How to make a friend? Little Old Lady Hu with her very opinionated cat, Muffins, moves in next door to very grumpy Old Man Fookwire who LOVES his bird friends. The weather is warming. The birds are just beginning to return from their winter’s journey. New neighbor, Muffins, loves to terrify the birds. He also wouldn’t mind nibbling a few. In this hilarious picture book, some new friendships are made; others are not. But nobody gets eaten. This book is a fun romp through the foibles of human behavior, cat behavior, bird and squirrel behavior, and the challenge of creating friendships.
In the end, “Old Man Fookwire never warmed up to his new neighbors. He was a grump, after all. But Little Old Lady Hu became good chums with the birds and squirrels. Each Saturday when the bakery was closed, Old Lady Hu brought all the unsold cakes and pies and cookies home. She set them out on her picnic table, and everyone gathered for a delicious, fun-filled feast.”
But not . . . Muffins, the cat, of course! Some friendships are just not meant to happen. Enjoy sharing this very funny book about the “delicious” and delightful aspects of friendship.
For Older Readers:
NIGHTINGALE’S NEST, written by Nikki Loftin, creates an entirely different type of mood and story about friendship. Based on the Hans Christian Andersen story, “The Nightingale,” Nikki spins an atmosphere of magical realism and adventure, wrong choices and then a fallen hero’s fight to redeem himself and rescue his friend. The unfolding of this story sometimes reminds one of the magical make-believe land in Bridge to Terabithia. In this journey Little John becomes friends with Gayle who is actually a magical nightingale embodied in the physical form of a child – an orphaned, foster child. Gayle’s foster family is downright nasty. In desperation Gayle escapes the foster home and runs away. But she does not run far. She hides in a sort of sheltering “nest” she builds in a tree on a nearby vacant lot. The property is owned by the very mean, very selfish and wealthy Mr. King. Little John and his father are employed by Mr. King as landscapers. When Mr. King hears Gayle’s beautiful, intoxicating singing, he decides he must have it – Gayle’s voice. He orders Little John to trick Gayle into coming to his home. She will be asked to sing and Mr. King will steal her voice. What can Little John do but agree? At what price will he sell friendship and betray his friend?
Nikki Loftin spins captivating “re-told stories” creating images that sing. Her first book, The Sinister Sweetness of Splendid Academy, 2012, was recently released in paperback form. NIGHTINGALE’S NEST, just out in February 2014, has already made the Girl’s Life 2014 Must-Read List.
Odd Weird & Little, by Patrick Jennings (Egmont, 2014) Woodrow has always born the brunt of the bullying from Garret and Hubcap, two boys in his fourth grade class. Until the day that Toulouse arrives, that is. Toulouse is little. Very little. He wears suits with vests and big glasses over his huge round eyes. He’s, well … he’s weird. All the kids in class think so. But Toulouse doesn’t care. He acts like himself and says what he thinks until before long, he has turned their opinions about him around. When Woodrow stands up for him one day, confronting his own cowardice in the process, the beginnings of a great friendship are formed. So who cares, if Toulouse is an owl? Learning to be who you are and accept your friends for who they are, no matter how weird or different, come across loud and clear in this delightful, delightfully weird, middle grade novel.
ReaderKidZ talked to author Patrick Jennings about how he came up with the idea, and what were the challenges he faced in writing a book about a most unorthodox friendship.
READERKIDZ: The new student, Toulouse, is an owl. It’s the perfect device because it allows him to remain remote and exotic (the bullies call him “weird”) but it never gets in the way of the story. Where did that come from and how difficult did you think it was going to be to write?
