For Parents

November New Releases

By on November 1, 2013   /   Book Lists, For Parents, For Teachers, News  

As you search for a way to unwind from the excitement of Trick-or-Treating last night, pull up a piece of carpet or plop in a comfy chair with a new book. These new releases are a great way to take the edge off that sugar high you are surely having today.  🙂

 


The Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck, Book 8 by Jeff Kinney

Greg Heffley’s on a losing streak. His best friend, Rowley Jefferson, has ditched him, and finding new friends in middle school is proving to be a tough task. To change his fortunes, Greg decides to take a leap of faith and turn his decisions over to chance. Will a roll of the dice turn things around, or is Greg’s life destined to be just another hard-luck story?


The Ranger’s Apprentice:  The Royal Ranger by John Flanagan

Will Treaty has come a long way from the small boy with dreams of knighthood. Life had other plans for him, and as an apprentice Ranger under Halt, he grew into a legend—the finest Ranger the kingdom has ever known. Yet Will is facing a tragic battle that has left him grim and alone. To add to his problems, the time has come to take on an apprentice of his own, and it’s the last person he ever would have expected. Fighting his personal demons, Will has to win the trust and respect of his difficult new companion—a task that at times seems almost impossible.


The Sandman and the War of Dreams  by William Joyce

In their fourth chapter book adventure, the Guardians recruit Sanderson ManSnoozy, the sleepy legend also known as the Sandman, to their cause.

When the Man in the Moon brought together the Guardians, he warned them that they would face some terrible evils as they strove to protect the children of earth. But nothing could have prepared them for this: Pitch has disappeared and taken Katherine with him. And now the Guardians are not only down one member, but a young girl is missing.
Fortunately, MiM knows just the man to join the team. Sanderson ManSnoozy

 

 


Survivors: Stranded by Jeff Probst

Eleven days down, and no end in sight. How long could YOU survive?

It’s been days since Buzz, Vanessa, Carter and Jane were stranded on a deserted island in the middle of the South Pacific. Four kids left to fend for themselves. No adults. No supplies. They’ve managed to make fire and they’ve even found food. But they’ve just lost their only shelter, and quite possibly their one chance at being rescued. Now they’ll have to venture even deeper into the jungles of Nowhere Island just to stay alive. But the island holds secrets of a dark past. With danger lurking at every turn, they must rely on each other like never before it they are going to survive.

 

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The Children’s Hour: Poetry Study with Middle Grade Readers

By on October 7, 2013   /   Book Lists, For Librarians, For Parents, For Teachers  

Longfellow_children's_hourIt started this summer, when we visited Boston. We had just been to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s house in Cambridge. We were relaxing on the Harvard University lawn, and, inspired by the uber-intellectual environment, I asked my then eight year old to read me one of Longfellow’s poems from the slim volume we had just bought. I half- way thought she would refuse. But she good-humoredly began to read The Children’s Hour, delighting in Longfellow’s description of his own daughters:

From my study I see in the lamplight,
      Descending the broad hall stair,
Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra,
      And Edith with golden hair.


A whisper, and then a silence:
      Yet I know by their merry eyes
They are plotting and planning together
      To take me by surprise.

 And for the last number of months, my now nine and eleven year old have indeed taken me by surprise with their enthusiasm for our daily poetry study. On the way to school, I ask them each to read me a poem of their choice from a collection of famous poems we keep in the car. What has surprised me is how much more their enthusiasm is for these poems than Shel Silverstein or the other ‘children’s poetry’ we have in the house. There is something about the ‘big topics’ addressed — love, death, yearning, freedom, God — that fascinates them. So too does the vulnerability of these long-ago adult poets appeal; although they don’t say it, I hear the amazement in their voices when they read the stanzas aloud. (And I imagine their inner dialogue: Adults feel scared or confused like we do? Adults that long ago were so inspired by love and beauty?) For instance, the courage and perseverance of the speaker in William Ernest Henley’s Invictus seems to speak to my son, who comes back to this poem again and again on our morning read-alouds,

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

It makes sense. After all, a primary developmental task of the middle grader is defining of the self in relation to the environment. And what older elementary schooler/middle schooler wouldn’t be inspired by the majestic inner strength of the lines

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

His love for this poem have allowed us to discuss Nelson Mandela, who — or so the movie says — recited this poem to himself during his many years of captivity in South Africa. We discuss how an idea, an image, can give someone strength to endure the apparently unendurable. We discuss the power, and comfort, of words.

