BREAKING STALIN'S NOSE by

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Yelchin, Eugene.  2011.  BREAKING STALIN'S NOSE.  New York: Henry Holt.  ISBN 9780805092

2. PLOT SUMMARY

Growing up in Stalin-era Russia, ten-year-old Sasha Zeichek lives with his widowed father and 46 other hard working communists in a one kitchen, one toilet apartment - komunalka.  Sasha's dream is to become a Young Soviet Pioneer to demonstrate his devotion to Russia and his loyalty to Comrade Stalin.  Sasha's father is a respected State Security officer but is suddenly arrested the night before Sasha is to become a Pioneer.  Suddenly everything's amiss!  Sasha gets in a snowball fight, he hides from blame, and as he envisions his Pioneer Parade in Moscow's Red Square, he breaks off Stalin's nose from a plaster bust in the school's corridor.  He has become an enemy of people before he ever knew what happened. As his world shatters, Sasha faces a new reality and truth and must make a courageous decision to do what is right.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Yelchin transports the reader back to the USSR.   The setting is ice cold Moscow, but the ambiance of fear and suspicion in the story is far more frigid.  Yelchin's pencil illustrations only enhance the gloominess and oppression of communism in the story.  The naive point-of-view of the story's main character offers a first hand look at what it must have been like to grow up under Stalin's rule.  Sasha is so proud of his Stalinist spirit and can hardly contain his excitement to realize his dream of becoming a Young Pioneer.  He takes pride in Russia's "Communist 'WE' instead of capitalist 'I'."   No one can keep secrets, everyone is equal, "we know who gets up at what time, who eats what for dinner, and who said what in their rooms."  The theme of paranoia and developing a communist character is a constant, "always be vigilant, because our capitalist enemies are never asleep."  This message is repeated at home, on the playground, in the classroom, everywhere - it presents the tyrannical pressure to be spies and turn in anyone who might be suspect of betraying communism.  


Although the story takes place between 1923 and 1953, the main issue "transcends time and place."  The Author's Note states, "To this day, there are places in the world where innocent people face persecutions and death for making a choice about what they believe to be right."  The conflict Sasha faces with himself and with the values instilled in him are profound and enlightening. The heavy subject matter (imprisonment, killing, arrest and capture of "enemies of the state" - some children) is given some comic relief when Stalin's nose comes to life through magical realism (use of magical elements in an otherwise rational world - http://www.magicalrealism.info/p/definitions.html).  Yelchin also provides his Russian background and an insightful prospective in his Author's Note at the end of the novel.  Great read! 

  

4. AWARDS & REVIEW EXCERPTS

John Newbery Medal, 2012
Mitten Award, 2012

Hazel Rochman (Booklist, Oct. 15, 2011 (Vol. 108, No. 4)) 

Picture-book illustrator Yelchin was raised in post-Stalinist Russia in the 1960s and left the country when he was 27.  In his first novel, he uses the child's innocent viewpoint to dramatize the heartbreaking secrets and lies, and graphite illustrations show the terrifying arrest of enemies of the people, even children, like Sasha's classmate.  

Jody Little (Children's Literature)
The main character is thoughtful, spunky and courageous, and the book's illustrations will captivate readers.  This is a well-written and accessible work of historical fiction for young readers.


Publishers Weekly (Publishers Weekly)
An impressive . . . compact novel.  Through Sasha's fresh and optimistic voice, Yelchin powerfully renders an atmosphere of fear that forces false confessions, even among schoolchildren . . . Readers will quickly pick up on the dichotomy between Sasha's ardent beliefs and the reality of life under Stalinism, and be glad for his ultimate disillusion, even as they worry for his future."

5. CONNECTIONS

* Discuss the literary technique of magical realism with the appearance of Stalin's nose as a character.  What is its purpose?
-This and other guided questions are available at:
http://media.us.macmillan.com/discussionguides/9780805092165DG.pdf

*Engage readers to investigate further on Sasha's parents, his school, and the Young Soviet Pioneers by visiting the book's interactive website:
   http://www.eugeneyelchinbooks.com/breakingstalinsnose/index.php
  

* Under dictator Stalin, an anonymous accusation was enough to get someone killed or imprisoned.  How does this process differ from laws in the United States?  Compare the rights of citizens from both countries.

MATILDA BONE by Karen Cushman

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cushman, Karen.  2000.  MATILDA BONE.  New York: Clarion Books.  ISBN 9780395881569

2. PLOT SUMMARY

"Saliva mucusque!"  Poor orphaned Matilda is removed from her pleasant manor-life under the care of Father Leufredus into the gloomy and unholy likes of Blood and Bone Alley.  Her latin, knowledge, and search for higher things in life are unappreciated and seem to serve no use in her new apprenticeship under Red Peg the Bonesetter.  Matilda is uneasy and fears she will be "snatched by the Devil" if she consorts with her new irreverent community.  She silently scrutinizes everyone's lack of piety and pleads to the saints for their intercession.  

