Dorothy Must Die

TITLE: Dorothy Must Die

AUTHOR: Danielle Paige
PAGES: 464 pages (sequel: The Wicked Will Rise)
GENRE: Fantasy
OVERALL RATING: 2/5
APPROPRIATE AGE: High School, there is a lot of unnecessary language

SUMMARY: Everyone knows the story of Dorothy and her trip to Oz, but everyone also knows how the story ends: Dorothy flew home with Kansas with the Wizard in a hot air balloon. In comes Amy, another girl from Kansas with a pathetic trailer park life. One day a tornado comes, picks up her doublewide and drops her off in Oz, or what is left of Oz. Everything from the story has changed. Dorothy came back, became Princess and is hoarding all the magic out of Oz. The Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion, and the Tin Man are now her evil henchman. Even the beautiful Glenda is taken the Munchkins into slavery to help drill magic out of the land. When Amy walks into this un-fairytale, she joins forces with the Wicked Witches and the only thing she knows is DOROTHY MUST DIE!

WHAT I LIKED: I was really excited about this book. Who doesn't love the Wizard of Oz? Dorothy, her fun companions and the beautiful Glenda. Sure this book has all the same characters, but that is about where the similarities end.  It made me think of the book: Splintered by A.G. Howard.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: Following the Yellow Brick Road with Amy made me think more of the 1985 creepy sequel to the movie: Return To Oz with Fairuza Balk. All of the beloved characters were made morbid. The Scarecrow is now an evil scientist who tortures people and makes weird experiments out of them. The Cowardly Lion goes town to town sucking the fear out of people to make himself bigger.Overall, it completely ruined any happy memories of the movie from my childhood.

READALIKES: Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

BOOK TRAILER: Official Book Trailer by Harper Teen 

Shatter Me

TITLE: Shatter Me series
AUTHOR: Tahereh Mafi
PAGES: three book series  (Shatter Me, Unravel Me, Ignite Me) 
GENRE: Fantasy
OVERALL RATING: 4/5
APPROPRIATE AGE: high school, there are a couple of very detailed intimate scenes in book three

SUMMARY: Juliette, a girl with a deadly touch, survives in a world where people with powers are hunted. As a child, Juliette discovers that her touch actually sucks the life energy out of people. As a baby, her mother cannot even hold her. At the age of fourteen, she tries to help a toddler off the ground and accidentally kills him. She spends 264 days locked up in an asylum when the book starts. Then, the unthinkable happens, she meets a boy. Not just any boy, but a boy that is not affected by her touch. 

WHAT I LIKED: I read this entire series as an audiobook in about a week. I was thrilled when I found out the entire series was completed. I just hate reading a book and then having to wait months or even years for the next in a series. I liked watching the main character, Juliette evolve through the book series. At the beginning she believes she is a monster, and just wants to be invisible, completely giving up on any social interaction for the rest of her life. Throughout the books, she meets not one, but two guys interested in her. By the end of the third book, she is ready to take over the world... literally.  It made me think of the TV series: Heroes.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: At the beginning of the book, Juliette believes she is insane. A good portion of the books are the thoughts in her head, which begins to get annoying. Especially the thoughts in her head versus what she chooses to say. I need some action! The third book did not disappoint with all the action. Juliette finally learns to control her powers and really kicks some butt. The thing I disliked the most was the end of the third book is left as a total cliffhanger. I have search the Internet far and wide to find a fourth book or a continuation, with no luck. I really don't see how the author could have left the series... 

"You know," he whispers, his lips at my ear, "the whole world will be coming for us now."
I lean back. Look into his eyes.
"I can't wait to watch them try."

READALIKES: X-Men, Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

BOOK TRAILER: Official Book Trailer by Harper Teen 

Book Trailers

Unwind by Neil Shusterman

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Module 10: Graphic Novels/Censorship Issues

Title:  Maus

Author: Art Spiegelman

Bibliography: Spiegelman, Art. Maus: a Survivor's Tale. New York: Pantheon, 1986. Print.

Summary: Art Spiegelman writes his own story and how he interviews his father on surviving World War II and Nazi concentration camps. 

