Summary
Poor Stacey. She's moved to a new town. She's still coming to terms with her diabetes. She's facing baby-sitting problems left and right. And her parents are no help. Luckily, Stacey has three new, true friends -- Kristy, Claudia, and Mary Anne. Together they're the BSC, and they will deal with whatever's thrown their way -- even if it's a rival baby-sitting club!
Reviews
Gr 5-7 — Stacey is the new girl in town, She has made three good friends in a babysitters club but her memories of her old friends still haunt her. Many of them, including Her best friend, Laine, ditched her after she was diagnosed with diabetes. Her parents aren't much help; they keep dragging her from doctor to doctor looking for a miracle cure. All Stacey wants to do is manage her condition on her own terms. An impending trip back to New York and a rival babysitting club has Stacey confused and nervous. Will she be able to reconcile with Laine? Will this new group, complete with sitters who can stay up late, end the club for good? The graphic adaptation of the hugely popular series has as much heart as the original. The girls" dedication to the kids they care for and to their friendship never comes off as hokey. The black-and-white cartoons capture each character's personality; the facial expressions say a lot. Each girl has her own style. The outfits have been updated but the skirts haven't gotten shorter. A solid purchase for both school and public librarics.~~ Sadie Mattox
Kristy's great idea (978-0-439-73933-7), The truth about Stacey (978-0-439-73936-8), and Mary Anne saves the day (978-0-439-88516-4). Ann M. Martin and Raina Telgemeier. Scholastic (Graphix), 2006-2007. $8:99. Grades 4-7. Raina Telgemeier, who is adapting the Baby-Sitters Club stories into graphic novels, first earned a reputation by self-publishing her own comics. Those little books about her life and memories of her childhood already featured crisp inking and confident lines that made every panel hum. The vibrancy of her early work continues in the tales of Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia, and Stacey.
The strengths of the original stories remain in their new graphic life. Each of the girls has her own insecurities and goofy quirks, but those never run to cliché. In fact, each girl's problems and strengths blend in a refreshing way. Stacey, for example, is the thin, pretty, mildly boy-crazy new girl at school, and her initial shyness and refusal to eat the other girls' sweet snacks make it possible to write her off at first as a stereotype of girly femininity. But as the second volume reveals, Stacey is doing her best to overcome an illness that she has been told she must keep secret. Furthermore, she has learned from harsh experience that her secret can cost her friends, and trusting these new friends will take time. As the series continues, all the characters deepen, and Telgemeier's style portrays their growth lovingly. - Joe Sutiff Sanders
And so...
This series will be a great introduction to graphic novels and appeal especially to young girls in upper elementary. The artwork adds to the words on the page, deepening the story, but don't necessarily have the sinister look and hidden meanings that are in graphic novels for YA. Remaining true to the original series, this book will help young readers face problems in their lives by learning that others have the same or similar difficulties.
Use this book to...
Librarians can use this book to introduce graphic novels to upper elementary or middle school. There can be literature circles and discussion groups held to analyze the problems faced by characters and how they are handled in health classes and book clubs. Language teachers can use this as a writing lesson about storyboards and graphic novels.
Martin, Ann M. The Truth about Stacey: A Graphic Novel. Art by Raina Telgemeier. New York : Graphix, 2006.
Summary retrieved from Syndetic Solutions, Inc., Richardson Public Library Online Catalog, August 8, 2011.
Mattox, Sadie. School Library Journal, Mar2007, Vol. 53 Issue 3, p238-238, 1/5p
Sanders, Joe Sutliff. Teacher Librarian, Apr2008, Vol. 35 Issue 4, p19-19, 1/3p
Photograph retreived from http://hip.cor.gov/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=FL1317750795S.132920&profile=rpl&uri=full%3D3100001%7E%21384256%7E%210&ri=1&term=The+truth+about+Stacey&index=.TW&uindex=&aspect=subtab26&menu=search&ri=1&view=SUMMARY&aspect=subtab26&menu=search&source=~!horizon&enhancedcontentdata=true%0A%09%09#focus
Censorship Candidates - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Summary
In his first book for young adults, bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by acclaimed artist Ellen Forney, that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live.
Reviews
Screenwriter, novelist and poet, Alexie bounds into YA with what might be a Native American equivalent of Angela's Ashes, a coming-of-age story so well observed that its very rootedness in one specific culture is also what lends it universality, and so emotionally honest that the humor almost always proves painful. Presented as the diary of hydrocephalic 14-year-old cartoonist and Spokane Indian Arnold Spirit Jr., the novel revolves around Junior's desperate hope of escaping the reservation. As he says of his drawings, "I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats." He transfers to a public school 22 miles away in a rich farm town where the only other Indian is the team mascot. Although his parents support his decision, everyone else on the rez sees him as a traitor, an apple ("red on the outside and white on the inside"), while at school most teachers and students project stereotypes onto him: "I was half Indian in one place and half white in the other." Readers begin to understand Junior's determination as, over the course of the school year, alcoholism and self-destructive behaviors lead to the deaths of close relatives. Unlike protagonists in many YA novels who reclaim or retain ethnic ties in order to find their true selves, Junior must separate from his tribe in order to preserve his identity. Jazzy syntax and Forney's witty cartoons examining Indian versus White attire and behavior transmute despair into dark humor; Alexie's no-holds-barred jokes have the effect of throwing the seriousness of his themes into high relief. Ages 14-up. (Sept.)
Gr 8 Up --Arnold Spirit, aka Junior, is an unlikely hero in Sherman Alexie's semiautobiographical, National Book Award-winning novel (Little, Brown, 2007). Born with "water on the brain," Junior lives in poverty on an Indian reservation near Spokane, WA. When a teacher recognizes that the boy has hopes for his future, he encourages Junior to leave the reservation. At Rearden, an all-white school he commutes to daily, Junior becomes known as Arnold, but acceptance comes slowly. Through tenacity and humor, the teen tries to balance his school life with his life on the reservation. Narrated by the author.
And so...
This book shows the hard life of a teen-ager who wants better for himself than his family had, but who doesn't blame his family for the poverty in which they live. He is rejected by the other Indians because he goes to school off the reservation, and works so hard to better himself. He is rejected by the white people he goes to school with, because he is of Indian descent. The story is told with lots of humor, and the drawing that appear on at least every other page add to the irony of of his situation.
Use this book for...
Since this book is for older students, this book could be used in history studies for how Native Americans were, and in some instances, still are treated as lower class citizenry. Literature circls will be able to discuss issues of bullying, self respect, and self-improvement.
References:
Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Little Brown, 2007
Summary retrieved from Syndetic Solutions, Inc., Richardson Public Library Online Catalog, August 8, 2011.
School Library Journal, Oct 2008 Curriculum Connections, Vol. 54, p61-61, 1/8p
Publishers Weekly, 8/20/2007, Vol. 254 Issue 33, p70-71, 2p
Photograph retrieved from http://hip.cor.gov/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1O13T7904R562.133453&profile=rpl&uri=full%3D3100001%7E%21399801%7E%210&ri=5&&aspect=subtab35&menu=search&ri=5&view=AUTHOR_NOTES&aspect=subtab35&menu=search&fullmarc=true&source=~!horizon&#focus
No comments:
Post a Comment