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Review and Teaching Guide!: El Deafo by Cece Bell

August 21, 2016October 15, 2014 by Kellee

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday is hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy and was started to help promote the reading of nonfiction texts. Most Wednesdays, we will be participating and will review a nonfiction text (though it may not always be a picture book).
Be sure to visit Kid Lit Frenzy and see what other nonfiction books are shared this week!

El Deafo
Author: Cece Bell
Published September 2nd, 2014 by Abrams

Publisher Summary: Going to school and making new friends can be tough. But going to school and making
new friends while wearing a bulky hearing aid strapped to your chest? That requires superpowers! In this funny, poignant graphic-novel memoir, author/illustrator Cece Bell chronicles her hearing loss at a young age and her subsequent experiences with the Phonic Ear, a very powerful—and very awkward—hearing aid. The Phonic Ear gives Cece the ability to hear—sometimes
things she shouldn’t—but also isolates her from her classmates. She really just wants to fit in and find a true friend, someone who appreciates her as she is. After some trouble, she is finally able to harness the power of the Phonic Ear and become “El Deafo, Listener for All.” And more importantly, declare a place for herself in the world and fi nd the friend she’s longed for.

Author: Cece Bell has written and illustrated several books for children, including the Geisel Honor book Rabbit & Robot: The Sleepover. She lives in Virginia with her husband, author Tom Angleberger.

My Review: There are times that you read a book and when you are done, you just know that it is a special book. El Deafo is one of those books. As you all know, I am a huge fan of Hurt Go Happy by Ginny Rorby, and one of the reasons I am is because it looks at disabilities in a positive light and shows that a disability is not an end, but just a change. El Deafo is another novel that does this. Although Cece, like Joey in Hurt Go Happy, finds herself deaf at a young age, we see her overcome this blow and turn it into a superpower. But this book is about more than deafness; it is about being a kid, about growing up, about friendship, about ackwardness, about school, about crushes, about family, about life. This book is truth.

Teachers’ Tools For Navigation: There is so much you can do with this graphic novel. Many activities can be found in the teaching guide that I wrote for Abrams. This book is perfect for independent reading, for lit circles with other graphic novel memoirs, for jigsawing, for read alouds, and for looking deeply into the text.

(Also, and I didn’t want to harp on this because they are both such unique books, but this book will be loved by the readers of Smile. They both look at such an important part of life.)

Discussion Questions: Language Arts: Cece uses many different kinds of clues to help her lip-read. (pages 30–31) What are the 4 types of clues? How do they help with lip-reading? In what other ways can these clues be helpful?; On page 60, Cece shares an analogy of her friendship with Laura. She feels like a baited fish that is caught on Laura’s hook. What analogies could we make to
describe Cece’s friendship with Ginny? Martha? Emma?; Science: What is meningitis? How can it cause deafness?; What is an audiologist? What would you have to study to become one?; History/Social Studies: Many deaf and hard of hearing individuals have made history, including Helen Keller, William Ellsworth Hoy, and Juliette Gordon Low. Research these or other deaf or hard of
hearing individuals throughout history and today. How did being deaf affect their lives? What were their accomplishments?

We Flagged:

**From Cece Bell’s blog**

Read This If You Loved: Smile and Sister by Raina Telgemeier, The Dumbest Idea Ever! by Jimmy Grownley, I Remember Beirut by Zeina Abirached, Odd Duck by Cecil Castellucci

Recommended For:

Frank! by Connah Brecon

September 25, 2014 by Ricki

Frank!
Author: Connah Brecon
Published: September 30, 2014 by Running Press Kids

Publisher Summary: Frank is a bear who is always late. He has very good reasons, like the morning he found himself challenged to a charity dance-off, or the time he had to rescue a family of bunnies from a huge, smelly ogre. Frank’s teacher is not impressed—until a giant zombie lizard king attacks the school, and the friends he made on his diversions help him find a way to save the day.

Half the fun of this book is in the details: the watch repair shop signs that reflect Frank’s tardiness, the growing reactions of each of Frank’s classmates, the three pigeons that follow Frank through the story. Brecon’s crisp characters layered with crayon-like lines creates a bold, kinetic style. This hip, zany story about tall tales and the importance of community will appeal to children and parents with a penchant for the unpredictable.

Ricki’s Review: The illustrations of this book are whimsical and fun. Kids will surely be inspired to want to create their own artwork. This is a fun story that will leave classrooms of students in giggles. Brecon’s imagination shines. This text incorporates some great details and will allow for fantastic conversations in classrooms about responsibility.

