The secrets we keep by Nova Weetman

An astute reader will pick up the early hints about the truth of Clem's life circumstances in this book The Secrets we keep.  You might not completely guess the truth but you may be suspicious that all is not quite as it seems.  Do not flip to the back of the book.  It is worth taking the journey with Clem as she comes to terms with her complex family life and recent tragedy.

"My mum died,' I say, causing Ellie to stop in the middle of the basketball courts.  ... I have a yucky metallic taste in my mouth.  Why did I have to start here?  Why did Mum have to come into my story now?"

Clem (Clementine) is the narrator.  Her house has burned down.  She and her dad have moved into a drab and tiny flat in a new area and Clem has to begin at a new school.  It is near the end of Year Six and she has left behind her best friend and lost all her precious possessions in the fire.  Dad will not talk about mum.  The reasons are complex.  Clem needs to face her fear and find forgiveness.

This is a book about fitting in.  It is also about truth.  Here is the author web site.  For more information read this review.  Older students might like to compare The secrets we keep with The Illustrated mum by Jacqueline Wilson and Starry Nights by Judith Clarke.

Tales for very picky eaters by Josh Schneider

This is a book you should read just for the fun of the storytelling.

Tales for very picky eaters has five simple stories with tantalizing titles:

• The tale of the disgusting broccoli
• The tale of the smelling lasagna
• The tale of the repulsive milk
• The tale of the lumpy oatmeal
• The tale of the slimy eggs

James does not want to eat these food but through good humour and wild storytelling his father is able, each time, to change his mind.

James asks about an alternative to broccoli. (Personally I adore broccoli and I feel sad that brussels sprouts and broccoli receive such bad press.)  His father offers dirt, used chewing gum or a sweaty sock flavoured with apple and cinnamon.  James changes his mind!

James complains the lasagna smells funny. His father explains he will now have to fire the troll who labours hard to make this lasagna down in their basement.  The troll  will have to return to his old job working for the rat circus.  James feels sorry for the troll and decides to eat the lasagna.

"Milk is repulsive and I won't drink it.' 'That's probably a good idea,' said James's father.  "Milk give growing children strong, hard bones.  Think of all the great things you could do with nice soft bones." It is easy to imagine what happens next when James thinks about all the sports he loves to play.

This little book was the winner of the 2012 Theodore Geisel Award. We have nearly all the past winners in our library.  Here is the review in Kirkus.

Children love seeing how the father spins these outrageous tales, until at the very end James turns the tables on his father when he actually decides to try something new. 

Ida, Always by Caron Levis and Charles Santoso

Oddly I am going to tell you to begin by reading the back cover of this utterly exquisite picture book Ida, Always.

"I am in awe of this wise, endearing, tender, and beautiful - so very beautiful - book, which is sure to become a classic of children's literature ... the words and pictures meld perfectly to explore the emotional journey of love and loss, 

breaking your heart and then beginning to mend it."

Judith Viorst

Read this comment slowly again.  Meld is the perfect word to describe the way the gentle illustrations and text work together.  The emotional journey of Gus is the heart of this tender story.  The way a broken heart can mend is the important message of hope you will find at the end.

Gus and Ida live in the zoo in Central Park in the busy New York city. The story is based on two real polar bears who did really live in this zoo.  One day Ida does not emerge from her night den.  The keeper explains to Gus that Ida is ill and may die soon.

I love this moment of humour in the face of their deep sadness :

"Wherever I go' said Ida, 'I  bet I'll always smell your fishy breath.'  That made Gus smile.  He wasn't sure if he should. But Ida was giggling, too."

The topic of this book is a difficult one.  Here is a pinterest collection of other books to explore from my friend at Kinderbooks.  Here is a teaching guide from the author web site.

This is a difficult story to tell for both children and adults, but “Ida, Always” does it with simplicity and grace.

Series - The World in Infographics by Jon Richards and Ed Simkins

I don't talk about Non Fiction very often but this series has really caught my eye.  I must be a visual learner because I enjoy pouring over the infographic format as a way to present statistics and other general knowledge.