Reviews: School Library Journal (May 1987)
YA Told with chilling realism in an unusual comic-book format, this is more than a tale of surviving the Holocaust. Spiegelman relates the effect of those events on the survivors' later years and upon the lives of the following generation. Each scene opens at the elder Spiegelman's home in Rego Park, N.Y. Art, who was born after the war, is visiting his father, Vladek, to record his experiences in Nazi-occupied Poland. The Nazis, portrayed as cats, gradually introduce increasingly repressive measures, until the Jews, drawn as mice, are systematically hunted and herded toward the Final Solution. Vladek saves himself and his wife by a combination of luck and wits, all the time enduring the torment of hunted outcast. The other theme of this book is Art's troubled adjustment to life as he, too, bears the burden of his parents' experiences. This is a complex book. It relates events which young adults, as the future architects of society, must confront, and their interest is sure to be caught by the skillful graphics and suspenseful unfolding of the story. Rita G. Keeler, St. John's School , Houston

Impressions: Absolutely loved this story, thought it was different, considering it was a true story where the author illustrated himself as a mouse. The story tells about the author interviewing his father about surviving concentration camps and World War II. I thought this was a great book for older students and adults.

Activities:This would be a good further study for a student to read to learn about personal experiences of World War II and concentration camps.

Title:  Draw Me a Star

Author: Eric Carle

Bibliography: Carle, Eric. Draw Me a Star. New York: Philomel, 1992. Print.

Summary: The illustrator of the book creates a world for a young boy, starting with a star, a sun, tree, world, people, etc. A different turn on the creation of the world. 

Reviews: School Library Journal (October 1992)
K-Gr 4-- A young boy is told (readers are not sure by whom) to ``Draw me a star.'' The star then requests that the boy draw it a sun; the sun asks for a ``lovely tree,'' and throughout his life the boy/man/artist continues to create images that fill the world with beauty. The moon bids the now-elderly artist to draw another star, and as the story ends, the artist travels ``across the night sky'' hand-in-hand with the star. This book will appeal to readers of all ages; its stunning illustrations, spare text, and simple story line make it a good choice for story hour; but older children will also find it uplifting and meaningful. Especially pleasing is a diagram within the story, accompanied by rhyming instructions on how to draw a star: ``Down/ over/ left/ and right/ draw/ a star/ oh so/ bright.'' An inspired book in every sense of the word.-- Eve Larkin, Middleton Public Library , WI


Impressions: As familiar as I am with Eric Carle's other books, I was very disappointed in this one. Having a love for The Hungry Catepillar and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, I was actually surprised at this book and the illustrations. While the story was ok (not as good as Carle's other works), the illustrations of the man and woman were a little too revealing for a children's book.

Activities: A good book for young elementary age (kindergarten) to use as an introductory story on nature and the world. You could also read this book to a group of small children and teach them how to draw stars, perhaps to start a unit on space.

Module 9: Poetry/Short Stories

Title: Comets, Stars, the Moon and Mars

Author: Doug Florian

Bibliography: Florian, Douglas. Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars. Orlando, FL: Harcourt, 2007. Print.

Summary: A collection of poems and illustrations about all things space: including a different poem for each planet.

Reviews: School Library Journal (July 1, 2007)
Gr 1-5-Nothing gladdens the heart of believers in good poetry for children more than a new collection by Florian, whose verses and paintings consistently capture the essence of his featured themes. This one literally sings the music of the spheres. Twenty playfully lyrical poems treat topics such as the universe, the individual planets, constellations, and black holes. Each selection is presented on its own spread and adorned with a magical painting done in gouache, collage, and rubber stamps on brown paper. Circles abound in the artwork, and many pages have round cut-outs that lead into the next picture. For example, "the earth" ("Two-thirds water./One-third land./Valleys deep./Mountains grand") is illustrated with a colorful globe decorated with circled collage prints of animals and plants. A smaller orb appears nearby, made from a cut-out circle that reveals part of the illustration for the next selection, "the moon." Some of the paintings incorporate mythological names and images. The pleasing blend of faded shades and brilliant colors, of old-fashioned prints and fanciful sketches, makes the illustrations seem both antique and high-tech. An appended "Galactic Glossary" provides additional information. In both language and artwork, Florian strikes the perfect balance between grandeur and whimsy. Like Myra Cohn Livingston and Leonard Everett Fisher's Space Songs (Holiday House, 1988; o.p.), this book is a work of art worthy of the vastness of its subject.-Kathleen Whalin, York Public Library, ME Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

Impressions: Considering my three-year-old is on a big space kick right now from watching Wall-E a few too many times, we both enjoyed this book thoroughly. I really liked the poems, and how they were written (spacing and font) while my daughter enjoyed all the different illustrations of the planets and how each page was incorporated into the next.

Activities:This book would be a excellent add-on to a unit on space. After reading the poems and showing the pictures, you could have students draw pictures of space incorporating their own poems into the pictures.

Title: Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd

Author: Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci

Bibliography: Black, Holly, and Cecil Castellucci. Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd. New York: Little, Brown and, 2009. Print.

Summary:  A collection of short stories from famous authors such as Holly Black, Libba Bray, Cassandra Clare, Scott Westerfield (a few of my favorites) about all things geek. 

