THE BEATRYCE PROPHECY by Kate DiCamillo and THE SECRET CODE INSIDE YOU: All About Your DNA by Rajani LaRocca

At our August meeting we began with our novel, The Beatryce Prophecy by Kate DiCamillo and illustrated by Sophie Blackall. Most of us had varying degrees of love for this book for a variety of reasons. We all appreciated the seemingly very simple, but actually very deeply thought out text, which at times felt like a fairy tale and at other times felt even biblical. We appreciated DiCamillo's amazing storytelling skill, and we also felt that the black/grey illustrations done with "real and digital pencils" were entirely appropriate. We were enamored by Beatryce, who, during the medieval times in which she lived, was destined, according to an ancient prophecy, to become king. Beginning when she is found in a pen with a goat, Answelica, and with amnesia, the story goes on to explore her quest to find out who she really is, and to find out what her place is in the world. There are so many details that become evident as the story proceeds -- too many to mention here -- but the main one is that she knows how to read and write, which is prohibited for girls in the time she is living. With the help of a monk, Brother Edik; a boy, Jack Dory; an ex-king, Cannoc; and the goat, Beatryce's perseverance leads her through many hairy adventures en route to the palace. We loved the way that the story developed as we learned the reasons that each character joined her quest; we loved the suspense, and the final resolution, which made a reader feel the power of love as well as the power of story and the importance of reading. One reader was less enamored of the book, and although she did like the story and the writing, she felt it might be a bit too didactic as far as Beatryce's strength as a female and the importance of reading were concerned. We all felt that young readers would become fully engaged in this book from the very beginning, and that since it is a relatively easy read (and not too long) they would stick with it until the end -- where they could not help but to feel -- something!

We decided to read The Secret Code Inside of You: All About Your DNA by Rajani LaRocca and illustrated by Steven Salerno because we had loved her writing in Red, White, and Whole, which we discussed in July. We wanted to see what she would do with a nonfiction picture book for younger readers. We had varying opinions on this book whose role was to simplify the very complicated subject of cells, DNA, chromosomes, genes, and how they all create specific  characteristics in humans and animals. Some of us liked the rhyming couplets that comprised the text throughout the book, others thought they were terrible, and that the introductory part of the book -- before getting into the actual science -- was too long. We all basically liked the illustrations, which were quite colorful, and did show what the text talked about -- like the cell and the double helix of the DNA. One reader felt that this book was terrible -- that it wasn't totally scientifically correct, and that it was poorly written. But most of us felt that kids could definitely learn from it but probably would be unlikely to just pull it from a library shelf.  However, if a teacher or parent read it to them and showed them the pictures they might want to read it again themselves, and might even want to read more books about this topic. We did feel that the back matter of the book was helpful, but probably for adults -- since young kids rarely read it.