Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo Booktalk

I want you to imagine three girls breaking into their teacher's house. One of the girls, Beverly, has taught herself lock-picking from a book. She is breaking in, and her best friends, Louisiana and Raymie, are right there with her. Why are they breaking into their teacher's house?

Their teacher is not a school teacher: she teaches baton twirling to girls entering beauty contests and other competitions. Two of them want to enter and win a local competition called the Little Miss Central Florida Tire 1975 competition. It's sort of a beauty/talent competition, and there is a big cash prize. You have to prove that you are talented and a good person. Breaking and entering is not a good way to prove that.

Let's get back to the girls. You've heard the expression "to be down on your luck"? What does it mean? [Take answer/s.] We have three girls down on their luck here. Raymie's dad just left her and her mom. Louisiana lost her beloved cat and doesn't have enough money to buy food. Beverly doesn't seem to have a dad around, plus she gets into fights with her mom. Beverly's mom forces Beverly to take baton twirling lessons, which she seems to hate. The lessons are where the three girls met one another.

But where is their baton teacher?

Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo. 2016: Candlewick Press. 263 p. Booktalk to intermediate grades, middle school. Great read-aloud.

Full of Beans by Jennifer L. Holm Booktalk

Beans is tired of how his town stinks. There's garbage everywhere, because the town is broke and can't pay garbage men to come collect the garbage. His family has no money, but no one else in town has any money, either. It's the Great Depression of the 1930's, and Beans lives in Key West, Florida. He's always barefoot. His dad usually is out of work. I bet he's pretty thin.

When you're poor and hungry, you have to earn money somehow, and Beans is pretty good at it, at least, when adults aren't cheating him. When we first meet him, he's being ripped off by Winky, who should pay him more for the empty cans he brought in. Beans knows that Winky lies to him.

But then Beans gets another business opportunity: a fast way to make money, and it involves his wagon. Let's just say that smuggling is involved, and plenty of deception. And much higher pay. Enough money to buy his mom some hand cream she really needs for her damaged hands. But Beans' new job involves a high level of risk: what will happen to him if he gets caught? If you like humor and historical fiction, try Full of Beans by Jennifer L. Holm.

Full of  Beans by Jennifer L. Holm. 195 p. 2016: Random House. Booktalk to grades 3-7.

Book talk: Wonder by R.J. Palacio (Newbery 2013 contender)

[For this book talk, you are going to be the main character, Auggie, but you’ll wear a bag – any bag as long as you can see/breathe – over your head for the entire book talk.]

Hi, I’d like to introduce myself. My name is August, or Auggie for short. I’m the main character in the book you’re gonna read, called Wonder. Yeah, I can hear you murmuring about the bag on my head. No, I am not going to take it off. I repeat: no, I am not going to take this bag off. Why? I’m glad you asked.

Because the second I take this bag off my head, some of you will gasp. Some of you will snicker. Some of you may even call me names and point. I’m used to seeing kids put their hands over their mouths when they see me. Heck, I’m even used to their parents doing that, and yes, it is extremely rude and cruel. I’m not giving you the satisfaction of that.

I get judged on my face all the time, every second of every day. People forget what they’re doing or saying when they see me, and not in a good way. Would I like a chance to escape my fate/face? Haha: did you get the pun? Okay, I’ll repeat it, so listen carefully. Would I like a chance to escape my fate/face? Get it: my face is my fate? Oh, never mind. Actually, mind. Because of the way I look, I’ve been homeschooled my whole life. And now my parents are going to send me to a real school, where my face will be subjected to your judgments, comments, and criticism all the time. My parents are nervous about it. Very, very nervous.

You think you could be me? Even for one day? I bet you wouldn’t last one hour.

Wonder by R.J. Palacio. 2012: Knopf. 315 pages. Booktalk to middle grades (intermediate) and middle school. Newbery contender, 2013.

Wonder

Booktalk: Touch Blue (Virginia Readers' Choice, 2012-2013)

 

Can you imagine if your school was at risk of being shut down if more kids did not attend? Yeah, I knew you’d like that.

But Tess, age 11, goes to school in a one-room schoolhouse on a small island off the coast of Maine. There’s just a handful of other kids who attend her tiny school, because Tess’s island doesn’t have that many children. Tess’s mom is the teacher. And when you live on small island, school is one of the things that keeps you busy and entertained. The school is part of Tess’s life, along with the lobster boats, the ocean, the salt breeze, the sea birds, and the ferry.

