Kid Konnection

We have been busy cleaning out my parents home over the last few months.  While a sad and sentimental journey for sure, it's also been kind of fun discovering and 're' discovering things from our childhood, our parent's childhood and even our grandparent's childhood.
Bibles?  I think I now have the biggest Bible collection in the known world.  I mean, how can you throw away an old family Bible that has your ancestor's name in it?  Along with old letters, newspaper clippings, etc?
I cannot.

Anyway, that is a story for another time. For now... Look what I found!
(bad photos---taken on the guest bed---sorry)

I remember these books from when I was little. They were  not mine, but my mother's and my grandma's books.   LITTLE JANIE'S CHRISTMAS!!!   It is one that I always loved.   I am so glad my mom didn't throw it away.    It is Christmas to me.  Just look at the picture!   Santa across the night sky.
I always thought it was just like that.
In the book,  Janie writes a letter to Santa Claus on Christmas Eve and he ends up coming and taking her in his sled, where they go back to the North Pole and she visits his workshop.   The photos are gorgeous and very old-fashioned.
This book was published in 1946, and you can find it on e-bay for around  $15. 
It was much more fun finding my mom's.

A Lonesome Dolly---my grandma received this from her uncle. There is an inscription inside the front cover.  There is no year or date, but I am thinking it was the late 20's. From now on, I am going to sign and date every book I give to someone.  I usually try to do so, but from now on it's a mandate for me!

And finally, this one I shouldn't be so happy to have.   But I am.  Only for the sake of nostalgia---I have  replaced it for my own children (or grandchildren) with   "The Boy and the Tigers"  Which sounds much better than "Little Black Sambo".

In my mother's trunk there were these few books  and a handful of others.

I wonder what I will choose to keep and what I will choose to give away?

That will be a hard decision for me when the time comes, but then again, does it really ever have to come? 

I have a a whole two shelves full of children's books and juvenile novels. I love having that 'library' for my grandkids... and also sometimes my friends children.

But, is it more fun discovering a handful of treasured books or bookshelves full of all kinds of books?

I am linking up with Kid Konnection at Booking Mama.

Kid Konnection

Kid Konnection    is a Saturday feature hosted by Booking Mama, where she says we can post anything  related to children's books.  I hope that's true, because this is pretty random.

On Tuesday  afternoon, I took  off work to ride to Reno with the Handyman.   It's a 2 1/2 hour drive and I usually like to go with him so I have a 2 1/2 hour forced reading time without interruptions.   OH....and the pleasure of his company of course.

Before we took off, I grabbed   The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease off of my shelf. 

I've read this many times--I have 5 of the six editions.... yes, it sounds a bit obsessive ( aren't all bookworms?), but I was a children's librarian for a lot of years,  I LOVED that job, and it's just carried over into my real life.

I just felt the need to reacquaint myself with some good children's literature.
If you are a parent, grandparent or someone who just loves books and would like to see a child  'discover the pleasures of lifetime reading'   (quote from Goodreads)  then this book is for you.
I first read it when my oldest son was about  6 years old--he is  32 now--and I began, what was for me, some of the best times I had with my children.   Reading.    At bedtime always,  sometimes at breakfast, when they were sick, in the car and for one summer at the dinner table. (that didn't last, because by the time the chapter was done, everyone had finished their plates but me  and I was left to eat alone--BUT, they all remember that summer,  that's the important part, so it was well worth eating alone, I guess.  It's  a great memory for all of us.  One of the books we read that summer, was THE BFG by Roald Dahl.    He liked human beans and my boys thought that was the funniest thing.)

Goodreads says this of the Read-Aloud-Handbook:
For more than two decades, millions of parents and educators have turned to Jim Trelease's beloved classic to help countless children become avid readers through awakening their imaginations and improving their language skills. Now this new edition of The Read-Aloud Handbook imparts the benefits, rewards, and importance of reading aloud to children of a new generation. Supported by delightful anecdotes as well as the latest research, The Read-Aloud Handbook offers proven techniques and strategies—and the reasoning behind them—for helping children discover the pleasures of reading and setting them on the road to becoming lifelong readers


I bought it years ago and keep buying the new editions (and  also check out his webpage every few weeks) for the lists.  He updates the lists of great read-alouds with each new edition.  I haven't been a children's librarian for more than 15 years now, but I've been a grandma for 10, so I like to keep up on what's new in children's books.
 Kid Konnection is a really good place to keep up on good children's books too.   Especially, if you are like me, love the genre, but don't have young children, don't work in the field anymore or don't subscribe to the School Library Journal.