For my more whimsical daughter, William Wordsworth’s Daffodils seems to hold particular resonance. So much so that she’s been heard now reciting the lines to herself all around the house:

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;

Like Invictus, the ultimate message of the poem is about building – and relying upon – one’s inner resources. A message utterly appropriate to a young person who is relatively powerless in this world so defined by adults:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils. 

What I’ve grown to realize is that like Wordsworth’s speaker, who stores the memory of the dancing flowers in his inner eye, these poems have the potential to be sources of inner strength for middle grade readers. There is no need to solely limit our young people to literature or poetry ‘meant’ for them. Rather, short exposure to small jewels of literary power (and most poems are by definition relatively short!) allow them to store these riches in their inner coffers for later spending. The great poets, like modern day rock or pop lyricists, appeal directly to the romantic spirits of young people.

Some of the words may be unfamiliar, some of the usages arcane, but without the cynicism that comes with teenage and adult years, middle grade readers have souls made for poetry. Like Emily Dickinson’s speaker in Chartless, they need no charts to navigate these poetic waters:

I never saw a moor,
I never saw the sea;
Yet now I know how the heather looks,
And what a wave must be. 

So too do middle grade readers know great poetry in their bones. They may not have heard it before, but need no maps, just an enthusiastic parent, and permission to dive in.

And so, along with evening read-alouds, poetry study has become a part of our family culture. Sometimes it’s as simple as two short poems read aloud in the car on the way to school. Sometimes, when we’re pressed for time at night, I will read one or two poems in lieu of a bedtime story (or have the children chose and read a poem). If nothing else, hearing these great works recited in my children’s voices fills me with joy, and reminds me how important poetry is for spirits both young and old.

Are their particular poems you share, or plan to share, with the middle grade readers in your life?

(image of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s daughters courtesy wikipedia)

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A Tribute to Libraries

By on October 4, 2013   /   For Librarians, For Parents  

September was Library Card sign-up month — a reminder to parents and children that a library card is the most important school supply of all. So I’m a little late to the game to write a mini tribute to libraries. Kind of like an overdue book. But I’ll write it anyway.

Confession: I love libraries. Always have. My earliest memory of being inside a library is sitting on a carpeted floor, listening to a librarian read from a picture book. Story time. The sound of her voice filling the room with the melody of words. Anticipating what could happen with each turn of the page. In grade school, I remember walking to the car with my mom, clutching a library book to my chest, awaiting the moment when we’d get home and I could run to my room, curl up in my favorite chair and crack open the spine, diving into the story and not coming up for air until dinnertime.

There were countless trips to the neighborhood bookmobile, too, which parked just a few blocks from my house every other Thursday afternoon. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world to have a bus bring me books! As a teenager, I rode my bike to and from the library, my metal basket filled with books.

FBA Library 1970s

 

 

Typical 1970s library

 

When I became a parent, I took my three kids to story time at the library, met there with our parent-child book clubs, attended many events, not to mention borrowed hundreds of books over the years. The addition of the self-checkout was reason enough to go! My kids loved checking out books themselves (how cool is that beeping scanner!) and I loved avoiding a long line.

Our library recently underwent a major renovation, and while one thing has remained constant — shelf after shelf of books — much about the library is reinvented to meet the demands of today’s patrons. There’s a coffee shop, a multimedia area, open space, brightly-colored comfortable seating, and a friendly, cozy atmosphere.

vapl 2013

 

 

Vernon Area Public Library, Lincolnshire, Illinois

 

From the very first library, excavated in Syria (dating back to 1200 BCE), to today’s multimedia centers, with programs, meeting space, and technology at our fingertips, libraries have continued to evolve over time. And people use them more than ever. With the recent economic downturn, libraries experienced an increase in traffic and usage.

I once worried that because we live in a world relying more and more on technology, libraries might (gulp) go the way of the typewriter and rotary phone. Thankfully that has not happened. So take a ride over to your local library and get your child a card. Or if he or she already has one, use it! Honestly, it really will be the best school supply ever received. For free.

Michele Weber Hurwitz is the author of Calli Be Gold (Wendy Lamb Books 2011) and The Summer I Saved the World…in 65 Days (Wendy Lamb Books, coming April 2014). Visit her at micheleweberhurwitz.com.

 

 

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