Try iMovie or WeVideo For Your Next Book Report

Hokey Pokey by Jerry Spinelli

There are many words to describe Jack He's smart, friendly, a leader, and a roll model for kids of all ages in the neighborhood.  In fact Jack might be considered a legend. Don't legends have to be gone in some way? Well, Jack is not gone, but something is happening to Jack. Jack feels it.  Everybody senses it, and some are afraid.  Jack and his friends try to make sense of what is happening. In fact, it is happening to all of them, and they can't seem to stop it.  They've heard about it.  There has been rumors.  How are these kids going to stop the mysterious developments that will eventually take them from the life they love so much?

I think this is one book of Jerry Spinelli's could be a lost gem on the bookshelves.  I really enjoyed Spinelli's perspective of a kid's world being separate from  the adult world.  I hope there are still neighborhoods around like Jack's and his friends.  I get the feeling that as young kids strive to be adults sooner and sooner, kids like Jack will be gone before they ever get the chance to become legend.

Next time you need to give a book report in class, think about different ways the information can be shared.  This is a simple video made with iMovie using the pictures from the text.  WeVideo allows you to do the same thing.  There are many new ways to consider presenting information in class.  Google slides are still a great way to plan your presentation, but why not consider something a little more engaging and fun to watch?

What Do Fish Have To Do With Anything? - by AVI

What Do Fish Have To Do With Anything? and other short stories by AVI

AVI is the author of many popular children´s and young adult books for over 25 years. His best known genre has been historical fiction. He eventually won the Newbery Award for his book, Crispen, a book about a boy trying to survive mid-evil England. AVI is also known for his children's books like, Things That Sometimes Happen. Its a group of nine short illustrated stories about some sad, happy, and surprising things that sometimes happen. It is illustrated by Caldecott winning illustrator, Marjorie Priceman.

In this book AVI uses seven different short stories to demonstrate lessons learned by a variety of young characters. Bad kids who don't necessarily learn how to be good, sad kids who might learn how to be happy, and scared kids who try to be brave. Taking risks and seeing things from a different point of view can be a powerful element of change.

AVIś book is a great one for the reluctant reader.  Each story may have its own appeal to the young reader, and will leave the reader to synthesize the future of each charcter as they tend to end with a lot of unanswered questions.

Small as an Elephant by Jennifer Richard Jacobson

Small as an Elephant by Jennifer Richard Jacobson

Jack Martel has been abandoned and is now on the run.  He needs to find his mom before anyone else, or he will most definitely be taken away.

On a camping trip in Acadia National Park, Jack wakes up one morning to find that his mother has packed up her things and left him in the middle of the night.  You might think that is unusual, but unfortunately for Jack, she has done this before. In an attempt to find his mom, Jack's adventures lead him across the state of Maine ending at an animal park, and a chance meeting with, Lydia, the elephant that motivated him through some of his most darkest times.  Along the way Jack meets a variety of characters that assist him on his journey.  As the news of a runaway boy spreads, and the search for him intensifies, Jack has to determine which of these characters he can trust, and who might turn him in to social services.  After some close calls, potentially dangerous situations, and very hungry nights, Jack finds some allies in some most unlikely places.

Jennifer Richard Jacobson certainly took a different angle toward this adventure story.  Jack is not your typical runaway, and probably would not have made it as far as he did, had it not been for similar experiences with his mother in the past. Her certainly had to be resourceful. I still had a hard time figuring out what was wrong with Jack's mom.  She had some kind of mental illness that caused her to abandon her son.  It seems that whatever it was, it was explanation enough to excuse her from responsibility for what she did. Fortunately for Jack, as he matures along his trail, he starts to realize the resources that have been put in place to help him.  I wonder how many kids in Jack's shoes never realize who the people are that want to help. For some reason they don't see it, don't want to see it, or have told so many times that there is no help.

Baseball Fans Will Enjoy Calico Joe

Calico Joe by John Grisham is certainly a change from the John Grisham books many people may come to expect from this author.  When shoppers see a book by John Grisham in the check out line at the store, they tend to be New York Times best sellers, adult murder mysteries, and dramas.  Many of his books have become hit moves like The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, and A Time to Kill, among many others. Researching John Grisham's biography, revealed that he has a passion for baseball, and has written a few novels (Bleachers, and Playing For Pizza) that are based on the drama of high school, college, and professional sports.

Calico Joe is certainly a sports book written for the baseball fan of all ages.  The setting for most of the story is the 1970s, and baseball is truly America's pastime. Players like Yogie Berra, Catfish Hunter, and Johnny Bench cover baseball cards that every kid in America cling to like golden dollars. In 1973 a virtually unnoticed rookie named, Joe Castle, is brought up to the struggling Cub's major league team to fill in for injured first baseman Jim Hickman. From Joe's first major league at bat he becomes an instant sports sensation, breaking rookie and major league records.  Unfortunately Joe's career is cut short by one famous pitch. It's a pitch that instantly brings to a halt the baseball career of three individuals, Joe Castle, Warren Tracey, the pitcher, and incidentally, Paul Tracey, Warren's 12 year old son, the narrator of this fascinating baseball story.

