Gary Paulsen’s Flat Broke is a sequel to Liar, Liar, and like Liar, Liar, is about rambunctious humor. The book’s driving force is its gleeful sense o...more Gary Paulsen’s Flat Broke is a sequel to Liar, Liar, and like Liar, Liar, is about rambunctious humor. The book’s driving force is its gleeful sense of the absurd and because its comic integrity relies on the deliciously over-the-top situations its incredible main character manufactures, realism is kept to a minimum. So don’t expect real-world personalities, in-depth character portrayals, and a slice-of-life environment. Kevin, the main character, does not think and act as a real fourteen-year-old would. In some ways he’s younger, in others he’s older. The book cover makes him look much younger, adding (probably unintentionally) to the sense of cognitive dissonance that his manic world engenders.
On the odd occasion when Paulsen does introduce a bit of realism, it often doesn’t ring true. For example, Kevin claims he learns a lot from Markie, the toddler he babysits. That line seems heavy handed and intrusive because it doesn’t sound like something a fourteen-year-old boy would say. On the other hand, more subtle passages reveal that, in fact, both fourteen-year-old and toddler do learn from each other and Markie’s dependence on Kevin to tell him the truth about some of life’s hard realities is quite touching.
The story is ideal for reluctant readers because in addition to the absolute necessity of rambunctious humor, it is also short, fast paced, minimally descriptive, and laced with sufficient dramatic tension to lure the reader on. And for reluctant boy readers, the male main character will be an important additional motivation to turn more than a page or two to learn what happens to Kevin and his schemes to become “filthy rich” so he can take impress his crush, the beautiful, blonde Tina.
Read Flat Broke for what it is: a very funny romp.
Favorite lines: “My sister, Sarah, makes me look like a petri dish full of pond sludge.” “For college guys they were dumb as mold.” “Her showers take forever, and I think she sleeps in the bathroom too.” “Guys always look more attractive to girls when they’re talking to other girls.” (less)
Zinkoff can’t write. He’s no good at sports. He laughs too easily. Worse, his laughter spills out of control. He’s clumsy and he doesn’t have a best f...moreZinkoff can’t write. He’s no good at sports. He laughs too easily. Worse, his laughter spills out of control. He’s clumsy and he doesn’t have a best friend. Zinkoff, in short, is what the other kids unpiteously call a loser.
In his middle-grade fiction, Loser, Jerry Spinelli turns his characteristic acuity to disturbing and poignant facets of childhood experience. Children’s cruelty to their peers, their bullying, their superficial judgments of others, their vulnerabilities are all exposed to Spinelli’s perceptive gaze and laser-like mastery of the English language.
Loser is full of insights like this one: "Little-kid eyes are scoopers. They just scoop up everything they see and swallow it whole, no questions asked. Big-kid eyes are picky. They notice things that the little-kid eyes never bothered with: the way a teacher blows her nose, the way a kid dresses or pronounces a word.”
We follow young Zinkoff through his grade school experiences. He reveals his vulnerability from the very beginning when he allows an older child to convince him that his own hat doesn’t belong to him. Spinelli doesn’t miss a trick in conveying the poignancy of that scene. Zinkoff doesn’t learn to write properly despite his teachers’ best efforts. He “has never hitched a ride on a pencil point, feeling the shape and movement of his name’s letters.” He “grinds down” his teacher’s patience. “He is the greenboard against which her stick of chalk is reduced day by day. By December it is a nub.” When he loses a crucial race, his teammates openly call him “a stinkin’ loser.”
But Zinkoff is different in other ways too. Despite his mediocre grades, he loves school. He’s oblivious to his schoolmates’ opinions of him. He’s a naturally happy child. He’s easily pleased. He readily talks to a lonely old woman. And he’s brim full of compassion and courage. We first see his courage when he sets himself a test to confront the dreaded furnace monster that he’s sure resides in the dark, spooky basement of his home. But it is his compassion that brings the story to its climax. When a toddler goes missing, Zinkoff spends hours in freezing rain and snow looking for her.
The use of the word loser in the title of the book and in descriptions of the main character may give offense to some readers. Spinelli is, courageously, being realistic. This is the language children use; political correctness is not a feature of early childhood. Despite its theme, Loser is not a gloomy book. Its hero is, most of the time, a happy fellow. His obliviousness to others’ negative attitudes, his inability to understand such attitudes, is a strength. His compassion for others is a triumph of his childhood. We can all learn from Zinkoff. And we should.
I give this book five stars. Spinelli has crafted yet another unforgettable literary landmark. (less)
Dan Gutman’s Mr. Macky Is Wacky (My Weird School series) is vintage Gutman: funny, fast paced, and sure to appeal to reluctant readers. Gutman should...moreDan Gutman’s Mr. Macky Is Wacky (My Weird School series) is vintage Gutman: funny, fast paced, and sure to appeal to reluctant readers. Gutman should know. In his foreword to the 2012 edition of the Renaissance Learning report What Kids Are Reading, Gutman writes:
As a reluctant reader myself, I relate to those kids. I know what bores them, and what holds their interest. They want short sentences. Short chapters. Dialog. Few adjectives. They’d rather use their imagination than read a paragraph of description. They want one sentence to lead naturally to the next one, rather than jump from subject to subject. They want a chapter to end in a way that makes them want to know what happens next.
