Book review: Persepolis: the story of a childhood

Persepolis: the story of a childhood by Marjane Satrapi

Marjane Satrapi grew up in Tehran, Iran, in the 1980s during a time of great political turmoil: the Shah (ruler) was overthrown, violent rebellions took place, and Iran went to war with Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Marjane grew up in a household with her progressive family and was not happy when she had to wear a veil to school all of a sudden - she never had to before, after all! The unrest in her country made its way into her life in the form of a favourite uncle being a political prisoner and difficulties finding food to eat in the empty supermarkets, and watching her life unravel around her causes Marjane to rebel.

Told in black and white graphic novel form, Persepolis is a fascinating look at what growing up was like for a rebellious girl in the politically unsettled Iran. By turns funny, sad, shocking and tense, Persepolis tells the fascinating story of one girl growing up in a place and situation that many of us would have a hard time imagining.

4 stars out of 5 for Persepolis.

Read a review.

Read what the author has to say about this book.

View some pages of Persepolis.

What is an article?

It can be confusing trying to figure out if the webpage you are looking at is an article or not. Here are a few things you should look for that will let you know if you are looking at an article:

It has a title

If it is online, there should be a date

There is an author listed (often a person, but may be something like “Associated Press” or “Maclean’s staff”).

You found it in an encyclopedia or serial publication (newspaper, magazine, journal, etc.).

It follows the general format of a written work (introduction, body, conclusion).

Examples of articles:

Squid

Veiled women can vote

Student survey

Examples of non-articles:

Student services

Mars

Margaret Herrick Library

Apparently, books really can save lives!

It so happens that Michael Auberry, a 12-year-old Boy Scout who was missing in the North Carolina wilderness for 4 days last week, read the book Hatchet by Gary Paulsen a few years ago, which his father believes helped him to survive.

Auberry said he took comfort that his son spent weeks a few years ago reading
the novel "Hatchet" by Gary Paulsen, a survival adventure story about a boy
stranded alone on a Canadian island after a plane crash.

"I think he's got some of that book on his mind," Auberry said. The book is required reading for students in Michael's school district.

Read the CNN news article.

More new books!

Another order of books came in today, and I am so excited because two of my recent favourites have come in: The Book Thief and Uglies. Hooray!

The Mediator 1: Shadowland and The Mediator 2: Ninth Key by Meg Cabot

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Author Visit: Sandra Phinney

Author Sandra Phinney will be visiting the high school on Friday, March 23rd, for the day. She is coming through the Writers In The Schools (WITS) program of the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia, and we are very excited to have her come and speak to students in 5 different classes.

Here is a blurb about Ms. Phinney from her WITS profile:

"It's been said that Sandra Phinney can find a story in a stump. She's written hundreds of magazine articles, tons of scripts for videos and two books. One of the techniques she uses for both her fiction and non-fiction is a tool called "clustering". She loves to teach students how to cluster and from this, they come up with some amazing tales. The focus of her sessions is on finding the "story" and discovering how to give the story a pulse and make it jump off the page. For younger classes, she gets them to cluster verbally or by drawing pictures to tell their stories. If time permits, Sandra will read from her latest book, Pierre Elliott Trudeau: The Pranskter Who Never Flinched, and field a discussion about writing books."

Sandra Phinney's book Risk Takers and Innovators: Great Canadian Business Ventures since 1950 is available for loan at the PRHS library, and you can read some selected works (including articles) on her website.

Book review: The Book Thief

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Liesel Meminger lives in Nazi Germany. Her little brother just died, her mother has left her, and she is now living on a street named after Heaven with her foster parents. She discovers that she cannot resist books and learning to read and becomes the book thief, stealing books as needed. As life unfolds around her with all its turmoil and grief (it is wartime and bombs are falling and people are dying, after all), she finds that joy can be found in the most unexpected of places.

Oh, and the entire book is narrated by Death. You know, the guy with a sickle and a long hooded robe.

I have been reading novels about the Second World War for half my life, and this book comes out on top. I have not stopped raving about it to friends and family since I read it back in November (like I forced friends to read Twilight before that). Liesel is someone that almost anyone can relate to, and Rudy is the best friend you wish you had. The book recently won a Printz Honor for being an outstanding book for young adults.

Yes, I loved this book. 5 stars out of 5.

Watch a trailer for The Book Thief (like a movie trailer but for a book - seriously!)

Read a review.

An interview with the author.

A few new books

I got a small delivery of new novels today, hurrah!


13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson (I have borrowed this and am halfway through it - I'm really liking it so far.)

