Book Review: The Bear Report

The Bear Report
by Thyra Heder
Abrams Books for Young Readers (October 6, 2015)
Fiction * Arctic Regions * Polar Bears
Audience: Ages 4 to 8
IndieBound | WorldCat

About the book: 
Sophie does not want to do her homework, a research report on polar bears. Bor-ing. They’re big. They eat things. They’re mean. What else is there to say about them anyway? As it turns out, plenty. And when a polar bear named Olafur swoops her away to the Arctic, she soon learns all about the playful bear’s habits and habitat—from glacier mice to the northern lights—and, despite her first reservations, she finds herself not just interested but excited about the Arctic. When the two are swept out to sea on an iceberg, Sophie’s new knowledge and knack for creative thinking pay off in a big way: she calls a whale to their aid! Inspired by her journey, she’s ready to return home and take another swing at her assignment, this time with gusto.

The Bear Report showcases the power of curiosity and imagination to fill any blank canvas, whether it’s an incomplete homework assignment or the Arctic ice.

My thoughts on the book:
This is the time of the year when I begin thinking about my favorite books of the year. Some books grow on me as I read them again and again. Other books just never seem to catch my interest. And then there are those books that right from the moment I see the cover or flip through the first few pages, I know that I must have the book. 

Originally, I discovered Thyra Heder when I picked up her book Fraidyzoo.  I purchased it on a trip east while visiting R. J. Julia's in Madison, Connecticut. However, when I first held The Bear Report, I knew this was a special book. When I got to the page where the polar bear tells the young girl "We are not ALL mean.", I had to smile. This book was going to be a fun read. 

Heder swirls together a whimsical journey taken by a large polar bear and a small girl with beautiful illustrations. 

However, the story is not all imagination, readers discover facts about the arctic and the environment inhabited by polar bears and other animals. 

The friendship between the girl and the bear is touching and humorous. 

When Sophie learns about the whale's song and then uses her new found knowledge to communicate with the whale, I chuckled. However, when I opened to the two page spread of northern lights, I took a moment to pause and like Sophie and Olafur just admire it. I would love a print of of these two pages. 

In the end, Sophie has been transformed by her time with Olafur just as the reader has been touched by the beauty of this book. 

Consider pairing The Bear Report with a nonfiction book about polar bears when sharing it with students. Pick up a copy of The Bear Report at your local indie bookstore or check it out at your community library. 

About the author: 
Thyra Heder is the author of FRAIDYZOO, an ALA Notable Book hailed by Kirkus as "riotous buffoonery" in a starred review. She is also an illustrator and storyboard artist whose clients include Kenneth Cole, Vogue, and Coca-Cola. She lives in Brooklyn. For more information: website | twitter | facebook

It's Monday! What are you reading? From Picture Books to YA - 10/26/15

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys.  Jen Vincent of Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye of Unleashing Readers decided to give It's Monday! What Are You Reading? a kidlit focus. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now...you just might discover your next “must-read” book!

This is a bit of an odd IMWAYR post...instead of what I have been reading, it is more of a round-up of some bookish news.

HOW TO TELL A STORY WEEK! 

Don't miss HOW TO TELL A STORY WEEK! It will be here in less than 10 days.  More information will be coming in a few days.

If you missed the book trailer last week, here it is again...

It is almost Picture Book Month - well for some, November is known as Picture Book Month. Check out the post about who will be Picture Book Champions.

For others, it is PiBoIdMonth...

Check out Tara Lazar's post and consider signing up to participate.

Carter Higgins and I hosted a #MgDebuts twitter chat last Thursday.  If you missed the chat, Carter posted a Storify, here.

Since most of what I have been reading this past week is nonfiction, check back in on Wednesday for #nfpb2015. 

Speaking of Nonfiction, the CYBILS announced the books nominated in each category. Here is the link for the Elementary/Middle Grade Nonfiction category. 

So, what have you been reading?

One Word From Sophia Blog Tour

One Word From Sophia
by Jim Averbeck, Illustrated by Yasmee Ismail
Atheneum Books for Young Readers (June 16, 2015)
Fiction * Humor * Communication
Audience: Ages 4 to 8
IndieBound | WorldCat

About the Book:
Sophia wants a pet giraffe for her birthday. It is her one true desire. However, she has a problem. In fact she has four problems— she must first convince her mother (a judge), her father (a businessman), her Uncle Conrad (a politician), and her very strict Grand-mamá to approve.

