For Teachers

Growing Up with Biographies ~ Biographies Have Grown Up

By on November 6, 2015   /   Book Lists, For Kids, For Librarians, For Parents, For Teachers, For Writers, Giveaways, Nonfiction  

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Remember these? I do. I was in 3rd or 4th grade when I discovered the section of the school library that housed all the books labeled with a capital B on the spine. Biographies. Martha Washington. Dolly Madison. Mark Twain. Clara Barton. These are a few I remember reading from the shelves of that wonderful basement library that doubled as the music room.

When my young son, a dyed-in-the-wool farmer even at age ten, seemed to lose interest in reading anything not part of a class assignment, I found a biography of John Deere. Suddenly, my little reader was back!

A few years ago, I submitted a picture book biography to a publisher who contacted me with the best kind of rejection. “This isn’t right for our list, but…”  The “but” was a great one. They were very interested in launching a new series of biographies for middle-grade readers, and since I had previously published books for middle-graders, would I be interested in writing the first book in the series? Now that’s a rejection I could handle!

This middle-grade series was a new venture for the publisher, and the editors and designers were more than willing to lend an ear to my suggestions about what a middle-grade bio should look like. Immediately, I went back to that row of “B” books in my elementary library. Yes, they had grabbed my attention, but not every elementary reader was as enamored as I was. I took a more critical look at the biographies of my youth. They were text-heavy and sparsely-illustrated, usually with some pen and ink line drawings smattered here and there.

And then, I thought about the most recent biography I’d purchased for my youngest daughter. It was Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart by Candace Fleming.

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Filled with photographs, text boxes, diary entries, and varied fonts, this is how an engaging middle-grade biography should look, feel, and read. Luckily, others agree. Today’s biographies are a far cry from the those bios of old (beloved though they may have been!)

Below are some recently-released biographies for the middle-grade crowd.  Stick with me to the end. There’s a GIVEAWAY hiding there!

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Bayard Rustin: The Invisible Activist by Jacqueline Houtman, Walter Naegle, and Michael G. Long – Bayard Rustin was a civil rights leader who believed in nonviolent action as means of achieving social reform. The organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, Bayard Rustin’s story will inspire young readers to stand up in the face of injustice.

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Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War by Steve Sheinkin was recently named a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2015.  Sheinkin’s confidence his middle-grade audience is evident as he tackles the political life of government whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg during a tumultuous time in recent history.

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Missing Millie Benson: The Secret Case of the Nancy Drew Ghostwriter and Journalist  by Julie K. Rubini 

Hot off the presses is this biography of Mildred Wirt Benson, the original ghostwriter of the Nancy Drew series. Rubini takes readers on a journey through Millie Benson’s life as a journalist and as the very uncelebrated author of  many books in history’s most celebrated juvenile series. Why did it take years to discover the identity of the writer we’ve always known as “Carolyn Keene?” Follow the clues to solve the mystery of Millie Benson.

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Kammie on First: Baseball’s Dottie Kamenshek by Michelle Houts

Here is the initial installment in the new Biographies for Young Readers series I mentioned earlier. Dorothy Kamenshek was a teenager from Cincinnati, Ohio when a man named Philip Wrigley sent scouts to find women who could play baseball as well as the men on his Chicago Cubs (men who were rapidly leaving the ball field for the battlefield at the start of World War II.)  Made famous by the movie A League of Their Own, Kammie and her Rockford Peaches inspire girls to “throw like a girl” and be proud of it.

And now, since you stuck with me…

THE GIVEAWAY!

Author Julie Rubini has generously provided The Mixed-Up Files of Middle-Grade Authors a signed paperback copy of Missing Millie Benson: The Secret Case of the Nancy Drew Ghostwriter and Journalist. To enter, please comment below. Maybe you’d like to add the title and author of a noteworthy biography for middle-grade readers. Maybe you’d rather reminisce and tell us about your favorite biography.

Just leave a comment below by midnight Eastern Time on Tuesday, November 10, 2015. 

The lucky winner will be announced on Thursday, November 12, 2015!

