Dorko the Magnificent By Andrea Beaty

Dorko the Magnificent 

By: Andrea Beaty 

• Age Range: 8 - 12 years
• Grade Level: 3 - 7
• Paperback: 240 pages
• Published: April 1, 2013

The Story 

*Based off of the Summary From BookPage*

Robbie Darko, dubbed “Dorko” by the class bully, sets out to perform the greatest magic trick his town has ever seen at the upcoming school talent show. Much to his parents’ and teachers’ dismay (and his classmates’ delight), Robbie uses every possible opportunity to practice his craft, but the arrival of Grandma Melvyn threatens to make Robbie’s grand plan disappear into thin air.

Until she moves into his room, Grandma Melvyn has just been that ill-tempered, smelly, distant elderly relative with the “Wicked Wobble Eye” who isn’t even anyone’s actual grandmother.  Little does Robbie know what tricks Grandma Melvyn, literally, has up her sleeves. 

When the classic tablecloth trick Dorko performs in front of his whole family goes hilariously wrong, Robbie is stunned when Grandma Melvyn explodes with laughter and congratulates him on a job well done. It is then that Robbie learns that Grandma Melvyn was a famous magician. After this, Grandma Melyn starts teaching Robbie her incredible magician’s secrets. 

Robbie, his friend Cat, and Grandma Melyn start to spend weeks working on a disappearing act for the school talent show that is sure to have the whole town talking for years to come, but it is Grandma Melyn who ends up disappearing. Robbie now must make the show go on without her, and learn the true meaning of magic. 

Book Trailer 

Notes for Reader's Advisory & Review

This book was filled with clever humor and relatable situations that make this book a entertaining read.  I think readers will enjoy its wit and its sweet story regarding Grandma Melyn. 

Even though I did enjoy this book , I did feel like it was not memorable to me. 

In the words of Despicable Me: 



....and very predictable, but maybe I am being too harsh. I just found it to be very similar to many other middle grade novels. 

I do think that readers who enjoy realistic fiction may enjoy this book. As I have mentioned earlier, it is relatable. For instance, the family struggles financially, and Robbie's mom has to take on a job to help support his family. Robbie must adjust to not having his mom stay at home all the time, and adjust to his dad being away a majority of the time to support the family. I think many readers will also relate to an elderly relative moving in as well. The author addresses these situations with a great deal of humor that I appreciated. 

So in that regard, I think this book does a great job & I think there is an audience for it. 

I might also recommend this book to readers who enjoy doing magic tricks.  
You could also easily pair this book with a non fiction book on how to do magic too. 

Overall, I thought this was pretty good book, and I think as educators and parents you could do a lot with it. 

Since it was not memorable to me, however, I will have to give this book three stars.

For more, here are some discussion questions

Discussion Questions

Do you like that Dorko talks to the reader? At one point  Dorko suggests that his life be made into a movie. Do you think this story would make a good movie? If your life was a movie, who would play you? Would it be a comedy, drama, or action?

Is magic real?  What is magic? Dorko says that the stage is the most important part of a magical act & that details matter. He also goes onto say that timing is everything. What does this mean? Do you agree or disagree with Dorko?

What is a stereotypical grandma like? What makes Dorko’s grandma different? Why does she call everyone “trixie?”

Dorko’s mom often gets busy and forgets to tell Dorko important things (like how his grandma is staying with them). How do you think his mom should have approached this differently?

Dorko is upset that his parents didn’t have enough to pay for cable & he had to go to the library for movies. What things does your library offer?

When Grandma Melvin visits Dorko’s class, she makes it look like he stole from her. Why does she do this? What would you have done if your grandma did this to you?

Grandma Melvin stopped doing magic due to a tragic event.
Why did this stop  her from doing magic?

Over the course of the book, Dorko’s relationship with his Grandmother changes. How does it change? Cat also has a special relationship with Grandma Melvin.
What does Cat think of her? Are Cat and Grandma Melvin alike? *Bonus* What is   your grandmother like?

Dorko’s is passionate about magic. What are some of your interests or talents?

