Three Strike Summer by Skyler Schrempp

"First the rain stopped falling. Then the wheat stopped growing. Then the dust storms started coming. Then the tractor stopped working, and the jars in the cellar started dwindling, and Pa stopped joking and joshing like the words dried right up in his mouth."

Times are so hard. The have to leave the farm. This is the place where the young child Little Si is buried. Gloria is in such a rage. Everything is so unfair. She picks up a rock and hurls into the window of the bank manager's car!

"Gloria. Mae. Willard. ... I ain't ever been as mad with one of kids as I was today. Never. But I never raised a hand to you, and I'm not about to start. ... I raised you better than to be smashing things up and cussing at your sister and paying no mind whatsoever to your ma, so you knock it right off, hear?"

Gloria is the wild child of the family. She is not afraid to speak up especially about an injustice. One of the biggest of these in her life is that the boys will not take her seriously when she says she wants to play baseball. Gloria knows she is a fine pitcher but those boys won't even give her a chance. 

"She'd been sneaking off whenever they practiced and hanging around the baseball diamond, waiting and hoping they'd give me a chance."

And now they have to leave their farm and Gloria will have to find a new team and start all over again to try to convince these new kids that she sure is a real fine player. What will happen on this new farm in California? The family, and all farm workers, are treated so badly by the farm manager. Picking peaches is hard, hard work. And there are so many rules. Things were bad before but now they seem way worse. At every turn the family debits are rising. But for Gloria there is one glimpse of happiness - she manages to talk her way in the boy's gang and their baseball team and there is a big game lined up with kids on the next farm. Surely, with Gloria on their team, her gang will win. And somehow this will also make things fairer for her folks and for the other workers. All of this will mean breaking the rules and keeping secrets from the adults but Gloria is so determined to win and also to expose the corruption she has witnessed among the farm bosses. 

"When you don't fight for what you deserve, the world just digs its heel into you little bit more. If you don't speak up for yourself, probably no one else will ... "

Three Strike Summer is a punchy, inspiring historical middle grade book about family, baseball, and life on farms during the Great Depression. Featuring a spunky female protagonist who won’t take no for an answer, this book explores a wide range of themes from gender inequality to poor worker compensation and dealing with death and grief. Reading Middle Grade

This is one of those books that I just 'gobbled up'. I read it as an ebook during my recent trip. I love the way Skyler Schrempp describes the door knocking pattern - "a shave and a haircut, two bits". This book will also give readers a wonderful insight into life during the Great Depression and the beginnings of workers unions, worker saftey and workers rights. Listen to an audio sample read by the author. Here is the web page for Skyler Schrempp. 

I cheered when I read the review by Betsy Bird:

Three Strike Summer? The pun in the name is the name of the game. This here’s a baseball book, loud and proud. You’re fairly sure of the fact when, in Chapter One, Glo uses her golden pitching arm to nail a rock through that car window of the bank man repossessing their house. ... I don’t know it for a fact, but suspect a person wholly unaware of the rules of the game would still get swept up in Schrempp’s storytelling. ... For me, one of the best parts of the book was an almost off-handed comment from Glo’s ma late in the story. At the beginning of the book Glo is furious and baffled by her mother’s willingness to just pick up and leave the family farm without so much as a blink. When at last Glo is able to ask her about it, almost at the end of the book, her ma says honestly, “Aw, Gloria… You couldn’t have paid me a million dollars to keep on living in a house that my baby died in.” Glo’s little brother died, probably because of the Dust Bowl, in that home. It’s so simple and so human and so understandable. Plus, I love children’s books where kids get this sudden clarifying instant where they can see everything adults have to go through and try to hide.

Narrated by Gloria in a conversational tone that brings the setting to life, readers feel her grief, outrage, and gritty determination. Descriptions of the Dust Bowl years and hardscrabble life in the camps are searing, and Gloria matures as she learns about others’ struggles. While she organizes a ballgame, Pa organizes the peach orchard workers to strike for better conditions only to be betrayed. Pa is in danger of being clobbered by police until Gloria and her teammates intervene, illustrating the importance of hope, honor, and team spirit in combating hardship. An informative author’s note explains the historical context, including the reasons behind the all-White communities Gloria inhabits. Kirkus Star review

Here are some text quotes to give you a flavour of this writing:

"I knew that bank man was coming. I knew what he was there for. And I knew what would happen when he was done with us."

"He had taken the bank man outside so we didn't have to hear him beg."

