The Outsiders

Plot Summary
Ponyboy’s parents died in a car crash, and now he lives with his older brothers Darrel and Sodapop. The boys are in a gang of Greasers, letting their hair grow long and picking fights with the clean-cut Socs (short for Socials). The fights get violent, and Johnny, the smallest Greaser, gets swept up in the moment as he tries to keep a Soc from drowning Ponyboy. The two youngest Greasers get scared of the consequences and run away, starting a domino effect of events that will affect the whole gang.

Personal Response
This is one of those books that all my friends had to read in high school, and I never did. Never had to, I mean - not that I skipped the assignment. And I’ll admit to skipping out on required reading! (Hemingway, I’m looking at you.) I heard a lot about this book, and it’s been referenced in everything pop culture, but I never read it. And honestly, now that I have… it wasn’t necessary to understand the references. The story was simple and has been redone and updated over time. It’s a simple story, and yes, it’s cool that the author, a girl!, wrote it when she was very young, but that’s been done throughout time, too.
     To be fair, it isn’t a BAD book. I read it all the way through, fairly quickly, and when I was done, I was done. Maybe that was some of the issue with me - I love when books, characters, or their problems stick with you. And that didn’t happen here. If I had read it in high school, I might be more attached to it. But at this point, I’m just glad to have read it and marked it off the list of books I “should” read.

Connections & Activities
Many of S.E. Hinton’s characters make appearances in other books. That Was Then, This Is Now is an epilogue to The Outsiders, set one year later. Tex in turn shows the adult lives of several characters from That Was Then, This Is Now.

Read it for yourself!
Hinton, S.E. 1967. The Outsiders. New York: Speak. ISBN 9780142407332

The Willoughbys

Plot Summary
The four Willoughby children aren’t big fans of their parents… but thankfully, their parents don’t care much for the children, either! The parents plot to leave the children behind, and meanwhile - the kids are plotting to get rid of the parents! Along the way comes a nanny, an abandoned baby, and a rich old man. This book is a delightful parody of those pitiful old orphan tales.

Personal Response
I thought this book was really funny; it reminded me a lot of Roald Dahl’s work - maybe more parody in this book, compared to Dahl’s flat-out silliness. I’ve read a lot of Lois Lowry books before, but this one was unlike any others by her. That’s not to say I didn’t like it… It was an interesting book and made me smile, and the illustrations (also done by Lowry) were cute and added to the story. I especially liked the glossary at the end of the book defining some of the stranger terms used.

Reviews & Awards
Starred reviews in Publishers Weekly and Booklist, who also said “Sly humor and a certain deadpan zaniness give literary conventions an ironic twist, with hilarious results.”

Read it for yourself!
Lowry, Lois. 2008. The Willoughbys. Boston: Walter Lorraine Books. ISBN 9780618979745

Otto’s Orange Day

Plot Summary
Otto’s favorite color is orange. He colors with orange crayons and sings songs about orange. When his aunt sends him an orange package, Otto is thrilled with the orange lamp - even though it’s a little dusty. When Otto cleans off the lamp, a genie appears! Otto wishes for everything in the world to be his favorite color, but when everything is orange, trouble starts! Can Otto save the orange day?

Critical Analysis
Graphic novels for children are a great idea because the heavily-illustrated books are appealing, and are a great stepping stone from picture books to chapter books. There is a fair amount of dialogue that can be read aloud, but it is still easy for the young reader to follow along with the text. Even if the reader doesn’t know many letters or words, the context clues in the illustrations can help them tell the story and guess what might happen next. It’s also great that graphic novels teach young readers to read panel to panel. Traditional reading is limited to left to right, top to bottom - and of course that’s a crucial thing to know, but learning how to read a panel and take in all that is being told and shown to you is really important, also. It shows young kids that they need to look around and take everything in to get the whole story, instead of just focusing on a word or sentence at a time.

Personal Response
My five-year-old stepson picked this book out on his own, and loved hearing it read aloud. I think it was read to his two or three times in a single visit! It’s a book he can look through himself because the pictures are appealing. Since graphic novels depend so much on illustrations, he can tell the story to himself just by looking at the pictures.
     I thought this book was really cute, too; it’s something I could definitely see as an animated short. There are other Otto books that we’re looking forward to reading, but Toon Books are definitely something we’ll be looking for, regardless of the main character!

Reviews & Awards
Booklist’s top 10 graphic novels for youth, ALA’s core collection of graphic novels, Graphic Novel Reporter’s core list of graphic novels for kids, and ALSC’s best graphic novels for children.

Connections & Activities
The back of this book is a great resource for reading graphic novels and comics aloud with children. The book itself is cute and entertaining, but I recommend it for the end pages alone! Tips include: pointing to the character speaking, so the kid can follow along with the expressions and text; get into the story and read the dialogue like a play; talking about the pictures and letting kids guess what’s happening and what will happen next.
     The TOON Books website has great resources for parents/educators as well as kids. Their book list is broken down according to reading level, so you can make sure you’re getting the best books for your beginning readers! Check it out at toon-books.com, but be prepared to spend a LOT of time exploring!

Read it for yourself!
Lynch, Jay and Frank Cammuso. 2008. Otto’s Orange Day. New York: TOON Books, an imprint of Candlewick Press. ISBN 9780979923821