WAW Reviews: Crenshaw and The War that Saved My Life
Welcome back for the second year of book reviews all about the upcoming William Allen White nominees!
Throughout the rest of the summer I will be sharing books from the WAW with you on Wednesdays. (Today's comes a little late because of traveling yesterday, as well as a delay in creating the bookmarks, that are currently FREE, due to formatting errors after getting a new computer. But we should be good to go the rest of the summer.)
My hope in doing this series is to introduce teachers and librarians to the books on the William Allen White list that don't have quite the time to read through the whole list before the beginning of the school year.
Each Wednesday I will share two books, one from the third through fifth grade list and the other from the sixth through eighth grade list. For each book you will see a summary of the book as well as my personal thoughts on each book based on what students might say, so you might know what to expect when your readers get ahold of these books.
Let's get started with the first two from each list!
Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate
Summary:
In her first novel since The One and Only Ivan, winner of the Newbery Medal, Katherine Applegate delivers an unforgettable and magical story about family, friendship, and resilience. Jackson and his family have fallen on hard times. There's no more money for rent. And not much for food, either. His parents, his little sister, and their dog may have to live in their minivan. Again. Crenshaw is a cat. He's large, he's outspoken, and he's imaginary. He has come back into Jackson's life to help him. But is an imaginary friend enough to save this family from losing everything? Beloved author Katherine Applegate proves in unexpected ways that friends matter, whether real or imaginary. (from Amazon)
My Thoughts:
This book has already appeared on this blog once before for being one of my top ten favorite children's books of last year. I think it is truly a special book and our students will feel the same way. I found out through the release of Beekle by Dan Santant that kids are enamored hearing about other's imaginary friends. This book embodies the magic of those special friends through the quirkiness of an hilarious giant cat that loves jellybeans. They will quickly fall in love with him, even when Jackson doubts the reason he is there. Another large piece of the story is that the main character is homeless. I can't recall another children's book that has a homeless character, yet remains uplifting. This part of the story line has great potential for an open conversation about those less fortunate than oneself, which our children need now more than ever. I think the writing style will really appeal to our younger readers. It is a quick read, much like The One and Only Ivan.
The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Summary:
Ten-year-old Ada has never left her one-room apartment. Her mother is too humiliated by Ada’s twisted foot to let her outside. So when her little brother Jamie is shipped out of London to escape the war, Ada doesn’t waste a minute—she sneaks out to join him. So begins a new adventure for Ada, and for Susan Smith, the woman who is forced to take the two kids in. As Ada teaches herself to ride a pony, learns to read, and watches for German spies, she begins to trust Susan—and Susan begins to love Ada and Jamie. But in the end, will their bond be enough to hold them together through wartime? Or will Ada and her brother fall back into the cruel hands of their mother? (from Amazon)
My Thoughts:
If you are new around here, "Hi, I'm Audra and I read far too may Holocaust and WWII books." Now that I have that off my chest, I know I'm going to shock a few people when I say that the first time I tried reading this book I didn't make it all the way through. Between reading too many other books at the same time and not having the usual action that a book in this time period provides, I set aside and forgot about it. I gave it another shot after seeing it was on the list and I am so glad that I did. True, the action doesn't really pick up until the very end, but there is so much more that this book has to offer. I think students will be intrigued by the idea that people would send their children away during the war as well as the treatment of individuals with disabilities in the past. Ada truly is a resilient protagonist that you quickly start to root for. This is a longer read, but I hope my readers will be able to stick with it and join me in the countdown to the sequel in October, The War that Saved My Life.
What a great set of books to start out with! We may even have a winner or two in this first post. I feel like this year's list is the best that I've seen in a while. I hope you meet me back here next week for two much shorter reads!
Back to the books,
Audra
