Ballerina Dreams by Michaela DePrince

Ballerina Dreams: From Orphan to Dancer by Michaela DePrince
Random House Children's Books

Rating: 5 stars

Here's a review I did a little while ago for Washington FAMILY Magazine about the true story of one talented, amazing, determined young woman:

I dare you to read this book and not get goosebumps up and down your arm. Michaela DePrince’s rags-to-riches tale is almost unbelievable, from its tragic beginnings to fairytale ending. And it’s all true.

This book is a Step Into Reading book, rated Level 4, geared towards 7 to 9 year-olds. I say this first because DePrince’s story has some difficult facts for young kids to absorb, and the questions kids will likely ask have some sobering answers. Despite the image of the graceful ballerina on the cover, know that this is not your typical ballerina children’s book.

In this easy reader, DePrince glosses over the death of her parents in an age-appropriate way. “My parents died [in Sierra Leone] in an ongoing war.” That sentence will satisfy some readers; others will want to know more. The whole truth is that DePrince was born in Sierra Leone in 1995, during the civil war. Her father was shot by rebels. Her mother starved to death. She was sent to an orphanage with other children with similar stories.

In addition to this tragic beginning, DePrince suffered from vitiligo, a skin disease that made white spots appear on her brown skin. Kids at the orphanage teased her. DePrince worried she would not be adopted because of her imperfections.

While at the orphanage, DePrince saw a ballet magazine and was carried away with the image. When she was adopted (by Elaine DePrince, whose story is equally heartbreaking and inspirational, but not told in this story), she kept the image with her. Her adoptive mother saw it and promised that in America, she could dance ballet.

This is where the story takes a welcome positive turn. DePrince is not the only child adopted by Elaine DePrince. Her best friend is also chosen, and the two friends become sisters in America. They both start dancing, though it is Michaela who excels and advances. Because there are so few African American ballerinas and because she is a superior dancer, she is asked to dance for a documentary about ballet. At her mother’s urging, she says yes. “First Position” was a huge success, and DePrince’s fame grew.

DePrince’s story is incredible—I was so glad that such good things came from such horrible beginnings for this young lady. In case you or your child are curious to learn more, you should know that Ballerina Dreams was written after DePrince wrote and published Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina (2014, Alfred A. Knopf). This is her memoir targeted for young adult audience and goes into more detail about all parts of her story.

I was also glad to discuss this book after my second grade daughter read it. She had a lot of questions about DePrince’s beginnings, and the conversation about war and parents dying wasn’t an easy one. But I think therein lies the beauty of books with difficult subject matter: they provide the opportunity to talk about tragic and sad realities in a safe place, in an appropriate manner, and with a loved one.

Review originally posted HERE.

Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson

Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson
Dial Books

Rating: 5 stars

On the one hand, Astrid Vasquez is a twelve-year-old girl who is a lot like other girls: she wants to fit in, she's scared to do something new, and she's going through the un-fun and confusing middle school stage where emotions and friends and identity are all turned upside down and inside out. She's had the same best friend ever since she can remember, but suddenly their different interests seem to be the end of the world, and the end of their friendship.

On the other hand, Astrid is nothing like most other girls. She prefers baggy shorts and dull colors over dresses and cheery hues. Her best friend is flirting with the idea that boys are something other than gross, and Astrid still has no interest whatsoever in the opposite gender. And Astrid is curious about roller derby, an activity not exactly sanctioned by the cool kids. Another great thing that sets her apart: she's not afraid to jump over her fear and complete lack of skating ability to follow her curiosity and interest.

The story that unfolds--in bright, fun, inviting graphic novel format--is a fantastic, modern coming-of-age story. At a time when Astrid is confused about who she is, she finds a tribe of tough and smart chicks who are simultaneously demanding and supportive of her. She finds a new friend and tip-toes into the water of teenage decision making when she dyes her hair blue and lies to her (single) mom about how she's getting home from roller derby camp. You parents of young readers might be worried to know that the mom grudgingly accepts her new hair color; but you'll be happy to know that Astrid learns good lessons about telling the truth about logistics as well as emotions.

What I loved most about Roller Girl was that it challenges the definition of what it means to be a "good girl." I chatted with Lorelei about it, about how much I liked how Astrid was taught and encouraged to have a fighting face while skating in a bout, how she was able to pull on a tough-girl mask and have no one mess with her. Astrid yells at her friends when she's mad, too, and while it's not lauded as something a girl should do, it's part of life, and not the end of the world. Astrid is still figuring out how to be a good friend and true to herself--two things a lot more important than being a typical "good girl," I think.

Roller Girl recently (and deservedly!) won a Newbery honor. I highly, highly recommend it. I think it's perfect for ten- and eleven-year-olds, but still fine and appropriate for eight- and nine-year-olds (like Lorelei). And while she read it first, first grader Ben was curious about it, so we read it together. He was equally impressed by it, and now the three of us are eager to find a roller derby game near us! I'm checking out NOVA Roller Derby right now...!

Thomas Jefferson Grows a Nation by Peggy Thomas

Thomas Jefferson Grows a Nation by Peggy Thomas, illustrations by Stacy Innerst
Catkins Creek: An Imprint of Highlights

Rating: 5 stars

I'm one of those geeky parents who stays on top of what my children are learning in school and tries to augment the lessons at home. I figure if I'm going to be a full-time mom, I'm going to be a great one.

Lorelei is going to start a big Lewis and Clark unit in social studies this Spring. It comes at a particularly interesting time because this summer we'll be making our own trek across the continent as we move from Virginia to Washington State. Lewis and Clark met wild savages along with a whole lot of Great Unknown; I'll just be driving with three kids. We both have some challenges on our journey...

When I saw Thomas Jefferson Grows a Nation at the library, I grabbed it. It was Kiefer who wanted it read as a bedtime book, but Lorelei heard me read the title, so she ran in to join us. It's a long, necessarily wordy, nonfiction picture book. I had to pause every other page for a little bit of background or just explain something. But both Lorelei and Kiefer were curious, and learned a lot about one interesting, complicated, hugely important figure in our country's history.