Determined, persistent, and creative, Sophia uses all her wiles to persuade each one . . . but to no avail. “Too many words,” they complain after each elaborate presentation. Undeterred and undefeated, Sophia rethinks her approach – editing and revising it to its essence until she finds just the right word. Simplicity, directness, and sincerity prevail. True desire triumphs in this funny, warm-hearted confection that celebrates words even as it shows that less of them can often be more.

Check out the book trailer for the book:

My thoughts on the book:
Since I had a chance to originally see ONE WORD FROM SOPHIA in January 2015. Months before it was available to the general public. I remember reading it and laughing.  Always a good thing to have positive memories of a book that you read for the first time.  And equally good when it holds up to re-reads. 

Sophia is an articulate, intelligent, creative child who has her heart set on a giraffe as a birthday present. 

Did I say articulate? Sophia is going to argue her opinion to any and all who will listen. It isn't easy to convince everyone that a giraffe would be a great pet. 

Did I say creative? 

Of course, if all else fails an emphatic "please" might work. 

One Word for Sophia is filled with humor, a diverse family, and a lesson that fewer words may be better than more. 

So, what are you waiting for? Please, pick up a copy of One Word From Sophia from your favorite indie bookstore or community public library. 

About the creators: 
Jim Averbeck works, plays, and evades the law in San Francisco, California. His first book, In a Blue Room, was a Charlotte Zolotow Honor book. His popular books Except If and Oh No, Little Dragon! feature charming protagonists with pointy teeth. His book, The Market Bowl and his middle grade novel A Hitch at the Fairmont were Junior Library Guild Selections. His most recent book, One Word From Sophia, was an IndyNext Top 10 for Summer 2015.  website | twitter 

Yasmeen Ismail is an award-winning illustrator and animator who has a love of inks, paints and watercolours. "Time For Bed, Fred!" is her debut picture book. Originally from Ireland, Yasmeen now lives in London.  website | twitter

Resources & Related Media:

Teacher's Guide | Free Skype Giveaway | PW & We Need Diverse Books 

Check out the previous blog tour posts: 
10/19/2015 - Jen at Teach Mentor Texts
10/20/2015 - Jennifer at Reederama
10/21/2015 - Franki and Mary Lee at Two Reading Teachers
10/22/2015 - Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers
10/23/2015 - Crystal at Reading Through Life
10/24/2015 - Alyson at Kid Lit Frenzy

YA Friday Book Review: Ash and Bramble

Ash and Bramble
by Sarah Prineas
Audience: Young Adult
HarperTeen (September 15, 2015)
IndieBound | WorldCat

Description from GoodReads:

"A prince.

A ball.

A glass slipper left behind at the stroke of midnight.

The tale is told and retold, twisted and tweaked, snipped and stretched, as it leads to happily ever after.

But it is not the true Story.

A dark fortress.

A past forgotten.

A life of servitude.

No one has ever broken free of the Godmother’s terrible stone prison until a girl named Pin attempts a breathless, daring escape. But she discovers that what seems to be freedom is a prison of another kind, one that entangles her in a story that leads to a prince, a kiss, and a clock striking midnight. To unravel herself from this new life, Pin must choose between a prince and another—the one who helped her before and who would give his life for her. Torn, the only thing for her to do is trade in the glass slipper for a sword and find her own destiny."

