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I love it when I book-talk a new selection for my classroom library and end up with a near-battle over who gets to sign it out first.  I know, I know, chaos is generally frowned upon in school, but I love to see kids ravenous about reading.  Here's the book that caused the commotion this week...



Dee got there first, so she's enjoying Lisa Schroeder's debut novel in verse tonight, probably up late with a flashlight under the covers even as I type this review. 

I read I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME in one weepy sitting over the weekend and savored lisa_schroeder's free verse poems that come together to tell a touching story of love, loss, and healing.  The book opens with the funeral of Ava's boyfriend Jackson -- a funeral for which she can't help but feel a sense of responsibility, given what happened.  This isn't a traditional tear-jerker, though -- because Jackson comes back.  As a ghost.  And Ava finds herself pulled in two directions, forced to choose between the love she lost and the life she still has.

Lisa Schroeder's poems are spare and beautiful -- the kind of poems that paint an amazing picture and then hit hard in the last lines.  This book will have huge appeal for fans of other verse novels.  Kids who love Sonya Sones, especially, are in for a treat.  Like Sones, Schroeder takes a realistic look at teenagers. Simon & Schuster recommends this title for grades 9 and up. There are some very mild references to sex, but nothing, in my opinion, that would make the book inappropriate for a 7th or 8th grade reader who has read Sones' work or other books that  deal with teen romance.

Ava and Jackson were so real to me during the hour I spent in their world,  I couldn't help being swept up in their drama.  Part of me was glad I read this one at home, so I didn't end up sobbing through sustained silent reading in front of twenty seventh graders.  But part of me thinks that would have been just fine, too.  Sometimes, an old-fashioned cry is a perfect reminder of  how transporting a great story can be.

I don't often blog about my Favorite Book of the Week (see sidebar). But I wanted to share a brief excerpt from Home of the Brave, by Katherine Applegate.

On page 64, Kek, a new immigrant from the Sudan, is getting ready to start school in America, and he's remembering times with his father, who died back home.

I liked the stories the best.
Once there was
a lion who could not roar...
Once there was
a man who sailed the sea...
Once there was
a child who found a treasure...
The stories would life me up,
the worlds like a breeze beneath
butterfly wings,
and take me far from the pain in my belly
and the tight knot of my heart.

I hope they will have stories
at my school.
If they don't know how,
perhaps I can teach them.
It isn't such a hard thing.
All you must do is say
Once there was...
and then let your hoping find the words.

Great advice from Kek as we all try to share our own stories this year, and the stories of our characters...

What is Goodbye?
by Nikki Grimes
Illustrations by Raul Colon
Hyperion Books, New York, 2004

Well, I've been in sort of a marathon reading mode. I'm getting ready to take a trip out of the country--to Thailand, specifically--for a month. I had about 20 library books checked out that I really wanted to read before I left. So I've been reading like a hungry bear. One of my finds from the library is Nikki Grimes' collection of poems, What is Goodbye? I actually would call this a novel in verse. It is centered around two characters, a brother and sister, who are coping with the loss of their brother. It is not a long novel, but it still has characters, plot, and a resolution.

Jesse and Jerilyn are two siblings whose brother has died. Each of them tell their side of the story--their emotions, their thoughts--about this event in their lives. They talk about their parents and how their brother's death has affected them. Grimes gives each point of view by titling companion poems the same. The only thing that changes is the person telling the poem. For example, "Getting the News--Jesse" and "Getting the News--Jerilyn". We learn how they view the same set of circumstances differently.

I love the way Grimes has set up this book with the two siblings each telling their side of the story. Jesse's poems are more patterned and often rhyme. Jerilyn's poems are always told in free verse. The whole book is full of wonderful figurative language and images.

Here is my favorite example from "Getting the News--Jerilyn". She is talking about her father's reaction, then her mother's.

Silent, he stepped away,
turned himself like
a page in a book
so I couldn't read,
couldn't look inside.
Mommy also hid,
her eyes dull coins
peeking from the pockets
of her lids.

Nikki Grimes' poems are honest and powerful. She deals with death and the raw emotions that come with it. She includes a beautiful author's note at the end encouraging readers to deal with death in whatever way is the right way for them--everyone is different.

Teachers' Guide available at Nikki Grimes' website