Half a Chance by Cynthia Lord

The Website

       8/10

Text features in fiction twice in this book.  Both had to do with the same contest the character was entering.   This is not a common feature in fiction chapter books.

The book had a lot of themes going on in it, photography, friendship, dementia, conservation, etc.  They came together in the end.  A lot of the themes were highlighted in the contest categories.  I kept waiting for the title meaning to pop up in the book and it finally did on page 203.  After I finished reading it, I thought of several more ways that the title was relevant.  It was an enjoyable read, but not earth-shattering.

Did It Fit Our Overall Mark Twain Nominee Themes????

Lucy had a traditional family except for the fact that dad was a traveling photographer who spent a lot of time away.  They had just moved to a lake where most people only live during the summer and they were becoming year round residents, Lucy didn't have any real struggles, just the normal teenage stuff.

I made a video on youtube of me using this book to record ideas in my writer's notebook:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etVe1Vy1U60&index=4&list=PLgUrnCDKMm0IFSQrIorDbanjbqHjVShZU

The Missing Pieces of Me by Jean Van Leeuwen

Jean Van Leeuwen's Site

8.9/10  almost a 9/10

I cried a lot when I got to certain points in this story.  It is hard to imagine living in a world where you feel you are not loved.  Ms. Leeuwen truly creates empathy for her character.  It is important to make readers feel something when they read.  That is what creates powerful stories that you want to finish.  You start to feel something for Weezie and you want her life to be better. In the end it is not sugar coated, it is a realistic ending, not a fairy tale ending, not a 100% satisfying ending, but maybe a lesson that happiness comes from knowing yourself and creating your own opportunities regardless of what others feel you need to be.

Writing that makes you feel or root for Weezie:

WORDS:
"Momma says I'm a bad girl."
"'Get out of my sight!'she barked. 'I can't stand to look at you.'"
"But Momma never did call me for supper."
"I said I would come to your art show.  Isn't that enough?  Really, Weezie, you don't  think of anyone but yourself."
"Momma didn't come, I keep thinking. She never came."
"My own momma hates me."

ACTIONS:
Momma only buys things for the two little ones.  
Momma only takes the two little ones with her on Saturdays to fairs and stores etc.
Momma always tells Weezie she is bad like her dad.
Momma leaves Weezie outside with Roy and Weezie outside and takes the two little ones in with her.
Momma doesn't go to the art show that Weezie has a picture in.
Momma treats Weezie like a servant instead of a daughter.

Theme:

Weezie lives with her mom and a sister and brother from two different dads from her own, she is on a quest to be a better person who is loved in a situation that makes that impossible.

Pack of Dorks by Beth Vrabel

Pack of Dorks Site

7/10

 Okay, I absolutely did not the beginning of the book. I don't think the actions are appropriate for upper elementary readers.  It is a lot like the book Loser by Jerri Spinelli.  The book redeems itself in the remaining chapters.  There is a definite transformation in the character and it is well written.  I do like the ending a lot.  

The way the author shows perceptions is really good.  She compares this group of students to a wolf pack that the character is researching.  Lucy starts with one perception, and ends with another.  She perceives her newborn sister differently from her parents and the general public.  Her perceptions change on her views of age, strength, popularity, athleticism, love, family, friendship, bullying, adults, and self.  She becomes a better person because of it.

Look at some of the dialogue tags this author used in this chapter book:

asked     called     whined     muttered     yelled       whispered    snapped blurted   glared    laughed    bellowed     nodded     repeated      bellowed cried       finished screamed 

Theme:
It takes place in a family where a Down's Syndrome baby girl has just been born.  It is in 1st person, the character struggles with many different perceptions in her journey from her own, to strangers, to friends, to social status'.

All Four Stars by Tara Dairman

9.6/10

Tara Dairman's SITE    

YUMMY!!  All Four Stars was deliciously surprising.  Really, I didn't realize what I was reading about until I started the book.  It is full of figurative language and cause/effect.  It is simply written, but effective!  Ms. Dairman has entwined the culinary world magnificently into the pages of this story.  Recipes at that back are a tempting treat.

Sensory Details

Loaded of course! It is an especially fantastic place for finding examples of smell and taste, duh?!  It is in 1st person, so Gladys takes us on a foodie journey.

Taste:  "Gladys took a bite of her brownie, and a slew of flavors flooded her tastebuds.  The sweet melty butterscotch offset the bitterness of the chocolate and the hint of nutmeg gave the whole thing a kick."
             "Gladys tasted the pancake and thought it was delicious---the perfect combination of fluffy and crunchy, sweet and savory."
             "It tasted like pesto, like fresh thin-crusted pizza straight our of the oven, like summer."
Touch:  "...following Sandy back down the hall, staggering under the weight of the huge cookbook."
Sight:  "In the casserole dish was a misshapen, gray lump of meat covered with a mound of pale, quivering gloop..."
Sound:  "The bell rang, and the conversation was replaced by rustling coats and clomping boots."
Smell:  "...to smell something fresh and grassy-not the bitterness of coffee."
            "...Gladys was momentarily sidetracked by the scrumptious scents rising from her mug."
            "The Sighs' house was filled with warm spicy aromas."


THEME???
     Regular parents, except for the fact that they are horrible cooks (microwaved meatloaf?) probably why they prefer fast food restaurants to fresh, home-cooked meals.  Gladys is out of place with her gifted pallet and odd sensibilities.  Her struggle, not a hurricane or detrimental odds...realizing her dream and passion to cook and critique culinary chef-d'oeuvre. ( I had to look that one up!)