Dorko got his nickname from a class bully. Do you have any nicknames?  If  you do, how did you get your nickname? 

Books Like This One

What did you think of it?

Until next time,

-Pamela

The Great Trouble: A Mystery of London, the Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel

The Great Trouble : A Mystery of London, the Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel 

By: Deborah Hopkinson

Age Range- 10 & up 

Pages- 272 

Published - January 1, 2013

Genre- Historical Fiction 

The Story

Eel is an orphaned mudlark. He works several jobs to help support his younger brother.

A historical picture of Mudlarkers in London 

When he gets a regular job at a brewery, things are starting to look up for Eel. He finally has a place to stay and he has regular food to eat.

One day, just as things look are looking up, Eel is accused of stealing from his boss at the brewery.

 Eel is on the verge of loosing his livelihood and a place to live. His only hope is to find a kind tailor who Eel has been working odd jobs for to vouch that he did not steal from his boss.

As Eel goes to look for the tailor,  Eel comes upon something much more & it is something that will change his life forever. He finds that the tailor is dying of the terrible Blue Death. It is the beginning of an outbreak that will change history & Eel's life.

Without the tailors word, Eel can no longer live at the brewery. So Eel turns a local Dr. for help. The Dr. gives Eel a place to live in exchange for his help is solving and stopping the rapid Blue Death from spreading. It is up to the Dr. & Eel to find out what is causing this epidemic before it harms the people that Eel cares for most.

Book Trailer 

The Review 

I was not expecting much from this book. I thought it would be a flat story line that would not offer much, but I was pleasantly surprised. This book was action packed  had many different layers to the story. The main three layers of the story are:

1. Eel's survival & need to support his brother- Eel struggles to work different jobs to stay alive & to keep from living on the streets.

2. Eel vs. evil street man- I will not give away who this evil enemy is, but it is a big twist in the story

3. Mystery of the epidemic- This layer is the main component that drives the story, but it is a compelling one. What I like best about this, is that it is based off a true story. Dr. Snow was a real person who wrote a book about this epidemic that hit London.


Dr. Snow 

If you do read this book, be sure to read the true facts at the end of the book. It is a great point to spark a discussion.

I know after I read this book, all I could think about were ways we could use it with the STEM & history curriculum, I thought this book was fantastic for that! My education mind started to think of some curriculum ideas that educators could use with this book. Here are some of the links that I found to be useful.

Resources about Dr. Snow from Department of Epidemiology

Background Information for Educators

Lesson Plan

Overall I would have to give this book three stars.



I think this book will be used in the curriculum & its story line makes it easy to do so.  I look forward to including it into my Missouri Mark Twain Nominee discussion.

If you are not an educator, I think this book would be a great story for anyone who enjoys mystery, historical fiction, and plot driven novel.

Discussion Questions 

Why do you think Dr. Snow trusts Eel so much? What are some ways that Eel shows that he responsible?

Throughout the book, Eel overcomes a lot of hardships. What keeps him hopeful & keeps him moving forward?

Why wouldn’t the people believe Mr. Snow’s theory about the pump being the culprit for the spread of the Blue Death?

What is Dr. Snow’s hypothesis and how does he try to go about trying to prove it? Do you use the same method?

There were many villains in this story.  Who posed the biggest threat to Eel?

Was Eel afraid of getting Cholera? How did he avoid or expose himself to the disease?

Why did people think that Cholera was spread in the air? Are there times that people believe things just from what they have heard?

If you lived on Broad street during this epidemic, what would you have done?

Why did the people trust Reverend Whitehead more than Dr. Snow?

Dr. Snow is an exceptional scientist. What makes him a great scientist? Dr. Snow wanted to stop the spread of disease and ease pain. If you could make any scientific discovery, what would it be? What kind of new discoveries and new technologies do you think will exist in the future?

Books Like This One

Have you read this book? What did you think of it?

Until next time,

Pamela 

Fabulous Fridays: Drawing Program

The Program 

As you know summer reading can be crazy. Knowing this, Alyssa & I planned this program knowing we would need a low prep program that would act as  break for us to refresh. I am so thankful we did it this way. Since we are in charge of doing multiple programs a week, the break was needed!

