Finding Your Way...

It's there.  Every single time you open the cover of a book, whether it's new or you're revisiting a favorite.  You may not even be aware of it's presence.   Then again, anticipation, for a few moments may be flowing in your veins instead of blood; you can feel it so strongly.

The hope one experiences in beginning a book by a known author, a preferred genre or in a title already receiving accolades from professional reviewers, is for a lover of books like receiving the greatest of gifts.  If an author decides to heighten this sense of wonder with an enticing beginning word, sentence or paragraph, we readers know a treasure is being offered.  In her second title, Navigating Early, Clare Vanderpool, winner of the 2011 Newbery Medal for Moon Over Manifest, sets the stage for what will be an unforgettable, life-affirming and life-changing adventure with a paragraph on the first page plucked from within the book itself.

The great black bear, awesome as Ursa Major, wagged her head from side to side, and her bellow shook the nearby passage of the Appalachian Trail. ...

It's not the end of World War II that brings Jack Baker's dad, a captain in the Navy home, but his mother's sudden death.  In true shipshape fashion he removes all evidence of Jack's mom's life in their home.  He then takes Jack away from all he knows in Kansas, placing him in a boarding school in Maine along the ocean.  

What neither Jack nor his dad could have foreseen is the strange boy, living and attending Morton Hill Academy, Early Auden.  Early needs quiet so he lives in custodial quarters in the basement.  He plays specific musical records on certain days, lines up rows of colored jelly beans when he's upset, believes his brother killed in action overseas is alive, is obsessed with the mathematical constant pi (even using the numbers to create a story of a man named Pi), knows there are still timber rattlesnakes in Maine and is on a quest to track down the largest black bear on record on the Appalachian Trail... and to find the lost Pi of his story.

Both Jack and Early are left alone on the campus during a fall break (not intentionally).  Rather than allow Early to set off down the Kennebec River alone, the two having developed a tenuous friendship, Jack agrees to what he considers a crazy scheme.  Jack cannot see this journey with the same eyes as Early; numbers as story not simply as mathematics.  

"...For me, they are purple and sand and ocean and rough and smooth and loud and whispering, all at the same time." He paused for breath.

I wished I could see what he saw---color and landscape, texture and voice.

Before long the fictional story of Pi parallels the real story of Jack and Early.  Encounters with pirates, a volcano, a whale, the Ancient One and wandering in the Catacombs like separate balls of yarn are knit together to form heart-pounding suspense.  Loss and fate woven into the pattern like strong, fine golden threads deliver a conclusion, stunning and ultimately satisfying.

Clare Vanderpool's writing immediately draws the reader into the story with her characterizations.  Through dialogue and point of view we are intimately aware of the personalities of the primary and secondary characters; identifying with their wants and needs.  The technique of inserting several pages, chapters, of Early's Pi story within the narrative further invests readers in the boys' endeavors. We are also keenly conscious of the surroundings in which Vanderpool's characters are placed through her descriptions; the Appalachian Trail, the Morton Hill Academy.  Her skill, needles in hand, at fashioning all the threads into an astonishing whole at the end, is the work of a master.  Here are a couple of excerpts from the book.

My mother was like sand. The kind that warms you on a beach when you come shivering out of the cold water.  The kind that clings to your body, leaving its impression on your skin to remind you where you've been and where you've come from.  The kind you keep finding in your shoes and your pockets long after you've left the beach.

Early and I stared at this ghost of a camp, looking for any signs of life, half-dead or otherwise.

"This has to be it," said Early. "This is just the way it's described in the numbers.  They have to be here. The lost souls."

"There's nobody here, Early.  Just look at this place.  This must have been abandoned years ago.  Maybe they moved the camp farther north, where there are more trees."

But just as I was saying this, there was a noise inside one of the shacks. A soft plink, plink, plinking sound, as if some ghostly person were stirring a metal spoon in a pot. 

Words like risky and rescued, perilous and planned, death-defying leaps of faith and sure-footed paths from the past, all come to mind when thinking of Navigating Early written by Clare Vanderpool.  It's one of those books the more you read the faster you have to go; wanting and needing to know.  It's one of those books you'll finish and go back to reread those passages you've underlined or marked.  It's one of those books, memorable books, to cherish...always.

Please follow the link to Clare Vanderpool's official website embedded in her name above.  Clare Vanderpool was also a guest writer at the Nerdy Book Club this year.  Below the publisher offers fifty plus pages of the book for your enjoyment.

O Say! Can You See?

Ranking up there in the top five favorite inside or outside games, at least with my students, is Capture the Flag.  Strategy, speed, and quick thinking on your feet contribute to one team being victorious over another.  Some team members enjoy guarding the flag, tagging those who would try to steal it.  Others relish the opportunity to sneak in, grab it and spirit away undetected, well, at least for awhile.

