We Two Tutoring

With a story as whimsical as Imogene’s Antlers (also by  illustrator David Small), readers will discover exactly how to get a distracted parent’s permission to bring home a pet penguin.  Sorry, mom and dad.  (Grade level 1+.)

One Cool Friend by Toni Buzzeo

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Good story, excellent illustrations – One Cool Friend is an off-kilter book that lets you get used to its absurdity in time to *still* be surprised by the ending. After the first reading, I found that Small’s art was doing more of the heavy lifting, as previously-unnoticed clues and jokes made themselves seen. As a teacher, I often prefer this balance, as students seem more apt to put their own spin on retellings.

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In the first of the Skinjacker trilogy, Nick and Allie must learn to survive as Everlosts – we’d call them ghosts but that’s a rude term according to the Everlosts themselves.  Schusterman’s novel is a well-realized alternative universe layered right on top of the universe we living people are so accustomed to.  The trilogy is completed with Everwild and Everfound.  (Grade level 5+.)

Everlost by Neal Shusterman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Two things I particularly enjoy about Schusterman’s writing:

First, he has a way of turning a clever phrase. Sometimes insightful, sometimes funny – every ten or twenty pages I find myself reaching for a post-it to flag some sentence. He doesn’t get these phrases by overwriting, either. Not every sentence is some … ahem … gem dripping like honey from the author’s rapier wit. Yeah, nothing like that tripe.

Secondly, his characters are not Boys and Girls. Sure, the characters are male and female, but some books seem to be always thinking of the characters as gendered beings first and foremost, as if they are in urgent need of a public bathroom. Not this book, where the characters are, first and foremost, characters. They are individuals who act according to -all- aspects of their personality and circumstance. It is hard to explain, and I assume it is harder to write (consciously, at least), but at least I can say I like what I read when I open the pages of Everlost.

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