Of Capes And Courage

Some people carry an object with them believing it inspires them when they need it the most.  There is something intrinsically reassuring about reaching into your pocket to rub your fingers over a treasured memento; its value known only to you.  Others wear a specific article of clothing to ensure good luck is with them during a particular day or a specific event.  

Remembrances are attached to certain outfits hanging in our closets.  We recall some as gifts, or the place it was purchased or the spectacular circumstances we enjoyed while wearing it.  Super Manny Stands Up! (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, July 4, 2017) written by Kelly DiPucchio with illustrations by Stephanie Graegin speaks to the superhero in all of us.

Every day Manny put on a different cape after school.  

Each colored cape represented his ability to conquer those beings who wished him or others harm.  They also made a very special trait within Manny rise to the surface.  Donning his blue cape made battling unsavory sea creatures easy.  Manny was fearless.

His red, yellow, purple, and green capes helped him defeat zombie bears or forest giants.  He could be brave or powerful depending on the foe and the cape he wore.  His most important cape was the one saved for school.  It was his

top secret undercover cape.

No one could see this cape but Manny knew it was there.

Mutant monkeys on the playground and giant squids in the cafeteria were no match for Super Manny.  One day at lunch a voice boomed above the general hum.  Tall One was teasing Small One.  Manny knew he should do something but his capes were at home.  Then he remembered his

top secret undercover cape.

Manny left his seat and spoke.  Tall One immediately turned his attention to Manny questioning his words.  Our invincible raccoon spoke louder.  Tall One was surprised and not pleased with what happened next.  A cape spread courage from one to many.


With her first sentence Kelly DiPucchio welcomes us into the story.  We are already asking questions.  Why does Manny put a cape on after school?  Why does he have different capes?  As each color is depicted a narrative rhythm is established with the introduction of the dangers and the corresponding trait in Manny.  The distinctive characteristics are shouted by Manny in speech bubbles.

During the disruption in the cafeteria all those imaginary evils Manny has fought and conquered are listed in his mind again along with a mantra of his attributes.  This technique asks readers to participate in the tale of Super Manny.  Here is a sample passage.

When legions of alien robots with laser-beam eyes invaded, Manny tirelessly fought them off in his purple cape.

I AM POWERFUL!


Now I ask you, how can you resist the proud, happy raccoon standing on the front of the dust jacket? (I am working with an F & G.) His confidence radiates as strongly as the stars blasting forth behind him.  The title text, Manny, and the stars are varnished.  Each individual star is textured with raised glitter.  To the left, on the back, we see the same hill on the blue background.  This time Manny is facing away from us.

On the opening and closing endpapers illustrator Stephanie Graegin is giving us a hint of happenings to come in the book.  On the first set Manny is wearing different colored striped shirts with different colored capes.  All the poses (40) are altered.  The final set has an addition to the rowed pattern.  (My lips are sealed.)

Rendered in pencil and ink and then assembled and colored digitally the illustrations span two pages, single pages and smaller images on a single page.  For those smaller ones on single pages, Stephanie Graegin usually has a circular shape.  Sometimes the elements will extend outside this frame.

When Manny is facing each of the collective foes they appear in the color of his cape superimposed over the normal activities of the other characters.  When the angry army of zombie bears attack, it is in the middle of his sister's tea party.  Her disgust at his roaring is typical and funny.  Manny is beating the forest giants in a game of croquet as his mother and sister work in the garden.

The layout and design of these images is superb.  The details will have readers pausing to look; the title of Manny's sister's book, the kind of books Manny likes to read, and the cat holding chopsticks in the cafeteria.  Body postures and facial expressions are as exactly as you would expect and are sure to produce smiles in all readers.  Readers will want to join Manny in his exploits.

One of my many favorite illustrations is when the unsavory sea creatures appear.  On a crisp white background Manny is behind a fish bowl looking at the regular fish inside.  The outraged sea creatures are beginning to float from the top as water splashes.  This shift in perspective heightens the pacing.


Readers will count this title as one of their favorites on having the courage to speak up against those who are being unkind to others.  Super Manny Stands Up! written by Kelly DiPucchio with illustrations by Stephanie Graegin is an inspiration to all readers.  One person can make a difference especially if they are wearing their invisible cape.  Make sure you have a copy of this title on your professional and personal bookshelves.

