Module #10:  

Tomas and the Library Lady

Book Summary: Tomas and the Library Lady, by Pat Mora and illustrations by Raul Colon, is a lovely picture book.  Tomas, the son of a farmworker, discovers the library in the new town his family has moved to. While his family works, he discovers new worlds inside books and makes a new friend in the library lady.  Back home, Tomas delights his family by reading stories from his new library books.

APA Reference of Book:

Mora, P. & Colón, R. (1997). Tomás and the library lady (1st ed.). New York: Knopf.

Impressions: The first thing that grabs your attention about this book is the artwork. The illustrations are beautifully done, in earth-tone colors, by Raul Colon. This is a wonderful story of a young boy who discovers a love for books, reading, and storytelling. Reading the reviews, I discovered that this is a fictionalized story of the author’s childhood and life growing up.

Professional Review:

Pat Mora's Tomas and the Library Lady (Illus. by Raul Colon. Random House, 1997) is based on a true incident that happened in the young life of Tomas Rivera, famous writer, educational leader, and university president at the University of California at Riverside. Tomas, the son of migrant farm workers, goes to a public library in Iowa in search of more stories like Papa Grande tells. Until Tomas must return to Texas at the end of the summer, his love for stories and books is nurtured by "the library lady."

Brodie, C. S. (2003). Tomas and the Library Lady. School Library Monthly, 19(9), 48-51.

Library Uses:

This would be a good book to use and display during Hispanic Heritage Month, as it tells the story of a farmworker family traveling from town to town. It is also a great book about family time and sharing stories.

Module #9:  Where’s the Big Bad Wolf?

Book Summary: This is a new take on the “Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs” story, written and illustrated by Eileen Christelow. In this picture book, a mystery has the locals trying to discover who wants to harm the three little pigs.  Although Detective Doggedly has a feeing the big bad wolf is behind all the strange occurrences, he has to follow all the clues to find the real culprit.

APA Reference of Book: Christelow, E. (2002). Where's the big bad wolf? (1st ed.). New York: Clarion Books.

Impressions: This story had me wondering who was behind the mischief and I was pleasantly surprised when, at the end of the story, we find out that indeed the big bad wolf has been pulling the wool over the three little pigs, and everybody else’s, eyes. This is a picture book with fun, colorful illustrations created by the author and includes additional dialogue bubbles as the characters talk to each other.

Professional Review:

Three little pigs get some real bad advice from a wolf in a real goofy sheep disguise in this comical whodunit. The three little pigs are having their homes blown dowry--and escaping by the hair of their chinny-chin-chins--and Detective Doggedly believes it might be the work of the shiftless, no-account neighborhood wolf, the infamous BBW. But the only character found at the crime scenes is a newcomer to town: Esmeralda the sheep. Sure, kids will note, Esmeralda their foot, for her disguise is pretty transparent. She has also been giving the pigs construction ideas: straw is good, twigs are good, and cardboard's not bad. Two cows suggest a brick house, which foils the wolf and ends in his unveiling and incarceration. Short-term incarceration, that is, as he's soon back, this time tricked out as a horse, with more self-serving recommendations: "Pick peas after midnight, when everybody is asleep. They'll taste sweeter." So what if there are a few inexplicable here--How did the wolf con his way into that hospital bed?--this is good clownish fun, and the rough-and-tumble art keeps the farce bubbling. (Picture book. 4-7)

Where’s the big bad wolf? (Book). (2002). Kirkus Reviews, 70(14), 1028.

Library Uses: A great introduction to mystery books for elementary school readers.  This is also a great variation on the classic three little pigs theme.

Module #8:  Doll Bones

Book Summary: Doll Bones by Holly Black is a fantasy book about three friends who set out on a mission to return a doll, made from the remains of a dead girl, to her rightful resting place. On their journey, they do more than face obstacles: all three - Zack, Poppy, and Alice - realize that their childhood is also coming to an end.  This is a horror/adventure story, but it is also a story symbolizing the end of childhood and the beginning of adolescence, and how frightening that can be.

APA Reference of Book:

Black, H. (2013). Doll bones (1st ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster.

Impressions:

This book was dark, creepy, and sad.  It is a book that lets children know that growing up is scary and that things do change. Like Zack, I also remember being told I was too old to play with toys, and being confused and sad at the same time. This is a great book to recommend to older children who may be looking for something more than Goosebumps.

Professional Review:

Doll Bones by Holly Black; illus. by Eliza Wheeler Intermediate McElderry 247 pp. 5/13 978-1-4169-6398-1 $16.99 e-book ed. 978-1-4424-7487-1 $9.99 Twelve-year-old Zach and his longtime friends Poppy and Alice have created an elaborate, ongoing imaginative game they act out with their dolls and action figures. When his dad throws away Zach’s figurines (“it’s time you grew up”), the distraught boy abandons the game with little explanation to the others (“you can’t play pretend forever”). Poppy attempts to lure him back with the game’s all powerful Great Queen, a bone-china doll so precious that Poppy’s mother keeps it in a locked cabinet. Poppy takes the queen, only to be haunted in her dreams by the ghost of a girl whose ashes are inside the doll. The ghost won’t rest until she has been properly buried, so Poppy persuades Alice and Zach to journey with her to the girl’s gravesite. The impromptu trip includes a scary bus ride, eerie supernatural encounters, and an action-packed sailboat voyage, all of which provide ample thrills for readers, with Wheeler’s pencil illustrations softening spooky aspects of the adventure. The narrative is uneven: while the doll is believably creepy, the horror elements and the ghost story remain underdeveloped, as do Poppy and Alice’s characters, and the resolution is rather abrupt. But through Zach’s complex perspective, author Black poignantly and realistically captures how adolescence inherently brings change; how growing up affects the ways children play; and the inevitable tests friendships face. Cynthia k. Ritter.

Ritter, C. K. (2013). Doll Bones. Horn Book Magazine, 89(4), 122-123.

Library Uses: This book has elements of mystery, horror, and adventure. It is also a book that parents may want their children, who are on the verge of adolescence, to read.