Marcia Williams’ book Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is an excellent way to get high school students interested in the original Canterbury Tales from 1380s.  The inside cover has some tips for the reader that I did not see until I had finished reading the entire book.  I wish I had read this section first.  It suggests readers read aloud the lines in Medieval English so that they will be able to understand the dialogue.  With this in mind, the book is much easier to understand.  Since this is the tale of a pilgimage from Southwark to Canterbury, I thought the table of contents was very uniquely done.  Each of the storytellers is riding on horseback in the order they appear in the story.  Each is holding a banner with the title of their tale and its page number.  The story begins with a quick introduction of the characters.  I really liked the layout of the storyboards.  Williams’ illustrated this book with beautiful engaging watercolor images.  Each page has a border which includes a title of the tale at the top of the page and audience comments on the outer sides of each page.  Along the bottom we follow the travelers along their journey and see which pilgrim is telling the current tale.  The images are so full of intricate and interesting details that this story could be read multiple times and still new details would emerge.  NIne tales are included.  Each pilgrim tries to outdo the previous storytellers, since the person with the best tale will earn a free dinner upon arrival at Canterbury.  The tales are about love (The Knight’s Tale), dishonesty (The Reeve’s Tale), honor (The WIfe of Bath’s Tale) and justice (The Parndoner’s Tale.)  When they finally arrive in Canterbury the fate of the winner of a free meal is left in the hands of the reader.

As I read this book, I was intrigued by the fact that all of the themes still easily relate to today’s society.  I appreicated the format of the text boxes on each page.  Stories are told in a graphic novel fashion with Medieval dialogue placed by the characters and in a separate text box below each is a modern English explanation.  Students will be able to relate to this story better with the paired explanation.   I also appreciated the glossary at the back of the book, although it was limited.  There were quite a few words I had trouble with and I am sure teens also would appreciate more words included in the glossary.  Currently there are only 12.  Also these words were not in italics, bold or underlined.  I had no idea they were defined in the back until I finished the entire book.  At that point I felt lazy to go back and remember what pages these words appeared on.  I wonder…if I felt this way…would teens take the time to go back to the story?

Overall, this was a great read.  It was short (only 45 pages.)  But, plan to spend some time reading this.  It’s not a quick read.  The Medieval English and thought provoking themes require you to dedicate sometime pondering the meaning of the tales.

My Name is Gabito: Me Llamo Gabito is the bilingual biography of Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  The art work in this book is just amazing.  I am not quite sure if it is painted or not.  It has a vibrant pictures of fantastical creatures (flying fish for instance.) The colors are variegated and have a scratched appreance.  Almost like that black magic paper from childhood, that you scratched to reveal a rainbow below. Each page has complete text in both English and Spanish. 

Gabito grew up with a wild imagination.  He used this and his life experiences to become a famous, well loved author.  Gabriel Garcia Marquez worked as a journalist and novelist.  After seeing poor banana laborers, he never forgot what hard work they did and how unfair it was that they were so poor.  He included these workers in his stories.   

What a fun book! Every child knows going to run errands with mom is BORING!  Everything changes when the boy in the story sees a sign at the bakery that says: “Buy a dozen get a dinosaur.”  His mom is certain it must mean a toy dinosaur.  Much to her horror and his delight, Friday is free dinosaurs with everything day.  He leaves with a triceratops.  Everywhere they go, another dinosaur is given to them.  At the doctor’s office they pick up a stegosaurus.   When they go outside they realize, dinosaurs are EVERYWHERE!  Now, Mom is so stressed out about this that they rush home and she takes a nap.  When she wakes up, suddenly she has a great idea.  Why not put those dinosaurs to work.  She has them clean the gutters, help with the laundry, and cut the grass (or eat it in this case.)  

This is a little boy’s dream come true.  I loved the crazy faces on the characters.  You can just feel the main character’s frustration in the first scene when he has to go run errands.  The pet dog, Dinah, looks like one of those confused dogs we have all seen.  Even the text is creative.  The F on the first page is in the shape of a dinosaur.  These little touches make this book extra special.   

Little Rat has just started playing the violin.  She has big dreams of playing with the symphony one day.  But, playing the violin is not as easy as it seems.  She has to practice…and practice…and practice.  She thinks about giving up.  Her teacher is strict and Little Rat isn’t having any fun, until Kitty starts tutoring her.  Little Rat begins to enjoy playing the violin.  When her teacher, Miss Wingbutton, asks Little Rat to play a duet with Kitty, Little Rat gets super excited.  She practices…and practices…and practices, but this time she enjoys it!  Her performance goes wonderfully.  After arriving home, Little Rat goes straight to her room to practice her violin some more. 

I liked the chapter book format of this book.  Each chapter was a few pages long.  Text was easy to read for my first grader, who picked this up right away I might add.  The illustrations are so fun to look at.  I read it through and then just went back and looked through the pictures.  I had a good laugh as I noticed: Little Rat’s mom is singing in the tub. There’s a statue of Mozart (Rat.) Mama Rat has a cheese purse.  I really liked the image from Little Rat’s imagination when she is disappointed with her first violin lesson all the beautiful notes are crumpled together in a pile. 

I just loved this book. In fact I got all my kids to read it, a 7 year old, 10 year old, and 12 year old. Each said they really liked it. My 12 year old asked why there are more books like this for her to read. Sara Varon did an outstanding job with her wordless graphic novel Robot Dreams. The main character, Dog, is lonely and sends off for a kit to make his own robot. Robot becomes his best friend. They watch movies and hang out together. Problems start when they go to the beach. Both Dog and Robot have fun in the water. It isn’t until Robot lays down to rest that they both realize something is terribly wrong. Robot cannot move! He is rusted over and Dog is not strong enough to move him. While Dog sets off to figure out how to rescue Robot, we see Robot’s dreams. By the time Dog returns, the beach has been closed for the season and the only thing Dog can think to do is wait. Meanwhile, Rabbits have discovered Robot and start taking some of his parts. Alone and lonely, Dog tries to make new friends while Robot is left to dream about the future and the past. One day, Monkey finds Robot and takes him to the junkyard. Raccoon the owner of the junkyard takes a liking to Robot and repairs him, turning him into a musical robot. When the beach is finally opened, Dog rushes back to save Robot, but it is too late and he can’t find him anywhere. Dog decides to make a new robot, but things are not the same until their paths cross once again. This was a fun feel good story about friendship. I like that the book was wordless, making it up to me how I decide to word the story.