To discover more about Kelly DiPucchio and Stephanie Graegin and their other work please follow the links attached to their names to access their websites.  At the publisher's website you can view interior images. Kelly DiPucchio maintains a blog.  Dylan Teut, director of the Plum Creek Children's Literacy Festival in Seward, Nebraska, interviewed Kelly DiPucchio on his blog, Mile High Reading.

Duly Noted-Posted Blog Tour

Surviving middle school is akin to surviving (and enjoying) life in general.  It's a testing ground for becoming who you want to be for the rest of your life.  Everything is under a microscope; magnified and scrutinized.  Cruelty walks the halls alongside compassion.  In surprising moments of utter clarity one will rise above the other. 

Eighth grade, the final year before moving to high school, is when those foggy things hovering in the background of our days move to the front and center, sharply in focus.  Posted (Walden Pond Press, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, May 2, 2017) by John David Anderson, author of Ms. Bixby's Last Day (Walden Pond Press, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, June 21, 2016) presents to readers two life-changing weeks for the members of the Branton Middle School community; specifically those of four plus one friends.  Those bonds, of the first four, forged over years are about to be measured.

I PUSH MY WAY THROUGH THE BUZZING MOB AND FREEZE, 

heart-struck, dizzy.  It takes me a minute to really get what I'm looking at.

When you read these first two sentences of the two page introduction narrated by Frost, Eric Voss so named for winning a poetry contest, there is no turning back.  You are entirely attracted and attached to the story.  Frost takes us on a journey through the previous two weeks blending past episodes with present events.

When Frost came to this school a little more than two years ago due to his parent's divorce, his mother reassured him by saying

"It will be awkward at first, but it gets better.  You find your people and you make a tribe and you protect each other.  From the wolves."

Four guys, highly intelligent but different, find each other.  Bench, Jeremiah Jones, plays football, basketball and baseball but usually sits on the sidelines until there is nothing he can do to alter the course of the game.  Advik Patel, DeeDee, is a Dungeons & Dragons fanatic and collector of polyhedral dice.  He is never without a ten-sided dice, carrying it for good luck and rolling it to make decisions.  Wolf, Morgan Thompson, is a piano prodigy.  His nickname is shortened from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  Frost is certain the other three will someday be sitting in the audience at Carnegie Hall listening to Wolf.   

On a nothing-out-of-the-ordinary day in math class, Ruby Sandals (don't you dare call her Dorothy) is caught texting on her phone.  Of course, phones are not allowed in class but everyone uses them.  What makes this infraction grow from small to ginormous is what Ms. Sheers reads on the screen and the fact this is the final violation of many.  By the following Monday no phones are allowed in school...at all.  If there are special circumstances, they are to be turned in to the office where they will be held for the day. 

Into this scenario walks Rose Holland, a new student.  Now Rose is a big girl, tall and muscular.  She's not afraid to speak her mind.  She's not afraid to ask if she can sit at the table with Frost, Bench, DeeDee and Wolf who have been sitting at that same table for more than two years during every lunch period.  Her presence there not just for one day but for each day thereafter, alters the dynamics of the group significantly.  

With the absence of phones, middle-school student creativity grows to an all-time high.  No one can pinpoint how it starts exactly (it might have been DeeDee) but post-it notes, required school supplies, start to appear everywhere as a means of communication.  Unlike phones, the identity of the author is not always known.  The tone of the notes escalates from funny and friendly to vicious.  

A lunchtime origami session, the introduction of The Gauntlet and Hirohito Hill, Mr. Sword's aphorisms, a spectacular play during a football game, and a night of re-arranging rules contribute to huge shifts in loyalties.  Another school policy rule heightens the stakes.  Then two huge instances of deliberate harassment bookending a contest bring readers to a poignant point.  Utter clarity.

When John David Anderson writes about middle school students it is with a thread of universality running through it.  No matter your age you completely comprehend every aptly described moment and interaction with the characters.  The staff members, the principal and the parents are familiar, like people you know.

For each of the twenty chapters Anderson uses only two word titles beginning with the word the; The Catalyst, The Tribe, The Variable, The Catch, The Bet or The Confession.  It's an art form.  It's amazing to read how incidents, conversations, thoughts and people build layer upon layer from the singular word.  Please enjoy the selected passages below.