Michelle Houts is the author of four books for middle-grade readers. She’s still a fan of biographies and good old-fashioned letter-writing. She created The 52-Letter Challenge for those who are up to writing a letter a week for an entire year.   Find Michelle at www.michellehouts.com. On Twitter and Instagram @mhoutswrites and on Facebook as Michelle Houts.

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A Mixed Up Files Book Birthday for DORI HILLESTAD BUTLER

By on November 4, 2015   /   Author Interviews, Book Lists, For Kids, For Librarians, For Parents, For Teachers, Giveaways, MUF Contributor Books  

Dori-220x250-72dpi-ColorWe’re celebrating the book birthday of our own Dori Hillestad Butler and her newest title in the Haunted Library series, A GHOST AT THE FIRE STATION. Dori is the award winning author of 12 picture books, 7 middle grade novels, and 2 chapter book mystery series, The Buddy Files and the Haunted Library. I struggle to get a book published every 2 or 3 years so I’m completely dazzled by Dori’s productivity. We had a brief opportunity to meet at the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association trade show this fall and I was so charmed by A Ghost at the Fire Station, that I immediately gave it to my local school library. Here is our conversation about her books.HL6_PbCover

  • This is a charming twist on the usual chapter book kid detective. Was this a packaged deal that a publisher approached you with or did you come up with the concept entirely on your own? What was your initial spark for the idea?

Thank you. No, I came up with the concept on my own. I got the idea when I was writing book 6 in my Buddy Files series. That book is called The Case of the School Ghost, so of course there’s a plot thread involving a ghost. But when I was talking through my outline with my husband, he thought I was getting a little too carried away with the ghosts. The Buddy Files is about a school therapy dog who solves mysteries. My husband said, “If you want to write a ghost series, write a ghost series. But this is your dog series. You can’t introduce a whole world of ghosts into this series now.” He was right. And that was the beginning of the Haunted Library.

  • Oh I’ve had that happen too. A character showed up in a story and completely derailed the whole thing. I had to take her out and write an entirely different book for that girl. I was a huge Encyclopedia Brown fan as a kid. Did you have an inspiration for your main character Claire?

Not so much for Claire, but there is someone who inspired Claire’s “Grandma Karen,” the librarian in the series. And that’s my friend, Karen Stierler. Karen works with the teens at the Coralville Public Library in Coralville, Iowa. She’s interesting, fun, and always up for trying something new. She genuinely likes and respects teenagers and knows how to talk to them, inspire them, and make them feel welcome at the library, when they may not feel welcome anywhere else. Every library needs a Grandma Karen! Last I knew, Karen Stierler did not have a pink stripe in her hair. And when I returned to Iowa for my Haunted Library series launch party last year, she was off biking in the Himalayas. But if she could have been there, I have a feeling she would’ve put a pink stripe in her hair for the party.

  • The Himalayas? That’s one intrepid librarian. Lucky Coralville to have such a treasure running their library. How do you strike the balance of thrilling enough but not too scary for young MG readers?

It is a balancing act. Young readers like scary stories, but they don’t want them to be too scary. For me, the key to writing a ghost series with the just right amount of “scare” is to think of my ghosts as “transparent with people with superpowers” rather than to think of them as dead people. That was my editor’s phrase…and it really helped! Transparent people with superpowers is FUN. It’s not scary.

  • I love that description too. I have a lot of conversations in the bookstore about finding the book that’s exciting enough without provoking nightmares. Did you plan out the entire series from the start with an overall plot arc or are you working more loosely making the plot of each one fit with what’s gone before as you write?

Funny you should ask me this. Yes, I had a series arc. From the very beginning, I had a general idea of how the series was going to move forward with each book and a very definite idea for what was going to happen in the last book. The final book would truly end the series. I thought book 8 (which I just turned in a couple weeks ago) was going to be the last one, so I wrote the story that I had saved for the end. Two days after I turned in the final revision, the publisher asked for two more books!  It took me a couple days to wrap my head around the idea of continuing a series that in my mind was complete. Of course, there’s always a way! I rewrote the last couple chapters of book 8 and now I’m ready to keep going. I’m thrilled that my publisher wanted to continue it after all and I’m excited about spending more time with Kaz and Claire. But from here on out, I’m not really thinking “series arc” anymore. Now I’m really just building on everything that’s come before.