Carolyn's thoughts on the book:
Dystopia and fairy-tale retellings are two of the biggest trends in YA right now, but no book perfectly combines the two the way Ash and Bramble does. The first third of the book is set in an oppressive fortress of the Godmother, who kidnaps her workers from the countryside, wipes their memories, and forces them to produce items for the people within Story. Pin is different from the rest of the workers, though - she secretly possesses a magic thimble, and when her job as a seamstress overlaps with the job of Shoe, she falls in love - and the two escape. But no one can escape Story, the oppressive force that imposes a set fairy tale onto the lives of other kidnapped people, and soon enough Pin once again has her memories wiped - but this time her prison is far more insidious. Pin, now Pen, is forced to live out the titular role of Cinderella, trapped within the oppression of Story; meanwhile, Shoe (who managed to escape relatively unscathed) manages to find Pen, and together they join the storybreakers in their rebellions against the Godmother and Story itself. The novel is a brilliant mash-up of the enticingly glittering and saccharine story Pen is lived out and the harsh reality of the dystopian oppression behind it. Pin is emotionally complex - she honestly doesn't know if she loves Shoe or the prince she's been assigned to love, if she wants to know her past, if rebelling against her new life as a potential princess is worth it; it is that complexity that elevates Pin from other dystopian protagonists, who often lack that sense of emotional ambiguity in favor of strong but blind political beliefs. One of the aspects of the book I enjoyed most was how Story is essentially symbolic of patriarchal European ideas - in order to break Story, the storybreakers must change the story they are living within to such an extent that Story can no longer continue on, and for one of the storybreakers (forced into the role of Rapunzel), falling in love with another woman is enough to stop Story in its tracks (at this point in the book I imagined a robot with steam pouring out of it, screaming "LESBIAN PRINCESS DOES NOT COMPUTE WITH HETERONORMATIVE EUROPEAN PATRIARCHY," Dalek-style); in breaking the stories, the storybreakers also often force princes to confront the idea that they're entitled to women (as seen within the Rapunzel story as well as Pen's Cinderella story). The book ends on an ambiguous note - there is still a world filled with potential out far beyond the reach of Godmother, waiting for the storybreakers to discover, but I'm content with that - Pin and Shoe have their own story now, and whether or not the reader is privy to that narrative, the reader is left with hope, which is ultimately far more satisfying than a blandly happy ending. 

Ash and Bramble is a brilliant read, great for those who enjoy dystopia, fairy tales, or both. 

Carolyn is a teen blogger who shares her favorite YA reads and favorite book related finds with readers on Fridays. 

#GNCelebration: The Fall of the House of West

Every Thursday, during the month of October, join Aly at Kid Lit Frenzy, Franki & Mary Lee of A Year of Reading, and Tammy & Clare from Assessment in Perspective as we celebrate graphic novels and comic books.  To read our Top 10 reasons to join in, check out the Nerdy Book Club post, here. To link up your reviews and connect with everyone participating in the #GNCelebration, visit our #GNCelebration Google Community. 

The Fall of the House of West
by Paul Pope, J. T. Petty, David Rubín (Illustrator)
First Second (October 13, 2015)
Audience: Ages 10 to 14 years old
Comics * Super Heroes * Adventure
IndieBound * WorldCat

About the book: 
Aurora West is on the verge of solving the mystery of her mother's death, but it's hard keeping her efforts a secret from her grieving father, the legendary monster-hunter Haggard West. Between her school work and her hours training and hunting with her dad, Aurora is hard-pressed to find time to be a secret sleuth. But she's nothing if not persistent.

What Aurora doesn't realize is that she's about to blow open a secret that may very well destroy what's left of her family...and, indeed, all of Arcopolis.

My thoughts on the book:
Paul Pope, JT Petty, and David Rubín are back with another comic book in the world of the Battling Boy.  Aurora West is the daughter of Haggard West and the story continues on from The Rise of Aurora West. The West family have a history of battling monsters and ghouls and Aurora has been in training to carry on with the family tradition but also to revenge her mother's death. 

Told with black and white illustrations, readers learn about Aurora through flashbacks and memories and stories. At times, I had to do some re-reading in order to make the change from present day to the past. This is where the use of color and black & white could make this change clearer for readers. 

Though this series has not yet hit it's stride, it does draw you in and makes you want to keep reading and learn more. Aurora is a strong, determined teenager, and along with her father and other characters in the series, they are real yet flawed. It is exactly those flaws that help readers relate to the characters and keep wanting to read on to see what happens. 

At some point, I would love to see this graphic novel produced in color. The black and white images at times make it a challenge to see all of the details and I think the use of color would make the whole book just pop. 

If you decide to read The Fall of the House of West, I would suggest starting with The Rise of Aurora West,  Both The Rise of Aurora West and The Fall of the House of West are prequels to The Battling Boy.

Pick up a copy of The Rise of Aurora West or The Fall of the House of West at your local indie bookstore or neighborhood public library.

Don't forget to join us: 
On November 1, 2015 at 8:00 EST, we will culminate this celebration with a Twitter Chat featuring Terry Thompson the author of Adventures in Graphica: Using Comics and Graphic Novels to Teach Comprehension, 2-6.