People talk about nightmares where they are falling or where they are trapped in a burning building or buried alive.  But ask any incoming sixth grader with at least two forehead zits and a Great Clips haircut and he will tell you the prevailing image from his nightmares is standing in the middle of a buzzing cafeteria, tray in hand, desperately looking for somewhere to sit.  That was what made me sweat through my sheets at night.

Forget the bogeyman; the lunch lady haunted my dreams.

We all need something that's ours.  A thing that we know absolutely about ourselves that others can only guess at.

We started walking toward the playground where our bikes were racked, the swings and slides full of carefree kids, little ones who didn't need a tribe yet because when you're five, everybody's a member.

What made it unique was the battleground.  Every skirmish took place on three square inches.  Sticky notes were the weapons and words were the ammunition.

"Turds," he said.

"Huh?"

"Cheetos.  The look like turds.  Little cheese turds.  Especially the stubby ones.  I never noticed that before."  He was sitting cross-legged on his bed with a copy of X-Men #25 spread out in front of him.  The one where Wolverine has his adamentium sucked out of his pores by Magneto.  Brutal stuff.  Good stuff.  I looked at the Cheeto like it was some divine artifact worthy of a museum.  He wasn't wrong.  They did sort of look like that.  I'd always imagined them more as tree roots.

"When I was little I thought they were supposed to look like toes.  Cheese-toes.  Except they left off the s," Wolf said.

"I'm pretty sure nobody's toes look like that," I said.

"I think my grandmother's toes probably look like this."

He popped the crunchy cheese turd in his mouth and started chewing.

"And I'm pretty sure you have now ruined Cheetos for me for life."

Wolf gave me a giant grin with bright orange mush smeared across his teeth.

Posted written by John David Anderson is an intimate and insightful look at middle school life.  He understands the middle school mind.  He understands people and their relationships.  I sincerely believe every middle school student should and will want to read this book.  You will need to have multiple copies on your shelves.  Please read the Acknowledgments.

To learn more about John David Anderson and his other work please follow the link attached to his name to access his website.  You can enjoy the first five chapters here.  Click on Start Reading Now!

John David Anderson is the author of Ms. Bixby's Last Day, Sidekicked, Minion, and The Dungeoneers.  A dedicated root beer connoisseur and chocolate fiend, he lives with his wife, two kids, and perpetually whiny cat in Indianapolis, Indiana.  This picture is of John David Anderson after he survived middle school. 

Blog Tour Participants

April 17          Librarian's Quest

Walden Media Tumblr

April 18          Nerdy Book Club

April 19          For Those About to Mock

April 20          Teach Mentor Texts

April 21          Unleashing Readers

April 22          Next Best Book
                       Read, Write, Reflect

April 23          Bluestocking Thinking

April 24          Litcoach Lou

                        Book Monsters

April 25          Kirsti Call

April 26          Educate-Empower-Inspire-Teach

April 27          The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia                                                                                       

                        Ms Yingling Reads

April 28          Maria's Mélange                                                                                                                    

                        Novel Novice

April 29          The Hiding Spot

April 30          This Kid Reviews Books

Standing Up For The Good

Depending on your personality, the situation or both, being invisible can be a useful survival technique.  Blending in with a crowd, keeping silent whenever possible, and not drawing attention to yourself serve a purpose.  There are those who follow this lone wolf path; either by choice or because they are not welcome as a part of the pack...yet.

Maneuvering through the uncertain realities of middle school is tricky.  Everything thought to be true is changing.  As a sixth grade student you're constantly scrambling to keep both feet on the ground.  Zack Delacruz:  Me And My Big Mouth (Sterling Children's Books, August 4, 2015) debut novel by author Jeff Anderson addresses, with liberal amounts of humor, the lone wolf, the observer, who creates a pack, a group with a common cause.

A typhoon spray of spit.
A stupid assembly.
And my big mouth.
That's all it took to ruin my life.
If you're a sixth grader at Davy Crockett Middle School in San Antonio, Texas, you start off every day in advisory.  Besides cruel and unusual punishment, advisory is an avoiding game:  avoiding eye contact, avoiding talking, and, so far, avoiding trouble.

