Week 2, Assignment 1&2: Appeal Factors

The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan, first book of the Kane Chronicles, is a fast-paced adventure story. Brother and sister Carter and Sadie Kane learn that their parents were magicians who unleashed the gods of ancient Egypt from their millenia of imprisonment--and things just keep getting stranger.  As Carter and Sadie find themselves under attack by the magicians of the House of Life, powerful gods, and forces of magic and chaos that they don't understand, they also have to learn what it means to be a family.

Appeal factors:  pacing, storyline.  Great for Percy Jackson or Harry Potter fans.

Do you like Junie B. Jones?  Then Ramona the Pest, by Beverly Cleary, is the book for you.  Ramona is starting kindergarten, and like most kids, she's not sure how she feels about this school business. There's a good reason the Ramona books have been around as long as they have.  Ramona thinks, speaks, and acts just like a kindergartener, and her experiences (pulling a classmate's springy curls, getting her new boots stuck in the mud) are instantly relatable.  

Appeal factors: characterization, tone.


M.C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton is the story of a thirteen year old boy whose home in the Appalachian mountains is threatened by a strip mine at the top of the mountain his family has lived on for generations.  He's desperate to save them all, which puts him into conflict with his father, who refuses to abandon his home and ancestors.  The book is rich with detail about life in rural Appalachia.

Appeal factors:  detail, setting, language.

Week 1, Assignment 3-5

I've read this and this for assignments 3 and 5, and found the six year old's interpretation of book covers to be freaking adorable very creative.  Maybe the branch could choose a handful of classics for, say, K-2 graders to "write" their own version of what they believe the book is about (with mom or dad's help)?  In the name of encouraging creative play and parent/child interaction?  Just an idea for passive programming...

I'm pleased to note that I've been practicing some of Orr's Golden Rules of Readers' Advisory Service already.  Unfortunately Rule 6: "Don't Pigeonhole the Books" struck a chord with me, as that's something I'm guilty of doing in genres I don't read.  Definitely on my list of things to work on.

For Assignment 4, I chose Street Fiction for my genre source and Early Word for my book source. Street Fiction is extremely handy for me, as I have no experience with urban fiction whatsoever (I'll be visiting Urban Reviews as well).  I chose Early Word because I'm familiar with Goodreads and NPR books, and would still like a library-oriented perspective on reviews and resources.  I understand I'll be revisiting these choices in a later assignment.

Week 1, Assignment 1-2

First assignment down!  I scored a solid 75% on both the adult and childrens book cover tests.  Didn't do so well on genre cover matching--only 7/12 correct.