Yet the state of Maine won’t fund her school and keep it open unless more kids attend. But where will Tess’s tiny island get more kids? No new families are moving to their island, but several families have a cool idea – adopt some foster children who need a good home.

So Tess’s family decides to adopt a 13-year-old redheaded boy named Aaron. Aaron has been moved from family to family, and it’s about time he gets a solid, loving family. Tess is really, really excited. She’s always wanted an older brother.

But when Tess takes Aaron around the island, he seems unimpressed. And when he sees their little one-room school, he actually says, “I can’t believe I had to quit my jazz band to come here.” He doesn’t seem to like the other islanders, and he rarely smiles. Tess has a problem. How do you get someone to love an island if he’s determined to hate it?

Touch Blue by Cynthia Lord. 186 p. New York: Scholastic, 2010. Virginia Readers’ Choice (Elementary/Intermediate) for 2012-2013. This title would also work well for middle schoolers.

Touch Blue

Booktalk: Inside Out & Back Again (2011 National Book Award for Young People's Literature winner)

The winner of the 2011 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature is Thanhha Lai’s Inside Out & Back Again. I’m going to interrupt my “Virginia Readers’ Choice” titles to booktalk it instead. I really liked it and it would work well for intermediate grades and middle school.

Ha is a young girl from Vietnam whose father is missing and whose family needs to flee their country in order to escape the wartime violence. She’s a normal girl who will miss the country she loves so much: the papaya trees, the food, her friends, the open market, and the beautiful flowers. Vietnam has been her only home for ten years, and now she and her mother and older brothers have to get on a crowded ship to sail to America on short notice, probably never to return.

Imagine leaving behind everything you ever owned. Ha’s brother loves his baby chick and tries to bring it along, even though he wasn’t supposed to.  You can’t keep a baby chick alive on a crowded ship. It’s just one more loss on top of the many others they’ve suffered.

Once they arrive in the U.S., everything is strange and confusing, like the man with the cowboy hat who takes them in but whose wife hates them and makes them stay in the basement. Ha’s family made it to America, but they don’t feel welcome here.

Ha is a smart girl, and she’s especially good at math, but the children at her school are mean to her. One boy in particular hates her and calls her “Pancake Face.” Believe it or not, there are times when Ha wishes she were back in war-torn Vietnam. No one was cruel to her there. But there are things – and people – who keep Ha going in Inside Out & Back Again.

Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai. 262 p. Harper: 2001. Booktalk to intermediate grades and to middle school.

Booktalk: The Strange Case of Origami Yoda; Darth Paper Strikes Back

I wrote a booktalk for Origami Yoda a while ago. It's a Virginia Readers' Choice for 2011-2012, and the link is here: http://booktalkthree.blogspot.com/2010/12/misfits-booktalk-2.html

The sequel, Darth Paper Strike Back, is just as good. Here's the booktalk:

Whenever there’s a force for good – Dwight and Origami Yoda – there’s also a force for evil. In this case, it’s Harvey. Seventh grade has barely started, and Harvey has already unleashed the power of the Dark Side, in the form of his own origami finger puppet: Darth Paper. Harvey’s made it his mission to bring Dwight down, and he’s quite obvious about it. His minion Darth Paper looks like Darth Vader, and even has own little pink lightsaber. In order to stop Harvey and to prevent Dwight from being sent to a school for really bad kids, Tommy and the others start a case file. But it may not be enough. Origami Yoda seems to be losing it. A popular girl named Jen (who believes in Origami Yoda) asked him for advice, and all Origami Yoda could tell her was, “Zero Hour comes. Prepare to meet your doom!” You could get kicked out of school for saying such things! Is Origami Yoda actually helping Harvey and Darth bring about his own downfall? Dwight’s friends are starting to wonder. Darth Paper Strikes Back: An Origami Yoda Book by Tom Angleberger.

Darth Paper Strikes Back: An Origami Yoda Book by Tom Angleberger. 159 p. 2011: Amulet Books. Booktalk to intermediate grades, middle school.

