We want to help create motivated and engaged young readers. This blog is about children's and YA literature (especially New Zealand), literacy research, and ways to get, and keep, kids reading.
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very summer there was a goal to be set… Who knows when it started or why but Matt, Sean and Cooper always came up with something to accomplish before the start of the new school year. The goals were always based on some fantasy of male madness like the time they rode their bikes fifteen miles to Perry Lake to go skinny dipping or like (more progressively!!!) last year it was finding an illegal password for a porn site.
This year their goal was to see a real live girl in the buff. To Matt this seems more achievable when compared to his own personal summertime dare to ‘swim the fly’ or swim the hundred yard butterfly. This is to impress the gorgeous Kelly West.
This is a laugh a minute, laugh out lou,d raucous and boisterous book full of boy talk and adolescent humour. The mad cap antics of the trio as they conspire and attempt to execute their plans to accomplish their goal are both hilarious and audacious. Kirkus Reviews lists it as a ‘word of mouth hit’. I sure this book will get passed around the locker rooms. Boys will read it to find out if the three accomplish their goals.
Reviewed by Janice
image by wepalm92
Florence Nightingale by Kay Barnham offers an interesting biographical study of Florence Nightingale for younger readers that also clearly and succinctly describes the historical and geographical context and attitudes of her time.
Original photographs and illustrations are used to support a clear bold text that profiles Florence Nightingale’s nursing career and life while also discussing the influences she has had on present day nursing standards, including Nurses Day- 12th May. There’s an easy to follow instructions on ‘how to make a sling’ with step by step photos and first aid tips, as well and a glossary and Index.
Celebrate International Nurses Day on 12th May in appreciation of the contribution Florence Nightingale has made to nursing and health care standards.
Review by Natasha
Flickr image by mharrsch
Just 67 pages but what a story! I enjoyed this quick read for its plot and humorous writing. In fact, the author states he enjoys writing high interest books that appeal to junior secondary boys who are reluctant readers or need a dyslexic friendly text.
Ben, Alan and Mel are teenage friends who are the “The Stunt Dudes”; they love having fun and filming their school pranks then posting them on Youtube. But its The Cray-Zee Stunts web show that the Stunt Dudes most want to be involved with, but first they need a camera to film more stunts. Sister Fay comes to their aid -however there’s a catch. They have to create a movie and well,… mad stunts, love interests and toilet humour all add to the mix.
Let’s do it! Also includes a contents page showing the page numbers for chapter headings. This it would be handy for those reluctant readers who want to dip into the book.
For more information visit Catherine Forde’s website.
image by BooClif3
This year’s crop of finalists consists of two excellent read-alouds and an attractively -produced example of what can best be described as junior philosophy.
First-timer Catherine Foreman has struck gold with The cat’s pyjamas, the suspense-filled story of a quirky orange cat whose dreams are determined by his nightwear. All goes well through a week of pyjamas illustrated with different themes—space, ocean, garden, jungle, roadworks, etc— and each evening’s feline dreams are beautifully and appropriately illustrated.
But on Sunday the cat wears…Monster pyjamas!
Foreman’s Cat is endearing, and it is hard not to feel a little anxious about both his fate and his inability to learn from past mistakes (why DOES he keep on wearing the same scary pyjamas every Sunday night?). This is a lovely read-aloud for a wide age-range, with genuine originality in the bright, beautiful illustrations. It could well be a contender for awards. Whether or not it wins the Children’s Choice, it may influence children’s choice of pyjamas for some time to come (Scholastic NZ, 2011)
Ruth Paul is no stranger to New Zealand Post honours, having won the Best Picture Book Award for The king’s bubbles in 2008.
In her 2012 contender Stomp! the monsters are out of their pyjamas and in the streets, as a line-up of colourful dinosaurs play a very interactive follow-the-leader game from page to page. There are happy choruses of roaring, growling, swishing and squishing for readers and listeners to join in and these, together with plenty of repetition, make Stomp! another excellent read-aloud in the same mould as Sally Sutton’s very popular Roadworks. This book is aimed at a more junior level than The cat’s pyjamas, and small children will particularly enjoy the chaos that results when the littlest dinosaur takes over as leader. (Scholastic NZ, 2011)
‘Later never seems to come soon enough.
But sometimes waiting for later can be full of surprises…’
All three books reviewed here are the work of author-illustrators. While the two junior level books show a fine balance between rhythmic text and bouncing illustrations, the pictures in Waiting for later, by Tina Matthews, (Walker Books, 2011) feature realism taking on a dreamlike quality as night turns into day and a young girl’s wishes are granted in an unexpected way.
This is a slightly offbeat values book, with messages about patience and self reliance wrapped up in a satisfying story that should appeal to a wider age group than the two junior read- alouds. Tina Matthews’ Out of the egg won the 2008 New Zealand Post award for Best First Book. Waiting for later is attractively presented in hardcover format, with beautiful starry blue endpapers.
Personally, I have been surprised by some omissions from the shortlist. I feel that Gavin Bishop’s Bruiser deserves to be there, and I also liked Melinda Szymiak’s The house that went to sea, both for its overall presentation and the fact that it targets the sometimes neglected middle primary age-group. However, just as in every other year, the real winners are New Zealand children in that they have so many quality locally-produced books to choose from. Opinions may vary as to which of these are actually outstanding, that’s the way things go in the world of children’s literature, and that’s what keeps it all so fresh and interesting!
Review by Cecily
One of the best sources of Pasifika poetry for young adults (and some suitable for younger students) is the Pasifika poetry collection found on the New Zealand Electronic Poetry website. It is compiled by Selina Tusitala Marsh, the talented author of Fast-talking PI, Auckland University lecturer and a popular speaker in schools.
The collection features Marsh, Tusiata Avia, Karlo Mila, Robert Sullivan, Albert Wendt, Sia Figiel, and other poets - some unpublished. The front page is a picture gallery of the poets: each picture opens to an introductory blurb and a menu of audio, video or print items: feature articles, poems being performed or in print, interviews with or articles by the poets. Events and Links (bottom right) widen the selection.
Many Pasifika and Māori students learn best by imitation and performance, and this valuable and varied resource brings poetry alive allowing students to explore it individually or collectively.
Review by Rob
image by teachernz
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