Chicken Spaghetti

Tween Book Ideas, Courtesy of the Nutmeg Award

Yesterday a Chicken Spaghetti reader asked about ideas for a tween book club. In terms of personal experience, we're still more in the picture book/Magic Tree House stage, but luckily,  I remembered the Nutmeg Award, which is sponsored by several Connecticut library associations. The prize was created to "encourage children in grades 4-6 to read quality literature and to choose their favorite from  a list of ten nominated titles."

The list of the nominees for 2007 would be a good place to start in a search for book-club books; the Nutmegs have a handy site, too, with discussion ideas, etc., so I link it below.  For a kids' book club, I'd advise a parent's perusing any book first to see if it's appropriate for the particular group.

There is more information at the Nutmeg Award web site, but, meanwhile, here is the list of 2007 Nutmeg contenders for grades 4-6 (about 9 to 12 years old). You can see the list for older kids at the above site.

• Becoming Naomi León, by Pam Muñoz Ryan
• The Boy Who Saved Baseball, by John H. Ritter
• Brainboy and the Deathmaster, by Tor Seidler
• Gifts from the Sea, by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock
• Granny Torrelli Makes Soup, by Sharon Creech
• Half and Half, by Lensey Namioka
• Kensuke's Kingdom, by Michael Mopurgo
• Macaroni Boy, by Katherine Ayres
• Thunder from the Sea, by Joan Hiatt Harlow
• The Warriors, by Joseph Bruchac

Additional suggestions for tween reading groups, as well as comments on the list above, are welcome!

Talk of the Tuesday

To the strains of "It's Raining Men," Junior made his way off to second grade today. For him, there is no occasion that doesn't call for the Weather Girls classic, as I've mentioned before. A slim possibility exists that Blondie's "Call Me" may soon be replacing it, but we'll see. So far that one has not been downloaded and burned.

Moving on...

A few items of interest on this back-to-school Tuesday:

• Kevin Clash, the voice and puppeteer for "Sesame Street"'s Elmo, has written a memoir (for adults), My Life as a Furry Red Monster, and Steve Innskeep interviewed him (and Elmo) on NPR's "Morning Edition" today.
• Lorrie Moore writes about Eudora Welty in The New York Review of Books.  (via Maud Newton )
• The Australian author Colin Thiele (Storm Boy) died yesterday. An obit appears in The Age.
• A delightful post about looking forward to fall beckons at the homeschooling blog By Sun and Candlelight. Good ideas & links galore for enjoying the season with children.

Avast! Pirate Books

Here's a new resource that I am going to take immediate advantage of, at least when the library opens tomorrow. It's a bibliography of pirate books and web sites, put together by Kay E. Vandergrift, Rutgers professor emerita.

My son (who's 6) was asking for a book about pirates just yesterday, and that prompted a little discussion about them. "They were robbers, you know," I felt obligated to say. (No news to him, by the way.)  Prof. Vandergrift asks some thought-provoking questions in her introduction to the pirate bibliography, including the following:

Is it our responsibility as educators to help children understand the reality of piracy to counteract the glorification of pirates often seen in the popular media?

Can we, or should we, attempt to introduce this reality without destroying children's joy in re-creating traditional fictional pirates in their dramatic play?

Prof. Vandergrift maintains the excellent Children's Literature Page, of which the pirate information is a part. You'll find bibliographies and commentary on many other subjects. This is a can't-miss site.

Flat Stanley to the Rescue

What does  a teacher do in order to interest her TV- and video-game-loving students in books? Ms. ABC Mom, who teaches second grade, turns to Flat Stanley and other series books. To read all about her creative ideas, see the post "Book Thoughts" at her blog.

Yay for teachers like Ms. V!

Saving Mr. Hatch

Now that her sons are in high school, a reviewer at the Charlotte Observer sorts through stacks of old children's books to see which ones to save and which ones to donate. One keeper is Eileen Spinelli's  picture book Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch. I just found that one buried on our shelves a few weeks ago, and it's already made the Top Ten read-aloud request list. Mr. Hatch lives a humdrum life until he receives a mysterious valentine. I admired the humor of both the writing and Paul Yalowitz's whimsical  illustrations. And the message, which grows naturally from the character-driven story line, is terrific: only connect.

If you live near Charlotte, you'll get a good suggestion of where to donate books, too.

Link: "Books That Once Filled My Tots with Wisps of Wonder" by Jeri Krentz, Charlotte Observer

Poetry Friday: Britney Spears Interprets William Blake

I swear.

See  the Britney Spears official web site, click on "Love B" (whatever that is),  and "behold the beauty of the tiger."

(Thanks to Tingle Alley for the link.)

Call Scotland Yard

Quick. The plot of the not-yet-published Peter Pan sequel (written by Geraldine McCaughrean) was leaked. The Beeb is on the case. (Oxford University is the UK publisher, Simon & Schuster US.)