The Hero's Guide to Being an Outlaw

Title: The Hero's Guide to Being an Outlaw
Author: Christopher Healy
Publisher: Walden Pond Press
Publication Date: April 29th, 2014
Genre/Format: Fantasy/Novel
GoodReads Summary: The League of Princes returns in the hilariously epic conclusion to the hit series that began with Christopher Healy's The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, which the Los Angeles Times called "one of the more clever, hilariously successful incarnations of the current literary rage to rip apart and rewrite fairy tales."

Prince Liam. Prince Frederic. Prince Duncan. Prince Gustav. You think you know those guys pretty well by now, don't you? Well, think again. Posters plastered across the thirteen kingdoms are saying that Briar Rose has been murdered—and the four Princes Charming are the prime suspects. Now they're on the run in a desperate attempt to clear their names. Along the way, however, they discover that Briar's murder is just one part of a nefarious plot to take control of all thirteen kingdoms—a plot that will lead to the doorstep of an eerily familiar fortress for a final showdown with an eerily familiar enemy. 
What I Think: Hooray for the last installment of The League of Princes series. I've so enjoyed reading and reviewing all the books in this series. I happy to love all of the princes and the princesses. As I've shared in my review of the other books, I think Healy does a great job of bringing these characters to life. They have so much spunk to them and it makes it fun to read about their adventures. This book brings new characters and brings back some old characters into a fun mess of trying to prove that they aren't outlaws. Of course, they meet all sorts of friends and foes along the way and face the issues they struggle with as friends. 
     One thing I haven't mentioned before in my reviews is how this series might be an opportunity to discuss irony. There is irony in the characters, the situations, and even the stories themselves. Fairy tales are known for their happy endings and their perfectly, perfect Prince Charming. Healy turns so many well-known fairy tales on their heads and challenges the idea of a fairy tale ending with a fairy tale prince. More than looking at the irony of the stories themselves, each character is larger than life and often they don't realize the hilarity of their actions and words. Maybe it's irony and maybe it's just a great sense of humor intwined with these over-the-top characters. Whatever you call it, it's worth looking at with students and discussing author's craft in this sense. This is a great opportunity to discuss character development and especially how to develop dynamic characters instead of typical static characters we usually find in fairy tales. 
Read Together: Grades 4 - 6
Read Alone: Grades 4 - 7
Read With: Once Upon a Marigold (series) by Jean Ferris, We Are Not Eat By Yaks (series) by C.A. London, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and The Frog Prince, Continued by Jon Sciezska, Knights' Tales (series) by Gerald Morris, Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz
Snatch of Text:
     "'Gustav, you look great,' Duncan said as he tried to keep his balance on a narrow lip of wood. 'Have you lost weight?'
     'Stick the key in the hole,' Gustav snarled. 'Before I squeeze you between these bars and pull you in here with us.'
     'Oh, right,' Duncan unlocked the cage.'" (p. 79)

     "Duncan sat on the ship's rail and shrugged. 'Sometimes laughing helps me forget I'm scared,' he said. 'And sometimes it's just because something is fun. I mean, this has been one of our more exciting adventures: Pirates, sea monsters, this awesome hat...But with Snow in danger, there will always be a little part of me that is very, very worried. I think it's my left elbow.'" (p. 197)
Writing Prompts: Write about a time in your life when you disagreed with someone. How did you handle the situation? Were you able to resolve your difference in opinion or not? 
Topics Covered: Courage, Self-Esteem, Adventure, Honor

 I *heart* It:

Maus

Title: Maus I: My Father Bleeds History and Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began

Author and Illustrator: Art Spiegelman

Publisher: Pantheon Books

Publication Date: 1991 & 1993

Genre/Format: Biography/Graphic Novel

GoodReads Summary: Acclaimed as a quiet triumph and a brutally moving work of art, the first volume of Art Spieglman's Maus introduced readers to Vladek Spiegleman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe, and his son, a cartoonist trying to come to terms with his father, his father's terrifying story, and history itself. Its form, the cartoon (the Nazis are cats, the Jews mice), succeeds perfectly in shocking us out of any lingering sense of familiararity with the events described, approaching, as it does, the unspeakable through the diminutive.