Pennyroyal Academy by M. A. Larson

          Pennyroyal Academy Website 

                      Author's Website

9.9/10

Okay, I have to admit, though I always love fantasy/sci-fi, I was skeptical about this bargain basement priced Scholastic Book Fair book.  Seriously, I paid $2.50 for it at a book fair!!!!  Sorry Ms. Fleming, you have to read this one!!!  You won't regret it! 

To my delight and surprise it was rich and wonderful, surprising an original.  It is one of the best princess books I have ever read!  It redefines princess.  It elevates princess.  This author's first book?  Incredible.  

FLAVORS ooze from this chapter book.  Advanced Vocabulary knows no bounds inside these pages.  Many surprise twists.  I want to read the sequel!  

Following the theme?  You tell me... environment-cave and princess academy, parents?- oh my, I can't give it away, you will just have to trust me on this one, very unique, and Evie definitely a heroine from the get go, surviving the odds...and there is a massive storm!!  It is written in 3rd person.

Advanced Vocabulary...

"...the girl didn't even notice the vertiginous cliffs..."

"...an enormous wooden bridge began to lower across the chasm."

"An ominous murmuring sound.

"...then befuddlement when their eyes landed on her.

This is on two consecutive pages.  It is loaded!!  Reminds me of Thornbirds.  (That is the book I used in my junior year of high school to find everyone of the teacher assigned advanced vocabulary words!!  LOL!)

A Million Ways Home by Dianne Doris Winget

Dianna's Website  8.4/10

I thought I was being a little harsh about Loot but I read this one in no time at all, and liked it a lot.  

I had many emotion while I read this story.  I knew what I thought was going to happen, but it still never prepared me for the outpouring of my own tears and feelings.  Ms. Winget does a phenomenal job of pulling the reader in to the story and making them feel. You know that Poppy is going to do something "impulsive" but you still root for her and understand why.  She actually doesn't realize how lucky she is, through all the tragedy.  The idiom and title, A Million Ways Home, becomes more and more applicable the further you read in the story, though the words are never used in the text.

Sensory detail is a great writer's craft to bring out in this book. Dianna uses them exactly how they work best, to show how they bring us memories and keep us grounded.  She use senses that are harder for us to write about...smell and taste.  Learn from her great examples:

Sound:  The social worker is always connected with the sound of her shoes..."I opened them again when the familiar tap-tap-tap came close to the car."
"I could tell when she reached the elevator, because the tapping stopped."

Taste:"Goey sweetness filled my mouth and made me feel better, but not for long."
"But I chewed slowly, savoring each greasy bite."
"It was creamy and sweet and triggered a bright memory."


Smell:  " I coughed my way through the diesel fumes and over to the sidewalk."
"I took a breath of the cool, pine-scented air and tried not to panic."
"I thought of the man's weird eyes and the awful smell of his breath and felt another wave of nausea."

An entire paragraph dedicated to smell:
    "The bag from Miss Austin still sat by the door.  I went over and pulled out my flannel blanket.  I pressed it to my nosse, longing for the sweet smell of lavender drops Grandma Bet always added to the washing machine.  But it didn't smell like lavender anymore, it didn't smell like home at all.  It smelled like the center, and it made me want to cry again."

THEME TIME!!!

As usual, a theme is beginning to arise in these nominees... Alternative types of homes, heroic actions by young main characters, and missing parents??  Poppy in this book is being raised by Grandma Beth  and moved into a new living situation when Grandma has a stroke, August of The Junction of Sunshine and Lucky,  lives with Grandpa Gus in a poor part of town that is being targeted, and decorates with "trash,"  Zane's dad dies and he goes to Louisiana to meet Great Grandma Trissy, and then survives Hurricane Katrina, Marches father dies in Loot, travels with his newly found sister and new friends to find missing jewels and save them all,  in Red Berries..., Tomi's father is taken away and they live in a relocation camp and she helps her family remain sane,  Rose, who suffers from Asperger's in Rain, Reign, makes sense of her odd world, while living with a father who does not understand her compulsions and survives many emotional challenges including a hurricane, and in Space Case, although Dashiell, lives with a traditional family, he lives, on the moon and solves a murder mystery.  I will be looking for these three connections in the last five books I have left.  :-)  It is written in 1st person.

LOOT by Jude Watson

7.2/10

An original story, good writing, twists, mystery, and more...but not as captivating as the previous reads.  It took me a while to get through it.  However, she seems to be a Star Wars nut.  :-)

Jude Watson Website

Really don't like the idea of idolizing thieves...  I am so old fashioned.  Maybe that was my hang up!! I am sure students will like it a lot better that I did.  Rick Riordan liked it!!

Great book to look at if you are working on dialogue rules!  First one of the batch I have read that is in 3rd person.

ZANE AND THE HURRICANE: A STORY OF KATRINA By Rodman Philbrick

8.2/10

Zane and The Hurricane Link

   

What can I say about this author?  I have read two other books by Mr. Philbrick:  The Young Man and the Sea, and Freak the Mighty. Both of those books won my heart!  I had extremely high expectations for this book, which probably skewed my view.  It is great, but it is not as tremendous as I expected.  Read the other two books and you will understand what I mean.  That being said, this book had a lot of great story to it and a lot of writers' craft.

If you want to look at informal register dialogue, this is the book! What an incredible job using and explaining the dialect and culture of New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. 

Language Register- Formal, Informal, and Neutral:

"They come into my care after their momma pass.  This you daddy," she says..."

"Della keep a nice kitchen," he says.  "We ain't gonna starve."

"Get you up, dawlin'," he says, voice going soft. "Fair don't figure.  What's done is done."