Posts Tagged middle-grade readers

Beyond the Dog Day’s of Summer

By Beth McMullen on August 19, 2019 / Articles, Fiction

I just going to say it. I’m a cat person. Their aloof disdain for my humanness and the general consensus that they are just using me for food and a few scratches behind the ears just makes me love them all the more. They are not needy in the least, at a time in my life when I often feel my nurturing resources are close to depleted.

Despite my cat person-ness, I am a complete and total sucker for dog books. A Dog’s Purpose tied me up in knots and I read The Art of Racing in the Rain in one sitting. With the dog days of summer behind us, why not a cool dog reading list for your middle grade reader? These are some of my favorites. They range from heart pounding to heart breaking to laugh out loud funny.

Take your pick and happy tails, friends.

Hero, by Jennifer Li Shotz

Hero, a retired search-and-rescue dog, is not prepared for a stray puppy to come into his life. But when he and twelve-year-old Ben find Scout injured and afraid, the new addition leads them down an unexpected and dangerous path.

When Scout goes missing, it’s up to Hero to use his search-and-rescue skills to find Scout and bring him home.

Get ready for a canine adventure full of danger, loyalty, and the unbreakable bond between a boy and his best friend.

(and don’t miss the other titles in this ongoing series!)

Rules of the Ruff, by Heidi Lang

Twelve-year-old Jessie is in for a long summer at her aunt and uncle’s house. Her cousin Ann has a snotty new best friend, which leaves Jessie all alone. But Jessie is industrious, and—not content with being ignored all summer—she convinces Wes, a grouchy neighborhood dog walker, to take her on as his apprentice.

Sure, dog walking turns out to be harder than she expected, but she has Wes’s dog-walking code, the Rules of the Ruff, to guide her, and soon she’s wrangling her very own pack. But when a charismatic rival dog walker moves to town, she quickly snatches up most of Wes’s business—and Jessie decides she isn’t going to take this defeat with her tail between her legs.

Ruff vs. Fluff, by Spencer Quinn

From the outside, Queenie the cat and Arthur the dog appear to have a lot in common. Both pets live in the charming Blackberry Hill inn. They both love their humans, twins Harmony and Bro. They both have a fondness for sausage.

But that doesn’t change the fact that they are mortal enemies.

Goofy, big-hearted Arthur loves everyone he’s ever met . . . except the snobby, scheming cat who’s devoted her life to ruining his.

Queenie is a bit choosier. And who can blame her? When you’re brilliant AND exquisitely beautiful, you can’t be expected to rub tails with commoners. Especially not slobbery dogs.

But when the twins’ beloved cousin is framed for murder, Queenie and Arthur must work together to clear his name . . . something Queenie finds even more distasteful than inexpensive caviar. Can two enemies put aside their differences long enough to solve the mystery?

Wish, by Barbara O’Conner

Eleven-year-old Charlie Reese has been making the same secret wish every day since fourth grade. She even has a list of all the ways there are to make the wish, such as cutting off the pointed end of a slice of pie and wishing on it as she takes the last bite.

But when she is sent to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina to live with family she barely knows, it seems unlikely that her wish will ever come true. That is, until she meets Wishbone, a skinny stray dog who captures her heart, and Howard, a neighbor boy who proves surprising in lots of ways. Suddenly Charlie is in serious danger of discovering that what she thought she wanted may not be what she needs at all.

From award-winning author Barbara O’Connor comes a middle-grade novel about a girl who, with the help of a true-blue friend, a big-hearted aunt and uncle, and the dog of her dreams, unexpectedly learns the true meaning of family in the least likely of places.

Good Dog, by Dan Gemeinhart

Brodie was a good dog. And good dogs go to heaven.

Except Brodie can’t move on. Not just yet. As wonderful as his glimpse of the afterlife is, he can’t forget the boy he left behind. The boy he loved, and who loved him in return.

The boy who’s still in danger.

So Brodie breaks the rules of heaven. He returns to Earth as a spirit. With the help of two other lost souls — lovable pitbull Tuck and surly housecat Patsy — he is determined to find his boy and to save him.

Even if it costs him paradise. Even if he loses his eternal soul.

Because it’s what a good dog would do.

Rain Reign, by Ann M. Martin

Rose Howard is obsessed with homonyms. She’s thrilled that her own name is a homonym, and she purposely gave her dog Rain a name with two homonyms (Reign, Rein), which, according to Rose’s rules of homonyms, is very special. Not everyone understands Rose’s obsessions, her rules, and the other things that make her different―not her teachers, not other kids, and not her single father.

When a storm hits their rural town, rivers overflow, the roads are flooded, and Rain goes missing. Rose’s father shouldn’t have let Rain out. Now Rose has to find her dog, even if it means leaving her routines and safe places to search.

