Pearl verses the world by Sally Murphy

Here is another one of those incredibly sad books about the pending death of an aged grandparent. We had a similar theme in Don’t breathe a word and Layla, Queen of Hearts.

Pearl versus the world is a verse novel – this is a format I love to read and so admire. That an author can say so much using such precise words - to me a good verse novel is like very fine embroidery. (See my other blog entries about Sharon Creech and Amy Hest).

Pearl lives in a family of just three people- herself, her mum and her grandmother. Granny is coming to end of her life and this slow deterioration is witnessed by Pearl. Each day the teacher asks the children to write rhyming poetry but Pearl’s world contains no rhyme or rhythm. Pearl is a great writer she just doesn’t fit into these narrow constraints set by her teacher. “There is no rhythm in me. There is no rhythm in my life.”

As Pearl reads her special poem at the funeral I found myself in floods of tears.

She loved mum
And she loved me.
She wasn’t here
For long enough
But I am glad
That she
Was here
At all.

There are some lovely words of wisdom in this book.

Everyday the princess say at her window
Waiting to be rescued by a handsome prince.
I wonder if the prince was as handsome
As Mitchell Mason
He is very handsome
Even though he is not a prince
Just a boy in my class
But I wonder
Why does the prince need to be handsome? I wonder if all princes
Are supposed to be handsome.

And this one :

There is no nicer noise
Than the sound of the bell
At the end of the day.

There are also some salient words for teachers and teacher-librarians in this story. I felt so distressed when Pearl was unable to find a library book in her allocated time. She doesn’t want trucks, trains or transport, and she doesn’t want horses, houses or hyenas. She needs a book to support her through this time of pain and confusion but there is no time to find one.

Pearl verses the world is another title in our Children's Book of the Year competition for 2010. It is good to see a verse novel short listed and I hope it receives an award in August.

When you reach me by Rebecca Stead

I think this book, When you Reach Me, needs a large sticker in the middle of the front cover as a warning. Before reading this book make sure you have already read A Wrinkle in time by Madeline L’Engle.

People always talk with great fondness when they mention the book A Wrinkle in time and it is one of those books, I was quite sure I had read as a young child but now I am not so sure. When you reach me by Rebecca Stead (A Wrinkle in time is her all-time favourite book or so it says in the acknowledgements) is interlaced with a recount of the plot from A Wrinkle in time so now I find I need to read that book in order to make some sense of this new one. All of that to one side this is certainly a book that I just gobbled up in one reading, I read the first 75 pages without drawing breath and it is a book that I know will linger with me for a long time. I also find, after reading it, that it is the 2010 winner of the Newbery Medal!

Miranda lives in New York, a city filled with decaying apartment buildings, dangerous gangs of youth and seriously ill homeless people who inhabit the streets.

Miranda begins to find small cryptic notes in unexpected places – inside an unread library book about squirrels, deep inside a huge bag of bread rolls which Miranda counts each day as part of her job at Jimmy’s and in her winter coat pocket. As the months move on Miranda learns some hard lessons about friendship and about herself. Sal, her best friend from early childhood appears to shun her but she finds a new friends in Colin and Annemarie. All these kids along with Julia - her arch enemy - have special things to show Miranda about life.

The key to this story is the idea that time is just a construct. “Time isn’t a line stretching out in front of us, going in one direction. It’s – well, time is just a construct actually.” These wise words come from Marcus a boy with the most serious life lessons to share.

On a happy note, I really enjoyed the characters in this book especially the school secretary fondly called Wheelie. Also, Rebecca Stead gives you a great sense of place with her descriptions of Miranda’s apartment with the peeling paint, water stains and cigarette burns on the lounge. To understand more about this book read the review in School Library Journal by Elizabeth Bird. On only one point I disagree - I love the cover although ours is slightly different from the American one I have put here in my blog. If you look closely all the clues from the story are there – the key, the coat, letter box and shoe.


This book reminded me of Looking for X by Deborah Ellis. I highly recommend When you reach me for thoughtful readers who like realism, or Science Fiction or perhaps just readers who are looking for a book that makes you think about life and more.

Matty Forever by Elizabeth Fensham

“How are your parents” seems like such an innocent question but by page 87 we readers know more than Bill our hero – we know Mrs Farquay-Jones really does want her little girl Isabelle to be friends with a ‘nice boy’. When the truth comes out on page 123 it will leave you breathless.

Bill has moved to a new school and a new neighbourhood with his mum. His dad is not around and Bill is missing him. Then he discovers the girl next door - Matty and she becomes his true friend along with her lovely eccentric family (a beautiful family like the ones we visited in the Kingdom of Silk). Bill passes four very difficult tests of endurance and courage and then joins Matty's gang (of two). Together these two young friends create a very special relationship enjoying simple and fun things like using an old bath tub as a pool after a long hot day at school or painting the wall in Matty's house with a huge circus scene and of course enjoying delicious food on every occasion. They also share their most important secrets. Then one day Isabelle arrives and right from the start we know she is going to spoil EVERYTHING!!