As Matilda observes the hard work and care they give to those in need, she begins to question all that Fr. Leufredus taught her.  Why had he not instructed her on God's love?  After a slow transformation, Matilda recognizes education comes in different forms.  She also realizes her own unique talents and may take to bonesetting like a duck to water after all.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS

You'll step out of the Middle Ages dusting off your Sunday kirtle and appreciating your doctor after reading MATILDA BONE.

It's a hard-to-imagine world for 21st Century learners, but Cushman includes every possible detail from milksops to chamber pots.  Readers are transported to 14th Century England and exposed to the ghastly realization of medieval medicine.  No good hygiene or public sanitation here; young Matilda must learn the trade of bonesetting in the medical quarters known as Blood and Bone Alley - where "ordinary people [go] to be bled, dosed, and bandaged," "barber-surgeons down this way and leeches down that." 

The main character is fourteen year old Matilda, a snobbish, stubborn teenager who parrots everything she has learned from Father Leufredus.  She is unyielding in her views and gives no independent opinion of her own until she meets kind, hardworking Red Peg, and a spunky loud-mouthed girl nicknamed Tildy.  Matilda's internal dialogue demonstrating the struggle between what she's learned growing up and her new experiences leads readers to hope in her transformation.

Cushman's details of patron saints and the public's common ideas of incantations, devils, dream interpreters, and the need to balance the humors are accurate to the time and place.  The dialogue (and lexicon) is authentic yet understandable for young readers.  (The audiobook is spoken in an English accent and would offer additional genuineness to this medieval experience. Highly recommended!)  

4. AWARDS & REVIEW EXCERPTS

Parents' Choice Award, 2000
School Library Journal Best Books, 2000
Best Children's Books of the Year, 2001

Leslie Carter (VOYA, December 2000 (Vol. 23, No. 5)) 

No one has a better grasp of the flavor of the Middle Ages than Cushman.

Publisher's Weekly, starred review
Students will delight in the many peculiar cures used in Medieval England, such as: "pounded earthworms, ants' eggs, bull urine, the fat of a medium-sized viper, and a pinch of asses' dung" for failing eyesight.  MATILDA BONE will be an excellent addition to the classroom library when studying the Middle Ages.

5. CONNECTIONS

* Follow up with a discussion on some of the biased views portrayed:
http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/readers_guides/cushman/matilda.shtml#questions

*Learn more about life in the Middle Ages:
   http://www.learner.org/interactives/middleages/feudal.html
  

*Read other books on the Middle Ages by Karen Cushman such as:

Cushman, Karen.  1995.  THE MIDWIFES APPRENTICE.  New York: Clarion Books.  ISBN 978-0395692295

DEAD END IN NORVELT by Jack Gantos

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gantos, Jack.  2011.  DEAD END IN NORVELT.  New York: Farrar Strauss Giroux.  ISBN 9780374379933

2. PLOT SUMMARY

School is finally out and just as Jack is about to start a "great summer vacation," his mother ruins it! She grounds Jack "for life" after shooting off his father's forbidden Japanese rifle.  Now he must assist a feisty old neighbor, "ancient Miss Volker" in writing obituaries as the last of Norvelt's original homesteaders die off.  Jack's summer of nothing is suddenly filled with death, Hell's Angles, rebel Girl Scouts, a murder mystery, and the fear that he may drown in his own blood.  By the end of the two months, Jack  gains a greater appreciation for his own history as he heeds Miss Volker's warning, "learn [your] history or [you'll] be doomed to dust like one of the Lost Worlds."

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS

History oozes out this book like blood from Jack's nose: New Deal homesteads, Eleanor Roosevelt, the conquering of the Aztecs, the English Peasants' Revolt, King Arthur, Cleopatra and countless others.  The history is not over whelming or awkwardly placed, but rather woven into the story by the main characters, young Jack and "ancient Miss Volker," who can't seem to go through any experience without connecting the past to the present.

Readers will be able to identify with Jack's desire to get out of boredom and daydream into adventure.  He's a regular kid who doesn't mind being a "boy slob," gets excited when he gets to drive a car for the first time, and tries to squirm out of all sorts of trouble.  His "little problem" of a hypersensitive bloody nose provides gory, gruesome details that young readers will yearn for.  Jack's only escape from his doomed summer is reading history books and helping Miss Volker, the town medical examiner, nurse, obituary writer, and historian.  Her wit and "crazy old lady" manner is hilarious: "I love it when I get mad!  I feel like I'm ready to take on the world."