Kellee’s Review: Like Ricki said, the illustrations were so wonderful! They are really what moves this text to the next level although Frank himself is just such an eccentric character also. The book does take a crazy, fun twist in the middle which will definitely keep kids’ attention. I do love the theme of helping out that shines throughout the book. This is an important theme to discuss with kids, and this book doesn’t make it boring while discussing it.

Teacher’s Tools for Navigation: Frank gives a variety of clever reasons for being late. Kids might imagining bizarre, silly reasons for being late and hang these pictures around the room. Responsibility is a very important lesson for young children, and I can imagine teachers and students referencing Frank’s story whenever a student doesn’t act responsibly.

Discussion Questions: Why is Frank always late? What is an excuse?; What does it mean to be responsible?; When is the best time to hold dance parties?

We Flagged: “It wasn’t that Frank was rude or unreliable. Nor was he a dawdler or a meanderer. He just liked to help out.” (p. 2-3)

Book Trailer:

Read This If You Loved: Stuck by Oliver Jeffers, I Want my Hat Back by Jon Klassen, Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina, The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle

Recommended For:

and

Freedom Summer by Deborah Wiles (Ricki’s Review)

July 14, 2015September 18, 2014 by Ricki

Freedom Summer
Author: Deborah Wiles; Illustrator: Jerome Lagarrigue
Published: January 1, 2005 by Aladdin

Summary:

John Henry swims better than anyone I know.
He crawls like a catfish,
blows bubbles like a swamp monster,
but he doesn’t swim in the town pool with me.
He’s not allowed.

Joe and John Henry are a lot alike. They both like shooting marbles, they both want to be firemen, and they both love to swim. But there’s one important way they’re different: Joe is white and John Henry is black, and in the South in 1964, that means John Henry isn’t allowed to do everything his best friend is. Then a law is passed that forbids segregation and opens the town pool to everyone. Joe and John Henry are so excited they race each other there…only to discover that it takes more than a new law to change people’s hearts.

Review: I rarely review picture books or texts that weren’t published recently. For me, the blog is a place for me to highlight newer books (whenever possible). I love picture books, but Kellee often reviews them, and I love young adult literature, so those are often the titles I review. After I read this book, I couldn’t wait to blog about it because it is easily one of the best picture books I have ever read and is worthy of the praise it receives. Set in the 1960s South, this moving, lyrical text depicts the Civil Rights Movement through the eyes of a child who just wants to adventure with his friend. The messages are powerful, and I plan to purchase it to read again and again with my son. After we read this as a family, my husband and I wondered if it was a work of nonfiction because it felt so very real to us.

You can view Kellee’s review of Freedom Summer here.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: The most obvious choice would be to use this text to teach about diversity, discrimination or the Civil Rights Movement. I would also love to pair this with The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson. Students would find great value in comparing and contrasting the imagery and messages of these two texts. I could also see it being paired with texts like To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. More than anything, this is a book about the power of friendship.

Discussion Questions: How do these boys view their world differently from the adults around them?; Why might the author have chosen to end the text the way she does? What message does it send?; How do the illustrations support the readers’ understanding of the text?

We Flagged:

“John Henry’s skin is the color of

browned butter.

He smells like pine needles after a

good rain.

My skin is the color of the pale

moths that dance around the porch

light at night.

John Henry says I smell like a just-washed sock.

‘This means war!’ I shout.”

Read This If You Loved: The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson, Something Beautiful by Sharon Dennis Wyeth, Goin’ Someplace Special by Patricia C. McKissack

Recommended For:

The Man with the Violin by Kathy Stinson (Kellee’s Review)

September 3, 2014 by Kellee

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday

The Man with the Violin
Author: Kathy Stinson
Illustrated: Dušan Petričić
Published August 8, 2013 by Annick Press

Goodreads Summary: “Who is playing that beautiful music in the subway? And why is nobody listening?”

This gorgeous picture book is based on the true story of Joshua Bell, the renowned American violinist who famously took his instrument down into the Washington D.C. subway for a free concert. More than a thousand commuters rushed by him, but only seven stopped to listen for more than a minute. In “The Man With the Violin,” bestselling author Kathy Stinson has woven a heart-warming story that reminds us all to stop and appreciate the beauty that surrounds us.

Dylan is someone who notices things. His mom is someone who doesn’t. So try as he might, Dylan can’t get his mom to listen to the man playing the violin in the subway station. But Dylan is swept away by the soaring and swooping notes that fill the air as crowds of oblivious people rush by. With the beautiful music in his head all day long, Dylan can’t forget the violinist, and finally succeeds in making his mother stop and listen, too.

