Looking for Newbery: Day 13: The Small Adventures of Popeye and Elvis

I love this book! For me, it's wonderful in its simplicity. Barbara O'Connor creates characters that are memorable, and takes the reader on a "small" adventure that all can relate to.

What child hasn't wondered a little further from home than permitted by cautious parents and feel like they are on the adventure of a lifetime. In my review here, I compared it to the times we toured the storm sewer pipes, knowing the whole time we weren't really in any danger but armed ourselves with baseball bats just in case we ran into any cat sized sewer rats.

After reading Fuse #8's predictions today, I was thrilled to see Popeye and Elvis among her choices. Nothing would make me happier on Monday than to hear this title named as a Newbery winner, and then I'm heading out to find as many cans of Cafe Francais International coffee as I can and sending them to Barbara O'Connor!




Other reviews:
Book Nut
You Tube Trailer
Becky's Book Reviews
Read, Read, Read!

The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis (I just couldn't wait!)

So the original plan was to read this advance from Barbara O'Connor on the bus to Boston, but I just couldn't wait. Rather than pack and get ready to go, I sat down and finished this gem in about 2 hours!

As usual, Barbara O'Connor's characters are strong and original. The main character, Popeye, is a boy living with his grandmother just waiting for something to happen. For him it's the beginning of summer and he's not looking forward to every day being the same as the one before. Growing up in the middle of a dysfunctional family, absent mother and father, an uncle who gets into trouble over and over, Popeye is being raised by his grandmother, Velma. Velma's big fear is "cracking up" and so she puts herself through mental exercises to keep it from happening. Her favorite is to recite the English royals in chronological order so the story is interrupted time and again by Velma's recitation. Another favorite brain exercise is to work crossword puzzles and so Popeye's vocabulary grows word by word at Velma's insistence. The reader will find periodic words and definitions throughout the book at appropriate places in the story.

Outside of Popeye's house, excitement shows up in the form of a family who lives in a big old Holiday Rambler that gets stuck in the lane. Six kids live with their mom and dad, the oldest is Elvis. Popeye is introduced to the kids when he invited to join the "Spit and Swear Club" whose main purpose is to spit and swear, of course. Elvis is an adventurer and is used to a lot less adult supervision than Popeye and so the two decide to have an adventure, a small adventure.

This is where Barbara O'Connor hooked me! The boys decide to wander down to the creek to look for an adventure. At first is seems that nothing ever changes until they spot a Yoo Hoo boat, a boat made from a Yoo Hoo chocolate drink box, floating downstream. When they catch it they discover a mysterious note inside and decide they will walk up the stream until they find out who sent the boat. For Elvis this isn't such a big deal, but Popeye has instructions to stay within hollerin' range of Velma, and he fears Velma's wrath, one of the vocabulary words he has learned.

I say this is where I was hooked because of the simplicity of the adventure! It's just a stream, in a typical wood, where boys play all of the time, but when a Yoo Hoo boat comes floating by it is transformed into just the small adventure two boys are looking for. It reminded me of my summers growing up when we would take a baseball bat and a flashlight and crawl into the storm sewer tunnel near my house. We would walk for what seemed hours even though we were warned to stay out, and somehow we always ended up at the same place, the corner right next to my house, but it was an adventure. On a recent visit back I noticed they had put chain link over the entrance to the tunnel, spoil sports, so much for adventure!

In the end the boys find the source of the boats and the meaning of all of the mysterious clues. I don't want to say too much because I don't want to spoil anything. The simplicity of the story make this an enjoyable quick read and Barbara O'Connor's word choices and descriptions are as strong as ever. She has done it again, a warm, inviting, story that kids are going to love. If you missed it on my earlier post, check out the book trailer here.

I was so excited about the book that I already created a mosaic that I won't be able to use for a while but here it is anyway. By the way in response to a question in the comments, Mandy, I don't have a pink bus in my backyard, deed restrictions or something, the pix all came from Flickr.
So now, I'm off to Boston...really!

Pippo the Fool is Coming to THE PIT

It's hard to believe that the start of school is only a little over a month away. OK, I wish I hadn't said that, but it's true and so I have begun a tentative list of things I want to be sure to read in THE PIT to start the year. The list is still very fluid because I know between now and then I'll find a lot more to add to my list. Pippo the Fool is one I'm sure of because of its wonderful story and beautiful, colorful illustrations.

Based on the true story of Filippo Brunelleschi, the architect of the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, Italy the story is an inspiration to creative types everywhere. If you're like me, the whole Santa Maria thing may not have meant much to you, and even without any historical background, Pippo the Fool is a special book. The fact that author Tracey E. Fern (cool website) can base such a tale of perseverance on historical fact only serves to make it better.

Pippo, like Filippo the actual man the character is based on, is a talented goldsmith and jeweler. He is also a tinkerer and inventor, a mechanic and architect. When a contest to design and build the dome on the cathedral is announced, Pippo decides to enter. Immediately, the town begins to laugh behind his back and the most famous sculptor, Lorenzo, mocks him publicly. Pippo is not discouraged and begins to create a design for the dome that is unlike anything seen before with an interior means of support, and special interlocking bricks to make it even stronger. When all of the ideas are presented, the judges are disappointed in what they see. Even Lorenzo's idea is far fetched and not set in fact only in theory without detail.

