Author: Loree Burns

GOONEY BIRD GREENE
By Lois Lowry
Illustrated by Middy Thomas
Houghton Mifflin, 200

Category: Elementary grade fiction

From my almost-six year old: “A kid named Gooney Bird Greene? Is it a boy or a girl kid? Will you read it to me, please, please, please?”

Turns out Gooney Bird Greene is a girl … and she tells spectacular stories. So spectacular, in fact, that everyone assumes she makes them up. For example, “How Gooney Bird Came from China on a Flying Carpet” sounds like a made-up story, doesn’t it? But Gooney Bird insists her stories are “all absolutely true.” Her second grade teacher, Mrs. Pidgeon, presses the issue, because, after all, she cannot have her second graders believing in trips from China on a flying carpet! But readers soon discover that the remarkable Gooney Bird did come from China on a flying carpet. And she did direct a symphony orchestra. And her beloved cat was actually consumed by a cow.

Gooney Bird is flashy and over-the-top, she is the most self-assured second grader I have ever met, and she has a way with people. It took me a few chapters to be sure, but I like Gooney Bird Greene. I like what she has to say about storytelling and patience and language. And assumptions. I especially like what Gooney Bird had to say about those.

My daughter has added the sequels, GOONEY BIRD AND THE ROOM MOTHER and GOONEY THE FABULOUS to our summer reading list. I’m game; I love good stories!

 

THE PINBALLS
By Betsy Byars
HarperCollins, 1977

Category: Middle grade fiction

Like Judy Blume’s BLUBBER, THE PINBALLS left an impression on my childhood. I have been certain for a good many years now (twenty-five? more?) that this book was Important. Somewhere along the way, however, I forgot why. Was it the characters? The plot? The message? I wasn’t sure. Yesterday I decided to remember.

Harvey.

Thomas J.

Carlie.

How could I have forgotten them? The awful car accident that landed Harvey in a wheelchair and a foster home; the well-meaning and ancient Aunts Benson who cared for Thomas J. as best they were able; tough-as-a-nut Carlie and her bad attitude. How could I have forgotten? When these three misfits end up in the same foster home, Carlie likens them to pinballs being flung hither and yon without any say in the matter. But they find a way to be a family. And they realize they are not careening, out-of-control objects after all. They are human beings who make decisions every day about their own lives … mostly how to face it.

“…as long as we are trying, Thomas J, we are not pinballs.”

Oh, Carlie. I’ve missed you.

 

MISTY OF CHINCOTEAGUE
By Marguerite Henry
Illustrated by Wesley Dennis
Aladdin, 1991 (original copyright 1947)

Category: Middle grade fiction (for horse lovers!)

I was a horse girl. I never had a horse of my own, or had much opportunity even to ride a horse, but every cell of my young body longed to sit bareback on a racer, knot my hands in its mane, and fly. Sigh. Everett wasn’t exactly horse country, and we weren’t exactly horse folk. Luckily, there were books.

I read and re-read NATIONAL VELVET, THE BLACK STALLION, and absolutely anything by Marguerite Henry. One of my all time favorite horse stories was Henry’s 1948 Newbery Honor book MISTY OF CHINCOTEAGUE. As this is turning into a summer for revisting childhood classics (Thank you, Bruce Coville), I have just finished re-acquainting myself with Paul, Maureen, the Phantom and Misty.

Paul and Maureen are brother and sister. They live on a pony farm where they help their grandfather break colts for buyers and dream of raising a horse of their own. Phantom is the most elusive horse in the wild Assateague Island herd … and Misty is her colt. When Paul is allowed to participate in Pony Penning Day, the annual roundup of wild horses from Assateague, he sets out to catch his dream. But will he? And if he does, will he be able to keep it? This is a beautifully-told adventure story and I will love it forever.

I can’t wait to read MISTY OF CHINCOTEAGUE to my own kids. (It is top of the post-Harry Potter craziness list.) In the meanwhile, I am planning our trip to Virginia. That’s right … I am taking the family to Assateague Island to see the wild horses of my childhood dreams. I can hardly sit still with the thought.

 

WRINGER
By Jerry Spinelli
Joanna Cotler Books, 1997

Category: Middle-grade fiction

A couple years ago I forced myself to attend a Costume Ball at the New England SCBWI Conference. (I typically attend this conference alone, and schmoozing has never been my thing, so an event like this is pure torture for me!) Among the celebrities I met were Olivia (the feisty pig), Lilly (of purple plastic purse fame) and Minerva McGonagall (perhaps my favorite of Harry’s teacher). And there was this kid I didn’t recognize … he was dressed in what looked like a baseball uniform with the name Magee (or was it Maniac?) printed on the back.

I know, I know, you are all shocked. I can hear you through my computer screen: “You didn’t recognize MANIAC MAGEE? And you call yourself a fan of children’s literature?”

Trust me, I have been trying to make amends ever since. But it is hard to get a copy of MANIAC MAGEE at the library! It was out the first time I tried, so I read STARGIRL instead. (If you are an elementary or middle school student and a fan of STARGIRL, check this out.) And then I got distracted for a while (um, two years). I remembered MANIAC MAGEE this week and tried again to get it at the library. Still out! So I picked up WRINGER.

WRINGER is the story of Palmer, on the cusp of turning ten and dreading it. You see, where Palmer lives kids who turn ten become wringers. And wringers chase injured pigeons at the annual Family Fest pigeon shoot—a fundraiser that pits sharpshooting townspeople against thousands of captive pigeons—to put them out of their misery. By wringing their necks. Palmer knows he could never be a wringer. But how can he tell his Dad (a former pigeon shoot champion) or his so-called friends (wringer wannabes) or Nipper (his secret pet pigeon)? Spinelli weaves a complicated story of fitting in, standing out, giving up, and standing up. And he does it oh-so-very-well.

So, the good news is that I have now read a couple Jerry Spinelli titles (and liked them). The other good news is that if I ever see a kid with a pigeon on his head and a bruised left arm at a costume party, I will know who he is. The bad news? I still haven’t read MANIAC MAGEE!