Nim's Island by Wendy Orr is the story of a young girl living on a tropical island with her scientist father, Selkie the Sea Lion, and a Marine Iguana named Fred. Her mother was killed when a tourist boat came too close to a whale she was observing, and ever since she and her father have been living, on their own island. Even though they are isolated they are not completely cut off from the rest of the world, they have solar panels that provide for the use of a satellite dish, a computer, and a cell phone. When Nim's father sets sail, to study plankton, it was only supposed to be a two-day excursion but a storm comes up and disables his boat. Nim is left to fend for herself on the island and hijinks and suspense ensue.

While reading this book I couldn't believe that a father would choose such an isolated life for his child, and then leave her alone on top of that. But they needed to be isolated for the fantasy to work

Nim proves to be a very resourceful girl. She tends to the garden, fishes, cooks her own food and constructs two rafts out of coconuts. All the while she is emailing a person she thinks is a famous male adventurer who wrote her favorite book. I was impressed with the fact that the hero of the book was the young girl. I think this book would be empowering for young girls. It would help them realize that they have the power to control their own lives. It shows them that a man doesn't always have to be their savior. The best part is that her "pen-pal" turns out to be a woman who comes to the island to rescue Nim but ends up being saved by Nim and her coconut rafts.

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Lulu and the Brontosaurus by Judith Viorst. From the very first page of the very first chapter, I loved this book. "There once was a girl named Lulu, and she was a pain. She wasn't a pain in the elbow. She wasn't a pain in the knee. She was a pain - a very big pain - in the b u t t."  This is the story of a spoiled girl who wants a Brontosaurus for her birthday, and she wasn't taking NO for an answer. When her parents fail to heed her cries and tantrums and there is no Brontosaurus, she sets off on her own to get one. Except when she finds him the Brontosaurus had different plans that did not include being Lulu's pet. Through her adventure, she is shown what an unpleasant little girl she has been and by the time she gets back home at the end of the book she has had an attitude adjustment.
This book was written by the same author of, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. I read it to my second-grade class when I wanted to show them the power of being nice. This story felt like a modern day fable. It has a moral message, while at the same time is a fun story. I find that children are often more able to see the poor behavior in others more readily than they can see it in themselves. This book is perfect for that.

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. This is the story of a young Mexican-American girl, named Esperanza, living in Chicago. The story of her family, her neighbors and her childhood is told through a series of vignettes. It is a charming, and moving book. I could see the neighborhood in my mind and I knew exactly what the characters looked like. It made me laugh out loud, and yet was deeply moving in it's honest depiction of the hardships people from her neighborhood faced. It touched on themes of domestic abuse, job frustration, loneliness and isolation. Especially poignant were the chapters where she talked of her feelings as a teenager.  I could feel Esperanza's longing for the day when she would have a house of her own. And yet I felt that as far away as she could possibly get from Mango street, she will never be completely free of it. A piece of her will always be there.

Skeleton Man

 Skeleton Man by Joseph Bruchac is a reinterpretation of an old Abenaki Indian story. A girl, in the sixth grade, named Molly wakes up one morning to find that her parents are missing. She is taken in by a mysterious man claiming to be her long-lost uncle. She doubts that this man is really her uncle, she's never seen or heard of him before. Unfortunately, none of the adults will listen to her concerns, except, eventually, her "show-tune singing crazy teacher. Her "Uncle's" behavior is very mysterious and she believes that her parents are alive and trying to return to her. She is having dreams that she feels are premonitions and she decides that she alone must unravel the mystery, find out who this person posing as her uncle is and locate her parents.

I was really taken by this story. I could feel the suspense building with each chapter. I enjoyed the fact that it was all told from the perspective of the girl. I could feel her frustration when the adults ignored her protesting. She was going home with this stranger and there would be no discussions about it. I could feel her sense of helplessness. She was just a child and adults have a tendency to disregard children, especially ones with active imaginations.

This story made me think about my own dealings with the children I teach. I try to listen to every child but I am sure that those kids that have reputations as "storytellers" are dismissed more easily. All anyone wants is to be heard, even the children with overactive imaginations. Because we must encourage imagination in children, it is like a muscle the less you use it the weaker it becomes.