This book is so reminiscent of one of my all time favourite picture book A friend like Ed. Once again we have an attempt at a three way friendship which is doomed by jealousy. Isabelle is a lot like Alison on Hating Alison Ashley even down to the fabulous set of highlighters, felt pens, coloured pencils, erasers and special biros that come in “a presentation case about the size and width of a large picture book, with a lock on the side that could only be opened with a secret code. .. she explained to everyone that her mother would not let her share her things because they had cost a fortune.” Isabelle even has beautiful hair like Alison Ashley. The lovely community and the way these kids bring everyone together also reminded me of Hazel Green. Finally Matty Forever reminds me of Tiger Rising, which is another special favourite of mine, especially the part where Bill needs a suitcase to hold his sorrows.

I enjoyed this book so much I started this blog entry while still reading it. My only hesitations, and they are small ones, would be Matty and Bill seem older than eight and half and nine. I am not sure a nine year old boy would notice a girl's hair - "a cascade of waving fire-gold hair" nor do I think a nine year old boy would ask to kiss a girl, not even one who was his best friend but Fensham writes this final scene so beautifully perhaps I can believe in the kiss!

I highly recommend this book and await the results of the Children's Book of the Year awards in August.

Robot Riot by Andy Griffiths

On pages 48 and 49 of Robot Riot Andy Griffiths has the top ten list of things you should never do to a book as written by Mr Shush the Teacher-Librarian at Northwest Southeast Central School. I first met the wonderful (highly stereotyped) Mr Shush in Pencil of Doom. Robot Riot is the fourth book in this funny Schooling around series.

My Favourites on the top ten list are :

Never lick the print off a book, no matter how good it tastes
Never put a book in a fish tank even if it is a book about fish
Never attach wheels to a book and use it as a skate board
And never attach two ropes to a book and attach one end of each rope to a horse and then move the horses away from each other until the rope tightens and the book is ripped apart!!

There is a new kid at school and our hero Henry McThrottle is immediately suspicious. She seems to be too good at everything including art and Henry's speciality - writing. Now all Henry has to do is convince his friends, especially Jenny Friendly, that Roberta is not to be trusted!

I did enjoy Pencil of Doom more than Robot Riot but there were some funny moments. I kept hoping Roberta really was ….. whoops I won’t give it all away. I do enjoy stories about Robots. Eager and Eager's Nephew by Helen Fox are two books on my top 50 all time favourites list and I really enjoy reading Parker Hamilton a short story by Robin Klein in her anthology Ratbags and Rascals.

I wonder if Northwest Southeast Central School will win the tidy school competition perhaps we will find out in the next exciting installment. If you want a quick, funny book with heaps of characters, kids and teachers, that you recognise from your school then pick up a copy of this book today.

Mike's Magic seeds by Alexander McCall Smith

"Red seeds,' it said. Plant these on a Wednesday. Blue seeds: plant these on Tuesdays or Thursdays. White seeds: never plant these on any day but a Friday.' And then, just under these instructions, a warning was printed in red:

DON'T TELL ANYBODY! KEEP IT TO YOURSELF!"

Mike’s Magic seeds is an absolutely perfect book for young readers. It has all the right elements of magic, friends, jealousy, betrayal and lollies! 

Mike is walking past the shops one day on the way to school and he sees a closing down sale on a little shop he has never seen before. Feeling curious and with a few coins in his pocket he goes inside. The shop keeper is a grumpy man who seems to trick Mike into buying, of all things, a pain paper packet of seeds. At home Mike reluctantly looks more closely at this packet and he discovers some very odd instructions about planting certain seeds on certain days. Since it is a Friday he plants, as instructed, the white seed. This is the first time Mike has ever done any gardening and he feels a little thrill of anticipation wondering what will grow. 

The actual plant is such a surprise for Mike and for the lucky reader. The sweets you see on the cover of this book are slightly foreign for our Aussie kids but I just tell my listeners to imagine their personal favourites. Actually when I read this book I hide the cover because it gives away the surprise of plants that grow sweets.

The sweets on the trees are mostly unknown here in Australia - marzipan, sugared almonds, chocolate flake (we all know this one) and fig rolls. The only fig rolls we could discover were actually biscuits. Some years ago my Grade 3 classes wrote to Alexander McCall Smith telling him how much we loved this book. We also asked about the fig rolls. Alexander wrote a very warm letter as a reply and he sent our school library a couple of free books which was very exciting but alas he did not solve the mystery of those fig rolls.

Image Source: Yippie Chef

The lessons along the way about patience and more importantly about true friendship make this book an important reading experience. Right from the start we know Mike should not trust Angela! Once again this lovely little book is sadly out of print but I would say if you come across a copy grab it with both hands and don’t let go. This little book is one of my favourites to read aloud. I read it every year to groups of children from 1988 until 2017. Yes this is the Alexander McCall Smith who has lots of famous adult fiction too.

One aspect of this book that I truly adore when you read it aloud is the way Alexander McCall Smith tells the reader there is more to come.

"That could be the end of the story of Mike and the magic seeds, but it wasn't"

"And that, again could have been the end of the story of Mike and the magic seeds. Once again, though, it wasn't."

