The People of Sparks

I am about one hundred pages away from finishing The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau. This is the second book in the City of Ember series, written for the 10-12-year-old age range. So far, I love the series! It is exciting and keeps the reader engaged, there's no lull in the writing that would let you put the book down. I read the first one in only a few hours!

In the first book, you discover the City of Ember, a city that believes it is the only establishment inhabited by the only people and there is nothing other than it, but it is failing. The city exists in darkness only lit by electricity during the day hours, electricity that is malfunctioning with increasing frequency. The people of Ember are terrified of the darkness and are running out of supplies. They don't know that the Builders of the city only created it to last for 240 years and they were supposed to leave a little over 20 years ago. That is, until the two main characters, Lina and Doon, find the instructions left by the Builders and lead the people of the City of Ember out of their dying city to safety. On the way out, they find a journal written by one of the original members of their city and learn that it was created to save the human population from the coming Disaster and that the city was actually built underground in a massive cave system.

The People of Sparks begins with the Emberites, the people of Ember, discovering the world as we know it, lit by the sun and covered in nature. They go in search of civilization and stumble across the small village of Sparks, population 322. The village agrees to shelter the Emberites long enough to teach them the foreign ways of this new world, but there's no room within the actual village for the four hundred or so Emberites to sleep on beds and have other such luxuries. The people of Sparks allow the refugees to stay in an old, abandoned hotel near the town and are expected to work daily for the food the village is accommodating them with. The Emberites are not used to the sun or hard work so the constant labor wears them down, but also makes them stronger. The people of Sparks are getting angry with the Emberites because they think the smaller, paler people are lazy. The small village is not equipped to support the doubling of its population and the food rations become smaller and smaller, rising tension causes strain between the two groups. I have left off at this point in the story and can't wait to discover how the Emberites will resolve the conflict with Sparks and fair on their own in this foreign world!

So far, this series hasn't affected me in the way the previous books have and I can't connect it to my personal experiences. While I've not felt an emotional connection to the book like I did with Wonder, it still has great lessons to teach to our students. The book talks about war and how it happens. It could be made into an example for conflict resolution because the book tells the reader that sometimes, instead of retaliating when someone does something bad to you, you've got to do something good or nothing at all. If conflict continues it will never end and everyone will be unhappy. I think that's an important message to learn young. The story could also help explain poverty to young students. The people of Sparks and Ember experience food shortages and worry about how they will support the village, much like a lower income family could worry about feeding their family. If a child of a low income family reads the series, they could discover that their situation isn't forever and can change with hard work and perseverance.

Robot Revolution

I just finished reading the third book in the House of Robots series, Robot Revolution. This in another of the jimmy books that I mentioned in my previous post. In this final installment of the series, Sammy and his family attempt to tackle something noble and grand- giving Maddie a better life!

Sammy and his best friend, Trip, are trying to tackle a difficult Science Fair project that could potentially enable his sister, Maddie, to finally leave the house! Sammy's mom, Dr. Hayes, is also working on a Top Secret Maddie Project that continually distracts her from her normal mom duties. Unfortunately, one of her normal duties is taking care of the maintenance on all of the household robots. The robots start to feel neglected and, no matter how Sammy and E try to make up for the slack, they decide to go on strike! The robots aren't the only ones that feel neglected by mom, Sammy starts to get very frustrated when he feels like his mom doesn't have time for him. Dr. Hayes' project ends up failing and she decides to give up on it until Sammy says something while working on his Science Fair project that inspires her to start the project up again. In the end, Sammy and his mom combine their projects and create an amazing thing for Maddie.

This was a great book series that I will definitely recommend to students. Each of the three books hit on a different topic that could relate to different students. James Patterson is also an amazing and award winning author that I would recommend to anyone.