For this program we called upon one of our coworkers Mr. J. (who also works at a local university as an art teacher) for help.  He graciously agreed to help us with this program.

Upon planning for this program, we did not have much in mind for it. It was just meant to be an open ended program where we wanted to encourage our tweens to meet other tweens with the same interest and maybe exchange some drawing tips.

With Mr. J. as our leader, we were able to turn this program into something much more.  Which just goes to show how awesome that collaboration is!

Instead of just having it as an open ended program, Mr. J., turned into more of a drawing workshop. He opened the program with showing us how to draw simple shapes. He followed up with making the point that everything is made up of shapes. If you can draw a shape, you can draw anything! I think this really inspired a lot of our kids, and it also inspired me as well.

After that, Mr. J. asked for questions. One of our participants wanted to learn how to draw people. Mr. J. spent the rest of the time interacting with the kids to show them the basics on how to draw people & the shapes that make up individuals. 

How It Went 

This program went over very well. At first, we did not have many kids show up for the program. That was a little disappointing, but as the program went on we had more and more kids file in & want to participate. It seemed like the participants that came were passionate about drawing and wanted to learn more. 

What We Learned

I am amazed at how easily a program can be adapted to the library & how the most simple programs can be the most successful. As the library moves to becoming a community center, I need to be aware that not all programs have to be lavish & all out. Sometimes, all you need is regular programming to build success & create a center for tweens to go.

In the future, I think this could potentially be a club that the library could successfully implement.  I think part of its success is due to the tween need to explore their interests and to make friends with similar interests. This allows them to develop an understanding of who they are.

With this success, I would like to repeat a program like this in the future & I think it is a very easy program that anyone could replicate. 

Some of you may not be as blessed as we are to have a great art teacher working at their library, but I think this is a program that one could adjust & be able to direct it with little or no art experience.

I think if you create an environment with drawing supplies and go over the basic shapes, I think the kids would build on it from there & help each other. Another option you could use is to invite older teens who are passionate about art to help with the program.  I think with these adjustments anyone could do this program. :) All you would need is some pencils, paper, and a little imagination.

Until next time,

Pamela

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Red Queen

By Victoria Avyard

Series: Red Queen (Book 1)

Age: 14 and up

Hardcover: 400 pages

Publisher: HarperTeen (February 10, 2015)

Book Summary

 From the Library School Journal

Gr 9 Up—Seventeen-year-old Mare Barrow lives in a world where one's lot in life is determined by the color of one's blood. She was born a Red and has to make a living by pickpocketing and trying to dodge "the conscription" and being sent off to fight an ongoing war. Mare's resigned herself to the fact that she'll always serve the Silver, a genetically gifted group of people with supernatural abilities. A chance encounter with the prince causes Mare to suddenly find herself at the royal palace as a servant, where she discovers in front of everyone that she also has a unique gift. She is Red and Silver, and could be just the spark the Reds need to rise up against the oppressive Silvers. The king and queen quickly cover up Mare's anomaly by presenting her to the rest of the Silvers as a long-lost princess and betroth her to their second-born son. Now Mare is torn between playing the part of a Silver, and helping out the Scarlet Guard rebellion. 

Review

I have not been this excited for a dystopian book since the Hunger Games. It is very plot driven book, but it isn't as violently graphic as An Ember in Ashes.  One thing I think I like most is that  it reminded me of Hunger Games series. For instance Mara kind of becomes the spark for the revolution like Katiness, but unlike Katiness, Mara has super powers. I like to think of  Red Queen as a Hunger Games on steroids.  It is perfect book if you are in a Hunger Games book hangover. So I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants a read alike for this book. I feel like it is among the same appropriateness.

I don't want to give too much of the story away, but I challenge you to read this book. I think it will become a the newest YA book to sweep in & take the spotlight.

 I also just found out this is becoming a movie. I can't tell you how excited I am about this. The author is a screen writer so you just know it will be amazing!

Have you read  Red Queen? What did you think of it?