Reviews: School Library Journal (August 1, 2009)
Gr 9 Up-From Trekkers to science geeks, Buffy fanatics to Dungeon Masters, nerds of all persuasions are sure to find themselves in the pages of this anthology. It contains fun reads such as Black and Castellucci's "Once You're a Jedi, You're a Jedi All the Way" in which a Klingon wakes with a Jedi in her hotel room while at a sci-fi convention, and Tracy Lynn's "One of Us," in which a cheerleader enlists the school nerds to teach her the basics of geekdom so she can impress her Trekker boyfriend. The collection also includes more profound fare such as Kelly Link's moving and masterful "Secret Identity" about a 15-year-old girl who has pretended to be her 32-year-old sister on an online RPG. She must face the consequences of her lies when she arranges to meet the man with whom she has developed a relationship. Also included are stories by YA lit greats such as John Green, Libba Bray, Scott Westerfeld, and M. T. Anderson. Each story is followed by a comic-book-style illustration offering information or advice such as "What Your Instrument Says About You" and "How to Look Cool and Not Drool in Front of Your Favorite Author." Simultaneously addressing the isolation and loneliness that geeks can feel as well as the sense of camaraderie and community that can be found when one embraces a world or ideology in which he or she can completely invest, Geektastic is a completely dorky and utterly worthwhile read.-Heather M. Campbell, formerly at Philip S. Miller Library, Castle Rock, CO Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

Impressions: I thoroughly enjoyed this book, not only for the fact that it included several of my favorite authors (Cassandra Clare, Libba Bray, Holly Black) but also because the stories were humorous and easy to read. I will admit there were several "not-so-short" short stories, but the comics in between each story were funny as well.

Activities: This book could be displayed as part of a Geek display including graphic novels, science fiction books, and nonfiction books on space, Star Wars, etc. 

Module 8: Mystery and Series Books

Title: Where is the Big Bad Wolf?

Author: Eileen Christelow

Bibliography: Christelow, Eileen. Where's the Big Bad Wolf? New York: Clarion, 2002. Print.

Summary: Detective Doggedly is after the Big Bad Wolf but instead keeps finding Eleanor the sheep. Eleanor befriends the three little pigs and talks them into building a house of of straw, then out of sticks. But each time the house is blown down, when the detective goes to investigate, all he finds is Eleanor the sheep pulling the pigs to safety.

Reviews: School Library Journal (September 1, 2002)
Gr 1-2-A determined Detective Doggedly pursues the elusive BBW (Big Bad Wolf) in a delicious parody of the traditional tale. Three dim-witted and naive pigs, a wolf with a taste for unusual costuming, and three sharp-eyed residents of the nearby "Home for Elderly Cows" create a mystery worthy of the slightly befuddled detective: who is destroying the pigs' houses, when the wolf is currently hospitalized with mysterious flulike symptoms? Doggedly catches the culprit, but one doubts that this "egg-snatching, pie-pinching, chicken-chasing, pig-poaching" villain is ready to change his habits when released. Christelow's pen-and-ink and gouache cartoons show sticks and straw flying across pages, the not-too-bright protagonist, and a hilarious wolf in sheep's clothing. Characters comment on all the goings-on in dialogue balloons that add to the fun and humor. Pair this book with Jon Scieszka's True Story of the Three Little Pigs (Viking, 1989), another choice for lovers of fractured tales.-Mary Elam, Forman Elementary School, Plano, TX Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Impressions: I enjoyed reading this book to my three-year-old who was already pretty familiar with The Three Little Pigs. While she was a little young, and didn't catch all the clues (I had to point out the picture of the wolf climbing back in the window of the hospital), overall she enjoyed the story. I think this would be a great book to read to an elementary school audience.

Activities:Use Where is the Big Bad Wolf? with other books that are a play on fairy tales and then have students write their own version of a famous fairy tale.

Title: The Body of Christopher Creed

Author: Carol Plum-Ucci

Bibliography: Plum-Ucci, Carol. The Body of Christopher Creed. San Diego: Harcourt, 2000. Print.

Summary: When Christopher Creed, the annoying kid that every one grew up with but no one liked, disappears in the middle of the week, the entire town is in shock. Every one wonders why a spoiled kid with super strict parents would run away, or worse. When Victor "Torey" Adams is named in Chris's "suicide" note" he begins to investigate the disappearance.

Reviews:  First-time novelist Plum-Ucci wraps a well-crafted mystery... builds to a fever pitch enar the conclusion, vividly describing Torey's late-night hunt for Chris's body in a nearby Indian burial ground. Readers will likely be enthralled. -Publisher's Weekly

Impressions: This book started out rather slow, what should have normally took me a few days to read, took me about a week just to get through the first hundred pages. After that point the story really picks up and the book is difficult to put down.

