Three Gems With a Piece of History Attached...

Note** These three titles are recommended for the Upper School (Grades 4+):
The War that Saved My Life by Kimberley Brubaker Bradley
The Seventh Most Important Things by Shelley Pearsall
The Marvels by Brian Selznick

During December vacation I did indeed read most of the books that I listed in my previous blog entry. It was wonderful just to sit and read at my leisure. What follows is information about three chapter book gems. 

Who would have guessed that gathering the seven most important things, (light bulbs, foil, mirrors, pieces of wood, glass bottles, coffee cans, cardboard) would bring about valuable life lessons. Arthur Owen, a thirteen year old boy, is grieving for his dead father when he sees a man wearing his father's motorcycle hat. Without thinking, Arthur loses control, throws a brick at him and harms the older man. Instead of juvenile jail, Arthur must work for the man. collecting what other people would call junk. During the process, over a year, Arthur learns quite a lot about himself and the junk man. "Some things in this world were meant to remain a mystery...He thought about how almost a whole year had gone by...He felt like a different person. It felt like a different life. A lot of people had done worse things with their lives than taking ugliness and turning it into something beautiful."
​The older man in the book was James Hampton, artist, who created  a most extraordinary piece of art that is now in the Smithsonian Museum, The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium General Assembly.

This is a powerful story of children's lives saved by their evacuation from London to the countryside during WWII. Ada, crippled by her bad right foot, is physically and emotionally abused by her mother. She and her younger brother are saved by a loving woman and are able to grow in their new home. The description of the War and bombs and shelters are strong. This applies as well to the awful power of abuse and its traumatic aftermath. Bradley gives Ada an authentic, angry and hurt voice. She also gives her beautiful and simple words that express Ada's new discoveries of her life far from the slums of her childhood: "I saw something strange from the top of the hill. Far away. Like grass, stretched out a long way, and flat, but different- blue and gray. When the sun hit, it looked shiny." "That's the ocean," Miss Smith said.

When I read The Invention of Hugo Cabret many years ago to library classes we were all mesmerized by the combination of stunning illustrations and mysterious story. The Marvels manages to do this again, so expertly! This story within a story tells of a very successful theatrical family and then of a contemporary boy who has run away from school to his uncle's home. Upon arriving he tries to find out how he fits in to this long line of actors. As we turn the pages at the beginning of the book we are drawn into atmospheric illustrations that recount the family's success in the theater. Then the written story begins and we are caught up again in the unraveling of this tale and the truth behind the family's story. Selznick brings sensitive themes of family life, the AIDS disease, death, and friendship into one supreme story of shipwrecks, actors, and adventure. The black and white illustrations will linger in your mind's eye and the story will have you yearn for much more. The Uncle's house is based on the Dennis Severs' House at 18 Folgate Street, Spitalfields, London. To find out more about this book, to see a trailer, to view the house, to hear about theater and actors please go to http://www.themarvelsthebook.com/about_book.htm