Book talk: Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made by Stephan Pastis

Timmy Failure runs his own detective agency, is flunking out of school, has a polar bear named Total, and rides his mom's Segway, which he's not ever, ever supposed to do. He's pretty good at keeping his mother in the dark, but the Segway - his Failuremobile - has been stolen, which means there will be pain and suffering on Timmy's part. A guy's gotta have wheels.

Come to think of it, there are two other females associated with pain and suffering: the first is Molly Moskins. She's in his class, and she smells like a tangerine. She's got a crush on Timmy, and he wants nothing to do with her. 

But she's nothing compared to the evil one. The evil one is so evil that Timmy doesn't even want you to see her picture. He blocks out her head with a black square. I'm not even going to say her real name. You can call her the evil one, or Weevil Bun. Take your pick. She runs her own detective agency, and she's so good at school that she actually tutors other kids. But you know what? Timmy has her detective log. The Holy Grail. Ahhh....revenge....

Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made by Stephan Pastis. 294 p. 2013: Candlewick. Booktalk to grades 3-7.

Book talk: Unspoken: A Story from the Underground Railroad by Henry Cole

Have you ever felt as if you were being watched?

Our protagonist – whose name we don’t know – is a young girl who works on a farm during the time of the Civil War. She feeds the cow and the chickens, and she does daily farm chores: cleaning, gathering food, helping her family.

She has a busy but quiet life. She sees Confederate soldiers riding by on their horses one day: the war is going on, but she and her family have food and their health and one another.

But she’s being watched. When she’s alone in the shed, she can feel an eye trained on her. Whose eye is this? Who would hide behind picked corn stalks? And why is this person in her family’s shed?

There are no words in this book, but this is a powerful story called Unspoken: A Story from the Underground Railroad by Henry Cole.

Unspoken: A Story from the Underground Railroad by Henry Cole. Unpaged, wordless. Scholastic: New York, 2012. Booktalk to K-3. Would work especially well for students learning about the Civil War. 2012 New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books Selection; 2012 Parents' Choice Award for Picture Books Winner.

Unspoken: A Story From the Underground Railroad

Book talk: Hello! Hello! by Matthew Cordell (2012 New York Times Notable Children's Book)

[For this booktalk, enlist the help of another person – adult or child (doesn’t matter) who holds a handheld electronic device and ignores you as you say “Hello! Hello!” You’ll also need a copy of this book.]

[You approach the other person who is engrossed with his/her device.] Hello! Hello! [You sigh, loudly.]

Okay, I’ll try again. [Walk away from the person, and then come back.]

Hello! Hello! [Sigh.] Fine, I’ll go outside.

[Show pp. 13-14]. Hello, leaf.

[Show pp. 15-16] Hello, bug.

Gee, there’s a lot going on out here. I should probably go outside more often. This stuff seems pretty interactive, and you don't even have to plug it in.

[Show pp. 21-22] Hello, horse! [Turn page, quickly] Oh my gosh! The horse said hello back to me! What is going on? [Turn a few more pages..] Gee, they all know hello…

Hello! Hello! By Matthew Cordell. Unpaged. 2012: Hyperion. Booktalk to pre-K through 2nd. Good readaloud. 2012 New York Times Notable Children’s Book.

Hello! Hello!

Book talk: A Game for Swallows by Zeina Abirachad

Most of you have been at home alone while you waited for your parents to return home, right? It’s a fairly typical teen experience. But what if you had no way of contacting your parents when they were gone? What if you worried they’d get hit by sniper fire when returning home? In this graphic novel, Zeina drew us a map of how tricky it was to avoid the sniper near their apartment. 

Avoiding the sniper in A Game for Swallows

And what if the block and the area you lived in got bombed so regularly that all your neighbors would come join you in the foyer of your apartment because it was considered the safest spot? Imagine living with all your neighbors in a tiny room for hours and hours and even days. It’s a hard way to live, but Zeina and her little brother have grown up with this. They live in Beirut, Lebanon, during a time of civil war, a civil war which dragged on from 1975-1990. They know of people who have disappeared and were never seen again. But there’s humor in this novel: her neighbors – virtually family since they live in close quarters – are protective, loving, and quirky. If your world shrank to one room, would you be able to laugh?