There are 12 books in this series. Topics include Planet Earth, Natural resources, Countries and Machines/Vehicles.  Each book has an index and a comprehensive glossary.  At a time when students and teachers make extensive use of 'Google' style searches I think books like this are especially useful.  Information is presented as graphs and comparisons.  In each book students can make sense of statistics and percentages and some of the content could be used for further research.

Here are a few facts from the Human World :

The Digital World
In 2010 107,000,000,000,00 emails were sent!

Staying in touch
The first call made from a mobile phone was made on 3rd April, 1973

Work Rest and Play
Annual Public Holidays - China 16, India 15, Australia 8

Dwindling resources
Years remaining of mineral reserves measured from 2011
Copper 61 years, Gold 45 Years, Tin 40 years, Phosphorus 345 Years

What a waste
New York produces 11,000 tones of trash a day or enough to cover the USA with a layer 2.5cm deep.

This page is from the Animal Kingdom.

Cartwheeling in thunderstorms by Katherine Rundell

After reading Rooftoppers I knew I wanted to pick up another book by Katherine Rundell.  I started Cartwheeling in thunderstorms early this afternoon and finished it before the sunset.  This is a fabulous book and as Philip Pullman says on the back cover Katherine Rundell has a 'distinctive voice and a wild imagination.'

Will (Wilhelmina) has a blissfully free life in Zimbabwe.  Her friends are the wild animals, her horse and the neighbourhood boys especially her best friend Simon. The farm where she has lived her whole life is owned by Captain Browne and Will's dad is the foreman.  Wills' mum, Lilibet, was a very special lady who also embraced life in the wilds of Africa but sadly she died when Will was only five.

"Seven years after his wife's death, William Silver started running a temperature.  The next day he collapsed on the packed earth floor of the stable."

The story now references Cinderella.  Captain Browne takes a wife. She immediately plots to get rid of little Will.  She organises to send this wild child to an English boarding school.

I love this description of Cynthia (Captain Browne's new wife).  "Cynthia Vincy was well-dressed, strong jawed, long-legged, conscious of her power over men: formidable. ... Cynthia smiled down at Will.  The smile marred the woman's perfect poise; it was a square smile, like a letter box. Cynthia was aware of this and rarely smiled."

Everything about the school is horrid.  The food, the tiny room she has to share with one of the school bullies, the bitter cold and the endless rules.

"She discovered that times tables had nothing to do with time, not in fact with tables; that history was not a thousand stories building up into the colossal, strange, heart-stoppingly beautiful present; that knowing about cows and snake bites and birth and umbilical cords was irrelevant in science class.  She also learned that shorts were wrong and she had gypsy hair and she wasn't funny, wasn't clever, and looked like a mad tramp in her thick socks and muddy boots."

Will finally escapes after an especially distressing incident where a gang of girls force her into a cold bath.  She wanders the streets of London.  It is Winter and she is only wearing shorts.  She spends a night at the zoo, a night in Hyde Park and tries to hide in a corner of Harrods department store.

While at the zoo she has a chance meeting with a young boy.  He shares his Mars bar and gives her half of his comic book.  Later she sees an address scribbled on a corner of this comic.  Perhaps she can at last find somewhere to feel safe and take refuge.

After reading Cartwheels in thunderstorms you might look for Duck for Danger (sadly long out of print), Callie and the Prince (also out of print) and Figgy in the world.

Take a minute to watch this video with Katherine Rundell where she describes her own childhood in Zimbabwe.  You could also read the beautiful speech she gave at the Horn Book awards.

I do need to mention the title - Cartwheeling in thunderstorms.  After her journey, both physical and emotional, Will now accepts that for now she needs to learn how to cartwheel in thunderstorms.

Kirkus have given this book a star!  Here is an extract from their review :

There is an excellent balance of characters both villainous and helpful as readers follow the fiercely independent Will 

through hardship and into triumph. 

They cannot help but dearly love Will and her motto of 

“Truth, ja, and courage.”

Fortune Falls by Jenny Goebel

In Fortune Falls jade costs more than diamonds and so do four-leaf clovers, horseshoes and rabbits' feet.  Birthday wishes should not be wasted and the child care center is called Pot-of-Gold.

Luck - good and bad - this is an elusive thing.  Don't step on a crack, don't walk under a ladder, look for four leaf clovers and of course an apple a day will keep the doctor away.