"I wanted to belong somewhere, even if it wasn't Oklahoma. I wanted to be someone people listened to, even if I was loud sometimes and maybe said the wrong thing once in a while. ... And I wanted to play ball for real, not just by myself, knocking old apples out of a tree with a creek tone, or watching everyone else play. I wanted to be on a team."

"I missed her biscuits. I missed her breads. I missed her green beans ... I missed smoky bacon and golden, runny egg yolks. I missed her blackberry jams, dark and sweet enough to keep a smile on your face all night. And fritters fried."

"Anyone congregating in groups at any time of day will be personally escorted off the property. We employ good, decent folks here, not lazy sons of guns, not rabble-rousers, not Reds."

"Meanness is funny like that. The bigger you get the smaller, they have to make you feel."

"I just wat there trying not to see Davey falling again and again. Kicking myself for telling him to go up that ladder in the first place. Downright dumb. Downright selfish."

Companion books:

Read more here

Someplace to call Home

Echo Mountain

Long Road to the Circus by Betsy Bird illustrated by David Small

 

"I'll do it,' I just repeated, then turned to him with a smile, 'I'll ride your darned ostrich."

Suzy Bowles wants her life to be exciting. She has no plan to stay in this tiny rural town any longer than she has to so when her uncle arrives and then heads off each day to an unknown destination, Suzy just has to follow along.

"Following Uncle Fred was probably the most exciting thing I'd done in my whole life, and I was only doing it because I could already see what a dang-blasted boring summer I was doomed to have."

Her discovery is amazing. Uncle Fred is working for a larger than life lady named Madame Maranette. Of all the possible things she might have seen you would never have expected ostriches (but of course you have seen the cover of this book!). Madame has a plan to make a world record by using one ostrich and one horse to pull her carriage at the St Joseph's County Fair parade. Over the next few months Uncle Fred has the task of training this crazy ostrich named Gaucho.

Suzy can see an opportunity here so huge it practically knocks her off her feet. IF she can ride this ostrich then someone might notice her and heck she might be asked to join the circus and thus escape Burr Oak.

I have had this book on my to-read list ever since I saw that the super talented librarian and blogger and podcaster Betsy Bird had written a NOVEL!! Here in Australia the hardcover edition of this book costs over AUS$35 and the paperback won't arrive until August SO when I was planning a trip away from home I decided to buy some ebook editions of books on my wish list and that meant I could include this one.

There are some wonderful descriptions in this book of the characters (teachers take note):

Madame - "Her perfectly coiffed hair was up, a sheer blinding white from root to tip, capped off with an enormous hat sporting what had to be an ostrich plume. She wore a velvet dress and jacket that suited her stature and poise. Her back was ramrod straight, giving her an imperious gaze ... "

I kept track of some of the delicious words used in this book - I think they might give you an insight into the flavour of this writing - the whole book has such a distinct voice:

no-good stinking brother; cool clear salve; ignoring my petulance; he stopped caterwauling; what the heck had distracted him from my vengeance; think twice about being a hooligan; complete and utter bafflement; esoteric knowledge; lessons on comportment; an ornery personality; patience for the rigmarole; flaunting my hijinks; corvid gleam; direst of circumstances.

You can read a generous book extract here.

Betsy Bird is a librarian - I love her descriptions of the librarians in her book, the enthusiasm of the library staff and even the temperature when you enter a library on a hot day:

"the temperature turned from light broil to a mere chill in just a few steps past the doorframe."

I highly recommend Long Road to the Circus.  Pop it on your book wish list now. It would be a terrific book to read aloud in a classroom or a family and as a bonus some of it is TRUE!

Here is a long interview with Betsy talking about her book and you can see some of the illustrations too. She also imparts heaps of wisdom about libraries.

A wonderful character piece. Kirkus

Paper Son by Julie Leung illustrated by Chris Sasaki

 

Full title: Paper Son: The inspiring story of Tyrus Wong, immigrant and artist.

Take a look at these images from Bambi (Disney films).

"Bambi became a groundbreaking film. Audiences and critics gushed about the art - how it communicated so much by showing so little, how you could almost smell the mossy green of the woods and hear the rushing water of the brook. But in the end, Tyrus was credited only as a background artist."

One of my most favourite discoveries in recent years is the wealth of picture book biographies for young readers. Yes, they are written about famous and familiar people but the best ones allow readers to discover someone unknown.  I knew nothing about the art in Bambi or the artist who did this fabulous work. 