The book begins: "Thomas Jefferson loved to grow things." He literally grew plants and vegetables at his home in Monticello, but he also planted seeds of freedom, the idea that America was just as important as Europe, several crops that worked elsewhere but failed in America (he remained optimistic through failure), and a nation through the acquisition of land from France.

There are many illustrations in the book that help young readers understand the text. My favorite is an illustration of Jefferson and Hamilton in a tug of war between farms and cities--would American be a nation of cities and factories or a nation of small towns and family farms?

As President, he began to plan an expedition across the continent, even before France sold the land west of the Mississippi River in what became known as the Louisiana Purchase. (This was news to me; I hadn't realized he would have authorized the journey even it wasn't American territory.) Jefferson wanted to know what was out there--Lewis and Clark sent dozens of reports back to Jefferson about the fauna, wildlife, topography of the newly acquired land. After his White House years, Jefferson returned to Monticello to savor time in his garden and fields growing things--not figuratively this time, but literally.

This book helped Lorelei have a better understanding of why the Lewis and Clark journey took place by teaching her about Jefferson and the events in his life hundreds of years ago. This is a great book to have on the shelf in a classroom, or just a perfect bedtime book for any overachieving mom to read to her naturally curious kids.

Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear by Lindsay Mattick

Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear by Lindsay Mattick, illustrated by Sophie Blackall
Little, Brown & Company

Rating: 5 stars

Last year two books about the origin of Winnie-the-Pooh were published. I saw both at our local library but only selected one, Winnie: The True Story of the Bear Who Inspired Winnie-the-Pooh, to check out, read, and review. For whatever reason, it was only last week that I got around to checking out Finding Winnie. And it was only yesterday, the day after it won the Caldecott, that I got around to reading it.

I was truly blown away--mostly by Sophie Blackall's artwork, but also by the way this version of the story unraveled. Here's how it goes:

A little boy and his mother sit together. "Tell me a story, a true one, about a bear," the little boy requests. The mother obliges, and she starts this one:

"I've decided to name her Winnipeg, so we'll never be
far from home. Winnie, for short."

Once upon a time there was a soldier, a veterinarian-soldier, named Harry Colebourn, who traveled far from his home in Winnipeg to help in the war. He rode in a train with many men just like him. The train "rolled right through dinner and over the sunset and around ten o'clock and into a nap and out the next day" until it finally stopped at a train station in White River.

Harry got out to stretch his legs. While walking around, he saw a trapper and a bear cub. He knew the bear's fate was dark and the cub tugged at his heart. Harry bought him for $20, thus boarding a train with a bear cub that he argued would be his squad's mascot. The bear, quickly named Winnipeg, which was quickly shortened to Winnie, was a fun mascot and much-needed diversion from the reality of war. Harry and Winnie trained together, slept together, and even traveled across the Atlantic to England together to fight in the war.

But Harry realized a war would be too dangerous for a cub, so he gave Winnie up and signed her over to the London Zoo.

Thirty ships sailed together, carrying about 36,000 men, and
about 7,500 horses...and about one bear named Winnie.

"The story is over?" the boy asked.

His mother answered, in a great, wise, sentence I'll repeat for a long, long time: "Sometimes one story must end so another can begin."

Once upon a time there was a little boy with a stuffed teddy bear who needed a name. The boy and his father walked together to the London Zoo, where a real bear stood behind a gate. It was Winnie. The boy not only named his teddy after Winnie, calling the stuffed bear Winnie-the-Pooh, but he also played with real, yet tame, Winnie--going right inside the fenced yard!

The boy's name was Christopher Robin, and his father's name was Alan Alexander Milne. His father write many books about his son and the bear, books inspired by a real boy and a real bear.

Harry drove all the way to the Big City.

I loved Finding Winnie, then turned the page and was yet again surprised and impressed by it: The mother in the story is the author, and also the great-granddaughter of Harry Colebourne! The boy in the story is named after him--his name is Cole. A beautiful family tree illustrates the connection very clearly. The back pages of the book turn into an album that includes pictures of Harry as a young soldier, the journal in which he writes that he bought a bear, pictures of Winnie and her soldiers. Then, there are pictures of Christopher Robin, playing with Winnie, with his father looking on in the background.

This is a keeper of a book--a lovely reminder of many things. That acts of kindness often reap large, unseen rewards. That loving an animal is a worthwhile endeavor. That inspiration for stories can come from a single trip to the zoo. And my favorite, that sometimes one story must end for another to begin.

Congratulations to Lindsay Mattick and Sophie Blackall, for creating such a fantastic, gorgeous book! Congratulations to Sophie Blackall for winning the 2016 Caldecott!

Everyone Loves Bacon by Kelly DiPucchio

Everyone Loves Bacon by Kelly DiPucchio, illustrated by Eric Wight
Farrah Straus Giroux

Rating: 5 stars

Yes, indeed. Everyone LOVES bacon in this house! For that reason, and because this is a very funny book, Everyone Loves Bacon was a hit at our house.

Synopsis: Bacon is a total hot-shot, look-at-me kinda guy who gets the attention of everyone around him. Pancake wants to sit next to him, Egg thinks he smells soooooo good, Hot Dog thinks he's the best. You get the idea. After all the adoration-filled pages on the counter of the diner, there's a shot of lowly lettuce, tomato, and avocado looking glum in the bare refrigerator. They miss their old friend.

Bacon quips, "Who needs friends when you've got fans?"

We were smitten from page one.

He's on to bigger and better things! He was the toast of the town! Until...

(spoiler alert)

...CRUNCH!

He got eaten.

Ha! My kids and I didn't see it coming and laughed like crazy at the last page, at the empty plate that once had haughty Bacon lounging on it.

