Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff

Have you ever stopped and thought about how important a book title can be?  Pictures of Hollis Woods is the perfect title for this book.  Hollis loves to draw pictures but at the same time she has pictures in her mind of her ideal family and pictures of people she has met, pictures of experiences from the past and imaginings of how these same people might interpret her present circumstances.

Hollis has been abandoned as a tiny baby :
"My name ...,' I began ... 'Hollis Woods is a real place.' I shrugged a little.'Holliswood,' I said. "One word, I think.'  When the old man spoke, I jumped.  'It's where they found you, as a baby?' 'An hour old,' I said in an I-don't-care voice.'No blanket. On a corner. Somewhere.' Didn't a baby deserve a blanket? 'And just a scrap of paper: CALL HER HOLLIS WOODS."

Hollis has lived with a succession of foster families until she comes to live with the Regans.  They seem perfect but then something goes dreadfully wrong and Hollis runs away.  Her next foster home is with Josie - a retired art teacher.  Josie and Hollis form a special bond but Hollis can't stop thinking about Steven and his mum and dad - the true family she left behind.  Then Josie starts to lose her memory and the welfare lady becomes suspicious so it is time to run again.  Taking Josie with her, Hollis seeks refuge in the Regans summer house. She is sure no one with think to look for them there.

Pictures of Hollis Woods is not a new book (2002) but our copy is so worn out I thought I would read it again before purchasing a new edition.  Here are some ideas you could use with students for responding to this book.  I have discovered a television movie was made of this book in 2007. I wonder what it was like?  Here are a set of book talks you could use to promote this terrific book and some teaching ideas.  If you enjoy a sensitive story with a wonderful main character I highly recommend this book.  After reading Pictures of Hollis Woods make sure you look for Dicey's Song.

This touching story will leave readers pleasantly drained, satisfied with the happy ending, and eager for more about Hollis’s future.

The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Henkes

A few weeks ago I watched a video of a literary event in Boston featuring Kevin Henkes talking about his newest book The Year of Billy Miller.  As a part of this hour long event Kevin read the second chapter of his book and I held my breath.  I have been holding my breath all this time waiting for my copy of this special book to arrive.  It came on Friday and last night I sat down and read the whole thing - now I can breathe again.

Kevin Henkes has written my book of the year!  The structure of this book is perfect.  There are five parts and each part has five chapters.  Within each part something happens to young Billy that will make you gasp but then in the careful and skilled hands of Kevin Henkes each disaster or potential disaster is gently resolved.

In part one, Billy is heading off to school for the first day of Grade 2.  He is excited but also filled with awful doubts about his own abilities.  Over the past summer Billy had a bad fall and while unharmed he did score a huge lump on his head. In an unfortunate twist of events Billy overhears his Papa and Mama talking :

"I'm worried about him,' said Mama.
'He's fine,' said Papa.  Everyone said he's fine. And he seems fine. He is fine.'
'You're probably right,' said Mama. "But I worry that down the line something will show up. He'll start forgetting things."

There is a shadow hanging over Billy. He enters his new classroom, meets his new teacher Ms Silver (she is wonderful.  Read this book and find out why I love her) and finds his new seat.  His seat is beside an awful girl called Emma Sparks but Billy is so distracted with worry that he when she says her nick name is Emster he hears Hamster.  This earns him a scowl from Emma and so begins one part of his year where Emma will take every chance to dent Billy's happiness.  The first instance comes shortly after they meet.  Ms Silver has two red chopsticks holding up her hair.  Billy thinks they look cool. When Billy gets mad with Emma he picks up two red markers from his table and holds them above his head staring at Emma with the "meanest expression he could manage".  At that moment Ms Silver walks by.  Billy had intended the markers to look like devil horns but he immediately realises what he has done :

"Ms Silver thought he was making fun of her.  She thought the two red markers were meant to be her two red chopsticks. She thought the ugly face he'd make at Emma was an imitation of her, Ms Silver.  Billy didn't know what to do. What he wanted to do was run and run and run around the playground.  Running always made him feel better.  But he couldn't do that, so, in his journal, he drew a picture of a hamster and wrote: Hamsters small bad."

This is the part of the book that Kevin Henkes read.  I was so worried for Billy.  I wish I could tell you what Billy does to fix his mistake but I can only say read this book.  Actually I am going to say that again.  Read this book.  Every part of this book is brilliant especially the final section entitled Mother.

Kevin Henkes is famous for his picture books like Chrysanthemum, and novels like Junonia.  If you know any of his previous books I am sure you will be able to make links between them.  I am a huge fan of Kevin Henkes and this newest book is such a joy to read.  You could read this book aloud with your family.  When you read the part called Father try to find a copy of Sloppy Kisses by Elizabeth Winthrop - the perfect picture book to accompany this section.  I am so impressed by this book I am going to ask our NSW School Magazine bookshelf editors to include it for 2014.

If you need to read more of the plot here is a review in the New York Times. Here is the Kirkus review. The quote below comes from the SLJ.

To point out that the writing in this book is superb is akin to pointing out that air helps one to breathe. 

It’s obvious. This is Kevin Henkes, after all.

Missing May by Cynthia Rylant and A Taste of Blackberries by Doris Buchanan Smith

At this time of year we start to review our library collection and "weed" out the older books that are beyond repair or have not been borrowed or books that just look too old to appeal to our students.

Our library copies of these two classic books are so old the paper has turned brown so last week I bought them home to re-read before I purchase replacements.

I do remember A taste of Blackberries (1973) as a very sad book but oddly on this re-reading it did not seem quite so sad.  I imagine on my first reading I missed some of the signposts that Doris Buchanan Smith includes that give a hint of Jamie's mortality.  He loves a challenge - especially one that pushes his physical limits into dangerous situations, and he is not scared that the farmer might shoot him for stealing apples.

The idea of collecting Japanese beetles from Mrs Houser's yard seems quite simple but no one could anticipate that bees lived there too or know that Jamie would have such a violent and ultimately deadly reaction.  I did enjoy re-reading A taste of Blackberries but I think the resolution of grief is a little simplistic.  That said, this is an important story and I will buy a new copy for our library.

Missing May (1992) is a better book with the same theme of how we cope with grief.  Summer has lost her parents and after being sent to live with a succession of family members is taken in my May and Ob.

"That first night ... with Ob and May was as close to paradise as I may every come in my life.  Paradise because these two old people - who never dreamed they'd be bringing a little girl back from their visit with the relatives in Ohio - started from the minute we pulled up in Ob's old Valiant, to turn their rusty, falling-down place into a house just meant for a child. ...  I was six years old and I had come home."

Missing May is such a special book. (Newbery winner 1993). Every word is carefully chosen and the insights into Summer herself along with her love and care of Ob are profound.  If you enjoy a sad and thoughtful book Missing May is perfect. You might also enjoy the books in the Silk series and Dicey's Song.  Here are some teacher notes for Missing May.  You might also like to read the Kirkus Review:  A beautifully written, life-affirming book.

The King of the Copper Mountains by Paul Biegel

It really is a coincidence that this next book in my blog is also an old book.  The King of the Copper Mountains was first published in 1965.  It is famous and is even listed in 1001 Children's books you must read before you grow up.  It also won Children's Book of the Year in Holland.

Wikipedia likens this book to the Arabian nights and I agree.  The king is dying.  The wise Wonder Doctor must travel to a distant place to gather a special plant that will restore the King to good health. In the meantime  "The kings heart should beat soundly and evenly once a day."

To achieve this the Wonder Doctor sends a succession of wonderful storytellers to the King. "I only hope there will be enough stories for all the days I'll be away."  And so, under the careful watch of his faithful friend the hare, one by one each evening a different storyteller arrives - a ferocious Wolf, a lovesick Donkey, the fire-breathing, three headed Dragon, a Horse with golden shoes, a Rabbit of the dunes, the Sheep, ten bumble bees, two Mice, a Swallow and a Dwarf.

If you are looking for a set of short stories to read to a class The King of the Copper Mountains would be perfect. The old King is wise and generous, his castle is fabulous and Biegel weaves all these different stories together in a way that made me gasp out loud at the end.  I put this old cover here too - I like it. Do you?

Return to gone-away by Elizabeth Enright

People sometimes ask me about old classic stories read during a childhood in the 1950s or 1960s. Do children today still read these books?  Well the answer is usually no either because the plot line is too slow for the modern child or because the vocabulary is too complex.

Return to gone-away was first published in 1961.  I did not read this book in my childhood but even though it has the traits I listed above - a slow meandering plot and complex vocabulary - this is a terrific book.  I loved the pace, the children, the happiness of their elderly friends and all the complex words.  Here is a description of the old houses :

"To the right lay the broad swamp, shorn by winter of its reeds; to the left stood the old houses in their neglected yards. They were a tatterdemalion lot, with shutters hanging from hinges, font steps skewed crooked, porches sagging."

Having enjoyed a summer adventure at Gone-away lake the family have now bought one of the old houses and over the next summer everyone works hard to make Villa Caprice a home.  As they work together the children strengthen their friendships with their cousin and neighbours and the house itself reveals some wonderful treasures left by the eccentric and extremely wealthy Mrs Brace-Gideon.