After re-reading it on the way to Reno, I came home and did two things.

1) I decided to put all my children's books into alphabetical order by the author's last name. 

I began laying them out on the bed in stacks by the author's last name (The grandkids room, which is a spare bedroom upstairs and  the books are on the closet shelves).... but.... I have one problem.  

What am I going to do with the rest of the shelves?  Where am I going to stack them??    (please disregard the wrapping paper tub on the floor of the closet,  I'll have to find  another place for that.)

Anyway...the books on the bed are all from one shelf only as you can tell!!  
I don't think I can stack all the rest on the bed. I'm not sure what I got myself in to.
This looks like a huge job to me!  But I know that when I'm done I'll really like it being so organized.
2) The second thing I did was,    I impulsively ordered a few new books from Amazon.  New  'good read alouds.'  Because I want to be  known as  the  book grandma.   The Library Gramma!!


This is what I ordered --and they came today--all recommended by Jim Trelease author of the Read Aloud Handbook.

Originally published as four separate picture books, these stories featuring twins Jimmy and Janet are now newly illustrated and bound together in one volume.

Henk was hidden on the farm when he was young and the Nazi soldiers came. But the war is over now, and Henk finds out that the people he lives with, the people he loves, are not his real family. He doesn't remember his real parents, and now a new life in the city lies ahead of him. Will things ever be the same?

Donald Zinkoff is one of the greatest kids you could ever hope to meet. He laughs easily, he likes people, he loves school, he tries to rescue lost girls in blizzards, he talks to old ladies. The only problem is, he's a loser.

A harrowing account of a town that surrenders its humanity. "A frightening and compelling story about prejudice, ignorance and hysteria."--

There is quite an age range there, but my grandkids range in age already, and I have one more on the way, so...

like I said--these look like great read-alouds.

And.....I might have ordered 3 more books--coming soon.

I'M SO EXCITED!!!  I can't wait to see those babies and read, read, read.

(disclosure:  I keep saying babies and they are five of them ages,  3, 5, 10.  I can't help myself. )

here are a couple of them now...

My little Cassie Roo.  (I added the Roo, her parents did not) 

She loves those pattern books.

My youngest son, reading to his babies  (who are now 3) 

(they were premies and it always amazes me what 1 pound difference can look like. Eli wieghed about  10oz more than his sister)

 

This is that same sister, Emerson, walking home from the library earlier this spring.

I love having readers in the family.

I love reading to them too.

Kid Konnection

Every Saturday, Booking Mama hosts a feature called  Kid Konnection, where she features anything related to  children's books.  I thought I'd pop in today while this book is still in my head.

I picked this up last week and was really excited to read it.  It has been a while since I've read a Newberry Award book  (I discovered I haven't read  the past 4 years winners), and I always find them an interesting read.

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos, is  also an interesting read .... I just can't say it was one of the better Newberry books. 
While I enjoyed it, I was a bit confused by it.   Jack  Gantos is the author and also the main character.   I  didn't know if it was an autobiographical  book or what.
After a bit of investigation,  I've discovered that Mr. Gantos has written a lot of children's literature and won many awards, and he uses himself and his years of growing up as inspiration,  tho they are  not necissarily biographies.  (Which is good, because they are quite quirky)  He does say he takes a story from his life and adds to it,  embellishes it and fictionalizes it.
The town, Norvelt, PA,  in Dead End in Norvelt, is a real town.  The town upheld the principles of  neighbor helping neighbor,  which were installed by Eleanor Roosevelt.  This is a main theme throughout the book,  a utopia type of town.   Jack  Gantos the real person as well as the character in the book, really did have horrible nose bleeds growing up. 
So, while many things are true, they are embellished upon.