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  • This series is not your first work in mystery writing. In fact you won a very prestigious Edgar Award in 2011. I’m just going to point out that the Edgar Award is the most adorable book prize ever! And I’ve heard that the Edgar banquet is a really fun event, very warm and collegial. What makes mystery so appealing to write?

I’ve always loved mysteries, and I think writers should write what they love. I love the adventure. You know your main character is going to be doing things. They have to if they’re going to solve the case. I love creating a puzzle, which again, is another balancing act. You want the reader to be able to follow the clues and solve the case along with your main character, so you need to create a trail that’s clear and logical, but you don’t want the reader to figure out what’s going on as soon as you drop the first clue. There’s a predictable structure to a mystery. And rules to follow. The reader knows that in the end the mystery will be solved and justice will prevail.

But I think what I like best about writing mysteries for kids is the fact that reluctant readers are often drawn to them. There’s nothing more satisfying to me than to hear, “I didn’t like reading until I read your [insert title here].” If something I’ve written leads a reluctant reader to try another book, then I’ve done my job. And I’ve made a difference in someone’s world. No award is worth more than that.

Wonderful! Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Dori, and happy book birthday!

Dori will be giving away one of these books to a commenter next week, so leave your questions or comments below.

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November New Releases

By on November 1, 2015   /   Book Lists, Fiction, For Kids, For Librarians, For Parents, For Teachers, Nonfiction  

Looking for great new titles you can fall back on this November? Here are some books that we’re looking forward to reading at MUF:

November 3rd:

RUBY REINVENTED by Ronni Arno (Aladdin) Ruby Miller has it made. As the only child of model-turned-TV-host Celestine Cruz and pro-baseball star Zack Miller, she has everythinRubyReinventedg a twelve-year-old girl could want. Well, except for real friends.

After a disastrous birthday party where she discovers her supposed BFFs are only friends with her because her parents are uber-famous, she finds a place as far from fake and phony Hollywood as she can get: a boarding school in Camden, Maine. In her desperation to distance herself from her star-studded parents and the paparazzi who trail them, Ruby tells her new friends that she’s an orphan. She feels awful about lying, but once she starts, it’s hard to come clean. Plus, now that nobody’s comparing her to her perfect parents, Ruby can finally let her own talents as a dress designer take center stage.

When Ruby finds herself connecting with a cute boy who really did lose his parents, she’s torn between who she is and who she’s pretending to be. And with Parents’ Weekend approaching, she must find a way to keep her secret—without losing her new best friend, the trust of her first crush, and the chance to shine as the designer of her very own fashion show.

MY DIARY FROM THE EDGE OF THE WORLD by Jodi Lynn Anderson (Aladdin)MyDiaryFromTheEdgeOfTheWorld Spirited, restless Gracie Lockwood has lived in Cliffden, Maine, her whole life. She’s a typical girl in an atypical world: one where sasquatches helped to win the Civil War, where dragons glide over Route 1 on their way south for the winter (sometimes burning down a T.J. Maxx or an Applebee’s along the way), where giants hide in caves near LA and mermaids hunt along the beaches, and where Dark Clouds come for people when they die.

To Gracie it’s all pretty ho-hum…until a Cloud comes looking for her little brother Sam, turning her small-town life upside down. Determined to protect Sam against all odds, her parents pack the family into a used Winnebago and set out on an epic search for a safe place that most people say doesn’t exist: The Extraordinary World. It’s rumored to lie at the ends of the earth, and no one has ever made it there and lived to tell the tale. To reach it, the Lockwoods will have to learn to believe in each other—and to trust that the world holds more possibilities than they’ve ever imagined.

DEAD POSSUMS ARE FAIR GAME by Taryn Souders (Sky Pony) DeadPossumsAreFairGame As the end of the school year approaches, the fifth-grade teachers at Victor Waldo Elementary conclude there’s not enough time to complete a new math unit before summer break. Great news for math-phobic Ella, right?

Wrong! The teachers decide instead to have their students host the first-ever Math Fair. And the fair project is worth two major math grades.

