I grabbed this book from the shelf at the children’s section of the library. I have read most of Lois Lowry’s works, and I did not know this one. It tells the story of Katy Thatcher, a precocious ten-year-old and daughter of the town doctor, growing up at the turn of the 20th century. Katy likes to accompany her father on his rounds and she wants to be a doctor herself when she grows up. She becomes intrigued with Jacob, the adolescent brother of their household help. Jacob is a gentle and shy boy, who doesn’t speak, but has a quiet relationship with animals and a fascination with how things work. Katy reaches out to Jacob to try to befriend him. In time, the book moves to a terrible and tragic conclusion.
I loved this story and the characters in it. One of Lowry’s strengths as a writer has always been character development and this is evident once again here. This book could open some good discussions with students on understanding differences. In the story, Jacob is referred to as “touched”. Today he would most likely be seen as on the spectrum for autism/PDD. Katy’s compassion for him is quite beautiful; however, due to the traumatic ending of this book, I would recommend it for older children, grades 5/6 and up.
I’m very excited to have been asked to host John Lanza during his blog tour as he promotes his “Money Mammals” series. I received a copy of the children’s book “Joe the Monkey Learns to Share” to review in advance of this tour. In this sweet story, which reminded me a bit of the “Berenstain’s Bears”, a young monkey learns to share and to be fiscally responsible by creating three jars of money: one to save, one to spend, and one to give to charity. Joe the Monkey seeks to find a charity to support, while his family and friends tell him that sometimes a charity will find him. By the end, he has found the perfect way to spend his money designated for charity.
I had some questions for Mr. Lanza for our part of his tour:
BBNB: How did you come up with the idea for your money mammals series?
When our first child was about six months old, we were discussing our vision for our little girl and what we thought would be really important for our her to know as she grew older. We were both in sync that raising a money smart, “money comfortable” kid was really important. When we looked into it, we realized there was virtually nothing out there aimed at making financial literacy learning fun for kids. We knew that if we could take a pretty dry subject and make it fun for kids, we would “prime the pump” and make the kids more receptive to financial literacy lessons. I had been tossing the main character, Joe the Monkey, around in my head for years. With The Money Mammals, he suddenly had a direction…and friends.
BBNB: Do you think kids today are less fiscally responsible than kids in the past? How do you think modern culture has changed children’s view of money?
People are certainly less fiscally responsible. And numerous studies point out that most kids learn their financial literacy behaviors from their parents so it’s not surprising that kids are not learning the best habits from their parents in a lot of cases. We put far too much value on stuff in our culture and you literally can’t get out of the way of marketing. It feels like every empty surface is being filled with messages to spend. This is particularly problematic for young people because kids under 8 have a very difficult time distinguishing between fact and fiction in marketing messages.
BBNB: Can you talk a little about the other books and items in the series?
Being a dad has been very informative in developing The Money Mammals. Both books and the DVD were inspired by my kids. In the first book, Joe the Monkey Saves for a Goal, the intrepid leader of The Money Mammals learns to save for a goal with a little help from his friends. We had a lot of success in saving for goals in our family and I wanted to share that with other families through the book. In the second book, I tackle charitable giving. In Joe the Monkey Learns to Share, our fearless monkey learns that finding a meaningful charity is the key to making giving something really fulfilling. In my own life, we use a three jar system – Share, Save and Spend Smart. Kids pretty easily learn to save and spend their allowance money, but sharing takes a little more work. I wanted to come up with a story that would be meaningful to my own kids and children everywhere.
BBNB: What do you see coming up for the money mammals?
We’re always developing new content for all different areas. If there’s a way to get kids excited about making smart money choices, distinguishing between needs and wants and learning to delaying gratification, we’ll try it. We just launched a new website for our Saving Money Is Fun Kids Club program that is licensed by credit unions across the country. It has games and educational activities for kids that emphasize our “We’ll Share & Save & Spend Smart Too” mantra. We’re working on an iPad app based on the first book and I hope to have my third book (about Spending Smart) out before next year. We’re also going to continue doing live tours at schools with some of the partner credit unions with which we work. We never stop moving.
BBNB: I loved this book because of the focus on giving to charity. This is important in our house. Do you think most families today focus on charitable giving, or have charities taken a backseat to just getting by in today’s harsh economy?
My kids go to a charter school, which truly takes a village so I see a lot of people who give a lot of their own time for that cause and many others. My wife is incredible – she’s always donating her time and money to worthy causes. I also think the web has enabled people to find incredibly personal and important causes that are really meaningful to them. For example, at donorschoose.org, you can give money to help teachers help their students in so many different ways. What a great way to make an impact. I sometimes feel like we’re in the golden age of charitable giving.