House of Robots

Right now I am reading House of Robots by James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein, illustrated by Juliana Neufeld. This is the first book in a trilogy about a four-member family living in South Bend, Indiana. I love that they're set in our home state! These books are part of something called Jimmy Books. This is an organization dedicated to getting kids to read. Any profits made from these books goes to scholarships for teachers, helping bookstores, supporting school libraries, extending the reach of a pro-reading website, and distributing books to kids who can't afford them. Here is the link for the website: http://jimmypatterson.org/

James Patterson is one of my favorite authors. I had no idea he wrote children's books! The book follows Sammy Hayes-Rodriguez,  an elementary school student who has a genius mother and a comic drawing dad. His mom invents robots and teaches at Notre Dame University while his dad illustrates very famous comic books about robots. Sammy also has a sister, Maddie, who is homeschooled by a robot because she suffers from Severe Combined Immunodeficiency, or SCID for short. They have robots for tutoring Maddie, robots for cleaning the house, robots for making breakfast, and so on and so forth. As you can see, robotics is very ingrained in their lifestyle! This story is specifically about the journey of Sammy and his new robot brother- E (short for Egghead, or Einstein, or Error). Sammy's mom invented E for a secret purpose and needs him to go to school with him. Taking E to school started out as a nightmare for Sammy, but slowly he learned to appreciate what E could teach him and do for him. He learned how to accept and love E for who he was. In the end, Sammy realizes how all of the robots in the house are a part of the family. I love this because not all people consider non-humans to be family. I have three cats and a dog that I consider very much my family!

While reading this book I felt as though it could relate to many different familial circumstances where new members are introduced such as families having another child, adopting children, hosting foster children, or two families becoming one and having step-children. I would recommend this book to all of my students, especially if they are struggling with any of the above circumstances. I love this book and hope that the next two in the series are just as great, if not better! 

Wonder

I just finished reading the book Wonder by R.J. Palacio and, boy, did it take me on a roller coaster of emotions! This book follows the fictional story of August Pullman, a ten year old boy with a severely deformed face. He was born with a "previously unknown type of mandibulofacial dystosis caused by an autosomal recessive mutation in the TCOF1 gene, which is located on chromosome 5, complicated by a hemifacial microsomia characteristic of OAV spectrum" (page 104). Now, I have no idea what all of those ten dollar words mean, but that's not important. What's important is understanding how those mutations, deformations, and defects can change the life of a child so drastically.

The book switches between character perspectives including those of August, his sister Olivia, some friends Auggie makes at school, Olivia's boyfriend, and Olivia's best friend. I think all of these different perspectives are important for fully understanding Auggie's life and the impact he has had. I felt a lot of things while reading this book: anger at the way people treated him, happiness for the small kindnesses people are capable of showing, sadness for the losses the family faced, and encouragement because, if this ten year old boy can face the world with the hand he has been dealt, then so can I.

Through all of the emotions there was one that really stuck out to me, brace yourself because there are spoilers ahead! While reading Olivia's section of the book, there is a chapter titled "The Punnett Square", pages 105 and 106. This chapter discusses how the gene that caused August to be the way he is was recessive in their parents. The gene is also present, yet recessive, in Olivia. She goes into the odds of her or August having children with the gene, recessive or active. It also discusses how the punnett squares used by the doctors to come to these odds aren't entirely accurate because of various genetic things. That's interesting to look at; however, the most important part of that chapter, in my opinion, is the last sentence. After talking about how there are babies that fall under certain categories, Olivia says "Countless babies who'll never be born, like mine". Eight words that say so much, though there's no elaboration on the topic. This girl is only a freshman in high school and has already decided not to have children because of what happened with her brother.

When you hear people talk about children or adults who have disabilities, you often hear them discuss how difficult it must be for the individual or their parents. People often gloss over how hard the situation could be on the siblings, the friends, or the various other people involved in their lives. This book goes above and beyond portraying the many sides of the story and the various ways people are affected. I applaud the author and suggest this book to anyone and everyone!