Good Books

Oh, so funny! The story is narrated from the point of view of Charlie, the dog. He tells us about a typical day in his life on the farm. Aside from a very pleasant reading this book offers a great opportunities for teachers-practice telling a story from the first person including what a typical day in once's life is like.

 A very pretty book! As with many picture book biographies or introductions to historical figures or events or places, the picture book fails to be the communicator of the information; it merely serves as a supplement. I think this is a failure of this genre of books. I pick them up expecting them to carry out the information that they often contain in the back. I felt disappointed by the like of We're going to Mexico, We're sailing the Galapagos for this reason. Sadly, this book, while very pretty, fell in the same trap. I would recommend it for children who already know something about Mozart and Wolfgang and who are at least somewhat familiar with Europe and the period during which he siblings lived. It is a great, refreshing supplement at that stage of growth but not before.                                                                                                          

  

This is a series a books which both parents and children will enjoy tremendously. The characters are borrowed from oh-so-well-known fairy/folk-tales, but the problems and the challenges and the solutions are oh-so-modern and oh-so-real that I challenge a single parent not to see himself being caught in at least one of the situations presented in the series. Children will view the presented circumstances and solutions differently but this is precisely the reason this books will not fade from popularity any time soon and will bridge and be relevant to many age groups. I loved them and highly recommend them to all ages to enjoy, either as a read-aloud, as a self-read, or as an easier independent reader.

Adults love to think that kids are very sophisticated. Sorry to break it to you, stupid adults, but kids are kids and I like them that way, simple and honest without the burden of reality on their shoulders. Many books, such as this one and many other award-winning books are forced into the classrooms and turn our children away from finding the joy in reading. It worked for me, after seventh grade I hated reading. I resorted to cliff-notes type of aides for two reasons 1)they gave a flat-out opinion and defended it 2) they contained all the information I needed to pass silly tests and 3) they deciphered a lot of mystery. After a while I stopped even trying to read-I went straight to the cheat-sheets, and I cheated myself out of the joy of reading and I blamed myself and put myself down. As an adult now, I realize it was not my fault. It was the fault of all adults who thought I was an adult before I was ready. The solution America found was-the easy reader series. Boom, another extreme. Sorry, but a bunch of dumb stories is another sure way to turn kids away from enjoying reading. So, I have embarked on the journey of finding the middle ground, the just-right books-good for mastering the skill of reading and good for satisfying the mind. About this book. I loved it. But this book is not for children to read. It is for children to be read to. It is a great supplement or even a spleen for a unit study of Peru or South America, but it needs to be supported with a lot of visuals, and with a lot of historical and geographical background. It can be used in a fifth-grade classroom, even a fourth-grade, and the children can be assigned readings of related easier texts, but this one should be read by the teacher and the discussion should be led by the teacher. Do not torture your children, do not put them down, enrich them and support them. Update 8/24/2014:  I finished this book today. It took me a while and it was driving me crazy with its monotone. This book could easily be abridged to 5 pages without loss of any information. I understand having hiked in the Andes that the stillness and the short sentences are perfect for that setting but the journey to the traveler is one thing, the journey to the reader is  whole another experience. This book simply overused and abused the settings. The book had many inaccuracies/ inconsistencies, the most remarkable of which is the thoughts of the boy at the sight of the monks. The kid knows nothing about Catholicism but lo and behold! he says their father is God and their brothers are the other monks! Seriously! (While typing this review I noticed that the program insisted on capitalizing Catholicism and insisted on single l for traveler but when I deliberately spelled with lower case god it did not insist on capitalizing it!) This book is no different than the Alchemist by Paolo Coelho, so I am wondering who stole from whom? Lastly, I question the committee that gives the Newbury Medlals for literature. I am still to find a good winner with this one being no exception. I have been reading them because in fifth grade the kids are required to find one Newbury winner book and read it and write a report on it. With so many lousy choices I am not surprised kids do not like reading. 

There is a blog that I follow and it featured this book as a read-aloud in first grade. I picked it up and found it dull right away. The design of the plot is nothing extraordinary, in fact, it is painfully ordinary. Here is the summary-an unpopular and unlikely pet saves the day. You are done. I also found this book difficult to read because it contains a lot of London-specific terms, so unless you cover London and England well prior to reading, many parts of this book will be enigmatic. Since I was not interested in talking about London, I chose to not even bother reading aloud this book to the kids. If  they find it on their own and choose to read it and find it enjoyable, I will be very pleased. I do not think this is a good read-aloud at any grade level.