part swashbuckling adventure, part historical fiction, part folklore, part fantasy, part ghost story, Barry Wolverton has given us quite an intense adventure. I couldn’t predict anything that happened in the book. There were twists and turns throughout, and I never knew who to trust (though I am happy to say my favorite sailor was trustworthy). There were some really gruesome parts (blood and guts and vomit) and there were some really beautiful fairy tales. Overall, quite an adventure! (Though I warn: by gruesome, I mean gruesome!)

Discussion Questions: How did the author use folklore throughout the story to move along the plot?; What parts of history that were shared within the book were true? Fictional?; Throughout the book, stop and try to predict what you think is going to happen next then check your predictions as you read more.; As you read, make a list of all of the seafaring vocabulary that is used within The Vanishing Islands then illustrate each of the vocabulary words as they are used in the book.; Wolverton used Marco Polo’s written works throughout the book–what allusions to Polo’s text can you find in The Vanishing Island?

We Flagged: “The summer began with the grim warning that the wolves were running again. In Britannia, this was code. It meant that Her Majesty’s navy was in need of fresh bodies to replace all of the seamen lost during the year to disease, desertion, or battle. Crimping, they called it. Men and older boys kidnapped and forced to enlist, of the good of God, queen, and country. Britannia, after all, was just one of many nations fighting for nothing less than to control the world.

One boy who didn’t have to worry about being crimped was Bren Owens of Map, the dirtiest, noisiest, smelliest city in all of Britannia. (He had heard rotten things about London, too, but he’d never been there.) Bren was what they called spindly–tall for his age, but unsteady, like a chair you might be afraid to sit on. He had been born in Map because he’d had no choice in the matter.

But that didn’t mean he had to stay here. And now, too skinny for the wolves, he had been forced to take matters into his own hands.” (p. 9-10)

Author Guest Post:

“Be Careful What You Read, or Why Books Are Dangerous” by Barry Wolverton

Beginning in 1978, when Metrocenter mall opened near my home in Jackson, Miss., my family would go to the mall every Friday night. We would have dinner at one of the fine mall establishments, and then my mother would go clothes shopping, my brother would go nerd out at Radio Shack or Spencer’s, my father would go sit somewhere and smoke (you could do that then), and I would plop myself down in an aisle at Waldenbooks. I remember exactly how it felt to have that to look forward to, which is why Black’s Antique Books and Collectibles is Bren’s home away from home in The Vanishing Island. (Although the way I describe Black’s is more like I remembered Shakespeare and Co. in Paris, the ur-bookstore.)

But for a curious, receptive mind, books can do mischievous things. As I describe it in the book, “the bookstore was a blessing and a curse for [Bren]. Every few weeks seemed to bring in new adventure books, travelogues, and epic poems of war and conquest that were so popular these days. Tales from other lands and other times. For Bren, they offered proof that all things exotic and exciting lay anywhere but here.”

Books give Bren ideas. Ideas about places he’d rather be, things he’d rather be doing, possibilities that his current life doesn’t offer. Books also give him information. For instance, information about ships and the routines of their crew, so that an enterprising young man might figure out the best time to sneak aboard a ship and the best places to hide.

And it was undoubtedly in Black’s that Bren first found a copy of Travels by Marco Polo, the book that National Geographic described as “the founding adventure book of the modern world. Polo gave to the age of exploration that followed the marvels of the East, the strange customs, the fabulous riches, the tribes with gold teeth. It was a Book of Dreams, an incentive, a goad. Out of it came Columbus (whose own copy of the book was heavily annotated), Magellan, Vasco da Gama, and the rest of modern history.”

Wow, some book. Especially considering how much of it is considered dubious. Polo dictated his stories to a fiction writer named Rustichello while both were in prison during the Venice-Genoa war, and between Polo’s possible exaggerations and Rustichello’s flare for embellishment, we can be pretty sure Marco Polo didn’t really see a unicorn. (He may have seen a Sumatran rhino, though, which is still magical.)

Given all that, I hope you’ll appreciate why the Polo legend figures prominently in The Vanishing Island, without making light of the terrible cost of exploration and colonialism.

About the Author: Barry Wolverton is the author of Neversink. He has more than fifteen years’ experience creating books, documentary television scripts, and website content for international networks and publishers, including National Geographic, Scholastic.com, the Library of Congress, and the Discovery Networks. He lives in Memphis, Tennessee. You can visit him online at www.barrywolverton.com.

Read This If You Loved: The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, Emerald Atlas by John Stephens, The Dungeoneers by John David Anderson

Recommended For:

Make sure to visit other stops on The Vanishing Island blog tour!
Tour information: http://www.walden.com/8039-2/

6/15/2015 Blue Stocking Thinking bluestockingthinking.blogspot.com
6/16/2015 The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia    hauntedorchid.blogspot.com
6/17/2015 Small Review   smallreview.blogspot.com
6/18/2015 Maria’s Melange   www.mariaselke.com/
6/19/2015 Unleashing Readers    unleashingreaders.com
6/19/2015 The Hiding Spot   thehidingspot.blogspot.com
6/22/2015 This Kid Reviews Books thiskidreviewsbooks.com
6/23/2015 Mundie Kids mundiekids.blogspot.com/
6/24/2015 Paige in Training    pageintraining.wordpress.com
6/25/2015 Novel Novice novelnovice.com

Giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

**Thank you to Walden Pond Press for having us be part of the blog tour
and for providing copies for review and giveaway!**

Links for Barry Wolverton:

Website: http://www.barrywolverton.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wolvertonhill
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bwolverton
Instagram: https://instagram.com/wolvertonhill/

Links for Walden Pond Press:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WaldenPondPress
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WaldenPondPress
Website/Blog: http://www.walden.com/books/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/waldenpondpress/