PJ:I got the idea in 2003 while reading Edward Lear, who wrote “The Owl and the Pussycat,” of course, but was also a esteemed painter of birds, including owls. It was the odd pairing of the owl and the cat that inspired a picture book story of a new kid at school who happens to be an owl. Being a story for preschoolers, the class was filled with cats, not kids. I named the owl Toulouse after Toulouse-Lautrec, due to Toulouse’s attire and shortness, and because it sounded like an owl’s exhortation. Years later, after an editor said she felt the classroom felt more middle-grade than preschool, I changed the setting to a fourth grade class, and the cats to kids. Casting Toulouse as an owl did allow me to show the extraordinary gifts he had, while showing his extreme oddness. That’s the thing about “nerds.” They’re different because they remain themselves; they’re picked on because they don’t conform. That individuality is their strength. To disparage someone simply because of their appearance is unfair and shortsighted. My hope was that Toulouse would illustrate this clearly. When I do school visits, I often ask how many of the kids in the audience think they are weird. Without fail, nearly every hand goes up. “So weirdness is normal at this school,” I say. All kids understand their uniqueness; sadly, most try to conceal it to fit in. But not all.
READERKIDZ: I admire the deft way Toulouse moves between saying his owl-like “Who?” and speaking short sentences in French-English like a human. Also, between his actions as an owl and those of a human ten-year-old. You move easily back and forth between it all, again and again. It strikes me as a very challenging balancing act to pull off. Did you get it right from the start, or did it require much re-writing?
PJ: I’ve known Toulouse a long time. By the time I sat down to write his story, I understood him pretty well. I know his back story and his family’s. I’m quite fond of him. I imbued him with some of the qualities we project onto owls: wisdom, patience, eeriness. Those are some powerful attributes for a fourth grader. It’s what makes Toulouse both odd and impressive. I enjoyed watching him make his classmates both wince (at the pellet, e.g.) and gasp (at his painting).
READERKIDZ: Some reviewers commend it for being a good story about bullying without being pedantic, but I saw it more as a story about the difficulties of making friends and being who you really are. Or, as Woodrow said, “Trying to be something you aren’t is such a drag.” Woodrow’s weird but Toulouse is weirder. What parts of that stem from your own childhood?
PJ: I didn’t set out to write a book on bullying. Confronting bullies is just one part of defending your right to be yourself, which is Woodrow’s struggle. My goal was to portray the kids as realistically as I could, based on my experiences growing up, watching my daughter and her friends growing up, and spending years in classrooms and in the writing group I host in my home (writers aged 10 to 15). Many of my books have had bullying characters. I often write school stories, so they naturally appear. I’ve been bullied in my life, and can testify that it is terrifying, suffocating, demoralizing. It is something we need to be vigilant about. The way Garrett and Hubcap treat Woodrow is cruel and relentless. Bullying begins when a person decides another person is inferior, abnormal, and vulnerable. To me, Odd, Weird, & Little is about the importance of going beyond surfaces, of digging deeper with people, of finding out who (or what) they really are. One of the things I love about fiction is the way it guides readers into the minds of others, how it can create empathy. Toulouse is a real challenge to his classmates. He is genuinely odd, more so than they realize. Woodrow sees what’s special about him, whereas Garrett only sees weirdness. My hope, of course, is that readers will empathize with Woodrow.
READERKIDZ: You have so many distinctive and unusual little details, particularly about the people. Woodrow likes to tie flies and carry around duck tape and read. His mother is a tree surgeon and doesn’t look anything like your “normal” Mom. Mr. Logwood keeps his students in line by threatening to break out into the song “Respect.” The music teacher has the kids learn “Dona, Nobis, Pachem” in lieu of the expected Christmas songs. Time and again, however small, you insert quirky details. Were the people really like that in your small hometown in Indiana?
PJ: A teacher friend of mine once started describing to me the wide variety of things his son carries in his pockets, including many different kinds of duck tape. My daughter’s elementary school choir teacher was much like Mr. Weldon (see the O-W-L?): enthusiastic, strict, passionate, and prone to unconventional musical selections. A female tree surgeon would not be unheard of in the small Olympic Peninsula town where I live. A lot of women here wear Carhardtts and drive pickups. I take notes as I move about my days, and fold these qualities into my characters.