Activities: After introducing the novel and reading the first four chapters, students will make guesses on the conclusion of the mystery. Students will analyze the mystery, and use text evidence to find all of the clues that lead to their conclusion.

Module 7: Informational Nonfiction/Biography

Title: What if You Met a Pirate

Author: Jan Adkins

Bibliography: Adkins, Jan. What If You Met a Pirate?: an Historical Voyage of Seafaring Speculation. Brookfield, Ct.: Roaring Brook, 2004. Print.

Summary: Forget the peg legs and walking the plank, this book gives the real story of real pirates in history. Everything from Queen Elizabeth's Seadogs to the real Pirate Blackbeard. This book tells about pirate ships, pirate treasure, and pirate attacks.


Reviews: Booklist starred (October 15, 2004 (Vol. 101, No. 4))
Gr. 3-5. Can it be that walking the plank was a fictional punishment invented by illustrator Howard Pyle? In this appealing book, Adkins gives readers the lowdown on what life under the pirate flag was really like. After setting up the conventional portrait of swaggering, singing sailors in colorful duds, he replaces it with a more realistic picture of hard-working sailors who "might swashbuckle just a few hours each month"and bathed considerably less. Yet this realistic portrayal of pirates and their activities is even more intriguing than the romanticized version he debunks. Adkins strikes just the right note in the text, always informative and frequently entertaining as well. Bright with color washes, the excellent, energetic drawings show pirates engaged in a variety of activities, from pumping out the bilge to braiding each other's hair to using the open-air bathroom at the front of the ship. In a send-up of current book marketing, the back cover carries appreciative comments by the likes of Queen Elizabeth I and Leonardo da Vinci. Where pirate fever runs high this spirited presentation will find an enthusiastic audience. For more titles, see the Read-alikes, "Ship Ahoy!"[BKL S 1 04].

Impressions:Overall, I enjoyed this book. The pictures were great and the information was told in a humorous way, with cute little anecdotes about all things pirate. If I hadn't completed my nonfiction project over this particular book, I never would have realized it; but the author has no qualifications to write about pirates, nor does he mention any consultants in writing the book. Therefore I have to question the validity of the information presented.

Activities: Students will use this book along with several other informational books to create a Power Point over a topic of their own interest. The Power Point will then be "taught" to the class while they take Cornell Notes over the topic.

Title: Starry Messenger


Author: Peter Sis

Bibliography: Sís, Peter, Lilian Rosenstreich, and Robert L. Egolf. Starry Messenger: a Book Depicting the Life of a Famous Scientist, Mathematician, Astronomer, Philosopher, Physicist, Galileo Galilei. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1996. Print.

Summary:This book tells the life story of Galileo Galilei, the famous Italian astronomer. Explores Galileo's idea that the earth was not the center of the universe and the trials he went through to prove it.

Reviews: School Library Journal (October 1996)
Gr 1-6--In Follow the Dream (Knopf, 1991), Sis depicted both the humanity and heroism of Christopher Columbus. In Starry Messenger, Sis turns his considerable talents to another infamous Italian--Galileo Galilei. He layers his telling so that young children or groups may focus on the short version printed in large type at the bottom of each page. Older readers will glean more from the quotes pulled from the astronomer's treatise (the work that inspired this title) and other primary sources, such as Inquisition documents. This second layer is printed in script and presented in a variety of decorative patterns (suggesting ideograms) to distinguish it. The sophisticated details of Sis's watercolor, pen, and rubber-stamp illustrations provide yet another dimension as well as ambiance. A master of symbol, the artist creates scenes that focus on the subject--"a boy born with stars in his eyes"--and shows how he shines against the darker aspects of his time. The aging scientist stands alone in a circle of yellow light, suggesting his identification with the heliocentrism for which he was being condemned, surrounded by a sea of red-clad Cardinals. The text is no less powerful: "He was tried in the Pope's court, and everyone could see that the stars had left his eyes." The pathos, the painstaking copies of Galileo's famous sketches of the heavens, and the attention to current scholarship make this book a fascinating find. Leonard Everett Fisher's Galileo (S & S, 1992) is a useful companion for a more straightforward approach.--Wendy Lukehart, Dauphin County Library, Harrisburg, PA

Impressions: I liked this book because it could be used with a large audience. Each page included a basic text, but also other information including quotes and facts about Galileo that could be further read by an older audience. The illustrations and information were fascinating.

Activities: Students will use this book along with several other biographies to study the lives of an important person in history and then create a scrapbook over their lives.