Dead End in Norvelt had a lot of 'boy humor', which I think my boys would have liked when they were younger, and my  10-year old grandson would like now.  I can see the appeal.
Jack Gantos, the character in the book,  is grounded for life and has to pass his summer helping an elderly neighbor write obituaries, which his quirky neighbor also peppers with historical facts.
Okay...I love  history, so I enjoyed this part of the book.  The history quotes/facts/stories  were just enticing enough for a young boy to get ---interested.   There are some gory historical facts in the book, but done so in a way that any pre-teen boy would love.  I remember one time my middle son was fascinated by a dead cat he found in the street.  He and his friends stared at it and poked at it for a good hour before a neighbor came with a shovel to bury the poor thing.  But boys just are fascinated by gore---as long as it doesn't effect them.  I think the history stories that Gantos puts into his book are just titllating enough to hook most pre-teen boys.

There are some inconsistancies in the book.  One minor character is selling Girl Scout cookies to 'make money for her family",  and most of us know that the money goes to the GSA.   But I think a few things like that can be overlooked. 

I would say it's a good book, not a great book,   but while trying to find out more about Jack Gantos I came across a couple of interviews and videos and I think HE is a real interesting person.
This is from his website:
His greatest wish in life is to replace trailer parks with bookmobile parks, which he thinks will eliminate most of the targets for tornadoes and educate an entire generation of great kids who now go to schools that are underfunded and substandard.
check out his site here.
Reading Rockets did a great video interview with him.

He's a really interesting person, and while I didn't love this book, I liked it very much.  You should check out the videos, because for some reason I can't get a Youtube video embedded today.  But you'll see how quirky and interesting he is.
In the final paragraph of the book Gantos writes:
On the morning of August 17, Jack Gantos was released from being grounded by his parents. But stay tuned because on   August 18, he might be grounded all over again--unless he remembers his history!

Isn't that what we are taught?   Unless we remember history we are doomed to repeat it?
He beleives if you know your sense of history, you can know where you are headed.

From Goodreads:
Dead End in Norvelt is the winner of the 2012 Newbery Medal for the year's best contribution to children's literature and the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction!

Melding the entirely true and the wildly fictional, Dead End in Norvelt is a novel about an incredible two months for a kid named Jack Gantos, whose plans for vacation excitement are shot down when he is "grounded for life" by his feuding parents, and whose nose spews bad blood at every little shock he gets. But plenty of excitement (and shocks) are coming Jack's way once his mom loans him out to help a fiesty old neighbor with a most unusual chore—typewriting obituaries filled with stories about the people who founded his utopian town. As one obituary leads to another, Jack is launced on a strange adventure involving molten wax, Eleanor Roosevelt, twisted promises, a homemade airplane, Girl Scout cookies, a man on a trike, a dancing plague, voices from the past, Hells Angels . . . and possibly murder. Endlessly surprising, this sly, sharp-edged narrative is the author at his very best, making readers laugh out loud at the most unexpected things in a dead-funny depiction of growing up in a slightly off-kilter place where the past is present, the present is confusing, and the future is completely up in the air.

Kid Konnection

It is apparent by reading past Kid Konnection posts from other bloggers, that I am the old one. 
Hey, hey now.....I didn't mean I'm the old lady, but rather in what books I post about.   Someone needs to champion older GREAT, well-loved books, don't they? 
I appreciate the  Captain Underpants, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Judy Moody, The Dork Diaries and Fancy Nancy books of today, but.....but..... what's the matter with  Thank you Jackie Robinson?

Thank you Jackie Robinson by Barbara Cohen
Sam and Davy come from different races, religions, and generations, but they have one thing very much in common – they both love the Brooklyn Dodgers and baseball. When Davy has a heart attack, Sam is determined to show Davy how much their friendship means to him by getting Davy a baseball signed by their mutual hero, Jackie Robinson.