Add in one dead possum plus two horrible roommates who come to stay while their house is being renovated, and you have an equation for disaster. Ella is headed for summer school and math tutoring for sure. Can she stop her troubles from multiplying before it’s too late?

FAST BREAK by Mike Lupica (Philomel) FastBreakForced to live on his own after his mom dies and her boyfriend abandons him, 12-year-old Jayson does whatever it takes to get by. He will do anything to avoid the foster care system. Besides, his real home has always been the beat-up basketball court behind the projects in the North Carolina hills, and his family has always been his friends and teammates. He manages to get away with his deception until the day he gets caught stealing a new pair of basketball sneakers. Game over. Within a day a social worker places him with a family from the other side of town, the Lawtons. New home, new school, new teammates.

Jayson, at first, is combatative, testing the Lawtons’ patience at every turn. He wants out, yet the Lawtons refuse to take the bait. But not everyone in Jayson’s new life is so ready to trust him–and even Jayson’s old friends give him a hard time now that he’s attending a school full of rich kids. It’s on Jayson to believe that he deserves a better life than the one he once had. The ultimate prize if he can? A trip to play in the state finals at Cameron Indoor Stadium–home to the Duke Blue Devils and launching pad to his dream of playing bigtime college ball. Getting there will be a journey that reaches far beyond the basketball court.

PRESIDENT OF THE WHOLE SIXTH GRADE by Sherri Winston (Little, Brown) In this sequel to PRESIDENT OF THE WHOLE FIFTH GRADE, Brianna navigates her toughest challenge yet: middle school.

PresidentOfTheWholeSixthGradeBrianna Justice is determined to raise enough money for the big class trip to Washington, D.C., but she’s up against a lot: classmates who all pretend to be something they’re not, a new nemesis determined to run her out of office, and the sinking feeling she’s about to lose her two best friends. But just when she begins to lose hope, she comes to realize that sometimes surprises can turn out even better than the best-laid plans.

 

November 10:

A BITTER MAGIC by Roderick Townley (Knopf) Everything is in place: the packed theater, the Amazing Thummel, and, center stage, the magician’s mysterious assistant. Some have called her the most beautiful woman in EuroABitterMagicpe.

Then, in a swirl of light, she vanishes!

An astounding illusion, but she never reappears. All that remains are a bloodstained white scarf and her daughter, Cisley, who lives in a glass castle and walks her pet lobster each morning by the sea.

Enter Cole, a rambunctious boy from town and Cisley’s first true friend. Together they hunt for clues to her mother’s disappearance. They puzzle over broken mirrors, ever-shifting labyrinths, a closet full of whispering ball gowns, and a fatal quest for a pure black rose.

Roderic Townley spins a deliciously spooky tale of one girl’s journey to discover what’s real and what is simply an illusion.

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF CRAZY HORSE by Joseph Marshall, illus. by Jim Yellowhawk (Amulet) Jimmy McClean is a Lakota boy—though you would not InTheFootstepsOfCrazyhawkguess it by his name: his father is a white man and his mother is Lakota. When he embarks on a journey with his grandfather, Nyles High Eagle, he learns more and more about his Lakota heritage—in particular, the story of Crazy Horse, one of the most important figures in Lakota history. Drawing inspiration from the oral stories of the Lakota tradition and the Lakota cultural mechanism of the “hero story,” Joseph Marshall provides readers with an insider’s perspective on the life of Tasunke Witko, better known as Crazy Horse. Through his grandfather’s tales about the famous warrior, Jimmy learns more about his Lakota heritage and, ultimately, himself.

FINDING FORTUNE by Delia Ray (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Running away from home isn’t as easy as Ren thinks it will be. At least she isn’t running very far-just a few miles to the ghost town of Fortune . . . or Mis-Fortune as everyone else calls it. Mis-Fortune on the Mississippi. Supposedly, there’s an abandoned school on tFindingFortunehe outskirts with cheap rooms for rent. Ren knows her plan sounds crazy. But with only a few more weeks until Dad comes home from his tour of duty in Afghanistan, she also knows she has to do something drastic so Mom will come to her senses and stop seeing that creep Rick Littleton for good.

