Julie of the Wolves

To her friends in her Eskimo village, she is Miyax, to her friends in San Francisco, she is Julie.

Miyax is thirteen years old and she is running away. The problem is, Miyax lives in Alaska, she is alone on the Barrows and the weather is beginning to turn. Her father was a great Eskimo hunter who taught her many things, Will his lessons help her to survive?

She will need some help, and that is where a pack of wild wolves comes in. Amaroug, the great leader of the wolves, befriends Julie and she is eventually accepted into the Pack. During her journey, Miyax embraces her heritage, learns about herself, and builds a true friendship with the wolves.

When the time comes for Miyax to choose between the old ways and the new, which one will she chose? Is she Miyax of the Eskimos? Or Julie of the Wolves?

This is a wonderful, wonderful story and my fifth grader reading group comprised of girls and boys all enjoyed it. There are some difficult and adult situations in the book, but the details are obscured so that just enough information is given, but not too much. This book is a reminder that we are all stronger than we think we are. I would highly recommend this book to young adult readers.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

When I was a young girl, this was one of my absolute favorite stories. I loved the tale of a young woman struggling to fit it and finding ways to do so seemingly against all the odds. I think that is a story that just about every young girl can relate to. More than that though, The Witch of Blackbird Pond is a story of friendship, loyalty and finally love.

Kit is a strong female character for young women everywhere to look up to and admire. In a literary world crowded with pathetic codependents like Bella Swann from Twilight, our daughters need more examples of young women that the can admire. Kit does not need a man to establish her sense of self, unlike Bella Swann, but rather develops her own strength of character. I admire Kit because she is struggling through so much difficulty - the death of a loved one, the move to a strange new place, the intolerance of those around her - and yet, somehow she always chooses to do the right thing and further, encourages others around her to do the same.

This book has stood the test of time. It has been popular since I was a child and it still speaks to young girls today just as it did back then. I highly recommend it, especially for girls of an impressionable age looking to read a wonderful book about friendship and love and needing young lady role models that they can truly admire.

Code Talkers

I read this book with my fifth grade reading group and it just made for the most amazing discussion. My group was comprised of 10 - 11 year old boys, a difficult age group to encourage reading, and without exception, they all loved this book.

It is amazing how much even I, as an adult, learned from reading this novel. For example, I had no idea how many men we lost in the Pacific to malaria and that the search for a cure to the "mosquito problem" was what brought about DDT. I was amazed at how much information the Code Talkers had to store completely in their memory - the code books never left the base where the Navajo learned the Code to prevent it from falling into enemy hands. Even the Code Talkers themselves were assigned protectors among the other Marines to keep them from being captured by the Japanese.

I loved the way that this book was written in the first person. The reader gets to experience everything with Ned Bengay from his departure from his family,to his treatment at the government school, to his time as a Marine. This is an amazing first person narrative of a few of the most colorful members of the Greatest generation. It's a great read and I recommend it highly.

If you have boys in this age group that enjoy Call of Duty or other online WW2 games, this is a great tie in and way to get them reading. I printed the navajo dictionary out from a site online for the boys in my group and they really enjoyed that. It was an awesome experience, being able to share this work with young men and see the real impact that it made on them.

For my Fifth Grade Reading Group

I faciliate a fifth grade reading group. I have six kids - 3 boys and 3 girls. I love meeting with them every week and it never ceases to amaze me what they take away from any given story. I feel like I learn so much more from them than they actually learn from me, but that's just part of being in a book club I guess.

Right now we are reading a book called Touching Spirit Bear together that I epect to be reviewing very soon. In addition to talking about books we have read together though, we also talk about bookds they are reading, what they like about them, what the learned from them, etc.... Since today is the 12th and Lightning Thief hysteria is in full gear, I thought I would offer my thoughts. My kids begged me to read this one - they all know what a Pottermaniac I am, so they wanted to compare and contrast. I finished Lightning Thief and The Sea of Monsters with three more books in the series left to go.

So here are my thoughts so far:

I can definitely see why the book is so appealing, especially to the boys. It is full of action and the story never stops. It is my opinion that this work reads more like a screenplay than a book and I believe that it was the authors intention to make it into a movie all along. I think that the idea of gods and goddesses and more importantly the moving of Mt. Olympus to reflect the heart of Western Civilizaton to be quite interesting. I think that Percy Jackson is very American while Harry Potter is definitely very British. I adored Greek Mythology when I was a child and it was fun to revisit some old favorites in this new venue.

In comparision to Harry Potter - well, Harry is written by J.K. Rowling - a woman and personal hero of mine. She is an amazing author that paints all of her characters with such a fine brush. The character development and plot in Harry is much more advanced and developed than in The Lightning Thief. Rick Riordan writes a good story, but he is like the Arnold Schwartzenegger of the fanasy literature world. Bang, bang, shot it up and make things happen. So far the character development in the first two books relies primarily on the events happening around the characters and not on the characters themselves.

I see many similarities between the two books - both center around three characters - 2 boys and a girl. Both invovle children who are in danger from dark forces surrounding them and both have a safe have for said children - one a school and the other a camp - where said children are "sorted" into houses or cabins. Both have at their heart a young boy about whose future prophecies have been made, and I could go on and one. There are some subtle differences, for example both of Percy's parents are alive, but all in all, I find the similarities remarkable.

I will love Harry until I die. I enjoyed reading Lightning Thief and plan to finish the series, but it will never have the magic that Harry Potter did. That said, I am very much looking forward to the movies which I think will be amazing. Especially since I believe that was the intent of the author from the inception of the story.