Thank you Jackie Robinson was published in 1988, but it's a timeless story of  friendship, race, personal sacrifice and death.  Pretty big issues for any kid huh? 
But, Cohen handles the situations with grace and empathy and makes it a good read...alone or as a read aloud.  I love the read aloud, since it's a great time and situation to  (without lecturing) talk to your kids or grand kids about these heavy issues.  And Cohen make history fun!  And interesting.  And there is baseball involved...it's the time of year for baseball.  (another little hook there for boys if you have trouble finding something they like to read).

It's a short little post, but that's my  "old" pick for Kid Konnection this week.
Kid Konnection is hosted every Saturday by Booking Mama.


PS  my grandson is here today and we went to the library this afternoon.  We brought home:
Captain Underpants  ---3 books
Goosebumps
Bunnicula
Lawn Boy
Hatchet

Good stuff for a Saturday afternoon.

Kid Konnection

Every Saturday,  Booking Mama hosts a feature called Kid Konnection -- a regular weekend feature about anything related to children's books.
I have participated a couple of times in the past.  I don't always have the time  (mostly because I am a horrible procrastinator and it's Saturday before I know it and I've run out of time), but I love to read the reviews and opinions about all the great children's and YA books there.

I thought I'd write about "Gentle Ben" by Walt Morey today.     It's an oldie, but a goodie.  (Just like the music I like to listen to.)  Seriously tho,  Gentle Ben was one of my boys favorite stories when they were little--a long time ago.  I was just now browsing thru my  children's book closet and saw it, and thought...why not?

Gentle Ben is a classic.
Gentle Ben is an 'outdoorsy' adventure type of book that might appeal to boys.
It's about the friendship between Gentle Ben, an American Black Bear, and a young boy named Mark.
Walt Morey (the author) was a guest at the Grammar School I was working at as the  school librarian  in 1991 and he was very amusing.

But let me for a minute, go back to the 'boy' thing.   We all know statistically, that boys  need to see men reading to (um...what's the word?)  connect?  Imprint?  with books.  Whatever the word is....it's really needed.

My daughter in-law told me a story about my 2-year old grandson Eli.  He is just beginning to talk and the other day  she told me...
well....her  exact words were:
One of my favorite things about Eli is that he feels the need to point to everything in our house and either label it as "mama" or "dada"

For example books = mama's (I told Marcus he needs to read more so Eli doesn't associate books as something belonging only to females).

Perhaps association was the word I was looking for.  Yes...boys need to see Men reading!    I could go off on that tangent, about role modeling to raise readers!  But I won't  (I just thought it was a cute story about Eli.   And I'm always up for sharing a cute story about my grandchildren!  He also says "mama" when he sees Dr. Pepper too.  ~laughing~  )

My point?   Do I have a point today?   Ahhh... Walt Morey.  He wrote Gentle Ben.  And when he came to talk to the school, (4th and 5th grades only) his stories were so filled with adventures and many near-dangerous exploits, that any 5th grade boy would love him.  And girls too....I am not trying to gender-ize (is that a word?) books/stories.  Any child would love this outdoors book.  It's just sometimes harder to get boys interested in the more passive act of reading, so adventure is sometimes the key. (as are sports stories)
Morey talked of living in the Pacific Northwest and being a nature lover for most of his life.    He was kind of a fussy, eccentric  old man when he came to the school, but very nice and amusing.  At one point in his story telling he was talking about a bear and he said,  " He was the meanest  son-of-a....(wait for it )  Son of a ......gun" there ever was.
We (the teachers and I) had sat on pins and needles for a moment because in our minds, we could hear him say  "son-of a bitch"  like it was nothing.
All the kids were on the edge of their seats!  I think they thought he would say it too.
Walt Morey was a fun 'male' role model who loved books, the outdoors, bears and could tell a whopping story!

But back to Gentle Ben.  Gentle Ben is a great book for boys AND girls.  It's a great Read-A-Loud too.  Written in 1965,  Gentle Ben was Morey's first book for young readers and won the  Dutton Junior Animal Book Award, the Sequoya Children's Book Award and was a ALA Notable Book.   Gentle Ben was made into a motion picture and a television series.  (the book takes place in Alaska, but they changed the TV series to Florida. Although I loved the television series when I was a kid, as an adult, it seems strange that they would have changed the setting to Florida.  But I guess in Alaska they couldnt' show those cool scenes of driving the swamp buggy to the rescue  )

I found this quote at Pop-Cult.com:
Not often brought up these days (except when a pop-culture show like The Simpsons or Family Guy needs a bear reference), Gentle Ben was the sort of kid-safe, family-friendly adventure series that was terribly popular during the 1960's, where jewel thieves and smugglers could be outwitted by a kid and his ginormous pet.