So funny, very original, and makes me want to eat bacon.


P.S. To my step-sister: My respectful apologies to you. I will not get your children this book because you might remember how great bacon is, and give up your vegetarian-ness forever. :)

Ms. Rapscott's Girls by Elise Primavera

Ms. Rapscott's Girls by Elise Primavera
Dial Books for Young Readers

Rating: 5 stars

It's January, and there are approximately 3 trillion "Best of 2015" lists floating around the internet. I love looking at them, but do you know the ones about which I'm most curious? My kids' "best of" lists. I'm sure Ms. Rapscott's Girls is at the top of Lorelei's "Best of 2015" lists. I don't remember how we stumbled across every book, but I do remember how she discovered this one.

During Spring Break, we went down to the chilly beach in Duck, NC, and found some warm refuge in our favorite bookstore there, the Island Bookstore. We bought some books and got an IndieBound flyer that highlighted some of the newly released books (click HERE for most recent one). Lorelei read through the middle grade section and circled the ones that piqued her interest--Ms. Rapscott's Girls was one of the books we checked out from the library based on that flyer.

Here's Lorelei's review of the book:

Have you ever gotten the feeling that something is too good to be true? Boom. Ms. Rapscott's Girls. Right up there with Ms. Piggle-Wiggle and Mary Poppins--you know, the works! 

A story of four girls, four boxes, two dogs, and an extraordinary teacher, an extraordinary school, and an extraordinary adventure to find the missing Rapscott girl, Ms. Rapscott's Girls will sweep you off your feet like the Skysweeper Winds. This book definitely deserves to be at the top of the birthday cake!

I agree with Lorelei--and love that she can reference other books with great stand-in parent figures, and recognizes that this book fits in with those classics!

You might want a few more details:

Ms. Rapscott has two dogs, Lewis and Clark,
who help keep the girls in line...

Ms. Rapscott heads up a school for girls with busy parents, parents who are too busy pursuing Their Own Thing (some examples: running for days, not just miles; becoming celebrity chefs; being popular, successful doctors) to pay much attention to their daughters. As a result, their daughters have not had the chance to learn many basic life skills. Mrs Rapscott snatches them up in a magical way, and they all end up together, in her lighthouse, under her care.

(I must admit I was pleased that Lorelei didn't think I was a "busy parent," and that she knew nearly all of the big and little skills the girls learned over the course of the book. Gold parenting star to me...) 

Ms. Rapscott's School is quite an adjustment for the girls. They're used to watching TV all day, shouting to be heard, entertaining themselves by reading the encyclopedias, or being small grown ups instead of kids. They bumble and fumble as they learn to clip their nails and make tea and eat birthday cake for breakfast. But more important than that, Ms. Rapscott teaches them big, important things, such as How to Find Their Way by making them get lost on purpose. I love that--because all girls (and sometimes grown ups) need to learn how to figure out which way to go in life.

This a lovely book to read out loud with your daughter, or have her read by herself. Or, like me and Lorelei, both!



P.S. There's a sequel coming out in Fall 2016!

Mother Bruce by Ryan T. Higgins

Mother Bruce by Ryan T. Higgins
Disney Hyperion

Rating: 5 stars

Last night in between stringing the lights on our house and setting up the tree, I forced my kids to stop to eat dinner. They didn't want to--they felt and loved the momentum of decorating for Christmas and wanted to ignore their empty stomachs and increased crabbiness. They needed less persuasion when I promised we'd read books during dinner, a habit started nearly a decade ago when Lorelei was our only child and only a baby.

Ben grabbed Mother Bruce, but it was Kiefer who chose it first (the perks of being the youngest). And it was Kiefer who wanted to hear it again two hours later at his bedtime. It's one of those books--a book you'll read again and again because it's so funny, and so sweet.

Bruce is a grump of a bear who doesn't like sunny days or rainy days or cute little animals. He just likes eggs--eggs of all sorts. (Cue Bubba Blue's voice from "Forrest Gump" here.) Eggs on toast. Eggs Benedict. Deviled eggs. Eggs soufflé. Sunny-side up eggs. And then he discovered another "fancy recipe that he found on the internet:" hard-boiled goose eggs drizzled with honey-salmon sauce. Yum!

So he catches a few salmon, collects honey from a beehive, and visits Mrs. Goose to grab some eggs.

He runs into a few problems while cooking, so instead of getting hard-boiled eggs, he gets goslings. That's right: the eggs hatch instead of cook! Funny (and a little horrifying)!

It was hard work.

All of a sudden, Bruce is Mother Bruce with four goslings calling him "MAMA!" He tries to return them to Mrs. Goose, but she's gone south for the winter. The goslings won't stop following Bruce, so he tries to make the best of it. He tries to be a pretty good mama by bjorning the babies, letting them paint, feeding them, napping with them. The seasons pass and he tries to teach them to fly away, but they just buy warm winter stuff so they can stick around.

Finally, Bruce buys five tickets to Florida. And that's what they end up doing every winter: They go south together, and "laze about at the beach in tacky shirts, sipping ice cold lemonade, while Bruce dreams of new recipes--recipes that don't hatch!"

Dee-light-full!!

The story and the writing are both great--clever and witty and silly and good. But the illustrations bring the whole book up to another level entirely. The images just cracked us all up. Bruce pushing the grocery cart through the forest looking for ingredients sent my kids into a fit of laughter. Bruce dropping his load of firewood at the sight of four goslings starting at him from his pot made us smile. Grumpy Bruce with four innocent goslings following up a tree made them all laugh again.

You can't go wrong with this book--we give Mother Bruce eight thumb's up!

Hope Springs by Eric Walters

Hope Springs by Eric Walters, illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes
Tundra

Rating: 4.5 stars

The Mbooni District in Kenya is a village far away from our Washington, D.C., suburbs. Hope Springs takes place in that distant, dusty village. It's a story about how people confront the reality of scarce resources, specifically, what does a community do when there is limited water during a drought?