 

Booktalk: Out of My Mind (Virginia Readers' Choice)

Melody has been forced to be silent her entire life. She's 11 years and in 5th grade, but she has never spoken a single word ever. She's got a condition called cerebral palsy, and this means she can't control her body, can't walk, and can't talk. Her brain is fine, though, and she's very smart. Melody is a cool, witty, and normal kid in so many ways. She laughs when she reads Garfield, loves animals, and craves McDonalds milkshakes.
   Finally, her parents agree to buy her a high-tech machine that "talks" for her as she types. It's incredibly expensive and complicated, but as she gets better at "talking" via the computer, her classmates and teachers realize how very smart she really is. For example, she knows all the U.S. presidents and vice presidents inside out. She has a massive vocabulary and a brilliant memory for facts.
   Melody is so smart and starts doing so well in her classes that she wins a place on her school's competitive academic travel team. The team is going to travel to Washington, D.C. for a big competition. Melody is studying so hard at home: she's spending hours and hours memorizing more facts, learning newer and harder subjects, and even inventing her own games so that she'll be able to compete better. For the competition, though, Melody will be out of her element, and travel is really hard on you when you have cerebral palsy. There's also the question of how well her team mates will treat her. Will Melody have both the academic skills and the social skills to endure this competition? Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper.

Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper. 295 p. New York: Atheneum Books, 2010. Booktalk to intermediate grades, middle school, lower high school. Virginia Readers' Choice for 2011-2012.

Booktalk: Drita, My Homegirl (Virginia Readers' Choice)

[Show cover] I want you to take a look at the cover of Drita, My Homegirl. We see two girls' backpacks: one says, "I love Kosova," and the other says, "I love New York." This is an interesting cover, because it didn't happen anywhere in the book, but it easily could have. Drita [point to girl with "I love Kosova" backpack] came to America from war-torn Kosovo. She's a refugee. Her mom is so depressed that she cries all day. Drita goes to public school in New York City and is really struggling both to make friends and to learn English. Maxie [point to girl on cover with "I love New York" backpack] is the same age as Drita, and has a really wicked temper. Maxie's a good kid, but she's impulsive and she gets into trouble. If you yell at Maxie, she'll yell back. Loudly. Maxie isn't super nice to Drita when she first meets her: in fact, she comes up with a really mean name for Drita. But when a girl named Brandee smacks Drita in the face during a basketball game, Maxie comes to Drita's defense. These two girls are very, very different, but they're starting to get each other. They actually have something in common (which Maxie keeps to herself) that could make them life-long friends. Drita, My Homegirl by Jenny Lombard.

Drita, My Homegirl by Jenny Lombard. 135 p. G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2006. Booktalk to intermediate grades and possibly to middle school.

Booktalk: How Oliver Olson Changed the World (Virginia Readers' Choice)

There are five facts you should know about Oliver Olson’s parents:

1). They worry about him constantly.

2). They hover over him when he does his homework.

3). They would never let him walk on the moon.

4). They only let him eat super healthy snacks. No junk food.

5). They will not let him go to a class sleepover that he really wants to go to.

There are many facts you should know about Oliver himself, but I’m only to give you 3.

1). Oliver was very sick when he was a little kid.

2). Oliver is a really nice and very smart third grader.

3). Oliver has to make a diaroma of the solar system at home, and his parents are doing it for him, against his will.

The last fact I’m going to tell you is the title of this book: How Oliver Olson Changed the World. Wait a minute? He changed the world? With parents micro-managing him? Yep, you’re just going to have to read it.

How Oliver Olson Changed the World by Claudia Mills; pictures by Heather Maione. 104 p. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Booktalk to elementary, intermediate grades. Virginia Readers’ Choice for 2011-2012.

Booktalk: The Dog Days of Charlotte Hayes [Virginia Readers' Choice]

If you buy a pet, you must take good care of the pet. What does this include? [Gather responses: fresh food, fresh water, love, exercise, etc.]. Charlotte Hayes’s father brought home a beautiful dog: a Saint Bernard he named “Killer.” {Show cover.} Now, Killer was just not an apt name for this dog: he’s a completely gentle sweetheart who wouldn’t hurt a fly. And even though Charlotte’s dad brought this Saint Bernard home, he really wasn’t prepared to give the dog all the time and attention which the dog deserves. I’m still mad at the dad for doing this. You know a book has you hooked when you’re mad at a fictional character.

So, by default, Charlotte has been taking care of Beauregard, which is her name for the dog. She gives him water, food, and as much attention as she can – which is still not enough. It’s just not fair to Beauregard. And Charlotte is a really cool girl: she wants Beauregard to have the best possible home, with a family who is 100% committed to him. So she takes him to the animal shelter and tells them she found a lost dog, hoping a really nice family will adopt him and give him tons of love. But when she gets home from school the next day, she hears a bark. Beauregard is back. How on earth did he get there? The Dog Days of Charlotte Hayes by Marlane Kennedy.