Tyrus Wong travelled to America from China when he was just nine years old. Tyrus arrived in the US at the time of a Federal law called the Chinese Exclusion Act. Tyrus had to change his name and memorise the contents of his forged identity papers. His real name was Wong Geng Yeo but he became Look Tai Yow and then later when he started school in Sacramento he was given a new name - Tyrus Wong. Tyrus excelled at art and so his father, who worked in very lowly jobs, saved enough money to send Tyrus to the Otis art institute. Tyrus did not abandon his Chinese heritage. He studied art from the Song Dynasty and he learned "mountains could look in the distance with a few jagged lines." 

Tyrus eventually found a job at the Disney studio but he worked as an in-betweener which meant the tedious painting of the same scene over and over with only tiny changes. Tyrus heard the studio were making Bambi and he saw a wonderful opportunity. He painted soft watercolour landscape scenes. Walt Disney loved them. Sadly Tyrus was not credited for his work but he never stopped painting - ceramics, silk scarves, murals and menus. He died in 2016 aged 106! In his later years he loved to make kites and you can see images of bright kits on the end papers of this book. Read more here. 

Here is a splendid video of the whole book. I was happy to see this presenter included the end papers and beautiful title page. This book was the winner of the American Library Association's 2021 Asian/Pacific American Award for Best Picture Book! Chris Sasaki is the perfect illustrator for this book. Here are some other books by Julie Leung.

I found another picture book about Tyrus:

The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt

This book is "just swell"

Holling Hoodhood has Mrs Baker as his English teacher. He is sure she hates him - that's HATES with all capital letters. This situation is made worse by the fact that Holling has to spend every Wednesday afternoon with Mrs Baker and more importantly Mrs Baker has to spend every Wednesday afternoon with Holling - she calls him Mr Hoodhood - and this is all because he happens to be Presbyterian.

On Wednesdays half the class go to Temple Beth-El for Hebrew school and the other half to Saint Adelbert's for Catechism.  Holling gets to stay at school with Mrs Baker. Yes every Wednesday for the whole year.

After a few weeks of cleaning the classroom and the blackboard dusters (it is 1968) and a small disaster with the class rats -  Mrs Baker decides Holling will read Shakespeare plays and answer quiz questions (there are 150 of them each time). What Mrs Baker perhaps does not expect is that Holling loves this. He is an intelligent boy and he is well read. We know has has read Treasure Island four times, Kidnapped twice and The Call of the Wild. Reading the plays adds a whole new dimension of enjoyment for Holling. He particularly enjoys the language of Shakespeare especially the insults. He even scores a part in the local amateur production wearing yellow tights and feathers.

There is a lot going on the Holling. His dad is just awful. He is an ambitious man who wants to win every architect contract in the town. He has no time for his son. His mother just seems ineffectual and, can I say, simpering.  Then we have the cast of school bullies especially Doug Swieteck and his brother.

Characters
Mr Guareschi Principal
"Mr Guareschi's long ambition had been to become dictator of a small country. Danny Hupfer said that he had been waiting for the CIA to get rid of Fidel Castro and then send him down to Cuba, which Mr Guareschi would then rename Guareschiland."

Mrs Baker Teacher
She seems to only focus on the lessons but underneath a lot is going on for her especially in relation to her son who has been deployed to Vietnam.

Meryl Lee Kowalski Student
Her dad runs the other architect firm in town. Her relationship and friendship with Holling slowly develops - it is a beautiful thing to watch.

Mai Thi Student originally from Vietnam

Danny Hupfer Student
I wish he was my friend. The scene when he insults the famous baseball player after this guy insults Holling is just splendid.

Rats Sycorax and Caliban (from The Tempest)
The parts in this story about the rats are not for the faint hearted - you have been warned.

Coach Quatrini
Favourite expression "At tempo".

Mrs Bigio School Cook
When you read the final scenes in this book you will understand why, for me, Mrs Bigio is a true hero. And it is the actions of Mrs Bigio when she makes nuoc mau for the class and for Mai Thi that made me cry.

Heather Holling's sister
Her voice in this story is so important as a way to understand the complex politics of this time.

Laughs
The names of the school textbooks - English for you and me; Mathematics for you and me; Geography for you and me.
The English concepts taught by Mrs Baker - diagramming sentences such as "He kicked the round ball into the goal." "The girl walked home." 

And this one for Holling - "For it so falls out, that we have we prize not to the worth whiles we enjoy it; but being lacked and lost, why, then we rack the value, then we find the virtue that passion would not show us while it was ours."

"No native speaker of the English language could diagram this sentence.  The guy who wrote it couldn't diagram this sentence. ... 'If you had been listening to my instructions, you should have been able to do this,' said Mrs Baker, which is sort of like saying that if you've ever flicked on a light switch, you should be able to build an atomic reactor."