In the story, three children trot off down the hill to a small spring which serves as the lone source of water in the village. Empty water containers bounce along with them. Boniface, Mueni and Charles place their water containers in a long line of containers and begin to play while they wait for their turn at the spring.

A group of angry women comes over to them and interrupts their play. The women shout at them, accusing them of stealing water that is not rightfully theirs. The children might live in the village now, because they reside at the orphanage, but because their families are not from this village, the women believe they should not get any water. They kick the kids’ containers out of line and tell them to leave. Frightened and intimidated, the children run off.

Back up the hill in the orphanage, Boniface, the oldest boy and main character, discusses the specific incident and circumstances of the drought with the houseparents. The houseparents explain that the women acted out of fear more than aggression. The women are afraid there will be no water—and therefore no life—for their own families, their own children. The orphanage is digging their own well, the houseparents explain to Boniface; soon, they will have enough water and no need to visit the overcrowded spring.

And, despite the uncertainty of what one finds under our feet, the orphanage soon has a well and does not need to go to the community water hole. Instead of celebrating, Boniface is bothered by the fact that the orphanage has more water than the rest of the community. Despite the fact that the women from the village were so mean to him, he believes the orphanage should help them and their families.

The houseparents, moved by Boniface’s generosity and kindness, agree—and they insist on letting Boniface himself lead the discussion with the villagers. Boniface gulps down his own fear and finds the right words. Soon, with hard work and teamwork, the villagers turn the little spring into a deep well. Because of the kindness of one boy named Boniface, there was water, and, therefore, life—for everyone. And there still is.

This is a story based on a real event. This fact floored my children, who have recently lived through water issues in our own home and, because of that, can appreciate the fear of living without water and the need for a new well. The characters are based on real children and photographs of them are in the afterward. My second grader was in awe, and I, a former Peace Corps Volunteer, wonder how this story might creep into her clever brain and big heart and inspire her.

If you want to shrink the world, open up a book. If you want your child to visit a world far away from his or her own, or begin to understand that some children’s days are very different, get a book like Hope Springs into your childrens’ hands. You never know what might happen.

This book was originally reviewed for Washington FAMILY Magazine. To see the original review, please click HERE.

When Otis Courted Mama by Kathi Appelt

When Otis Courted Mama by Kathi Appelt, illustrated by Jill McElmurry
HMH Books for Young Readers

Rating: 5 stars

Cardell the coyote had "a mostly wonderful life. He had a perfectly good mama and a perfectly good daddy." They both adored him. The thing was, that they were no longer together. Cardell mostly lived with his mama, but sometimes he spent time with his daddy and step-mama and new stepbrother, Little Frankie. They all got along pretty well.

On the other side of the desert, Cardell lived with his mama. One day, their neighbor Otis came to pay a visit--with flowers in his paws--to his mama. "Cardell felt a grrr in his throat." But his mama was smiling.

There had been other suitors before Otis, but none lasted. Otis was different, though. In addition to paying attention to mama, he kinda courted Cardell, too. Otis made prickly pear pudding with Otis. He showed the little coyote how to pounce super high. The grrr didn't come as often.

Then one day, Otis told Cardell stories. The funniest stories! They "settled on Cardell's fur like a warm blanket." Soon, Cardell was as smitten with Otis as his mama was.

And Cardell's "mostly wonderful life" got a little bit more wonderful.

--

Kathy Appelt does a fantastic job of making a sweet story out of something quite sticky. If you're a child of divorce like me, you know that the the idea of stepparents is necessary and good on the one hand, but difficult and sad on the other.

A few weeks ago I attended a conference for the Society of Children's Books Writers and Illustrators and had the chance to listen to Kathy Appelt speak. My daughter is a huge fan of her chapter books (The Underneath and True Blue Scouts of the Sugarman Swamp). One of the things Appelt talked about was the inspiration behind her stories--how she uses the people and pets she loved most in her life to write stories. Her stepfather inspired When Otis Courted Mama. Her stepdad courted her mother when Appelt and her two other sisters were teenagers--making him a fairly brave man, she now realizes. There were a few things going for him, but it was his funny and wild stories that won over the three girls--and their mama, too.

The world needs a few more books like this one. Their positive messages need to the sad, outdated stereotypes and misgivings found in books like Hansel and Gretel, which I blogged about last week.

As if this book--about an important topic that's done so very well--isn't great enough, it's illustrated by Jill McElmurry, of Little Blue Truck fame!

Hansel and Gretel by Holly Hobbie

Hansel and Gretel by Holly Hobbie
Little, Brown, and Company

Rating: 5 stars

Kiefer has been saying how much he likes scary stories. I told him I got a good one from the library--could I read it to him? After reading Holly Hobbie's indescribably gorgeous new version of the classic Hansel and Gretel, he said, "I never want to read that again!"

I'm not sure what it says about me that I'm chuckling at chilling my four year old to the bone...

But that's what this tale is: bone-chilling.

Do you remember all the details? Hansel and Gretel live on a farm with their father and their step-mother. (This is one of the many examples of a story where step-mothers don't look so great.) Times are hard and money is tight; the step-mother convinces the man to abandon his children. After a few tries, and when the birds eat the crumbs Hansel spread along the path, the children are successfully abandoned.

In a deep, dark creepy forest.

"The children waited...and no one came to take them home."
(this image is sure to give my son nightmares)

(Did I mention we live in the woods? Perhaps I should have thought of that before reading this to poor Kiefer.)

The two children walk along until they find a house made of candy, with a suspicious-looking lady welcoming them. They soon find out she's feeding them well to plump them up so she can eat them for dinner. Hansel is caged; Gretel is enlisted with chores.

They need a plan, and it's up to Gretel. When the witch asks her to lean into the fire to make sure it's hot enough, Gretel asks, "How?" in her most innocent voice. The witch leans into the large fire, and Gretel shoves her backside with all her little-girl might. When the "dreadful shrieks" end, she rescues Hansel and they run back home together.

