Lara’s Gift (Knopf, 2013), written by Annemarie O’Brien, is the type of book that will find a lasting place in the hearts of contemporary children and those who care for them. This timeless tale, loaded with family tradition and pride, takes place in snow-bound Russia during the early 1900’s. There we find a young girl named Lara whose passion is to follow in her father’s footsteps by caring for the Tsar’s majestic borzoi, in incredible breed of dogs unlike any other in the world. Though tender and seemingly meek, this protagonist’s tenacity is strong enough to confront self-doubt, danger, and even her father’s stern will…all for the love of the borzoi.
As a complimentary reading supplement, Annemarie is offering a Discussion and Activity Guide, in which the lessons have been aligned with the Common Core State Standards. She invites you to use the guide to identify with Lara’s experience by completing activities such as journaling, craft creating, poetry writing, as well as enjoying videos that help in connecting with the unforgettable story’s time and place.
LARA’S GIFT by Annemarie O’Brien (released August 6 by Knopf) is about a girl named Lara living in Imperialist Russia in the early 1900’s who wants to become the Count’s next kennel master–even though it is forbidden. This is part 2 of ReaderkidZ’s interview with Annemarie.
What was your life like when you were LARA’S age (versus that of LARA)?
I was a very happy kid. My parents were selfless in raising me (and my siblings) and modeled the kind of parenting that I hope to pass down to my own daughters. My parents made marriage look easy and I see now how challenging it is to raise well-balanced kids in today’s world. I owe a great deal to my parents.
I was no different than Lara in many ways. My first love in life was a yellow Lab named Emma. Like Lara and Zar, Emma and I were inseparable. Emma used to patiently wait for me at the end of our driveway for the school bus to drop me off. We had many adventures together!
Emma also saved my life once when a creepy man tried to lure me into his clutches. Lucky for me nothing happened. Emma came out of nowhere and positioned herself, barking and snarling, between me and him. When he took a step toward me, she leaped up and knocked him down. He scrambled to his feet so fast and ran!
I loved all animals and dreamed of owning a home with lots of land where I could raise anything and everything from cashmere goats to tigers and dolphins.
What were your favorite things to do as a kid?
I really enjoyed sports and animals. I was also a very active kid with boundless energy. I was a lot like the kids in the book, A BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA in that I spent a lot of time in the woods building forts with my dog, siblings, and the neighborhood kids. We created many imaginary worlds.
I played a good deal of kicker and dodge ball as a kid. I wish I could say that I had my nose in a book like most of my writer friends can say. While I went to the library each week with my family to get books, I reserved reading books before bed and chose to play outside during the day.
Did you have pets?
I had all kinds of pets as a kid: a lamb, chickens, ducks, rabbits, a turtle, fish, and dogs.
Where do you write your books? How long does it take?
I write wherever I can carve out some time. I have no problem writing in airports, planes, my car, at the beach or Starbucks, in bed, or at my desk. I prefer to write in my studio, but that is a luxury at the moment because of all the distractions. LARA’S GIFT took me two years to write and about four months to revise with my editor, Erin Clarke.
Tell us something about you that might surprise us.
I have eaten sheep eyeballs in Kyrgyzstan and snails in France. I met and shook hands with the former Soviet Premier, Mikhail Gorbachev in the Kremlin. I was an extra in the movie, Philadelphia and chanted, “Hey, hey, ho, ho … homophobia’s gotta go.” In college, I ate thirteen steaks in one sitting.
Leave a comment and share this post on some social media platform to win a copy of LARA’S GIFT. For every share or comment, your name will be entered into the pot. The winner will be drawn and announced August 30.
Congratulations to Teresa Burks – winner of the LARA’S GIFT book draw!
LARA’S GIFT, released on August 6 by Knopf, is about a young girl in Russia in the early 20th century, and her love of dogs–Russian Borzoi to be exact.
