Book Review: The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine

The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine

As most of our organized academic activities wind down for the school year, other things start up for the summer.  One of our favorite and most important projects for the summer is the beginning of my son's Mock Newbery Book Club for the current year.

The point of the Mock Newbery Book Club is to read as many of this year's eligible young adolescent books (geared for ages 9-14) as possible in order for the group to pick the book they believe should be awarded the Newbery medal for outstanding writing in January 2013.  It is a great activity for voracious readers like my son, because it encourages them not only to read more widely than their own interests might lead them, but also to practice assessing, analyzing, and discussing this year's books with their friends.

While parents are not involved in club, other than chauffeuring the students to the library, which hosts the book club, I try to read as many of the more promising books as I can, although I probably only get to about 20% of all the books my son reads for the club.  Still, I've really enjoyed reading the current books for this age group.

The group had its first organizing meeting a week ago, and my son brought home his first batch of books to read, including The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine.  I picked it up and started to read it, and found I couldn't put it down.  I just finished it last night, and I couldn't believe what a good book it was!  The experience reminded me of last year, where the first books I read for the 2012 Newbery award was Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt, which ended up being my favorite book of the year  (read my review here).

So I loved this book, which is set in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1958, the year after the famous Little Rock Nine integrated the schools under the protection of the National Guard.  The protagonist is a girl named Marlee, whose shyness and social anxieties have rendered her virtually speechless outside of her family.  But things for Marlee when a new girl, Liz, comes to school.  Liz befriends Marlee and works with her to overcome her fears about speaking in front of others.  But just as Marlee is prepared to take a breakthrough step, Liz drops out of school amidst rumors that she was actually a "colored" girl passing as white.  Marlee is confused, angry, and perplexed.  But she refuses to take this sudden disappearance of her first true friend lying down.  And Marlee's investigation of this situation leads her to a whole new level of understanding of herself, her family, her peers in school, her community, and the entire political situation in which she is living.

I found this to be a wonderful and nuanced presentation of the conflicts and concerns of that era that can be understood by the intended age range, but also appreciated by an adult like me.  One reason I think it really works is because Marlee's journey is personal, not political, so the story never gets polemic or strident, and the characters aren't all-good versus all-bad.  It is a well done, highly layered story, so as Marlee digs deeper and deeper not only into understanding the racial issues, but also becoming more aware of the complexities that drive the people in her life, she leads us to a better feel for how good people could allow something as wrong as racial prejudice to rule their lives for so long.  And yet, Marlee and the other young people in the book feel real, not merely mouthpieces for the author's opinions.

In the afterword, author Kristin Levine said she traveled to Little Rock for research on her intended project to write a historical fiction book about the Little Rock Nine.  Once there, however, she found that people wanted to talk about the year after that--the year that the first the government shut down the public high school system, rather than allow integration to continue, and that the community started, for the first time, to fight back.

As Albert Einstein said, "The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing."  Levine chose not to retread the important, but oft-told story of the nine courageous students who integrated the school, but instead to focus on what made the community stop looking on and doing nothing.  Which makes this book a valuable lesson to our children not just about how these moral dilemmas were worked out in the past, but about what they will undoubtedly be called upon to deal with at some point in their future.

So, all in all, what a doozy of a first book to read for this year's Newbery list!  Obviously, I highly recommend it, and it is at the number one spot for my personal list of Newbery 2013 contenders.

My 2012 Newbery Award Winners

My son's Mock Newbery Book Club made their decisions on Friday, and the official awards come out tomorrow, so I guess it's time for me to announce my Newbery Award choices for 2012 (although it covers the books from 2011).  This isn't a prediction, because I don't know enough about the Newbery politics and such to know what goes into their decisions.  But after having read a BUNCH of great, good, and pretty good books written for the early adolescent crowd (10-14) over the past year, I've finally narrowed it down to my favorites.

So if it were up to me, the Newbery Award for 2012 would go to......

Okay For Now by Gary Schmidt

They say in interviews that you either want to be the first candidate or the last candidate.  Okay For Now was the first Newbery contender I read (based on the recommendation of our local children's librarian), and somehow, none of the other books I read after that quite measured up to that one.  I even read it again a couple of months ago to make sure I wasn't over-romaticizing my memories of it, and I still favored it as much as ever.

I loved The Wednesday Wars, which introduces the protagonist of this book and which won a Newbery Honor in 2008, but I think Okay For Now is even better.  So maybe Schmidt will go all the way this time.

However, I do have this reservation about Okay For Now; like 2010's National Book Award winner, Mockingbird, I think that this is a children's book that adults like more than children do.  Which is not to say that children's don't like it and don't recognize its quality; my favorite middle schooler book blogger, Laura's Life, chose it as her Newbery Gold winner as well.  But many of the major themes of the book, such as the possibility of redemption, the power of forgiveness, and the difference that one caring teacher or librarian can make in the life of a child, speaks more to adult values and life experiences than the typical 9-13 year old.  I'm not sure that early adolescents will be touched by this book the way that adults may be.

The Newbery Awards are, of course, given by adults.  But I don't know how they considered the perspectives of the actual age group compared to the additional insight that reading it as an adult brings.  However, with themes like that, particularly Schmidt's depiction of how schools and libraries can transform a person's life, I can't help but give Okay For Now my Gold medal for the year.
(Note:  If you are a teacher, check out this passage from the book featured in my post, What Education Is Supposed to Be About, for some inspiration about your work.)

Then I have four Newbery Honor Awards, because that is what my son's book club does.  It's hard, because there are so many really good books that are so close to this level.  But I finally decided that my four Honor books would be:

Words in the Dust by Trent Reedy
If Okay For Now was my first, Words in the Dust  was one of my last, particularly in actually writing a review, since I only finished writing about it yesterday.  But it is a phenomenal novel by a first-time author.  If there was one novel from 2011 that I wished every middle schooler would read, it is probably this book, both for the contents and the great job Reedy did in immersing us in a completely different world--one that we should know a lot more about than most of us do.

The Aviary by Kathleen O'Dell
I loved the writing in this book.  Maybe it was just me, but it seemed more poetic than the norm.  It is such a great mixture of genres and tones.  It starts out reminding me of more old-fashioned books, like The Secret Garden, but then morphs to a much more modern sensibility by the end (I don't want to be more specific because I don't want to give it away).  It was familiar and yet unpredictable, and I really enjoyed reading it.

Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai
This is another wonderful book in bringing us inside a completely foreign experience, except that much of it takes place in the US.  So I think this is another important read for our middle schoolers.  It is also a story told in verse, so that gives it a different twist.

The last slot was really hard to fill.  And when I finally decided, I was ashamed to discover that I never wrote a review of it in my blog!  I was sure that I had.  But, like Okay For Now, it was one that I read early in my Newbery reading year but that stuck with me.  I guess I thought I would get around to writing a review until the point where I assumed I already had....

Anyway, my last choice would be The Absolute Value of Mike by Katherine Erskine.  I chose this one over many that I like pretty much the same because I like some variety to my Newbery choices.  I mean, they can't all be historical fictions and/or dealing with war, disabilities, or other weighty subjects!  This book had a lot of humor, with lots of whacky characters and situations.  But it had also had some great messages about family and being a leader and figuring out what really matters.  I also think that it might appeal a bit more to boys, which I wouldn't necessarily say about any of the others (only Okay For Now has a boy as the main protagonist, and even so, I'm not sure it doesn't appeal more to girls and/or women).

Two other special awards I would give outside the Newbery parameters:

Best Sequel:  Without a doubt, that honor goes to Darth Paper Strikes Back by Tom Angleberger.  I was so charmed by Angleberger's highly original The Strange Case of Origami Yoda (one of my Newbery honor choices for last year) that I was worried that he wouldn't be able to capture the same magic in the sequel.  Half way through the book, I was thinking that I liked it, but it wasn't on par with the first one.  But by the end of the book, I took it all back.  It was as new and unique as the original, but Angleberger found a way to keep things fresh and surprising.  So kudos to him for avoiding the sophomore slump!

Best Movie Potential:  Another book that I really enjoyed, but apparently never wrote a review for, was Aliens on Vacation by Clete Smith.  This was a cute, sweet, and really funny book.  It's not one of what I consider the most important books of the year among the ones I read, but it was one of the most entertaining.  But mostly, I kept visualizing the scenes in my head, which is something because I don't typically do that when I read since I'm not a real visual person.  I kept thinking as I read it, "I don't really see this as Newbery, but I think it would make a great movie."  I found out a month or so later that some producers associated with Disney had take an option about turning it into a movie.  So I don't know what that means, except that someone besides me could imagine it being a great film!


As long as we're in Newbery mode, let me share my son's Mock Newbery Award Book Club choices, along with those of a neighboring library, complete with my comments:

My son's book club:

2012 Winner:
A Monster Calls   (Alas, this book didn't get on my radar until too late, and although I requested it from our library several weeks ago, it is so popular that I haven't gotten a copy to read so far.   My son really liked it, though)

Honors:
The Apothecary (I liked it a lot; it was on my top 10, but not my top 5)
Words in the Dust (My #2 choice)
Small Acts of Amazing Courage (A really good book with an unsatisfactory ending; read my full review here)
Inside Out and Back Again (My #4 choice)

Second Honors:
Hidden (Unfortunately, I haven't read it)
Second Fiddle (Read my review here)
Dogtag Summer (Read my review here)
The Aviary (My #3 choice)


And here is the neighboring library club's choices:

2012 Eva Perry Mock Newbery Award:
Between Shades of Gray, by Ruta Sepetys (I thought this was a really powerful book, but wasn't sure it isn't more appropriate for a teen audience than the Newbery 9-13 age range)

2012 Eva Perry Mock Newbery Honor Books:
A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness  (Obviously I need to read it....)
Bird in a Box, by Andrea Davis Pinkney  (Didn't read this one either)
Michael Vey: the Prisoner of Cell 25, by Richard Paul Evans  (Neither my son nor I had even heard of this one, which meant that nobody in his club read it....it is funny how clubs at two libraries only 15 miles from each other can have such different reading lists) 
Words in the Dust, by Trent Reedy (One of my faves)


So there you have it--the favorite choices for the Newbery Awards from our neck of the woods.  The official announcement comes tomorrow, so let's see what the experts have to say about the premier books for our early adolescent students!

Book Review: Words in the Dust by Trent Reedy

Words in the Dust by Trent Reedy

This book may receive my “most amazing accomplishment” award for the year. In this book, Trent Reedy, former English teacher and military reservist who was called into active duty during the Bush wars, manages to convincingly tell a wonderful story in the voice of a thirteen-year-old girl. A Muslim thirteen-year-old girl. A Muslim thirteen-year-old girl living in modern-day Afghanistan. A Muslim thirteen-year-old girl living in modern-day Afghanistan who was born with a cleft palate.

Personally, I think being able to capture the voice of someone so different from the author is an incredible achievement. But I think Reedy got Zulaika, the narrator of the book, just right. And this is only his first novel!

I will also admit that I had to be won over by this book. Having read the description of the book, I didn’t think I wanted to hear the tale of a disfigured girl leading a primitive existence while living through the struggles of war-torn Afghanistan. But within just the first chapter or so, I was so sucked into the story of this alien world that I couldn’t stop reading until I finished the book late in the night.

Reedy does a great job of conveying a lifestyle that is so foreign to most of us here in the US.  And I love how neutrally he is able to present this world, even though some of the values and traditions run so counter to ours (Reedy is also an American).  He does a particularly good job of not making either side--the US or the Afghan--be good guys or bad guys, but rather the mixed-up combination of both that we all truly are.

So, for example, the Americans in the book can be unintentionally terrifying, wildly inappropriate, culturally insensitive, or arrogantly intrusive. On the whole, though, they want to help. The Afghans, on the other hand, can be cruel, violent, chauvinistic, callous, and opportunistic. On the whole, though, they love their families and their country, and just want to make a better life for themselves and their community.

So this is a really good book to learn about life in contemporary Afghanistan.  But it also deals with the universal themes of dealing with family and finding one's own identity that adolescents all struggle with, not matter where they live.

Book Review: The Aviary by Kathleen O'Dell

The Aviary by Kathleen O’Dell

This is a great book if you can’t decide which genre you want, because it combines historical fiction with a mystery and a fantasy edging towards horror--but in a way that really works, rather than just seeming like a hodgepodge that couldn’t make up its mind.

