The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

My latest favourite book is The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly (Holt, 2009). This is the story of an 11 year old girl in Texas in 1899 - the middle child in a family of seven, with three older brothers, three younger brothers, and a mother who wants Calpurnia Virginia - known as Callie Vee - to grow up into "a lady" with all the domestic talents that requires... Luckily for Callie the family also includes her cantankerous (to others) grandfather who is an avid naturalist and together they explore, observe and record the natural world around them. The story is set during a long, hot Texas summer on the cusp of a new century, with the exciting advent of telephones, automobiles and Coca-cola...

This book is by New Zealand-born author Jacqueline Kelly who was raised in Canada and now lives in Texas. Her writing is rich, humorous and rewarding - it puts me in mind of other favourites - they way she writes so beautifully about nature makes me think of Eva Ibbotson's The Dragonfly Pool, the humour is as entertaining as Richard Peck in his historical novels like Fair Weather and Here lies the librarian, and there is a touch of Kate Di Camillo's Winn Dixie, and Sharon Creech's Walk two moons... all good company. I can't wait for the sequel !

And I love the cover art too, by Beth White.

Here is the link to the author's website http://www.jacquelinekelly.com/index.html
and to the Macmillan website http://us.macmillan.com/theevolutionofcalpurniatate which has a video clip of a booktalk, an excerpt of the first chapter and a downloadable discussion guide

The discussion guide includes a feature on some of the vocabulary used and it gives you an idea of the intelligence and depth of the writing. It is well-known that we learn new words from being exposed to rich writing in print - and here is a brilliant example of it..

...pestiferous (pg. 3) moldering (pg. 4) accorded (pg. 11) loitered (pg. 13) dilapidated (pg. 18) consternation (pg. 19) stupefying (pg. 29) begrudge (pg. 37) dragooned (pg. 40) duchy (pg. 50) minutiae (pg. 56) pedagogic (pg. 63) protuberant (pg. 74) feigning (pg. 83) desiccated (pg. 96) jettison (pg. 116) ignominy (pg. 131) tedium (pg. 155) ensconced (pg. 172) prodigious (pg. 197) malevolent (pg. 213) efficacious (pg. 230) debacle (pg. 247) purgatives (pg. 269) odious (pg. 288) feral (pg. 310) surreptitious (pg. 323) gingerly (pg. 336)

Jacqueline Kelly has practiced both medicine and law, before "realizing what would make her really happy is writing fiction". This, her debut novel, was awarded the Newbery Honor Medal in 2010. What a lot of strings to her bow, as the Bagthorpes would say...

The Ogre of Oglefort by Eva Ibbotson

And another wonderful book - the Ogre of Oglefort by Eva Ibbotson, published by Macmillan, not in paperback until next year and not yet in the National Library collection, but I'd say this is one to buy in hardback for all primary school libraries... It would be a fun book to read-aloud for mid / upper primary.

Here is a link to a well-written review that the book deserves, by Amanda Craig in The Times
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/fiction/article7105078.ece

and here is the opening chapter, from the Pan Macmillan website :
http://www.panmacmillan.com/extracts/displayPage.asp?PageID=8133

Eva Ibbotson is another clever, prolific, rewarding author like Geraldine McCaughrean, and I love too what she has said about libraries and how much they have meant to her - I did a post about it earlier this year... http://libraryzest.blogspot.com/search/label/Eva%20Ibbotson

The Death Defying Pepper Roux

I've just finished The Death Defying Pepper Roux by Geraldine McCaughrean (said Ma-cork-run, according to her website) and LOVED it !

It is published by Oxford University Press, the National Library has it to borrow, and the paperback is due in September.

For the best introduction to the book, listen here to the author talk about it...
http://fds.oup.com/www0.oup.com/pepperroux/media.html

and there is plenty more to explore on her website about it, her "book of the moment", including reviews, activities and downloadable poster http://www.geraldinemccaughrean.co.uk/bkm.htm

Here is a wonderful review of it by Frank Cottrell Boyce in The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/mar/27/death-defying-pepper-roux-geraldine-mccaughrean
in which he finishes, "The publisher's blurb compares Pepper Roux to the movie Amélie, largely because they're both set in France. This is like comparing the siege of Stalingrad to the Eurovision song contest because they both involve Russians and Germans. Pepper Roux is much funnier, much more stylish and much more profound. If you want to compare it to something else you could try Borges or Garcia Márquez."

If you don' t know this clever, entertaining, prolific, varied author, check out some of her books - Stop the Train, Pack of Lies, and The Kite Rider are some of my favourites...

The Death Defying Pepper Roux would make a great read-aloud for intermediate / junior secondary level, as would many of Geraldine McCaughrean's other books, thanks to her talent for telling a lively story with imagination and depth.

For people looking for class novels a la Louis Sachar's Holes, this could fit the bill, though I have to say that I have real reservations about whole class sets of novels from my own experience as a school student - and a reader - when I found them excruciating.

See also Donalyn Miller's posts on the subject of whole-class novels in the archives of her Book Whisperer blog, along with suggestions for alternative strategies :

One size does not fit all (Parts 1 and 2 - January 2008)
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/book_whisperer/2008/01/
"My seventeen year-old-daughter is what we call here in Texas, “a long, tall drink of water." I, on the other hand, have a full-figured glass that has overflowed. When shopping, we laugh when we see clothes sporting tags that claim “one size fits all” remarking, “Not us!”
Stretch this t-shirt over the ubiquitous practice in reading classrooms of teaching whole-class novels, and you can see that it doesn't fit most readers..."

What is a schwa ?

I've just finished reading The Schwa was here by Neal Shusterman and highly recommend it. This book has humour, memorable characters, mystery, friendship and poignancy, and I think it would make a great read-aloud for intermediate / secondary.

On the dust jacket, Neal tells "The idea came in the middle an author visit. I was answering questions in a school library when a teacher pointed out a boy who had had his hand up the whole time, and I hadn't noticed. He was sitting in front of the library's big dictionary, and I made this odd connection : the kid was unnoticeable - like the 'schwa' in the dictionary."

Here is a link to Amazon for reviews http://www.amazon.com/Schwa-was-Here-Neal-Shusterman/dp/0142405779
The School Library Journal review likens the writing to E L Konigsburg (one of my very favourites) and Jerry Spinelli, and that is exactly who came to my mind when reading it too.

Go to Bill Cassellman's Words of the world website to read more about the schwa...