Funny....
but I'm talking about the book, NOT the TV show.  And the book is always better.    But don't just trust my opinion.  I found this review on Amazon:  (from Ian in Florida--5th grade)
I love this book! I have read 7 books but I only liked 2. And this is one of them. This book is a great book for 4th-7th graders. The vocabulary is very hight. The srory brings tears in your eyes but laghfter to your heart!I recomend this book to very parent or child.

Now, that's a good review!  And I would agree....tears to your eyes  (how can any book with an animal not bring tears to your eyes)  and laughter to your heart. Through books you get stories of life experiences you  aren't otherwise  introduced to.  Think about how great of an experience that is for kids!

Jim Trelease, author of the Read-Aloud-Handbook says  of Gentle Ben:
A young boy adopts a huge bear and brings to his family in Alaska all the joys and tears such a combination might invite.  Though the struggle to save animals from ignorant, but well-informed human predators is one that has been written many times over, Morey's handling of characters, plot and setting makes this an original and exciting tale.  He supports the pace of his story with many lessons in environmental science, from salmon runs to hibernation.
me:  and this was in 1965!!  

It is cold and windy on this Saturday, June 4th, here in Northern Nevada ( we think Mother Nature is going thru menopause and taking it out on us!!  It's just all wrong!  Weather, that is),  so I just might call up my 9 year old grandson and ask if he wants to come over for an afternoon of book reading.  I'll introduce him to Gentle Ben.  And make chocolate chip cookies.
*****************
Before I go, I just want to throw in this link to a great website I found called Guys Read.  It's a collection of  books that  'guys' like!
Welcome to the Guys Read Virtual Vault of Good Books. This is the place to come if you’re looking for something to get a guy reading. We’ve collected recommendations from teachers, librarians, booksellers, publishers, parents, and guys themselves.  These are the books that guys have said they like.  We’ve gathered and grouped them to make them easier to find. 

If you have boys, love boys, know boys  (and girls too)  go check it out for something good to read.

Kid Konnection--a day late

I am obsessed with "Little Golden Books".....with collecting them for my grandchildren. I'm not sure I can defend this obsession, Little Golden Books are certainly not easy books to read (you have to be a pretty good reader to get thru some of them), not easy books to hold (they have really sharp edges and they are reinforced CARDBOARD), not that easy to find (other, up and coming books/authors have pushed them aside.)


But...there is just "that certain something" about Little Golden Books, that " Je ne sais quoi " if you will.
I love them, so I keep picking them up when I find them.


My obsessions are usually short lived. I was on a Nursery Rhyme obsession for a while, so my twin grandchildren were the lucky recipients of 5 or 6 different versions of Nursery Rhyme books. Then I ventured on to Fairy Tales (they have only about 3 of those books, but they are collections, not just one story).


A few months ago, while shopping I found a rack of Little Golden Books and it had the books "Little Mommy" and "Doctor Dan the Bandage Man." I was hit by a jolt of nostalgia and I've been buying them ever since.


While at the library a couple of weeks ago, I came across this catalog and price guide of Little Golden Books...and I was shocked. SHOCKED to learn that books I had when I was a kid are now going for $27, $30 and more for a first edition!
Why couldn't have my mother saved all my Little Golden Books? (sigh) She did recently give me all my "Dr. Seuss Book Club books". (my brother does not know I got all the books...shhhh.....).


We owned this one!! The Naughty Bunny!! Where or where did it go?

 Last week, I noticed, that the Sunday School room has a bunch of older Little Golden Books on a shelf.
They have the Naughty Bunny. I wanted to "borrow" it. I glanced to my left, then to my right....my fingers got itchy.... my husband sighed and shook his head. He said, "Really Debbie? It's a church."
Okay, so I left the Naughty Bunny on the shelf. But when I go help with Sunday School today, I'm going to hold it in my hands and dream.


