Al + Alcatraz = Awesome

Reader Response #6

I’ve been your typical good girl my whole life. The few rules I have broken, I normally go crying to my parents to confess. This is to say that jail was never really a thought on my horizon for me. Many of my guy friends used to play jailbreak and games of that nature, but I was uninterested.  As a college student, I watch a lot of TV. At the beginning of this school year, I watched the whole season of Lost on Netflix. When I saw that there was a show by the same people coming out about Alcatraz, I knew I needed to watch it. And once I did, I regretted the childhood wasted on avoiding all things to do with jail. So when I read the back of Gennifer Choldenko’s Al Capone Does My Shirts and saw that it was about Alcatraz, I was hooked.

I realize that was a lot of back-story, but I wanted you to understand my point of view going into this book. I knew it was about a little boy who lived on Alcatraz with his family, but I did not realize a giant factor in this story – that his sister suffered from a mental illness that pretty much controlled their family. It was really cool to see how well Moose interacted and cared for his deranged sister, Natalie, even though she was actually older than he was.

The adventures Moose gets himself into on the island are mainly due to his peers – Piper, Theresa, Annie, and Jimmy.  It was excellent to see a male protagonist who was cool and “hip” but still with the knowledge of what was right and what was wrong. Moose stood up for what he knew was the right thing to do, obeyed his parents, looked after his sister, played baseball, and had fun friends – he is a dream protagonist! Parents want their kids to be like him and kids want to be him.

Since this book does have a male lead character and deals with jail stuff, girls probably wouldn’t like to read it, but I feel like boys of all ages would love to read it! The characters are relatable and realistic. Choldenko did a wonderful job portraying each and every one of them. Even the ones we don’t get to meet in this book, the simple mentioning of them is deep enough to give them some dimension.

As for the teachable value for this book, you have the historical element of Alcatraz. It seems like Choldenko did her research and most of it is semi-accurate and she added the historical note at the end with even more information. But then, there is also the element of Natalie. This would be an excellent book to introduce mental illnesses without singling someone out or, hopefully, making anyone uncomfortable. Because all the point of view is from Moose, all of the observations are tame and relatable to people who know people with disabilities, but developed enough to paint a picture for those that do not.

My only con is that it seemed to have a couple of grammatical mistakes that I noticed and that distracted me from my reading at times. But I doubt that students would pick up on that and so it would be fine for a middle school student.

I loved this book and I would love to teach it in my classroom. I will probably not be teaching history, but stylistically this book has some wonderful points. Character development, the short but packed chapters, symbolism and writing style could all be taught from this book.

Choldenko, G. (2004). Al Capone Does My Shirts. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 

Wonderful Words on World War

Book Response #5

Black. White. Red.

“’Look at the colors,” Papa said. It’s hard to notice a man that not only notices the colors, but speaks them.” (Pg. 87)

Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief is about more than just a story, but about words and colors and death. Well, actually, Death is the narrator for much of the book.  This interesting perspective makes for a very enjoyable read. In Nazi Germany circa World War II, little Liesel Meminger is going through some major changes: foster parents, The Grave Digger’s Handbook, new friends, and life lessons. This book is written from a different point of view and so it provides such a wonderful insight.

I had read this book before, my freshman year of college to be exact; because my aunt told me it was one of her new favorites (which is a total honor for any book to be put up there because she reads a lot and is very picky). Anyways, I figured I would like it because I have a thing for World War II books and have read a good number of them before – both adult and young adult. Once I picked it up and started reading, I was mesmerized – and this time was no different!

Liesel is a huge fan of here books – both ones stolen or given freely. After a rough deal from the cards of life: she ends up away from her mother, her brother is dead, and she wakes every night with horrible nightmares, but there is good in her life too. A new friend who thinks he is Jesse Owens, a loving Papa who cradles her when she awakes at two in the morning, and the newfound knowledge of literacy! The books twists and turns, full of action, but not overbearing with suspense – it is a perfect mix and a delightful read!

Liesel is a character that everyone could, in some form, relate to. She is brilliant and caring, but not always a soft and gentle girl – she’s got spunk, and what girl doesn’t want some spunk?! Rudy might be in bad circumstances since he has such a big family at such a poor economy time for Germany, but his character’s personality fits right into what you would expect of any boy that age – a hundred years ago or now. Max is a hidden Jew whose father saved Liesel’s Papa during the First World War – he is a street fighter and a loyal friend.

Though the main protagonist is a girl, boys would enjoy this book because of Rudy, Max, Papa, and the fact that Death is doing all the talking. Plus, there is thievery, fighting, fire, soccer, racing, and battles. What boy wouldn’t want to read about all that?

“It kills me sometimes, how people die.” (Pg. 464)

People dying do make up a fairly large majority of the book. That is to say, that many of the main characters end up dead, but their lives are stained with love and friendship – these are the colors that Death is haunted by (he admits this on the last page how effected he is by all the souls he carried limply away).

This book would probably only get used to its full capacity if it was taught in an upper level class – 7^th or 8^th grade, maybe even honors. There are just so many wonderful things in this book! You have the different perspective of narrator, the precisely unique language used that describes everything, the symbolism, and solid historical content – it could serve as a mentor text in so many ways.

All in all, I love this book! I love how it is full of words about words – it is so metapoetic and I absolutely adore it! Death is so eloquent with his words, Liesel is so heartbreaking with her story, and all the relationships are beautiful and refreshing. I loved reading The Book Thief the firs time, I loved reading it this time, and I would love to teach it in the future!

“I have hated the words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right” (Pg. 528).

Zusak, M. (2006). The Book Thief. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 

Promising Post-apocalyptic

Response #4

I read The City of Embers by Jeanne DuPrau while I was in middle school, but had forgotten much of the plot so I was very excited to read it again now that I am older and wiser.  I had never read The People of Sparks, though, so it was nice to be able to actually have some closure to the first book – which is left with quite a cliffhanger.

There are quite a number of post-apocalyptic books that are typically required reading for the young-adult students – i.e., The Giver, Fahrenheit 451, Hunger Games, and Anthem. Those books can sometimes be intimidating by their size, projected content, or simply the genre “post-apocalyptic.” With books like The City of Embers, students can be eased into this genre and see how enjoyable it actually can be and then will be more apt to read and enjoy the aforementioned books.

I truly enjoyed getting to read the first two books of the Ember series – they were easy and a pleasure to read.  They are well written, both grammatically and the messages it shares. Lina and Doon, the main characters, both stand up for things they believe in, despite what everyone else tries to tell them.  And in the end, they save all of their people.  Especially in the second book, so many wonderful moral victories and lessons are woven into the story in a way that parents and children will both appreciate!

Teaching these books would be very exciting – you could have the class go through a day to pick jobs from a bag and then do writing assignments from the point of view of those jobs.  They could do research on different cultures and imagine what it would be like to just be thrown into such a foreign environment.  You could also do some fun decoding of texts – maybe use a mathematical code to make the activity cross-curricular. Maybe finish the unit by watching Disney/Pixar’s Walle since they have many of the same themes.

All in all, I really enjoyed reading these books and I look forward to using them in my classroom one day!

DuPrau, J. (2003). The City of Ember. New York: Random House.

DuPrau, J. (2004). The People of Sparks. New York: Random House.