The book is set in the late nineteenth century, and is told from the point-of-view of Clara, an eleven-year-old girl who is a shut-in because of her weak heart. Not only can she not venture into the world, but the home she is shut into is the decrepit mansion of a formerly famous but now deceased magician, The Great Glendoveer, whose widow Clara’s mother now serves as housekeeper. The only outdoor space that Clara is allowed to enter is the estate’s backyard rose garden, but she doesn’t like going there because it is also home to an aviary with five loud, squawking birds that frighten her, but to whom the aging Mrs. Glendoveer is completely devoted.

Shortly into the book there is a death, which eventually launches Clara into investigating a decades-old mystery. Along the way, Clara encounters a variety of intriguing matters, including a kidnapping, locked doors, a missing scrapbook, an unexpected ally, ghostly presences, secret messages, and various kinds of exotic magic. In the end, however, the book is not about ghosts or magic or codes--it’s about friendship and family and how to restore them if ever they go astray.

I really enjoyed how this book was written. The descriptions are vivid and sometimes poetic, and the characters are well developed and appropriate to the time and setting (whereas I sometimes find characters in these historical fictions to be more modern than I think they should be for their times). The plot builds up very nicely, with the necessary clues being laid carefully without the plot twists being obvious. It is a very imaginative story set in a time period that isn’t too common in children’s literature lately.

All in all, I think it is quite a good read, and a worthy contender for Newbery consideration.

Book Review: A Month of Sundays by Ruth White

A Month of Sundays by Ruth White

The book opens with a common ploy in middle school literature (including the top Newbery winner last year and another of the honor awards):  the protagonist, Garnet, is left by her single mother at the home of relatives she has never met before while her mother goes to Florida to find work.  While angry at her mother for abandoning her, Garnet finds she enjoys getting to know her aunt--the sister of the father who ran off with another woman before Garnet was born-and the grandfather she had never seen before.

Her aunt, June, welcomes Garnet's arrival, not only because it brings another female into the house (Aunt June has two sons), but because Garnet agrees to accompany her as June visits a different church every Sunday, searching for God.  Garnet, meanwhile, who had grown up with only her mother in her life, discovers it's not so bad to have family.  Add into the mix the handsome young son of an evangelical preacher at one of the churches they visit, and suddenly Garnet is no longer sure she wants to return to the solitary life she has known with her mother.

As with most of these books, family secrets are eventually revealed and the protagonist learns a lot about family and love and relationships and herself.  However, this book also deftly includes some questions about religion and faith into the plot.  And just when it seems like all the loose ends are going to be tied up in a rather saccharin way, an unexpected twist plunges the novel into deeper and darker territory.

In the end, many questions are answered, but other ones are raised.  Just as in life, the conclusion mixes the good with the bad, the mysteries that have been explained with other ones that will never be resolved.  So I think this is really an excellent book for adolescent readers, who are beginning to grapple with the questions, contractions, and abiguities in their own lives.  It wasn't what I expected when I picked it up, but I enjoyed it a lot and definitely recommend it.

Book Review: Pie by Sarah Weeks

Pie by Sarah Weeks









As befitting the name, this is a sweet, sweet book. I had to love this book, because the opening of the novel revolves around one of my favorite affirmations: Do what you love and the money will follow. It’s something that I’ve always tried to follow, although sometimes it is a hard path. So I’m always excited when even a fictional character demonstrates the efficacy of this approach to life.

So the main protagonist, Alice, has an aunt who also apparently ascribes to this philosophy (which is never stated in the book--I’m bringing this to the story). Aunt Polly loves to make pies...and not just any pies, but pies with the sweetest, juiciest fruit, the dreamiest cream fillings, and the flakiest crusts. When she is left with a modest inheritance, Aunt Polly uses it to open up a pie shop. However, there is a catch to Aunt Polly’s pies--she refuses to accept payment for any of them. If she exchanged them for money, why, that would take all the joy out of them!

The small town in which she lives wants to make sure that the supply of pies, each tailored to specific people’s preferences, keep coming, so they find other ways to support the pie shop. And that makes everyone happy, but no one as much as Alice, who not only loves the pies, but the pie maker as well. She sits and talks and helps in the kitchen as much as possible, always knowing that she will never have the same magic touch with the pies that her aunt does.

Then, suddenly, Aunt Polly dies. She leaves the pie shop to the church, and the secret pie crust recipe, that companies have offered lots of money for, to...her cat? And it is Alice’s responsibility to care for the fat, ill-tempered white feline, named after Aunt Polly’s favorite brand of lard. Her mother (Polly’s sister) feels cheated out of a proper inheritance, her father is allergic to cats, and the cat itself hisses and scratches whenever Alice approaches. All this does not bode well for a happily-ever-after ending.

The story leads into a mystery involving break-ins, missing cats, stolen pies, and more. But I don’t think the mystery is really the heart of this book. Rather, it is a book with a lot of heart--love of what you do, love of friends and family, love of community. I enjoyed it, but I don’t see it as a strong Newbery contender. But as a fairly light read to help remind us all about what really matters in life, it is a great book.

Plus, it’s got RECIPES--and they all look tempting!

Book Review: Second Fiddle by Rosanne Parry

Second Fiddle by Rosanne Parry

This book combines a lot of themes. One is the life of displacement that it is to be a child of a military family--something I was familiar with, although my father was in government service in international finance, rather than the military. But I could relate to the three girls who are the protagonists of the book, all used to a life of moving every few years and losing the friends and connections built up in previous locations. Then there is the call of music--the joy, the striving, the competitions, and the way it can bring people together.

Another familiar strand of the book is the typical adolescent belief that “I’m not as ______ as....” Not as pretty, not as popular, not as rich, not as smart, not as whatever quality we are sure that we lack in middle and high school (and beyond, if we don’t mature). In this case, the narrator, Jody Field, is sure that she isn’t as smart, beautiful, fashionable, confident, or talented as her two best friends, Giselle and Vivian, who are other American daughters of military or diplomatic families stationed in Berlin. But that is OK--she is used to playing second fiddle behind Vivian’s lead and Giselle’s cello.

However, the girls aren’t just living in Berlin--they are living there during the turbulent times of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of East Germany with West Germany. They get caught up trying to save a Soviet soldier who is trying to return to his native Estonia and to pass important information to the West about a toxic weapon the Russians want him to transport.

