ADAM GIDWITZ on JUNE 12

You can thank me if the next time you see Adam Gidwitz he dates your book. Just sayin.' And I'll say that many of the kids in the Maple Hill High School class of 2024, 25 and 26 will probably remember June 12, 2018, for a long time.

I have been a fan of Adam's since the first Grimm book.  Fast forward a few years to winter 2016-17 and we are all behind The Inquisitor's Tale. In fact, it won our Newbery Consensus Club and needless to say we were more than thrilled when it won Newbery Honor in 2017 that I lost my voice that morning.

Now 17 months later, Adam ran through our Castleton red carpet.

And even though he was only at school for two hours, it was worth every second. Students and faculty were all still buzzing about it today.  Which brings me to this post by Evan who chose to spend his lunch with me so he could dictate a mash up of The Inquisitor's Tale review and a recap of Adam's visit.  Enjoy...

"I have to say the Inquisitor's Tale is really good. I never read the author's note but I had to read the author's note because I had to read about how he came up with this book and the research he did.  And the author's note was really good.  He spent a year in Europe and he went to Paris and other parts of France.  Adam was at our school yesterday and I saw him in the hallway signing the posters we have up because it was Adam Gidwitz mania in our school and I saw him with my Newborn [2018] book group leader, Mrs. Warland, and I told Adam that he responded to my blog post.  He said he remembered me but just didn't know my name.  I thought that was so cool that a Newbery Honor author remembered me and responded to me.  

"He was just so nice and so good.  He was up. He was active and was happy to see all of us. He was happy to see all the kids.  He was happy to see all the sixth graders from last year.  You could tell from his expression on his face that he was just "wow."  And I think he really liked the atmosphere of our school. He seemed really excited to be here. I don't even know how many authors we have had our school, but I loved Adam Gidwitz.  He had to be my favorite author to come to my school yet.

"Give some credit, too, to Hatem Aly.  Because it said in the author's note that they would draw in the margins just random drawings and the most popular one they would draw is a guy getting shot in the butt with an arrow.  Pretty interesting, right?

"At the presentation, Adam told us that he actually went to one of the monasteries called Mont-Saint Michel and he had a guide with him because there is quicksand. That's included in The Inquisitor's Tale (read it to find out).  And there was quicksand and Adam had pull himself out of it, which would take a lot of strength! You are sinking and you are trying to pull yourself out.

"I read some of the Newbery books from last year and I think The Inquisitor's Tale should have won THE Newbery award, not just the honor. Whoever has not read this book, please do.  Just please.  It was SOOOOO good. And that's a wrap!"

And then it was time for recess....I'm cool, I know, but just not enough to miss recess....I understand.

Adam with Evan!

It's so intuitive of Evan--As you can see, Adam really does love the kids.

And you really can't leave Castleton without leaping...

And for your reading pleasure, previous blog posts featuring Adam's Inquisitor's Tale:
2017 Consensus Club

The review of 2017 ALA YMA

Short & Skinny

Today's review of Short and Skinny a new graphic novel by Mark Tatulli is brought to you by Evan, Brianna, Olivia, Sophia, Taylor and Izzy!

Evan: This is a story about a kid who is short and skinny (cough-cough like me) and is super self conscious about it. Mark tries to use all these things to make him grow bigger and stronger like "miracle muscle."

Brianna: I liked how the author changed the name from "Star Wars" to "Star Bores."

Evan:  I thought this book was hilarious, but in the end it got kind of sad.

A little revolt erupted just now because no one else thought it was sad.

Izzy:  I don't think it got sad in the end.

Olivia:  How is it sad? He shows his movie to a bunch of people and he's happy.

(The sad/happy ending debate continued for a while...)

Evan:  Remember he throws his movie everywhere because he was mad?


Brianna: Remember at the roller skate arena and Alan said, "I don't like her as much as you do."

Was that sad?

Izzy:  It wasn't sad

Olivia:  I read the book three times.  It was SO good! I just liked the Star Wars/Star Bores part. 

Izzy:  And because of Star Wars he realizes being short and skinny isn't so bad!

Sophia:  The cover made me want to read the book because it made it look like it would be a funny Star Wars book.  And it sort of was because Mark was making a funny version of Star Wars.

Izzy:  To me the cover look confusing.  He was just randomly in the hallway with the mom, the dad and some kid filming them.

Olivia:  I wanted to read the book after looking at the cover because of all the little details.  It looked so interesting.

Taylor:  I didn't like that the cover was all yellow.  I like the illustration on the cover.  I just don't like the yellow.

Olivia:  I think the beginning should change because some people might pick it up and it might turn them off with the aliens.

Evan:  I like the illustrations.  They kind of showed how Mark was short and skinny.

Izzy:  And how he was struggling.

Evan:  Hashtag The Struggle is Real  #thestruggleisreal

All:  I would recommend it!

Brianna:  I would recommend it to everyone!

Olivia:  I would recommend it to people who like graphic novels.

Evan:  I would recommend it to people who are sappy (sad/happy).

Olivia:  YES! I would definitely read another book by this author.

Evan:  I think he should make another book and call it "Tall and Strong" and they would meet and become friends.

Sophia and Izzy:  There's was just a little too much romance in the book.

