Amy's LIS 721 Blog

  When You Reach Me , a 2010 Newbery Winner, is a chapter book for 10-12 year olds.  It is a story that is told in letter format and it begins as the main character, Miranda, looks back at the starting point for what is about to take place and drastically change her life.  The story told begins with a real-life conflict that two 12-year-olds have to overcome within their friendship.  However, during this conflict, strange occurrences happen beginning with a note that is sent to one of the main characters, Miranda, thus making it truly a book in the fantasy genre because of the means in which it is sent. The notes are arriving anonymously with the notion that the sender is psychic and can predict future events. The chapters successfully intertwine both fantasy and reality so that there is not a direct stopping and starting point to the story, but instead a flow of events that move between the two worlds.  While the novel includes fantastical elements,  the t...

  Inside Out and Back Again , a Newbery Honor Award Winner told in verse, is a story about survival and finding oneself during a significant historical conflict.  A young girl named Ha is experiencing the Vietnam War.  The story is told in chronological order with the first section of the book titled “Saigon” which tells the story of Ha’s family as they see their lives begin to deteriorate in South Vietnam.  The second part moves on to “At Sea” where Ha and her family make a narrow escape and are provided refuge on a boat that moves them to a safer place.  While focusing on survival on the boat–with hundreds of others and meager rations–Ha learns that her homeland no longer exists.  Ha’s new life finds her in America–in the section titled “Alabama”-- learning the ways of Americans’ food, education, and people that at first completely confuse her, but then begin to shape who she becomes.  This is a story about survival, but literally in Ha escaping war,...

  Babymouse: Queen of the World is a graphic novel that is the first in a series of 20 books.  Babymouse believes she has a very boring, routine life, and she wishes for great things to happen to her; she’s especially looking for an invitation to a classmate's birthday party since she feels left out of many things at school and believes nothing can go her way.  This graphic novel first moves between Babymouse’s reality and her imagination to create a more exciting life for herself.  There are three times throughout the text that readers find themselves in a different realm of possibilities based on what Babymouse is conjuring in her imagination.   The story could be a little confusing with the movement between the character’s imagination and reality, but the illustrations help somewhat.  When Babymouse is in reality, the illustrations are black and white; color is not included at all.  When Babymouse has her dreams–or departs from reality–the col...

  Stop! Bot! by James Yang is a Level 1 book for early readers. It is a very short text that begins with a boy who has a robot (bot) that he controls with a remote control.  The bot gets away from the boys, and throughout the book, people help him in a variety of ways to reunite the boy with his bot. This plot is easy to understand and includes the conflict within the first few pages. Each page consists of a significant illustration that encompasses the entire page and includes silly ways that people in the community try to reconnect this boy with his bot.  Each set of facing pages includes one word bubble that contains short, monosyllabic words.  Some word bubbles contain an entire sentence consisting of no more than five words, while other word bubbles contain only two exclamatory words such as “Ooo! Bananas!” to accompany the illustration that a large gorilla has the bot in its hand and is trying to be enticed with the bananas so it drops the bot.  This book ...