BBNB: Charitable giving goes hand in hand with volunteering and helping others. Do you think children should have more opportunities to do service through school? Or should they wait until high school?
I tend not to be an advocate of waiting to try and accomplish anything meaningful. Just as we promote the idea that kids should learn to make smart money choices early, I think the more opportunities to share that money or their time through service projects, the better. We have a program called Big Sunday where we live in Southern California. Thousands of people engage in a weekend of service projects to help their own communities and families can participate together.
BBNB: I’m a parent of two school age children. What do you think are the best things I can do to help my children learn to be fiscally responsible?
Start early. The goal is to help build good habits now so you’re not having to break bad habits later. Think of it like reading to your kids. You start teaching them way before they can read to build the foundation for later literacy. Then you want them to keep reading and building on that knowledge. Same with money. Keep it simple and focus on making smart money choices by giving them an allowance. Don’t tie allowance to chores either, particularly little chores you would require of them regardless of whether you paid them an allowance or not (like making the bed, clearing the table, etc.). Remember the purpose of an allowance – to teach kids to make good choices. You can teach them the connection between hard work and earning money by giving them bigger chores like mowing the lawn or raking the leaves. Keep an open dialogue about money and strive to raise “money comfortable” kids who understand the money is just a means, not and end.
Yes – it’s another YA thriller read about wealthy prep school kids – one of my favorite genres for a quick, downtime, finish-in-one-sitting read. In this story, which I got through Net Galley, high school senior Sera is forced (by her parents) to go to her ex-best friend Ariel’s birthday party. The only thing she’s really looking forward to is seeing current pop idol Hudson Winters perform. However, right at the height of the party, masked men break in and start killing everyone, holding the majority of the teens hostage, while they seek to take over Ariel’s dad’s multi-billion dollar company. In the initial chaos, Ariel slips unnoticed into a secret passageway in the walls and plans on staying there until the crisis is over. Only Sera knows where she is (she is her ex-best friend after all!). Will Sera rat her out in order to save her own life? Will everyone continue to be brutally murdered as this book goes on? Will we figure out who is behind this violent atrocity? Read it to find out! Due to violent/disturbing scenes, I have to say not for the younger set. Kudos to Ms. Benedis-Grab for making some of the “prep school” kids not ridiculously rich and all of them fairly typical! Thanks, Net Galley and Merit Press, for my copy!
It is my pleasure today to review “Being Henry David” by Cal Armistead, which I received as an ARC through Net Galley. I know Cal and her husband through my theater circle of friends, and when I heard she had written a book I couldn’t wait to read it!
“Being Henry David” is a rich blend of emotions, humor, and action as it tells the story of “Hank”, a teenager who finds himself in Penn Station with no memory of who he is or how he got there. His only clue is the tattered copy of “Walden” he is holding. Giving his name as “Henry Davidson” – borrowed from Thoreau – Hank escapes some tough characters in the city and arrives in Concord, Massachusetts in order to try to figure out who he is and what he is running from back home. Hank’s journey has him cross paths with a local historian and a friendly and attractive local high schooler as he slowly starts to remember who he is and what has happened to him.
I just loved this story! Of course, if you know me, you know I love anything that takes place near where I live. I love when I can read a book and it has places in it where I’ve frequently been. I also love, love, love the Concord authors and really enjoyed the tie-in to Thoreau and the Transcendentalists in this book – though it was not overdone or preachy. Mostly, though, I loved this story of a young man who is coming to grips with his actions and learning about forgiveness.
Grab yourself a copy of being Henry David and let me know how you like it – I promise to let Cal know!
I personally think it’d be a great read for high schoolers, especially reluctant readers.
Thanks, Net Galley and Albert Whitman Teen Press, for my copy!
I recently got two creepy, YA suspense thrillers from Net Galley. These are the type of book that I loved to read when I was in middle school! Both were re-releases from Open Road Media – thanks, Open Road and Net Galley for my copies!
“Fog” is the first in a trilogy by Caroline Cooney (who has apparently over 100 books for teens; the one I know best: “The Face on the Milk Carton”). In this story a group of Maine island teens leave their homes to attend school on the mainland. Creepy and disturbing things begin happening and one girl, Christina, fights against the evil. Who will win?