The men in Lara’s family have been the kennel masters for Russian Count Voronstov for many generations, breeding and keeping the Borzoi hunting dogs. Lara has helped her father since she was very young, and has a gift for working with the dogs. She wants more than anything to become the next kennel master. But this is an honor only passed from father to son. Lara has another gift. She sees encouraging or terrifying visions of the future. These frighten her father and he makes Lara promise never to use her sight. Then Lara’s mother gives birth to a son. Her father wants Lara to learn something useful like sewing so that she can be married off. A special friendship (might it become more?) with the charming Count’s son who shares Lara’s love for the Borzoi may help her achieve her goal. The story is both old-fashioned and thoroughly modern, with action, romance, and really scary wolves. A fabulous read for ages 9 and up
Annemarie, why did you choose this time period in which to set LARA’S GIFT? Did you do research in Russia?
While I don’t have first-hand experience living in Russia during the Imperial era, I did spend about ten years of my early adult years living and working in Russia during the Gorbachev years. So the setting is something I have experienced and studied extensively. I’ve also read tons of Russian literature and books on Russian history, as well as immersed myself in the culture and language.
I actually wanted to set this story up in the Gorbachev era, but realized after reading TAMAR by the brilliant Mal Peet, that I needed to start my story much earlier to give readers a deeper perspective on the significance of borzoi in Russian history.
Why did you choose these dogs to write about? As a breed, how do they differ from others?
In 1989 while I was working in Moscow, Russia, I was gifted a borzoi puppy. Her name was Dara, but I called her Dasha. Through her, and the challenge I had bringing her back to the United States, I oddly learned the history of the breed and was amazed at how much it mirrored the history of Russia. I knew then that there was a story I wanted to write. I just wasn’t sure where to start the story.
Borzoi are very different from any other dog I have ever had (a spaniel, retriever, dane, and a tervuren). Borzoi are often aloof and really don’t need the kind of affection my retrievers had needed from every single person that walked by. Borzoi have a keen sense of character. I used Dasha as my barometer whenever I met someone new. If Dasha took to them, then I generally would, too. Dasha was gentle and never jumped up on anyone unless invited. Borzoi hunt by sight and Dasha was no exception. She was crazy about running after anything that moved, even a little speck in the horizon miles away. Borzoi are also great running partners!
Do you think humans need dogs? Why or why not?
I think everyone could use a best friend and unconditional love.
Learn more about Annemarie O’Brien and her real life dogs on Monday!
Leave a comment and share this post on some social media platform to win a copy of LARA’S GIFT. For every share or comment, your name will be entered into the pot. The winner will be drawn and announced August 30.
Congratulations to Teresa Burks – winner of the LARA’S GIFT book draw!
For more information about LARA’S GIFT, check out Annemarie O’Brien.
We’re back! We hope you and yours have had a good summer and are gearing up for the school year ahead. The ReaderKidZ are ready for 2013-14. We’ll post more book reviews, more author and illustrator interviews, and more tools in the Tool Box than ever before.
We want your ideas and suggestions. Let us know if you’ve found any books others should know about.
We also want to encourage more involvement from KIDS. We’ll post the comments we get from them.
This month we’re interviewing debut author Annemarie O’Brien and her book just out from Knopf, LARA’S GIFT. Set in early 20th century Russia, it’s a story about a girl and the Borzoi dogs she loves.
Interviews coming in September and October are with Farhana Zia about The Garden of My Imaam, and with Maryann McDonald’s about Odette’s Secrets.
Finally, here are our themes for the coming months. Let us know what you’d like to see, both in the way of themes and books.
August: Everybody’s Back!
September: Diversity-Our Small World
October: Historical Fiction: Bringing the Past to Life
November: Nonfiction: Math and Science- Number the Stars!
