[R3librarians] Tuesday's Trash & Treasures

[Cindy Franklin]

Carol Sue Gibbs, librarian at  Cherry Elementary, Bay
City ISD, sent in these recommendations of "wonderful stories that
would be good to read in November and May." 

This is a group of picture books set during the WWII era. They
are not newly published, but each tells a special story and most are based
on fact from that time.  Most elementary librarians will be familiar
with them. They could also be used in  upper grades to tell the WWII
story from someone who lived during the war.

Bicycle Man
by Allen Say
Two American soldiers visit a school
field day in post-war occupied Japan. The
children are at first
fearful until one of the soldiers borrows the principal's
bicycle and
does tricks for the crowd.

The Cats in Krasinski Square
by Karen Hesse
The Jewish Resistance in Warsaw, Poland
uses cats to distract the Gestapo's dogs to
allow food to be dropped
over the wall into the Warsaw Ghetto.

The Yellow Star:
The Legend of King Christian X of Denmark by Carmen Agra Deedy
A wonderful legend of the king's love and loyalty to all of his
subjects, including
the Jews.

The Butterfly by
Patricia Polacco
Patricia Polacco once again uses
experiences from her family to tell the story of
how her relative,
Marcel, who worked with the French Resistance to smuggle Jews to
freedom.

Passage to freedom: the Sugihara Story by Ken
Mochizuki
The story of a Japanese consul who, against
his country's orders, wrote thousands of
visas for Jews who were
desperate to escape from Lithuania.

Blueberries for the
Queen by John & Katherine Paterson
A true account
of the author's opportunity to meet Queen Wilhelmina of the
Netherlands when she rented an estate in Massachusetts during the summer
of 1942.

A New Coat for Anna by Harriet Ziefert
A post-war account based on a true story. Traces the
steps necessary for Anna to get
a new coat when there was no money to
buy one.

The Unbreakable Code by Sara Hoagland Hunter
A fiction setting that tells the story of the Navajo Code
Talkers.

Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot by Margot
Theis Raven
The setting for this true story is the
Berlin Air Lift in 1948. It tells of a pilot
who dropped candy to the
children and the lasting friendship formed with one of the
girls.
Gail Halvorsen and other pilots dropped 23 tons of candy to the children
of
Berlin.

Here Lies the Librarian by
Richard Peck

Booklist (March 1, 2006 (Vol. 102, No. 13))

Gr. 5-8. Stubborn, fearless, and loyal,
14-year-old Peewee (Eleanor) McGrath, who dresses like a boy, lives with
her brother, Jake, in Indiana, "way out in the weeds."Together,
they run a struggling garage, where Jake is building a racecar. It's 1914,
and the electric self-starter has made automobiles more accessible to
women. One day, four female drivers, library students all, arrive in a
Stoddard-Dayton in need of repair; later, they return to reopen the town
library. With these young women as role models, Peewee comes to realize
that being female and being independent aren't mutually exclusive.
Peck's one-liners, colorful physical comedy, and country
dialect, prominent in most of his recent novels, are great as
usual. And his characters, if not fully developed, are
wonderfully quirky. Yet even with some exciting scenes of
old-time dirt-track racing, the pace lags, and the story is
choppy. Young fans of Danica Patrick, today's "Queen of
the Road,"may want to read this, but it will probably be
librarians who'll have the most fun. Peck recounts an
incident in an endnote in which one of the characters appears at the
Indianapolis 500 with Janet Guthrie; unfortunately, there's not enough
explanation to know whether or not it's all true.

I'll admit, I had a hard time staying with
this book.   I'm in agreement with the Booklist reviewer on this
one.


Cindy Franklin 
Library
& Technology Specialist 
Region III ESC 
cfranklin at esc3.net

361-573-0731 ext 277 
www.esc3.net/mlib 



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