All these leads to a clandestine trip to Paris, an international music competition, foreign spies, playing music with Spanish gypsies, finding a refuge in a socialist bookstore, and other such adventures. But at the heart, the story is about playing music, being with your friends, and trying to do the right thing. So even though the circumstances are far removed from what most middle schoolers who read this book are familiar with, the underlying messages are ones that almost everyone has experienced in their lives, no matter where that might be.

Book Review: Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai

Yesterday I promised you I was beginning a timely series, and this is it.  With the announcement of the 2012 Newbery Award for the outstanding achievement in children's literature over the past year coming on January 23, there are only a few more weeks to read and assess the best middle school books from 2011--at least if you want to make your own selections beforehand, as my son's Mock Newbery book club does.

My son and I have both been spending the extra leisure time we've had over the holidays consuming as many of the favored books as possible (seeing as our reading dropped off dramatically during our month of writing for NaNoWriMo).  So over the next few weeks, I will try to add book reviews for as many of the eligible books as I can.

Our first review in the series is an entry that is high on the Newbery prediction list:

Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai

This book is a lovely description of an ugly time. It tells the story of Ha, a young Vietnamese girl who must flee her country with her mother and three brothers as the American forces pull out and the Northern Vietnamese overrun her homeland. Ha and her family are relocated to Alabama, where, as you might imagine, they have a hard time fitting in.

One of the things that makes this book really special, I think is the fact that the story is told as a series of dated verse poems. This means that the text is very sparse, with each word carrying a lot of impact. I believe this works really well in this book for several reasons. First, it is a device that moves the plot along in a specific time, which is important when you are dealing with a real historical timeline. But it also makes it seem like a diary, which makes it intimate, even when dealing with a pivotal time in our nation’s history. Second, it conveys the difficulty in trying to communicate in an unfamiliar language. It helps young readers understand unconsciously how hard it is to try to get your point across in a new language by using incorrect English--but in a way that is still comprehensible and poetic. Third, I, at least, thought it added a nice Asian sensibility to things. The verse makes it exotic, compared to traditional books, and also has that simple, stripped down essence that I associate with Asian culture. Finally, I think this really works for the audience for which it is written, which I would say is the Newbery Award age range of nine-fourteen. This bare-bones description of a difficult time is not overwhelming for the younger end of the age range, but is still complex and interesting enough for fourteen year olds and much older--such as me, who is several decades older.

This book won the 2011 Young People’s Literature National Book Award, which is quite a commendation. And in some ways, it reminds me of Mockingbird, which won the same award last year (see my complete book review here).

Because I think both of these books take you inside the head of someone living in a typical American community, but who have totally untypical American lives. I think that is a wonderful type of book to have for our children. It’s a period where fantasy is really popular, and that’s OK; my son definitely enjoys that, and I see the value in it. But I think books like this serve a different purpose. They can help our children develop empathy for others who are different by understanding where they have come from, and in many cases, how hard the journey has been. Fantasy helps us develop our “what if?” thinking, but these kinds of books help us deal with the reality of the differentiations in our lives, yet showing what we have in common (like commitment to family) that makes us similar despite our outward differences.

So I definitely recommend this book. We are doing 20th century history this year, including the Vietnam War, so it fits in with that. And I do think it is a great introduction for kids to think about that war from the perspective of the American-oriented Vietnamese. But Ha’s story about being uprooted and having to deal with an alien culture while trying to deal with the trials that come with families is a tale that transcends that particular era and situation.

Book Review: Okay For Now by Gary Schmidt

The leading contender so far for my top pick for the next Newbery Award for the best book for 10-14 year olds this year is Gary Schmidt's Okay For Now.  This is just a lovely, lovely book that, to me, is all about making a difference in other people's lives.  This is not the big, action-oriented "making a difference" of leading the charge against a repressive and brutal regime, or a gang of murderous vampires/werewolves/zombies/aliens/other monstrous creatures, or the dark wizard or whatever else wants to take over the universe, which is so popular among YA literature these days.  No, this book deals with the difference we can make in small, quiet ways, with our friends, our neighbors, our colleagues, and especially for us teachers, our students.

The protagonist of Okay For Now was one of the characters in Schmidt's previous Newbery Honors-winning The Wednesday Wars, and is written in much the same style as that book, which was also wonderful.  But I think Okay For Now is even better written, with even more interesting characters and a more compelling story.  It is also darker, as it deals with domestic abuse and returning veterans having to deal with the aftermath of having been in combat (although there is little violence described in the text itself).  However, it makes the story even more uplifting, as people find a way to work their way through such challenging circumstances.

The main character, 14 year old Doug Swieteck, begins the book as an unlikely hero.  Although new to town, he is quickly judged by many of his teachers and customers of his once-a-week delivery services on the basis of his abusive father and thuggish brother, who is suspected of theft.  But a kindly librarian notices his interest in a display in the library of a book of original Audubon plates of birds, and teaches the teenager how to draw each one.  His analysis of each separate illustration, which he now views with an artist's eye, gives Doug an insight into the people and situations occurring around him.  Eventually, they lead him on a noble but seemingly quixotic quest that has the potential to transform not only his life, but a number of the other people in his town as well.

Schmidt writes Doug in a way that sounds like an actual teenager, and sets things up so things never become preachy or sanctimonious.  Rather, it is a series of small episodes where ordinary people can choose to do the right thing or to do the wrong thing, and most of the time, they do the write thing.  In some ways, it is sort of like reading a modern teen novel equivalent of Norman Rockwell pictures, which glorified the average man/woman and captured common, everyday American life as something to be celebrated.  And, of course, I was sure to be hooked because two of the institutions that contribute the most to this redemptive tale are libraries and schools--not today's quantitative data-driven schools, of course, but our ideal of old fashioned schools where teachers had the ability to know their students well enough to realize what each one needed, and the flexibility to adapt their curriculum to provide such individual attention.  As I have written in a previous post, there is one passage that I think beautifully encapsulates what education SHOULD be, even if it seldom seems to be what it is these days.

Plus, the whole Audubon angle is just such an unique and beautiful device.  You wouldn't think it would  pull today's middle schoolers in, but Schmidt handles it just perfectly.

So I can definitely recommend this for a middle school audience, for an older YA audience, and for adults.  I think it is a particularly great book for educators, because it demonstrates the potential we have to crush a student's spirit, or to help a student to grown wings and fly, which is a worthy choice to get to make every day we teach.