The Dog Days of Charlotte Hayes by Marlane Kennedy. 233 p. Greenwillow Books, 2009. Virginia Readers’ Choice 2011-2012. Booktalk to intermediate grades and to younger middle schoolers.

Booktalk: Captain Nobody by Dean Pitchford [Virginia Readers' Choice]

It can be tough being a nobody, but Newt Newman has survived it so far. His older brother, Chris, is a popular football star: so cool, that everyone’s heard of Chris, but nobody’s heard of Newt. Newt is 10, freckled, skinny, and short. Newt has always felt as if people look right through him, as if he’s not there at all. Don’t get me wrong: Newt does have friends – two of them – and they’re very close. He also likes drawing sketches of superheroes, and he’s pretty good at it. Newt’s just a normal kid who doesn’t call attention to himself, ever.

But then the unthinkable happens. During one of Chris’s football games, Chris gets hit in the head – really, really hard. So hard that Chris goes into a coma. What’s worse, a kid gets blamed for collision, and only Newt knows that the kid isn’t responsible. And one other very weird fact: Newt starts dressing up as Captain Nobody. Yeah, it sounds like a joke, and it sort of is, but he also starts doing some pretty heroic stuff. Is this just because his older brother is in a coma, or is the real Newt capable of amazing feats? Captain Nobody by Dean Pitchford.

Captain Nobody by Dean Pitchford. 2009: G. P. Putnam/Penguin Young Readers Group. 195 p. Virginia Readers’ Choice 2011-2012. Booktalk to intermediate grades.

Booktalk: Colonial Voices: Hear Them Speak [Virginia Readers' Choice]

Let’s say that tonight your dad wants to send a message to a friend who lives across town. What are his options? [Wait for responses: call on the phone, email, etc.] What would your dad do if it were colonial America, 1773? [Wait for responses.] He’d send an errand boy to deliver the message. An errand boy was 11 or 12 years old, and he ran errands and usually lived in someone else’s household. In this case, it’s Ethan [point to cover]. Ethan is the paperboy for the printer, and he’s the errand boy. Ethan has no living parents: his mom died giving birth to him, and his dad drowned at sea. Ethan works for a living, and he works hard. It might take him all day to do his work and deliver messages. He keeps his mouth shut, his eyes open, and his feet in motion. Boston in 1773 is a very tense place. The Sons of Liberty are counting on Ethan to share the notice about the secret meeting at Old South. They have a midnight deadline: should the tea be taxed or should they fight back? Ethan’s day starts at dark: 5:30 in the morning, and goes til at least 9 at night. Can you keep up with him? Would you have been as tough and smart as he had to be? Colonial Voices: Hear Them Speak by Kay Winters.

Colonial Voices: Hear Them Speak by Kay Winters, illustrated by Larry Day. 2008: Dutton’s Children’s Books. Unpaged. Booktalk to intermediate grades [3^rd-5^th] and 6^th. Virginia Readers’ Choice for 2011-2012.

Booktalk: Annie Glover Is Not a Tree Lover [Virginia Readers' Choice]

Of all the things in life that can embarrass you, your grandmother is not supposed to be one of them. Grandmas are all about hugs, presents, baking cookies with you, telling you funny stories about your parents – all that good stuff. But Annie Glover’s grandma has chained herself – with a padlock – to a tree named Elmer. And when Annie Glover’s classmates saw Annie’s grandma chained to a tree, they thought it was a man wearing pink shoes. How totally embarrassing! [Show picture on p. 6]. Now, Grandma has very good reasons for wanting to save this beautiful tree named Elmer. But the city council wants to cut Elmer down in order to put up a swimming pool. And who doesn’t want a swimming pool? Swimming pools are awesome, but there’s a secret reason why Elmer is awesome, too. I just hope everyone finds out the secret reason before the chainsaw guy gets to Elmer. Annie Glover Is Not A Tree Lover by Darleen Bailey Beard.

Annie Glover Is Not A Tree Lover by Darleen Bailey Beard. Pictures by Heather Maione. 120 p. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux. Booktalk to elementary (2^nd) and intermediate grades (3^rd-5^th). Virginia Readers’ Choice 2011-2012.

