Rapunzel's Revenge

Rapunzel's Revenge Book Review

By Kelly Hartman

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hale, Shannon and Dean.  Rapunzel's Revenge. New York: Bloomsbury,  2008 ISBN 9781599900704

PLOT SUMMARY

Even though Rapunzel has all that she needs, something is missing.  One day she rebels against Mother Gothel and climbs a forbidden wall, discovering the truth that she was taken away from her parents.  As a punishment, she is banished to a tower, but finds a way to escape.  She meets up with Jack and they work together as outlaws to bring justice to a world controlled by a cruel Mother Gothel.  Will Rapunzel's brave acts and determination be enough to reunite her with her long, lost mother?  

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

This is not your grandmother's fairy tale.  Shannon and Dean Hale create a fractured tale of Rapunzel in Rapunzel's Revenge, a graphic novel. Just as the title suggests, Rapunzel is far from a damsel in distress.  

Readers will find comfort in the framework of a familiar story.  They will quickly recognize the story of a young girl who is stolen from her parents and grows up under the control of a magical mother.  

Yet, the plot takes a creative twist when the authors break the mold of a young woman who awaits her Prince Charming. Rather than needing assistance, Rapunzel's actions are courageous and intelligent.  Her quest leads her to male partner, Jack, but she takes charge rather than follows. Boy and girl readers alike will feel connected to this heroine who feels compelled to the right the wrongs in her world.  

The vivid illustrations provide the readers with the stark difference between the grand villa and the outside world.  The old wild west setting becomes important to the feel of lawlessness in the land.  It makes way for Rapunzel and Jack to take matters into their own hands.  Throughout her quests and in  her final victory over Mother Gothel, Rapunzel's Revenge rings true with a theme that transcends time: Love is greater than power.   

AWARD AND REVIEW EXCERPTS

Cooperative Children's Book Choice, selection 2009

Great Graphic Novels for Teens, selection 2009 

CONNECTIONS

Check out the author's blog

Writing 

Provide dialogue for "silent sequences" on pages 21-23 and 92-93.  

Gather similar themed books

Rose by Jeff Smith

Bone Vol. 1: Out from Boneville by Jeff Smith

Before Midnight: A Retelling of “Cinderella” by Cameron Dokey

Swan Lake by Mark Helprin

The Witch’s Boy by Michael Gruber 

Use this teaching guide to analyze and discuss Rapunzel's Revenge.

The Book Thief

                                                              The Book Thief Book Review

By Kelly Hartman

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Zusak, Markus.  The Book Thief. New York: Knopf Books for Young Readers,  2007 ISBN 9780375842207

PLOT SUMMARY

Liesel, a young girl living in World War II Germany, finds herself in the care of foster parents, Rosa and Hans.  In the midst of great loss and grief, Liesel clings to a book that connects her to her past; and yet she learns how to move forward as she falls in love with her new life in her community. Words, both spoken and written, become very important to Liesel as she is trusted with her family's secret to harbor Max, a young Jewish man in their basement. Books, forbidden and even the stolen kind, become an anchor for Liesel as the world around her begins to fall apart.  She learns that the story of the human condition contains both horrific pain and wonderous joy.       

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

In The Book Thief, Death tells the story of Liesel, a young girl growing up in Germany right before and during World War II. Zuckus personifies Death as an outsider looking in to the same lives that intertwine with Liesel's.  Due to the nature of the World War II and the Holocaust, this point of view may seem morbid, but the reader will soon realize the creativity and necessity to the author's purpose of showing the human condition at its worst and at its best.   

Zuckus takes the reader on an emotional journey with the main character, Liesel.  Liesel begins the story as a frail, grief-stricken girl who has night terrors, bed-wetting incidents, and cannot read the very book that she stole from her brother's gravesite.  Yet, she blossoms to a brave girl who helps to keep her family's secret of a Jew living in the basement.  Believable dialogue develops each character: foul-mouthed, yet nurturing foster mother, Rosa; tender-hearted and selfless foster father, Hans; competitive, yet loyal best friend, Rudy; and creative and determined, Max.  

Zuckus dips in and out of Death's narration and into the Liesel's life.  As the story unfolds, Death foreshadows the demise of the characters, both beloved and despised, within the story; and yet, Zuckus cleverly keeps the reader guessing as to the actual moment when Death will arrive.  Just like real life, no one will escape Death.  

The topic and theme is most appropriate to older audience of middle schoolers or above.    

AWARD AND REVIEW EXCERPTS 

Sydney Taylor Book Award, winner 2007

USSBY, Outstanding International Books 2007

Margaret A. Edwards Award, winner 2014

CONNECTIONS

Use the Audio Excerpt to discuss personification.  Create a bubble map describing the narrator(using text evidence from the passage). Infer the name of the narrator using description.  