From the moment she enters the school’s shadowy halls, Ren finds herself drawn into its secrets. Every night old Mrs. Baxter, the landlady, wanders the building on a mysterious quest. What could she be up to? And can Mrs. Baxter’s outlandish plan to transform the gym into a pearl-button museum ever succeed? With a quirky new friend named Hugh at her side, Ren sets out to solve the mystery that could save Fortune from fading away. But what about her family’s future? Can that be saved too?

NINJA TIMMY by Henrik Tamm (Delacorte) NinjaTimmyTimmy the cat, his pal Simon the mink, and the pig brothers Jasper and Casper are inventors, and they’re hoping to sell their fabulous new contraption to a local merchant. With high hopes, they haul their machine through the crowded streets of Elyzandrium—and are promptly robbed by a gang of bullies. With the help of two new friends, Alfred, a kindly old toymaker, and Flores, a skilled cat pilot, Timmy and his pals set out to get back what is rightfully theirs. As it turns out, they’re not the only victims of these dastardly criminals. But what can this band of misfits do?

In this action-packed adventure, the intrepid Timmy and his wily friends transform themselves into crime-fighting ninjas—and quite possibly heroes!

BORROWED TIME by Greg Leitich Smith (Clarion) BorrowedTimeIn this time-travel dinosaur adventure, Max Pierson-Takahashi and his friend Petra return to the days of the dinosaurs, where they must survive attacks from mosasaurs, tyrannosaurs, and other deadly creatures, including a vengeful, pistol-toting girl from the 1920s. The fast pace, mind-bending time twists, and Greg Leitich Smith’s light, humorous touch make this an exciting, fun choice for readers looking for adventure and nonstop action.

 

November 17:

ABRACADABRA: THE STORY OF MAGIC THROUGH THE AGES by H.P. Newquist, illus. by Olga and Aleksey Ivanov Abracadabra(Henry Holt) Magic is a word we use to describe something amazing, awe-inspiring, or spectacular. Truly great magic makes us believe in things we know can’t be real. In the hands of the greatest magicians, even a simple card trick can become truly wondrous.

Now, in this nonfiction narrative of magic through the ages, HP Newquist explains how the world’s most famous tricks were created. From the oracles of ancient Egypt and the wizards of medieval Europe on to the exploits of Houdini and modern practitioners like Criss Angel, this book unlocks the secrets behind centuries of magic and illusion.

Fully illustrated and including step-by-step instructions for eight classic magic tricks, this book will have middle-grade readers spellbound.

ON THE RUN by Tristan Bancks (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Ben has always wanted to be a cop, so he’s intrigued when police officers show up at the door, asking for his parents.OnTheRun Then his parents arrive after the police leave and rush him and his sister into the car, insisting they are going on a vacation. Ben’s a little skeptical–his family doesn’t go on vacations. After they lose the police in a high-speed car chase and end up in a remote cabin deep in the woods, Ben discovers his parents’ secret: millions of dollars were deposited into their bank account by accident, and they took the money and ran off. Ben isn’t sure what to think. Are his parents criminals? And because he ran off with them, is he a criminal, too?

THE HUMAN BODY: THE STORY OF HOW WE PROTECT, REPAIR, AND MAKE OURSELVES STRONGER by H.P. Newquist (Viking) TheHumanBodyDid you know the first blood transfusions were between people and lambs? Or that the first prosthetic hand with a hook was created so a French soldier could hold the reins of his horse in battle? Or that scientists recently grew a nose?

Invention & Impact, an exciting new series from PYRG-Smithsonian, introduces young readers to experiments, discoveries, and breakthroughs such as these, which have huge impacts on our world.  Designed with exciting  images from the Smithsonian’s vast collections, each highly visual book in the series starts with a big idea and then explores that concept through specific objects that give kids the micro and meta picture on how inventions and ideas connect over time.

The debut book in the series looks at one of the most complex systems on planet Earth: the human body. From artificial eyeballs to aspirin to 3-D printed body parts, The Human Body profiles the objects that scientists and tinkerers throughout history have invented (or cobbled together) to protect, repair, or improve our physical selves. And there are plenty of fascinating stories behind these objects!

Which of these or other middle-grade titles are you looking forward to reading? Let us know in the comments!

 

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