Booktalk: 11 Birthdays [Virginia Readers' Choice]

You know the acronym BFF? Remind me what it stands for. Right: best friends forever. Amanda and Leo were pretty much destined to be BFFs. They were born at the same time in the same hospital, and a mysterious old woman prophesied to their mothers that Amanda and Leo would be the best of friends. The same old woman asked their mothers to celebrate their birthdays together each year, and the two moms half-heartedly agreed to. It sort of sounds like something out of a fairy tale, right? The plan mostly worked, for a while. Amanda and Leo had great birthday parties together and they were really good friends. However, at their 10^th birthday party together, Amanda heard Leo talking about her to a friend of his. He basically said that Amanda didn’t have many friends and that his mom made him share parties with her. That really hurt her feelings. So naturally, the two are no longer friends. Amanda’s 11 birthday party is coming up, and for the first time, she and Leo will be celebrating separately. But remember how these two are destined since birth to be BFFs? Fate has a funny way of bring former best friends together again. 11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass.

11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass. 267 p. Scholastic: 2009. Virginia Readers’ Choice for 2011-2012. Booktalk to intermediate grades (3^rd-5^th) and 6^th grade.

Booktalk: The 100-Year-Old Secret [Virginia Readers' Choice]

Many of us have cool family legacies: a grandfather who fought in a war, relatives who came here from other countries -- it's pretty common. But Xena and Xander Holmes have an incredibly cool family legacy: they are the great-great-great-grandchildren of Sherlock Holmes. As you can remember, Sherlock Holmes was one of the smartest detectives of all time. He lived in London in the late 1800s/early 1900s and he could figure a ton of stuff out about you just by looking at you. He could deduce facts about you which other people simply could not. And he was always right! Even cooler, Xena and Xander have inherited similar talents from Sherlock Holmes, since they're his direct descendants. And there are people who have been watching Xena and Xander ... even from abroad. It may be hard to believe, but even the greatest detectives leave some cases unsolved, and that's what happened with Sherlock Holmes. Xena and Xander inherit Sherlock Holmes' casebook of unsolved mysteries, and there's one in particular they really, really want to solve. But some trails grow cold over the course of time, and this makes their case involving a 100-year-old secret even more challenging. The 100-Year-Old Secret [The Sherlock Files] by Tracy Barrett.

The 100-Year-Old Secret [The Sherlock Files] by Tracy Barrett. 157 p. Henry Holt and Company: 2008. Virginia Readers' Choice for 2011-2012. Booktalk to 3rd-5th.

Booktalk: Curse of the Bizarro Beetle [Monsters; 2]

The teachers at Splurch Academy for Disruptive Boys are monsters. No, I’m not just saying that to be mean. They really are true monsters, both in form and in behavior. The headmaster is a psychotic vampire. There’s a dungeon in the basement. Nurse Bilgewater, acting Headmistress, caught Cody and his friends investigating the kitchen, which has some pretty gross food … does insta-gruel and dehydrated cabbage nuggets even count as food? Yuck! And they didn’t even steal any. Anyhow, they’re quarantined in the school infirmary as punishment with cuffs and tormented by Bilgewater herself, that nightmare. What kind of school is this, anyhow? When she does finally force the boys to eat, there are dead bugs swimming in their cabbage soup. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Curse of the Bizarro Beetle is the second book in the Splurch Academy for Disruptive Boys series by Julie Gardner Berry and Sally Faye Gardner.

Curse of the Bizarro Beetle [Splurch Academy; 2] by Julie Gardner Berry and Sally Faye Gardner. Booktalk to intermediate (elementary) grades and middle school. It is not necessary to have read the first in the series before this one.

Booktalk: Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich [Monsters; 1]

Every person out there has a favorite monster. You may not want to admit it, but it’s true. Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich is actually a book of monster poems featuring really well-known monsters like Frankenstein, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dracula, Godzilla, and all the rest. Each poem gives you some really embarrassingly hilarious and bizarre information on the monster. For example, there’s actually a poem called, ‘Godzilla Pooped on My Honda.’ It will give you all the gross-out details which I cannot. In another poem, Count Dracula was with a bunch of other monsters at night, trying to be Mr. Cool and all that, but the whole time he had spinach stuck on his teeth! And no one told him, but they all knew! How totally embarrassing. And did you know that the Invisible Man got a haircut? I can’t tell you how it turned it, but things got ugly. Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich by Adam Rex.