When they get home, their father opens his arms to them. He's grateful for their return (there's no talk of forgiveness; no "Why'd you ditch us, Dad?"). The step-mother? She "had died after eating food that had gone bad." What??!!?!! I'm actually concerned that Kiefer will remember this and use it against me in the court of dinner sometime.

"Fetch wood while I sharpen my best knife."

Anyhow, I do think this story is important for children to know as part of their cultural literacy. And if you're going to chill your child to the bone on this day before Halloween, let it be with this version of the tale. Holly Hobbie's artwork is unbelievable. Are you familiar with it? If not, go check out all her recent stuff and prepare to sit down after the kids go to bed to just appreciate her talent. She's a fantastic storyteller (read her Toot and Puddle series) and her illustrations make classic books come to life (check out...no, just buy... The Night Before Christmas).

And to the step-mothers out there...yikes! Sorry about the bad rap those Grimm brothers gave you.

Happy Halloween!

The Contract by Derek Jeter

The Contract by Derek Jeter and Paul Mantell
Simon and Schuster

Rating: Five stars

Most book bloggers might be focusing on Halloween this week...but the World Series is also happening! There are a whole lot of us who are more excited about the Royals vs. Mets than how many Tootsie Rolls we get to eat. Honestly, I like a good ball game, but it's watching my son Ben's excitement over a ball game that I like even more. 

Because of Ben's excitement and love for baseball, we read The Contract, by Derek Jeter. A little background: Jeter is the starting shortstop for the NY Yankees--and he's also written several books. In his rookie season, he founded the Turn 2 Foundation, an organization that helps promote healthy lifestyles in kids. He's a talented ball player and sure seems like a pretty good guy. (Paul Mantell helped write the book.) The Contract is a novel inspired by Jeter's childhood--how he had these big, lofty dreams from a very young age, and how he set about starting to achieve them.

In the book, the character Derek Jeter is a third grader who writes an essay about his dream of being the starting shortstop for the NY Yankees. He dares to say this dream out loud, and explain how he wants to achieve this dream. Some classmates believe his dream, others laugh. But his parents not only believe in him (and stick up for him when the teacher doesn't take him seriously)--they also help map out a path to achieve his dream. His dad writes up a contract that spells out the guidelines he must follow if he wants to continue playing. The contract includes broad but important rules: Respect others. Family first. Keep your grades up. Play hard. Etc.

Derek is a fine character, though he is a bit of a goody two-shoes, making his character a bit flawless and therefore, not the most authentic around. He only has one minor temper tantrum, despite the fact that his coach favors his own son in the batting lineup and when handing out awards. When life is unfair to character Derek, the third grader takes it all in stride. Although his maturity might be a smidge unrealistic, I like that my son sees this calm response to crises big and small.

I'm all about making good choices--and making them deliberately. I talk with my parent-friends and my kids about how their actions today affect what they can do later in life. This book feeds into that argument, in a great way. Jeter explains that his success in sports came early, when his parents made him buckle down and focus on all the right things--family, school, friendships, sports--and demanded excellence in all these categories. And then (get this!) there were consequences when the contract was broken. 

So, if I do all those things like Jeter's parents do, will my Ben play for the NY Yankees someday? Maybe. Maybe I'll cheering for him when he's in the World Series one day. But I hope he knows I'll be cheering for him no matter what he ends up doing.


P.S. The sequel to this book, Hit and Miss, is fine, too. Not as great as this one, but still a good read with fine lessons about sports and life.

Marvelous Cornelius: Hurricane Katrina and the Spirit of New Orleans by Phil Bildner

Marvelous Cornelius: Hurricane Katrina and the Spirit of New Orleans by Phil Bildner, illustrated by John Parra

Chronicle Books

Rating: 4 stars

Cornelius Washington is not a typical subject for nonfiction picture books. He was a garbage man in the French Quarter in New Orleans before and when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. He once was written about in the Times-Picayune and described as "a wizard of trash cans."

Cornelius did his job as a garbageman, usually thought of as nasty but necessary, with flair. He seemed to have fun with it, but also take it very seriously. The people in the Quarter knew him and waved as Cornelius danced with lids, threw trash bags into formation, and kept the streets "sparkling."

When Hurricane Katrina hit, Cornelius was devastated to see the city he loved so devastated. Water flooded the city; the city was "a gumbo of mush and mud." New Orleans was destroyed. Cornelius was overwhelmed with the amount of work to do--there was so much to clean up and rebuild. Cornelius, like many others, dried his eyes and got to work. The same people who waved to him weeks and months and years before pitched in to help--the people of New Orleans all helped. And others from far away came to help, too.

(He leaves out the looting and lawlessness--probably a good idea for this age group.)

The story ends the way all picture books do: happily. The city is rebuilt to its former glory in a couple dozen pages. Even though Cornelius Washington passed away soon after Katrina, Bildner writes that he symbolizes the spirit of New Orleans--the determination, flair, and friendliness that will always be a part of the city.

Without getting too stuck in the murkiness of history, I think Bildner does a great job of shining the spotlight on a person who doesn't normally show up in picture books. The quotation at the beginning of the book by Martin Luther King, Jr., sets the scene well:

Even if it's called your lot to be a street sweeper, go out and sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Handel and Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to phase and say, "Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well."

Whatever you are, do it well. And Cornelius seems to have done this.

I think it's important to note that Phil Bildner admits to taking some liberty with the true story of Cornelius. He first becomes interested in Cornelius because he sounded like a legend, like a myth, like a story from the American folk tradition. He admits to exaggerating the facts he has about Cornelius in order to carry on the spirit of his story. I hope Cornelius' surviving family supports the book.

