YA Underground came about after I wrote a piece about self-published memoirs. For many years I have been actively trying to find new books for my kids that accurately reflect their lives (and believe me, it’s not all about being poor and downtrodden—if there were an African American Harry Potter I’d be more than thrilled). I hoped having a column (and committee, more on that in a future column) would send books my way—new authors to bring to light—especially for our teens’ reading pleasure. Let’s be clear. It is still by chance that I come across the ones that I do. I’d say I’ve read five books to every one that I feel is even worth mentioning.*

Marilyn Jones’s book is worth mentioning.

Jones has written a passionate memoir about her experience as an abuse survivor, single mother, crack addict, and college student. Written with humor and insight, From Crack to College & Vice Versa is equally real and thoughtful. Jones grew up with her loving grandparents, where food and nurturing were abundant. It was the 1970s in San Francisco’s Fillmore district, steeped in a strong Black Panther presence, and among many businesses owned by Black people, which instilled in her a sense of self-pride and love. At age 9, she moved into her father’s house where she encountered a toxic mixture of mental, physical, and sexual abuse. Jones was introduced to crack cocaine in 1985 when she was 19 years old.

In a detailed account filled with important insight, Jones describes the life of a crack addict: exchanging  her body for drugs, in and out of juvenile hall, county jails, drug treatment, and losing her children. She writes, “When I first got locked up, I was very angry, (but ultimately) I gave up fighting the system and adjusted my ability to function and not be so angry was looked upon as progress by the juvenile facility’s staff, but all I did was learn how to be in jail.” Also important are her insights and writing about the college experience, and the inherent racism and classism she experienced from curriculum to people being scared of her impassioned discussion style.

Self-published, Jones did a good job with the cover From Crack to College. The type face and interior design is functional but not particularly pretty, and the book could definitely, no doubt about it, use an editor to clean up the misspellings and repetitions, and improve overall flow and narration. In spite of the flaws, Jones’s voice shines through.

I gave the book to Janelle (not her real name), a biracial 17-year-old. She likes to read Chicken Soup for the Soul and inspirational books, and reads when she is not in the facility. When I asked for her feedback on From Crack to College, she said, “Has it been edited? Some stuff you can tell it hasn’t, because she said it twice. This is a book that wants to tell her story. It’s important because if you on crack you think there is no turning back, but it’s a major turnaround because some people can’t even get off weed and go to college. It gives you hope and inspiration and makes you want to go for something.”

In this genre, A Piece of Cake by Cupcake Brown still stands out as the superstar of drug memoirs, particularly for teens of color, but of interest to all teens. African American Cupcake is thrust into the foster care system when her mother dies. Experiencing abuse, gangs, and drug addiction, she completely turns her life circumstances around and becomes a lawyer and an internationally bestselling author. Well-written, filled with a ton of action and valuable insight, the memoir details clearly the interesting steps Brown took to change—it’s off the charts!

I asked Janelle to talk with me about a few of the books she read on the topic of crack, and terrifically, she explains where From Crack to College is in the spectrum. “Come Back: A Mother and Daughter’s Journey Through Hell and Back is a one—the book talked to me. Diary of a Crack Addict’s Wife is a two. The writing was more to tell the story with so much detail you can see it. It was kind of slow and I put it down a lot, because it was hard to find the action part. From Crack to College is a three. It was more like me writing a book and giving it to you. But it was real, talked like us, was shorter and easier to read. There was action.”  While clearly Janelle values a well written and edited story (as most everyone does), and clearly, race and class aren’t always of the utmost importance in relate-ability (Come Back is about a middle class white mother and daughter), there is enough of value in From Crack to College to pick up, read and easily finish the book.

I couldn’t find my one copy of From Crack to College for several weeks—girls were reading it. I tracked down Amanda, a 16-year-old African American girl who isn’t a big reader, and she had the book in her room. She sums it up perfectly—“The way she writes could be better but the overall story is good.”

Indeed, there is enough in From Crack to College that sets it apart from mainstream memoirs, making it a truly worthwhile read for anyone, including a population whose interests aren’t always reflected on our library shelves or served at the checkout desk. These teens need books that are really by, about, and for them.

Bottom line: this book belongs not only on inner city and urban library shelves; it belongs in libraries everywhere.

From Crack to College & Visa Versa is available on Amazon or direct from the author. I gave Jones the information on how to set up her book with Ingram, but she would only receive $1.10 per copy, so decided against it.

*In case anyone comes across the titleBitter Fruit: the Street Ministryand thinks it might have potential due to it’s provocative and street teen-pick-up immediately cover, two words: Nope. None.

Brittenum, DeVan Faye. Bitter Fruit: the Street Ministry. Brittenum. 2013. pap. $7.99. ISBN 9781482047462.

Brown, Cupcake. A Piece of Cake. Broadway Books. pap. $11.49. ISBN 9781400052295.

Fontaine, Claire and Mia. Come Back: A Mother and Daughter’s Journey Through Hell and Back. William Morrow. pap. $15.95. 0060859718

Hunter, Cynthia. Diary of a Crack Addict’s Wife. Kensington. 2005. Tr $15.00. ISBN 0758208340

Jones, Marilyn Denise. From Crack to College & Vice Versa. Marilyn D. Jones. 2013. pap. $14.95.  ISBN 9780989427401.

Paradise Valley, John Mayer (Columbia)

However you feel about John Mayer’s personal life, you’ll find Paradise Valley is a back-to-basics blues sounding album. His gift as a guitarist is clearly demonstrated as he skillfully interprets his music in this peaceful, mood altering collection. Most of the tracks on his sixth studio album convey a laid-back, relaxed stroll through Midwest America. Though not a huge country fan, I think the recent popularity of country with Taylor Swift, Mumford and Sons, and Hunter Hayes is pretty cool. Mayer’s duets with Frank Ocean on “Wildfire” and Katy Perry on “Who You Love” make these tracks extra special. This album is much more accomplished and approachable, and while it gives the listener wonderful ballads, it lacks some of the edginess of past albums. Mayer has definitely chosen to play it safe here, and I guess I can’t blame him. Check out “Wildfire” “Badge and Gun,” “On the Way Home,” and “Who You Love.”—Geena G., grade 11, Floral Park (NY) Memorial High School

Madden 25 (Electronic Arts)

Any true football fan knows, the new season is incomplete without a new release from the gameplay icon, John Madden. That is one of the reasons the Madden football franchise has been a success since its inception. Another is developer Tiburon’s continued tweaking of the game with every new installment. Madden 25 is no exception to this, and offers players several interesting features and improvements. Many of the upgrades benefit the running backs. The new Precision Modifier allows jukes, spins, stiff-arms, and more in order to get around defenders. While executing these moves and manipulating the console, players can combine moves ensuring success on the field. There have been upgrades to the playbook, and use of the Read-option plays. The Infinity Engine has been enhanced for more realistic animations, but still needs work. Owner Mode gives players the opportunity to draft players, sign free agents, restructure contracts, and manage all aspects of the stadium. This part really adds to the experience. A definitely satisfying game that any football fan will dive into. Rated E for Everyone. Platform: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360.—James M.,grade 10, Floral Park (NY) Memorial High School

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (Activision & Red Fly Studio)

It is hard to believe that the Ninja Turtles have been around for about 30 years, and of course, have amassed a huge following. The popular cartoon series on Nickelodeon has been a big part of their resurgence, so it makes sense to jump on the bandwagon with a videogame.  The game’s premise is that April O’Neil has been kidnapped, and the Turtles must fight to save her and New York City from the evil Shredder and his gang. The game campaign lasts roughly five hours, and is totally combat-based. The four turtles always fight together, and the martial arts-style fighting is action-packed, with a ridiculous amount of combination attacks and button mashing sequences. Difficulty levels continue to increase throughout the campaign, which makes things challenging. Each turtle has his own weapons, fighting style, and personality, and players can switch between each of these at will.  The Turtles’ familiar nuances are numerous, especially with all the references to pizza. There is a classic mode feature that allows you the play the game in vintage black and white. There is also a multiplayer mode for up to four friends, and a local co-op mode for up to two players. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is very reasonably priced and will provide you with hours of great “cowabunga” fun. Rated E for Everyone. Platform: PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Nick M., grade 10, Floral Park (NY) Memorial High School

I’m the manager of a small branch of a large library system. I don’t have a children’s librarian on staff, but the children’s librarians at the main library choose the books for the collection. A parent has filed a formal complaint that my staff allowed her nine-year-old daughter to check out Deenie by Judy Blume. How should I handle this?

It sounds as if there are two issues: (1) A problem with your staff (2) A complaint against the book. Make sure that the mother understands that it’s never the role of the librarian to monitor what children read. Then invite the mother to file a book reconsideration form, which I assume is part of your library system’s policy. Deenie is appropriate for most nine-year-olds. The mother needs to tell her daughter if she doesn’t want her to read it. I do think it wise to ask the children’s librarians at the main library to conduct a workshop in children’s services for your staff. They may need reassurance about their roles.

A seventh-grade student brought his mother’s ereader to class on the last day of school. He passed it around so that students could read passages from Fifty Shades of Grey. It created an uproar and the teacher came to the library to ask my help. I really didn’t know what to do.

This is no different from my generation passing around dog-eared copies of Peyton Place. Don’t make a big deal out of the situation. In the future, advise the teacher to simply ask the student to focus on class work and continue reading the book when he gets home.

My friend’s son (an advanced eighth-grade student in the middle school where I’m a librarian) may take ninth-grade English for credit. The summer reading selection for ninth-graders in the school district is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. He is registered for freshman English in the fall, but she doesn’t want him to read the novel. I was her easiest target because she doesn’t know the English teacher. I didn’t know how to handle this.

Do you know for a fact that students weren’t given a reading choice? Many school districts allow students to make a summer reading selection from a list of books provided by English teachers. This accommodates various interests and maturity levels. If this isn’t the case, then the mother has a choice. She can elect to take her son out of the class and put him in regular eighth-grade English. If she insists that he stay in the class, then he needs to complete the requirement. It sounds as if she will listen to you.

I’m taking an online course in children’s services from a university that is located in another part of the country. I have an issue with some of the theories about public library services to children. In my public library system, children are welcome to use the entire library collection. The professor defines children as birth to 11 years old. This makes me feel that I have to defend the policy of my library system.

Children should have free and open access to books and materials. Most children will reject what they aren’t ready for, especially if they don’t feel the materials are forbidden. What about 12- and 14-year-olds who simply want to continue using the children’s room? Does this professor think that they should be banned because they grew up? Your library is on the right track.

Another elementary school in my district had several challenges last year. Since my school library has a number of parent volunteers, I thought it wise to provide them training in hopes of avoiding challenges in my school. What should I tell them?

Two main points: (1) Student privacy is a requirement (2) Leave reader guidance to you. I personally recommend that parent volunteers be used for more clerical types of jobs. If parents want to read aloud to students, then make the reading choice together. Never ask a parent to read aloud something they aren’t comfortable reading.

ENGLE, Margarita. Mountain Dog. illus. by Loga and Aleksey Ivanov. Holt. 2013. ISBN 9780805095166. JLG Level: A : Intermediate Readers (Grades 3–5).

When his mother is sent to prison for cruelty to animals, Tony moves in with his great uncle Leo whom he’s never met. Life in the Sierra Mountains is completely different from his Los Angeles world. He has his own room, a friendly dog who loves him at first sight, and a patient foster father who has much to teach him. Leo is a search-and-rescue volunteer, and his dog Gabe has also been trained to find people lost deep in the mountains. Tony alternates between his curiosity of the nature around him and his fear of loving things he could lose. Engle uses free verse and the voices of Tony, Leo, and Gabe to strengthen the reader’s empathy for the boy, allowing them to feel the struggles that the mountain dog sees.

HARLEY, Bill. Charlie Bumpers vs. the Teacher of the Year. illus. by Adam Gustavson. Peachtree. 2013. ISBN 9781561457328. JLG Level: A+ : Intermediate Readers (Grades 3–5).

Charlie Bumpers never means to get into trouble, but it always seems to find him. The year he enters fourth grade, he is horrified to learn that his teacher will be Mrs. Burke, last year’s teacher of the year. Charlie’s problem is that last year, he threw his shoe, which hit her in the head. “If I ever see you throw another shoe in school, you will stay in from recess for the rest of your life,” she promised. Now Charlie is in her class. How can he stay out of trouble with a teacher who’s just waiting for him to make a mistake? What’s even worse is that she surrounds him with perfect kids who never, ever make mistakes. His parents refuse to get him transferred. Charlie is stuck and is destined to be in a war that he can never hope to win; he just wants to survive it.

HILL, Kirkpatrick. Bo at Ballard Creek. illus. by LeUyen Pham. Holt. 2013. ISBN 9780805093513. JLG Level:  A : Intermediate Readers (Grades 3–5).

After the Alaskan gold rush when miners began to drift to other places, Mean Millie leaves town, giving up her baby. Miners Arvid and Jack are charged with delivering the child to the orphanage. After one look at the nuns, the two new friends decide to keep her. Everyone at Ballard Creek is delighted with the new addition to their family, for she becomes part of the life of all who lived at the mining camp. Bo, as she becomes known, learns Eskimo and English. She learns to cook and help in the cookshack. Reminiscent of a Little House book, Hill shares Bo’s life with her papas through the course of a year―from birthday and Fourth of July parties, to everyday life, and the excitement of the unexpected.

MARTIN, Lisa and Valerie. Anton and Cecil: Cats at Sea. illus. by Kelly Murphy. Algonquin. 2013. ISBN 9781616202460. JLG Level: A+ : Intermediate Readers (Grades 3–5).

Brothers are often different from each other. The cats Anton and Cecil are no different. Cecil would love nothing more than to sail on one of the ships that come into their harbor. Anton is quiet and cautious. He’d rather stay on dry ground. As fate would often have it, Anton is taken against his will to be a rat-catcher on the largest ship ever to dock in their harbor. Cecil must rescue him from this dangerous fate, so he forces his way onto the next vessel. Pirate ships, mysterious whales, kind cooks, and huge rats fill out this survival tale, and the brothers’ adventure teaches lessons about facing fears, family, and friendship.

RHODES, Jewell Parker. Sugar. Little, Brown. 2013. ISBN 9780316043052. JLG Level: A : Intermediate Readers (Grades 3–5).

In the time of Reconstruction on the banks of the Mississippi, 10-year-old Sugar and the other former slaves still do hard labor harvesting sugar cane. Blacks are still separated from whites, and not much has changed except that the workers get paid for their efforts. But since the end of the Civil War, it’s mostly old folks that remain on the plantation, so Mister Wills hires Chinese men to strengthen his labor force. Sugar, who’s almost always in trouble anyway, crosses the racial line when she plays with the plantation owner’s son. The new workers stir up her curiosity with their shiny black hair, linen pants, new food, and new customs. Sugar can’t resist being with them either. In a time when things are changing, the strong-minded girl rushes headfirst, bringing all races together, but at what cost? Things are a’changing, but not everyone is happy about it. Rhodes’s enlightening historical novel introduces a little known thread of history about Chinese immigrants working in the South after the Civil War.

For audio/video versions of these booktalks, please visit JLG’s Shelf Life Blog.

Junior Library Guild is a collection development service that helps school and public libraries acquire the best new children’s and young adult books. Season after season, year after year, Junior Library Guild book selections go on to win awards, collect starred or favorable reviews, and earn industry honors. Visit us at www.JuniorLibraryGuild.com.

RAINFIELD, Cheryl. Stained. Houghton Harcourt. Oct. 2013. Tr $16.99. ISBN  9780547942087.

Gr 9 Up—Sarah is a pretty teenage girl who hides behind her birthmark, which covers half of her face. She tries to stay strong when facing bullies, but sometimes she just feels like curling up into a ball. She thinks that bullies are her worst fear, but she soon learns what true fear is. As she walks home from school one day, she is kidnapped by a deranged killer. Most girls would cry themselves to sleep, but not Sarah. She becomes determined to escape from her prison. However, as minutes blend into days, and days blend into months, she begins to lose hope. Will she ever see her parents, best friend, or school yard sweetheart ever again? And worse, could the killer’s words become reality? Will he kill her or her family if she does anything against his will?

Stained was an exciting, action-packed story that kept my heart racing the entire time. Every chance I had, I was reading this book. I felt drawn into the book, like I was actually in it. I felt like it was me clawing at the boards on the windows until my fingers bled. I became extremely close to all of the characters in this book. I was sad when they failed and happy when they succeeded. The author did an excellent job in creating this closeness. She made me long to know what happened next. This is a wonderful book that all teens will enjoy.—Michaela B., age 14

NESS, Patrick. More Than This. Candlewick. Sept. 2013.Tr $19.99. ISBN  9780763662585.

Gr 9 Up–Seth Wearing has woken up in what he assumes is his own personal hell. After his death, he did not expect to wake up in his childhood home in London—it brings back too many bad memories. This seemingly real world is abandoned and dust-covered. How did he get here? He clearly remembered the waves thrashing him beneath the surface, breaking his bones. So how is it that he is alive? And why does every moment of rest bring back vivid, agonizing memories from the past? Seth doesn’t know what’s going on but he hopes that the rest of his afterlife will be more than just this…

More Than This was a breathtaking read. I enjoyed the unknown setting and all there was for Seth to discover about his life. But behind the mystery, the book has a good moral message. I would recommend this book to any teen but especially a teen that feels like there isn’t anything more to life than what they’re currently experiencing.—Paris E., age 17

POLAK, Monique. So Much It Hurts. Orca. Sept. 2013. pap. $12.95. ISBN 9781459801363.

Gr 9 Up—Iris has caught the eye of acclaimed movie producer, Mick. As an aspiring actress, this is an amazing thing. So what if Mick is fourteen years older than her? He’s sophisticated and she’s happy to call him her boyfriend. Except she can’t quite call him that—Mick wants their relationship to be a secret. After lying about her affiliations with Mick, Iris doesn’t find it hard to keep quiet about Mick’s temper; she even lies about how she got a black eye. Mick loves her, it’s evident—Iris just causes him to get so angry sometimes. Relationships are all about getting used to each other, she just has to get used to Mick’s fits. Right?

So Much It Hurts is a realistic tale about the psyche of teenage girls in abusive relationships. Iris blames herself for Mick’s behavior and only hides the truth, from her best friend, from her mother, and from herself. This short novel can aid in bringing awareness to domestic violence in young adults and just how badly it can end.—Paris E. age 17

PFEFFER, Susan Beth. The Shade of the Moon. Houghton Harcourt. 2013. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9780547813370.

Gr 7 Up—Jon Evans is a slip—simple as that. He can never claim the privileges of the elite enclave dwellers, those that are needed and deserve the best food and the best houses, but he also avoids the dirt-poor life of a grub, outsiders who work as servants or farmers and can be easily replaced. Instead, he can enjoy the benefits of living within the enclave but can never escape the fact that his family are still grubs. And in a postapocalyptic America, being of these two worlds will soon test Jon’s ability to choose between right and wrong.

The fourth in “The Life As We Knew It” series, The Shade of the Moon picks up the story of a family struggling to survive after the moon was knocked out of orbit, causing major changes to the Earth’s environment. Amid the chaos, a new kind of society formed, one where the spoiled kids of doctors and lawyers forget that those with lower paychecks are still human and deserve happiness as much as they do. Susan Beth Pfeffer does an excellent job of showing this moral struggle within Jon, although she falters in writing a more realistic display of Jon’s emotions. Overall, a good read.—Abrania M., age 16

Though R. L. Stine and Christopher Pike may be our quickest associations with teen screams, horror encompasses a wide array of books. As Susan Chang, senior editor of the children’s and young adult division at Tom Doherty Associates (Tor), says, “I think what we define as ‘horror’ has changed since the heyday of the 1980s and 1990s. Boundaries are more blurred and fluid and so it is more difficult to define.” At the Horror Writers Association site, author Jonathan Maberry has developed a YA-specific blog, It’s Scary Out There, to show how horror isn’t just one type of story.

Maberry explains, “The blog is built around exploring the nature of horror and of fear, how that’s different for teens and adults, and why so many of today’s writers tackle that subject matter. The answers are always surprising. What we’re showing is that horror is different for each person.”

The blog offers interviews with authors Kendare Blake, Darren Shan, Barry Lyga, and Holly Black, with more to come.

Categorizing horror

What is horror if the boundaries are difficult to define? It’s any work where the emotions of fear, dread, and/or disgust drive the narrative. Readers either love or hate horror because it forces them to experience reading in a visceral way. Because it’s defined by how individual readers interpret a story, what one sees as horror may not resonate that way to another.

Horror isn’t comprised solely of monsters. It also consists of the everyday darkness YA readers experience. “Horror isn’t always necessarily supernatural,” Maberry notes. “[In a forthcoming blog interview] Ellen Hopkins will discuss peer pressure as horror.” Dark realistic fiction, serial killer stories, and psychological thrillers may not be “traditional” horror, but they can elicit equally strong responses of fear or dread.

Chang suggests that the decline of mass market publishing, common in the 1980s and 1990s, means readers see horror in a new way. “With the change in format to hardcover and trade paperback, horror now seems to be considered more ‘literary’ and ‘upscale,’ and perhaps taken more seriously.”

Defining the horror reader can be challenging. As Brian Farrey-Lutz, acquisitions editor at Flux, says, “I think the true horror fans can be hard to pin down. There are definitely hardcore horror fans who can’t get enough of it. But I think the people who enjoy horror occasionally and don’t seek it out on a regular basis are a larger group.”

Is there a horror trend?

Maybe because we’ve become used to trends and “the next big thing” in YA, we can overlook staples like horror that don’t fall neatly into one genre. Yet, it continues to command shelf space and endear readers.

“If we’re seeing a spike in horror, it’s because there’s a need for something different,” says Farrey-Lutz. “I think horror is sticking its toes in the YA waters to test the temperature and see if there’s enough interest to merit a wave.”

The surge of dystopian and postapocalyptic YA novels in recent years taps directly into the interest in horror, Mayberry says. “[Teens] don’t read it to indulge in downbeat nihilism. Rather the reverse. My generation thought we were going to fix the world and solve all of society’s problems. We tried, we did some good, but let’s face it: the world is a mess. We may have lost some of our optimism about the future, but the teens expect to live in the future. They’re taking the broken fall and they’re going to fix it and run with it.”

Horror captures the attention of teens of all reading abilities–advanced and reluctant readers find it compelling because it’s something to which they relate. Sure, they may not be fighting zombies or ending decades-long curses, but those stories serve as metaphors for the challenges they face every day. In many ways, the ability to slip into fictional horrors offers an escape from their own sometimes-scary realities.

Ripper tales and serial killers

Perhaps due in part to TV shows like Dexter—which stars a Miami Police Department employee who moonlights as a serial killer—there’s been a rise in stories about murder. Starting with The Name of the Star (Putnam, 2012), Maureen Johnson’s “Shades of London” trilogy follows Rory at her boarding school in modern-day London, where a rash of killings echoing those of Jack the Ripper throws everyone into panic.

Stefan Petrucha’s Ripper (Philomel, 2012) is set in New York City, 1895, during a series of Ripper-like murders. When the Pinkerton Agency gives 14-year-old Carver an apprenticeship, the cases multiply. Does Carver have a tie to the killer?

How about having a dad who kills for a living? That’s 17-year-old Jazz’s story in Barry Lyga’s trilogy, which begins with I Hunt Killers (Little, Brown, 2012). Jazz helps police hunt for a new killer in town in an effort to keep his own name clear.

Peter Adam Salomon’s Henry Franks (Flux, 2012)—a modernization of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein—begins when Henry questions the accident that took his mother’s life. Things become stranger when a serial killer emerges in town.

In Kate Brian’s Shadowlands (2012), even the Witness Protection Program can’t shield Rory Miller from a serial killer. In her old hometown, she barely escaped the hand of Steven Nell, and her new town may not be a safe haven, either. The story continues in Hereafter (2013, both Hyperion).

If murder wasn’t complicated enough, it becomes even murkier in two novels that explore the land between the living and the dead. Daniel Marks’s Velveteen (Delacorte, 2012) follows a 16-year-old slain by a serial killer named Bonesaw. Rather than landing in a happy afterlife, Velveteen’s stuck in a space more like purgatory. In Brenna Yovanoff’s Paper Valentine (Penguin, 2013), all Hannah wants to do is grieve best friend Lillian’s death. But then Lillian’s ghost begs Hannah to investigate a string of teen-girl murders in their small town.

Of sanity and spirits

Psychological horror leaves one question in the minds of both characters and readers: Was what happened real, or the work of something supernatural? At times it’s plausible (and even obvious) that there’s a ghost in charge; at others, it’s possible the horror may be internally constructed.

There’s not a question about the existence of ghosts in Kendare Blake’s Anna Dressed in Blood (2011) and Girl of Nightmares (2012, both Tor). Cas hunts and kills ghosts. When the teen comes upon a ghost who has vanquished every hunter who dared set sights on her, Cas discovers that she has chosen to spare him.

Spirits and sanity rub against one another quite literally in Carly Anne West’s The Murmurings (S & S, 2013). Sophie’s sister, Nell, was institutionalized for hearing voices—the same voices Sophie finds herself hearing now. As she investigates further, she learns that there just might be something out to get them.

Nova Ren Suma delves into what it means to be haunted in two stirring novels. In Imaginary Girls (2011), Chloe admires her big sister, Ruby, who is beautiful and mysterious. But when a classmate’s body shows up in the reservoir, Chloe questions what parts of her relationship with Ruby are imagined. 17 & Gone (2013, both Dutton) is an even sharper exploration of madness. Lauren sees girls who have gone missing, and what ties them together is their age when they disappeared. But who are they to her? As her 17th birthday inches closer, Lauren worries she’s destined to disappear, too. Think Shirley Jackson, YA style.

The undead

What’s more horrifying than the thought of the dead rising and coming after those still alive? Maybe having to face undead loved ones and deliver the final blow. Chang notes that while the zombie trend may be over—having hit its peak between 2007 and 2009—it has become more “evergreen,” much like vampires. Maberry agrees, “They’re tidal. They may recede from popularity for a while but they always come back.” Zombies have also been kept fresh and fascinating in the media, with TV’s The Walking Dead and the recent film Warm Bodies.

Sloane Price is determined to kill herself, thanks to an abusive home life and a sister who abandoned her, but things fall apart with the appearance of the undead in Courtney Summers’s This Is Not a Test (St. Martin’s, 2012). She’s saved by five teens who bring her to the local high school to endure the outbreak. Will Sloane find any hope for a future?

It begins as any other game in T. Michael Martin’s The End Games (HarperCollins, 2013). Michael and little brother Patrick follow the rules from The Game Master in order to stay alive while the real world around them crumbles. But as rules are changed on them, the boys may be heading nowhere good. For readers who prefer their undead with laughter, there’s Sean Beaudoin’s The Infects (Candlewick, 2012), and those seeking a Gothic flair should try Susan Dennard’s Something Strange and Deadly (HarperCollins, 2012). For an epic-scale tome, suggest Alexander Gordon Smith’s The Fury (Farrar, 2013).

Readers who like their undead unending will enjoy multivolume works such as Jonathan Maberry’s “Benny Imura” series (S & S), Ilsa Bick’s “Ashes” trilogy (Egmont USA), and Darren Shan’s 12-book “Zom-B” series (Little, Brown).

Going Gothic

An interesting trend in recent Gothic horror is the use of visual “found artifacts” to enhance storytelling, which hit big with Ransom Riggs’s Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (Quirk, 2011). Cat Winters’s In the Shadow of Blackbirds (Abrams, 2013) melds a ghost tale with the occult, as Mary watches those around her panicking due to the 1918 influenza outbreak and war overseas. While fellow citizens seek comfort in spirit photographers and séances, Mary eschews them…until the day she is confronted with the ghost of her former boyfriend.

In Madeleine Roux’s Asylum (HarperCollins, 2013), which features eerie photographs, Dan discovers that his new summer dorm used to be a sanatorium for the criminally insane, and he and his new friends begin unlocking the asylum’s dark secrets.

Sarah Rees Brennan’s humorous Unspoken (2012) follows 17-year-old Kami as she falls in love with a boy who only exists in her head. And who is that murderer on the loose? The story continues in Untold (2013, both Random).

In Lindsey Barraclough’s Long Lankin (Candlewick, 2012), Cora and Mimi are sent to live with their aunt in a remote English town, but they’re not greeted with kindness. Besides Aunt Ida’s eccentricities, the girls find the town is full of eerie secrets, all connected to the last time Ida hosted two sisters.

The occult

A horror staple, stories about the occult fascinate not only because they’re taboo, but also because they’re often tied to history.

These two elements mingle effectively in Libba Bray’s The Diviners (Little, Brown, 2012). Evie’s confronted with a grisly killer in 1920s NYC, and her ability to tap into magical powers might be the key to catching the criminal. Readers taken with the spiritualism craze running through Bray’s novel will want to check out Sonia Gensler’s The Dark Between (Knopf, 2013).

The occult also seeps into modern-day tales. In Claudia Gray’s Spellcaster (HarperCollins, 2013), Nadia knows that something isn’t right after she and her family move to Captive’s Sound, and she detects dark spirits with her witch sensibilities. She and local boy Mateo will need to work together to unlock a curse threatening the entire town.

What happens when you start falling head over heels for the devil? Violet finds out in April Genevieve Tucholke’s Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (Dial, 2013) when the devil takes the form of a new guy in town. She knows she shouldn’t fall for him, but she can’t help herself.

For a solid occult-driven series, try Tessa Gratton’s Blood Magic (2011) and The Blood Keeper (2012, both Random), where practicing blood spells puts two teens in grave danger.

Frightening realities

Sometimes, the most horrific stories happen in the real world, where the monsters and demons reside in and beside us all.

Stephanie Kuehn tackles the beast within in Charm & Strange (St. Martin’s, 2013). When Win is sent to a remote boarding school because of a terrible incident, he comes to terms with his inevitable future: with the full moon, he will transform from boy to deranged wolf, just like his father. This dark contemporary novel explores the haunting effects of abuse and mental illness.

Few fathers are as terrifying as Ry Burke’s in Daniel Kraus’s Scowler (Delacorte, 2013). The maximum security prison inmates, including Marvin Burke, are on the loose, and he’s returning to the Iowa farm where once he reigned supreme—and where his brutal attack on Ry’s mom led to his lifetime sentence. Ry pulls from the power of his childhood toys to conjure enough anger to give his dad a true showdown.

Marianna Baer takes her horror in an unexpected direction with Frost (HarperCollins, 2011), wherein main character Leena falls from pulled-together, top-of-the-class girl to one who can’t get out of bed without serious medication. What could cause such a quick shift in someone who seemed to have it all?

Classics, remodeled

Remixed classics continue to serve YA horror readers well. They also offer possibilities for classroom connections to their original literary works.

Reimagining Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Gretchen McNeil sets her slasher Ten (2012) on a quiet island over a weekend meant to be a nonstop party, but it also includes a killer and a trail of blood. Megan Shepherd’s trilogy takes on H. G. Wells’s The Island of Dr. Moreau, beginning with The Madman’s Daughter (2013, both HarperCollins), a twisted story that focuses instead on Dr. Moreau’s progeny.

Dangerous Boy (Penguin, 2012) by Mandy Hubbard looks to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde while Kenneth Oppel’s This Dark Endeavor (S & S, 2011) is the first in a series that revisits Frankenstein. Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw inspired both Adele Griffin’s Tighter (Knopf, 2011) and Francine Prose’s The Turning (HarperCollins, 2012). For readers seeking a weird tale à la Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, try Mary G. Thompson’s Wuftoom (Clarion, 2012).

Scares ahead

Want more tales of horror? It’s worth checking out Johan Harstad’s 172 Hours on the Moon (Little, Brown, 2012), which blends sci-fi with the supernatural; Gwenda Bond’s Blackwood (Angry Robot, 2012), about the lost colony of Roanoke; J. R. Johansson’s Insomnia (Flux, 2013), following a boy who can enter into other people’s dreams; and Katie Williams’s Absent (Chronicle, 2013), in which a ghost is sentenced to afterlife in the high school where she died.

Classic teen horror writers are publishing new thrills, too. R.L. Stine’s A Midsummer Night’s Scream (Feiwel & Friends, 2013) and Christopher Pike’s Witch World (S & S, 2012) are good introductions for new readers and solid additions for already-devoted fans.

Those eager for what’s to come through the end of the year should find scares courtesy of Gretchen McNeil’s 3:59 (HarperCollins), Jason Vanhee’s Engines of the Broken World (Holt), Barbara Stewart’s The In-Between (St. Martin’s Griffin), and Robin Wasserman’s The Waking Dark (Knopf) satisfying.

So why horror?

“I write about people confronting monsters or fear or darkness because I want to explore how those things can be defeated,” Maberry says. “Humans may be by nature a predatory species, but we are also a survivor species with aspirations toward genuine civility.”

Horror is a perennially popular shelf staple because its variety of shapes and styles make it a favorite for many readers, a gateway for reluctant readers, and a crossover sell to older and younger YA readers.

It isn’t “the next big thing,” but an essential. And not because of the scares—but because of how much these books reach teens on a frighteningly human level.

Kelly Jensen is a teen librarian at Beloit Public Library (WI). She blogs about YA books at Stacked (stackedbooks.org) and Book Riot (bookriot.com).

A few months ago, Henkes joined School Library Journal as opening keynote speaker at our annual Day of Dialog (DoD), in which he told the children’s librarians, publishers, and children’s book authors and illustrators in attendance that he was a lifelong book lover and, in fact, “built by books.”

SLJ is happy to be sponsoring another event featuring the author, an exclusive webcast live from Bank Street College of Education in New York City next week, on September 17, 2013. As we look forward to hearing him speak and answer questions from kids, parents, and teachers, SLJ sat down with Henkes for an in-depth chat about his career so far, his creative process, and his next projects.

Can you tell us more about your lifelong relationship with books?
From the very beginning, I grew up in a house that didn’t have very many children’s books, but going to the library was very important to my mother, and we went to the library the same way you’d go to the grocery store or to school. So it was part of life. And I grew up loving books.

You’ve spoken before about the importance of sharing books with children. Can you tell us more about your experiences reading aloud to your kids?
I had a large collection of children’s books, and when I became a parent I was, I think, at the very beginning very stingy with my books because they were in perfect condition, and I knew what happened to the books my kids “read.” But the same person inside me knew that that’s what books are for. And I think it has been wonderful to watch my kids grow up with books. I’m sure I’ve made many mistakes as a parent but every day, [reading aloud to them] was one thing that I think was so right, and it exposed them to a lot. I think it broadened their horizons. I think it made them more empathetic.

How did you choose which books to read aloud to your kids?
Some were things that I wanted to read, that I remembered loving and I wanted to share it with them. They also read independently, but sometimes they would have something that they would want me to read aloud as well, and they would decide what they wanted. We chose them in different ways.

What were your favorite books growing up?
I loved Call it Courage by Armstrong Sperry. I loved Beverly Cleary’s books. I went through a phrase where I really loved Garth Williams illustrations, so the head children’s librarian at the Racine [WI] public library would show me books that he had illustrated. Those books were favorites. What else did I love? I went through different phases as I suppose all kids do, but I loved Charlotte’s Web—how could one not? And I remember the Henry Reed books—they aren’t very much around now, but I remember loving those. I read them to my kids! They’re still loved.

What about books of your colleagues that you newly discovered as a parent?
You know I read Harry Potter aloud. It was fun! It was! My son was also a huge Redwall fan. One book that they both really loved was James Marshall’s Rats on the Roof. It was a huge, huge favorite. I read aloud Kate DiCamillio’s The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, that was fun. And I read Vera Williams’s Scooter aloud when they were a big younger, and that was a big hit.

How do you create your characters’ unique voices and personalities?
I think about my characters long before I begin writing, and I really try to get a very clear picture in my mind who they are—how old they are, what they like. I try to create that whole family. And then when I feel pretty confident about them, I will jot things down, not writing the story yet but really just writing down facts about the character so by the time that I do begin writing, I’m pretty certain who they are. And if I begin too soon for me, I’ll quickly find it out.

Do you make scrapbooks or storyboards?
I have notebooks and folders. I often will have a notebook and I’ll make little tabs for the characters and write down my facts about the different characters in their section, and add to it and refer to it. And sometimes I don’t use a  lot of it. It’s not in the book per se, but it’s still helps me know who they are. Sometimes I will write down what a character’s favorite color is or favorite food, and it won’t end up being in the book, but it helped me create him or her.

So, in a way, you are conducting research for your characters?
Someone once asked me about the way kids were taught to write in schools—prewriting, etc.—and at first I thought I don’t do any of that, but then I realized that I do all of it. I just do it differently. I don’t think of it as prewriting, my notebooks about characters.

[But ] with Billy Miller, in the third section, it was based on a restaurant my kids loved when they were little that I hadn’t been to in years, so I went one day by myself for lunch, with my notebook. So that was research! But when I hear the word research, I think of it differently.

Your notebooks sound like they would make a great kit lit exhibit!
I did an exhibit at the CCBC with my novel Protecting Marie, and I had the notebooks, and I even had a few handwritten paragraphs and how they morphed into the finished book. It was nice for me to go back and organize it. And again the thing that was most surprising to me was that there was so much of it. It was the first time I looked at it, I suppose, in a more academic way.

What inspired you to write The Year of Billy Miller?
 The last novel I had written was Junonia, and it was about a 10-year-old girl, and I really had spent a lot of time with her, and so I thought I wanted to spend time with a boy. I had just finished doing the three “Penny” books, beginning readers, and even though they were longer than picture books, there was a lot of art, [so]  I really wanted to do a novel or a chapter book. And because Junonia was set on an island and she was an only child, I wanted something different. I knew from the start there would be at least a sibling. That book was a away from home, so I wanted it to be a book at home—wherever, whatever home was—and so that’s sort of the way I began this book.

 So you wanted a more domestic, familiar book?
Yeah! And those are the kinds of books I’m drawn to anyway. All of my books—even one that took place on an island—I still think of them as pretty small, domestic stories. The one thing that is sort of funny to look at is the list, when I’m trying to come up with names. I had pages of names! I wanted him to have sort of a common name. I loved the internal rhyme. It just sounded right.

Is there a lot of you in the character?
I volunteered in my kids’ first- and second-grade classrooms once a week. I think all of the characters have a piece of me in them, but I was really trying to remember that and channel that experience, when my son was 7 and my daughter was 3. I really made an effort to stay in Billy’s head. It’s in the third person, limited, but I wanted to remember he’s a 7-year-old boy. I wanted the prose to reflect that.

He does have a great vocabulary.
Yeah! But I think reading to one’s kids allows him to have that. One thing I would love when I read aloud [was] when my kids would ask, ‘What does that mean?’ It would open the door to not only what a dictionary is, but [for them] to try to guess what it means. And that was wonderful.

But for Billy Miller, I tried really hard to not dwell on descriptions that Billy wouldn’t, and I love describing things, and I really had to hold back. I think I’m an artist first, and I love describing things, but I really had to watch myself. I had to cut as I went.

Do you think you will write a Billy  sequel?
I’m thinking about it…he’s still in my head. But I don’t know yet! I have a couple thoughts, but for me, one of the greatest joys about working on a novel is creating the characters, the family, the setting. And to have it already be done sort of takes away one of my greatest pleasures. There is something so satisfying about creating that whole new world.

Which is easier to do, a picture book or a novel? What’s your process like?
If I’m working on a novel and I’m getting towards the end, I sometimes think, ‘Oh I wish I was working on a picture book. They’re so much more fun and they’re easier!’ And then, if I’m working on a picture book and I have to redo a picture four times and I’m not loving it, I’ll think ‘Oh a novel is so much easier. It’s just words, and I can write in a coffee shop and I can go anywhere.’ [laughs]

I do like them both, but there are days when I think the other is easier or more fun. With a picture book, I always get to the point where I think the words are perfect before I do any kind of drawing. I don’t even let myself sketch anything until I have the words.

Do you have a favorite character or characters from your books?
I have to say that I do. I love Lilly, and I think she lends herself to story quite well. I’ve gone back to her a couple of times, and that’s been nice. Right now, [maybe] because it’s still really fresh, I do have a soft spot in my heart for Billy Miller. I do like him.

The book has been getting nice reviews so far.
Yeah, it’s been really nice! And I think it’s interesting because one never knows. I think some of the books of my own that I love most sell the least. It’s funny how that works. I don’t understand it.

I have a fondness for Junonia, I think in part it’s because it’s set on Sanibel Island, and we’ve gone there every year since my son was 6 months old, so it’s really become a part of what my family does. I wrote a lot of it during the winter, and it was really wonderful. Every day I could escape to this sunny blue warm world; I really remember that very vividly. I’d have to go out and shovel, but I could come back in and be on the beach. It was nice.

What can you tell us about your next project?
I have a picture book written called Waiting for Spring that my wife, Laura Dronzek, is going to illustrate. We’ve collaborated twice before, on my books Birds and Oh!
And I’ve just written the words for a picture book that I am illustrating myself.

How intense is the collaboration with Laura? Do you brainstorm together?
No! I try not to really say much of anything, to let it go. Laura can do with it what she wants. I really want it to be hers as much as its mine. It is [hard] at the very beginning, but once it’s gone—as long as I have something else to work on—then it’s great! I do like to just focus on one thing. And now that I have my thing to work on, it’s time.

You are known for your many animal characters, especially mice, but each one is its own unique person, its own mouse.
[laughs] Yes! I hope.

Can you tell us more about how those came about?
The first four books that I did had humans as the characters fairly realistically rendered, and the fifth was Bailey Goes Camping. My texts were starting to become more humorous, and I thought I could better tap the humor in the words by drawing more loosely and using animal characters. I tried rabbits for Bailey Goes Camping, and I liked it.

The next book I wrote was A Weekend with Wendell, and I wanted to try something else. And I sketched several different animals and I thought, ‘Oh! Mice would be fun!’ And I had such a good time with Wendell that the next book I wrote was Sheila Rae the Brave, and I wrote Wendell into the story. And Sheila Rae the Brave was really the first book of mine that had a bigger sales bump than the other ones, and I really had a good time doing it, so I kept doing it. But it wasn’t anything that I planned.

If someone would have told me some 30 years ago, ‘When you’re 52, that you’re going to have 13 books with mice,’ I would have [denied it]. It just happened, it did! [laughs]

My career just happened very slowly and steadily. I was young when I began, too, so I’ve had a lot of time to grow. But I think it would be really difficult to have the first book be a smashing success. I’m really grateful for the slow steady way things progressed.

Attend the Kevin Henkes LIVE webcast event on September 17 for a chance to win one of 25 signed copies of his new book The Year of Billy Miller, courtesy of HarperCollins.
It’s not too late to register! Click the link below to sign up:

The CBC Diversity Committee was established in 2012 as one of the committees created by the Children’s Book Council, the national nonprofit trade association for children’s trade book publishers. It strives to increase the diversity of voices and experiences contributing to children’s and young adult literature. Alvina Ling, executive editor at Little, Brown, is a founder and chair, and has edited titles by Grace Lin, Matthew Quick, Bryan Collier, Libba Bray, and Karen Healey.