Book Review: Darth Paper Strikes Back by Tom Angleberger

Regular readers of this blog may remember that one of the books that made both my son's and my list for the top Newbery books of last year was Tom Angleberger's delightful The Strange Case of Origami Yoda (here is my complete review).  So we had our names down on the library's waiting list as soon as the publication date was announced for the sequel, Darth Paper Strikes Back.  But it was only this week that the library's order came in and we got our hot little hands on a copy--the first ones for that particular copy, as it turned out.

However, I have to say that I began reading the book with some trepidation.  After all, Origami Yoda was such an original and quirky book, which covers a serious topic in a funny way and really captures the social trials and tribulations of being in middle school.  And I'm sure we've all had the experience of loving the first book in a series, but finding the subsequent offerings don't measure up to our first love.

Well, I'm happy to report that Tom has done it again in Darth Paper Strikes Back.  It does depart somewhat from the original; I, at least, found it less laughing-out-loud funny and dealing with issues with  higher stakes.  This time around, Dwight, the student who voices the inexplicably wise and prescient pronouncements of the paper finger puppet known as Origami Yoda, isn't just trying to overcome his reputation as the weirdest kid in school; this time, after an encounter with a new rival, another finger puppet called Darth Paper operated by the obnoxious Harvey, Dwight has been labeled "violent," "disruptive," and "dangerous," and is threatened with expulsion from his school and a transfer to a correctional educational facility.  Can Dwight's friends put together enough evidence to convince the school board to keep him in school?  It's particularly hard since, without Origami Yoda's advice, their lives seem to be falling apart around them.

I will say, it took a little while for this book to grow on me.  At first, it seemed a little like a retread of the first book, but not as funny or original.  But what this book made have lost in humor, it more than made up for with Star Wars lore.  I mean, this one has must have a lot of Jedi mind tricks in it, because things developed in a way that I never imagined, and finally wrapped things up in an incredibly satisfying ending.   The enduring mystery of Origami Yoda still remains, and even takes the series to a new level of Star Wars woo-woo.  Great job, Tom Angleberger!  I loved it!

One last confession....another thing that I loved about this book is that Angleberger gets in a few digs about the test-score-obsessed mentality of today's middle schools.  Here is my favorite encounter between Tommy, the main narrator of the book, and the principal of his school, who is the main person trying to have Dwight kicked out of her school:

    I was almost to my locker when I saw Principal Rabbski up ahead....I put my hand up and pointed Origami Yoda right at her.
   "If you strike down Dwight, he will grow more powerful than you can possibly imagine!" said Origami Yoda.
   Rabbski sighed.  "Tommy, I think it's time you and I had a little talk."...
   She had a lot to say.  A lot of it was about the Standards of Learning tests that we have to take and how important they are to the students and to the school.  She said some students were a constant distraction from the Standards of Learning.  Not only were they hurting themselves, they were also hurting other students and the whole school, since school funding was based on test scores. ...
   "You're a good kid, but another kid has got you confused and distracted.  I need you to put Yoda away.  Put your petition away.  And concentrate on the real reason you're here:  To learn, To ace the Standards test."
    Well, I was confused and distracted, but there was no way I was buying all that.  It had an Emperor Palpatine sound to it.  You know--all that "I'm bringing peace to the galaxy" stuff he says.

Like I said, I loved it.

The book also comes with directions on making your own Origami Yoda and Darth Paper.  We actually got PERSONAL instructions when we heard Tom Angleberger speak at Quail Ridge Books, so we already had our versions ready prior to the book's arrival:

So I definitely recommend this book.  Again, it is a fun read, but it deals with some topics worth discussing.  And who can resist origami Star Wars finger puppets?

If you are new to Tom Angleberger, I can also recommend his other 2011 book, Horton Halfpott: Or, The Fiendish Mystery of Smugwick Manor; or, The Loosening of M'Lady Luggertuck's Corset.

Book Review: Small Acts of Amazing Courage by Gloria Whelan

Small Acts of Amazing Courage by Gloria Whelan is the next on my personal list of potential Newbery award winners.  Whelan, who has written a number of historical fictions for the middle school age reader, returns to the country of the novel that won her a National Book Award for her tale of Homeless Bird.  But while that book follows the life of a traditional young native bride in India, Small Acts of Amazing Courage traces the story of a young woman among the so-called "British Raj"-- the British society that ruled India in the 19th and 20th century.

The protagonist, Rosalind, has lived a life of leisure and privilege in the British compound in colonial India, even during the years when her father has been off fighting World War I.  However, in this coming-of-age novel, the feisty lead character is coming to wonder about living a life of such abundance when so many native Indians live lives of such desperation.  The book is set in 1918, around the times of Gandhi's rise and the Indian Independence movement.  But when Rosalind attempts to follow her own conscience, she runs into major conflicts with the English mores, and especially with the expectations and political convictions of her own father.

I mostly like this book because of the wonderful job the author did of describing the life and times during a tumultuous period in a the fascinating land of India.  She introduces Gandhi (one of my personal heroes) and a simplified version of the drive for freedom from England by the Indian people.  Rosalind is a strong and moral character, but without becoming overdone or too one-dimensional.  Most of all, I like how she subtly demonstrated the concept that the subjugation of one people by another ends up trapping them both.  There are small acts of amazing courage by several different people on several different levels, making this an interesting story with a good message.

Book Review: Horton Halfpott by Tom Angleberger

My son's Mock Newbery Club has started up for 2011, so we're back to reading this year's crop of American books aimed for the 10-14 year old crowd (although, to be honest, he probably reads four of them to my one).  But the first book to receive a thumbs up from both of us is a fairly short book with a LONG title:  Horton Halfpott: Or, The Fiendish Mystery of Smugwick Manor; or, The Loosening of M'Lady Luggertuck's Corset by Tom Angleberger.

Devoted readers of this blog will recognize the author's name as one of the finalists in both my son's and my list for Newbery Winners for the last year.  We both loved Tom Angleberger's The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, which I found one of the most original books among Newbery contenders last year, and one of the few that used comedy to deliver a serious message.  We also got to meet Tom Angleberger when he spoke at our local independent bookstore, Quail Ridge Books, where he gave a fun talk (including making our own Origami Yodas) and not only signed everyone's books, but also drew a picture of their favorite Star Wars characters!  (You can read more about that in this blog post.)