When I started “The Twisted Window” by Lois Duncan I knew it seemed familiar. I had actually read it in the 1980’s. Lois Duncan is a masterful storyteller with all sorts of YA titles to her credit, most of them scary and/or supernatural thrillers. In this one, Tracy Lloyd befriends the new guy in school and gets involved in helping him get his supposedly kidnapped sister back from his stepfather. As a kid, Duncan was always one of my favorite authors as her stories are well-plotted and paced.
I received “Celtic Run” as a Net Galley digital download. This YA book (geared towards grades 5-8 I would say) tells the story of Jake McGreevy, a teen on a school trip to Ireland. Along with him on his adventures are Julie (the friend he has a crush on), Zach (class bully and Julie’s boyfriend), and new Irish friend Maggie. Jake is a gadget expert and enjoys tinkering with things, which comes in handy throughout the novel. Early on in the story, Jake finds what turns out to be a clue in a treasure hunt. Enter the “bad guys”, and Jake and his friends need to work together to outwit the bad guys and find the treasure (which would not only be noble, but could come in handy to both Jake – whose father was recently severely injured – and Maggie – whose father has lost his job). There is one adventure after another with non-stop action and character development as Jake and hsi friend seek to solve the mysteries and find the treasure first!
I really enjoyed reading this book. I read a lot of YA and children’s and found it refreshing to deal with a story where the kids were typical but the problems were not overly disturbing and intense. In my opinion not too many people are writing books like this these days: contemporary kids whose problems are surmountable. I will be recommending this one for my children’s elementary school library! I could see this as a fun movie for kids – a bit like “Goonies” or the old “Apple Dumpling Gang”. Some of the action was a bit fantastic and the crooks were very “crookish” if you know what I mean, but I like it. It reads as if it may be the start of a series. Just a note – this author’s bio was one of the most interesting I’ve come across!
Thanks, MB Publishing and Net Galley, for my copy!
I received “Pets at the White House: 50 Years of Presidents and their Pets” as an AR digital download through Net Galley. My children and I enjoyed looking through this book at all the wonderful photographs of former (and current!) Presidents and their beloved pets who have lived at the White House. There is a particularly well-developed section on the Kennedy years which had the dearest pictures of Caroline and JFK, Jr. as children with their many pets. Informational text is included, along with quote from many First Ladies about the role of pets in their lives. This was a keeper!
Thank you, Net Galley and Fife and Drum Press, for my copy!
This novel was a Net Galley ARC download for me, and considered YA but I think it’s good historical fiction for adults, too.
In “Frozen”, Mary Casanova writes an intriguing tale of Sadie Rose, a teenager in Minnesota in the 1920’s. She hasn’t spoken a word in many years, not since the night her mother (a young prostitute) was killed and Sadie was found frozen in a snow bank. Now Sadie is starting to speak, and as her personality blossoms so does her emotions and her feelings for a local young man. Add to this a dynamic,though mentally ill, new friend and the dredging up of Sadie’s mother’s murder – this time with some new information – and you have the makings of compelling and interesting historical fiction!
While I had never read Mary Casanova’s works before, she has written for American Girl. I enjoyed this story and Casanova’s writing, and I thank Net Galley and University of Minnesota Press for my copy. I believe I read that this story is based on real events, and I’d be curious to find out what exactly the true story is!
I downloaded the electronic version of this book through Net Galley into my Adoble Digital reader.
This book is a compilation of short papers, poems, interviews, etc. of teenagers who are biracial or multiracial. They write of their experiences, their journeys to identity, their run-ins with ignorance and prejudice, and, basically, their innermost feelings of who they are. This was a great read, in my opinion, and one which I think many young people (and adults for that matter) would find interesting and eye-opening.
FYI – St. Stephen’s Community House is located in Toronto.
Thanks, Net Galley and Annick Press, for my free copy!
A few weeks ago I received an email from Nicholas Adkins asking me if I’d be interested in reviewing a children’s book he had illustrated. Of course I said “sure!”, and Nicholas kindly sent me a copy of his book and some coloring pages for my children.
I sat down and read “The Great Big Scary Monster” with my kids (who are 7 and 8). They read along with me, taking turns on the pages. It is a cute story and quick to read. My kids loved it and loved the illustrations. I can see pre-readers wanting to hear it over and over so they can memorize it and read along. It’d be a great bedtime read, especially for the preschool set.
In the story, the “great big scary monster” is actually a little boy; and his mother loves him even when he’s “scary”. Sweet!
I loved the simple yet effective illustrations and I thank Nicholas for sending me a copy to review. I appreciate it!
Beth's Book-Nook Blog 