Ling says that it is important for young readers to have access to books with diverse characters because “it helps foster acceptance and understanding of different people. These titles are for that child who is not seeing himself in the books he’s reading or a child from a different culture to have compassion towards people who are not like him.”

Stacy Whitman, editorial director of Tu, multicultural publisher Lee & Low’s young adult fantasy and science fiction imprint, agrees. She adds, “In our growing multicultural world, kids need to know what it is to empathize with people that are different. I think fantasy and science fiction does that best, because you’re already putting yourself in a setting that is already so different.”

Whitman cites recent projects such as Joseph Bruchac’s Killer of Enemies—a postapocalyptic Apache steampunk novel—and Karen Sandler’s conclusion to the Tankborn trilogy, Rebellion, as examples of non-Northwest European and Tolkien-influenced fantasies.

In recent weeks, #DiversityinSFF was a trending conversation on Twitter, of which Whitman was an avid participant. And though according to her it is very similar to the Race Fail 2009 discussion—in which fantasy and sci-fi fans lamented the lack of diversity in the genres—she hopes that this recent flare up will stir into action those with influence in the industry. “The recent Twitter conversation pushed agents to change their submission guidelines, encouraging people of diverse backgrounds to send their work. The publisher Tor also changed their guidelines. I hope others will do the same.”

And while Putnam editor Stacey Barney agrees that the clamor for more diverse books isn’t a recent one, she has noted a change in the discussion in recent years. “It’s creeping up to the top of more people’s agenda. The tenor in the conversation has changed in a positive way. It’s moved beyond ‘we need to have more black characters or black authors’ to ‘we need characters of color who are experiencing everyday events,’ not historical landmarks or in an urban setting.” She cites Crystal Allen’s How Lamar’s Bad Prank Won a Bubba-Sized Trophy (HarperCollins, 2011) as a great example of this.

Barney, who has edited several books with diverse characters, such as Tara Sullivan’s Golden Boy (2013), about the albino killings in Tanzania, and Kristin Levine’s The Lions of Little Rock (2012, both Putnam), does believe that more can be done to market books and authors of diverse backgrounds.

“I think people miss the point when they argue that there should be more editors of color, which I think is true,” Barney says. “However, what we lack is an infrastructure that will support these books once they’re published. We’ll see more acquisitions when we have more success stories. We have to remember that this is a business. Editors want to acquire books that will get the best marketing launch possible. We just don’t have that in place yet.”

The desire to promote their books is what inspired Malindo Lo and Cindy Pon to start the Diversity in YA tour and website in 2011. The two authors discovered that they were both publishing Asian-inspired fantasies that year, and wanted to celebrate them and all diverse teen literature with this initiative. Relaunched in 2012 with a Tumblr account, Pon and Lo continue to promote books about all kinds of diversity, from race to sexual orientation to gender identity and disability.

And while Lo agrees that there’s been a recent explosion in the blogosphere about the subject, she’s also discovered that writers continue to struggle to get their LGBQT books to the public. “As I have talked to more authors, I have heard stories about many of them—published and unpublished—who have been blocked in their endeavors,” she says. “I’m getting this impression that we’re in this stuck point. I’m hoping that the continued discussion raises awareness of this issue, and that there will be considered effort to change that for the better.”

What can librarians do? Whitman suggests, “The last few years people have been talking about the need for diversity, but it’s time to put our money where the mouth is. Librarians have always had finger on the pulse of what their readers need, but these resources haven’t always been available to them.”

Responding to the point that Sun made during Summer Teen about the importance of diversity in YA book covers, one attendee asked how librarians should act in regards to cases of “whitewashing.”

Logo for Disability in Kid Lit website.

Klise, an author and a librarian replied, “I work at an urban high school in Chicago, and know that to engage my very diverse student population in reading for fun, I need to display books with faces they can identify with. We have to be aware of the [whitewashing] cases. It makes for really provocative conversation for my book club at school. The teens share my outrage—and outrage, when funneled into activism, is what makes the world change for the better.”

Whitman adds that librarians can make sure to include diverse books in their collection development budget, even if their communities are not diverse. “Look for awesome books no matter what the characters’ backgrounds may be. Even if your community isn’t diverse, the world is. Buy your books accordingly. Seek out resources to help you booktalk those titles. The resources are out there; become aware of them and use and share them with your colleagues.”

RESOURCES FOR FINDING DIVERSE BOOKS FOR TEENS AND KIDS

From School Library Journal:

Collection Development
Tamora Pierce’s Fantasy Novel Picks | SLJ SummerTeen
By Tamora Pierce

Straight Talk on Race: Challenging the Stereotypes in Kids’ Books
By Mitali Perkins

LGBTQ Lit: Speaking Out
By Megan Honig

From Diversity to Civil Rights | Nonfiction Notes
By Daryl Grabarek

Jackie Robinson: Remembering an American Hero | Watch and Read
By Joy Fleishhacker

Islam in the Classroom
By Lauren Barack

Books to Celebrate the Everyday Heroes of the Civil Rights Movement
By Rhona Campbell

Resources for Finding Latino Kid Lit
By Shelley M. Diaz

Kick-Starting a New Life | Recent YA Titles
By Mahnaz Dar

Our Bodies, Our Minds | Confronting Self-Image in YA Fiction
By Mahnaz Dar

YA Underground: Books for Teens You Might Have Missed
By Amy Cheney

Interviews
Between Violence and Tenderness: Aristotle and Dante Author Sáenz Talks to SLJ
By Karyn M. Peterson

Lesléa Newman Discusses her Novel in Verse About the Death of Matthew Shepard, ‘October Mourning’
By Mahnaz Dar

The “Radioactive Energy” of Bullies | An Interview with Meg Medina
By Jennifer M. Brown

The Power of Pictures: A Visit with Bryan Collier
By Rocco Staino

Andrea Cheng on Etched in Clay, Which Charts the Courageous Life of Dave the Potter
By Rick Margolis

Looking for Light: In Darkness Author Nick Lake talks to SLJ
By Karyn M. Peterson

News Articles
First Book’s “Stories for All Project” Lobbies for Kid Lit Diversity
By Karyn M. Peterson

Community Angered by Tossed Black History Collection
By Lauren Barack

Picture Book About Islam Ignites Twitter Battle
By Shelley Diaz

Librarians Sound Off: Not a Lack of Latino Lit for Kids, but a Lack of Awareness
By Shelley Diaz

Kid Lit Authors Discuss Diversity at NYPL
By Mahnaz Dar

Blog Posts/Opinion
2013 Middle Grade Black Boys: Seriously, People?
By Betsy Bird

America’s Changing Face | Consider the Source
By Marc Aronson

From The Horn Book:
A Very Good Question
By Roger Sutton

Young dreamers
By Christopher Myers

Indigenous protagonists and people of color
By Elissa Gershowitz

Horn Book Resources for Talking About Race
By Horn Book Staff

Other recommended sites:
Children’s Books by and about People of Color Published in the United States
CCBC Blog
As Demographics Shift, Kids’ Books Stay Stubbornly White from NPR
CBC Diversity (Maintains a Goodreads account with updated booklists of diverse books and resources.)
Stacy Whitman’s Pinterest Board on Diverse YA Fantasy
Disability in Kid Lit
The Brown Bookshelf
American Indians in Children’s Literature
Rich In Color (Reviews YA books that feature or are by people of color.)
Gay YA
De Colores Blog (Reviews books that feature Mexican American characters.)
Diversify YA (A collection of short interviews that focus on all sorts of diversity.)
Cynthia Leitich Smith has compiled resources on diverse books, including multiracial titles with biracial characters.
Forever Young Adult’s new series on diversity in YA
Articles on Diversity on YALSA’s Hub Blog
It Matters if You’re Black or White: The Racism of YA Book Covers
Lee & Low Blog (The multicultural children’s book publisher’s blog.)
First Book Blog (The organization’s commitment to diversity in children’s books.)
Crazy QuiltEdi (Promoting literacy for teens of color, one book at a time.)

Timeless Thomas: How Thomas Edison Changed Our Lives. DVD. 17:22 min. Spoken Arts. 2013. ISBN 0-8045-8140-1. $50; CD with hardcover book, ISBN 0-8045-4239-2: $29.95.
Gr 2–6–Thomas Alva Edison and his inventive mind had a huge impact on society, perhaps more than most people realize. This is the focus of Gene Barretta’s book (Holt, 2012.) In the DVD, the author provides a live-action introduction, taking viewers toEdison’s workshop and showing many of his inventions. This provides a nice segue into the book itself, which is read by Steve Chiamadia while Barretta’s warm and humorous cartoon illustrations are scanned iconographically. The presentation is fascinating because it focuses less onEdison’s life than on his legacy. AtEdison’s lab, students are introduced to an invention and then shown how it impacts us today. The connections that are made are enlightening as viewers learn how Edison was instrumental in the technology that led to modern-day movies, batteries, tattoos, vending machines, and much more. Barretta also emphasizes the work involved, and howEdisonlearned from his failures as well as his successes. This fascinating presentation provides unique insights and thought-provoking connections.–Teresa Bateman, Brigadoon Elementary,Federal Way, WA

Students in grades three through eight can enter the Dare to Dream…Change the World Second Annual Writing Contest for Children by creating an original biographical poem and a paragraph about someone who not only dreamed, but took action and made the world a better place. The contest “aims to promote literacy, poetry writing, and nonfiction research while inspiring students to follow their own dreams.”

Entries can be submitted through April 30, 2014. Winners will be announced by June 1, 2014. Be sure to check out the rules and submission information. The grand prize winner will receive $1,500 worth of Kane Miller and Usborne books for a school or community library of their choice. The top 30 entries will be published as a free ebook by sponsor Kane Miller Books.

The contest, cosponsored by Educational Development Corporation, has been announced by Jill Corcoran, compiler and contributing poet to Dare to Dream … Change the World (Kane Miller, 2013), a collection of biographical and inspirational poems for children featuring a culturally diverse mix of subjects ranging from Jonas Salk to Steven Spielberg, and from Christa McAuliffe to Michelle Kwan. A free, downloadable curriculum guide is available on the contest and publisher websites.

Pin It to Win

Teachers have until September 27, 2013 to enter Raytheon’s “Pin It to Win It” sweepstakes on Pinterest “that encourages knowledge sharing and promotes science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education.” The contest is part of Raytheon’s MathMovesU initiative, which aims to inspire student interest in STEM subjects and support teachers by providing easy access to STEM education resources.

Educators must create a back-to-school Pinterest board, re-pin and share creative STEM education content, such as inventive experiments or lesson tips, to the MathMovesU “Back-to-School” Pinterest board. Twenty-five winners will be randomly selected to receive a MathMovesU bag filled with classroom supplies, such as calculators, rulers, protractors, and compasses.

Picture Book Art

From September 17, 2013 through March 24, 2014, the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, MA, will feature an exhibit of artwork from Eric Carle’s new picture book, Friends (Philomel). The title has a release date of November 19, 2013, and showcases Carle’s signature tissue-paper collage artwork. It tells the story of a little boy who braves harsh weather, tall mountains, and long distances to reunite with his best friend who moves away. Visit the Museum’s website for hours and admission fees.

“Friends was inspired by many of my own friendships,” says Carle. “One that I had as a three-year-old boy, another as a six-year-old when I was taken by my parents to Germany, and another as a young man when I arrived back in the United States with my portfolio in hand. I have always believed that friendship is very important. I know it was for me as a child. I can still remember my strong attachments and feelings for my friends when I was a boy.”

Canadian Children’s Lit Awards

The Canadian Children’s Book Centre (CCBC) has announced the finalists for its seven major children’s book awards: TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, Prix TD de littérature canadienne pour l’enfance et la jeunesse, Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children’s Non-Fiction, Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People, John Spray Mystery Award, and Monica Hughes Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy. The winners will be announced at the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Awards and Prix TD de littérature canadienne pour l’enfance et la jeunesse in Toronto on October 22 and in Montreal on October 29.

The finalists for the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award ($30,000) are: Kids of Kabul (Groundwood; ages 11 Up) by Deborah Ellis; One Year in Coal Harbor (Groundwood; ages 9–13) by Polly Horvath; Susin Nielsen’s The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen (Tundra; ages 11 Up); The Stamp Collector (Fitzhenry & Whiteside; ages 8 Up) written by Jennifer Lanthier and illustrated by Francois Thisdale; and Virginia Wolf (Kids Can, ages 5–10) written by Kyo Maclear and illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault.

The Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award finalists are: Mr. King’s Things (Kids an; ages 3–7) written and illustrated by Genevieve Cote, Mr. Zinger’s Hat (Tundra; ages 4–8), The Stamp Collector (Fitzhenry & Whiteside; ages 8 Up) written by Jennifer Lanthier and illustrated by Francois Thisdale; Uncle Wally’s Old Brown Shoe (Orca; ages 4–8) written and illustrated by Wallace Edwards and Virginia Wolf (Kids Can, ages 5–10) written by Kyo Maclear and illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault.

The Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People ($5,000) finalists are: A Call to Battle (Scholastic Canada; ages 10–14) by Gillian Chan, The Lynching of Louie Sam (Annick Press; ages 12 Up) by Elizabeth Stewart, Making Bombs for Hitler (Scholastic Canada; ages 9–14) by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, Amy McAuley’s Violins of Autumn (Walker; ages 12 Up), and Yesterday’s Dead (Second Story Press; ages 10–14) by Pat Bourke.

The finalists for the John Spray Mystery Award ($5,000) include: Becoming Holmes (Tundra; ages 11–14) by Shane Peacock, Devil’s Pass (Orca; ages 12–14) by Sigmund Brouwer, Neil Flambe and the Tokyo Treasure (S & S; ages 8–13) written and illustrated by Kevin Sylvester.

A complete list of finalists in all the categories can be found on The Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s website.

For the first time, TD Bank Group is partnering with CBC Books to present the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Fan Choice Award. Young readers will be asked to pick their favorite book from the shortlisted TD Award titles in an online poll starting on Monday, September 9. The book with the most votes will win, and one entrant will win a trip to Toronto to present the award at the ceremony on October 22.

“The point of ‘Stories for All’ is to say to the publishing industry that there really is a strong market out there for books about and by people from every conceivable culture on the planet. There really is, and we represent a big segment of that,” Zimmer says.

“First Book serves the kids and families in the lowest 30 percent of the socioeconomic strata in the U.S. and Canada, and that’s about 45 percent of American kids,” Zimmer notes. “And what that means is that if we really build this market, we actually by volume will dwarf the regular retail market—and that changes everything. Then the publishers have a strong market that they can step into with content that addresses a much broader cultural array of kids. So that’s what this is about.”

The nonprofit group—which has provided more than 100 million new books and resources to schools and programs in under-served communities in the U.S. and Canada since 1992—in March purchased $1 million worth of titles from HarperCollins and Lee & Low Books featuring a diverse array of characters and cultures, the first phase of the project.

A complicated problem
“Part of the problem with the lack of diversity part of it is kids from those cultures don’t get to see themselves,” Zimmer explains. “The other part is that white kids who are growing up with lots of books in more affluent families are getting a very skewed version of the world. We’re doing them a disservice, because they’re stepping out without understanding the full spectrum of what the world looks like, and we are ill-preparing everybody. This market problem is a tragedy on both sides.”

First Book chose the two publishers—one major publisher and one smaller publisher—out of 26 bids, “a stunningly positive response” to the group’s mandate for “a high degree of diversity and a real deal—the lowest prices—to get as many books into kids’ hands as possible,” Zimmer says. “It showed me that the industry desperately wants to reach every kid who is waiting for books and they want to reach them in the most powerful way that they can, with books that are relevant and books that are as low a price point as they can possibly get to. Because they really, really stepped up on this.”

Zimmer adds, “There’s something unique about publishing and book people…[they] deeply love books and reading, and that’s a big deal, because it means that you’ve got people on both sides of the table who fundamentally want the same thing. If you called Detroit and you said to the auto makers, ‘We’re going to spend a half a million dollars and we want solar vehicles’—well, you probably wouldn’t even get a return phone call. But the publishers already so much want to be part of the solution, and I think we tapped a nerve. They were deliriously happy to find a solid opportunity to sell books that they love, that reflect the diversity that they know as well as everyone is part of the American culture. They stepped up, and they stepped up with enormous enthusiasm.”

As a result of that first phase, the group was able to purchase 255,350 culturally diverse books, adding more than 700 titles to the First Book Marketplace available to those serving kids in need.

“We’re delighted,” Zimmer says. “We’ve gotten responses from major partners like Reading is Fundamental—they made a big purchase through First Book because the diversity was so great—and small rural places that have Native American kids, and cultures that hardly ever get to see themselves in books. Suddenly it was available in a way that hit the two big blockages for books for kids. One is price, and the second one is relevancy, and with this we knocked them both out.”

An innovative solution
Indeed, the reaction from small nonprofit groups sourcing from First Book has been very positive.

“I love the books from First Book!” says Susan Jaye-Kaplan, president and co-founder of Link to Libraries, which distributes thousands of new books to needy kids in Western Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, and New York through a variety of innovative programs.

“The Stories for All Project” is helping Link to Libraries meet a desperate need for more diverse stories, Jaye-Kaplan tells SLJ. “We have a melting pot society, especially here,” Jaye-Kaplan says of her community. “We give books in seven languages. We have a lot of Latino and Somali children, and that’s why we like this particular group of books. It’s very important for us that we give books that are about these boys and girls and their families and their experiences, and books that talk to them and not at them. We want very much to give them books that give them reasons to want to read.”

She adds, “This particular collection of books, the minute I saw it I knew it was something I had to have because it’s talking to every child that we’re involved with. It is so relevant to who we are here, and the books are beautiful, and the graphics are breathtaking. They are so engaging and so gorgeous.”

Those sentiments are shared by Julia Rogers of the Children’s Literacy Foundation, a non-profit that serves low-income and rural children in Vermont and New Hampshire. “’The Stories for All Project’ is allowing us to purchase books that speak directly to many of our families,” she tells SLJ. “I’m thrilled to be able to bring more multicultural titles to our events—especially ones that serve the growing refugee population in northern Vermont and southern New Hampshire. Children will react to a book differently when they identify with the main characters. It’s wonderful to see a child connect with a story on a deeper level. That’s exactly the kind of relationship we’re trying to build between children and books.”

Adds Amanda Wilkinson, senior program director at the YMCA of Greater Charlotte (NC), “We are excited about the initiative to get books that represent a greater diversity into our kids’ hands….Our goal is to get kids reading on grade level, and we need lots of books to accomplish this.”

Her group’s Y Readers program, a collaboration with three local school districts, serves K–3 students reading below grade level both after school and during a six-week summer camp. This past summer, the program served 492 students, of which 27 percent were English language learners, 41 percent were African American, and 42 percent were Latino.

“I think it is important that students are immersed in books and resources that represent who they are,” Wilkinson says. “It is powerful when a student reads books with characters that look like them or when the characters have similar experiences. We support the diversity initiative and would love to see even more books suitable for K–3 students in the collection.”

So what’s next for First Book? In June, the group unveiled at the Clinton Global Initiative America the planned next phase of the project, a “Commitment to Action” that includes outreach to 30,000 new schools and programs, special collections of diverse and multicultural titles, matching grants for educators, and an influential council of authors to help inspire new books and stories.

“This is a jump for us. We were thrilled to make that commitment and we take it very seriously,” Zimmer says. She also notes that the commitment is actually just the tip of the iceberg.

Advocacy in action
Though First Book hasn’t traditionally taken on an advocacy role, “what we’re realizing as we grow—we represent 65,000 classrooms and programs and we’re growing by more than 2,000 classrooms and programs a month—is we’re gaining this huge momentum,” Zimmer says.

“We can actually step into a role that will bridge the gap between the audience of kids that we represent and the traditional publishing audience that is out there that walks into bookstores. When we were smaller, we were not at the point where we swung a big enough stick and understood our own market as well as we do now. But we are in a much stronger position. We’ve almost doubled in size in just two year, and we’ve built in very strong feedback loops, so we’re talking to our constituents almost all the time, so that we can say to them ‘What do you want? What do you need?’”

However, Zimmer is quick to point out that the large numbers of programs that First Book serves is actually only about 4 percent of the population eligible to sign up for First Book’s free resources.

“All of those heroic librarians who are trying with resources that have been cut out from underneath them to meet the needs of the students that are coming in to their schools—tell them to sign up with us, because that will make it happen faster,” Zimmer says.

“This is about growing that network so they are talking to us and we know what they need—what languages, what cultures, age levels. That is critical. So help us spread the word: if you are a teacher or you are a librarian and you are working in a Title I or a Title I-eligible school or you have a special program that does outreach work with kids who are in need, sign up. Tell us what you need. Because I promise you, we will stand on our heads to make it happen.”

In the meantime, First Book will continue to push kid lit publishers to diversify their offerings. “There will be some creative, innovative strategies to say to the publishers ‘You know what? Go find some new authors. We know they’re out there,’” Zimmer says. “There are a lot of brilliant people from a lot of places all over the world, and they want to tell their stories, and we’re going to be…sending out the word to really inspire a whole group of new authors to start telling their wonderful stories.”

Zimmer also hints at some additional exciting developments coming down the pike, the details of which First Book is keeping under wraps for the moment. “There will be another announcement late this month,” she teases. “It’s an exciting move for us, and you’ll understand why it’s important to diversity.”

In The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got that Way (S & S, 2013), Ripley reports on her year-long “field trip to the smart-kid countries” to see if she could account for the success of the high achievers. What made these kids smarter than their American peers? To offer an insider’s perspective, she recruited three teenagers participating in student exchange programs: Kim, a sophomore from a low-performing high school in small-town Sallisaw, OK, made her way to Finland after the hard work of raising $10,000; Eric, a recent graduate of a high-achieving, affluent Minnetonka, MN, high school, deferred college for a year to attend high school in Busan, South Korea; and Tom, a western literature enthusiast from Gettysburg, PA, opted to spend his senior year in Wroclaw, Poland.