This is a warm old fashioned story a little like reading Enid Blyton's famous Five or Secret Seven.  Enright is brilliant at descriptions.  You can see the scene.  Here is a description of the bathroom :

"very large with two high-up diamond-shaped windows, a frieze of mildewed swans above the molding and many pictures on the wall of young ladies wearing pompadours, shirtwaists, and long skirts... The hand-basin made of Delft china, was patterned with blue carnations. Swan-necked faucets drooped above it, and on each side there was a broad slab of marble, veined and gray as Roquefort cheese."

Return to Gone-away is the second book featuring this intriguing setting of an old abandoned town and the lives of the Blake family.  I have not read Gone-away lake (Newbery Honor 1958) but I think this second book easily stands alone. You should read more about the first book here especially after reading Return to Gone-away because this excellent and very detailed review will fill in the gaps for you.  I am excited to also read that Jen Robinson (who is a prolific and famous blogger of children's books) also loves Return to Gone-away.  This book might be one to read aloud as a family each evening.

Portia herself sums up this book when she says : "Sometimes a story can open a world for you: you step into it and forget the real one that you live in.  Evidently this was such a story."

One final thing - I have put a three covers here because I think it is interesting to see how book designs change over time. Our copy is the one at the top.

As simple as it seems by Sarah Weeks

There is nothing really simple about growing up, about exploring your identity, about friendships or about the way we sometimes misinterpret the motivations of others.

Verbena Ellen Cotter was born in New York but has spent her whole life with her mum and dad in a small town called Clydesdale.  Verbena knows the story of her birth - why she was born in New York and the fact that she was only four pounds and seven ounces.  She also knows her family history.  The story of her much loved and respected grandfather Colty who died on the same day she was born and also all about her Uncle Mike who was the family rebel.  Verbena thinks she knows everything but in reality there is a lot to discover.

"Lots of people are adopted.  I know it's not that big a deal.  My birth certificate said that Tom and Ellen Colter were my biological parents, and even though I don't look like either one of them, I had no reason to suspect it wasn't true."

My blogging friend Mr K gave this book four stars out of five and I absolutely agree with this.  Up until the last thirty pages I might have even said five out of five but in the end Sarah Weeks didn't quite allow Verbena to reach out to her mother or to see things from her parents point of view but perhaps this is an unrealistic expectation.  You can read a little of this book here.  Here is a detailed review with more of the plot.

I highly recommend As simple as it seems and after reading this you might like to look for Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff, The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson, Everything on a waffle by Polly Horvath, Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Munoz Ryan or Ida B by Katherine Hannigan.  Another terrific book by Sarah Weeks in our school library is Pie.

Inside out and back again by Thanhha Lai

Poignant, moving, sad, honest, emotional - these are some of the words I would use to describe the verse novel Inside out and back again.

Over the course of a year this book relates, as a diary, the conflict in Vietnam of the 1960s, the journey by Ha's family to the US and her first months adjusting to this new and very foreign life.

Ha is a very smart girl.  In this extract she explains her shopping routine when her mother sends her to the market.

"Last September
she would give me
fifty dong
to buy one hundred grams of pork,
a bunch of water spinach,
five cubes of tofu.

But I told no one
I was buying
ninety-nine grams of pork,
seven-eights of a bunch of spinach,
four and three-quarter cubes of tofu.
Merchants frowned at
Mother's strange instructions.

The money saved
bought
a pound of toasted coconut,
one sugary fried dough,
two crunchy mung bean biscuits."

As a contrast here is a description of Ha's packing.

"Into each pack;
one pair of pants,
one pair of shorts,
three pairs of underwear,
two shirts,
sandals,
toothbrush and paste,
soap,
ten palms of rice grains,
three clumps of cooked rice,
one choice.

I choose my doll,
once lent to a neighbour
who left it outside,
where mice bit 
her left cheek
and right thumb.

I love her more 
for her scars."

This is a brilliant book for mature senior primary students and  a worthy Newbery honor recipient.  After reading this book you might also enjoy Onion Tears by Diana Kidd, Silk Umbrellas by Carolyn Marsden and Almost Forever by Maria Testa.

You can read an extract from this book here.  Here are some lesson plans and teaching resources.  You might like to watch a trailer.

In her not-to-be-missed debut, Lai evokes a distinct time and place and presents a complex, realistic heroine whom readers will recognize, even if they haven’t found themselves in a strange new country.

I have put two covers here because we have the one with the half face here in Australia but I much prefer the US cover below.