Great Books Celebration 2008

Great Books is a Consortium of Baltimore, Carroll, Harford and Howard Counties

Baltimore County wanted to have their own notable books modeled after ALA, but changed the title to Great Books, because their focus was good fun books that kids want to read, not necessarily need to read for an assignment.

The three committees, Great Picture Books, Great Books for Kids and Great Books for Teens each reviewed over 100 books and then selected their favorites:

Great Picture Books:
Some Dog by Mary Casanova
The Perfect Nest by Catherine Friend
The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County by Janice Harrington
Living Color by Steve Jenkins
How to he a Baby: By Me, the Big Sister by Sally Lloyd-Jones
Today at the Bluebird Café: A Branchful of Birds by Deborah Ruddell
I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry
Nothing But Trouble: The Story of Althea Gibson by Sue Stauffacher
My Friend is Sad//Today I Will Fly! by Mo Willems
Every Friday by Dan Yaccarino

Great Books for Kids:
No Talking by Andrew Clements
Glint by Ann Coburn
How to Steal a Dog by Barbara O’Connor
The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt
The Invention of Hugo Cabret: A Novel in Words and Pictures by Brian Selznick
Someone Named Eva by Joan Wolf
An Inconvenient Truth: The Crisis of Global Warming by Al Gore

Great Books for Teens:
Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron
Before I Die by Jenny Downham
I Love You, Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle
Un Lun Dun by China Mieville
Freak Show by James St. James
The Arrival by Shaun Tan
A Lifetime of Secrets by Frank Warren

Guest Author
Bruce Coville, author of I Was a Sixth Grade Alien and Magic Shop series, entertained the audience relating his background, how he became a writer and his philosophy about reading and children. Mr. Coville was born and has lived most of his life in Syracuse, New York. Always a reader, he especially remembers his father reading him Tom Swift.

He became a writer because of a teacher in sixth grade who asked the students to write a story and then read it. Mr. Coville explained that “the right story at the right time” opens up doors to a kid’s heart. A story also helps bring ideas to life and is a way to encourage courage in children. Reading is a gender issue, as children see reading as a female activity and culturally it is not o.k. for kids to be their best. Stories help children to heal so they can help heal the world. Our job is to open doors and stories help children reopen doors.

Book Discussion Groups:
Each participant enrolled in 3 different discussion groups. My Picture Book group was “On the Road Again” and we discussed Stick by Steve Breen, Lightship by Brian Floca, Casey Back at Bat by Dan Gutman (not owned my MCPL), Wind Flyers by Angela Johnson, and Bow-Wow Bugs a Bug by Mark Newgarden (not owned by MCPL). I would encourage you to read Stick, a humorous and delightful journey of a frog, Lightship, a fascinating look at a lightship before light houses were built, and Wind Flyers which recounts the story of a young boy, his love of flying and joining the Tuskegee airman. My Great Books for Kids discussion group was “Little Intrigues” and we discussed The Case of the Left-Handed Lady by Nancy Springer, The Secret of the Priest’s Grotto: A Holocaust Survival Story by Peter Taylor, The Theft and the Miracle by Rebecca Wade (not owned by MCPL) and Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos by R.L. LaFevers. Read The Case of the Left-Handed Lady if you are a Sherlock Holmes fan, as the female detective Enola Holmes is Sherlock Holmes’ sister. My Great Books for Teens discussion group was “Moments from the Past” and included Harlem Summer by Walter Dean Myers, Laika by Nick Abadzis (not owned by MCPL), Tamar by Mal Peet and Wildly Romantic by Catherine Andronik (not owned by MCPL). Laika, was a fascinating graphic novel about the first dog to go up in the Russian Sputnik II. Harlem Summer, my favorite, is the coming of age story about a boy during the Harlem Renaissance.
This training will increase my knowledge of books and how an author views literature and its uses. The lists of Great Books will be helpful when choosing books to booktalk to the schools. The book discussions clarifies various issues in each book and exposes me to different viewpoints