Atomic Bomb Awareness Month
"We stayed under our desks for eighteen minutes, until the wind would have whisked away the first waves of airborne radioactive particles, and the blast of burning air would have passed overhead ... and every living thing would have been incinerated except for us because we were scrunched under our gummy desks with our hands over our heads, breathing quietly and evenly."

This book has it all!  I laughed, I nearly cried, I marveled at the references to Shakespeare and US History, I cheered when things went the right way for Holling and I cringed (big time) when things went horribly wrong for Holling. If I knew him in person I'm sure I would reach out and give him a big hug of reassurance. Boy oh boy life has thrown some hideous curve balls at this kid.  Read this part again and then marvel at the fact that I am an adult, woman, in Australia, with absolutely no knowledge of baseball. I am not a American adolescent and yet  I loved this book so so so much! I'm visiting some adult readers this week and I would love them to read this book so I think The Wednesday Wars will appeal to readers 12+ and to all adults.

At its heart this is a book about relationships. Every relationship is special in this story but the best one in my view is the one between Holling and Mrs Baker.

The Wednesday Wars was a Newbery Honor book in 2008. It is considered an American classic so it is in print. I read my copy as an ebook. Please take a few minutes now to read this review by Betsy Bird - her words are far more eloquent than mine.

Holling navigates the multitudinous snares set for seventh-graders—parental expectations, sisters, bullies, girls—with wry wit and the knowledge that the world will always be a step or two ahead of him. Schmidt has a way of getting to the emotional heart of every scene without overstatement, allowing the reader and Holling to understand the great truths swirling around them on their own terms. Kirkus Star Review

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

She cannot chain my soul.

We have had Chains in our library for over a year but oddly I kept bringing home the sequel.  As is my usual pattern I thought I might read a chapter or two before bed.  At 3am I was still reading and by 11am the next day (after a little sleep) I finished this breathtaking book.  I don't give ratings but this is a ten out of ten book.  I can hardly wait to read the rest of the trilogy.

Before you read my thoughts about Chains click on this podcast and listen to the first section where four US students talk about their reactions to this book and you can also hear from the author.

Coming from Australia I am largely ignorant about the American revolutionary war of 1776 and I knew nothing about the events in New York city.  Thanks to Laurie Anderson I not only feel I know a lot more but I feel as though I have truly been transported back in time as a witness. More importantly I have 'walked in the shoes' of a slave gaining a little insight into these events from her point of view.  Laurie Anderson is able to touch every sense with her writing.  I could hear, see and even smell every scene.

Isabel and her very young sister Ruth are slaves.  Their mistress dies and the pair are sold to a couple from New York City.  The wife, Mrs Lockton, is a cruel mistress.  The scene where they are taken from Newport is heart wrenching. Isabel must leave her dead mother behind knowing she cannot follow :

"Momma said that ghosts couldn't move over water.  That's why kidnapped Africans got trapped in the Americas. ... All of Momma's people had been stolen too, and taken to Jamaica where she was born. Then she got sold to Rhode Island, and the ghosts of her parents couldn't follow and protect her"

You can listen to a little of the first chapter here.  You can read more details of the plot here.  The author web site has excellent teaching notes.

Isabel is made to work so hard in the Lockton house but she makes one very important friend.  A young boy named Curzon.  He never gives up on Isabel and when events conspire against him, Isabel shows her own deep loyalty.  Both have been lied to and double crossed but they will find freedom.

Here is a scene where Isabel has been sent to fetch water.

"The cut on my left hand pained me too much to use it, and my right hand was not big enough, I journeyed in a crow-hop fashion - carrying one bucket for twenty strides, setting it down, then returning to fetch the second bucket and carrying it forward to meet its partner.  ... Curzon joined me. He would not look at me.  Didn't say a word, neither. He simply carried the buckets to the Locktons' gate for me, then walked away."

Chains is at times quite a violent book and so I would recommend it for experienced readers aged 11+ and all adults.  There is a harrowing scene where Isabel is branded, she is regularly beaten and her visits to the prison are filled with threats and horror.  On the other hand it is clear so much research has gone into this carefully crafted book. I loved all the little domestic details such as the opulent dinner given when the British arrive.

"The cook had prepared enough to feed a battalion : pheasant stuffed with figs, stewed oysters, potted larks, greens cooked with bacon, pickled watermelon rind, and buttered parsnips."

"... the dessert tray - rice pudding, lemon biscuits, two creamed pear tarts, and an iced cake"

Here is a review from the School library Journal - well worth reading.  Click the links at the bottom of this post to read two more reviews.