Gantos captures the time period well.  The references to homesteaders and their community life of giving a "hand up - not a hand out," people bartering for what they needed, community casseroles, and old time values draw the reader in to the morals of the early 1960s.  Small details of the era are also visible: milk jars delivered to doorsteps, typewriters, references to "Commies" and "Japs," and other war paraphernalia offer plenty of authentic elements to discuss with young readers newly exposed to this era. 

4. AWARDS & REVIEW EXCERPTS

Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, 2012
John Newbery Medal, 2012
School Library Journal's Battle of the Kids' Books, 2012
Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, 2012

The Horn Book, starred review 

"There's more than laugh-out-loud gothic comedy here.  This is a richly layered semi-autobiographical tale, an ode to a time and place, to history and the power of reading."

Publisher's Weekly, starred review
"A bit of autobiography works its way into all of Gantos's work, but he one-ups himself in this wildly entertaining meld of truth and fiction by naming the main character . . . Jacki Gantos."

Jon Scieszka, founder of guysread.com and author of the Spaceheadz seriez

"Nobody can tell a story like Jack Gantos can.  And this is a story like no other.  It's funny.  It's thoughtful.  It's history.  It's weird.  But you don't need me to attempt to describe it.  Get in there and start reading Gantos."

5. CONNECTIONS

* Have students write their own "This Day In History" column.

*Read more about Norvelt, Pennsylvania:
   http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=1-A-2D6
  

*Follow along Miss Voker's red pins with a map of Norvelt's 250 family homestead map at
 http://explorepahistory.com/displayimage.php?imgId=1-2-10BE.

*Learn about Eleanor Roosevelt's life and work as well as her contribution to her husband's New Deal programs:
 http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx:biography=33

Fleming, C. (2005). Our Eleanor: A Scrapbook Look at Eleanor Roosevelt’s Remarkable Life. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

BONES: OUR SKELETAL SYSTEM by Seymour Simon

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Simon, Seymour.  1998.  BONES: OUR SKELETAL SYSTEM.  New York: Morrow Junior Books.  ISBN 0688146457

2. PLOT SUMMARY

How many bones are you born with?  What happens to them as you grow?  What makes them hard?  Why do they break?  How do they heal?

All these questions and more are answered in BONES: OUR SKELETAL SYSTEM.  Did you know you have more bones as a baby than you do when you become an adult?   Learn about what happens to the missing bones from the top of your skull to the metatarsals of your feet.  The skeletal system of the body begins with flat plate building blocks that pile up and give bones strength.  Muscles, ligaments, and cartilage provide flexibility to enable you to run, skip, or do a cartwheel.  Learn how your bones connect to one another and how they work with the muscular system to accomplish amazing feats.  You'll learn everything you need to know about your skeleton in BONES: OUR SKELETAL SYSTEM.  

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS

As a former science teacher for elementary and secondary school students, Simon offers an easy-to-read, fun, and accurate view of science children can enjoy and understand.  Some of his awards include the Advancement of Science/Subaru Lifetime Achievement Award, the Washington Post/Children's Book Guild Award for Non-fiction, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Forum on Children's Science Books.

Simon's outstanding book design uses colorful digital images, drawings, and photographs on mostly large black pages to add dramatic presentations of his informational text.  Microscopic enhanced images of lamellae and spongy bone and colored x-rays of fractures and joint replacements provide rare visuals for children and boost their understanding of the scientific content matter. 

The book follows a clear sequence for someone who will read the book from cover to cover.  Simon starts with the building block of bones then moves on to joints, muscles and ligaments.  He then covers the skeleton from head to toe (skull, spine, ribs, limbs) ending with broken bones, fractures, and bone diseases.  The only reference aid provided is a labeled skeleton image at the beginning of the book.  Subtitled categories and a glossary would have been excellent additions for children or adults seeking specific information.

4. AWARDS & REVIEW EXCERPTS

Best Children's Books of the Year, 1999; Bank Street College of Education
Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children, 1999; National Science Teachers Association

Susan Dove Lempke (Booklist, September 1, 1998 (Vol. 95, No. 1))Simon once again proves his remarkable facility for making complicated science clear and understandable.

Yumiko Bendlin (Children's Literature)
The basic information about the human skeletal system is easy to understand, especially for young readers who are just starting to find out about the human body.  Simon's vivid and colorful computer-enhanced pictures help readers understand what their bones look like, and how they all connect.