So it is not really a surprise that we enjoyed this book as well.  Angleberger's humor transfers well from a group of middle schoolers obsessed with Star Wars to a completely different time and place--Victorian England, captured through an adolescent-level mystery/romance.  As with Origami Yoda, Angleberger also drew the illustrations for this book as well, and while they are not really of the style of the period, they are fun and further the story.

I have to say that I don't think I liked this book quite as well as Origami Yoda, mostly because I liked the underlying message of that book so much.  But this book can be laughing-out-loud funny, and is also quite original.  And it does convey a lot of useful information about Victorian life and conventions, which is valuable.  As I wrote in an earlier blog post, it is hard to find juvenile/young adult fiction about the Victorian era that will appeal to boys (mostly, they seem to be romances).  But this book definitely fills the bill!

I don't know how the book will fare as we read more of this year's offerings, but it is the first on our list of Newbery possibilities.  It is a short, fun read that I think students in this age range will enjoy--and their parents might like it as well.

Book Review: The Emerald Atlas

We are knee deep in end-of-the-school-year activities, but our summer schedule is beginning to beckon to us.  And one of the highlights of our summer plans is that my son's Mock Newbery Club will be starting up again in June.

In honor of the approaching restart of that activity, I read one of this year's books for the tween audience that had been recommended by our FABULOUS local independent bookstore, Quail Ridge Books.  That book is The Emerald Atlas by first-time book author John Stephens (he has a background in television production).  It is a fantasy novel that is presumably the first of a trilogy (an increasingly prevalent trend in fantasy novels).

Stephens said he was inspired to write children's novels after reading Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy (which I wrote about in an earlier post).  And it kind of shows (terrible grammar, I know, but I can't think of a better way to express it).  That is, at first when I was reading it, it felt like "been there, done that."  It seemed like a little bit of many of the most popular young adult fantasy series in recent years--some His Dark Materials, some Harry Potter, a little Reckless, a bit of Incarceron, with even a dash of A Series of Unfortunate Events thrown in.  Our FABULOUS local children's librarian admitted that she had begun it, but hadn't been able to get into it, and I was sort of feeling the same way.

However, I persevered, and in the end, I'm glad I did.

The story centers around three siblings.  Again, I have to admit I found them somewhat generic--the responsible older sister, the brainy/bookish/fantasy-nerdish middle brother, and the "spunky," defiant youngest sister.  The children have been shuttled from orphanage to orphanage, in part because they insist, based on a foggy memory of the oldest sister of the night that they were taken from their parents, that their parents will return one day to reclaim them.  They end up in a strange, out of the way orphan's home where they are the only children, in the care of the mysterious Dr. Pym in an abandoned mansion with many secrets.

As is common in these stories, the children discover something that transports them to a fantasy world of dwarves, monsters, giants, and beautiful but deadly antagonists.  This world is battling over the control of some almost-mythical books that appear to have a special connection with the three siblings.

It is not giving away too much of the plot (since it is revealed early on) that the crux of this book involves time travel.  And while it takes a while to develop this plot line, I think it is this theme that redeems the book.  The whole treatment of the time traveling is quite thought-provoking, almost metaphysical.  So as someone who majored in philosophy in college, that's something that grabs my attention.  It even has a bit of that Inception feel of being confused about what layer of time you are working on at times.   So that fact that it makes me have to think about how this intersection of different "histories" work together lifts it beyond the generic fantasy YA novel for me.

Also, the backbone of this book (again, like many other in this genre) is about family.  Finding family, protecting family, trusting family even through conflict and doubt, and even creating family from strangers when yours aren't around.  So while this is not an original theme, it is always a rich one, especially for the early adolescents who are beginning to question or pull away from family ties.

In the end, I recommend it.  I don't really see it as a Newbery contender, but I think it was worth my while reading it, and I'm looking forward to seeing what they do in the next book.

We Meet Origami Yoda!

Last night at our fabulous local independent book store, Quail Ridge Books, we had a real treat!  We got to hear a talk by the author of one of the books that my son and I both had on our 2011 Newbery top 5 list:  Tom Angleberger, writer and illustrator of The Strange Case of Origami Yoda.  We love that book (read my reviews here and here), so we wanted to go meet the author in person.

Tom is such a fun and animated speaker that it is hard to get a non-blurry picture of him while he is speaking.  But here he is with the star of the book--Origami Yoda himself.

As I said, Tom is a really funny and lively speaker, and he interacts with the kids really well.  In addition to telling one of the chapters in the book and showing us some of his drawing of the characters, he let us in on what is coming next for him.  His latest book, Horton Halfpott, a silly Victorian-era inspired mystery, will be coming out in May.  Then his sequel to Origami Yoda will come out in the fall, and will feature--brace yourself--DARTH PAPER!

Of course, no visit with Tom Angleberger would be complete without some origami.  So he provided paper and instructions for us all about how to create not only Origami Yoda, but also Darth Paper.

And he is someone who is worth getting to sign your book, because he includes at least one drawing in every book!  He asked the students who their favorite character in Star Wars was, and tried to draw them  if he could.  When my son said he liked learning the acronyms of the different vehicles (ATAT and such), Tom was interested by that, and said he might try to work in a vehicle acronym in his next Star Wars book.

So see!  Go talk to your favorite author, and your ideas may show up in a future book!

Book Review: Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus

Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus is another of the Newbery Honor winners for 2011.   This is a book that my son read, and deemed pretty good, but it never had much attention among his Newbery Club (nor the others I checked online), so I hadn't read it.  But that was my loss.  After it was honored by the Newbery Committee, I read it and found it to be quite a wonderful book.  I still, personally, prefer the books that were on my final list, but I enjoyed it a lot and could at least see why it might have won a Newbery Honor, which is still more than I can say for Dark Emperor (good book, but not exception to my point of view).

Heart of a Samurai is the fictionalized account of a real event; a 14 year-old Japanese boy named Manjiro who was stranded with his friends on a deserted island in 1841 and then picked up by an American whaling vessel.  Japan maintained a very isolationist policy then, so all outsiders were considered "barbarians"; nonetheless, Manjiro comes to appreciate his barbarian saviors, especially the compassionate Captain Whitfield, and eventually agrees to his offer to see the world beyond what the Japanese people had ever imagined.