Dare the Wind: The Record-Breaking Voyage of Eleanor Prentiss and the Flying Cloud by Tracey Fern

Dare the Wind: The Record-Breaking Voyage of Eleanor Prentiss and the Flying Cloud by Tracey Fern, illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully

Farrar Straus Giroux

Rating: 5 stars

Ellen Prentiss wasn't like other girls. She fell in love with sea at an early age. Her father, loving and appreciating that she loved the water as much as he loved it, taught her all that he knew about hoisting sails, steering a schooner, and most important of all: navigating. Every chance she got, she was practicing one of these skills with her father's trading schooner.

She loved racing any and all ship around her. Her father's advice was always the same: "A true navigator must have the caution to read the sea, as well as the courage to dare the wind."

Decades later, when Ellen found a man who loved the sea as much as she did and who encouraged her sea skills as much as her father did, she married him. The two soon were charged with navigating the Flying Cloud on a fifteen-thousand-mile journey from New York City down to Cape Horn and up to San Francisco. The Gold Rush was on, and they were hurrying to get passengers and cargo to America's West Coast.

If they could make the trip faster than any other ship, they would receive a bonus and the world record. Ellen was excited--and determined.

Ellen pushed the Flying Cloud hard at the start of the ship, covering hundreds of miles each day. But she pushes it too hard and the mainmast rips. The damage humbles Ellen, and makes her reconsider how hard she pushed the ship. The next few weeks she sets a cautious course, catching only gentle breezes. Then she remembers her father's advice and thinks "There is no glory in second place. Now is the time for courage."

And so, Ellen dares the wind and leads the Flying Cloud through dangerous waters, a frightening storm, and around the cliffs of Cape Horn. They charged north again, once again covering hundreds of miles each day. After eighty-nine days at sea, they reached San Francisco in world-record time.

This is an exciting true story--an example of how history really does churn out the best stories around. (Congratulations to Tracey Fern who writes the story with such suspense.) I really want to imprint Ellen's father's words in all of my kids' brains. You must have caution and courage, I want them to see, and the wisdom to know when to use which. Caution and courage, caution and courage, caution and courage.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, illustrated by Quentin Blake
Rating: 5 stars

Puffin

We've been all about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory lately. The kids watched the old version of the movie--the slightly creepy one with Gene Wilder--a few times at the beach in August. Then, we listened to the book on CD this month. And finally, a week or so ago, they watched the newer version of the movie, starring Johnny Depp. At breakfast the next morning we had a fun, slightly nerdy, conversation about the similarities and differences between the book and the two movies. 

The book itself is wonderful. Do you remember it?

Young, poor Charlie Bucket's wildest hopes are realized when he is the fifth and final child to find the prized golden ticket that will gain him entrance into Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. Kids don't go on the tour alone; each brings along a parent or grown-up as chaperone. The parents are one of my favorite parts of the book--the parents are rather hideous, backbone-less characters who've enabled their children to be the horrid, selfish creatures they've become. All but sweet Charlie, of course, who brings his Grandpa Joe.

Throughout the tour of the factory, all of the kids are treated to amazing sights and sounds and smells that are miles beyond their wildest imaginations. The other children are, one by one, ejected in fitting, surprising, mouth-dropping ways from the factory because of naughty, disobedient behavior. Finally, Charlie is the only one left. I forgot the end of the book, to be honest, and I was pleasantly surprised to hear Willy Wonka bequeath his entire factory to Charlie. When Wonka says to Charlie's protesting, "But Charlie! Nothing is impossible!" I felt my little-kid self swept up, wanting to believe him. I sure hope my kids do.

The book is inspired by Dahl's childhood (you can read about it as I did in Boy--Tales of Childhood), when Cadbury mailed test packages of chocolate to his boarding school in order to get the boys' opinions of their new products. And, back then, Cadbury and another company I've never heard of, Rowntree, would try to steal each other's chocolate recipes, just like people tried to steal Willy Wonka's recipes in the book.

We've listened to a few audiobooks this year, but this was the best. There were sound effects during the reading that made listening to it even more exciting...although Kiefer kept wondering when they were going to sing the Oompa Loompa song, which I'll now have in my head all day. 

Interstellar Cinderella by Deborah Underwood

Interstellar Cinderella by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by Meg Hunt

Rating: 5 stars

Chronicle Books

Earlier this year I forced (yes, forced!) my kids to watched the movie "Cinderella." We were heading to Disneyworld for the first time, and I felt they needed to know the story before arriving at the Magical Kingdom. I argued that it was a classic, and they'd have to know the story to appreciate some parts of Disneyworld and also dozens of books they'd read in their lives. When an author compared their character to Cinderella, I wanted them to know what s/he was writing about.

I was priming them for stories like the one Deborah Underwood has written.

Interstellar Cinderella turns the classic Cinderella tale on its head in some fantastic ways. Cinderella lives with her unkind stepsisters and nasty stepmother--on a different plant, and she's the family mechanic this time, not maid. When her stepsisters get invited to a royal space parade, Cinderella is told she can't attend. Her stepsisters grab her ever-handy toolbox to make sure she doesn't fix her way into going.

"But wait!" the price called after her
"Please tell me how to find--"
The girl was gone--but she had left
Her socket wrench behind.

But her stepsisters didn't count on Cinderella's godrobot, who hooked her up with a new space suit, complete with some handy tools. Cinderella zooms through the galaxy in time to see the parade. She's gets to see the ship of her dreams fly past...and watches it shoot up a cloud of grit and smoke!

The driver and owner of that ship, the prince, is helpless; his chief mechanic has just quit. Interstellar Cinderella comes to his rescue and fixes his ship in a jiffy. He's impressed and smitten! They "talk for hours of rocket ships," but suddenly it's midnight and she has to go home--as she flies away, her wrench falls out of her space suit. He grabs it. You see where this is going...

The next day he goes out looking for her. Girls from all over the galaxy try to fix the ship he's in with the wrench he's got, but they all fail...until Interstellar Cinderella gives it a try and makes it run smoothly.