Thought to be a relief from the dreaded advisory, the school population heads en masse to the gym for an assembly on bullying.  Needless to say, the presenter, while making some valid points, probably has even the faculty rolling their eyes with her over-the-top perky style.  Later a group of students gather in the library for class.  Our narrator, Zack Delacruz, introduces us to several of his classmates through an incident involving Janie Bustamante, prone to spitting when speaking.  For reasons unknown even to him, Zack speaks out on behalf of Janie who is being harassed by Jose, El Pollo Loco, and class clown.

Mrs. Darling, their quirky librarian, misses this confrontation while taking a phone call.  The results of the call and an impromptu dance competition place adversaries Zack and Jose in charge of a sixth-grade candy-selling campaign.  This is no ordinary fund raiser.  Forty-eight hundred dollars' worth of bars need to be sold in five days in order for the sixth grade students to be able to attend, for the first time ever, the seventh and eighth grade fall dance.

Thankfully Zack has a good friend in Marquis, a bit of a math and organizational wizard.  They met and ride the same bus home on alternating weeks, when Zack stays with his Dad.  Let's pause here for a minute.  Zack is beginning his first year of middle school, his parents have recently divorced, all plans of staying invisible are out the window and he is basically in charge of making sure the sixth grade students get to go to the dance because Jose is no help at all.  This guy's life is loaded with daily unexpected developments.

Worried about five extra boxes after every student has taken their share, Zack is ecstatic when the next day Janie wants all of them.  In his current life of constant challenges, a miracle is in the making.  As the fates would have it, this euphoric moment vanishes like a puff of smoke.  A candy crisis of epic proportions rolls in like a sudden summer storm.

Marquis' sprained ankle, a pamphlet in Nurse Patty's office, a phone call, an online search, an intervention and Instant Lube might provide a solution.  Zack, Marquis, Jose, Janie, Sophie and her groupies, Sophie's eighth grade boyfriend, Raymond, and his crew, Cliche Jones and Chewy Johnson need to do the improbable, work together.  As the page turns speed up, so do the events culminating in an unforgettable Night At The Alamo. NO LOITERING!


Jeff Anderson's experiences, over twenty years in the classroom, are evident on every page.  These fictional characters are a window and a mirror.  They give readers unaware of middle school a direct link to the swirl of everyday life in and out of the classroom.  Readers will see themselves within these pages.

Zack's voice, his perspective, is spontaneous and hilarious.  The narrative unfolds from conversations held with his classmates and his thoughts.  The portraits he paints of Mrs. Darling, the librarian, Mrs. Harrington, their English teacher, Coach Ostraticki, and Principal Atkins are classic.  Zack's Dad will have you cheering.  You will be laughing and nodding your head in agreement at the realism described in this book.  Here are some sample passages.

I stumbled through the rusted metal door frames of the gym.  Echoing laughter and shouts bounced off the hardwood floors.  A sea of black, red, and khaki uniforms collected at the door as everyone looked for their friends.

Marquis never accused me of lying that day or the next, even though I supposed he knew.  He'd given me a pass, and my lie floated away like a loose plastic bag on the side of Highway 281.  And it was replaced by friendship.

It was like Raymond Montellongo had just punched me in the stomach.  But this was Dad.  First Mom made Dad move out.  Then, I had to live with Dad every other week in a place that isn't even fit for living.  He had promised we'd get a TV.
"I want to make some changes, Zack," Dad said.
He wouldn't stop.  He just kept going.  Dads are supposed to give kids everything they need, like TVs and snacks.  And for crying out loud, dad's feet aren't supposed to stink so much.  I stood up, clamping my nose.
"Why don't you change your socks?" I said.
"Very funny, Zack."  He reached over and patted the back of my leg.  "I think we watch TV too much."
"Not lately.  Not since we moved to the Villa De La Prison."
"Hey now, Zack."  He moved in for a side hug.
"Dad, I want to make some changes too," I squirmed out from his arm and stomped toward the door.  My voice shook.  "The first is no more changes."  And I slammed the door like an exclamation mark, telling Dad I was serious.  Seriously mad.


Jeff Anderson has penned a title, Zack Delacruz:  Me And My Big Mouth, which will resonate with the intended audience.  It addresses pertinent issues faced by middle school students with truth and laughter.  I think copies of this book will have the well-loved look in no time at all.  I am not sure if the letter from the editor and author will appear in the final copy (my recommendation is based upon an ARC) but they add insight into the story.