Actually, this was my favorite Little Golden Book....Heidi. I loved Heidi.

 I will stop this obsession when I find this book for my grandchildren. I'm on a quest!

Then I think I'll move on to Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. OR...the Bobbsey Twins!


Did you have a love affair with "Little Golden Books?" What was your favorite?

I am linking this post to "Kid Konnection",   a feature hosted every Saturday (yes, I am late) by Julie at Booking Mama.   
Check it out for great links to other great children's books.

Kid Konnection--Gone Away Lake

I am not a book reviewer, and I don't pretend to be. I just like books. A LOT. I am especially passionate about children's books and I do have a "library" in my grandchildren's guest room up stairs. I've collected books throughout the years, at used book stores, school library "sales" and.... taken home discarded books.

Which brings me to my entry into Kid Konnection..... Gone Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright.

Kid Konnection -- is a regular weekend feature about anything related to children's books hosted by Julie at Booking Mama.

I picked this book up when I worked at a school library ... it was being discarded, to make room for newer books, and I took it home.


Getting rid of the old, to make room for the new is a complicated issue. I read an article recently in which the author wondered if children's classics will be "forgotten" by kids....forgotten to be read!
Gone Away Lake is not a "classic" in the traditional sense, (whatever that means)  but it was a 1958 Newbery Honor book and it deserves a place on your bookshelf! 
In the story, Portia and her brother take a train from the city to the country--BY THEMSELVES--to visit a cousin. Portia is "beginning to be eleven" and her brother Foster is six and a half, but that's old enough Portia convinces her father and "My goodness what could happen? There were two of them!"


It was a different world in 1957.... I want my grandchildren to visit this kind of world, thru books. (because there is no way, they are getting on a train at 11 and 6 by themselves to travel to the country!! Or a bus, which is what my own parents put me on with my 8 year old brother, when I was 11. We were being sent to our grandparents for a visit) But I would really like for them to enjoy the experience thru books. This book. It makes me sad, that it might not be available to all school kids, because of room. I mean the fact is, that we sometimes do have to make "room"... what a horrible position to be in, the one to decide.  (But why  one would decide to discard a Newbery Honor book is beyond me...... I KNOW;  it probably wasn't getting checked out often, sigh)


I know that great books are coming out now, and will continue to come out in the future, but I hope that there is still a place for older books--with the perspective of that "older" author.

This is my copy.... the  one I picked up at a "discard" sale.

with great illustrations by Beth and Joe Krush

(and a spot on my camera lens..... that's funny, it's like I'm trying to blur out something)

Having said that....my grandson Camron, wanted to go to the library today to get: Goosebumps books.
I told him that I happened to have Goosebumps books upstairs that belonged to his dad and uncles, when they were younger. He said "They're that old?"
Hmmm....maybe even tho Goosebumps are not great literature, and not classics, they are old,er and they're still popular, so... I guess if you're willing to read....it should be encouraged.


I'll read him a chapter or two of Gone Away Lake, and then he'll go to bed with his Goosebumps books.

Sheila L. Beaumont says this of Gone-Away Lake, in a review on Amazon, August 21, 2000,
"Gone-Away Lake" is a delightful, beautifully written story, just this side of fantasy and filled with interesting, likable characters. A brother and sister from the city take the train to visit their country cousin. The children discover an old, mostly abandoned summer colony of houses near a swamp that used to be a lake. There they meet the most charming people in the book, an elderly sister and brother, Minnehaha Cheever and Pindar Payton, who are living happily in the place where they spent summers as children. The pair wear old-fashioned clothes stored away many years ago by their family, cultivate a variety of gardens, and have chickens, goats, a duck, and a cat named Fatly. Once a month, Pindar cranks up the antique Franklin car and drives into town for supplies. The children are adventuresome and imaginative, and have no need of TV to keep themselves amused. The descriptions of the country are amazingly vivid, and there's plenty of humor too. Don't miss the sequel, "Return to Gone-Away." And Elizabeth Enright's series about the Melendy family is also fun to read.