Use this Reader's Guide for discussion questions. 

Teach theme: Good vs. Evil (The Holocaust)

Discuss point of view comparing the book with the Movie Trailer 

Hello, Universe

 Hello, Universe Book Review

By Kelly Hartman

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kelly, Erin Entrada.  Hello, Universe. New York: Greenwillow Books,  2017 ISBN 9780062414151

PLOT SUMMARY

Virgil Salinas, a shy eleven year old, thinks that he is an utter failure because he can't talk to Valencia, his crush.  Kaori, a middle school physic tries to give him guidance, but it seems that too many things are against him, especially Chet, the bully.  Yet, the "universe" has bigger plans and brings these three misfits together in a series of "coincidences".  Will Chet get the best of Virgil?  Will Kaori help Virgil speak to Valencia?  In this epic adventure, these misfits find that life is ultimately about a series of human connections.  

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Erin Entrada Kelly creatively weaves a story about the coincidences that occur in any given day.  

Readers will enjoy the change of point of view told through the "ping-ponging" of each character's perspective from chapter to chapter.  Within this clever design, characters are believable, and well developed.  Each character's inner voice and actions give the reader insight into their nature.  For instance, during the grocery store incident, Virgil is exposed as timid, while Valencia emerges as courageous and unaffected by Chet's bullying. Likewise, Chet's description of his father, and Virgil's description of his family help to explain nurture over nature.  

Within the story, it is apparent that the settings are not random places.  Instead, each place--the grocery store, the park and forest, and the well--provide a way for the reader to see the connection in the misfits' lives. Kelly makes them a common ground for characters with very different lives and upbringings.    

Readers will identify with a grandmother who has a story to go with every situation. Filipino folklore may be the cause of some of Virgil's anxiety.  And yet when he meets his fears at the bottom of the well, he uses his grandmother's influence to keep him afloat. Ruby San Salvador speaks to his heart and gives him the courage that he needs to come to terms with the universe.    

Kelly gives the story a light-hearted feel with humor and yet digs deep to issues that bring about real emotion.  

AWARD AND REVIEW EXCERPTS 

Newbery Medal Winner, 2018

SLJ Best Books of the Year, 2017

“This reading community celebrates the panoply of American literature for children published in 2017. We are delighted to share our selections with the world,” said Newbery Medal Committee Chair Cecilia P. McGowan. 

Told from four intertwining points of view—two boys and two girls—the novel celebrates bravery, being different, and finding your inner bayani (hero).  “Readers will be instantly engrossed in this relatable neighborhood adventure and its eclectic cast of misfits.”—Booklist

CONNECTIONS

Book Trailer 

Peek inside Kelly's notebook from Hello, Universe. 

Spark discussion and thematic connections with this resource guide.

Hello, Universe Reader's Theater

The War That Saved My Life

  The War That Saved My Life Book Review 

By Kelly Hartman

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker.  The War That Saved My Life. New York: Puffin Books,  2015 ISBN 9780147510488

PLOT SUMMARY

Ada and her brother Jamie live with their cruel mother in London.  Crippled by an unattended club foot, Ada is forced to crawl away from the only place she's ever known, her apartment, to safety as a child evacuee during the threat of WW11 air raids.  Ada and her brother find themselves in the care of Ms. Susan Smith who lives in the countryside with a horse named Butter. Even though Susan protests that she never wanted children, Ada experiences more nurture than she could have ever imagined, but it terrifies her.  Ada works hard to keep her guard up, thinking that at any moment the clean clothes, unrationed food supply, and ultimately Susan's love will all disappear.  Will Ada's fears come true when their mother shows up to take them back home?

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

It is no wonder that the unabridged audiobook version of The War That Saved My Life won the American Library Association Odyssey award. Presented by Audible's Listening Library, Jayne Entwistle's narration transports listeners to WWII England. Within the pacing, volume, and inflection of Entwistle's voice, the audience senses Ada's sorrows, her joys, her fears, and her determination.  Entwistle's voice exposes mum's cruelty and then smoothly ushers in Susan's gentle nature, all the while highlighting the difference in London's coarse dialect versus the English country's more polite accent and pronunciations. 

Readers will cry with Ada and be enraged by the physical and verbal abuse that she endures.  Sad, but true to trauma experiences, Bradley develops characters who do not naturally adjust to a normal life.  Ada and Jamie have meltdowns, keep their expectations low, and continue to doubt their very worth.  The characters are not the only credible element.  True to the historical fiction format, Bradley sets the stage of WWII with descriptive details about air raids, food rations, and evacuated children. The timeline of the war accurately parallels the four years of Ada's story.  