Vividly imagined text combined with illustrations that pulse with energy and movement expertly demonstrate the transformative power of music. With an afterword explaining Joshua Bell’s story, and a postscript by Joshua Bell himself.

My Review and Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: I must preface by saying that this book is not technically nonfiction. It is based on nonfiction, but the story is actually made up.

Too often our days go by without us slowing down and taking anything in. It may be that we are busy or stressed or late , but it has become too common to see people always rushing wherever they are going. This book shows how much we may be missing out on. It also shows the innocence of childhood, and how we need to allow children to explore and slow down even if we are moving fast. It is wonderful how the illustrations capture this for the reader. Combined with the story, this one definitely hits close to home.

Ricki also had some great thoughts and ideas in her review.

Discussion Questions: This book is an important discussion starter. What have you seen recently that was beautiful that others didn’t notice?; Sit ____ and listen to the sounds around you. What do you hear that is beautiful?; Why do you think people didn’t stop to hear Joshua Bell play?; Why did the author feel this was an important story to turn into a picture book?

Book Trailer:

Read This If You Loved: The Noisy Paint Box by Barb Rosenstock, Herman and Rosie by Gus Gordon, Marvin Makes Music by Marvin Hamlisch

Recommended For:

**Thank you to Annick Press and Netgalley for providing a copy for review**

Winger by Andrew Smith (Kellee’s Review)

August 13, 2014 by Kellee

Winger
Author: Andrew Smith
Published May 14th, 2013 by Simon & Schuster

Goodreads Summary: Ryan Dean West is a fourteen-year-old junior at a boarding school for rich kids. He’s living in Opportunity Hall, the dorm for troublemakers, and rooming with the biggest bully on the rugby team. And he’s madly in love with his best friend Annie, who thinks of him as a little boy.

With the help of his sense of humor, rugby buddies, and his penchant for doodling comics, Ryan Dean manages to survive life’s complications and even find some happiness along the way. But when the unthinkable happens, he has to figure out how to hold on to what’s important, even when it feels like everything has fallen apart.

Filled with hand-drawn info-graphics and illustrations and told in a pitch-perfect voice, this realistic depiction of a teen’s experience strikes an exceptional balance of hilarious and heartbreaking.

My Review: Andrew Smith sure knows how to write a teenage boy’s voice. He gets inside of adolescent male’s mind, and puts it all on paper for us. (It probably has something to do with teaching high school.) Ryan Dean’s voice and his story are so authentic. This book will make you cringe, laugh out loud, shake your head, and cry. I am also so impressed with all of the themes that are dealt with in this book without ever feeling over done. These themes include bullying, absent parents, peer pressure, identity, sexuality, prejudice, and friendship. In addition, Smith builds his characters, setting, and plot seamlessly. You fall in love with all of the characters, main and secondary. Even the antagonist. The setting itself is a character. And finally the plot arc was perfectly done, and was so unpredictable all the way to the end.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: First and foremost, this book needs to read by teens. However that happens, it is the right thing. The easiest way would be to get it into libraries and classrooms. There are also parts of the book that could definitely be pulled out to be used in the classroom in may different ways. On that junps to mind right away is using Ryan Dean’s comics as mentor texts for writing comics to write narratives of everyday events. Ricki also has some great ideas for Winger in the classroom in her review.

Discussion Questions: What kind of social challenges does Ryan Dean have to overcome since he is 14 but a junior?; Were you able to predict the end of the book?; What are some traits about Ryan Dean that made him easy to connect to?; How does Opportunity Hall and the rest of the school become a character in Winger?

We Flagged:

(p. 21)

Read This If You Loved: Looking for Alaska by John Green, Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg

Recommended For:

The Here and Now by Ann Brashares

July 27, 2015June 19, 2014 by Ricki

The Here and Now
Author: Ann Brashares
Published: April 8, 2014 by Delacorte Press

Summary: An unforgettable epic romantic thriller about a girl from the future who might be able to save the world… if she lets go of the one thing she’s found to hold on to.

Follow the rules. Remember what happened. Never fall in love.

This is the story of seventeen-year-old Prenna James, who immigrated to New York when she was twelve. Except Prenna didn’t come from a different country. She came from a different time—a future where a mosquito-borne illness has mutated into a pandemic, killing millions and leaving the world in ruins.

Prenna and the others who escaped to the present day must follow a strict set of rules: never reveal where they’re from, never interfere with history, and never, ever be intimate with anyone outside their community. Prenna does as she’s told, believing she can help prevent the plague that will one day ravage the earth. But everything changes when Prenna falls for Ethan Jarves.

