Jimi Sounds Like a Rainbow: A Story of the Young Jimi Hendrix/ Coretta Scott King

Plot Summary:

            Jimi Hendrix is a young poor boy who lives with his father. They are always moving around and they are very poor. Jimi has two friends and the three of them love to listen to music, but Jimi wants a guitar more than anything. He hears music everywhere, on the wind, in the street, everywhere. He wants to apply his skills with drawing to music. He finally achieves his goal of getting a guitar, and then he plays before the entire world.

Personal Reaction:

            I believe that Jimi Hendrix is the best guitarist that ever lived, however, I was very skeptical about a children’s book about him due to his terrible death and tendency for drug usage. I was surprised about the book when I read it, I saw that the emphasis was on his creativity and music, with a part at the end that I could read if I wanted to know more, for this reason, I think this book could be appealing to a variety of ages. The illustrations were done in a collage manner, with swirling, groovy colors of the sixties. Jimi was a hippy; it is only fair that illustrations for his book are painted in hippie style. In addition, the color and waving patterns support the theme of the book which is that he wants to “sound like a rainbow.”

Golio, G., & Steptoe, J. (2010). Jimi sounds like a rainbow: a story of the young Jimi Hendrix. Boston: Clarion Books.

The Hunger Games

Plot Summary:

             Set in a futuristic North America where the U.S. once existed, we meet Katiness, a tough girl who hunts to help her family make ends meet. The country is divided into districts surrounding a Capital. At one point in the past all of the districts rose up against the Capital in a revolution and lost. As punishment, each year a girl and boy are chosen from each district to participate in The Hunger Games and fight to the death. Of course, Katiness’s little sister is chosen to go. Katiness volunteers to go in her place, so she and Peeta, the boy champion from her district head to the capital.

            The champions are flaunted and observed for a while before the business of the competition itself is gotten down to. Katiness and Peeta are to be trained by the last champion from their district, who is an old drunk, and not as helpful as they would like. Finally tournament day arrives and the race is on. Katiness makes friends with a little girl named Rue, who reminds her of her sister and gets killed by a stronger boy. Katiness kills him with her bow and arrow, her weapon of choice. She hides out in a tree, drops a futuristic wasp’s nest on her opponents, and discoverers Peeta hiding. A romance blossoms between the two of them, but only one can win the competition. In the end, she and Peeta are the last men standing and threaten to both eat poison berries (and ruin the competition for there would be no champion), forcing the Capital to acquiesce and let them both win.

Personal Reaction:

            This is one of my favorite books of all time. The action is awesome, and Collins inspires great feelings of loyalty toward the characters. We are loyal to Katiness, yes, but also Peeta, and Katiness’s childhood friend, Gale. The scene where Katiness is hiding in the tree always reminded me (before I read them again), of the scene in Huckleberry Finn when he is loading the canoe after escaping his father. In addition, I love the part where Rue dies and Katiness give her “funeral rites” as an act of defiance against the Capital. Collins uses suspense so well in this book that we do not even have an option of reading the next one, and this is added to by the cliffhanger ending.

Collins, S. (2008). The hunger games. New York: Scholastic Press.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn/ Challenged Books

Plot Summary:

             Huck Finn, a backwoods boy who has fended for himself most of his life and been raised mostly by the southern town that he lives in gets kidnapped by his father, who only wants his money. Huck escapes the brutal clutches of his father and pretends to be dead, at the same time, a slave, Jim runs away and meets up with Huck in the woods. They build a raft and float down the Mississippi. Huck and Jim set off for grand adventures and many trials. These include dressing up as girls and lepers, living with a nice family involved in a feud that suffer considerable losses to the other side, and meeting up with a “duke” and a “king.” The Duke and The King end up being con artists who regularly get into lots of trouble and end up selling Jim back into slavery. Huck poses as his friend, Tom Sawyer, in order to rescue him, but the real Tom shows up and poses as his cousin, Sid. Together they plot to free Jim in the most impractical ways because Tom wants it done “like it says in the books.” They end up making the situation much worse than it really is and the action comes to a peak with Tom getting shot by someone chasing Jim. He lives but their identities and intentions are revealed. In addition, we find out that Jim’s master died and already freed him. Tom pays him forty dollars for his trouble and we find out that Huck’s father is dead, so he returns to his home town.

Personal Reaction:

            This book makes me laugh out loud. Twain is such a satirist! I know that people challenge this book because of the “n” word, but I feel that it sometimes borders on the blasphemous. I love the inner struggle that Huck goes through, feeling that turning Jim over to the authorities is the right thing to do. Feeling like he is stealing from Jim’s master, but it is hard to read the part where he decides that he will just go to hell because he isn’t going to do the right thing and turning Jim in. I love the ignorance portrayed by all of the characters and the allusions even though I don’t get many of them (it doesn’t detract from the book), but I do get more than I did when my mom read this to me in the seventh grade. Wonderful, timeless book, of course it should never be banned.

Ratliff, T., Gelev, P., & Twain, M. (2008). Adventures of Huckleberry Finn  . Happauge, N.Y.: Barron's.

Throne of Fire/ New York Times Bestseller

Plot Summary:

             Carter and Sadie are brother and sister magicians. Their magic is based on ancient Egyptian gods, and they have a job to do. They must save the world from being eaten by a snake, Apopsis. In order to achieve this lofty goal, they need to awaken the sun god, Ra, which is easier said than done. They must find the three parts to the book of Ra and then assemble them without getting nuked. Then they must follow the directions given by the book in order to wake Ra and follow his daily journey through the duat (the Egyptian god world).  Sadie gets attacked by a vulture god and a baboon god, Carter gets attacked by water spirits, and they both get saved by the ugly dwarf god, Bes. In addition to battling gods and spirits, they add the House of Life and a new magician, Vladimir Menshikov to the list of enemies. Sadie vacillates between her god crush and her human crush, while Carter “digs up” his old girlfriend only to find that she no longer has feelings for him. In the end, Sadie and Carter do awaken Ra only to find him a little lacking in the, um power and maturity departments. Of course they are not safe and sound because there is going to be a sequel.

Personal Reaction:

            Riordan has a very strong writer’s voice. It is my understanding that he also writes adult books, and I would like to read them an compare them to his young adult novels which I have enjoyed. I read this book out of order without having read the first book of the series, which I am going to have to go back and do. I think it was very creative to do this work from two different points of view and as a recording so that Carter and Sadie can speak to each other  as well as to the audience at any point in the book. That allows for further voice, character development, and some comic relief. Riordan often uses foreshadowing in his work, but keeps mum pretty well about Walt’s disease. This was a great book.

Riordan, R. (2011). The throne of fire  . New York: Disney/Hyperion.

The Lightning Thief/ New York Times Bestseller

Plot Summary:

             Percy Jackson is a troubled teen with dyslexia and ADHD. His best and only friend, Grover, walks with a limp, and his favorite teacher uses a wheelchair. Percy has to go to boarding school and when he is home he suffers under the thumb of a disgusting pig of a step-father. In addition, Percy can’t seem to stay out of trouble, it follows him and he struggles with avoiding it due to his fiery temper and impulsive nature.  All of these little “accidents” that no one else seems to acknowledge (such as the fact that he has to fight and defeat his algebra teacher, who no one remembers after she is gone) are getting to Percy, he thinks he might be a little crazy after all. Everything changes after school is out and he and his beloved mother go to the beach for the weekend. Grover finds them there and says Percy is in danger. Off they go to Camp Half-Blood. They face a Minotaur who steals Percy’s mother before he defeats it.

 Percy finds out that he is the son of Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea. He also finds out that someone has stolen Zeus’s lightning bolt and that he is the main suspect. In order to prevent war amongst the Gods and thus the end of the world, Percy must find the bolt and return it to Zeus. So Percy, Grover, and Annabelle (another camper) set off on a quest to find it. They are plagued by trouble and have to defend themselves repeatedly. They go to the Underworld to see Hades, only to find that they have been set up by the god of war, Ares who is acting on behalf of an unknown. In the end, Percy returns the lightning bolt to Zeus and no one lives happily ever after because there is a sequel.

Personal Reaction:            

            This was a great book, very Harry Potteresque in the set up and plot line. A sad and misunderstood boy finds out he is magic and goes off to a place to learn about it. There he develops two major friendships one with a boy who messes up all the time and one with a girl that does everything perfectly… That is okay, I like it, but if a romance develops between Grover and Annabelle, I’ll worry. At any rate, the book was great with lots of action and very nice usage of figurative language. The characters are believable and I love the allusions to Greek gods. Mythology was always one of my favorite subjects. In addition, I should probably address the disability factor here. I love it that Percy and his friends have disabilities because it not only makes them relatable, it helps readers relate to people with other kinds of disabilities (I am a big believer in everyone being disabled in one way or another.).  One thing that bothered me was the fact that Percy does not seem to know much about his disability. Dyslexia is not letters floating off a page, which is a common misconception. In addition, I would appreciate it if Riordan used people first language. Instead of Percy saying “’I am dyslexic and ADHD,’” Percy should be saying “’I have dyslexia and ADHD.’” That way we are not defining people by their disability. (Pretty sure this soap box is going to break if I don’t step down.)

Riordan, R. (2005). The lightning thief. New York: Miramax Books/Hyperion Books for Children.

Grandma's Gift/ Pura Belpre

Plot Summary:

             Set in New York City and told in first person, this book begins at the start of Christmas holidays for a young boy. His assignment is to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at a new painting that has been procured by the museum. His Puerto Rican grandmother says she will take him if he helps her make pasteles, a Puerto Rican Christmas dish. They go to the market to buy supplies for the pasteles, and his grandmother feels very comfortable in her environment. Then they go home and work on the food. After that, they visit the MET where his grandmother is out of her element and must ask the boy to translate for her. When they get to the new painting, the grandmother recognizes the man in the portrait and both learn a lot about a famous Puerto Rican artist. For Christmas, Grandma gives the boy a set of drawing pencils and paper.

Personal Reaction:            

            I really liked this book, it was culturally meaningful, and felt very authentic. I believe that kids with a variety of backgrounds might like this book. I love the close relationship that the boy has with Grandma. I also like that it featured the MET, mainly because it was my favorite thing about New York City (okay maybe not favorite, but up there). The illustrations are very nice. The pictures are realistic and done in neutrals and earth tones with bold and bright accents. The expressions on the peoples’ faces were joyful, adding to the warm feeling of the book.

Velasquez, E. (2010). Grandma's gift. New York: Walker.

The Night Kitchen/ Challenged Books

Plot Summary:

             A little boy goes to sleep at night and falls, naked into the night kitchen. He meets three chefs that put him into the batter thinking he is milk, they are going to make a Mickey cake.  He jumps out exclaiming that he is not milk! He molds the batter into an airplane which he uses to fly up to the giant jug of actual milk and dives in. All the batter falls off and the airplane disintegrates in the milk.  Naked  again, he swims around in the milk for a while before pouring it into the chefs' recipe, about which they are delighted. He crows and slides down the jug of milk. He then wakes up in his bed, all clean and dry and dressed.

Personal Reaction:            

            As far as reading goes, this book is okay and not wonderful.  I am sure that parents would freak out if their little girls brought this book home from school, and I am also sure that all of the students would be preoccupied with the nude pictures of a little boy. Now, let’s add in the fact that there are three giant men stirring a naked little boy around in a bowl and just not go there. I bought this book and am giving it to my best friend who has little boys if she will take it. I would not order it for my library, and I think I would have to fight a battle with myself as far as wanting to take it off of the shelf to avoid conflict if I got a job at a library that already had a copy in its holdings. On the bright side, I don’t think I will have to cross that bridge because I do not believe the literary value of this book overrides the questionable content; therefore, the chances of that happening are not very high. The illustrations are very good aside from all that. They tell parts of the story that the text only implies. For example, the text never mentions that he makes an airplane out of the dough.

Sendak, M., & Blair, D. (1970). In the night kitchen. New York: Harper & Row.