VVMBookBlog

Fire from the Rock

(Originally posted by Ms. Moeller)

Fire from the Rock is a historical fiction novel that weaves a fantastic story and supplies information about the fight to desegregate American schools. This is the story of the Little Rock Nine. The main character, Sylvia Patterson, is a typical high school student concerned with friends, boys, and music. She is also a strong willed girl who needs to make difficult choices. Although this book is fiction, the incidents are based on reality. Sylvia is chosen to be one of the few black students to go to the all white Central High School. Her choice is not an easy one as many white people in the community are against desegregation.

Life As We Knew It

Students often come in asking for “scary books.”  Deciding what is “scary” varies from person to person, but this story is very scary to me.

A large meteor is on track to collide with the moon.  Shouldn’t be a huge deal since it’s the moon and not Earth, right?  But then it happens and day by day they began to find out how the moon’s influence on the Earth through tides being messed up and the resulting tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcano eruptions  around the world, turns everything into chaos.  Communication was affected when cable TV went out and cell phones stopped working.  Then real problems began when they realized the climate was affected and winter was coming on sooner than usual.

This is the kind of book where I put myself into the story and wonder how I would react as a mother trying to take care of my family.  When supplies of food, fuel and other necessities get low, how will people behave so that they can all get through the crisis and on to hopefully better days?  Read this book and find out.  Then read the sequel, The Dead and the Gone, to see what happens next!

Written in poetry form using few words, Kek tells a compelling story about escaping from Sudan in Africa after his father and brother were killed, leaving his mother behind, and coming to live in Minneapolis.  He comes to live with his aunt and cousin, arriving in winter to experience cold and snow for the first time.  Riding to his new home with Dave from the resettlement center, he asks to stop when he sees a cow inside a fence along the road.  That  cow is his one connection to his old life.

The story goes on to tell how he adjusts to live in America, going to school in his ESL classes, meeting new friends, and finding a way to care for Gol, the cow.  But all the while he worries about his mother back in Sudan.  Everyone says he probably won’t see her again.  He just can’t accept that.  What do you think will happen?

Read this Maud Hart Lovelace reading list entry for a new way to think about students who come to our country–and our school–directly from another country.

14-year-old Peak (yes, that’s his name) Marcello has just been arrested for climbing and tagging yet another Manhattan’s skyscraper. On his way to trying to avoid a stay in juvie, Peak’s birth-father, Josh, shows up and Peak is whisked off to Kathmandu, and then to the base camp with a bunch of mountain climbers heading for the top of Mount Everest! While this is pretty exciting for Peak, he soon realizes that being included with his dad’s climbing business might be more to boost his dad’s business than just a trip with his father. In fact, Peak at 14 years old will be the youngest person ever to summit Mount Everest, but he has to make it before his birthday on June 1st! And then there is Josh’s Sherpa friend Zopa and his grand-son Sun-jo who would also like to summit at a record young age. Who will get there first?

This book brings you all of the traditions and problems that go with trying to make the trek to the top of Mount Everest. You realize how the Sherpas who help carry supplies up to the highest base camps and help climbers reach the summit are some of the toughest, strongest people on earth. Being able to move and breathe up around 30,000 feet at the level at which jet planes cruise, is a real feat! Into This Air by Jon Krakauer is a non-fiction book on this topic, and currently there is a series on Discovery Channel, “Everest: Beyond the Limit.”

Capricorn Anderson, “Cap” for short, is in 8th grade and in a real school for the first time in his life. He’s been living in a ’60’s-like commune with only Rain, his grandmother, as his only parent, teacher or friend. When Rain hurts herself falling out of the plum tree picking plums, Capricorn has to enter school, and real society, for the first time.

As you can guess, the reaction of the students at Claverage Middle School wasn’t good. The tradition was that the geekiest kid in 8th grade would be elected class president and then would be the subject of bullying and wedgies for the whole year, or as long as he/she could take it. The tradition held true for Cap as he quickly found himself named class president and in charge of the big Halloween party! But as naive and innocent as Cap was, the whole “tradition of mean” just wasn’t working on him. In fact, other students were starting to LIKE HIM! Now what?

This book reminded me a little of Buddha Boy by Kathe Koja, but wasn’t as violent. And since Gordon Korman is the author, it’s very funny. If you like to see the underdog come out on top, this is the book for you. The fun part is how he gets there!