The Invisible Hero? Captain Nobody Book Review

After I finished wiping my tears away because this was such a good read, I wanted to shout from the rooftops that I would like to be Newt Newman's friend.  Captain Nobody by Dean Pitchford is a story about Newt's relationships with those around him and especially with himself.  Newt is a 10-year-old growing up in a high school football lovin' town and of course his brother, Chris, happens to be the star player on the team.  At the big game, Chris is knocked into a coma and is sent to recuperate in the hospital.  Newt is distraught because this is his big brother who he admires and thinks the world of him.

Meanwhile, Newt's friends, Cecil and JJ, decide they want to try and help him take his mind off his brother.  The three friends feel invisible to the world and plan on getting noticed.  A plan is hatched for Halloween--put together a unique costume that will get you noticed.  The invigorating feeling Newt feels once he puts on random odds and ends of his brother's sports equipment gives him a new lease on life.

Feeling a sense of security, Newt decides to keep his Captain Nobody costume on the day after Halloween.  Cecil and JJ decide that Newt really will be some type of superhero, so they decide to use walkies and send distress calls to Newt.  One distress call involves JJ wanting the jewelry store to correct their grammar on signs!  But, when Newt goes in to inform the store owners of their grammatical mistake, he actually foils a robbery!!  Captain Nobody is coming to the rescue?!

Newt has several other unbelievable incidences that he plays hero to, but the one he most needs to help he doesn't seem to know how...can he wake up Chris?

I listened to this story on audio and I would stay in my car after I parked just to hear the end of some situations.  I was ripe with tears at the end of this story and it left me with a good feeling days after.

Dean Pitchford's site has chapter and audio samples, as well as a study guide for you to download.


Image courtesy of http://deanpitchford.com/on-the-page/captain-nobody

Feel Like I'm a Bookseller Again...Yay!

This past week was my students first week to checkout in grades 2-5.  While my students were waiting to checkout, I asked grades 3-5 to fill out a Fall Reading Interview courtesy of a Scholastic Blogger (I know it says to interview them, but it worked just fine as a passed out sheet).  I even told them to write specific books, so I'd know what book order to place for them.  Wow!  I'm so happy with the responses on the interview.  And my students were really excited to tell me what kind of books they wanted.  

I did realize that my library needs to start heading in the direction of diary-style writing books because most of my students love Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Dork Diaries.  And so begins my second FAVORITE part of being a book pusher--finding new books to recommend to my students!  Some of them were content with me passing Big Nate or Dear Dumb Diary to them, but that only lasted so long because then I ran out those series, too.  Only a few would be placated with Captain Underpants.  

My new library needs the "Amanda" touch (aka more of what my students want).  Here is what I'm ordering...
Diary of a 6th Grade Ninja series by Marcus Emerson
Stick Dog by Tom Watson
Origami Yoda Series by Tom Angleberger
My Life series by Janet Tashjian
The newest Dork Diaries and Big Nate, too

YAY! More books!

Vive La Paris

During Memorial Day weekend, my mom and I drove to Columbia, MO for a half marathon I was running. The concept of this race series is very inspiring. It's called the Go Girl Run and it took place in three cities in MO.  It's an all female half marathon, so I already felt empowered by the amazing women I was around. Part of the proceeds of the run went to charities that aided women in need. How great!

On the way there, we started listening to the audiobook Vive La Paris by Esme Raji Codell.  I LOVED her book, Sahara Special, so I don't know why it took me forever to get to this book (as the little mantra goes through my mind, "too many books, so little time"). This book focuses on 5th grader Paris and her life lessons learned through multiple characters: her piano teacher, Mrs. Rosen, her brother Michael, and his bully, Tanaeja.

Paris takes you through time spent practicing the piano with Mrs. Rosen, a Holocaust survivor. Mrs. Rosen spares no time dispensing advice or her opinions (which come with a side of humor). Paris thinks she has got it all figured out, but you come to find out that her view needs some readjusting or as Mrs. Rosen puts it, Paris needs to view the world through "rose-colored glasses".

Paris divulges about her anger towards classmate, Tanaeja, who bullies her 13-year-old brother, Michael, out on the playground daily. She shares this anger with Michael, who brushes it off and responds that he won't hit a girl. When Paris doesn't get the response she wants from Michael, she goes to Mrs. Rosen. Mrs. Rosen lets Paris know that maybe she needs to talk with Tanaeja to figure out the problem or try and be friends with her.

Around this time Michael starts joining in on Paris's piano lessons by singing along. Mrs. Rosen decides that with enough practice they can take their show on the road...to the local retirement home. Their show is a hit! Paris notices for the first time just how genuinely happy Michael is to be able to sing in front of an audience. 

The happiness for Paris is short-lived with a gift that Mrs. Rosen bestows to her. This part of the novel is when you realize just how young and naive Paris is, but also just how much every student in America needs to read this novel. It brings about a powerful, and at times both delightful and sad ending.

To Understand What Loving a Dog Means

Recommended for Grades 3-6

I’m just going to come straight out and say that I almost stopped listening to the audio book of Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah Wiles right in the middle of the story.  Reason being is that if I think an animal in a story is dead or is going to die, I can’t handle the story—I shutdown.  I have an overwhelming emotional pull when it comes to dogs and I can’t even walk through the Humane Society without crying. 

Wiles’ protagonist, Comfort, has a dog named Dismay, who is all love and loyalty.  The climax in the story is when there is a flash flood that Comfort, her cousin Peach, and Dismay get caught in.  Dismay is swept away in the flood waters, but Comfort has this eternal hope for him that kept me listening to the book.  And yes, I yelled at the book when that suspenseful scene ended—“Did she just kill off the dog?!  I CAN’T believe she would do that!  I will never read another Wiles book.  Well, maybe she didn’t…. (denial with a false sense of hope, oh goody…)

Comfort’s family owns the town’s funeral home and so she has grown up surrounded by death, but it hasn’t created a dysfunctional family, if anything it bonded her family.  The family’s motto is, “We live to serve,” and that they do.  Each family member acted as a team player.  Comfort has to face loss that she wasn’t expecting in the beginning of the story, when her Uncle Edisto and Aunt Florentine pass away.

I love all of Wiles' characters, but Comfort Snowberger steals the show and rightfully so—she writes her own “life notices” (her version of obituaries), her spot to ponder the world is her closet, she has to live with and accept that her best friend has become a ‘mean girl’, be annoyed by her little cousin Peach, and work through her grief. 

She becomes lost in a world unfamiliar to her without the ones she loves, even if her mother, father, and brother are still there for her.  She ends up taking her grief out on Peach, who is so innocent (even if whiny and over-dramatic), that he still chooses to adore and be Comfort’s shadow whenever he can.  And when I say over-dramatic, I mean in the ‘have to stop Aunt Florentine’s viewing because Peach decided to attach himself to her IN her casket and bawl the words, “Come back!”’

The search for Dismay changed both Comfort and Peach.  And I have to say that Wiles has written an endearing tribute to dogs and their humans, as well as family.  I’m very satisfied that I finished the story.

Wiles, d. (2005). Each little bird that sings. Orlando, FL: Harcourt.