The reader will follow Paul as he tells the story of that fateful day, and the history that led up to the moment that cut Joe Castle down.  Paul lives with the consequences of his father's reckless behavior for over 30 years. It's not until Warren is dying of cancer that Paul derives a plan to help all three ballplayers bring closure to their lives.

Reading this book brought me back to the time when I was a kid, and baseball was life for me.  Even though this book is fiction, many of the characters are real.  I had the baseball cards of most of the real players mentioned in this book.  I wonder where those cards are today.  I wasn't a statistics kind of kid, but I do remember mimicking the style of the most successful players.  I know I would have loved to watch Calico Joe play ball.  The nostalgia in baseball has changed.  The million dollar contracts and performance enhancing drugs have made the game seem less real. Baseball for young kids has been benched by technology and over zealot parents.  Gone are the days of sandlot games when kids managed their own play. Watch the diamonds as you pass by.  Celebrate the few times you might see a group of kids in a pick up game a baseball without a parent in sight.  Ghosts of players like Calico Joe, and even Paul Castle don't seem to haunt the diamonds any more. The field of dreams is gone.

Characters Dealing with Powerful Drug Addictions

Beneath a Meth Moon 

by Jacqueline Woodson

We have recently covered the story of legalizing marijuana in the states of Colorado and Washington.  We were especially shocked by a story that came out shortly after Colorado legalized the sale of marijuana stating that 37 people were killed in the first day the law went into effect. After that, we were more motivated to study the effects of marijuana on the user, and we quickly discovered the story was a hoax. In our research, we learned a lot about the pros and cons of this seemingly recreational drug, and the effects of the drug on it's user. A lot of our misconceptions about the drug were answered. Like the term, "Gateway Drug," is used to describe cigarettes, alcohol, and now marijuana as a path to stronger drugs, these stories were the gateway to our research into stronger more deadly drugs like heroin and methamphetamines.

Beneath a Meth Moon by Jacqueline Woodson is a story about Laurel, a teenage girl suffering the loss of her her grandmother and mother in hurricane Katrina in 2005.  Laurel is surviving with her father and baby brother, Jessie Jr., in the new town of Galilee, with the promise a new job for dad, new friends, new schools, and a fresh start for the whole family. Laurel quickly discovers a new friend, Kaylee, makes the cheerleading squad, and falls in love with the star player on the basketball team, T-boom.  T-boom is the boy of her dreams, and Laurel is immediately hypnotized by his charm. T-boom promises a new life of adventure, and a chance to forget the pain. Unfortunately T-boom's secret to happiness is dependent on the effects of a powerful methamphetamine drug called, Moon. The reader follows Laurel through her almost instantaneous addiction to Moon. Flashbacks give you important memories of her past, her decline into the world of Meth, to her brush with death, and the guardian angel that saves her.

Every student I ever had in DARE has written an essay on the dangers of drugs and alcohol, and has promised to grow up making wise decisions about them.  Every single one of them swears that they will never smoke cigarettes, yet statistics show that 2 or 3 of them will begin smoking before they leave middle school. What is the power of this seemingly unpopular habit?  Why do people start?  Are cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana really gateway drugs?  In this book, Laurel didn't need a gateway drug.  From the information I shared with you, why do you think she started with such a powerful drug?

A Good Book For Reluctant Male Readers

Monster by Walter Dean Myers: 

Steve Harmon is facing one of the most terrifying situations of his life.  He is looking at possible life in prison; an adult prison.  Steve is only 16 years old. Steve got caught up in the inner city life of New York City where poverty, gangs, drugs, and violent crime influence urban survival for many kids every day.  While waiting for his trial to take place, Steve starts to write down his experiences and feelings in jail waiting with some of the cities hardest criminals.  He reflects on the series of events that led to the shooting on the fateful day.  Steve’s writes in the genre of a movie script which includes all the mood details of each scene right down to the camera angles. The reader follows Steve and his emotional trip through the entire trial, witness examinations, opening and closing arguments, and taking the stand in his own defense. The reader can judge Steve like the jury and decide what his fate should be.

More Teen Characters Dealing with Adult Issues

Peeled by Joan  Bauer:  Sometimes an author gets into a theme that seems to play out in all of the books they write.  It's almost like some of the popular book series that are out their now, but each book is actually different.  The thing that connects all of the books are the types of problems, the type of characters, and how the problems are solved.  This is the case with Joan Bauer's book, "Peeled".  Joan  Bauer has over 12 books published that are all different, but all contain some kind of wayward teenager, a bit of disfunctionalism in the family, an adult mentoring character, and best friends. The most common denominator in  her books seem to be the fact that the adults in the stories seem to be ignorant, incompetent, misguided, and dependent on the teens to solve the major problems in the community.