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Showing posts from October, 2010

SLOB

Owen Birnbaum is 57 percent fatter than the national average for boys his age. Owen Birnbaum is one point short of being a genius. Owen Birnbaum has a sister named Jeremy. Owen Birnbaum is a bully magnet. In SLOB, Ellen Potter tells Owen's story through his brilliant, cynical point of view. Hilarious, yet somewhat sad, twelve-year-old Owen begins his story on a day only slightly less bearable than every other day. When he goes to his recycled-sock lunch box and pulls out his eco -friendly Oreo cookie container, however, his day gets a whole lot worse. The Oreos are gone! Now this may not seem like a big deal to you, its just three dumb cookies. But for Owen its devastating. In a world of bullies, gym teachers, and psychopath new-kids with a burned face and a switchblade in their sock, sometimes eating three dumb cookies is all a kid can do to keep it together. He has to find out who took them. As we follow Owen on this quest to find the thief, however, we find out...

Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices

In his 1989 Newberry Medal winning anthology, Joyful Noise , Paul Fleischman weaves together a series of insect-themed poems. Each of these poems is written with two voices in mind, often creating a cacophony of vocals, not unlike the sound of insects buzzing. This work is often labeled as the companion piece to his 1985 work, I am Phoenix, an anthology of two-voice poems inspired by a day in the life of birds. The styles and execution of the two-voices vary from poem to poem. While some poems have a steady meter and rhyme scheme, others are written in free verse. In some poems the two voices are used to represent two different characters, as in "Honeybees" where the two perspectives of Worker and Queen Bee are juxtaposed or "Book Lice" where two book lice share their romantic "opposites attract" tale. In other poems like "Whirligig Beetles", "Cicadas", and "House Crickets" the two voices are made to mimic the sound of ...