December: Holiday Give Away and Our Favorites
(2 week hiatus)
January: Humor-We Love to Laugh
February: Mystery and Adventure
March: The Friends We Make
April: National Poetry Month
May: Summer Reading lists
(2 month hiatus)
Thanks for stopping by. Happy back-to-school from all of us at ReaderKidZ!
School’s out!! Or almost. We’ve had a wonderful time this year sharing children’s books we admire about accepting differences, families in change, intriguing people, historical fiction, sports, humor, poetry, and of course, favorites—ours and those of our young reader friends.
For now the ReaderKidZ team goes on hiatus until August.
We’ll use this time to scour new and old releases, diligently search high and low for the best fiction and nonfiction for young readers K-5, and plan for an exciting 2013-14.
We’ll also go to the beach.
We wish you a summer filled with family and friends, some water, picnics, sunshine, and lots of books in any of their many forms. See you in August!
For the first three years of his life, Albert Einstein barely said a word. “He just looked around with his big, curious eyes. Looked and wondered. Looked and wondered.” He seemed different than the other children and perhaps it was because, even at a young age, Albert understood that the world was full of mystery. He spent much of his time thinking about the hidden things of the universe. “He asked questions never asked before. Found answers never found before. And dreamed up ideas never dreamt before.”
Part of the genius of this book is the way Berne leads a young reader to understand that the ways in which Einstein was “different” from other children, were the same traits which allowed him to later influence accepted scientific understandings. He was an ordinary baby in some ways, and not-so ordinary in others, but he was, like most children, an asker of questions, a dreamer of big thoughts, a person of unlimited imagination.
Gouache, pen, and ink illustrations are sure to captivate young readers, planting the seed alluded to on the dedication page, that our own extraordinary and fascinating interests may lead any one of us to be “…the next Einstein…”
The origins of this timeless picture book reach back over 100 years ago to Dutch artist, Theo van Hoijtema’s words and illustrations. Piatti, known for his many memorable representations of owls, first published his version of the fable in 1963. He loved owls and wrote,”You can draw an owl a thousand times, but you will never find out its secret.” Piatti’s ability to capture an owl’s secretive, all-knowing gaze is, in part, what makes this picture book so incredibly powerful. Those eyes, to whom a rowdy crowd of fowl ask, – “… how can they live together so peacefully?,” reply with a story of all there is to love in the world.
With the same contemplative cadence as John Moffit’s poem, “To Look at Anything,” THE HAPPY OWLS may not be a book for every child, but many children (and adults) will find it a lovely entrée to a conversation about the beautiful things of our world, and how an appreciation of them might, indeed, be the answer to most problems.
Students love this book for many reasons. For starters, it’s got silly pirates who take baths, wear smart new clothes, and come up with very pirate-like and (decidedly inappropriate) gifts. Things like wooden legs, sabers, and cannons. But when they finally arrive at Polly’s, all gussied up and beautified, they’re quickly turned back. What should they do? Young readers will delight in this surprising turn of events!
A sequel to the celebrated 999 Tadpoles, 999 Frogs Wake Up is a call to Spring and sleepyheads of every flavor. It’s a story of friends working together through the mundane and the unusual. The story of 999 frogs who happily awaken others from their winter’s nap. Sure, kids will enjoy predicting what comes next in this light-hearted story. But most of all, when it comes to frogs, kids love Kimura’s. On each page, full of expressive eyes and mouths, the froglets make the reader want to take out a pencil and draw. In fact, what student wouldn’t thrill to write and illustrate her own 999 Frogs’ story?
A classic circular story, Little Bunny’s Sleepless Night tells the tale of an only child so lonely that he struggles to sleep, eventually turning to Squirrel, Skunk, Porcupine, Bear, and Owl for help. Pen-and-ink watercolor illustrations in soothing pinks, browns, greens, and blues hold just the right note to captivate a young sleepy reader and carry him off to his own sleepy bed.
Mission Statement
To provide teachers, librarians, and parents with the resources and inspiration to foster a love of reading in kids, K-5.
