Masterpiece by Elise Broach

The daughter of my principal gave me this book last year and in her way told me that it was an awful book. Now, I take that with a grain of salt but, I have to admit, it didn't make me in a hurry to read it. Now that I have, I think she was reacting to the age of the protagonist. That is as always the struggle with struggling readers: finding something age appropriate that is also written at their reading level.

I actually found Masterpiece fairly delightful. It's about a beetle named Marvin who befriends a human 11 year old named James. James is a pretty ordinary kid in a quiet and serious way. His mom is a high powered New York real estate agent (and everything that implies) who is remarried to business type man. James father Kyle is an artist. So, when James turns 11 his father gets him a pen and ink set. However, James isn't terribly artistic so he's not super excited about this.

The beetles who live in the walls of James's apartment rather like him so Marvin decides to make him a present with his ink set. What he produces is a miniature masterpiece reminiscent of Durer. This, of course, leads to problems.
.
I was already vaguely familiar with Albrecht Durer, but I wasn't expecting to find his work to be so strongly referenced in a middle reader. Sometimes there can be a tendency to shoe horn educational topics into novels for kids. This can be clunky and annoying. However, when it's done well, it can be brilliant. This was done well. I loved the little art heist set up and James/Marvin's involvement seemed oddly plausible given the circumstances. Over all, this was a good read for a middle schooler but the characters will come off a little childish to older readers, I think.

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

Our media specialist does a good job of featuring new additions to the library, and when she first brought The One and Only Ivan into the library, it sat on display for a couple of months. Nobody, as far as I know, checked it out. This is the problem with getting people/kids interested in books. A good display is a fine thing, but it takes more. You almost have to run an ad campaign and really sell it. That's why book talks work.

So, anyway it languished there. Even I didn't do more than pick it up a flip through it a couple of times. Honestly, even though the library has always served middle and high school ages, most of the foot traffic is high schools because of its location and The One and Only Ivan looks like a book aimed at a younger set. The print is large, there's plenty of white space on the page, and there are plenty of illustrations.

It really is aimed at an audience starting at about the 4th grade. However, it's a well written and impactful story. I'm not an overly sentimental person, but it even got me tearing up at the end. I would recommend it to just about anyone regardless of age.

It's the story of Ivan, a gorilla born in the wild but raised in captivity who lives in a sad little display with elephants and other exotics. He also has little mutt of a dog, Bob, as a friend. Things change for Ivan when a new baby elephant named Ruby arrives.

As it turns out, Ivan in the book is based off of Ivan in the Atlanta Zoo who spent about 30 years isolated in a display out on the West Coast. Shifting understandings of primate needs caused a public outcry and Ivan was rescued. He's now on permanent loan to Zoo Atlanta where he is part of a primate group with females and juveniles, a much better situation.

The book is only loosely based on the real story, but it's still a story worth reading.