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien

Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien is a wonderful children's novel that I have read to every child I have ever known. This is a story about love, trust and courage. It is based on scientific experiments that were conducted on rats and mice from the 1940's through the 1960's. The premise is that the experiments made the animals intelligent, and they escaped from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The former laboratory rats have taken up residence under a rose bush on the Fitzgibbon farm. Mrs. Frisby is a widow raising her three children on the farm. Spring comes early to the farm and Mr. Fitzgibbon prepares to plow his fields. The same field that the Frisby's live in. Normally the family would move to their summer home but Timothy has pneumonia and would not survive the move. Mrs. Frisby goes to visit Mr. Ages, one of the original lab mice, who is somewhat of a "mad" scientist. He gives her some medicine for the boy and tells her that she is going to have to move either her family or her house. On her way back home she meets a crow named Jeremy when she saves him from the farmers cat Dragon. Jeremy suggests that she visit the Great Owl to ask for advice about what to do with her home. Mrs. Frisby is flown to the owl by Jeremy. At first the owl says he cannot help her until he discovers that she is the widow of Jonathan Frisby, he then tells her to go and see the rats in the rosebush. When she gets to the rosebush and enters the rats labyrinth this is our first inkling that the rats from NIMH might not be like other rats. They have a mechanized world, including  heating, elevators and lights. They have tapped into the farms electricity. There are many human conveniences. This is where she meets Nicodemus the leader of the rats. He tells her about how they came to live on the farm, about their escape from NIMH and about her husband and how he was killed by the farmers cat. He also explains their plan to abandon their home in the rosebush for a completely independent colony that will not have to rely on steeling electricity. Their is a splinter faction of rats led by Jenner, that does not want this plan to happen. At one point they try to steal a motor from the local hardware store and are electrocuted. The rats agree to help Mrs. Frisby move her house, and she offers to help them drug the cat, Dragon. She is caught while trying this and put in a cage. She overhears farmer Fitzgibbon talking and finds out that there are exterminators coming, possibly from NIMH to get rid of the rats. Once she is rescued she informs Nicodemus that they must leave immediately. The rats remove all traces of their sophisticated colony and escape. Mrs. Frisby's house is moved and all is right with the world.

I didn't want the story to end. I could see everything about the rat's home in the rosebush. This story  was about facing your fears and not judging "people" by preconceived ideas.  It made me think about animal testing and experiments, and what we may really be doing to those creatures. But it was also a great fantasy and made me want mice to really be able to talk to each other like that.

Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Shiloh is an award winning children's novel written by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. The author is from Anderson Indiana. Being a child of the Depression, she didn't have toys to play with, instead her parents read to her every night. This is what sparked her love of books.

The story takes place in the small town of Friendly, West Virginia. A boy named Marty Preston finds a stray dog wandering in the fields near his house. When the dog follows Marty home he decides to keep it and names the dog Shiloh. The real owner of the dog turns out to be a local hunter named Judd Travers. He is a rough man who has several dogs all of which Marty believes, are mistreated. Marty wants to keep the Shiloh but his father insists that the dog be returned to his rightful owner. However Marty disagrees with this and he keeps the dog hiding him in a cage in the woods. He bonds with Shiloh going on excursions in the woods and sneaking bits of  his supper to him. Soon Marty's mother discovers his secret but agrees to keep it from his father. One night Shiloh is attacked by a German Shepard and injured so Marty is forced to tell his father that he has been hiding the dog. Shiloh is taken to the doctor in town and Marty is made to give the dog to Judd by the weeks end.
Marty decides to ask Judd about keeping Shiloh and working off the cost of the dog. On the ways to Judd's house Marty witnesses Judd killing a deer out of season. With this information he summons up the courage to confront Judd and blackmails him into letting Marty keep the dog. They agree on a price of $40 equal to 20 hours of work. After the first week Judd informs Marty that the evidence of his illegal hunting has disappeared and he will no longer be honoring their deal. But Marty has gotten to know Judd and decides to continue working for him. As Marty befriends Judd he learns that as a child Judd was abused by his father. Eventually Judd softens towards Marty and agrees to let him have Shiloh. This begins their adventures, Shiloh is the first book in a series.

This book brings up issues of right and wrong. Is Marty wrong for keeping the dog safe and not returning him? Is it Judd's right to treat his animals any way he chooses? It also made me think of bullies. What makes a bully? No child is born a bully, something happened to Judd to make him mean and abusive to the dogs. There are consequences to all of our actions and Shiloh explores this.

My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George

 My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George is a book about a 12 year old boy named Tom who is unhappy living in New York City with his large family in a tiny apartment and decides to go to his grandfathers farm, upstate, in the Catskill mountains. There he learns to live off the land bravely surviving  all that Mother Nature throws his way through his wits and sheer luck.
      When he arrived at the farm he discovered it was long ago destroyed except for the foundation. He has to make a home for himself in a hollowed out tree. Initially he learned his survival skills from books he read at the library, but after arriving he realizes that his survival skills are noticeably lacking. He meets various people out in the woods and in the town nearby who help him along his journey to be self sufficient. Even living out in the woods he still goes to the library in town to read books about the things he needs to learn to survive. He befriends many forest animals and even trains a Peregrine Falcon. He observes the forest animals and takes some cues from them about finding food , and what may be poisonous.  He makes himself clothes from deer hides and insulates his tree to fortify it for the winter. In the end Sam realizes that although he really likes his life in the woods he is very lonely and craves human interaction. His father decides to build a new house and move the family to the farm so Sam will have to learn to balance his need for his family and his independence.
     I really liked this book. When I re-read it now as an adult I could not believe that his father let him go into the woods alone. Although his father believed he would return home after a few days. I am struck by how brave Sam is. I do not believe that many 12 year old children I know do this and I know that I could never have done this. (Although I remember thinking after reading this that I wanted to live in the Forrest, but only for a minute)