Chains disproves the notion that a children’s book written for the middle reader set can’t have complexity and interesting characters. Best of all, it’s a great read.

This is a lovely novel - about big issues and big stories, but never losing its focus on individual people. Isabel is a captivating central character, treated abominably and reaching depths of sadness today's children are unlikely to ever experience, but she never loses her spirit. She's enslaved in every possible way, but never stops being her own impulsive and sometimes hot-tempered self, and somehow ... she manages acts of kindness and generosity that are utterly heroic.

... as with all great books, this is more than just a 

well-told story. It’s a wonderfully crafted novel.

Stella by Starlight by Sharon M Draper

"Red fire. Black cross. White hoods. They're here. Now,' ... It was 1932, in the little town ... Every negro family in Bumblebee knew the unwritten rules."

I love the name Bumblebee North Carolina - there is no such town but I felt compelled to check - when you read Stella by Starlight you will feel as though you have visited this small community in 1932 so vivid is the writing of Sharon M Draper.

Every aspect of Stella's life is affected by the racial discrimination of this time.  There is only one African American doctor for example.  Tony, the son of Dr Hawkins, observers : "It's hard to live like there's a boot in your back every second of your life." The white doctor even has a sign on his door WHITE PATIENTS ONLY.  When Stella's mother, Georgia, is bitten by a snake he refuses to help and Stella's mother almost dies.  These are scenes towards the end of the book and I actually had to stop reading because I was so afraid for Stella's precious mum.

Stella loves to read and wants to write but feels she lacks the skill.  Another unfair aspect of life in 1932, Stella is not allowed to visit the public library but she does have writing all over her house.  Her mother papers the walls with newspaper articles.  Her father reads three newspapers each day "Gotta know what's goin' on in the world,' he reminded Stella when she'd ask why one paper wasn't enough." But Stella is an observant child and she notices "colored people were rarely mentioned in those ... newspapers."  When she and a friend look through the Sears and Roebuck catalog she says "Did you notice - I don't see eve one single person who looks like us in this big old book."

Apart from the horror of the Klan and the extreme fear felt by the citizens of color in this community another aspect of this book relates to rights and in particular the right to vote.  If you are working on a unit about democracy you might like to use chapter 22.  Three men from the town, including Stella's father, travel to Amherst to register to vote.  Stella goes along with them.  The men are ridiculed by the town official and then told to take a fifteen minute written test. They even have to pay for this privilege.  Meanwhile some white men walk into the same office and all that is required a simple signature on a form.  Stella is enraged. Then the men from Bumblebee are told to come back in a week.

"Mr Spencer sat down on the floor. After a moment, Stella's father and Pastor Patton joined him." They sit on the floor of the office until their test is graded.  The consequence of this action is truly awful - the Klan burn down the Spencer home and endanger their thirteen children.  You will cheer, though, when you read how the whole town including some of the white citizens unite to assist the family.  Stella is called a hero when finds six year old Hazel who has run away in fear and the Spencer's give her a typewriter which came with the donations given to the family after the fire. Using a typewriter gives Stella the motivation to keep working on her writing.

All through this book we see Stella's writing progress but she is full of self doubt. I love the words of encouragement from Stella's mother :

"I'm a dunce?' Stella said, fear clutching her chest.
'Quite the opposite. You are an amazing thinker - a gemstone hiding inside a rock."

Stella is a very talented writer.  Here are some samples from her work :

"I've got thick black hair, and bushy caterpillar-looking eyebrows. When I look in the mirror, I don't see pretty, I just see me."

"At the mill ... they take sawdust and turn that into paper. Those big old trees become books and notebooks and newspapers. Dust becomes words. I like that."

"My papa voted. He is a pebble. Lots of pebbles make a landslide, right? His vote counted."


Watch this video where Sharon explains her family inspiration for this important story which is a snapshot of history.  Click here to listen to an audio sample from Chapter 17.  Here is a thoughtful review which will give you more plot details.  The author web site will give you further insight into this important and award winning book.  Here are a set of teaching notes.  If I have not convinced you that Stella by Starlight is a special and important book - read this review from the Nerdy Book Club - now!!

After or even before reading Stella by Starlight I recommend you read the picture book Goin' someplace special by Patricia McKissack and the novels Kissy Ann Stamps, Mississippi bridge by Mildred D Taylor and Walking to the bus rider blues by Harriet Robinet.

Stella by Starlight is not at all like Sharon's earlier book Out of my mind but you will want to read this one too I am sure. It was one of my top books this year.

Draper expertly creates a character filled with hope, dreams and ambition in a time when such traits were 

dangerous for a girl of color.