5. CONNECTIONS

*Read other books from Simon's series on the human body:
Muscles, The Brain, and The Heart.
* Checkout Simon's webpage at http://www.seymoursimon.com/

* Download Simon's free children's educational app: Science Fun to Go at
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/mobile-app-reviews/science-fun-to-go

THE EXTRAORDINARY MARK TWAIN (ACCORDING TO SUSY) by Barbara Kerley

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kerley, Barbara.  20010.  THE EXTRAORDINARY MARK TWAIN (ACCORDING TO SUSY).  New York: Scholastic Press.  ISBN 9780545125086

2. PLOT SUMMARY

No one truly knows you like your family does.  In THE EXTRAORDINARY MARK TWAIN (ACCORDING TO SUSY), thirteen year old, Olivia "Susy" Clemens tells the true biography of her father, Mark Twain.  According to her:
"People probably thought they were Mark Twain experts. 
But they were wrong, and Susy was 'annoyed.'  Greatly."

Susy, "the busiest bee in the household hive," offers her candid and unapologetic accounts of her father's writings, humor, speeches, love of animals, and physical appearance.  Indeed, Susy includes her Papa's fine and not-so-fine qualities in her biographical account - "and under the pillow - it all went."  That is until her mother discovers her journal and shares it with Papa.  "It was the finest compliment he had ever received" and determines to help Susy by providing any additional information she may need to fill in the blanks.  

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Susy Clemens' real life biography of her father, currently held at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, inspired Kerley to write this book about Mark Twain.  Kerley studied a microfilm of the manuscript (with notes and comments by Mark Twain) along with excerpts from Twain's autobiography and additional sources to compose her account.  All sources are listed on the inside back cover of THE EXTRAORDINARY MARK TWAIN (ACCORDING TO SUSY).  Kerley's picture book biographies have been praised for their "accuracy, dynamism, and flair" and her account of Mark Twain does not disappoint.

The perspective of two texts running through the pages of this book provide a unique experience.  One is Kerley's account of Susy's idea of her father, and the other is Susy's actual observation of her father with direct quotations from the journal she kept under her bed between 1885 and 1886.  While the book's large graphic pages are filled with full digital color and accounts of Mark Twain's life, mini journal booklets are placed throughout various spreads.  When opened, the Journal mini booklets provide direct accounts from Susy's biography (spelling and grammatical errors included).  So, in the end the audience gets just what "Susy thought they needed: a portrait of the funny, serious, absentminded, cat-loving, billiard-playing, philosophical Papa - the extraordinary Mark Twain."

Reference aides include Author's Notes of Papa and Susy, a detailed How-to for kids interested in writing their own biography of a family member (printable page available at www.Barbarakerley.com/teachers.html), a selected time line of Mark Twain's life, and a full list of sources for each quote included in Kerley's book.  
   

4. AWARDS & REVIEW EXCERPTS

Cybil Award, 2010' '
Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children, 2011

Megan Dingee (Kutztown University Book Review, Spring 2011)
For readers looking for true, honest accounts of the author Mark Twain, this is the book for you. This story is told from perspective of his daughter Susy. It has excerpts of her diary, that include details about her father that cannot be found in other biographies.

Publishers Weekly (Publishers Weekly)
Kerley and Fotheringham (What to Do About Alice?\n) pair up again to offer a behind-the-scenes glimpse of another famous family. Wanting to present a portrait of her papa beyond that of just humorist and author, Mark Twain’s 13-year-old daughter Susy spent a year chronicling her observations and reflections. While her entire work was published in 1985 (Papa: An Intimate Biography of Mark Twain\n), Kerley contextualizes the teenager’s admiring musings with vivid familial backdrops. 

5. CONNECTIONS

*Read other biography books by Barbara Kerley such as

         WHAT TO DO ABOUT ALICE, illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham

*Visit www.Barbarakerley.com/teachers.html to begin writing your own extraordinary biography.

QUEST FOR THE TREE KANGAROO by Sy Montgomery

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Montgomery, Sy.  2006.  QUEST FOR THE TREE KANGAROO: AN EXPEDITION TO THE CLOUD FOREST OF NEW GUINEA.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin.  ISBN 0618496416

2. PLOT SUMMARY

Sy Montgomery accompanies Lisa Dabek, Program Director and Senior Conservation Scientist for Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, Washington along with a team of scientists and explorers to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea with hopes to capture, study, and release Matschie’s tree kangaroo, one of the rarest and most elusive animals on the planet. 