READERKIDZ: The ending. It was a complete and wonderful surprise. I won’t give a spoiler here, but was that the ending you always imagined, or did that arise somewhere along the way? It makes Woodrow’s final epiphany so much more legitimate and heartfelt than if you’d ended it another way. Where did it come from?
PJ: I knew, vaguely, that after they had become friends, Toulouse would show Woodrow what he was. I also knew Woodrow would be terrified at first, then accepting. Really, what does it matter to Woodrow what Toulouse is? He likes him. Toulouse is his friend. Certainly we all know friendship transcends species. Thanks very much for being our guest author, Patrick. Congratulations on a wonderful book.
Tara Altebrando was kind enough to follow-up on an earlier ReaderKidZ post about her newest book, The Battle of Darcy Lane, by joining us today to answer a few questions.
The Battle of Darcy Lane is your Middle Grade debut, but you are well versed in writing YA fiction. Did you face any challenges while writing in a younger voice for a younger audience?
It took a bit more work for me to get into the mindset of a twelve-year-old since my memory of twelve is not as clear as my memory of sixteen or seventeen, and I don’t have any girls that age that I am very close with. I’ve been keeping diaries since I was about ten, though, so I had an old Snoopy diary to flip through. But because I didn’t write as often as I would have liked—I wrote “Sorry!” on an awful lot of pages—I talked to friends about their twelve-year-old daughters and, when I finished a draft, had two reads from girls who were in the right age group to see if the book was resonating. Luckily, it seemed to but I definitely made some revisions based on their feedback. Also, my YA novels typically have a love story, so it was a fun new challenge write about boy-girl friendship and unformed sort of dreamy romantic feelings.
Taylor is a fascinatingly complicated character. The way she acts, in turns, cruel and kind to Julia keeps readers guessing whether the two will end up friends or enemies. Did Taylor start out that way, or did she change throughout your writing process?
Taylor definitely became more nuanced during the revision process, based on a note from a friend who read an early draft. I had to work hard to include clues about Taylor and Alyssa that the reader would pick up on—even when Julia didn’t—so that they weren’t just mindless mean girls. Taylor’s the rope in this tug-of-war between Julia and Alyssa. She feels powerless and doesn’t really know who she wants to win, which sort of justifies her hot and cold behavior. In her own way, she’s struggling with all the same issues as Julia, trying to figure out where she belongs.
One interesting aspect of Julia’s summer is the return of the seventeen-year cicadas. What made you choose this unusual event to coincide with Julia’s especially difficult summer?
I have a handful of vivid memories from when the seventeen-year-cicadas emerged in my neighborhood when I was about twelve, so I decided to add that in as a fun detail, just sort of randomly. But then in the writing it became much deeper, of course; the cicadas suddenly contributed a great deal to the atmosphere of the book and the emergence of the bugs became a sort of metaphor for Julia’s emergence out of childhood and into adolescence.
Julia’s mother is a major part of her daughter’s life. She’s definitely aware of Julia’s friendship woes, and sometimes takes action—like enrolling her in camp—to get her away from the Taylor-Alyssa duo. What was your inspiration for Julia’s mom, and for their close relationship?
Julia’s mother is very much based on my own, because as much as my mother was my biggest supporter, she was also not afraid to criticize my behavior or point out that I had a role in contributing to whatever drama I was living. It was really important to me that Julia’s mom not come off as perfect, though, so there are some glimpses of her own flaws with her friends and also, she gets swept up in the Russia drama almost against her own will. She doesn’t like the girls that don’t like her daughter, but she’s trying to find a way to keep her own emotions in check…until, of course, she can’t. The book is dedicated to my daughters, who are much younger than Julia, but if I have a relationship with them when they are older like the one Julia has with her mom, I feel like I will have done something right.
One of the most truthful aspects of The Battle of Darcy Lane is your portrayal of how friends can hurt each other. Alyssa and Taylor aren’t stereotypes of “bullies,” but they find a million little ways to make Julia feel beneath them. What advice do you have for readers who are dealing with a similar kind of situation?
