The Chronicles of Mrs. Major

 Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow 1. BIBLIOGRAPHY Susan Campbell Bartoletti. Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler’s Shadow . Scholastic Inc., 2016.  ISBN: 0439353793 2.  PLOT SUMMARY  Hitler Youth begins with the murder of Hebert Norkus of the Hitler Youth. He joined after his mother died and enjoyed the activities on the weekends. The Red (Communists) were on the attack and he had to be careful while passing out propaganda. One day, a group of 40 Reds chased him down and stabbed him to death. Hitler called him a martyr and planned an elaborate funeral which inspired more youth to join the cause. The Nazi party rose to power with the help of their youth. 70,000 of them turned out to listen to Hitler at a rally. This led to many ready to die for their cause. In the first chapter, the book focuses on Hitler’s rise to power first as the Chancellor (2nd in line of power). He wanted to unify Germany to fight back on sanctions from WWI. In the second chapter the H...

  The Lincolns : A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary 1. BIBLIOGRAPHY Fleming, Candace. The Lincolns : A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary . New York, Schwartz & Wade Books, 2008. 2.  PLOT SUMMARY   The Lincolns  follows the lives from birth to death of Abraham and Mary Lincoln. Set in the arrangement of newspaper clippings, the book is divided into chapters throughout their lives. Their separate upbringings are the first two chapters of the book. Chapter 3 establishes their relationship and their combined lives in Illinois. Chapter 4 is about his political rise and Mary’s social rise. We are introduced to their sons and home life.  Politically heating up is the issue of slavery which began pitting North vs South. After the presidential election, tensions were rising even more. Chapter 5 surrounds the Lincolns settling into Washington D.C. and the buildup to the Civil War. Chapter 6 begins with the death of their son, Willy. Both Abraham and Mary mourned i...

 Bones: Skeletons and How They Work 1. BIBLIOGRAPHY Jenkins, Steve. Bones: Skeletons and How They Work . Paw Prints, 2011. ISBN: 9780545046510 2.  PLOT SUMMARY Bones  begins with an illustration of a bone which the author prompts readers to figure out which one it is. Upon turning the page, readers see that it is a bone from the finger and how it fits into the hand, forearm, and arm. The human arm is compared to other animal’s arms to show how their structures are similar. From there, the author gives facts about bones that are matched by their illustrations of each. The life-size rib structure of a snake is an unfolded surprise, as is the smaller scaled human skeleton. This jam-packed bone facts book gives the importance of bones inside vertebrate animals.    3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS The accuracy of the book is backed by the collections manager for the Department of Mammalogy at the American Museum of Natural History. Steve Jenkins has written numerous nonfiction ...

The Right Word : Roget and His Thesaurus 1. BIBLIOGRAPHY Bryant, Jennifer, and Melissa Sweet. The Right Word : Roget and His Thesaurus . Grand Rapids, Michigan, Eerdmans Books For Young Readers, 2014. ISBN: 9780802853851 2.  PLOT SUMMARY  Peter Roget moved so often that books became his companions. After his father’s death, he began making lists in a self-published book. He began with a list of Latin words with their English translations. Each year he added lists to his book. With his mother constantly worried, he struggled to come up with the right word for his emotion. An idea came to him to write a list of words to find the right words. This led to an idea to create a book of words for all the world’s ideas in one place. He spent the next few years completing med school and teaching boys while taking them worldwide. He began his practice in England during the days and continued to write lists at night. He completed his first book in 1805 and used it during lectures to colle...

 Mirror Mirror BIBLIOGRAPHY Singer, M. (2010). Mirror Mirror. (J. Masse, Illus.) Dutton’s Children’s Books. ISBN: 978-1-101-64843-8 PLOT SUMMARY Mirror Mirror is a thematic verso poetry book that has you read down the page then backward on the page across for a whole new meaning of the fairy tale. Hilarity ensues with jumbled-up illustrations depicting the poems from good vs. evil. Readers will be familiar with all the fairy tales in the poems.  CRITICAL ANALYSIS Mirror Mirror is a thematic reverso poetry book. The theme is fairy tales with all the classics represented. The arrangement of the rhythm is forward on the left page and backward on the right page. The rhyme is matching sounds at the end of words. The new reverso genre of poetry gives readers a silly way to read the poems with two different outcomes. For example, In Little Red Riding Hood, hood is referred to as her hood and the wolf’s ‘hood he lives in. The visual images are split down the middle like the two poems ...

 Voice of Freedom Fannie Lou Hamer Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement BIBLIOGRAPHY Weatherford, C. B. (2015). Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement. (E. Holmes, Illus.) Candlewick Press. PLOT SUMMARY Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement is a free-verse individual poet compilation of Fannie Lou Hamer’s life. The poems are chronologically ordered beginning with her birth and ending with her receiving a lifelong service award from the Congressional Black Caucus. Beginning with her born as the 20th child of her cotton sharecropper parents, she depicts life in the South under Jim Crow laws. She then marries and begins a life on a new farm where she has more important responsibilities. They build a life and family. She hears of an interest meeting at a church about voter registration. From there she has to retake the test, pay a poll tax, and avoid death by night riders. These all led Fannie to run for elective office,...

 Diamond Willow BIBLIOGRAPHY Frost, H. (2008). Diamond Willow . Square Fish. ISBN: 978-0-312-60383-0 PLOT SUMMARY Diamond Willow is a verse novel set in rural Alaska. Willow only has one friend and would rather spend her time with her dad preparing their sled dogs. She finally convinces her parents to let her mush to her grandparents’ house by herself. After a successful ride there, she begins the return home a few days later. A horrific accident leads to a life-or-death situation for her favorite dog, Roxy. Vowing to not let Roxy be euthanized, WIllow enlists the help of her best friend to trek back to her grandparents to convince them to take care of Roxy. A wrong turn leads to fighting for survival overnight. Through it all Willow stays calm and shows maturity. Her parents revealed to her she was a twin and that her name was Diamond. Her ashes were spread at the very tree she slept under. Roxy is allowed to become an inside dog and is later found to be the spirit of her dead tw...

 A Pocketful of Poems BIBLIOGRAPHY Grimes, N. (2001). A Pocketful of Poems. (J. Steptoe, Illus.)Clarion Books.  ISBN: 0-395-93868-6 PLOT SUMMARY A Pocketful of Poems is both free verse and haiku poetry told from the point of view of Tiana. It begins with her name, then morning and night, then seasons through the year. The haikus are placed within the illustrations which take the shape of the object the free verse and haiku poems are about. The book ends with Tiana opening a Christmas present of the reader’s name.  CRITICAL ANALYSIS A Pocketful of Poems is a poem picture book. It is a great introduction to free verse and haiku poetry. Although the typical Haiku is 3 lines with 5-7-5 syllables, the rhythm of this poetry book features 5-7-5 and various other multisyllabic lines. The images are related to Harlem where Nikki Grimes grew up. The illustrations are cut paper and found-object collage then photographed. They are multi-layered and keep you entertained like I-Spy. Th...