Mr. Macky Is Wacky has all that and plenty of humor of this kind: “We were having fun learning about our crazy pets. But guess who suddenly walked into the door? Nobody! Because if you walked into a door, you would hurt your head.” President’s Day is coming to A.J.’s Ella Mentry School and that means inevitable chaos. Neil the nude kid’s pet ferret is voted president of the school and when students are asked to pick a US president for an oral report, A.J. works hard on what he knows will be a brilliant presentation—or will it? As usual, Gutman supplies a surprise ending.
Dan Gutman has written more than a hundred books for children, many of which have won awards. Mr. Macky Is Wacky is rated by Renaissance Learning’s AR BookFinder as suitable for children at a Grade 3 reading level (3.9 level). (less)
Dan Gutman’s Ms. Coco Is Loco (My Weird School series) is vintage Gutman: funny, fast paced, and sure to appeal to reluctant readers. Gutman should kn...moreDan Gutman’s Ms. Coco Is Loco (My Weird School series) is vintage Gutman: funny, fast paced, and sure to appeal to reluctant readers. Gutman should know. In his foreword to the 2012 edition of the Renaissance Learning report What Kids Are Reading, Gutman writes: As a reluctant reader myself, I relate to those kids. I know what bores them, and what holds their interest. They want short sentences. Short chapters. Dialog. Few adjectives. They’d rather use their imagination than read a paragraph of description. They want one sentence to lead naturally to the next one, rather than jump from subject to subject. They want a chapter to end in a way that makes them want to know what happens next.
Ms. Coco Is Loco has all that and plenty of humor to boot.
A.J. is a gifted and talented student at his elementary school. Ms. Coco is “the gifted and talented teacher at Ella Mentry School. That doesn’t mean she’s gifted and talented. It means she teaches kids who are gifted and talented.” It’s poetry month at school and each student must write a poem a day. A.J. hates poetry. He invents a method of writing deliberately bad poems that, to his dismay, Ms. Coco loves. A.J.’s fame as a poet grows and other kids ask him to write their poems for them. A.J. obliges, for a fee, but his scheme doesn’t work quite as well as he hopes.
Gutman has written more than a hundred books for children, many of which have won awards. Ms. Coco Is Loco is rated by Renaissance Learning’s AR BookFinder as suitable for children at a Grade 3 reading level (3.9 level) (less)
Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars is about courage—the courage of children, as well as adults. When the Nazis invaded Denmark during World War II, many Da...moreLois Lowry’s Number the Stars is about courage—the courage of children, as well as adults. When the Nazis invaded Denmark during World War II, many Danes showed extraordinary courage in the face of hostile occupation forces as they fought for their country’s freedom in the resistance movement and took huge personal risks to save Jews from deportation to Nazi death camps. The Danes smuggled nearly 7,000 Jewish men, women, and children to Sweden. Lowry’s story is based on carefully researced facts, although her characters are fictional. Little Annemarie learns that her family will help smuggle Jewish friends to Sweden, and she finds herself taking on more responsibility than any ten-year-old should have to bear. Her uncle tells her: “You were so very brave.” “Brave?” Annemarie asked, surprised. “No, I wasn’t. I was very frightened.” “You risked your life.” “But I didn’t even think about that! . . .” “That’s all that brave means—not thinking about the dangers. Just thinking about what you must do. . . .”
Lowry’s Newbery Medal-winning Number the Stars was written in 1989 and is a classic worth reading more than once. (less)
Word Magic for Writers by Cindy Rogers is not just a must-read for writers seeking to polish their craft. It is a great resource for book readers who...moreWord Magic for Writers by Cindy Rogers is not just a must-read for writers seeking to polish their craft. It is a great resource for book readers who want to understand more fully what makes a book well-written, what helps to increase the power of that book's language. Ms. Rogers describes in detail the devices, word choices, and techniques that "leave a lasting impression." You may not know exactly why you admire a certain book, but Word Magic for Writers will help to define the qualities of the language that inspires you in that book. The examples are well chosen and memorable. How can you forget this example of onomatopoeia from Jerry Spinelli's Maniac Magee, "A faint tiny noise. A rattling. A chittering. A chattering. And getting louder - yes - chattering teeth. Arnold Jones' teeth. They're chattering like snare drums"? And what about this example of paradox from Charles Dickens's Bleak House,"He is an honorable, obstinate, truthful, high-spirited, intensely prejudiced, perfectly reasonable man"? And the metaphor in John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces, "The sunglasses blew smoke all over the old man's cards"? Wonderful stuff and definitely a book to put on your to-read list.(less)
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children starts out with a fanfare of promise. The strange photos dispersed throughou...moreFrom Bold Beginning to Bathos
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children starts out with a fanfare of promise. The strange photos dispersed throughout the story riveted my attention and, as they were intended to, pulled me into the book’s pages, which, I was delighted to find, were very well written. I was captivated by Riggs’s taught and incisive prose—no redundancy, no dangling modifiers, no really bad grammar, just the right word every time. And I wallowed in memorable turns of phrase that seemed to cascade off the pages: “plaster colonnades that seemed almost delusionally aspirational”; “the sky was turning the color of a fresh bruise”; “sheep stared at us with big leaky eyes”; “looking like a beggar evangelist in his torn black suit,” just to quote a few. The story content got off to a good, meaty start too with references to the WWII holocaust, which had affected the main character’s grandfather.
