Holes

This month I read Holes by Louis Sachar. It was published in 1998 and won the Newbery Medal in 1999. It’s an amazing book!

Holes is a complicated and fantastic story. Every detail somehow comes full circle, including the main character’s name, Stanley Yelnats. Notice that Yelnats is Stanley backwards!

The story begins over 100 years ago when Stanley’s great-great-grandfather inadvertently brought a curse down on his family. The curse causes bad things to happen to the members of the Yelnats family for generations. Stanley is wrongfully accused of stealing a famous baseball player’s stinky sneakers and is sent to a boys’ detention center, Camp Green Lake. The camp does not have a lake, and it is not green. It is a desert that used to be a lake. The boys at the center are forced to dig holes, but they don’t know why. Stanley grows in character and strength at Camp Green Lake through misery and suffering. In the end, Stanley undoes his family’s curse and makes them rich through a series of fantastic events.

Holes is an awesome story. I recommend this book to 7th graders. The story includes some rough "characters" and a few cuss words that are not appropriate for younger children.

List of Recommended Books by Grade:

2^nd grade –

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

Miss Holly Is Too Jolly by Dan Gutman

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

3^rd grade –

The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman

Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Among the Impostors by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater

4^th grade –

Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry

Louisiana's Song by Kerry Madden

The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan

The Golly Whopper Games by Jody Feldman

5^th grade –

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

Benjamin Pratt & The Keeper of the School by Andrew Clements

Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

6^th grade –

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman

Dewey, by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter

The Wanderer by Sharon Creech

The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg

The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare

7^th grade and up –

Holes by Louis Sachar

The Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byers

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

Pendragon Book One: The Merchant of Death by D.J. MacHale

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

The Seventeen Second Miracle, by Jason F. Wright

Tennyson by Leslie M. M. Blume

I heard about an awesome book called Tennyson by Lesley M. M. Blume, so I read it. I loved it! You should read this book. It is a fantastic piece of literature.

Tennyson is a cross between a fantasy novel and an historical fiction novel. It’s about a girl caught between her present and her family’s past. Tennyson, the main character, and her sister, Hattie, go live with their Aunt Henrietta after their mother leaves them so that their father can search for his missing wife. Aunt Henrietta lives in a crumbling mansion in Louisiana and is desperately trying to restore it to its former glory. She views her nieces as an opportunity to do just that. She uses the girls to attract rich suitors. All the while, Tennyson is trying to lure her mother home with family secrets in order to escape her aunt. In the end, no one gets what they want. However, each person realizes that they need something else entirely.

Ms. Blume does an amazing job weaving the past with the present. I enjoyed this book and recommend this book to 6th graders.

List of Recommended Books by Grade
 

2^nd grade –

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

Miss Holly Is Too Jolly, by Dan Gutman

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

 

3^rd grade –

The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman

Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Among the Impostors by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater

 

4^th grade –

Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry

Louisiana's Song by Kerry Madden

The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan

The Golly Whopper Games by Jody Feldman

5^th grade –

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

Benjamin Pratt & The Keeper of the School by Andrew Clements

Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

6^th grade –

Tennyson by Lesley M. M. Blume

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman

Dewey, by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter

The Wanderer by Sharon Creech

The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg

The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare.

 

7^th grade and up –

The Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byers

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

Pendragon Book One: The Merchant of Death by D.J. MacHale

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

The Seventeen Second Miracle, by Jason F. Wright

The Summer of the Swans

This month I read a classic. The Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byers was published in 1970 and won the Newbery Medal in 1971. I read this book when I was 14 and was moved by it. In fact, I did my first ever oral report on this book and died a pair of my tennis sneakers puce. To find out why, you’ll have to read the book…

Summer of the Swans is a coming of age mid-grade novel. Sara is 14 and feels awkward and unhappy. Her mother is dead, her older sister is better than her in every way, her father is gone, her brother, Charlie, suffered brain damage as a child, and to top it all off, her sneakers are the wrong color! Sara has more to deal with than most 14 year olds and she knows it. She doesn’t appreciate the home her aunt provides, her needy younger brother, or her sneakers. Sara spends a lot of time complaining and feeling sorry for herself, until one day when Charlie gets lost in the woods. Losing Charlie changes everything for Sara. She realizes the importance of family. She learns that she can be wrong about things and that she’s too harsh on people. In a nutshell, Sara goes from an ugly duckling to a swan.

Summer of the Swans is a beautiful story. I recommend this book to 7th graders.

List of Recommended Books by Grade:

2^nd grade –

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

Miss Holly Is Too Jolly, by Dan Gutman

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

3^rd grade –

The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman

Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Among the Impostors by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater

 

4^th grade –

Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry

Louisiana's Song by Kerry Madden

The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan

The Golly Whopper Games by Jody Feldma

5^th grade –

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

Benjamin Pratt & The Keeper of the School by Andrew Clements

Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

 

6^th grade –

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman

Dewey, by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter

The Wanderer by Sharon Creech

The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg

The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare

 

7^th grade and up –

The Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byers

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

Pendragon Book One: The Merchant of Death by D.J. MacHale

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

The Seventeen Second Miracle, by Jason F. Wright

My Interview

Heather Day Gilbert is a fellow author and a delightful lady. She recently interviewed me about my new book. Check out the interview at this link.

http://heatherdaygilbert.blogspot.com/2012/09/guest-interview-with-jennifer-s-burrows.html

My Book: MOST BEAUTIFUL

My mid-grade novel is out today, September 11. See the link below.

http://www.rfwp.com/book/most-beautiful-a-911-novel



It's thrilling to finally have my story in print. But I have to say that it was an honor and a privilege to write about the events that took place on September 11, 2001.

Jennifer Burrows

Dead End in Norvelt Audio Version

Readers, I have a treat for you today. The award-winning book I just highlighted for you, Dead End in Norvelt, is also available as an audio book from Macmillan Audio. A senior publicist sent me a link (below) to an audio clip of the book. The reader in the clip is the author himself, Jack Gantos! Now that's cool. Enjoy!

http://media.us.macmillan.com/video/olmk/macmillanaudio/deadendinnorveltclip.mp3

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

This month I decided to read present day award-winning children’s literature. Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos was published in 2011 and won the Newbery Medal in 2012.

Dead End in Norvelt is a unique mid-grade novel. The author, Jack Gantos, is the main character! After being grounded for the entire summer, Jack must help his elderly neighbor write obituaries. This is the closest thing to fun he is allowed to do. Jack doesn’t mind the work and even starts to appreciate the feistiness of his elderly neighbor. When old ladies around Norvelt start dropping dead daily, Jack begins to wonder if the ladies are being murdered. In the end, he finds out that they were being poisoned, but oddly enough, the motive was love. 

Dead End in Norvelt is humorous and entertaining from beginning to end. I recommend this book to 5th graders.

List of Recommended Books by Grade:

2^nd grade –

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

Miss Holly Is Too Jolly, by Dan Gutman

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

3^rd grade –

The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman

Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Among the Impostors by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater

4^th grade –

Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry

Louisiana's Song by Kerry Madden

The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan

The Golly Whopper Games by Jody Feldman

5^th grade –

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

Benjamin Pratt & The Keeper of the School by Andrew Clements

Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

6^th grade –

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman

Dewey, by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter

The Wanderer by Sharon Creech

The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg

The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare. 

7^th grade and up –

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

Pendragon Book One: The Merchant of Death by D.J. MacHale

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

The Seventeen Second Miracle, by Jason F. Wright