Jessica+Cooper's+Reviews

//**The Vanishing of Katharina Linden **// by Helen Grant

**APA Citation w/ ISBN:** Grant, H. (2009). //The vanishing of Katharina Linden.// New York, NY: Delacorte Press. eISBN: 978-0-440-33961-8

**Genre:** Young Adult Realistic Fiction; Mystery; Horror

Pia Kolvenbach is ostracized by her classmates after her grandmother “explodes”. Living in a small town in Germany, Pia can’t seem to escape the attention brought on by her Oma Kristel’s tragic death and is forced to befriend the class pariah, StinkStefan. But a new event soon captures the attention of the town. During a Karneval parade, Katharina Linden vanishes. Pia’s interest is piqued by this disappearance, and she begins to wonder if the disappearance is somehow connected to the town legends that Herr Schiller enjoys telling to the children. Pia and Stefan take it upon themselves to solve the mystery which gets more complicated as another girl disappears and town secrets are revealed.
 * Brief Summary: **

Although I really enjoyed all of the books that I read for my reviews, this one ended up being my favorite. I also think it would be best for use in the classroom. Pia is an enjoyable narrator. Her voice adds charm to a book that is centered around a riveting mystery and sinister happenings. I also loved the setting, a small town in Germany. The history, tales, and picturesque descriptions of the town and its people gripped me and made me feel like a member of the community. The book would be engaging to students while also being useful in the classroom. The book contains great vocabulary words, good character development, and an interesting plot with relevant themes. The tales within the narrative would also work well in a unit on traditional literature. It would also work well in a German class, as the setting is in Germany and many German words are used. Also, aside from some sinister happenings, the book is very clean: very minimal use of language (most in German), no drug or alcohol use, and no sex. So, parents would likely be supportive of it.
 * Evaluation: **

**Award:** Alex Award Winner (2011)

//Reading: Literature, Grade 11-12, Standard 4-// Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful.
 * Curriculum Connection: **

//Strategy #15: Jots and Doodles // While this book would not prove too difficult for most middle or high school students, it is still likely to present some changes, especially in vocabulary. Plus, the book has a setting that may seem be very different to what many students are used to, a small town in Germany. I think that doing jots and doodles would be helpful for students reading this book. For example, students could read about the Karneval festival in the book and could then share their doodles of what they pictured it would look like along with the notes and questions that they jotted down.
 * Classroom Activity Using Developing Content Area Literacy: **

**References:** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Antonacci, P.A., & O’Callaghan, C. M. (2011). //Developing content area literacy.// Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">by John Corey Whaley
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Where Things Come Back //**

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">**<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">APA Citation w/ ISBN: ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Whaley, J. C. (2011). //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Where things come back. //New York, NY: //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Atheneum Books for Young Readers //. ISBN: 978-1-4424-1335-1 (eBook)


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Genre: **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Young Adult Realistic Fiction

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Cullen Witter is a teenage boy who is becoming frustrated with his small hometown of Lily, Arkansas. With that aside, Cullen is making the best of what is available to him. He has a great friend, a great brother, and a love interest. Then, things start to go wrong. The town is becoming annoyingly obsessed with the possibility that a form of woodpecker, previously thought to be extinct, may be living in their midst. More worrisome, however, is that Cullen’s responsible and happy brother Gabriel disappears. Cullen’s first person narration rotates with a third person narrative about several different characters who are seemingly unrelated to Cullen’s life. Then, towards the end, pieces of the two narratives begin to fit together.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Brief Summary: **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">From the beginning, I thought the book was okay, but there were some things that got on my nerves. For one, Cullen, the first person narrator, has this thing he does where he will speak about a hypothetical situation about himself in the third person. This got on my nerves because he did it so much, and it seemed unnecessary. It ends up making the end of the book a bit ambiguous though. So, I understand its purpose now. The other part that really bothered me was that the father of one of the characters in the third person narrative seems unbelievable to me. He is a legalistic Christian, and the way the author paints the man is very negatively slanted. I know many Christians, even ones I would consider to be legalistic, but I have never met anyone even close to the way that the author makes this man out to be. All of this aside, I ended up liking the book pretty well. Cullen was I likeable narrator, and his struggles were genuine. The disappearance of the brother and what happened to him also kept me interested. Finally, the ending worked out everything well. The author uses symbolism well, and this book would be a great starting place for students learning to analyze works of literature.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Evaluation: **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">**Awards:** William C. Morris Debut Award & Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in YA Literature

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">**<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Curriculum Connection: ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">//Reading: Literature, Grades 11-12, Standard 1-// Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

//<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Reading: Literature, Grades 11-12, Standard 2- //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.

//<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Reading: Literature, Grades 11-12, Standard 3- //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama.