Peeps by Scott Westerfeld (another vampire book!)

Rebel Angels by Jahnna Malcolm

That Summer by Sarah Dessen

March School Newsletter and Calendar

The school newsletters have been sent home, but now you can also view them online. I have linked to them below.

March Newsletter (PDF file - you will need Adobe Reader to view this file, which you can download for free)

March Calendar (PDF file)

Review: Where the Red Fern Grows

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

Billy lives in the country and has saved up his money for two whole years to buy two dogs that he can hunt raccoons with. The two dogs - Old Dan and Little Ann - turn out to be two of the best hunting dogs around. When Billy starts entering hunting competitions, the danger and excitement starts.

Excerpt (page 40): “The leader of the gang was about my size. He had a dirty freckled face and his front two teeth were missing. ... He stomped on my right foot. I looked down and saw a drop of blood ooze out from under the broken nail. It hurt like the dickens but I gritted my teeth and walked on.
“Freckle-face pulled the ear of my little girl pup. I heard her painful cry. That was too much. I hadn’t worked two long hard years for my pups to have some freckle-faced punk pull their ears. … I reached way back into Arkansas somewhere. By the time my fist had traveled all the way down to the Cherokee Strip, there was a lot of power behind it.”

This is one of my favourite books: it is exciting, funny, scary, sad, and it's easy to relate to Billy and what he goes through. I always thought that it would have been fun to be like Billy and go on adventures with his two dogs who were also his best friends.

5 stars out of 5 for Where the Red Fern Grows.

Review #1.
Review #2.

About the author, Wilson Rawls.

Lunar eclipse Saturday night

On Saturday night, the moon will look something like this:

Tomorrow night viewers in our region will be treated (weather permitting) to a lunar eclipse. According to this article in the Globe & Mail, the moon will appear reddish or brownish in colour as it rises above the horizon in the Earth's shadow. This will be the first total eclipse of the moon since October 2004.

Totality (or the total coverage of the moon by Earth's shadow) starts at 6:44 pm and continues until 7:58 pm on Saturday night.

About lunar eclipses.

**UPDATE: Did you get to see it? We in Nova Scotia were very lucky to have almost no clouds in the sky on Saturday night during the eclipse. I thought it was more browny than coppery in colour though - it almost looked murky. What did you think?

Globe & Mail article, Monday, March 5th

Picture books for teens

The Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) has put together a list of picture books appropriate for older children and teenagers. It's a wonderful list and well worth investigating.

As a small aside, it is worthy of note that studies show that students who learn about a topic from picture books do as well on tests as students who learn about the same topic from their textbook, and those who learn from picture books have more of an emotional connection to the topic as well [Albright, "Bringing the Ice Maiden to life" - available from the school board's EBSCOhost databases].

Doubt that picture books could be relevant for anyone other than small children? Pick up one by Peter Sis.

Virtual Display: Sports novels

Raging River by Pam Withers

15-year-old Jake is trying to make the Canadian National Kayaking team, and he works for a white-water rafting company to help pay for his equipment. When Jake finds himself on a rafting expedition and a series of disasters strike, he must work together with his archrival Peter to survive the fierce rapids and find help.

Read a review.


Danger Zone by Michele Martin Bossley

Jason has enough troubles before he accidentally checks another player from behind during a hockey game. Even though he thinks that his punishment is too severe, there is nothing he can really do about except prove himself to his family, friends, and hockey league - but how?




Tangerine by Edward Bloor

Paul is partially blind but can see things that most people can't - including disturbing things about his older brother the star football player. When he and his family move to Tangerine, where the fields burn and lightning strikes every day, things get strange. Not only does Paul find himself on the school soccer team but he discovers terrifying secrets about his older brother and must decide whether or not to do anything about them.

Read a review.


Bull Catcher by Alden R. Carter

Neil "Bull" Larson is in high school and only wants to play baseball, but there always seem to be things distracting him, from his family to his friends to girls at school. Or is it baseball that is distracting him from the rest of his life?

Books people can't live without

In honour of World Book Day today, The Guardian newspaper (from London, England) surveyed British readers and came up with a list of 100 books that they could not live without.

It is a very interesting list that has a bit of everything: classics, newer books, children's books (like Winnie the Pooh), massive tomes (like War and Peace - I still think of that Charlie Brown cartoon where Linus has to lug the book around like a ball and chain), mysteries, drama, and books I had to read for school (like To Kill a Mockingbird).

It would appear that the Brits - or at least the ones who read The Guardian - are quite well-read.