I was engrossed in the story, happily cruising along, even dismissing the odd lapse of originality (“coiled like a spring”), until it occurred to me that the narrator, Jacob, is not an adult looking back on events of his youth, but a teenager—a boy of sixteen going on sixty. The author may have intended the narrator of the story to be a mature Jacob, but that idea isn’t made clear and in any case wouldn’t make sense, for reasons I can’t mention here without giving the plot away. Suffice it to say that time travel can have youthful effects.
That was the first jolt. The second jolt came when I realized the story was not going to be unusual, or something a young adult would enjoy. I had thought the historic component would play an invigorating role in the storyline, but it didn’t. The story turned out to be a children’s adventure story, replete with ghouls and time travel. The trouble is most children of adventure story age—seven through eleven—won’t have the vocabulary to tackle a lot of the text; they’d spend more time with their noses in a dictionary than in Riggs’s book. Young adults can certainly deal with the sophistication of the writing, but they’ll be disappointed with the adventure story.
Now, when I picked up the book, I had no idea of what the story might be about. I did, however, expect something more original, perhaps more mysterious, perhaps creative nonfiction, but certainly more thought-provoking than monsters and time travel, and the sophisticated prose fooled me into believing the book had been written for young adults. I’ve rarely been so confused by a work of fiction.
I give Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children one star for the creative touch of unusual photos, one star for masterful prose, and one star for good narrative flow. (less)
Peer pressure, cruelty to animals, self-doubt, and the dark side of the very human need to be accepted form the bedrock of Spinelli’s powerful and mov...morePeer pressure, cruelty to animals, self-doubt, and the dark side of the very human need to be accepted form the bedrock of Spinelli’s powerful and moving tale. Palmer is to become a wringer when he reaches the age of ten. Wringers break the necks of wounded pigeons at the local pigeon shoot where 5,000 birds are shot in one session. Pigeon shoots were common in the States at one time. Now they are legal only in Pennsylvania. Palmer makes a lonely and heartrending journey to discover the courage and confidence within himself to resist social pressure and make a stand against cruelty. Wringer is another of Spinelli’s masterfully written books that won’t let the reader go or forget. (less)
Wounds is an apt title for this insightful story about emotional and physical pain. Bockman has forged an intriguing graft of human and environmental...moreWounds is an apt title for this insightful story about emotional and physical pain. Bockman has forged an intriguing graft of human and environmental vulnerability. A teenager suffers psychological and physical wounds inflicted by his father, his own recklessness, and an overwhelming sense of guilt caused by his mother’s death. Bockman writes a realistic story. The great live oak Craig damages in his emotional torment doesn’t live, but its slow death brings the community together and teaches Craig that everything in this world is connected. The challenging emotional journey he is forced to take teaches him the power of forgiveness, of others and of himself. (less)
A quiet vacation turns chaotic when Toby goes to the seaside with his aging great-aunt. Helen Laycock has woven a whimsical tale of young heroes, old...moreA quiet vacation turns chaotic when Toby goes to the seaside with his aging great-aunt. Helen Laycock has woven a whimsical tale of young heroes, old villains, secret tunnels, not-so-secret smugglers, pet rats, and a younger brother who makes "kissing noises" as Toby reads a letter from a girl. The narrative flows well and the focus on the main characters keeps the storyline easy to follow. Younger readers may enjoy the challenges the vocabulary sometimes presents.(less)
A beautifully crafted and written book for tweens and YA. Spinelli's mastery of language is a joy to read. His insights into the human condition and h...moreA beautifully crafted and written book for tweens and YA. Spinelli's mastery of language is a joy to read. His insights into the human condition and his ability to make you cry and laugh at the same are more than merely memorable. This is a book that will live on your shelf and in your heart for a very, very long time.(less)
Loved this droll little chapter book with its universally appealing story about a little boy who loves magic tricks. Selznick's cross-hatched pen and...moreLoved this droll little chapter book with its universally appealing story about a little boy who loves magic tricks. Selznick's cross-hatched pen and ink illustrations are beautifully crafted. The faces of his characters are so lifelike they really pop out at you. The book also has several interesting appendices. I was especially fascinated by Selznick's gift for three-dimensional creation as represented by his own magic viewing box. I'm not going to try walking through a wall any time soon, but I will try escaping from my computer keyboard -- at least for a while.(less)
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