Every Hidden Thing by Kenneth Oppel (Booktalk)

Paleontologists love their fossils, and most of them are not thought of as people who get into fistfights with each other in public. Rachel's and Samuel's fathers are both paleontologists who hate each other's guts. Even worse, both men are competing for the same hidden fossil: the rumored bones of a giant "Rex" buried somewhere in the Badlands. It's the late nineteenth century, and this find would elevate one of them to worldwide fame.

So it would be logical that Rachel and Samuel would hate one another, too, but they don't. They learn to appreciate how much they have in common with one another: they're both kind, analytical, and fascinated with fossils. Both of them want to find these secret bones, too, and they have to find a way to keep their bond hidden from their fathers.

Every Hidden Thing by Kenneth Oppel. 2016: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers. 368 pages. Booktalk to older teens due to some adult content.

Book talk: These Hands by Margaret H. Mason (Virginia Readers' Choice, 2013-2014)

Everyone take a look at your hands for a moment. Your hands are amazing. There are so many things they can do: tie your shoe, write a story, swing from a tree branch. Your hands give you so many opportunities and so much freedom. But what if your hands were not allowed to do things they could naturally do? Can you imagine living that way?

[Turn to the opening pages of the story.] This young boy is Joseph, and this is grandfather who is helping Joseph to tie his shoes.

[Turn to pp. {3-4}] Joseph’s grandfather is so cool: his hands can play the piano, do incredible card tricks, and throw a great curveball in a baseball game. Joseph’s  grandfather’s got some smart, skilled hands.

But you know what’s really sad?

When Joseph’s grandfather was a young man, he worked in a bread factory, and he wasn’t allowed to touch the bread dough. [Show pp. {9-10}]. Because he was African-American, he was only allowed to sweep the floor and load the trucks. His bosses told him that white people wouldn’t want bread touched by his hands. It’s so sad and unfair.

Luckily Joseph does not live in his grandfather’s world, and his hands will be allowed to do much, much more.

These Hands by Margaret H. Mason, ill. Floyd Cooper. Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2010. Unpaged. Virginia Readers Choice, 2013-2014. Booktalk to primary grades. Includes an author’s historical background note.

These Hands

Booktalk: The Well by Mildred D. Taylor [Generosity; 3]

For the sake of this story, I want you to pretend that you live on a farm in the American South. Imagine that your family gets all your water from a well on your land, but the other families around you have wells that are now running dry. You’d share your water, right? Well, of course you would. In this story, The Well, David is a young African American boy who lives in Mississippi in the early 1900s. He and his family own their own land, but because they are black, there are still segregation laws in effect which hurt them, and there’s a lot of racism and discrimination towards African Americans. There’s one family who really hates David and his family: The Simms. Papa has warned David and his brothers to stay out of the way of the Simms, who are really mean and very racist. David’s family has been generously sharing their well water with everyone, but the Simms want to bring them down anyways. At one point, Hammer, David’s brother, hits one of the Simms boys and knocks him out cold. Mr. Simms wants revenge. In spite of their generosity, David’s family is now very vulnerable. Will they lose their hard-won land? The Well by Mildred D. Taylor.

The Well by Mildred D. Taylor. New York: Dial, 1995. 92 p. Booktalk to intermediate grades [3^rd-6^th], middle school.