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit Still Relevant

By Meira Drazin on July 4, 2019 / Curriculum Tie-in, For Librarians, For Parents, For Teachers

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit

When beloved children’s book author Judith Kerr passed away in May at the age of 95, I’d been about two weeks into reading to my two sons her classic and still relevant middle-grade novel When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit.

This was a seminal book for me as a child: I read it over and over again and vividly remember parts of it to this day. I had great feelings—and memories— for the book, but never particularly thought about who wrote it. When I moved to London 25 years later however, I discovered that in fact its author, Judith Kerr, is the creator of some 30 picture books. This includes one of the most classic children’s books here in England: The Tiger Who Came to Tea which I had immediately fallen in love with.

Two Sequels

In that first year we lived in London, I made another surprising discovery, at least to me: When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit actually has two sequels—Bombs on Aunt Dainty which is more upper middle grade or possibly YA, and A Small Person Far Away, which I would also classify as YA or possibly even adult. They’re all fictionalized versions of Judith Kerr’s own story of being a refugee from Germany as Hitler came to power.

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit starts when its main character, Anna, is nine, and ends when she is 11 going on 12, which is roughly my own age range when I read this book over and over again. Now an adult myself, it was fascinating to read the continuation of Anna’s life into adulthood. And in essence the three books together are a bildungsroman: the story of the artist as a young woman. But while I greatly enjoyed discovering and reading the two sequels, something held me back from re-reading When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit as an adult. I think I was probably afraid—what if it didn’t hold up to how I remembered it? And when considering a beloved childhood book to read to my kids there is always the extra risk of them hating it, not getting what’s so great about it, or finding it BORE-ING!

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit Still Relevant

But the story in When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, which was first published in 1971 and takes place in 1933-36, seems highly relevant right now and I sensed my sons were at a good age for it —at least to try. In any case, I needn’t have worried. The two boys, ages eight and ten, were enthralled. Every night they would literally beg me to read, and read more! In fact, the book not only holds up to how I remember it, but is even deeper.

There were several occasions on reading it—and not ones that I remembered from childhood—in which I was moved to tears. And reading the chapters each night with my sons provoked great questions and discussions. The story is not only so relevant now because of the refugee crisis, but it introduces children to Hitler coming to power and to anti-semitism—as well as the idea of racism—in a forthright and age-appropriate way. It “talks up” to them in a way that both the ten-year-old and the eight-year-old could handle and appreciate.

Pink Rabbit and Writing Craft

But it’s as a writer now myself that I marveled most.

I can’t find the cover image I remember from childhood but I adore this one from the edition I read with my sons

Judith Kerr expertly crafted When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit yet with the lightest of touches so it’s only now that I realize what a feat the book is.

She is telling the story of her life and her family’s experiences, but instead of it being a series of “this happened,” “and then this happened,” it is all harnessed to a cohesive story that has a beautiful narrative shape. She writes in an afterward that although she “filled in the gaps with invented detail” and was writing in the third person about a girl called Anna (because she felt that as a middle-aged English woman she was no longer the same little German girl that had fled the Nazis) she decided early on in the project “that all the important things must be true—the things that happened, how I felt about them, what we, our friends and the places we lived in were like.”

I have recently been reading many books on writer’s craft as I work on a major redrafting of my novel, and I am struck and awestruck at how Judith Kerr accomplished this. For one thing, there is an efficiency to each vignette so that no episode is random (even if it might delightfully seem that way at first) and each comes together in service of the greater story or theme—which is that Anna doesn’t feel like a refugee because as long as her family has stayed together that is her home.

For another thing, Judith Kerr has a way of mining the quiet moments for their drama and humor, while what is truly frightening or deeply upsetting (especially read through the eyes of an adult) are handled with a feather-weight dexterity so that they are not made light of but they are not so scary so as to no longer be appropriate for a children’s book. I think a lot of this comes down to her success at seeing everything through a child’s eye and staying true to that perspective. She doesn’t shy away from depressing moments, that sometimes one feels low, or that bad things happen. But through it all there’s a general positivity and the assurance of grown ups.

Overall, re-reading When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit with my sons, I experienced both nostalgia for how I felt about it as a child, a re-ignition of my love for it, and an all-new feeling of admiration and aesthetic connection. It gave me great joy to read. I wish I could write like her! I will continue to study her novels and figure out just how she did it. Judith Kerr’s work is a huge inspiration to me and children’s literature is richer for her legacy.