Review: I particularly loved the first half of this book. While time travel is at the heart of this text, I think it would be a great book to give to readers who love dystopian fiction. Prenna’s memory of her futuristic world was fascinating to me. At times, I found Brashares to be a bit didactic, but overall, the book is very well-written and will entice readers from the first page. I always enjoy reading books about time travel because my mind spins as I try to grapple with the paradox time travel provides. If we change the past, will we exist in the future? And how can this work, if we are living in this previous time? Ah! My brain hurts. I enjoyed this book because it made me think.

Teacher’s Tools for Navigation: Similar to my review of All Our Yesterdays, I think students would have a lot of fun selecting a time period to travel to, and perhaps, picking one event in history they would change and how it might impact the future. This could develop into a research project, and I can imagine there would be fantastic interdisciplinary connections with the subject of history. Alternatively (or additionally), teachers could link this text with the subject of science–where students research ways we are destroying our planet.

Discussion Questions: How are we destroying our planet? Do you think Ann Brashares’ prediction of the future is accurate? What is Brashares’ tone in this text?; If you could travel in time, what is one event in history that you would change and why? How might it change events in the future?

We Flagged: “People here act like the great things have already been lost, but they are wrong. They have so much still to lose” (Chapter Three).

“I guess memory is a deep well, and you don’t know what’s down there until you lower the bucket and start hauling it up” (Chapter Fifteen).

Please note: The above quotes are from the advanced reader copy. The quotes may have changed with publication.

Read This If You Loved: All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill, When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, The Giver by Lois Lowry, Legend by Marie Lu, Divergent by Veronica Roth

Recommended For:

A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

May 31, 2014May 30, 2014 by Kellee

A Long Walk to Water
Author: Linda Sue Park
Published November, 2010 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Goodreads Summary: A Long Walk to Water begins as two stories, told in alternating sections, about a girl in Sudan in 2008 and a boy in Sudan in 1985. The girl, Nya, is fetching water from a pond that is two hours’ walk from her home: she makes two trips to the pond every day. The boy, Salva, becomes one of the “lost boys” of Sudan, refugees who cover the African continent on foot as they search for their families and for a safe place to stay. Enduring every hardship from loneliness to attack by armed rebels to contact with killer lions and crocodiles, Salva is a survivor, and his story goes on to intersect with Nya’s in an astonishing and moving way.

My Review and Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: The wars in Sudan and Darfur are the most violent and long lasting wars in the world; however, most Americans are unaware that they are even occurring. Linda Sue Park took a true story of a lost boy’s survival (watch a video about the true story here) after being chased from his village because of war and transformed it into a novel that will leave the reader with a feeling of awe. Awe of the bravery and pure fearlessness of Salva and the other Lost boys of Sudan and awe of the world of riches and blindness we live in while a horrendous war wages on the other side of the world. I love this book because it is very accessible to children, it won’t bog them down with too much history; however, it will definitely make them aware of the situation in Sudan.

Discussion Questions: What is a way that you could share what you learned about the Lost Boys of Sudan? How can you help?

We Flagged: “Salva took a few steps towards the men.
‘Hey!’
A soldier approached Salva and raised his gun.
Salva froze. All he could see was the gun’s huge barrel, black and gleaming, as it moved toward his face.
The end of the barrel touched his chin.
Salva felt his knees turn to water. He closed his eyes.
If I die now, I will never see my family again.
Somehow, this thought strengthened him enough to keep him from collapsing in terror.
He took a deep breath and opened his eyes.” (p. 11)

“Going was easy.

Going, the big plastic container held only air… There was little weight, going. There was only heat, the sun already baking the air, even though it was long before noon. It would take her half the morning if she didn’t stop on the way.

Heat. Time. And thorns…

Nya filled the container all the way to the top. Then she tied the gourd in back in place and took the padded cloth doughnut from her pocked. The doughnut went on her head first, followed by the heavy container of water, which she would hold in place with one hand.

With the water balanced on her head, and her foot still sore from the thorn, Nya knew that going home would take longer than coming had. But she might reach home by noon, if all went well.” (p. 1, 14-15)

Read This If You Loved: The Queen of Water by Laura Resau, Now is the Time for Running by Michael Williams, Sold by Patricia McCormick, Diamonds in the Shadows by Caroline B. Cooney, Shabanu by Suzanne Fisher Staples, So Long a Letter by Mariama Ba

Recommended For: