We began our January discussion with our picture book, Dancing Hands: How Teresa Carreno Played the Piano for President Lincoln by Margarita Engle (2019). Some of us thought this book was wonderful; and no-one actually disliked it. We all loved the colorful illustrations, and the way that they portrayed the mood of Teresa's story through the physicality and expressions of the characters and the depictions of the scenes. A couple of people were confused by the illustration of the Civil War soldiers, since it was difficult to recognize the difference between the Union and Confederate uniforms. Several of us also noticed the colorful little bird that appeared on many pages, and found it interesting when President Lincoln requested that 10-year-old Teresa play "Listen to the Mockingbird," even though she was miffed by the fact that the White House piano was out of tune, but we wondered why the bird wasn't on every page. Most of us liked the poetic language of the story, but one reader noted that there had been an abundance of similes, which she found somewhat jarring. We all liked the "Historical Note" that was actually shown on the back endpaper and we were all pleased to learn a story about a person about whom we had never heard, and felt that it would be a good story for young readers -- or -- as a read-aloud.
We all had positive things to say about our novel, Restart by Gordon Korman (2017), which tells the story of Chase, a 13-year-old boy suffering from amnesia after a bad fall, who was trying to figure out who he really was: the football-playing bully he had been before or the nice guy he was becoming now. We agreed that the writing, although not literally magnificent, was quite straightforward and accessible for young readers -- specifically middle-schoolers, the target age group. We felt that the story was plot-driven rather than character-drive, and we didn't really feel any true connection with any of the characters. But we did feel that it portrayed the angst and impulsivity of kids of that age as we read accounts by Chase's 'friends' and 'enemies' and learned of the events of his 'before' and 'after' lives. We all knew how it would end, and several of us felt that there were too many scenes to get through before arriving at the satisfying conclusion. We thought it would be a good kickoff for a discussion about bullying and the "nature vs. nurture" issue: could one's behavior really change in a situation like this? One reader who had not heard of Korman before was now eager to read all of his books, and to introduce them to middle-school students...so that is a good thing!