- Pamela

Fabulous Fridays: Mario Kart Program

The Program

The description for our program read: "Do you have what it takes to be the best "Mario Kart" racer? Put your skills to the test for a chance to win the ultimate title! Play games and chat with other Nintendo fans while you wait to compete."

Pamela: The goal of this program was to try and provide a fun program for tween boys. We decided on this program, because Ms. V tried it with the teens last year and found that mostly tweens showed up. This was an indication to me that we were missing something in our programming for this group, So we decided to try it with the tweens, and it turned out to be really successful.

Supplies & Stations

Pamela: From our previous programs, we know that stations are successful with this age group. So we wanted to provide other activities for the participants to do while a group played the Wii. 

Bingo 

Using Pinterest, I was able to find these Bingo cards. 

Mario Bingo Cards

If anyone wanted to watch the contestants play, we invited these watchers a chance to play BINGO. While they watched, they would try and find the characters or items on their card in the game. If they saw something on their card, they could mark it off.  When the watcher got BINGO, they would receive a piece of candy. This made just watching other people play a little more fun.

Coloring Pages

Mario Coloring Pages

We printed off these pages and set up a station just to color. This was popular with both the boys & girls. Many wanted to color one to hang up in their room. It was sweet to watch the kids talk to one another as they colored. I felt like this was a nice station to break the ice & allow the kids to meet each other. 

Candy

Just like teens need food, tweens need candy. It is no surprise that our candy stash was cleaned out by the end of the program, but it was fun to have candy for our BINGO game and to have a way for us to introduce ourselves to the kids as we went around the room. 

Board Games

To provide extra activities, we set out board games that we had in the children's department. This was a nice way for us to have an extra activity with out a lot of prep. The kids seemed to really enjoy it as well. Many tween girls flocked to this station and entertained themselves while they waited to play. I thought it was interesting that they enjoyed this so much. Maybe we need to do a game day in the future? 

How it Went

Alyssa: We just thought our numbers were record breaking for our Nuclear glow party. The Mario Kart Competition shattered them entirely with twenty-seven kids attending! This is undoubtedly a program we will repeat one day.

Pamela: I feel like this would make an excellent after school passive program.  The kids were really more interested in free play. We had a few competitive ones, but the program was really about just playing together & enjoying this fun game. Instead of doing an organized program, I think this would be a better passive program to do whenever we see a lot of tweens in the department. It would make a great organized program if we had another Wii, but I didn't feel like the kids got to play as much as they wanted to. We just had more then what we were expecting show up. 

What We Learned 

Alyssa: More than one gaming system is best for a program like this. Also, with that many participants, you need more than just a few stations for the kids waiting their turn to play.

Pamela: The start of this program was pretty stressful. I was running to this program from another job, and had to quickly get things set up. After working  most of the day already and battling traffic, this was not fun. I was pretty grumpy. (Pam is crazy! If we were all that nice when we were grumpy, it would be a much happier world...)

From my teaching days, I was always taught to have a backup plan. I remember my mentor teacher telling me to ALWAYS  have a backup plan, especially when using technology. I always find her advice to be true. 

Of course I didn't have anything ready &.....the T.V. wouldn't work. In addition, several of the Wii remotes were dead & the games were all in the wrong cases.  

I felt like it was a case of Murphy's Law. Whatever could go wrong would go wrong,  but thankfully it didn't. After we got another T.V., things started to calm down.

It really taught me how unpredictable technology is. Since I own a Wii, I thought it would be an easy set up & took the prep for granted. 

I now know when doing a program such as this one, you really need to carefully check to make sure everything works & everything is in order. With summer reading, this can be hard. I think if we have things ready though, we will be more calm & it will be more of positive experience all around.

 That prep is just essential!

Overall, the kids really made this experience fun for me & made my day.  After everyone competed, I got to play the game with them, and  I really enjoyed it. I also learned how to play the game Sorry! and a card game called Liar. 

 It really continued to drive home the point to me that we need to be involved with the kids when we do the program. Not only do you have a blast, but it makes that experience more fun for the kids. I hope our programs continue to be as successful. 

Are you doing some game programs at your library? How did it go?

-Pamela 
&
Alyssa