All of these ideas about staying lucky are included in Fortune Falls and I did enjoy this premise.  The idea that your propensity to good luck or bad luck could determine your future path in life was also a good one but could have been explored in a little more depth especially the final idea - the one that the story had hinted at all along - that we make our own luck by our attitude.

In Fortune Falls every life incident is attributed to luck.  Sadie seems to be plagued by bad luck and her brand of bad luck has been catastrophic for the family perhaps causing the death of her father when is path is crossed by a black cat.

Sadie is about to turn twelve and inauspiciously this will happen on a Friday and yes the date of her birthday is the 13th. When students turn 12 they have to participate in a Spring Luck Test.  This takes them from Undetermined to either Lucky or Unlucky and then determines which school they can attend.

The description of life for Unluckies is quite telling :

"I remembered Dad taking me on a trip downtown ... 'These are the luckless that have given up.' We drove by windows that had been broken out with baseball bats, ... On the streets were people with unkempt hair and beards and expressionless faces.  The worst were those staring off into space as they sat immobile on curbs or behind blowing curtains,"

The actual Spring Luck Test was intriguing.  The school hall is set up with a number of games of chance - a roulette spinner, a dice game and a ball drop game.  You might be able to use this scene with a class and make connections with the maths strand of chance and data.

The Spelling Bee is also a chapter that could be used with a class if you are preparing for a bee at school.  Compare Sadie's words with those given to the lucky but awful Felicia.

dearth gem
debauchery sugar
treacherous lilac
mercurial diary

Fans of books about dogs will also enjoy Fortune Falls.  Sadie has a very special dog :

"Wink makes people feel uncomfortable.  She makes them especially uncomfortable when her missing eye takes them by surprise. I'll be taking Wink for a walk and someone will come up to her at just the right angle, but when she turns to greet the person - her tail wagging so hard it shakes her entire backside - giving whoever it is a full view of her one-eyed, pirate-y face, the stranger usually flips."

Here is a detailed review which includes some of the issues I have raised here.

You might also enjoy A snicker of Magic and Three times lucky.

A few harrowing episodes, including graveyard escapades, a lost dog, skeletal remains, and a near-calamity facing down an oncoming train, help Sadie and readers realize she’s not all that unlucky. 

This girl’s got gumption

Fizz and the Police dog tryouts by Lesley Gibbes illustrated by Steven Michael King

One important section in our school library contains our short chapter books which we call Fast Fiction. These are little books which contain easy to read stories suitable for our students in Grades 1-4 but which also have very satisfying story lines.  I love hunting for new titles to add to this collection.

Fizz and the Police Dog tryouts has all the right ingredients.

1. It is part of a series - we do have the second book Fizz and the Dog Academy rescue and the next two will arrive soon.
2. It has a fast pace and very satisfying story. You will cheer for little Fizz who is trying so hard to become a police dog against all stereotypes.
3. With eight short chapters this book could easily be read in one or two nights and I do enjoy chapters with names - this can be a good way to predict the plot
4. There are illustrations on every page and these add to the fun.  Steven Michael King certainly knows how to capture the personality of a range of dog breeds
5. Fizz is a special little hero who demonstrates determination and problem solving

When you look at the cover of Fizz you might see a resemblance to Mutt Dog also illustrated by Steven Michael King.

Fizz turns up for the tryouts but so do a huge number of other dogs.  One of these is Amadeus, an enormous German Shepherd from the Wolfgang family.  Here is a description of Amadeus.  "His neck was thick and strong, and his massive chest was set between two muscular sloping shoulders.  His dense fur was as black as midnight, and his eyes were cold and cruel."

Here is a description of Fizz "a small cute ball of white, fizzy, fuzzy fur."

Amadeus looks like a police dog but he is a bully. He wants to win at all costs but it is his cheating and mean behaviour that nearly sees him disqualified.  Fizz passes the first two tests - The Bark Test (Amadeus steps on his paw and Fizz screams at just the right moment), and the Scare Test (Fizz uses his anger against Amadeus flashing his teeth and shooting his fluffy hair into wild hackles).

The third test, however, the Chase-and-catch test, proves too much of a challenge for little Fizz but all is not lost.  Fizz is offered a place in the Undercover Dog Division and the stage is now set for book two.