I would follow this book or pair this book with The Lollipop Tree:

35 Kilos of Hope by Anna Gavalda

I always recommend 35 kilos of Hope by Anna Gavalda to boys in senior grades who are reluctant readers. Not because it is a book of slap stick humour that will give them heaps of laughs but because it is a truly sensitive story that might get them thinking and it is presented in a very easy to read format. The print size in this book is perfect for boys and there is heaps of white space so as you read the pages just fly by plus there are only 110 pages so this should be a quick read. With all this in mind I recently gave this special little book to a Year 5 boy. He returned about 2 weeks later and told me this story was so powerful. It really affected him emotionally! This might even be the first complete book this boy has read!! Yippee! In 35 kilos of Hope (named 95 Pounds of Hope in US!!) we meet our hero Gregory just as he is about to begin school. He attends for the first morning, comes home for lunch and then it is time to go back. “No. I’m not going … Because I’ve already been. I’ve seen what it’s like, and it’s not interesting.” Unfortunately, as we know, Gregory will have to attend school, at least until he is fifteen. School is torture for our narrator. He finds the work impossible, his days leave his stomach in knots and PE is terrifying. Gregory does have abilities – special abilities with his hands but these are rarely used or recognized at school and so inevitably he is expelled. He has three years of school still to endure. The only place open to him seems to be boarding school so Gregory writes a letter. Dear Sir, I would like to go to your college but I know that it is impossible because my school record is too bad. In your brochure, I noticed that you have workshops for mechanics and carpentry. You also have computer labs and greenhouses etc. Personally, I think that good marks are not all there is to life. Motivation is just as important. I would like to go to Granfield because I’m sure I would be happy there. At least I think so. I am not very big : I weigh about 35 kilos of hope. Goodbye Gregory Murray. PS This is the first time I have ever begged someone to let me go to school. I think I must be ill. PPS I am sending you the plans of a banana peeler that I built when I was seven. The one place where Gregory feels happy is with his Grandad Leo working in his shed. Grandad knows all the special qualities and abilities of Gregory but will this be enough to save him? Soon I will be talking to some important people about books in translation that have influenced me. I have a big dilemma – 35 Kilos of Hope was originally written in French, Momo was written in German and my other choice Rose Blanche is an Italian book. Which will I choose? Make sure you take a look at the back cover of 35 Kilos of Hope it is fabulous!

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

There are times when reading feels like an addiction and a book like Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief is a great way to feed that addiction. I seemed to have missed the movie but I was sure we had this book in our school library so when it was returned last week I quickly grabbed it ready to read.

I sat down thinking, you’ve heard me say this before, I would just read a few pages or perhaps the first chapter to see what this book was like. I didn’t lift my head for 72 pages! In fact I had to speak sternly and order myself to turn off the light – after all it was a school night.

Now for the addiction part - it has been a rather busy week and I just didn’t have a few continuous hours to sit and read Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief so I had to snatch time when ever I could. This included reading chapters over breakfast and wishing I could just stay home for the day and keep reading.

Finally last night I finished Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief and I am now desperate for the sequels. Percy, or Perseus, is a half-blood but not like the ones in Harry Potter, these half bloods are the offspring of the Gods. Gods like Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, Ares, Apollo, Hermes, Dionysus, Aphrodite, Demeter, Hephaestus, Dionysus and Hades.

Percy doesn’t know he is a half-blood but the signs are obvious to those who can recognize them.

As Annabeth explains : “You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t one of us … I bet you moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them…. Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD… that’s because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek. And the ADHD – you’re impulsive, can’t sit still in the classroom. That’s your battlefield reflexes.”

Someone has stolen a lightning bolt from Zeus and the gods are preparing for War. On earth this will be World War III. Percy our hero is really Perseus, the son of Poseidon and he must go on a quest to find the lightning bolt. Zeus blames Poseidon for the theft but others think it is the work of Hades who wants to increase his power. Before embarking on the quest Percy has an audience with the Oracle… you will go West, and face the god who has turned, you shall find what was stolen and see it safely returned, you shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend, and you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end. This is all very heavy stuff.

Percy, Annabeth and Grover (a Satyr and Percy’s best friend) do indeed need to travel to the West. I almost reached for an atlas to plot their journey across American from New York to Los Angeles and back again.

Very early in the story Percy fights a Minotaur and later he meets the Furies, Medusa, and three women cutting threads – the Fates.

I first fell in love with these figures of mythology after reading The god Beneath the Sea by Leon Garfield and Edward Blishen.

Reading Percy Jackson and the Lightning thief will give readers a terrific introduction to all these wonderful, horrifying, magical and powerful figures. If you have finished with Beast Quest and are ready to try a much longer novel (374 pages) get your hands on Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief I highly recommend it.

Check out the web site for the series it is amazing. You can even listen to parts of the books. The author also has a great site. For teachers here are some discussion questions - you could build a whole term of work around this novel by making an in depth study of Greek mythology. The Scholastic edition, Puffin edition and the one on the author web site all have such different covers - ours is in this blog.