So, what did Ripley’s investigation reveal? While many of the problems that plague schools, such as principal and teacher complaints, strong unions, political maneuvering, and test anxiety are universal, where children live often determines how seriously they take their role as students. In Finland, Korea, and Poland, the stakes are high; students’ college choices and future careers are determined by how well they do on their exams. Though also true to some extent in the United States, many American students appear fairly blasé about academic success. Interestingly, access to technology wasn’t a deciding factor in motivation or better learning. In fact, the three countries profiled had no digital whiteboards and few computers in the classroom. (They also didn’t have school sponsored sports teams.) What mattered most was rigor and equity, that all students were expected to perform to a certain level and held to the same standards, as were their teachers. In Finland, especially, Ripley describes how improving teacher-training programs by limiting admissions to highly qualified applicants, demanding subject area expertise, and extending the internship period, also improved the level of rigor in the classroom. And they did this while rather than after adopting stringent national standards.

It’s clear that no one country has the answer to America’s public (and sometimes private) school morass. Each has specific issues and problems; consider Korea’s late-night hagwons, private tutoring schools that reduce equity because they charge for access to the best teachers while wearing down students to the point of exhaustion. But what is clear is that in each of the three countries profiled, policy makers and educators and, more importantly, parents and students have decided that a good education matters and excuses for failure are unacceptable. Ripley’s reporting is top-notch, fluidly presented, and well-documented, and her coverage of the teenagers’ personal journeys and experiences, both social and academic, make this a must-read for anyone interested in getting American schools back on track.

Bascomb, Neal. The Nazi Hunters. (Scholastic; Gr 6-10).
Adolf Eichmann, the S.S. Commander in charge of the transport of millions of Europeans to concentration and labor camps during World War II, is the focus of this compelling and suspenseful title. Bascomb describes in detail the search for Eichmann across continents, the elaborate plans and courageous team assembled to kidnap him, the man’s capture in Argentina, and his trial in the newly formed state of Israel in 1961. In the end, Eichmann went quietly with his captors, and to the end insisted he was following orders. Average quality black-and-white photos, reproductions of documents, and maps illustrate the book.

Hanbury-Tenison, Robin and Robert Twigger. The Modern Explorers. (Thames & Hudson; Gr 9 Up).
Units of study on exploration begin in the early grades and often continue through high school. In years past the focus was on early ocean voyages and the individuals that led them, but since then many histories have expanded to include underwater and space travel. Asserting that “exploration is alive and well and never more popular than today,” the authors of this volume follow up with 39 accounts (including many first-hand) of travels to deserts, forests, mountain ranges, and the open sea with scientists, photojournalists, and adventurers. Numerous black-and-white archival photos and dramatic color images illustrate these remarkable contemporary journeys in search of river sources, remote populations, and an experience of a lifetime.

Hopkins, H. Joseph. The Tree Lady: The True Story of How One Tree-Loving Woman Changed a City Forever (Beach Lane Books; Gr 2-5). Illustrated by Jill McElmurry.
Growing up in Northern California in the 1860s, Kate Sessions felt “at home in the woods,” that “the trees were her friends.” Later, after graduating from the University of California with a degree in science (the first woman to do so), she took a teaching job in San Diego. In that city’s nearly treeless landscape, it wasn’t long before Sessions became a gardener, determined to find plants that could thrive in a dry, warm climate. Hopkins relates how the woman was soon planting trees “along streets, by schools, and in small parks and plazas all over town.” In preparation for the Panama-California Exposition of 1915, Sessions organized planting parties so that visitors could enjoy a shady City Park (now Balboa Park). Thanks to her love of nature and can-do spirit, San Diego today is a “lush leafy city.” McElmurry’s distinguished illustrations, imbued with a range of greens and earth tones, document the landscape’s transformation.

McClafferty. Carla Killough. Fourth Down and Inches: Concussions and Football’s Make-or-Break Moment. (Carolrhoda; Gr 7 Up).
Here’s a title that combines headline news, medical science, and sports. Stories of injuries sustained by both professional and young football players have been surfacing over the past few years, giving rise to concerns about the safety of the game. McClafferty begins with a history of  football, including the 1905 season that ended in 19 deaths and numerous critical injuries, and resulted in early changes to the rules of the sport. Combining personal stories, information on impacts sustained by athletes, the effects of concussions and brain injuries, and current research, the author brings readers up to date on the continuing efforts to make the sport safer. This attractively designed volume is supported by archival black-and-white and color photos, source notes, a bibliography, and a list of further reading. Consider pairing Fourth Down with Perri Klass and David Klass’s fiction title, Second Impact (FSG, 2013) for another look at the topic.

Rosenstock, Barb. Thomas Jefferson Builds a Library (Calkins Creek; Gr 2-5). Illustrated by John O’Brien.
Books were Jefferson’s “constant companions” and he read and purchased them with enthusiasm. His extensive personal library formed the foundation of the second Library of Congress collection after first was destroyed in 1814. Rosenstock tells the story of the man’s passion for collecting “histories and contracts” and tomes on “medicine, music, and math.” Throughout this thoroughly delightful story, the author weaves in information on Jefferson’s personal life and his role as a statesman. Side notes, some framed by an illustration of an open book, offer additional facts and quotes by the man (“All that is necessary for a student is access to a library.”) John O’Brien’s pen-and-ink and watercolor art is rich in detail and its humorous touches that mirror the spirited text.

Sample CCSS literacy strands follow each title discussed for lesson-plan possibilities.

Tony Preciado and Rhode Montijo clearly empathize with kids who would never pick up a grammar guide. Their Super Grammar (Scholastic, 2012; Gr. 2-8) delivers a group of dynamic comic-book heroes, asking readers to learn the character’s “names, powers, teams, and how they work together!” The book’s graphic-novel format employs bright primary colors for each section. The “Amazing Eight,” highlighted in red, teach the parts of speech. The green (and evil) “Sabotage Squad” trick writers into using sentence fragments, run-on sentences, and double negatives. In the later case, a boy and villain are depicted in a stand-off. “You’re not no superhero!” he declares, a comment corrected with new phrasing and an illustration that conveys the intended meaning. Notable for its broad appeal, this title allows young readers to create their own superhero worlds, and won’t turn off older students who benefit from visuals as they learn grammar concepts.

CCSS L.3.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. 3.1a. Explain the function of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in general and their functions in particular sentences.

CCSS L.3.2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. 3.2c.Use commas and quotation marks in dialogue. 3.2d.Form and use possessives.

Employing the cartoon characters A. J., and Andrea from his “My Weird School” series, Dan Gutman offers humorous advice in his conversational My Weird Writing Tips (HarperCollins/Harper, 2013; Gr. 2-5). In crafting a story, the author recommends, “Start with a bang!” and create tension by having something bad happen to your main character. Gutman’s sample outlandish scenarios will amuse readers—and tempt them to take the bait. Once they have, Part 2 will help them finesse their narrative writing with information on the parts of speech, spelling and punctuation tips, and suggestions on how to communicate ideas and tell a good story.

“Cut! Cut! Cut!” suggests the author when revising, and reward yourself with an M&M candy each time you eliminate a word that doesn’t affect the meaning of your work. He cautions students not to “look like a dumbhead” by using texting language in school assignments. Students who aren’t receptive to more formal grammar instruction will find Weird a relatable guide that reinforces those easily forgotten, but important conventions.

CCSS W.3.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.

CCSS L.5.2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

Tapping into the young writers’ senses, Karen Benke offers  relaxation exercises to open the mind, and writing prompts such as eavesdropping on a stranger’s conversation to capture how people do communicate, or don’t communicate. The author also invites doodling and pre-writing in blank spaces provided throughout the pages of Leap Write In! Adventures in Creative Writing to Stretch and Surprise Your One-of-a-Kind Mind (Roost, 2013; Gr. 5-8).

Teachers will want this title for the dozens of novel approaches it suggests to engage students. An idea to create a cento or patchwork of different lines from stories and poems, as they’re written, then change them up, is a fresh way to get budding writers to observe how meaning changes with word and phrase placement. Text models, quotes, and poems serve as inspiration, and when asked to describe how to make a mud pie—“What? You’ve never made a mud pie? Drop this book immediately and go find some dirt”—readers will happily comply with the command.

CCSS W.6.3.b Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, and description, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.

Unsuspecting fiction readers will be surprised to find themselves in the author’s role in Pseudonymous Bosch’s Write This Book! A Do-It-Yourself Mystery (Little, Brown, 2013; Gr. 4-7). The story centers on a missing writer, who abandons a work in progress. It’s up to two siblings and readers to discover why, or as Bosch puts it, “Think of it this way: the book is a mystery novel—but this time the novel itself is the mystery…. Your job is to solve it.”

Bosch is a willing and enthusiastic guide, taking readers step-by-step through a novel’s structure, explaining the whys and hows from the foreword and preface to deciding on a setting and creating tension. Along the way they’ll learn about character and plot development, writing dialogue, literary terms, common writing pitfalls, and much, much more, all while determining the story’s direction. References to familiar books from E. B. White’s Charlotte’s Web to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit drive home points, while the many mini-assignments and fill-in-the-blanks help the reader/writer bring the story to a satisfying conclusion. Serious injections of humor and illustration add to the fun.

CCSS ELA-Literacy. W.5.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.

CCSS ELA-Literacy. W.5.3a Orient the reader by establishing  a situation and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy. W.5.3b Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, description, and pacing, to develop experiences and events or show the responses of characters to situations.

Three blind mice named Mary, Pee Wee, and Oscar help define nearly 100 literary elements, most unconventionally, in Catherine Lewis’s Thrice Told Tales: Three Mice Full of Writing Advice by (S & S/Atheneum, 2013; Gr. 7 Up). Depicted as cartoon critters wearing sunglasses, the trio is clever at finding ways to explain such terms as “red herring,” “immediacy,” “cliché,” “picaro,” and “interior monologue.”

The author’s tongue-in-cheek tone is evident in her definition of “Sentimentality,” illustrated by a spoof of a publisher’s rejection letter to Pee Wee for an overly emotional manuscript. The publisher suggests that he rewrite, incorporating more ambiguity, irony, and tension—and signs off as the “Big Cheese.” Despite the childlike drawings, this title will appeal to sophisticated writers (and readers) who see how the connecting thread of the simple classic story changes with each literary device. There are amusing nods to famous authors (“They were the best of mice, they were the worst of mice…”), but it’s the “Snip of the Tail” captions from the author that offer the most clarity to each term. Teachers may want to borrow the premise of a twisted tale, and turn a class loose to create their own literary term definitions.

CCSS RL 9-10. 5 Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.

CCSS W.8.3b Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events   within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as  mystery, tension, or surprise.

In How to Read Literature Like a Professor (2003; Gr 9. Up). Thomas C. Foster guides high school students as they look for themes and patterns in classic texts. His How to Read Literature Like a Professor for Kids (2013, both HarperCollins; Gr. 3-7) demonstrates for middle school students how to do the same for both classic and modern children’s literature.

In a chapter titled, “Now Where Have I Seen Him Before?” the author compares Mowgli, the boy watched over by panthers in Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book (1893), to Bod from Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book (2008), a boy raised by ghosts—both children in need of a family. Students will learn to identify elements of a quest, supernatural characters who grow in strength by weakening others (the ghost in Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, Stephenie Meyer’s vampires in the “Twilight” series), and more. While many young readers may not have encountered Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea or Homer’s Odyssey yet, the book can serve as a teacher tool to introduce these classics. Most valuable is the refreshing attention to the craft and structure of texts that will move classroom discussion from plot rehash to a higher level of understanding.

CCSS RL 8.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text.

CCSS W.5.9 Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or a drama, drawing on specific details in the text [e.g., how characters interact]”).

Stripes, Dots, and Swirls
From a Madagascan ring-tailed lemur, to a North American zebra swallowtail butterfly, to a sixline wrasse swimming through an Indo-Pacific Ocean coral reef, Susan Stockdale shows readers that animals with Stripes of All Types (Peachtree, 2013; PreS-Gr 2) populate the globe. Simple, lilting rhymes and enticing action verbs spotlight critters in their natural habitats: “Prowling the prairie,/perched on a peak./Crawling on cactus,/and camped by a creek” (handsome acrylic illustrations depict an American badger bounding through tall grass, a bongo profiled against a moonlit African sky, black-and-yellow cactus bees sipping nectar from a flower, and a Malayan tapir nestled by a stream). The final double-page image brings the action close to home as two children cuddle a pair of black-and-gray tabbies.

An afterword identifies each species and provides insight about the significance of its stripes, which are used for camouflage, communication, to warn off predators, or to attract mates. An interactive game challenges readers to match close-ups of the various patterns with their animal owners, encouraging kids to look more closely at the pictures, hunt back through the book to extract information, and make comparisons between these unique and striking designs.

Blending breezy rhymes with lovely collage artwork, Betsy Franco and Steve Jenkins’s Bees, Snails, & Peacock Tails (S & S, 2008; K-Gr 3) presents a sampling of the patterns and shapes found right before our eyes. For example, a beehive is constructed from tiny hexagon “fit side/by side/by side,” a sturdy and space-saving design; a moth’s wings are adorned with perfectly symmetrical “eyes” (thought to frighten away predators); migrating birds fly in a graceful V-shape (“By forming a wedge,/the swans and the geese/slice through the air/and travel in peace”); and when threatened, a puffer fish swells up to a larger-in-size—and harder-to-eat—sphere. Whether depicting the repeating pattern of footprints left behind by a scampering mouse or the straight-line scent trail followed by foraging ants, the textured illustrations make each concept crystal clear.

In Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature (Houghton Mifflin, 2011; PreS-Gr 3) Joyce Sidman and Beth Krommes focus on a particular shape that occurs repeatedly, revealing itself in many different ways. Lyrical and concise, the narrative describes the broad characteristics of this versatile form, expanded upon in the spectacular scratchboard illustrations awhirl with specific plant and animal species and examples of natural phenomena.

A spiral can be “Coiled tight,/warm and safe,” like a woodchuck hibernating underground; start small and grow larger “swirl by swirl” like a nautilus; or unwrap itself, “one/soft/curl/at a time,” like a lady fern unfurling feathery fronds. A spiral is “strong,” like a rolled-up bristles-out hedgehog or the impact-absorbing horns of a merino sheep, and “and clings tight” like the curled trunk of an Asian elephant or a spider monkey’s tail. It is “bold” (the whorl of a wave before it hits shore), “beautiful” (the precisely arranged petals of a chrysanthemum), and awe-inspiring (a spiral-shaped galaxy “stretches starry arms/through space,/spinning and sparkling,/forever expanding…”).

A brief afterword provides a bit more info about the featured examples and a quick mention of the Fibonacci sequence. Elegant, captivating, and imagination-stirring, this amazing meld of poetry, science, and artistry will inspire discussion and enthusiasm for spiral-seeking expeditions.

Color, Color, Everywhere
Melissa Stewart’s A Rainbow of Animals (Enslow, 2010; K-Gr 3) takes it color by color to introduce a menagerie of mostly monochromatic creatures. From red to purple, each section spans the globe to present an assortment of species (range maps appear at the end of each chapter).Each critter is allotted its own spread, bordered by the appropriate hue, and vibrant close-up photos are paired with an accessible introduction to the animal and the role played by its color (protection from predators, to warn enemies away, attracting mates, etc.).

Particularly interesting examples include the mandrill, monkeys that use their bright red noses to locate one another in the dense forest; the brown-throated three-toed sloth, featured in the green section because of its algae covered fur, which provides camouflage in the forest; and the blue darner dragonfly, which adjusts its color to the temperature (dark blue for warmth on cool mornings, light blue to cool down on hot afternoons). The eye-catching format and mix of familiar and exotic animals make this book fun for browsing and whets appetites for further investigations.

Also arranged by shade, Steve Jenkins’s Living Color (Houghton Mifflin, 2007; K- Gr 5) introduces several species per spread. Set against neat white backdrops, the cut-paper collages are amazingly lifelike and gracefully dynamic. Each section begin with a statement (e.g., “Red says…”), and a lively caption playfully sums up the connotation of each animal’s color—“Step carefully” for the extremely poisonous stonefish (adorned with 13 venomous spines along its back and lethal if trod upon by a swimmer), or “I stink” for a shield bug (which releases a foul-smelling chemical when threatened). Well-written paragraphs percolating with fascinating facts fill in the details.

The book’s layout encourages readers to search out similarities and differences, discovering, for example, that the male blue bird of paradise uses his rich-hued plumage to attract a mate, the color of the cobalt blue tarantula allows it to better hide in the dusky shadows of the forest floor, and the mostly brown blue-tailed skink twitches its bright appendage to fake out predators (when grabbed, the tail breaks off, and the lizard can make its escape; it eventually grows a new tail). Back matter provides more information about animal color and its uses and the creatures featured in the book (size, habitat, diet, etc.).

Explore Your World
In Ashley Wolff’s endearing tale, Baby Bear Sees Blue (S & S/Beach Lane, 2012; PreS-Gr 2)—and a rainbow of other colors—after he awakens in his den and steps out with his mother to investigate his environment. The gentle question-and-answer narrative shimmers with concrete details, sensual imagery, and a buoyant mood of wonder: sniffing the meadow air, the cub asks, “What smells so good, Mama?” She replies, “Those are the strawberries”….and “Baby Bear sees red.” After a busy day, mother and child curl up together in their cave, and Baby Bear “closes his eyes and sees nothing but deep, soft black.”

Balancing realism with soft-edged sweetness, Wolff’s linoleum-print-and-watercolor illustrations are filled with dazzlimg shades and pleasing textures. Their large size and the text’s repetitive structure make this charmer a perfect choice for sharing aloud in a classroom.

Presented with a similar sense of invigorating discovery, these books remind students that a multitude of shapes, colors, and patterns can be found in their own day-to-day worlds. On an “Apple crisp October day,” a father and two children take a trip to a pumpkin farm to Pick a Circle, Gather Squares (Albert Whitman, 2013; PreS-Gr 2). Felicia Sanzari Chernesky’s rhyming text and Susan Swan’s harvest-hued collages depict a delightful excursion as the youngsters point out circles (“Here’s the sun./Apples, pumpkins—/such round fun!”), square-shaped bales of hay, ovals (squash, corn, and speckled eggs), hexagons (honeycombs and pen-protecting chicken wire), and more. Filled with splashes of bright color and appealing textures, the artwork depicts lively action, engaging details, and additional shapes to find.

Jane Brocket’s Ruby, Violet, Lime: Looking for Color (Millbrook, 2012; PreS-Gr 2) presents a gorgeous gallery of vibrantly hued photos of flowers, foods, clothing, buildings, and other commonplace objects. Spreads focused on a particular color are aglow with varying shades, and the accompanying text utilizes descriptive adjectives and sense-based imagery to add resonance and a touch of imagination: “Green is crisp and lively. Lime frosting, mint-green striped socks, emerald lettuces, and jade gardens are fresh and zingy.” A visual and verbal feast, this book encourages kids to take a closer look at their surroundings.

Get Creative
Emily Gravett expands upon basic concepts of color and shape—and the science of animal coloration—in a playful tale filled with surprises, humor, and a message about remaining true to one’s self. With head held in hands, body slumped, and eyes despondently downcast, Blue Chameleon (S & S, 2011; K-Gr 3) is looking…well, blue, a mood expressed in his scratchy azure and cobalt body shading.

In the spreads following, the lonely lizard searches for companionship, mimicking in both color and form each of the objects or animals he comes across—yellow and crescent shaped as he approaches a banana, swirly tailed with two toes extended over head like tentacles as he creeps up to a snail, round and purple-dotted as he rolls toward a beach ball. Alas, no one will respond, and he finally gives up, sitting still as stone on a “Gray rock.” A page turn reveals what seems like a plain white backdrop, but a closer look—or perhaps even touch—reveals the chameleon outlined in a glossy same-colored ink. Readers will also notice a foot, similarly camouflaged, and accompanied by a tentative, “Hello?”

At last, the protagonist has made a friend, and two “Colorful chameleons” cavort together on the final spread, brightly arrayed in a kaleidoscope of colors, shapes, and patterns. Filled with gentle humor, the spare text and outstanding artwork invite readers to make visual comparisons between objects, recognize instances of symmetry, recount and contemplate the book’s changing moods, and think anew about the wonders of colors and animals. Use this book to initiate color-related creative writing and art projects.

After sharing some of these titles, take students on a nature walk in a nearby park or a ramble through the neighborhood. Have them focus on looking for, pointing out, and identifying the colors, shapes, and patterns that they come across, whether natural or manmade. Encourage them to look closely at familiar sights and utilize their observation skills. Youngsters can record their findings by drawing or writing in a field journal.

Kids can also scour their classrooms to search out colors, shapes, and patterns. Have them browse through books, magazines, or other resources about wildlife and nature to identify interesting visual designs. Check out National Geographic’s website, which includes a “Patterns in Nature” photo gallery filled with spectacular images organized by topic (animals, butterflies, sea creatures, trees, rocks and lava, snow and ice, etc.). These crisp, beautifully composed photos show the astounding spectrum and variety of nature’s designs. Using their own artwork and/or photos, clip-art images, or photos clipped from magazines, students can create their own concept books and perhaps share them with younger children just learning color and shape basics.

The Common Core State Standards below are a sampling of those references in the above books and classroom activities:

RL. 1.1. Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
RL. 1.4. Identify words or phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.
RI. 1.1. Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
W. 1.2. Write information/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and prove some sense of closure.
W. 2.7. Participate in shared research and writing projects.
SL. 1.2. Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud….
K.G. Identify and describe shapes.