My blogging goal is to put positive stuff out into the world, so at first I hesitated about posting this poem I wrote.
And then I thought....if it makes someone think twice about the children who suffer each day...and then that person makes an effort to be a force of change for a child...well, what is more positive than that?


         The Quiet One
               by Marjorie Light
 

You stand up there
in the front of the class
thinking you know me,
but you don’t.

Can you see the bruise
on my ribs from the board?
Or the hole in the bottom
of my too-tight sneakers?

I wonder if you can tell
that I haven’t had anything
to eat since yesterday’s
free spaghetti with marinara.

When you yelled about me
not having a pencil and
didn’t do a simple assignment,
know there’s no money for my allowance.

If you see my head nodding
it isn’t ‘cause I don’t like you
or the lesson –  you may not know
my mom never came home last night.

One day last month you stopped
by my desk and said, “Good job.”
I keep hoping you’ll notice again
if you try to get to know me.

Book Review: LAWN BOY by Gary Paulsen

One of the favorite books in my 7^th grade classes right now is LAWN BOY by Gary Paulsen. Just Paulsen’s name alone is enough to get a student to try this book, as most of them know his novel HATCHET from a read-aloud in elementary school. Students love his accessible writing and fast-paced plot lines. In one class, the boys are passing around my copies and begging for their buddies to hurry up and finish. (It all started when I book-talked a batch of books the previous week.)

In LAWN BOY, Paulsen is at his funniest when a perfectly normal wish for a replacement bike tube leads the 12-year-old main character into a life of entrepreneurship. His summer of leisure takes a drastic turn when his grandmother gifts him with his grandfather’s old riding lawnmower.

The grandmother is an eccentric woman who has odd words of wisdom for people that are often seemingly disjointed, but do have a circuitous connection to reality. It is through her unusual gift that LAWN BOY is born and the wheels of fortune begin to roll.

From there we meet Arnold, one of his first customers, a work-from-home day trader, who strikes a deal with the budding businessman. Instead of paying him for mowing, he will invest his money in penny stocks. The reader is unsure of whether or not to trust Arnold, even though the narrator trusts his schemes immediately.

LAWN BOY is filled with humorous, easy-to-understand lessons on basic economics: stocks, capital growth, and investing. Readers see the value of hard work and the importance of treating employees fairly. The foreshadowing sprinkled throughout and the cliffhanger chapter endings keep my students turning pages. Not only that, Paulsen fills the book with wacky situations that compound upon one another, leading to a riotous ending.

Great for reluctant or slow readers, LAWN BOY is only 88 pages long and has much white space, which makes it non-threatening. It is also great for a higher-leveled reader who wants something quick to read, but with a good laugh.

Review: WARP SPEED by Lisa Yee

I fell in love with Lisa Yee’s writing when I read MILLICENT MIN, GIRL GENIUS years ago. Since then, I’ve shared her novels with my students and they love them, too. Fortunately for us, she has graced her readers with a steady supply of great material over the years. Her latest, WARP SPEED, continues the laughter by focusing on one of the characters introduced in MILLICENT, Marley Sandelski.

Marley is the quintessential middle-school geek: a member of the AV Club, a Star Trek fanatic, and the target of bullies. He goes beyond the stereotypical character, however, with the close relationships he has in his life. The bond between Marley and his parents is a special one. Even when Marley is annoyed with them, their love for one another shines through. Best of all, the parents are layered characters, strong people with believable flaws.

Another focus is his friendship with AV Club members: Ramen, his good friend; and Max, the new kid. While they split hairs over the superiority of Star Trek vs. Star Wars (and a little Batman thrown in for good measure), the three friends have each other’s backs…most of the time. WARP SPEED has layered subplots, too, in both the home and school settings. Woven into the mix is the mystery of Marley’s missing diary (aka Captain’s Log) and whether the culprit will use the information against our ill-treated main character. Yee skillfully blends all of the pieces into a fast-paced read.

Author Lisa Yee writes with humor-filled honesty – from the angst of Marley’s crush on Emily, to his dealings with bullies in the group he calls Gorn, and his run-ins with his chief nemesis, Digger Ronster. In middle schools everywhere, students deal with bullying on different levels, and Marley represents “everyman”. WARP SPEED would be a fantastic classroom read aloud, as the humor and real-life situations will keep students interested, while Yee’s straightforward treatment of bullying would lead to some valuable classroom discussions. Sprinkled among the laughs are some powerful moments when painful secrets are revealed.

I already have a list of kids in my class who want to read WARP SPEED, as I book-talked it last week! Be sure to include it in your classroom, library, or give it as a gift to the readers in your life!

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NOTE: Teachers, parents, and administrators should read WARP SPEED to see if they recognize themselves and the solutions some adults come up with to stop the bullying problems plaguing students.

They say women marry men who remind them of their fathers.

Hmmm…let’s test this theory using my daughter’s fiancé & her dad (my husband):

Fiancé: Loves to eat & cook – Favorite meal to cook = steak
Father: Loves to eat & cook – Favorite meal to eat = steak
Proof: When Fiancé is coming for visit Father buys specialty cheese for taste testing

 Fiancé: Musician – plays guitar in a band
Father: Musician – plays drums and played in bands
Proof: They share obscure music they’ve found. Both are planning on playing at the wedding.

Fiancé: Hates malls, loves grocery stores
Father: Hate malls, loves grocery stores
Proof: When Fiancé discovered a great new store, daughter reported he kept saying, “Wow, I wish your Father could see this place!”

Finally, a picture is worth a thousand words:

Taken this morning after they got ready for the day and waiting to travel back from WV to NY. I looked up and started laughing at their resemblance to one another. Hard to believe it wasn't planned, but I swear it wasn't! (Even their legs were crossed so they looked like bookends!)

Not every woman would want to marry a man like her father (and not all should), but my daughter did really well using this method. Both have great "dad" potential, both are forward thinkers who believe in equality, both are fair and even-keeled (unless they are hungry), and both are men who know their way around a kitchen!