Then he proposes marriage. Yikes!

(And this is the best part.)

She thought this over carefully.
Her family watched in panic.
"I'm far too young for marriage,
But I'll be your chief mechanic!"

Hip, hip hooray for Deborah Underwood's go-girl spin off of Cinderella! (And hooray for common sense prevailing for child brides!)

First Grade Dropout by Audrey Vernick

First Grade Dropout by Audrey Vernick
Rating: 5 stars

Clarion Books

Oh dear ME this is such a funny book--and, better yet, wonderfully comforting for kids to read, especially at the beginning of the school year!

The narrator admits to being many things in his young life: hungry, four years old, crazy bored, soaking wet. But now he can add first grade dropout to his list. Because he did such an embarrassing thing that now he can never, ever, ever go back to Lakeview Elementary School tomorrow.

What did he do? He called his teacher, Ms. Morgan, "Mommy."

And everyone laughed. Including his best friend Tyler. "They laughed and slapped their desks and stomped their feet. And pointed. At me." Clever Audrey Vernick writes, "It was quiet. Then it started, all at once, like a big marching band of laughing people."

(Here's that big marching band of laughing people,
illustrated by clever Matthew Cordell.)

Our poor narrator can't imagine facing his class again, so he decides to drop out. He'll miss his friends and recess and a few other things, but he's got a plan to stay at home, work on his jump shot, get a job. You can tell this plan doesn't sit right with him, so he goes to soccer practice anyway. He sees his best friend Tyler, who acts like everything is normal.

Like the good best friend he is, Tyler listens to the plan and decides to drop out, too. "Awesome," Tyler says. "It'll be great! We can work on our junk shots."

Our narrator stifles a giggle. He tries not to laugh, but can't help it. Suddenly, he's smiling big and explaining to Tyler what is so funny--Tyler said junk shot, not jump shot. Tyler stands there for a second, but you know what he does next?

He laughs. At himself! Then they laugh together.

The boys decide to work on their junk shots tomorrow at recess, and show them to Ms. Morgan...er, Mommy.

Great, great, great message: That we all make some silly, embarrassing mistakes from time to time. And while we want to shrivel up and disappear or pretend like it didn't happen or invent a time machine to go back and undo it, it's easier and best to not take ourselves too seriously and laugh a little with ourselves.

(We parents can lead by example here!)

Super quick story in my own life of saying "Mom" when I shouldn't have: On my very first night of college during a super cool, freshmen-only retreat, I was sleeping in a bunkhouse with about 20 other freshmen girls. In the middle of the night I had a dream and yelled, "MOM!" loudly. In a shocking moment of maturity, I admitted it was me when a couple girls asked about it the next morning, and I laughed along with them. I was known as the girl who yelled for her Mom for a few weeks, then everyone forgot about it. Like people always do (though, at the time, it doesn't seem like that'll ever happen).

Again, fantastic book--and so very pertinent! Let's bolster our kids with the confidence in knowing that they can get over embarrassing stuff now, when they're young, so they can handle embarrassing stuff on their own in the future. Because we all know that, like it or not, embarrassing stuff continues to happen!

The Day the Crayons Came Home by Drew Daywalt

The Day the Crayons Came Home by Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers
Rating: 5 stars

Philomel Books

Lorelei squealed when she saw the sequel to The Day The Crayons Quit in my library bag. She and Ben actually had an argument about who could read it first. The oldest won, and when she finished, she sighed and handed it to him, saying "It's sooooo good."

It IS "sooooo good!"

Most of Duncan's crayons are scattered around the house, some a little further from home. Maroon crayon (once used to color a scab) is marooned in the basement. Neon Red Crayon was left poolside on vacation and is doing her best to travel back. Yellow and orange melted together outside; their argument over who should be the color of the sun is now over because they recognize its true color: "HOT." Tan crayon has been eaten then thrown up by a dog and now has bits of carpet fuzz stuck to him.

Nobody likes "Pea Green." So he's changing his name
 to Esteban the Magnificent!

You get the picture...each crayon has its own funny story of why they're not within an arm's reach away from Duncan. And they all want to get back to him, get back to their normal life of being used to scribble and color and imagine.

After reading all the postcards from these now-damaged crayons, he runs around and picks them all up. But they can't fit into his crayon box anymore. Therefore, he builds a crayon house where they can all fit and feel at home.

This isn't the best read-aloud story in the world, but the creativity of the story and the illustrations is off-the-charts. How can my kids not look at the stuff lying around a little differently?! But now I'm worried they'll pick up even less, hoping to get a postcard or two from their toys!

Enjoy!

Rodeo Red by Maripat Perkins

Rodeo Red by Maripat Perkins, illustrated by Molly Idle
Rating: 5 stars

Peachtree Press

Well, I'm just fit to be tied! This rodeo book is all that I've ever wanted in a sibling-cowboy book!

And I never even knew that's what I always wanted!

But yes indeed, I am smitten with Maripat Perkins' clever and sweet tale of two siblings working out how to live together. It doesn't hurt that she's got Caldecott honor-winner Molly Idle (Flora and the Flamingo) illustrating "Rodeo Red," the heroine of this book; "Sideswiping Slim," her new little brother; and their story of a stolen pup named "Rusty."

Rusty belongs to Rodeo Red, and they "had always been happier than two buttons on a new shirt" until her little brother showed up. Rodeo Red nicknames him Sideswiping Slim even before his arms and legs reach out to everything that is hers.

Once Slim learns to walk, he wants to play with Rodeo Red, and wants her stuff, too. One day he steals Rusty, her stuffed dog and faithful sidekick--and her parents back him up. She tries to take justice into her own hands by sneaking into his room during a nap and stealing the dog back--but she just wakes the baby. She tries to tie up the thief, but...well, that doesn't go down very well either.

The Sheriff showed up and well...
What followed weren't pretty.