In the end, whether immersed in the written text or engulfed in the audiobook, readers will fall in love with Ada and cheer at how the war saved her life.  

AWARD AND REVIEW EXCERPTS 

Odyssey Award Winner, 2016

Schneider Family Book Award Winner, 2016

"With her skillful presentation of true-to-life characters, Entwistle's narration is totally compelling." -Audiofile, January 2015

“There is much to like here—Ada’s engaging voice, the vivid setting, the humor, the heartbreak,

but most of all the tenacious will to survive.” —School Library Journal

CONNECTIONS

Analyze the audio book excerpt to determine why it won the Odyssey Award.

Vocabulary

Ada loves learning new words.  Use vocabulary.com to work on vocabulary.

Extensions

More activities and discussion questions found at Brightly's Book Club.

One Crazy Summer

 One Crazy Summer Book Review 

By Kelly Hartman

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Williams-Garcia, Rita.  One Crazy Summer. New York: Harper Collins Publishing, 2010 ISBN 9780060760885

PLOT SUMMARY

In the summer of 1968, Delphine and her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, fly from Brooklyn to Oakland in hopes of bonding with their mother, Cecile.  Instead of spending time with the girls, Cecile sends them off to Black Panther summer camp.  Responsible eleven year old Delphine continues to bear the burden as a mother-figure to her sisters by cooking home-cooked meals and planning a weekend excursion. Yet throughout their time in Oakland, Delphine's attitudes about her mother begin to change, and with it comes a revelation about herself.  

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

From the moment that Delphine and her sisters fly high into the clouds to meet their mother in Oakland, the reader believes every word and action.  Even though the story is set in the 1960's, today's readers can identify with birth order: responsibility of the oldest, "show-boating" from a middle child, and the babyish behavior of the youngest.  The author is successful at making all feel at home with the common strife of sibling rivalry, yet the feelings of protection and love that come with being part of a sisterly(or brotherly) relationship. Told from the perspective of the oldest sister, Delphine, the reader is taken on a roller coaster ride of the ups and downs that came with being a young black girl during that time period.  

The setting of Oakland, California in the summer of 1968 is integral to the events of the story.  Williams-Garcia takes her readers back to a tumultuous time of racial prejudice and social injustices.  Through Delphine's eyes, the reader changes from being suspicious of the Black Panther group to understanding the necessary action needed to make a change for the black community. The author solidifies her story-telling with an authentic backdrop through pop-culture, historical events, and well-known black activists from that time period.  

Rita Williams-Garcia acknowledges her ability to write this story based on reading books, conducting interviews, and specific praise for David Hillard's The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service. The author's purpose is written within a theme that transcends time; children making a change in 1968 and the changes that are still needed for our present time take both awareness and courage.   

AWARD AND REVIEW EXCERPTS 

Scott Odell Award Winner, 2011

Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner, 2011

Newbery Medal Honor, 2011

CONNECTIONS

Author's Purpose

Watch the book trailer to discuss and write a reflection on the author's purpose.  

Extensions

Use these activities and discussion questions to connect to the story.  

Gather 

Here are more books using the 2011 Coretta Scott King Award Guide.

The Earth Dragon Awakes: The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906

 The Earth Dragon Awakes: The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906

By Kelly Hartman

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Yep, Laurence.  The Earth Dragon Awakes: The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. New York: Harper Collins Publishing, 2008 ISBN 9780060275242

PLOT SUMMARY

Henry Travis and Chin are unlikely best friends; Chin's father is the Travis family's houseboy.  During the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the boys are separated; yet they continue to worry about each other's well-being. Through a third person perspective, the boys face many dangers beyond the destruction of the quake. Digging out of the rubble, fearing for their safety during the aftershocks, experiencing their community members at their worst...and at their best, and then fleeing for their lives in the midst of the city burning to the ground are just some of the perils that the boys face.  Will they be reunited despite the horrific odds?

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Laurence Yep, a Laura Ingalls Wilder Award winner, writes The Earth Dragon Awakes: The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 as a historically accurate account, yet with a sensationally literary style.  Organizing each chapter as a news event(time of day, date, and place), Yep gives the reader a sense of the horrific events that occurred over 100 years ago. His preface promises that even though his characters are fictional, the events are based on his research. The author is thorough in gaining his reader's confidence throughout the story. Interictally woven throughout the story, Yep gives scientific details such as descriptions of the earth's core versus its surface and definitions of tools such as a Richter scale.  In addition, the author gives the reader footnotes(pg. 42, 102) providing cultural and historical notes needed to understand the events of the story.  