The book contains a lot of historical truth, including incorporating Manjiro's drawings of his adventures (although attributed to his American name of John Mung).  It's the kind of book that I think make great Newbery candidates; it puts the reader inside the head of a character that is probably QUITE unlike them, preferably at a time or in a culture that is so different that they can't imagine it.  So it is a great area of growth as this secluded Japanese boy encounters the whole huge world that has been denied to him by his government's policy.  However, along with the wonderful things he sees, he must also deal with prejudice from Westerners who have never seen Japanese and who believe them to be equally "barbarian."

In the end, Manjiro/Mung wrestles with that most middle school of questions--Who am I?  Where do I belong?  I don't seem to fit in with American culture--but will I fit in with Japanese culture?  His pathway through life, as he explores those questions, is not completely predictable, but is especially compelling because it is (mostly) a true story.

So this is an excellent book on many levels...not just the reading and the illustrations, but also on a psychological level as well as a tale of the 19th century interactions between the US and Japan.  As I said, it didn't supplant any of my top choices, but I can certainly embrace it as a Newbery award-worth book.

And how lucky for us that we happen to be studying 19th century history this year!

Book Review: Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night (2011 Newbery Honor Winner)

After the fairly surprising 2011 Newbery winners announcement, I'm trying to read the 4-out-of-5 Newbery winners that I hadn't even read.  So I started with the easiest of the four:  a book of poetry entitled Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman.

I have to say that I just don't get this book as a Newbery winner.  Don't get me wrong--it's a lovely book.  It contains a poem about some denizen of the night on the left page, with a beautiful block printed and then hand colored picture on the right page, along with a column of some scientific facts about that creature on the right-hand side of the page.  The poetry is quite good and evokes a lot of senses, particularly sound and feeling (as is appropriate for a book about the night).  The scientific information is interesting if not extensive.  The pictures are gorgeous; in fact, I could more easily see this as a Caldecott winner than as a Newbery.

I guess my real issue is that the writing doesn't seem THAT phenomenal to me, and the concept isn't that much different than other books I've read.  And it also seems rather slight to me, as the entire book only contains 12 poems.  However, because it contains several different forms of poetry, including rhymed couplets, free verse, and a beautiful owl-shaped concrete poem that the animal lovers in my fall poetry class would have loved, it is a great curriculum resource for an introductory poetry class.  I would classify it as an upper elementary level book, rather than middle school, although it is sophisticated enough that middle schoolers and above can also appreciate it.

So I don't know...obviously, the Newbery Committee sees something that I missed.  I certainly enjoyed it, but I would not have given this book one of these highly-coveted award.  But I'm open to education!  If anyone else really loves this book, please let us know why in the comments section below.

My 2011 Newbery Award Winners

Last night my son's mock Newbery Book Club made their selections for what book they thought should win the 2011 Newbery Award.  I didn't want to influence his decision, so I've been keeping my opinions to myself.  However, since the actual awards will be announced Monday morning, I thought I would share my choices for this prestigious award for the best American book for middle school children published in 2010.

There are so many good books that it is hard to chose, but I finally came up with the following decision:

1.  Countdown by Deborah Wiles
This book gets my nod for the best book of the year because it does such a wonderful job of not only helping young readers experience a particular moment in American history (the Cuban Missile Crisis), but it explores a number of other societal issues (the aftermath of war, civil rights, individuality versus conformity) as well as the typical questions worrying the average middle schooler (Does he/she like me?  Is he/she really my best friend?  Can I fit in with the popular crowd?).  The characters are well drawn and interesting, the author does a great job of juggling and eventually tying together the multiple plot threads, and the conclusions of the different threads are satisfying and not predictable.  I also loved the pictures and quotes scattered through the book that also try to give the reader a better picture of life in the 1960's.  This book has stuck with me, and gets my vote for top book of the year.  (Click here to read my original review of the book.)

Then, in no particular order, my choices for Newbery Honor awards are:

• The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger (Click here to read my original review of the book)
• One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia (Click here to read my original review of the book)
• The Cardturner by Louis Sachar (Click here to read my original review of the book)
• They Called Themselves the K.K.K: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group by Susan Campbell Bartoletti  (Click here to read my original review of the book)

You can see the reasons I liked these books in my original reviews, so I won't repeat them here.  Most of these are on many of the short lists of Mock Newbery clubs and others who are trying to predict the Newbery winner.  The one that isn't usually mentioned is The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger.  I chose it over two other books that most people see as top Newbery contenders--Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine (see my review here) and  Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper (see my review here).  Both of those are also great books; Mockingbird won the National Book Club best children's book award for 2010, and Out of My Mind was the favorite of both of the two area library Mock Newbery clubs.  However, I felt Mockingbird was really a teen read, but is a superior book to Out of My Mind.  But Origami Yoda contains a similar message, but delivers it in a lighter, humorous, much more accessible way.  Especially if you are trying to reach boys who aren't great readers...I just don't see them picking up books about dealing with the grief of a school shooting or trying to get into the head of a girl with Asperger's or quadriplegia.  And the concept is so original and appealing--I mean, who doesn't like Yoda?  And who ever imagined a talking origami puppet?  I think middle school students can really appeal to the situation of the kids in the book, and even the casual reader will be drawn in by the style and humor and stick around to the end for a great lesson.  Origami Yoda isn't the lengthy, serious tome that apparently is generally preferred by the Newbery Committee, but I think it is a terrific little book and deserves some recognition.  The other thing that sticks out is that I seem to have a thing going with the 1960's, since three of my five books deal with that time period.

Other than Origami Yoda, my top picks and my son's don't overlap (OY was one of his top five, but you can see his top three by clicking here to see his blog post).  He had a tougher job than I did, because he read three times as many Newbery possibilities as I did.  I have to say that I am really proud of him, because he read 42 potential Newbery books in his 8 months in the Newbery Club (which works out to about 1 1/4 Newbery book every week).

Now we just have to wait until Monday, when the official winners will be announced.

Curriculum Resource: They Called Themselves the K.K.K.

If you are looking for a terrific resource on a difficult subject--racism, Reconstruction, and the history of American hate groups--I wholeheartedly recommend Susan Campbell Bartoletti's new book, They Called Themselves the K.K.K: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group.  Bartoletti is no stranger to substantive non-fiction books for adolescents; she won a Newbery Honor for her 2005 publication of Hitler Youth:  Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow.  But she has done such a great job on this book,  it is no wonder that it is also on many people's short list for another potential Newbery Award.