Rodeo Red gets thrown in jail. (Well, not jail really, but the backwards chair made my kids and I laugh out loud because it really does look like jail.) She's befuddled, frustrated, and locked up. Once released from jail, she slumps into her afternoon snack, trying to think up a plan.

A plan arrives in the form of a package with a swanky new stuffed animal for her. From her aunt, who is more of a "city slicker." The stuffed animal is not Red's cup of tea, but she successfully trades the beast for her faithful dog, and both siblings end the story happy.

I love it. Love, love, love it! The cowboy twang required of me to read this book out loud was sun fun and made me so happy that I wanted to slip it on top of the "to read" stack every day. Idle's illustrations are beautiful and funny (how she got that combination right is so impressive to me), but it all started with a great sibling story told in a clever, fun way. Loved it!

Marlene, Marlene, Queen of Mean by Jane Lynch

Marlene, Marlene, Queen of Mean by Jane Lynch, Lara Embry, A.E. Mikesall, illustrated by Tricia Tusa

Random House Kids

Rating: 5 stars

Marlene, Marlene, Queen of Mean will be known in some circles as “Jane Lynch’s picture book.” Jane Lynch, of course, is the actress who plays the biggest bully on television: Sue Sylvester on Glee. But that’s not entirely fair—it’s not just another book by a famous author. Marlene, Marlene, Queen of Mean is a good book in its own right, regardless of its famous author. The story is strong, the message is important, the rhyme sounds great, and the illustrations are fantastic.

Marlene is a little girl with a big, mean streak, who delights in getting her way with her classmates. She pinches, kicks, flicks, throws, punches, and pushes—basically all those things you tell your kids not to do. She gets her power from other kids’ fear. And she delights in it, but after one stunt, Marlene is greedy for more power. She reigns supreme in her school until one boy with a little courage dares to ask one simple question: “Why?”

Freddy wants to know why everyone is so scared of her, especially when only her shadow is large. He wonders why all the kids shrink instead of standing up for themselves. Freddy dares the kids to ask themselves: Is this true? Is Marlene so bad? He doesn’t have any sort of show down or fight with Marlene. In fact, I find his demeanor and stance in Tricia Tusa’s illustrations pretty fascinating and pretty brilliant. He is a relaxed guy who is thinking out loud, simply pointing out how silly it is that everyone is following her orders when they really don’t have to.

Marlene isn’t happy about this, but she proves Freddy right when she does the least bully thing ever: she cries. Conveniently sprinkled into this moment in the story is some magic: her tears melt all the bully-causing anger inside her and Marlene’s anger flies out of her in three giant sneezes. 

While I don’t love this part of the story (because we all know the transformation from mean to kind happens a lot more slowly than a-choo, a-choo, A-CHOO!), I do like how Lynch and her two co-authors point out in the pages afterward how it’s sometimes easier to be mean than to be nice. I especially like these lines in the book:

You see, it’s a breeze to learn how to tease;It’s harder, sometimes, to be decent.

So true! In the end, Marlene ends up a whole lot nicer, but definitely not perfect. The text admits to her being “mostly cured” but there’s a picture of Marlene looking pretty darn delighted as she’s scaring a classmate with a gross bug. Perfect isn’t possible—it doesn’t even exist. So good for Marlene for sneezing out her bully-ness and becoming more decent. I would like to sneeze out some of my imperfections, too…

The fact that a famous author wrote this won’t hurt sales, but parents and teachers will pick this up and read it to their kids because of the fact stated above: it’s a strong story with an important message told in rhyming verse and the illustrations are fantastic.

While You Were Napping by Jenny Offill

While You Were Napping by Jenny Offill, illustrated by Barry Blitt

Rating: 4 stars

Random House Kids

WARNING: Do not read this book to your child if she or he still naps!!

For better or for worse, my three kids are past the napping stage. Mostly, it’s a for-better thing. And after the explosion of cool stuff that happens in this book while one little boy takes a nap, they’d never nap again.

While You Were Napping by Jenny Offill is a new-ish picture book published by Random House in late 2014. It’s a story told in the voice of a big sister speaking directly to a little brother. You must know that the humor is slightly twisted, just a little mean, but to me downright funny. Like it or not, it's the stuff of siblings. This big sister tells her little brother all the fun adventures that happened while he—and he alone—napped. All the other kids in the entire universe were up, partying with pirates and carousing with juice boxes, while he snored.

Here’s the fun that’s had:

They lined everyone up on the diving board
From the bravest to the scaredest,
Then waved their big swords in the air
And told us to make our last wishes.

First, construction workers roared by in their working trucks. Since they were “bored with building,” they offered their vehicles to the kids. Since there was no grass left when they were done bulldozing, the next cool activity they moved to was digging up dinosaur bones.

As if that wasn’t enough, some enormous robots strolled by with blue cotton candy—wouldn’t you know it? the slumbering child’s favorite kind—and the only other thing available to eat were french-sandwiches. No “please” was heard for miles.

Fireworks and rockets, lit by even the youngest of babies (yikes!) got the firefighters’ attention so they raced to the scene with their sirens screaming. The fire also attracted pirates with bandannas and eye patches, who lined up everyone on the neighbor’s diving board and threatened to make them walk the plank.

Finally, some astronauts arrived on their rocket ship to take everyone to the moon. The upside: learning to function in zero gravity. The downside: plenty of moon dust in the kids’ boots.

Luckily, none of this woke up the sleeping boy. How shocking to see the boy’s face turn grumpy despite his long nap! 

Rest assured that was the last nap of his life.

This was a delight to read to my three kids, who roared with every new page. With my slightly sarcastic sense of humor, they are pretty tuned in to what’s fact, and what’s fiction. Their sense of humor, especially the second and third children (both boys), is a little twisted. This book is not for that literal lad who might believe a little too much of it. Or for any child who is still napping—unless you don’t want that child to nap again. Ever.