Just a CLASSic

Growing up, I watched the musical movie version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang starring Dick Van Dyke.  Who can really resist such a charming story about a technological car told through high energy music and dance numbers?  I f you are one of those people scratching your head at this moment thinking "Huh?  Well I never saw this film,"  then click here and watch for yourself one of my personal favorite songs "Toot Sweet" complete with an entire factory of dancing candy makers.  From the very start this movie is fun and very family friendly, and the humor of Dick Van Dyke is truly irresistible. However, I am not here to tell you all about this great movie, but about the book of the same name. Having already shared my love for the movie, one can imagine the surprise and delight that I had realizing that there was a book.  Who knew? Well come to find out this book is by the same author who created James Bond.  Though the story takes some time to pick up, I can

Of all the books that I have so far reviewed, I would say that this book has been my favorite.   My Family for the War by Anne C. Voorhoeve is the most recent winner of the Batchelder Award, an award given to children's books that are originally written and published in another language and country. This particular book was written in Germany in 2007 and only recently, in 2012, translated into English by Tamni Reichel. This book follows Franziska Mangold from when she is ten to about when she is seventeen. She is a Protestant child with Jewish heritage living in Germany right before World War II after Adolf Hitler gained power.  Because of her Jewish ancestry, though she believes in Jesus, Ziska (her name in Germany) and her family experience the violence that Hitler instituted against the Jewish people. The very first chapter opens where Ziska and her friend Rebekka Liebich jump out of a tree to discover escape routes in case of an attack against them as Jews. Because

For one of my class assignments, I needed to create a multi-disciplinary unit (basically a unit for a certain grade that incorporates multiple subject areas). I chose to do mine on colonial communities.  I used four of the Young American series books ( Caesar's Story: 1759  is one of the books in the series put out by Colonial Williamsburg) as the basis to divide the class into four reading and research groups to discover the daily life of the colonies. This story is from the point of view of Caesar who is a slave in Carter Grove's plantation. When Caesar was young, his best friend, Nat, was the master's son.  However, at the age of seven, Caesar must take on the role of the slave, and Nat takes on the role of the master. Caesar must learn that he is no longer able to play with his best friend, no longer able to tell a funny story.  He goes from being a field hand to being a house slave where, though he is on the same plantation, he cannot see his family even for

"There was once a boy named Milo who didn't know what to do with himself--not just sometimes, but always," (Juster 9)  The Phantom Tollbooth , first written in 1961, begins quite pointedly. This surprising humor of the opening few lines continues on throughout the entire book.  This witty tale is about a boy named Milo who sat around thinking there was nothing to do. One day when he returns from school he finds a tollbooth that sends him to the Kingdom of Wisdom that has the City of Digitopolis (where they believe that numbers are the most important) and City of Dictionopolis (where as you might have guessed they believe words are the most important). After Milo has several encounters with very intriguing characters like the watchdog named Tock (he has a clock in the middle of him that goes tick, tick tick while his brother Tick has a clock that goes tock, tock, tock), he sets off on a difficult task to rescue the Princesses of Rhyme and Reason from banishment.

The book Remember  by Toni Morrison could serve as an excellent companion piece to The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963 .  This is a non-fiction book that explores segregation and the ultimate integration of the school system in the South.  Throughout the entire book, the author imagines the thoughts and words of the people within the photographs depicting the struggles of black children. These pictures were beautifully put together to tell the story of school integration. Seeing these pictures was so very powerful.  Though these pictures did not show the violence that is often associated with the Civil Rights movement, they did show the innocent expressions of the children but the hate on some of the adults' faces; because of this, this book is very appropriate for upper elementary students or higher who have studied the period and understand it. At the very end, I teared up as I looked at the faces from the Church bombing in 1963 that Christopher Paul Curtis references in

Going to elementary school, I remember that many of my classmates obsessed over the Junie B. Jones series. For some odd reason, I never got on that bandwagon.  I always had such a long list of books to read (I still do) that it never managed to make it to the top of the list or even on the list. However, when I saw it at the library, I thought I might as well try it.  After all, it is so very popular. This book is the first in the series.  Junie B. Jones is just entering kindergarten. When she goes to visit before school starts, the teacher asks her if she will be riding the bus. Since Junie B. had no idea about the bus, her fear of the bus and a dislike for practically all the people on the bus quickly begins. The book goes through the first day of kindergarten, and then Junie B. faces the epitome of her fear of the school bus.  That is when her adventure truly begins. I can certainly see why children like this book.  Junie B. is a loud and vociferous young girl speaki