A Game for Swallows: To Die, To Leave, To Return by Zeina Abirached. Graphic novel. 188 p. Booktalk to middle school, high school.

Book talk: The Hypnotists by Gordon Korman

If 12-year-old Jackson Opus sat next to you in class, you'd think he was pretty average. He's okay at school - but not great, he's okay at basketball - but not great, he has a best friend and normal parents, and he has really cool eyes that change color sometimes. Hey, we all have quirks. But something weird has been going on with Jackson: he's been having these brief visions in which he sees himself from another person's eyes. Immediately after these brief visions, the person acts unexpectedly: the bus driver lets all hell break loose to speed (like a maniac) Jackson to Jackson's destination on time, and the basketball player on the opposing team misses shots that he never, ever would've missed normally. Sounds like mind control? It was! But Jackson wasn't doing it on purpose! He was just inwardly wishing for these people to do his bidding. It wasn't as if he was actively trying to control them. It's scary, but it sounds like fun, doesn't it? You could get your teacher to change your test grade, and you could get your parents to buy you that computer you've always wanted. But this novel is called The Hypnotists -- plural. Other hypnotists? You mean there are other people who can do this? So why is one of them particularly interested in Jackson? 

The Hypnotists by Gordon Korman. 232 p. Scholastic: 2013. Booktalk to intermediate grades (3rd-5th) and middle school.

Book talk: 45 Pounds (More or Less) by K. A. Barson

It is hard to lose weight, especially when you love lasagna, you don’t like to work out, your mother is super thin and only eats salads, and you have a part-time job selling hot pretzels. So what’s your motivation going to be? Being able to shop in “regular” clothing stores? Attracting the glance of a cute boy? Wearing a nice dress to an important family wedding? Or just…not being the target of mean girls’ comments?

For Ann it’s all of the above. She desperately wants to lose 45 pounds for her aunt Jackie’s wedding in which she’ll be the bridesmaid. And yes, she has done Weight Watchers in the past. It works, but it’s not her style.

So Ann watches an infomercial and orders this diet plan which includes supplements which make her shaky. Not good. Luckily, Ann’s smart enough to know that you don’t take those things. But calorie restriction is so….painful. Let’s not even talk about exercise. The tape that came with her diet plan is ridiculously impossible. Thank God no one is watching her attempt to do it. No…people are only watching when you accidentally get drunk at a party and puke all over the shoes of the cute boy whom you like and who surprisingly seems to like you back. And it gets posted all over Facebook. There’s no motivation like humiliation, you know?

45 Pounds (More or Less) by K. A. Barson. 264 p. Viking: 2013. Booktalk to 7th - 12th grades.

Book talk: Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

[In an effort not to reveal their romance or any spoilers, I limited myself to the earliest part of plot.]

It really, really irritates me when people read over my shoulder, especially if I’m on a bus or a train, because then it’s harder to get rid of them. Park takes the bus to school every day, and he’s sort of considered a cool kid, but he’s also sort of an independent. You know how high school is.  A decidedly not cool girl -- Eleanor (even her name is uncool) --  has been sitting next to Park on the bus – every single day: to school and back home – and he just figured out that she’s been surreptitiously reading his comics while he’s reading them: that’s brazen. 

 Eleanor’s the kind of girl you’d feel sorry for if she wasn’t always sitting right next to you in closed quarters. She dresses really, really oddly (a giant men’s shirt with seashells all over it?!), seems to have no friends, and is already a bully target. Park feels as if he should say something to her – in fact, he’s always felt that way about her, which is odd and unexplainable because he’s never felt that way about anyone, ever – and he wants to say something to her, but he’s gone so long now without speaking to her that he doesn’t know what to do. Something is up with him, you know. And something must be up with her, as well, or she’d sit next to someone else. For now, he makes sure she can see the books and he turns the pages a little more slowly.

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. St. Martin's Griffin, 2013. 336 p. Booktalk to high school; has crossover appeal for adults, as well.