QUEST FOR THE TREE KANGAROO depicts the preparations of the exploration team and provides readers with a comprehensive look at the requirements and expectations needed for on-sight scientific study.  From a detailed list of supplies (20 liter of kerosene, 6 kilograms of salt, 48 rolls of toilet paper, etc.) to the physical training each member underwent before the trip began (health club workouts).  Readers can feel they are part of the grueling journey.

"The only way to get there is to hike.  It'll take us three days.  Much of our gear will be packed into big white burlap sacks.  Some of us find these hard to lift, much less carry."  Montgomery goes on to describe the endurance of the local villagers: "children as young as nine can carry more than twenty pounds."  Even with good hiking shoes and special vitamins, the local people "in their bare feet, leave us Westerners in the dust."  

Lisa's conservation efforts are evident in the activities of the local school house, and the readers can appreciate her drive as the team finally enters Cloud Forest and captures its first specimens.  Ombom, an eighteen-pound Matschie's tree kangaroo and later a couple of other 'roos are captured while on a date.  Success!
The journey ends with Lisa back in Seattle at her fully equipped lab.  Readers can compare the differences in work environments but both work to benefit conservation efforts of this wondrous creature, the tree kangaroo.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS

The Boston Globe describes Sy Montgomery, “Part Indiana Jones, part Emily Dickinson.”  Goodreads states she “has traveled to some of the worlds most remote wildernesses for her work (http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13364.Sy_Montgomery).”  She is the winner of the 2009 New England Independent Booksellers Association Nonfiction Award, the 2010 Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction Award, the Henry Bergh Award for Nonfiction (given by the ASPCA for Humane Education) and dozens of other honors.  In her Author’s Note, Montgomery describes the tree kangaroo project as “my most physically strenuous expedition of all . . . so far.”

Montgomery’s ability to follow Lisa’s passionate adventure pulls in the reader much like adding a fictional character to bring a story quality to this informational text.  But this adventurer is the real deal!  Her explorations and zeal for conserving the tree kangaroo are contagious and inspiring.

The book cover is black with an adorable Matschie tree kangaroo nibbling on a plant, which attracts any curious animal lover to flip through the pages to find out more about this elusive creature.  Photographer, Nic Bishop, who holds a doctorate in biological sciences, delivers amazing colorful visuals of the team’s trek into Papua New Guinea.  The large close-up images provide extraordinary details of what Montgomery describes: endangered long-beaked echidna, Victoria crowned pigeon, Dacrydium trees, Elatostema berries, village school children, and cascading waterfalls.  

The layout for QUEST FOR THE TREE KANGAROO is cleverly inspired by the expedition it describes.  There is no table of contents or bibliography, but the book follows a clear sequence of the journey Lisa Dabek and her crew take in search of New Guinea’s tree kangaroo.  The nine segments of the scientists’ adventure are divided by large, bold watercolor titles such as: “THE ADVENTURE BEGINS,” “THE HIKE TO HEAVEN,” “PARTNERS IN CONSERVATION” and “CAPTURE!”  

Appended reference aids to guide readers include a list of web resources to help find tree kangaroos near you, an illustrated map by Bishop, a glossary of Tok Pisin (a local language of Papua), an index, and Author and Photographer Notes.  Also included are other butter background pages with supplemental facts about New Guinea, marsupials, or "Lisa's Advice for Kids."  She encourages everyone to follow their passion and offers five steps to follow if those passions include wild animals and wild places.

4. AWARDS & REVIEW EXCERPTS

Green Earth Book Award, 2007

Henry Bergh Children''s Book Award, 2006
Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children, 2007

Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal, 2007

Gillian Engberg (Booklist, Dec. 1, 2006 (Vol. 103, No. 7))
Montgomery and Bishop follow award-wining titles such as The Tarantula Scientist (2004) with another beautifully illustrated entry in the Scientists in the Field series. This time, they join researchers on a grueling expedition in Papua New Guinea to track the rare Matschie's tree kangaroo.

Jennie DeGenaro (Children's Literature)
To read about scientists tracking tree kangaroos in the cloud forest is an exciting journey as written by Sy Montgomery and accompanied by Nic Bishop's photographs. The text is interesting and the pictures magnificent. 

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2006 (Vol. 74, No. 19))
The writer and photographer of this exemplary description of science field work accompanied researcher Lisa Dabek on an expedition high in New Guinea's mountains to study tree kangaroos and promote the conservation of this elusive and endangered species. 

5. CONNECTIONS

* Visit The Woodland Park Zoo's Web site to tree kangaroos and view conservation efforts.  http://www.zoo.org/Page.aspx?pid=1288

* Read about a woman who raises tree kangaroos that have been orphaned at www.authorwire.com 

* Classroom can correspond with kids in Papua New Guinea.  Find out how at www.zoo.org