Even though the story is written from a third person perspective, the reader finds himself immersed in the lives of two believable characters, Henry and Chin.  Young readers will relate to the friendship that the two boys share, yet will pick up on the differences in what the boys are interested in(penny dreadfuls, Wyatt Earp) due to the time and place of their story.  The plot and setting are firmly based in many details that revolve around San Francisco in 1906.  Yep takes care in naming landmarks(Chinatown, Portsmouth Square) throughout the city, yet does not overwhelm the reader with too many facts. 

The author has no need to over sensualize the story.  According to the Afterword, his events are based on actual research about the earthquake.  From the bull gouging to the fires set on that day, the reader is reassured that this story, although made-up, could  have really happened.  Yep is successful in communicating themes that transcend time: Friendship, Family, and Everyday Heroes.  

AWARD AND REVIEW EXCERPTS 

Written by 2005 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award Winner, Laurence Yep

"Told in the present tense, the narration provides a "you are there" sense of immediacy and will appeal to readers who enjoy action-packed survival stories." Linda Perkins―Booklist

"The afterword includes Yep's personal connection to the subject, sources for further reading, and photographs. Young readers will find the story engaging and the disaster fascinating, and they will breathe a sigh of relief when the two friends are reunited." Library Media Review  

"Its "natural disaster" subject is both timely and topical, and Yep weaves snippets of information on plate tectonics and more very neatly around his prose. A solid supplemental choice." School Library Journal

CONNECTIONS

Book Trailer

Meet Laurence Yep

Research 

Create a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting events, places, people from article vs the historical fiction book.  

Create Reader's Theater

Students, librarian, and teacher write, read, and act several chapters of the book.

Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat

   Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat

By Kelly Hartman

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Steptoe, Javaka.  Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2016 ISBN 9780316213882

PLOT SUMMARY

Jean-Michel Basquiat grew up in Brooklyn, always dreaming of becoming a famous artist.  His mother, Matilde, an artist of sorts, influenced his creativity, spending countless hours drawing with him and taking him to art galleries.  Due to a mental illness, Basquiat is separated from his mother, yet he continued to express himself through his vibrant art.  Gaining inspiration from the streets of New York City, he splattered his collages on downtown walls, eventually achieving a place among many different art galleries.  Basquiat is described as "radiant, wild, a genius child"; his art giving him fame and a voice for others in his community.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

In Radiant Child, Javaka Steptoe gives an accurate description of the ups and downs of aspiring artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat. The story itself is a simple recounting of the major events of the artist's childhood through adulthood, but it is not meant to be "sugar-coated".  Within the end pages of the book, Steptoe includes more details, an author's note, and cited sources. The reader can trust Steptoe's dedication to this biography as a true story. 

The author organizes his story in a clear and sequential manner, making it easy for even young readers to follow the timeline.  The illustrations appropriately match the storyline. The use of literary devices such as rhythm and figurative language("hearts that thump", "storm of papers") become part of the story's lively style, appropriately expressing the text as a work of art, as well.  The reader learns in the author's notes that Steptoe made a purposeful choice to create his own interpretations, instead of just copying and reproducing Basquiat's art for the book's illustrations.  Readers can appreciate his commitment in honoring Basquiat while encouraging others to express their own voice.   

Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean Michel Basquiat is told in present tense; an effort to keep Basquiat's life story alive and well for any budding artist.  An inspiration to those wanting to express themselves in life's journey.  

Just like his art, Basquiat's life was "not neat or clean"; it was, in fact, "sloppy, ugly, and sometimes weird; but somehow still BEAUTIFUL." 

AWARD AND REVIEW EXCERPTS 

2017 Caldecott Medal Winner

2017 Coretta Scott King Award Winner

"A lively, engaging introduction to a one-of-a-kind artist perfect for art-loving kids.... An excellent read-aloud."―Booklist, starred review

"Vibrant colors and personal symbols channel the 'sloppy, ugly, and sometimes weird, but somehow still BEAUTIFUL' paintings, incorporating meticulously attributed collage elements and capturing the artist's energy and mystery. Stellar bookmarking--a riveting portrait of a young artist."

―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

CONNECTIONS

About this Book Connection 

Just like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Javaka Steptoe used bits of New York City to create their masterpieces, students will be encouraged to do the same with their surroundings.  Read "About this Book" to students and have them use "materials, people, and places in their environment" to create their own work of art. 

Art Connection

Motifs and Symbolism

Help students to find crowns, eyes, and cars within the art of the book.  View some of Basquiat's art and look for these motifs.  Discuss the symbolism.  Ask students to come up with three motifs that they would like to include in their art and encourage them to add to their art project.  

Read Aloud 

More Teaching Activities