//<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Strategy #40- Journaling // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Students reading //Where Things Come Back// could get a lot out of journaling throughout their reading of the book. Students could do reading response journals and/or double entry journals. There are many pieces to this book that will go unnoticed if students are not closely interacting with the text. Journals would help to allow students to do this by recording questions, thoughts, seemingly important quotes, possible symbols, and analysis of style and character development, as well as other topics. Having discussions on what students journal on will help bring deeper understanding to students reading this intricately designed text.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Classroom Activity Using Developing Content Area Literacy: **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">**References:** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Antonacci, P.A., & O’Callaghan, C. M. (2011). //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Developing content area literacy //. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">by Diana Welch and Liz Welch with Amanda Welch and Dan Welch
 * //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Kids Are All Right //**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Welch, D., and Welch, E. (2009). //The kids are all right: A memoir.// New York, NY: Harmony Books. eISBN: 978-0-307-46254-1
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">APA Citation w/ ISBN: **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Genre:** Memoir

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In this memoir, adult siblings Diana, Liz, Amanda, and Dan Welch take turns describing memories of their childhood and young adult lives. Early on in life, things are picturesque for these siblings—their mother, Ann Williams, is a soap opera star, and their father is a successful business man. The biggest conflict seems to be that preppy sister Liz is afraid of Amanda, her angst filled teenage sister. Then, tragedy strikes the family. Their father dies unexpectedly in a car accident, and, at this already devastating time, it becomes apparent that their father’s business was in financial trouble. A month later, their mother is diagnosed with cancer leading each character to work through their struggles with these events and their mother’s eventual death. Then, in a time when they need each other most, the four siblings are pulled in separate directions, living with whoever will take them. Though they go through more than any children should have to, in the end, “the kids are all right,” and they come to realize how important they are to each other and what it means to be a family and, more specifically, a Welch.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Brief Summary: **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I really enjoyed this book and by the end wanted to spend more time with these individuals. So, I was disappointed when I found out that the movie of the same name only had the name in common. What made this book so interesting to me was to see how each of the different individuals dealt with the experiences they shared. Each narrator had distinct, yet equally interesting voices, and the chapters were short and engaging and worked well together. The themes that are conveyed help to really tie everything together throughout and especially at the end.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Evaluation: **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Awards:** ALA Alex Award Winner (2010)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">//Reading: Literature, Grades 11-12, Standard 2-// Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Curriculum Connection: **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">//Reading: Literature, Grades 11-12, Standard 5-// Analyze how an author’s choice concerning how to structure specific parts of a text contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I think that this book would be a good one to do a display or promotional presentation/movie trailer on. The book could be displayed along with current pictures and short, bulleted bios for the four sibling writers. Excerpts from each of the four writers could be included, showing their distinct personalities. Items highlighting each of the writers’ distinct interests could be included in the display/presentation. The display/multimedia presentation could also include a picture and information about the mom, Ann Williams, and her acting career.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Promotional Idea: **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Antonacci, P.A., & O’Callaghan, C. M. (2011). //Developing content area literacy.// Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">References: **

//**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Big Girl Small **// <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">by Rachel DeWoskin

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**APA Citation w/ ISBN:** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">DeWoskin, R. (2011). //Big girl small.// New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. eISBN: 9781429966603

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Genre:** Young Adult Realistic Fiction

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Judy Lohden is a cute, smart, talented teenage girl who happens to be a dwarf. When the book begins, Judy has run away and has holed herself up in a cheap hotel. Things were going well for Judy. She was accepted into a prestigious school for students in the performing arts and was adjusting well there, making friends, getting into an upper level voice class, and even starting to date. Then things go horribly wrong when Judy is filmed during one regret filled night. Now she doesn’t know how to face anyone.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Brief Summary: **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The best part of this book is the blunt, humorous, intelligent voice of Judy, who serves as the narrator. Judy is a believable character, but it is for this reason that there are parts of the book that may come on too strong for some. The book contains language, teen drug and alcohol use, and teen sex. One thing that really bothered me was that Judy, who suffers from dwarfism, would sometimes speak quite harshly about others who were different (especially overweight people, though she is pretty harsh about some people being ugly too). So, this almost cancelled out the “points” that this book gets for having a protagonist with a disability. Plus, while I understand wanting to minimalize the disability so the character will be judged by other more important factors, the author seemed to me to take the easy way out by making Judy a proportional, pretty dwarf; it is much easier for kids to be acceptive of differences that others or that they themselves have if the difference doesn’t influence the person’s attractiveness. Overall, though, I would recommend the book for reading outside of the classroom. It definitely deals with issues that are relevant to students living in a digital world.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Evaluation: **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Award:** Alex Award Winner (2012)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Curriculum Connection:** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">//Reading: Literature, Grade 11-12, Standard 4-// Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">//Reading: Literature, Grades 11-12, Standard 6-// Analyze a case in which grasping a point of view requires distinguishing what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm, irony, or understatement). <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">*The narrator in this book has a very sarcastic personality, and passages in the book could be used to analyze the narrator’s use of tone, word choice, and different literary devices.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This book would be a good one for the library media specialist to promote in a variety of ways. I think that students would be interested in reading it if they knew about it. The book would be good for the LMS to do a book talk on or to make a book trailer on. Another idea would be to include the book in a display of books that have characters with disabilities, illnesses, or other physical struggles.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Promotional Idea: **