This second volume is subtitled And Here My Troubles Began. Genuinely tragic and comic by turns, it attains a complexity of theme and a precision of thought new to comics and rare in any medium.

What I Think: Maus shows the brilliance that can be within a graphic novel. This Pulitzer Prize-winning piece of literature not only is a great example of a graphic novel, but of writing in general. Art Spiegelman's story is multi-dimensional littered with symbolism, irony, and history. 

One thing I found particularly intriguing about Maus is the way that Spiegelman made the setting a character within itself. The background was sometimes drawn more detailed than the characters leaving the characters to be generic looking and the background unique and with its own character. 

I think this book would be a fascinating book to use in the classroom- history and reading/language arts. It would be a phenomenal book to teach simultaneously in the two classrooms. 

Read Together: Grades 8 and up (though parts could be used in all grades, only certain parts are too mature for younger grades) 

Read Alone: Grades 10 and up

Read With: Boy at War by Harry Mazer, Requiem: Poems of the Terezin Ghetto by Paul B. Janeczko, Berlin Boxing Club by Robert Sharenow, Once by Morris Gleitzman, Terezin: Voices from the Holocaust by Ruth Thomson, Parallel Journeys by Eleanor Ayer and Alfons Heck, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Snatch of Text: 

Mentor Text for: Symbolism, Metaphor, Interview, Flashbacks, Point of a View, Irony

Writing Prompts: Art Spiegelman interviews his father Vladek to get the story for Maus, after interviewing one of your parents, create a biography of your parent as either a comic strip or narrative. 

Topics Covered: Cross-curricular- World War II, Holocaust, Concentration Camps, Nazis, Racism; Values, Morals, Survival, Self-Worth

I *heart* Maus I: 

I *heart* Maus II:

Where The Sidewalk Ends

Title: Where The Sidewalk Ends - The Poems And Drawings Of Shel Silverstein and A Light in the Attic and Falling Up
Author: Shel Silverstein   
Illustrator: Shel Silverstein  
Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication Date: 1974/1981/1996
Genre/Format: Fiction/Poetry   
Summary: These books are collections of poetry about kids and animals and other imaginings of Shel Silverstein.    
What I Think: I have loved these books since I was a kid.  The poems are just funny and so easy for kids to relate to.  Sometimes they are gross and sometimes they tell you the cold, hard truth about life, but they are still fun at the same time!  I remember having to read "Sarah Silvia Cynthia Stout" with a friend in 2nd grade.  We did a whole poetry presentation for parents and had to read our selected poem.  Peanut and I had fun reciting "Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me, Too" this summer.  Baby Bean loves when I tell him about "Danny O'Dare the Dancing Bear".  These books are must haves in a poetry library!!!    
Read Together: Pre-K - 12
Read Alone: 2 - 12   
Read With: Other text by Shel Silvertein; Poetry like My Dog May Be a Genius and others by Jack Prelutsky;
Snatch of Text:      Jimmy Jet And His TV Set

I'll tell you the story of Jimmy Jet --

And you know what I tell you is true.

He loved to watch his TV set

Almost as much as you.

He watched all day, he watched all night

Till he grew pale and lean,

From "The Early Show" to "The Late Late Show"

And all the shows between.

He watched till his eyes were frozen wide,

And his bottom grew into his chair.

And his chin turned into a tuning dial,

And antennae grew out of his hair.

And his brains turned into TV tubes,

And his face to a TV screen.

And two knobs saying "VERT." and "HORIZ."

Grew where his ears had been.

And he grew a plug that looked like a tail

So we plugged in little Jim.

And now instead of him watching TV

We all sit around and watch him. 

Reading Strategies to Practice: Activating Background Knowledge, Making Connections, Making Inferences   
Writing Strategies to Practice: Rhyme, Alliteration, Personification, Alliteration, Onomatopoeia, Simile, Metaphor, Irony, Characterization
Writing Prompts:  Choose your favorite Shel Silverstein poem; look at what literary device(s) he uses in the poem and then write your own poem using that same literary device(s).  
Topics Covered: Friendship, Morals, Manners, Imagination 
Translated to Spanish: No