I would suggest looking at the ways in which you might be contributing to the situation and examining your thoughts about whoever is putting you down. Do you like them? Are you giving them power? Are you being cruel, in your own way? Can you find a way to just walk away and move on?
Also, it’s absolutely true what Julia’s mom says about “the friend thing”: “It really does get easier, I swear.” It eventually becomes more effortless to find people you genuinely like, and also to just coexist peacefully alongside people you don’t connect with.
Julia’s Russia game against Alyssa makes for a satisfying—and suspenseful—climax to their rivalry. What made you choose that particular ball game as their means for battle?
I spent the summer of my twelfth year playing Russia for hours on end with my own two mean-girl-neighbor-friends. I initially wrote and shopped this book to publishers with the title Russia, and the first version was just thirteen short chapters, each one corresponding to a move of the game. On the path to publication, the book then became much more multi-faceted and the game became less the focal point but I liked the way it helped to highlight the competitive aspects of friendship and also liked the way it allowed me to bring some Cold War ideas and images into the story.
One common theme of The Battle of Darcy Lane is waiting. Julia has to wait for the cicadas to come, for her new room, and, of course, for her big Russia face-off against Alyssa. Her anticipation and anxiety really capture the feeling of wondering what it will be like to grow up. What were you waiting for when you were twelve? Did you have the same desires as Julia?
I was waiting to feel like I belonged somewhere. Waiting for a boy that I maybe kind of liked to like me back. Waiting to grow up. Waiting for a kiss. Waiting for more independence/freedom. So yes, very much like Julia.
Julia does not get everything she wants by the story’s end, yet the ending still feels hopeful. What would you like readers to take away from the conclusion?
I want them to get the sense that Julia, who will absolutely face more challenges in these relationships and others, has come out of the summer with a new confidence about the fact that not everyone you meet in life is going to like you—or vice versa—and that’s okay.
In The Battle of Darcy Lane, author Tara Altebrando portrays the complicated nuances of adolescent relationships in a creative, authentic, competitively believable way. In this entertaining novel, Altebrando explores how loyalty between friends can shift at the roll of one’s eyes. She takes a close look at the fragile nature of relationship while considering others are stalwart and undeservingly true.
Twelve-year-old Julia and Taylor – best friends and neighbors – plan to enjoy a lazy summer together. Their intentions are altered when irreverent Alyssa moves to Darcy Lane. Instantly, as if under a spell, Taylor shuns Julia. As days go by, thwarted Julia struggles to discover a way to find a place in the friendship triangle. Alyssa, master of a hard-hitting, rhythmic ball-bouncing game called Russia, challenges Julia to a high-stakes competition. Julia accepts and the battle begins.
The Battle of Darcy Lane is much more than a triumph-over-a-mean-girl rivalry story. Instead, it is a tender, multi-layered tribute to the celebration of innocence, the power of nature, and the promise of true love. This novel serves as the perfect study of the best and the worst in human nature, and the strength required to remain true to oneself.
Accord, consideration, harmony, and companionship are synonymous with the word ‘friendship’. However, there are times when the relationship between two “friends” is anything but harmonious, moments when companionship seems more like a competitive survival of the fittest.
This month the ReaderKidZ are going to explore the meaning of friendship as depicted in what we feel are some of the best kid-lit books around. We’ll consider the warmth and benevolence of friendship, as well as its tests and triumphs – life lessons of the heartfelt kind.
Join us as we discover the true meaning of friendship within the safe confines of very good book. Bring a friend along with you! The more, the merrier.
Auggie lives with her grandpa Gus, a trash hauler, in a poor part of town. Auggie is labeled by some as a girl from the wrong side of the tracks. Auggie and Gus may not have much money but Auggie has plenty of spirit and imagination. Where others see “broken-down and ugly poverty,” Auggie finds beauty and possibilities. Big trouble begins brewing when the city’s newly organized House Beautification Committee declares that homes like Auggie’s are “in violation” and could be condemned. But Auggie is determined to prove that there’s more to her—and to her house—than meets the eye.
