Olive's Ocean by Kevin Henkes

Olive’s Ocean. by Kevin Henkes. Greenwillow Books, 2003. 217 pages.

Plot: Olive is the name of a young girl we never meet because she has been killed in a car accident before this story begins.  Her mother though shows up at 12-year old Martha Boyle’s house with a page from Olive’s diary which forever changes Martha’s life.  Martha learns that Olive had longed to be her friend, wanted to visit the ocean and, like Martha, had dreamed of being an author.  Martha travels with her family to her grandmother’s cottage on the beach for a summer vacation. A deeper bonding with her grandmother, a love for the ocean and the coast, the tingling sensation of “first” love, a new appreciation for her mom and dad, the dynamics of an older brother and younger sister, and Martha’s first venture into writing all unfold this summer.  All the while, Martha is “honoring” Olive with this journey to the ocean and through adolescence.  She fills a jar with ocean water “for Olive.”  After a betrayal by an older neighbor boy who tricks her into her first kiss, Martha is given a new perspective on what is to discover one’s self.  “And at that very minute, what was inside her head and heart made her feel as though there was no one else in the whole world she would rather be.”

Review/Personal thoughts:  This is an excellent book for Tweens.  One almost has the sensation of floating through this book as it effortlessly flows revealing characters, settings and plot.  This book was a joy to read.  The reader is invited to explore themes like adolescence, coming of age, family ties, first love, betrayal, death, old age, creativity, self-realization, friendship and the unpredictability of life. The author has captured authentic emotions and makes them a gift to the reader. I highly recommend this book.

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Reading Level: 6.6  Interest level: Ages 10 to 13

Awards:  Newbery Medal/Honor 2003

Fearless - Taylor Swift

Album: Fearless Artist: Taylor Swift Record Label: Big Machine Records, 2008

Review:  What an incredible album!  Taylor Swift is talented and creative. This is her second album and a follow-up to her self-titled album, Taylor Swift. She wrote or co-wrote all 13 of the songs on this album. Lyrics are important in a song.  Swift uses the words to paint poignant and real life scenes that evoke emotions in the listener.  Her honesty is present - these are scenes she has lived, not invented.  Her songs are dominated by the subject of love in many forms - mostly romantic, but parents love for their children, a love for a sibling and the love for a friend.  My favorite song on the album is “Fifteen”.  This song is a story of starting high school, best friends, first love, popularity, betrayal and freedom - all in ONE song!  She sings “In your life you'll do things greater, Than dating the boy on the football team, But I didn't know it at fifteen” “'Cause when you're fifteen and, Somebody tells you they love you, You're gonna believe them.”  This song has  every chance of becoming an anthem for a generation of girls like Janis Ian’s “At Seventeen.”  The first hit single from this album is “Love Story” and Swift weaves the story of Romeo and Juliet into a modern tale of a boy and girl drawn to each other and lacking parental approval and she sings “"Romeo, save me, they're trying to tell me how to feel. This love is difficult, but it's real.”  On “The Best Day” Taylor has crafted a beautiful tribute to her mother who has obviously loved and supported her.     What mother wouldn’t love to hear their daughter sing “I know you were on my side even when I was wrong, And I love you for giving me your eyes, Staying back and watching me shine, and I didn't know if you knew, So I'm taking this chance to say that I had the best day with you today”  Taylor Swift is 18 years old and she has what it takes to be performing for many years. I own this album. My daughter owns this album. Tweens who can listen, will be guided, entertained, and inspired by every song on this album.  Share this with a tween and you might just open up their heart.

Genre: Country, Pop

Interest Level: Ages 12 and up.

Awards:  Grammy Award, Album of the Year, 2010

Wall-E

WALL·E: Film, 2008  Studio: Disney/Pixar Director: Andrew Stanton Run time: 98 minutes.

Plot: WALL-E is a robot who roams the earth as the only “creature” left (with the exception of one cockroach companion) after the earth can no longer support human life.  WALL-E gets up every morning and does what he was programed to do - collect and compress trash that has accumulated on the Earth’s surface.  Every once in awhile  he brings back some interesting piece of trash that he adds to his collection which includes a working video screen and old movies. One day the calm of WALL-E’s world is shattered by the landing of a giant spaceship out of which comes EVE, a modern robot sent back to Earth to determine if it can support life again.  WALL-E shares a small growing plant with EVE who is programmed to recognize this as a sign of life, stores it, and shuts down.  WALL-E is confused by EVE’s lack of response and when the spaceship returns for EVE, he goes with her. They arrive at a giant space station that is now home to all of the humans who evacuated earth. The humans are shuttled around on hovering chairs, watch video screens and are all overweight and out of shape.  The evil company issues a computer command to abort the plan to return to earth, but WALL-E, the captain and EVE all lead the humans in a mutiny against the company and it’s evil robots.  Will Earth ever be inhabited by humans again? What happens to the sole living plant?  Will WALL-E and EVE live happily ever after?

Review/Personal thoughts:  This is a great animated film!  Once again I am reminded of how difficult it is for me to place an upper age limit on the interest level of tween material because I, as an adult, love this film. The film has very few spoken words in the first half of the film, but there is no doubt about the communications and “feelings” that are taking place. Themes explored include; love, environmentalism, technology, life, longing, triumph, relationships and personal growth.  Highly recommended by this reviewer.