Brianna:  I think the author should make more graphic novels.

All:  The third book should be "Normal and Boring."

Olivia:  This book was great!

Brianna:  No, it wasn't a great book.  It was an awesome, amazing book!

Evan:  This wasn't a great book...This was an AWESOME book!

Izzy:  This book is great for people who are short and skinny, tall and strong and normal and boring!

The book comes out in September with full color illustrations! We can't wait to see it!

A Tale Dark and Grimm

In preparation for a visit from Adam Gidwitz on June 12, I'm trying to get 4th and 5th graders reading his books.

This morning, Evan stopped in the library on his way from the bus to his classroom. He finished A Tale, Dark & Grimm over our long weekend and wanted to blog about it immediately:


"One word that describes this book, bloody.  I never read anything like this.  It was creepy and I really liked it. It was about Hansel and Gretel but doing all different things. Like different than the typical story we know.  I don't really like the typical story so I'm really glad that Adam changed it.  My favorite characters were the three ravens because they were all sarcastic like me. Hansel and Gretel were brave through the whole thing, too.  Rather than sit in a corner and cry their eyes out.

"My favorite scene is hard because I have a lot of favorite scenes.  I can picture when Hansel ran from the Devil.  I can picture the red wall and the red Devil and the steam coming out from above his head. I can imagine the mad devil and I can see him in the little boat with the oars and trying to get out because he can't even though he said he could.  This book was mostly scary but it was funny, too.

"The best thing about this book are the pages where Adam talked. He's telling it from his perspective that he made up and he's also narrating it.  I think that's hard to do because it's hard to make up your own story and the narrated part.  Right at the beginning he writes, "And of course, the most blood." And there was a lot of blood.

"I think everyone should read this book except children in second grade and younger because they will probably cry.  But everyone else should read it. This is SUCH a good book. I loved it!"

PS-I'm not sure I would give this to a second grader lol.  Several years ago, I gave it to a fifth grader and she returned it the next day because it gave her nightmares. Oops.

Evan Reviews "The Wild Robot"

Evan is BACK! This time he's is raving about one of our favorites from 2016, Peter Brown's The Wild Robot.

"The Wild Robot was really surprising and full of twists and turns. Peter Brown is a really creative author because I don't think anyone else could think of this story of a robot breaking and showing up on this island.  I don't think a lot people could think of that stuff. Like everyone thought Roz was different when she was really just trying to help them and everything. She would always try and communicate with them and they would run away because they thought she was a scary monster.  Later in the story I felt better for Roz because the animals understood her more when she started talking to her.  My favorite part was when Roz picked up Brightbill's egg and it hatched.  I like birds and ducks a lot.  This isn't part of the story, but my mom said that if I take care of our cat Dexter really well, she might get me a parakeet.  I thought the ending was really creative and smart.  I was surprised that the story felt realistic even though it was about a robot stuck on an island. Like the parts about the geese and the opossums.  I thought that was really, really cool. 

"The illustrations were simple in the beginning but I felt like they had more details towards the end.  I love Peter's art.  I don't like when authors go above and beyond with the artwork.  Peter kept it basic and so simple. I loved it.  I can seem some authors wanting to try and draw everything so detailed and he just did it basic and it turned out so well.  That was really cool.

"My favorite character is Chitchat.  I like Chitchat because she talks a lot, just like me!

"I love this book and I definitely think it should have won the Newbery award last year.  The words were way more detailed than the pictures, which is what I like.  Usually pictures tell the story, but in The Wild Robot the words tell the story."

So there you have it! We have another Wild Robot fan in our midst! AND another fan of the blog reviews.  Stay tuned for more from Evan!

BTW: This is a great blog post from Peter Brown about the making of The Wild Robot.

 

Unicorn Rescue Society: The Basque Dragon (#2)

This morning, fifth grader, Evan came in beaming! I had given him the arc of Book #2 of Adam Gidwitz new series, Unicorn Rescue Society. He LOVED it! "It was so good!" he exclaimed.  "I hope there are so many more coming out.  I can think of so many more you can come up with. And I really just want to read all of them.  I hope there's like eight more coming." He was speaking so fast and so excitedly, I could hardly keep up!

"I liked the creativeness.  A lot.  The names are really clever.  I would never have thought of that.  I can't even pronounce them like Mr. Mendizabal and the names of the dragons were really creative, too.

"My favorite part of the book was when Uchenna found this seven headed dragon, or what she thought it was.  And the six heads came off and they were just baby dragons.  This was really surprising because I thought it was going to kill her or something like that," Evan says with a big smile on his face. "Can this win the Newbery?"

"Probably not likely," I say sadly.  "I wish," he says emphatically.

"Adam is the best author yet."  His message for Adam, "Keep writing because your books are so great!"  Izzy was in the library, too, and you know she agreed wholeheartedly! 

I'm thrilled because on June 12, Adam Gidwitz will be walking the halls of Castleton Elementary School!  Yes, we were Inquisitor's fans from the beginning! And yes, we are Unicorn Society fans, too!  And moving on to Grimm fans (I just requested a copy from our middle school for Evan.)

ICYMI: 

Here's my blog post on Book #1:
Unicorn Rescue Society: Creature of the Pines