The Wolf's Boy

So you thought spring was coming...
It is - just not as fast as you were hoping. In the meantime, heat up a cup of cocoa and grab some "thought it would be spring but it's not" reading. Here's one I recommend:

The Wolf's Boy
by Susan Williams Beckhorn
240 pages; ages 9-12
Disney-Hyperion, 2016

I could not get free. The string of spit dripped closer. My brother was good at this game...

It doesn't matter whether you're living in the 21st century or back at the time when cave bears roamed, brothers haven't changed much. Especially when you're the weaker one.

Susan Beckhorn's tale transports us to that time just before wolf-relatives would become domesticated companions and partners with humans. This is a story of Kai who, by fate of birth, is an outcast. He longs to become a hunter - but born with a clubfoot he is forbidden to use hunter's weapons.

Kai has secrets; he was abandoned by his family and taken in by a mother wolf. Eventually Kai was reclaimed by his family, but he has never forgotten his wolf family. Nor have they forgotten him. When Kai discovers a motherless wolf cub, he brings her home to live with him. If you've ever had a puppy, you know that they like to chew things, like your best moccasins, the leather straps for your snares and traps. So Uff (the pup) and Kai are eventually exiled, and head north to a place where dangerous Ice Men live.

One of the things I love about this book is the language. Beckhorn introduces us to the culture of hunters by using their words: keerta (spear), nnnn-gata (hunter's prayer for luck). And especially oooni-alu-kas-pah-vard-ahh (fire-haired traveler with big hands, hear, and voice).

We'll be hanging out on Marvelous Middle Grade Monday with other  bloggers over at Shannon Messenger's blog. Hop over to see what other people are reading. Review copy from author.

Yaks Yak

Yaks Yak ~ Animal Word Pairs
by Linda Sue Park; illus by Jennifer Black Reinhardt
40 pages; age 4-7
Clarion Books, 2016


Yaks yak.
Bugs bug bugs.
Flounders flounder.

This is a book crammed with wordplay: animals and the things they might do, if they lived in Linda Sue Park's universe. Yaks would sit around talking. Bugs would annoy their buggy friends. And flounders (a flat kind of fish) would flail helplessly because that's another definition of "flounder".

It's a simple structure - noun + verb - made more fun because both noun and verb are the same word.

What I like: The improbability of it. The imaginative illustrations of steers in bumper cars "steering" and crows boasting (crowing) about their accomplishments. And that there's a glossary that defines where the animals' names came from and the meaning of the "action" word. For example: a "kid" is a child, but "kid" also means to joke.

Review copy provided by publisher.

a Long, Long Line

The Long, Long Line

by Tomoko Ohmura

40 pages; ages 3 - 7

Owlkids Books, 2013

“It looks like something is about to start. Let’s go take a look!”

And so you go to where the sign says Please Line Up in Single File and you are the very last one in a long, long line. You know it’s the best attraction because you are number 50, right behind the lizard and a mouse. Somewhere up ahead you can smell … yup, skunk’s up there. And farther up, is that the hungry roar of a lion?

Finally it’s time to board the Jumbo Coaster! It’s so big that the pages open, like a gate, so you can see everyone get on board. Then you’re off on the ride of your life, flipping and diving and… I don’t want to give away the surprise at the end. But I will say that the anticipation is at least as much a part of the story as the ride itself. And the riders – well, each has its own quirky personality.

There are lots of Things to Explore in this book: numbers, animals, how they’re lined up, how they relate to each other, a fun word game and some potential danger when the carnivores get hungry.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Noah Webster and His Words

Noah Webster and His Words

by Jeri Chase Ferris; illus. by Vincent X. Kirsch

32 pages; ages 4 – 8

HMH Books for Young Readers, 2013

This is a fun picture book bi-og-ra-phy [noun: a written history of a person's life]. While authentic – it’s based on lots of research – the dialogue adds a touch of fictionalization.* But a great story about a guy who loved language and wanted to document American English as a separate language from the King’s English.
(* the dialog adds literary life to the nonfiction. Jeri isn't writing fiction - she's using the same tools fiction writers use to bring her nonfiction story to life. see her comment below. )

Noah does not want to be a farmer like his father and his father’s father. Instead, he wants to be a schol-ar [noun: one who goes to school; a person who knows a lot]. The most controversial thing Noah did was to push the idea of standardized spellings and word usage. Prior to his spellers and dictionary, people wrote words the way they sounded. That meant a single word might be spelled three or for/four/fower/fore ways. Webster also decided that since this was a new country, we needed new and simplified spellings. Instead of “plough” he wrote “plow”.

The story is interspersed with dictionary-like definitions, and the back pages are a treasure trove for word lovers and nonfiction aficionados. There’s a detailed timeline in which “facts are explained”. Highlights include: the Boston Massacre, Tea Party, fighting in the Militia against the Brits and, always, working on his ultimate word book. There is an Author’s note with even more facts, including Webster’s opposition to slavery and his advocacy for the first copyright law. We learn that Webster was a teacher, lawyer, County court judge and founder of Amherst College… not just the guy who wrote the book we have to memorize before the SAT’s. The author includes a list of primary sources and some websites for kids (and their parents) who want to learn more.

Although this book is aimed at the 4- to 8-year old crowd, I think kids in 4th & 5th grade will get a kick out of it – especially if you pair it with Frindle, by Andrew Clements. Frindle, you might recall, is a story about a boy who makes up a word and then tries to get it included in the dictionary. 

If you’re looking for some activities to get kids involved with words, try these:

Find some old dictionaries at a used book sale and let kids cut out (or tear out) a favorite word to incorporate into a drawing/painting/collage.

Collect words in a can – words that are neat, unusual, or just sound cool. Use the words to write poetry, as story-starters, or just to share and listen to the cool words.

Play Text Twist, Boggle, Scrabble Slam or other games.

 

Check out more Nonfiction reads today over at Jean LittleLibrary. Review copy provided by local library.

One Word Pearl

One Word Pearl

by Nicole Groeneweg; illustrated by Hazel Mitchell

32 pages; for word-loving kids of all ages     

Mackinac Island/Charlesbridge Publishing, 2013

Pearl loved words. Some kids collect stamps or stones or skate keys. But Pearl collected words. She “…strung words together like beads on a necklace and stored them in a treasure chest.”

One day something horrible happens, and the words whirl and swirl and get lost in a big wind. Pearl manages to slam her treasure chest closed and capture a few. But there are not many left – not even enough to make a story. So Peal rations them out, one word at a time.

I love how author Nichole Groeneweg plays with the words Pearl manages to save. There are twirly, whirly, swirly words, and hoppity, floppity words. There are skippity words, and flippity words, frilly words and silly words. I love how Hazel Mitchell incorporates snippets of words into her illustrations. There are fancy words and block-letter words and words that spiral around or hop up and down.

And then one day the treasure chest is empty. There are No Words Left. How will Pearl make it through a day without speaking a single word? Or an hour?

There’s only one hope left for Pearl – she has to face the mussed up mess of the word tornado. And when she does, her words flow.

If you are the sort of person who cuts words out and glues them into art, or makes poetry out of magnetic word tiles, or harbors a secret can of words scribbled on bits of neon index cards in the back of your closet – then you will identify with Pearl, the “word girl”.

Review copy provided by the publisher.