In her first book of a new series, author, Kate Messner has expanded the boundaries of the intended playing field.  Beginning in the Smithsonian Museum of American History, then to the Washington DC airport and eventually to the state of Vermont, Capture the Flag (Scholastic) is no game.  This high stakes heist has the nation's capital under high alert.

They never should have unlocked the door.

That first line is like the finger needed to gently push, setting a domino effect in motion.  As a gala event to celebrate the restoration of the flag which inspired Francis Scott Key to write The Star Spangled Banner is drawing to a close, one final group of dignitaries is taken to see this artifact.  Three seventh grade students, although strangers, are seated together on a bench close to Washington's statue, waiting for busy adults to complete their parts in the evening's activities.  Little do this girl and the two guys know, their lives are about to be connected in more ones than one.

Anna Revere-Hobbs, daughter of a TV news anchor and United States senator, had hoped to get more of a scoop for her Vermont school newspaper.  Proud of the work his mother, a textile scientist, has done on the flag, Jose McGilligan nevertheless goes back to reading his well-loved copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire anticipating the evening's end.  Having to spend time with his Aunt Lucinda while his dad is on his honeymoon with his new stepmother is not game-playing Henry Thorn's idea of a good time.

Later while these three and the rest of the evening's attendees are soundly sleeping, a hidden figure in the flag's chamber methodically folds the aged fabric, places it in a case and walks away with no one the wiser.  As circumstances would have it, the three meet again at the Washington DC airport the next morning, stranded, as are many, due to a freak snowstorm.  It is with shock they and others there hear the news of the flag's disappearance.

In short order Anna's nose for news and observations skills, piece together two important points.  The three of them have close family who are members of a secret society pledged to protect priceless world antiquities.  Second, and most critical, the stolen flag and the thieves are likely stuck in the airport too.

As the trio join forces, each with their unique skills, clues start to pile up as quickly as the snow falling outside.  Innocent people are being held as suspects, a man with a snake tattoo is stalking a presidential candidate, and their new young friend, Sinan, has disappeared.  Determination and a need to help those in trouble lead them into an off-limits arena; a room of conveyor belts, high ceilings and thousands of pieces of luggage and bags.

Nearly frantic, trying not to panic, each of them summon all their courage to do what they believe is right.  Time is not their friend nor are those who will do anything to keep their plot from being exposed.  A dangerous game of cat and mouse ensues with the outcome for our characters held in a tenuous balance as they literally speed to the conclusion.


Kate Messner's talent as a writer is her ability to hook readers with an intricately developed plot, peopled with likable characters of varying personalities and backgrounds and despicable villains, non-stop adventure, intriguing bits of history, and set among places of interest.  Each chapter ends with a sentence, thought or statement that moves readers eagerly into the next chapter.  Her descriptions of the minute by minute action are downright nail-biters.

Between her characters the dialogue is completely realistic, evoking an emotional response in the reader.  As the action progresses more of her characters' traits are revealed.  We readers get to see what really makes them tick depending on the situation.

Here are a couple sample passages.

The man counted to one thousand.  One thousand shallow breaths from behind the table.  His knees creaked when he finally stood.
He stepped forward and slipped one hand under the edge of the table until he felt the first cold metal clamp that secured the flag, on its protective backing, to the display table.
Slowly, he turned the clamp until he felt its cool weight drop into his palm.

"My responsibility is to knock out these bank robbers." Henry picked up his SuperGamePrism-5000 again. "Otherwise, I can't get to Level Ten."
Jose looked at Henry, poking at his GamePrism, and shook his head at Anna. "Sorry, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I agree with him." He took out his book.
Anna threw her hands in the air. "You are such...boys! What is wrong with you? You spend your whole lives looking for excitement in video games and movies and books, and then when something big finally happens, you're too busy reading and poking at some SuperGameThingy to do the real, live, exciting thing right there in front of you!"


Kate Messner's Capture the Flag captures the reader's attention on page one weaving, twisting, turning and racing toward the final sentence; a sentence filled with the assurance of more excitement to come.  The second book in the Silver Jaguar Society series is slated for publication in the spring of 2013 bearing the title, Hide and Seek.  Raise your hand if you can hardly wait!


The link embedded in Kate Messner's name above takes you to her website.  This link is to her author interview about this title.  At the Scholastic web site is a link to the accompanying teaching and discussion guide.  Kate Messner has provided a Pinterest board for Capture the Flag linked here.  This final link is to the Smithsonian website for The Star Spangled Banner.