Lunch Every Day

Kathryn Otoshi, 38 pages 

 

Lunch Every Day is a powerful read that addresses not only the topic of bullying, but also seeing it from both sides of the scale. Each day, Jimmy avoids the school's free lunch line because the line is too long. Instead he chooses to take Skinny Boy's lunch every single day.

One day Skinny Boy hands out birthday invites to his classmates including Jimmy.  Jimmy is shook. At first he decides he is not going. However, the morning of the party, he changes his mind and attends. He is a little timid to enter the party as he notices everyone has a gift and he does not. Once inside, he is truly welcomed by Skinny Boy's mom. She addresses the lunch issue in a kind and compassionate way and assures Jimmy he will never go hungry again by providing an extra lunch in her sons lunch box to share. 

There is an author's note at the end of the story. There, you will begin to see how Skinny Boy mom's compassion made an impression on Jimmy to break his bullying cycle, become an educator, and give back to the community in bully prevention. The author dedicates the book to Jimmy (Jim) and to the Mom who made the extra lunch for Jimmy every day in school.

Because of Mr. Terupt

Because of Mr. Terupt by Bob Buyea  269 pp.

This was a re-read of a book I'm using for my 4th-6th grade book club. It's told from the point of view of seven kids starting a new school year with a brand new teacher, Mr. Terupt. In the class are the smart new girl, a bossy bully girl, the class prankster and troublemaker, the brain, the pushover, the shy outcast, and the boy who hates school. Together they navigate the fifth grade with this teacher who does things a little bit differently and makes subtle changes in their lives and interactions with others. When tragedy happens the kids realize just how much Mr. Terupt changed their lives. It's a great story.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley 416 pp.

For those, like me, who enjoy and old fashioned English whodunit, this book is perfect. Young Flavia de Luce lives in a manor house with her family of eccentrics, a reclusive father and two older sisters. Her adventurer mother died years earlier during a mountain climbing expedition. Flavia is a budding young chemist with a predilection for poisons who inserts herself into the mystery with tenacity. The rest of the household includes a cook/housekeeper and the gardner.

When a dead bird with a postage stamp stuck on its beak is left on the doorstep, Flavia is intrigued and must investigate. Things take a serious turn when she later finds a man dying in their cucumber patch. In true British style the mystery has many facets inclucing a decades old death at a boys' school, the theft of valuable stamps, an amateur magician, and blackmail. When her father is arrested for murdering the stranger in the garden Flavia goes into high gear to find out the truth behind it all. This book is great fun and I'm happy to have found a new mystery series.

Hear us roar

Hear us roar:  a history of Flynn Park School, University City, MO by Gabe Fleisher 36 pgs.

This history of Flynn Park School was written by a library patron.  If you missed his event last week where he spoke about his research and this book, you missed something great.  Gabe Fleisher tells us how the University City School District began but then focuses on Flynn Park School, an elementary school that opened in 1924.  Flynn Park has a lot of interesting history and this is fine work by a new young author.

check our catalog

Scrawl

Scrawl by Mark Shulman  234 pp.

Tod Munn is a bully who extorts money from weaker classmates, not just to be mean, but because he has no lunch money. One of his misdeeds lands him in daily detention under the supervision of his school counselor, Mrs. Woodrow. All she requires of him is that he write about himself in a notebook (he won't call it a journal) during the time he spends there. The novel is made up of his entries, including details of his home life, his droogs (friends), his misdeeds, and successes. It turns out that Tod is not the loser everyone, including the school teachers, administrators, and security guards, think that he is. When he gets roped into helping a strange Goth chick with her play you get to see another side of Tod that is not what you expect. His droogs are angry because he got the cushy detention and they are stuck cleaning up trash around the school every day and then appears to have befriended that weird girl. Good guys turn out to be the bad guys and vice versa in this well written and interesting young adult novel. I got so caught up in Tod's story I even passed on watching the "Eureka" season premiere to finish it. This is going on my "best of the year" list.

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness 204 pages

What can be more monstrous to a young boy than witnessing his mother's slow death by cancer. Conor's father left years ago, moving to America and acquiring a new family. Conor's mother has been sick before, but is ever optimistic that the next treatment will do the trick. Her mother comes to help out. But she is a forceful business woman who seems to have no space in her cold, immaculate house or her heart for Conor. School is no escape for Conor. His best friend, Lily let out the secret about his mother's health and the students shy away from him, all that is but the bullies. They pick on him relentlessly. Ness got the germ of an idea from notes written by Siobhan Dowd who died herself before she could complete the story. Jim Kay's illustrations are appropriately dark and foreboding. A monster comes calling on Conor just after midnight. He warns Conor that he will share three tales and then it will be Conor's turn to supply a story. Each of the monster's stories take an unexpected turn. Conor swears that he is not a storyteller and will not tell a story. I can see where this story could frighten small children, but it is achingly beautiful.