Promoting Summer Creativity: The Historical Fiction Premise for Middle Graders

By Jenn Brisendine on May 22, 2019 / For Librarians

Most middle grade readers will soon have a months-long opportunity to reboot their imaginations after a busy school year. Summer is a great time to offer up creative writing activities to MG readers: through summer programs at the local library, at camps or enrichment workshops, in the homeschool activity center on a rainy day, or as a mid-summer pick-me-up when boredom starts to creep in. Many kids pursue their own writing projects when on break from school, free of classroom guidelines and assessment rubrics… but others might need an idea or two to ignite the creative fire. This post details a writing activity for middle grade readers and writers that has worked well for students in my 5^th through 8^th grade classes—and it can be adapted for younger or older writers as well.

Your group might include middle graders for whom the task of writing a whole tale is too daunting, along with those who would happily write an entire novel if given the chance, as well as everyone in between. Here is a plan and suggestions for kids of varying interests and language skill levels: Creating historical fiction premises.

Just a cautious word before we proceed: Kids generally don’t want to hear assignment or work while on break from school, and even activity and writing can send up flags of alarm. So take care with the pitch (story crafting, authoring, and premise design are upbeat and interest-piquing descriptions) and the stakes (no grades…no deadlines…sharing aloud is completely optional).

Step One. Explain that a premise is the idea behind a story, without the details or the actual words of the tale. Premises can take lots of shapes, such as the blurb on a paperback, or the inside jacket copy on a hardback. In a short form, writers try to sum up the premise of their story in a logline or “elevator pitch.” A tagline on a movie poster or book trailer can serve as a hint of the story’s premise.

However, a good premise reveals attention-grabbing info about each part necessary for a well-developed story. These parts are the story elements: Plot (Conflict), Character, Setting, Theme, and Point of View. Middle grade readers will be very intrigued at the notion of dreaming up a story idea…without having to write the story itself. (Of course, there’s nothing to stop those interested in penning the actual tale from doing so; it’s summertime, after all!)

Step Two. Provide a quick rundown of the story elements:

Plot (Conflict): Remember, it’s just the idea of a story, so no need to get bogged down in plot details or structure! Just an explanation of the big conflict the main character faces: what’s the problem? How does it worsen?

Character: A brief character design is enough for a premise: age, gender, name, background, occupation or talents; any character traits that are important to the conflict.

Setting: Here’s where you get to add a bit of history! Have writers brainstorm historical events they recall from recent studies, movies, documentaries, or books. Then they can narrow their list, and choose a time, place, and historical event for their premise. This is a great chance to do a bit of searching or use library resources for research, depending on skill and interest level. Let your MG-aged writers know that a historical element can add to (and not limit) speculative genres like sci-fi, fantasy, and action/adventure (examples include The Inquisitor’s Tale by Adam Gidwitz, historical fantasy set in 1242; and several superhero blockbusters in recent years set during historical wartime).

Theme: In language arts classes, students learn about theme topics (“love,” “friendship,” “loyalty,” “pride”) and their more didactic accompanying theme statements (“True friendship can withstand tests over time.”) Simple, one-word theme topics work well for premise design.

Point of View: Remind middle graders that some stories are best told in the “I-voice” and others in 3^rd person. As the premise designer, he or she gets to choose.

Step Three: How will your middle graders note their ideas and communicate their creative, original premise? This depends entirely on the size and abilities of your group. A handy activity sheet that you type up for distribution could list the story elements and allow lots of room for writers’ ideas, sketches, lists, and notes; this might be most efficient. Some writers might prefer to design their premise on blank, oversized paper, sans “worksheet,” keeping in mind the story elements.

Don’t forget that middle graders can also communicate a story premise without writing a single word: they can cut and paste magazine images in a collage to represent each element. Drawings, iMovies, storyboards, and photo-journals all lend themselves to story premise design as well.

Step Four: Middle graders can share the premise aloud to the group, if they would like.

Extensions and adaptations:

Pose the premises of popular books or movies and have readers deduce the title. Or, have the readers tell a premise of a popular book or film (without character names or giveaway details) and see if others in the group can guess the work.
After a read-aloud session of famous opening lines–and the fun of guessing the book that is opened by it—have middle graders write the opening line of the story for which they have designed a premise.
Early finishers can dream up multiple premises while they wait for the group to finish. More methodical writers, ELLs, or anyone who finds the premise-design task too daunting might try focusing on just one or two story elements.
Story premises can easily drive drama exercises in the form of scene tableaus, character creation and development, monologue writing, or (if you provide plenty of guidelines) improv activities.

I hope you have fun adapting these ideas for your needs, whether that means a writing workshop of 25 student attendees at a library or camp, or your own child’s picnic blanket afternoons. Thanks for promoting inspiration and creativity in the sunshine of summer.

Posts Tagged middle-grade readers

Beyond the Dog Day’s of Summer

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