In the Hammock Reading

1.     Bibliography Gaiman, Neil, and Dave McKean. The Graveyard Book . New York: HarperCollins Pub., 2008. ISBN: 978-0060530945 2.     Plot Summary Poor Nobody (Bod) Owens finds himself abandoned as a baby after his father, mother, and sister are murdered by a mysterious man named Jack. Baby Bod happens upon a graveyard filled with friendly ghosts who adopt him as their son. Bod is appointed a guardian named Silas who feeds him and arranges for his education. Through this story, Bod surprisingly finds love and life in the oddest of places, a graveyard. 3.     Critical Analysis "It takes a graveyard..." Props to Neil Gaiman and this Newbery Medal award-winning ghost story. Gaiman manages to create a story completely set in a graveyard that is surprisingly "full of life". The story follows the adventures and life of Nobody Owens as a baby up into his adolescence. Bod's parents are murdered by a mysterious man named Jack and baby Bod toddles into a ne

1.     Bibliography Green, John. Looking for Alaska . New York: Penguin Group, 2005. ISBN: 978-0142402511 2.     Plot Summary Looking for Alaska is a story of life, loss, recovery and finding meaning through it all. Young Miles (Pudge) attends boarding school in Alabama; there he meets Alaska Young who flips his paradigm of a life upside down. Pudge and his group of friends band together, learn life’s toughest lessons and grow to understand loss on a different level through this funny and sad story. 3.     Critical Analysis Looking for Alaska is a classic tragic coming of age story. John Green does a phenomenal job of developing the characters in this Printz Award Winner.  The story takes place during present day at the Culver Creek Boarding School in Alabama. The setting provides a scenic and quaint backdrop to the story. Looking for Alaska   is told from the first person perspective of Miles, who gains the ironic nickname of Pudge by his friends. Pudge is a teenager tr

1.     Bibliography Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker. The War That Saved My Life . London: Puffin Books, 2016. ISBN: 978-0147510488 2.     Plot Summary In The War That Saved My Life, young Ada and her brother Jamie flee from their abusive mother’s clutches. They are taken in by the caring single woman “Miss Smith” or Susan. Ada suffers from an untreated clubfoot and post-traumatic stress disorder from her abusive mother. Her journey is not an easy one; but with the help of caring Susan, she finds her way amidst the backdrop of World War II in England. 3.     Critical Analysis This touching historical novel is a wonderful portrayal of resiliency, overcoming obstacles, and adopting a new family. Bradley certainly doesn’t dilute the tragic and horrific events of World War II, rather they are retold from the perspective of 11 year old Ada. Although a children's book, this novel covers some very intense themes (abuse, PTSD, the gruesome horrors of wartime) but Bradley does

1.     Bibliography Cushman, Karen. The Midwife's Apprentice . New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 1996. ISBN: 978-0547722177 2.     Plot Summary One day, young Brat (who renames herself Alyce) is found by the town’s midwife laying in a dung heap. After some persuasion, Alyce convinces the midwife to take her on as her apprentice. Alyce learns and grows under the harsh midwife's tutelage in 1400s medieval Europe. Will Alyce have what it takes to make it as a midwife someday? 3.     Critical Analysis This delightful story unfo lds for the reader in short vignettes. The research and care of the author are evident as she explains what midwifery was like during the middle ages in Europe. The reader certainly gains the perspective of the townspeople and life back then through the author’s clever writing. Superstition and prejudice of class are clearly evident through the short vignettes of the story. At the beginning of the story Brat is spat upon, dismissed and tea

1.     Bibliography Schlitz, Laura Amy. The Hired Girl . London: Walker, 2015. ISBN: 978-0763694500 2.     Plot Summary In this novel, Joan (she later changes her name to Janet) runs away from her brothers and her verbally abusive father and flees to early 1900s Baltimore Maryland. While sitting on a bench in the overwhelming city, a kind young Jewish man finds her and invites her to his family’s home to stay. After some convincing of Mrs. Rosenback (the lady of the house), Joan proves herself a hard and capable worker, and she is able to stay and work as a hired girl in the wealthy Jewish family’s home.   3.     Critical Analysis Schlitz does a phenomenal job of recreating life, customs, and the line of thinking during the early 1900s. This historical novel, written as journal entries of the main heroine Joan, brings to life multiple examples of religious acceptance and diversity. The reader gets a single person point of view of exactly how religion and race were perceived

1.     Bibliography Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group . Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014. ISBN: 978-0544225824 2.     Plot Summary  Bartoletti explains where the K.K.K. originated, how it commenced, who started it, and the bitter feelings of the South that gave way to the horrible acts of the “American Terrorist Group”. Although this book tells the tale of an extremely hard-to-swallow time in history, readers will ultimately come to see Bartoletti's purpose in writing this book. Bartoletti wishes to understand "why?", to give a memorial to the victims of the K.K.K., and to provide hope to tomorrow for more kindness, love, tolerance, and acceptance. 3.     Critical Analysis Accuracy: Bartoletti receives praise (and rightly so) from multiple sources for her well-documented research, sources, travel, and experiences that molded and shaped this book. Bartoletti explains that informatio