When Pippo presents his plan without detail for fear of Lorenzo stealing his idea, he is carried out of the cathedral and dropped in the center of the piazza. He decides to show the judges his idea by building it in miniature. When it was finished, the judges were impressed and awarded the prize to Pippo and named Lorenzo his assistant. Of course, Pippo does all of the work to the point of exhaustion and when he needs to rest in bed, Lorenzo is unable to get anything done because he hasn't been there. Pippo works for 16 years until the dome is completed to the joy of the entire city from the market women to the judges. His nickname is changed from Pippo the Fool to Pippo the Genius and everyone has a new found respect for the goldsmith and jeweler, tinkerer and inventor, mechanic and architect.

Artist Pau Estrada's artwork is beautiful and compliment the story wonderfully. His rich colors and detailed drawings of the Florence architecture are a joy to study. Kids will find new things in the pictures every time they look at the book.
I know this book will be a hit with my students in THE PIT and I can't wait to share it with them...well...ok...maybe I can wait another month or so.

By the way, I'm leaving for my second trip to Boston on Thursday with 42 kids and 4 teacher friends so there won't be a new post for a while. I'm pretty excited today because when I went to my mailbox I found an advance copy of Barbara O'Connor's new book The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis. Is that a great title or what!? Hmmmm...I wonder what I'll read first on the bus?

Lit Conference Thoughts

It seems that Karen and all of our central Ohio blogging friends have pretty much covered the big Dublin Lit Conference of last Saturday, but I'll add my two cents worth too. The conference was 20 years old this year, I've been teaching in Dublin for 25 years, I've attended the conference 3 times, and this year was the first time I spent the whole day. I'm glad I did!

I served on the planning committee this year as my school's rep, check out the big tricked out name tag. I took on the job out a sense of obligation, but completely enjoyed myself and look forward to next year.

The highlights for me this year included listening to Barbara O'Connor talk about boiled peanuts an other southern delights. I was a bit surprised to hear her southern accent since she lives in Massachusetts. What a wonderful 45 minutes! Barbara shared stories of her career and read from her new books. I think I like her books even more now that I've met her and listened to her share. I've been talking about "writing what you know" with the kids preparing for our James Preller visit, and Barbara gave me one more story to share from a real author. That's me with Barbara and Mary Lee from A Year of Reading.

I presented for the third time, unfortunately my blog partner Karen was unable to participate but, I muddled through. There were about 25 people in my session, up from last year's 10. I hope I didn't talk too fast as I flew through as many book titles as I could in 45 minutes. There was no formal evaluation of the session, but judging from the smiles, I think it went pretty well. I know I certainly enjoyed myself!

Finally, I got to spend the day hosting children's literature icon, Johanna Hurwitz. What a pleasant, friendly lady. She was joined by a friend who lives in the area, so my job was pretty easy, but I did get to spend quite a bit of time listening to her stories and experiences. I was so impressed when people she met on an author visit 17 years ago came for an autograph, and Johanna remembered them. It was also so wonderful to see teachers come for an autograph carrying her books that they read when they were kids and are now using in their classrooms today. What a legacy.

Great Revising Tool!

I was doing my daily blogroll reading this morning, and I found the best idea over at Greetings From Nowhere, my favorite author's (the talented Barbara O'Connor) blog! Even her blog is well-written, and she most definitely has a sense of humor!

But back to the topic - won't these be great for having kids highlight a section of their text, and then use tools from their "revision toolbox" (thanks, Georgia Heard!!) to improve their own writing?!!! Love it! :)

Greetings From Nowhere - Part 2

I just finished reading aloud Greetings From Nowhere by Barbara O'Connor with my fifth graders. They really enjoyed it! They were totally engaged with the characters (Aggie, Willow, Kirby, Loretta), and how all their lives intertwined. It was fascinating to see how they all identified, or cared about, one character more than the others. We had a "Kirby" group (probably the largest one), a "Willow" group (gained some fans toward the end), a "Loretta" group (who couldn't love her positive attitude, and her wonderful parents?), and finally the "Aggie" group (what a delightful, caring person!).

At the end of the book, we spent some time rereading favorite parts (students get to choose) -- it was not a surprise to me that the 2 I was asked to read were:
1) the chapter that introduces Kirby
and
2) the end of the chapter where all the people in the book (with the exception of Kirby's mom) congregate at the pool, just hanging out, enjoying each other's company, and feeling a sense of community.

Then, the second day after we finished reading Greetings from Nowhere, we brainstormed a list of "deep" questions (see similar post from Franki at A Year of Reading). A "deep" question lets us dive into a topic, spend some time with it, and reflect on it in conversation. These are the kinds of questions we try to generate for our Book Clubs, so we've had some practice all year long.

Anyway, the following questions are what the class generated. The starred (*) ones are the questions from which groups formed for conversations.

1) How the 4 main characters are different, and how they became friends
*2) How Kirby changes
*3) Aggie and Harold's relationship, and what do we learn about them in the past?
4) What we discover about Loretta's mom
5) Talk about the relationship between Kirby and his mom.
6) Talk about Willow and her mom, and how much Willow misses her mom.
*7) How does the motel play a big part in the story?
*8) What is the importance of the swimming pool and the flagpole?
9) Kirby and Loretta's poodle dog pin
10) Does the setting matter to the story?
11) Loretta and her moms charm bracelet

The kids' conversations were wonderful, and, as most conversations do, they started with one topic, but ended up discussing several others. I loved wandering around the room, eavesdropping on these discussions.

This is a book worthy of reading, discussing, falling in love with characters, lingering with, and then discussing again. I'm glad we did.

Check back at the end of the week, or next weekend, to see my final post about Greetings from Nowhere -- it will be audience participation, and we'd love for you to join us!!

For my original review, check this link.