For more information on Jeff Anderson please follow the link attached to his name to access his website.  Jeff Anderson is interviewed by Franki Sibberson at A Year Of Reading.  Please take a few minutes to read his post about the writing of this book at write.share. connect. Update:  Jeff Anderson is interviewed at Kids Talk Kid Lit by educator Kurt Strohs.

Check out "Which Zack Delacruz Character Are You?" https://t.co/aKKG9rY7qk pic.twitter.com/xaOtleo5Wr

— Jeff Anderson (@writeguyjeff) July 17, 2015

My first hardback final copy with illustrations and chapter titles arrived today. Wahooo! #WhoIsZackDelacruz pic.twitter.com/CdefwF95xH

— Jeff Anderson (@writeguyjeff) July 24, 2015

A Rare Sight

Infrequently seen, where I've lived and visited, a brief glimpse as they soar by, is what I've come to label, a cause for a pause.  Their color is so brilliant it's hard not to gasp.  For me the sight of a bluebird has always meant there is magic in the air.

When my copy of Bluebird (Schwartz & Wade Books) written and illustrated by Bob Staake arrived, I could hardly open the box fast enough.  I'd been reading about its reception in the children's literature community but had not read any of the reviews or interviews except for one.  I wanted any impressions of this book to be all my own.

As is my practice I looked over the front and back jacket.  Upon removing the jacket I was delighted to see the cover has another illustration, a double page spread of the bluebird looking over the city from above.  An initial glance at the opening and closing endpapers told me they are an essential part of the story.

The unique framing used throughout begins on the verso, dedication and title pages.  They are all a part of the pictorial narrative. As the bluebird flies from left to right, through four frames, alighting in a tree outside a school, we meet the boy.

Watching, the bluebird sees the sadness of the child, head lowered, silent, as others make fun of him; a new school year is beginning.  Leaving the school at day's end, the boy slowly makes his way home but the bluebird follows, weaving in and out of his path.  Before too long the bluebird's persistence makes the boy smile.

As the two make their way through the city streets to the park, each new scenario further defines each of their personalities and the growing relationship.  Due to the bluebird's guidance the sailing pond yields newfound friends.  Leaving their resting place in the sun, they enter another darker, more wooded part of the park.

Within moments the boy is approached by three other boys wanting his sailboat.  When an act done in anger threatens the boy, his bluebird friend intercedes.  The result has the three running and the boy left, tearful, holding the bluebird.  To the boy's bewilderment a colorful array of birds first one at a time, then in groups, approach with their own plan for him as he still holds his bluebird friend. A strikingly beautiful ending, for the shift in color and the ensuing final pages, will have each reader drawing their own conclusions.


This wordless wonder has readers immediately developing an emotional attachment with the boy and the bluebird.  We experience the loneliness, the light, freely given friendship of one then the other, the happiness of discovering other playmates, the fear, the sadness and ultimately the hope.  With each turn of page we are more deeply involved in the events of the day.

For most of the book Bob Staake uses shades of gray and blue with black and white making the burst of rainbow hues at the end more profoundly felt.  To tell you the truth, after the first few pages the palette choice, unique and definitely appealing, shifts slightly back as the reader intently studies the movements and facial expressions of the bluebird and the boy.  Every nuance of  their developing bond is clearly draw; visible with the line of an eye or mouth, the turn of head, the lift of wings or stature.

Each two page spread with different size square and rectangular frames, carefully placed, defines the speed in which the story is revealed. Inside those frames we might see a larger overview or zoom in for a shift in the story's actions or emotions. The layout and design is brilliant.  One of my favorite double page illustrations is after their adventure at the pond.  You have to wonder how long it's been since the boy has been this happy.


At my first reading of this title I was stunned (and tearful).  With each subsequent reading of Bluebird written and illustrated by Bob Staake I continue to be amazed at the power of storytelling in visuals alone.  The layers in this story, the opportunity for discussion, makes it a book to be read and shared...repeatedly.

The first interview of Bob Staake regarding Bluebird I read can be found at Watch. Connect. Read.  Here is an interview titled Hostile Questions at Booklist.   19 Questions with Author and Illustrator Bob Staake can be found at Random Acts of Reading.  Publishers Weekly conducted a Q & A with Bob Staake.  Be sure to follow the link embedded in Bob Staake's name above to read about the process of creating Bluebird.