Booktalk: O, Say Can You See? [Cool America; 3]

We have such a cool country, and we also have some pretty cool symbols to highlight our values: freedom, liberty, and democracy. As you know, a symbol is something that stands for something else. Symbols can be places, objects, or words. Which bird is our national symbol? [Wait for response.] Right, the bald eagle. But did you know that Ben Franklin actually wanted our national bird to be a wild turkey? It may be hard to believe, but he thought bald eagles were lazy thieves. Luckily, he lost the battle, and we got the bald eagle instead. The bald eagle symbolizes power and strength. Another cool American symbol is the Statue of Liberty. Did you know that she used to be light brown? She’s green now. She was made in France, and her inner skeleton was built in Paris [show p. 24]. To get her to America, they had to carefully take apart every single piece of her, label it, and ship it to this country, where it was an important gift to us. Can you imagine re-assembling the Statue of Liberty, piece by piece? That is tough work, but it was worth it. Another symbol you might not know as much about it is Uncle Sam [show pp. 36-37]. You know those “I Want You” pictures with his face? Those were used to recruit men to fight in World War I and II. But the original Uncle Sam was based on a man named Sam Wilson who fought in the American Revolution and worked as a meatpacker. There’s more to that story, which you can read about it O, Say Can You See? America’s Symbols, Landmarks, and Inspiring Words by Sheila Keenan.

O, Say Can You See? America’s Symbols, Landmarks, and Inspiring Words by Sheila Keenan. Scholastic, 2004. 64 p. Booktalk to elementary, intermediate grades.

Booktalk: The Scrambled States of America [Cool America; 2]

Have you ever gotten really tired of where you live, or even of where you sit in class? [Show page {3}]. Kansas woke up one morning in a really bad mood. Some of the states were still sleeping [point to the west coast states on that same page], some were yawning and rubbing their eyes [point to the Midwestern states], and some were eating their cereal and reading the newspaper [point to the east coast states]. Not Kansas, though. “I never get to go anywhere!” he moaned to his best friend, Nebraska. But suddenly, Kansas had a great idea: why not have a party and invite all the other states? Every state could bring his/her favorite food, and there could be music and dancing! So they planned the party. At last, the big day came, and the states started to meet each other. They laughed, and ate, and danced, and partied. Idaho and Virginia even decided to switch places. Yes, you heard me correctly. Switch places. I mean, both of them could now see a new part of the country. Pretty soon the idea caught on and all the states decided to switch places. Now, I can’t give away what happened. I can only give you one juicy detail: Florida had switched spots with Minnesota and was freezing in his new, cold northern climate. And poor Minnesota forgot to take sunblock to Florida’s place down south and got really, really sunburned. Alaska got into a really bad mood, but I can’t tell you why. I don’t want Alaska getting mad at me. You don’t mess with Alaska. To find out what happened in the big experiment, read The Scrambled States of America by Laurie Heller.

The Scrambled States of America by Laurie Heller. Henry Holt and Company, 1998. Unpaged. Booktalk to elementary school, intermediate grades.

Booktalk: The United Tweets of America [Cool America; 1]

Each bird has a personality, just like a dog or cat. You may not believe me, but it’s true. Some birds are kind of show-offy, like the mockingbird. [Show Missippi, found on p. {29}]. Now, every state has a state bird. The mockingbird is the state bird of Mississippi, and he’s one of the greatest singers of all the state birds. As you can see here, he’s dressed up as Elvis Presley, singing for the lovely ladies, nestled among the state flower, the magnolia. He thinks he’s hot stuff, clearly. A bird with a more down-to-earth personality is the robin [Show Wisconsin, found on p.{54}. In this picture, the robin has a huge cheese wedge on his head and is riding a motorcycle. Why is that? Well, Wisconsin is known for its cheese, and Milwaukee is the home of Harley-Davidson motorcyles. If you actually see a robin doing this in public, please let me know. Some of the other state birds featured in this book are equally crazy. This hilarious book has great trivia about the states, the rundown on the state birds, and some really funny jokes and drawings. The United Tweets of America: 50 State Birds by Hudson Talbott.

The United Tweets of America: 50 State Birds, Their Stories, Their Glories by Hudson Talbott. Unpaged [64 p.]. Putnam Juvenile, 2008. Booktalk to K-6.