Rated: G

Interest Level: Ages 5 and up

Awards:  Academy Awards, Oscar, Best Animated Feature Film of the Year, 2009

Tweeting Tweens and Teens Improve Skills with New High-Tech Writing Coach

     The article addresses an ongoing need with tweens and teens which is the lack of adequate writing and grammar skills.  The author connects this lack of skills to the pervasiveness of text messaging and online social communication sites where the shortcuts to written language dominate the entries.  

Writing Coach is a high-tech tool created by Pearson, a global education and technology company.  The foundation of the tool is the ability to assess each student’s writing and grammar skills individually and then customize a program which provides immediate feedback. Writing Coach “looks at a student's work in progress, one paragraph at a time, and analyzes the ideas, topic support, and organization in their essay.”  

The results of working with this tool are dramatic.  Middle school students in one district saw an increase in fluency, length of written responses and quality of writing.  The claim is that these students “improved their proficiency as writers from 65 percent to 97 percent during the 2009-2010 school year.”

My experience as a public high school teacher certainly confirms the need for improvement in writing and grammar skills of students. I have seen the need overwhelmingly in English learners. There is no doubt that text messaging and online social communication is pervasive among tweens and teens.  I don’t know that the author provided enough support for the contention that the use of these shortened writing forms “causes” poor writing skills. I use text messaging daily and I include the shortened forms and abbreviations for words, however this would never spill over into or decrease my writing skills in a formal setting. 

The improvement claimed in increases in student performance are not supported by research - at least the article does not cite or present the data.  If these increases can be attained, let’s implement them, but they must be supported by research.  One missing element in the article that stands out for me is that there is no mention of the cost of the program.  I don’t have the sense that Pearson has developed this tool and is now gifting it to the world.  Education is in dire financial crisis and cost is critical to all programs.  It is certainly worthy of a closer look.

Tweeting Tweens and Teens Improve Skills with New High-Tech Writing Coach.  Feb 1, 2011 pNAPRWeb Newswire, p.NA. Retrieved February 05, 2011, from General OneFile via Gale:

http://find.galegroup.com.sdplproxy.sandiego.gov/gtx/start.do? prodId=ITOF&userGroupName=sddp_main

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Stargirl. By Jerry Spinelli. Alfred A. Knopf, 2000. 186 pages.

Plot:  Stargirl is an eccentric 10th grader at an Arizona high school who plays the ukelele, has a pet rat and dresses like no other.  She is charming, intelligent and kind, but this is a recipe for at first great popularity which turns to being shunned and hated. Her free spirit captures the heart of Leo, who is the narrator of the book and is torn between his attraction to her and the cost of being shunned because of his association with Stargirl.  In Leo’s own words, “She taught me to revel, wonder and laugh.” The story follows the students through cheerleading, football and basketball games, speech contests and walks in the desert.

Review/Personal thoughts:  This is an excellent book for Tweens.  It explores the themes of peer pressure, conformity, first love, popularity and “following one’s heart”.  The book is especially well written. The characters are well-developed and believable. Where as I tapped into the joy of Stargirl’s character, one of my high school students who read the book called Stargirl weird.  The pressure to conform is present in Jr. high and high school today and Stargirl offers a refreshing opportunity for another way of looking at life. I highly recommend this book.

Genre: Fiction

Reading Level: 4.2  Interest level: Ages 10 and up

Awards:  Many including:  Arizona Young Readers' Award

2003 Winner Teen Book Arizona 

Charlotte Award, 2004 Winner Young Adult New York 

Garden State Teen Book Award, 2003 Winner Fiction/Grades 6-8 United States 

Iowa Teen Award, 2003 Winner Grades 6-9 Iowa 

NAIBA Book of the Year Awards, 2000 Winner United States 

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird. By Harper Lee.  HarperPerennial, 2002. 323 pages.

Plot:  The story centers on a brother and sister, Jem (10 years old) and Scout (6 years old) who live in Maycomb, Alabama where class and race predominate in many residents’ minds, during the depression.   Over several summers the children share time and adventures with a friend named Dill.  Central to these adventures is the children’s sense of mystery and terror associated with a reclusive neighbor named Boo Radley.  The children’s widowed father, Atticus Finch, is a lawyer who agrees to defend an African American man accused of raping a white woman. There is drama that unfolds with the trial that includes a lynch mob and with the children who come under attack from an unknown assailant as they return home after dark.

Review/Personal thoughts:  This book is a classic by any definition.  It is an excellent read for tweens.  To a degree, it is a coming of age story.  The children become acutely aware of the cruel reality of racism, misperceptions and  assumptions.  Injustice, integrity, courage and compassion are additional themes which are expertly woven into this story. The ending has several unexpected and thought-provoking scenes.  I don’t always understand the praises of some classic books - I totally understand the mastery in this story. A trial, summer memories, a mysterious neighbor, racism, family ties and a father’s love make this easy for me to recommend it.

Genre: Fiction

Reading Level: 5.2 Interest Level: Ages 12 and up

Awards:  1961 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction

New Focus - Materials for "Tweens"

Greetings... I am happy to announce that this blog will take on a new focus beginning today. It will now be strictly dedicated to the exploration of library materials that are targeted at and appropriate for "Tweens". Although "Tween" may have different definitions to different people, they are generally the youth in the age group of 8 to 12 years old.