According to the author, the inspiration for the book came when she saw a statue of the renowned Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who was also supposedly the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, and wondered to herself, "Where are the memorials for the victims of KKK violence?"  After finding out from the Southern Poverty Law Center that there were no such memorials, Bertoletti knew that she had to write this book.

However, what is great about this book is that Bertoletti tries to understand the complex history of  this paramilitary white suprematist group from both sides.  Her book explores how common, ordinary, usually decent people could get involved in such a violent group, and even believe that they were doing God's work.  It also demonstrates the strength and courage of common, ordinary people, both black and white, who stood up against the Klan.  Her work contains much more information about the politics behind Reconstruction than is usually available for middle school or high school history.  And the work is all the more effective by the even-handed way she approaches the topic, allowing young people to draw their own conclusions rather than preaching to them.

One way Bertoletti achieves this is by relying heavily on first-hand accounts and primary source materials.  She uses quotes from both proponents and victims of the Klan in a masterful way.  And while she doesn't gloss over the violence and death of this terrible time in our history, she also doesn't focus on it so much that it becomes too intense for a middle school audience.

Bertoletti's book is a much-needed addition to the middle school or high school history curriculum about the aftermath of the Civil War.  But it is also a valuable resource for talking about current events.  I love that she identifies the KKK as "an American terrorist group"--a great wake-up call for our post 9/11 youth who think all terrorists come from outside our borders.  The book also contains a Civil Rights Timeline and a comprehensive Bibliography and Notes section that is also useful in extending the dialogue.

So this may not seem like the kind of book you want to be reading during our holly, jolly holidays.  But the author, who besides writing about the Klan and Hitler's youth has also tackled such difficult topics as famine, youth labor rights, and working in a coal mine, says that the only way she knows to deal with the dark is to try to shine a light on it.  As we approach the winter solstice, it's great to know that we have this outstanding reference to help shine some light on some of our nation's darkest hours.

Hanukkah Book Review: The Cardturner by Louis Sachar

The end of Hanukkah is fast approaching, so I wanted to get in a review of what was the first book that I read since my son started his mock Newbery book club that I thought could be a contender for the 2011 Newbery award.  That book is The Cardturner by Louis Sachar, who won the Newbery award in 1999 for Holes (although his previous win might make him a less likely candidate, since only five authors have ever won the award twice.)

This book, which is geared to a slightly older reader than the last two books, is about a teenager (rather than a middle schooler) who is roped by his family into serving as the eyes and "cardturner" for his blind, ailing, bridge game-loving great uncle--who also happens to be extremely rich.  Having just lost his sight from diabetes, which prohibits Lester Trapp from playing bridge,  his lifelong passion, the old man is forced to rely on his clearly-inadequate nephew,  Alton Richards, who has no knowledge and no interest in the game.  However, as time passes, Alton learns more and more from his uncle--both about bridge and about life.  It is a wonderful story of intergenerational dynamics, family secrets, relative rivalry, second chances, and grabbing the gusto out of life, no matter how long or how short you expect it to last.

This book also stand out, however, because it is Sachar's attempt to tempt a new generation away from their video games and into learning an "old fashioned" game like bridge.  He intersperses the story with pages explaining concepts in the game, or otherwise conveying his love for it.  Understanding bridge isn't essential to understanding the plot, but it helps to at least read his explanation pages to get some of the nuance of the action during the bridge games (of which there are many).  Sachar does a great job of capturing the mystique of bridge--almost as a symbol of a more elegant, more sophisticated era--in a way that intrigues, rather than repels, the Millennial Generation of today's tweens and teens (which I think is quite a feat, regardless of the story).

In fact, my son learned some bridge this year and has quite enjoyed it.  So maybe Sachar's goal of regenerating interest in a fading card game is not as quixotic at it might seem when you just hear about it.  Try the book--you might get hooked too.

Hanukkah Book Review: The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Susy) by Barbara Kerley

Now, for a change of pace, I thought I would write not about a humorous book, but about a book on a humorist.  The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Susy) is an unusual twist on a biography; it is a description of the great 19th century American writer, Mark Twain, as told by his 13 year old daughter, Susy.  The author, Barbara Kerley, is a renowned writer of biographies and other nonfiction books for children.  She had considered writing about Mark Twain for years, then stumbled upon a reference to a biography that Twain's adolescent daughter had written about him.   So Kerley tells the story of Mark Twain, but intersperses the pages with little cut-out pages from Susy's biography, where she reflects on this famous man from a personal perspective.

At first glance, this is a pretty simple book; the reading level is more for the elementary school level than for middle schoolers.  But like another of the picture books I reviewed earlier, my beloved Blockhead:  The Life of Fibonacci by Joseph D'Agnese (another point of light in 2010), I think it can also be appropriate for early adolescents.  For one thing, Susy is herself 13, so middle schoolers can relate to that.  I personally think a first reading of Tom Sawyer, or particularly of Huckleberry Finn, is more appropriate during middle school, so this could go nicely with reading some of Twain's most important books.  It contains a page with tips for writing biographies, and demonstrates more middle school-level biography techniques, like using a particular anecdote to illustrate a larger truth about the subject, rather than a mere recitation of facts that is more common to elementary school.  But more importantly, read carefully, this book explores some of the issues that tweens wrestle with in middle school, like the difference between how others see us and how our family sees us, our public and our personal personas, and accepting our weaknesses along with our strengths.

The illustrations by Edwin Fotheringham are also quite lovely, and are not too juvenile for middle schoolers.

My son picked it up and read it on his own, and he enjoyed it.  But I plan to read some Twain later in the year, and expect to return to this book again then.

And while we are on the subject of biographies about humorists...
Last week, my son read the book Sir Charlie:  Chaplin, the Funniest Man on Earth by Sid Fleischman, and declared that it was one of the best books he had ever read.  I haven't read it myself, so I can't vouch for it personally.  But Fleischman won the 1987 Newbery award for his book, The Whipping Boy, so chances are that this book is pretty well written.  And Sir Charlie is definitely for a middle school level or higher.  Or if you want to continue the Mark Twain theme, Fleischman also wrote a biography on Twain entitled The Trouble Begins at 8:  A Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West.  It's definitely on my list to read when we roll around to that point in our history and literature studies.