What starts out as a home renovation project quickly becomes much more as Auggie and her grandpa discover a bigger battle than they imagined but also a stronger community of friends that they ever knew they had.
Auggie and Grandpa Gus begin making art out of junk to try to save their home and neighborhood. They just need a pick-up truck of junk, a lot of elbow grease and re-seeing what others have thrown away. Discarded toasters become pop up flowers; a church’s broken glass windows become a rainbow walkway.
And always, Auggie holds on to her hope that her Mom might return just in time to see the beautiful and loved home that she left long ago.
THE JUNCTION OF SUNSHINE AND LUCKY opens up many questions about not only what is beautiful but who has the right to make that judgment about others, especially their homes, yards, and neighborhoods.
I had the opportunity to ask the author, Holly Schindler, this question and others:
Q: Holly, as you were developing the story, first may I ask, what were Auggie’s small and large acts of courage that you chose to show the strengthening of confidence?
Holly: When Auggie sets out to improve her house, to a great extent, she’s trying to make herself feel better. She wants to prove to herself that she’s not as run-down as the outside of her house might suggest—even more than she wants to prove it to Victoria. But when those notices start arriving from the House Beautification Committee, she’s got to stand up for herself in ways she never imagined. It’s quite a journey that Auggie goes on—that young girl who was terrified of a storm and had to ride out the lightning in her grandfather’s arms becomes a girl who stands up in a very public way to show her entire hometown why they’ve been wrong about her house.
Q:If a reader wants to try to create “found objects art,” can you suggest websites or books that give ideas or directions?
Holly: Found art doesn’t have to be as extravagant as Auggie’s full-blown house renovations. My brother’s an antiques dealer, and we’ve often reinvented his auction buys in order to sell them—once, we turned a broken mandolin into wall art! My favorite reinvented “art” piece is a necklace I strung from broken parts and vintage beads.
Q: Can you recommend any websites of art museums that show images of a variety of folk art?
Q: I was especially taken by Auggie’s sculpture list she describes toward the end of the book, a list of new sculptures that are on her mind:
1.A girl made out of steel because she’s so tough – and she’s staring down a hose painted up like a copperhead snake.
2.A girl who is so special, she has a picture frame for a face.
3.A girl who is reaching for a star.
Could you comment on what “reaching for a star” might mean to Auggie at this moment?
Holly: So many things, really. I think it shows the pride she feels in herself. By saving her home and her neighborhood, she knows she’s already reached for a star and grabbed it. She knows in her heart that the next time she tries to reach for a star, it might not necessarily be easy, but absolutely doable. Auggie no longer feels her skin is the color of mud. That makes reaching for a star feel like a completely different task.
Holly is interested in hearing from her readers. She has created a site for young readers, Holly Schindler’s Middles, where she interacts with her MG readership. She is devoting a page to reviews from young readers themselves!
To read more, follow Holly’s blog tour which will begin March 1st at Biblio File.
Josephine is not your usual picture book. Nor is her story the typical subject matter of a children’s biography. And yet, Josephine will dazzle readers. This extraordinary book chronicles Josephine Baker’s life from her birth in “honky-tonk town – rambunctious SAINT LOUIS, Missouri-… home of RAGTIME MUSIC — … gotta-make-the-rent music — lift-my-soul music” all the way to the glitzy stages of Paris, France. Hers was no ordinary life.
A self-made woman who fought for racial equality in a way like none before her, Josephine sang and danced, clowned and sparkled her way till she was all the rage, awing and wooing audiences across Europe. “America wasn’t ready for Josephine, the colored superstar. THE WORLD WAS.”
Told in free verse, organized into 6 chronological sections, with illustrations that capture the exuberant text and practically dance off the page, Josephine will make a stunning addition to any home, school, or library collection.
