Tyrell by Coe Booth
Tyrell by Coe Booth is the true-to-life tale of a 15 year old boy who becomes responsible for his mother and younger brother when Ty’s father lands in prison and the family is evicted from their apartment.
Tyrell’s relationship with his girlfriend Novisha becomes strained as Ty endures life in a roach-infested motel with other homeless families & individuals, and struggles to make some cash without following in his father’s footprints. Guilt-tripped by his mother and determined to find a way out of the shelters his family’s bussed around to, Tyrell draws on a love of music and some of his father’s connections to organize a party. But will it be enough to change things for Tyrell and his family?
Complicated, convincing relationships between Ty and his girlfriend, brother, mother and buddies make this a book that lives beyond its pages. I found myself thinking about Tyrell in my spare time, wondering what events would transpire in his life. I’d highly recommend this to mature 8-12th graders who have a taste for realistic fiction.
Booth won the LA Times Prize for Young Adult Literature this past April, and was featured in the May 2007 issue of School Library Journal. Tyrell is written with a great deal of sensitivity, compassion, humor and voice. Here’s hoping Booth has many more stories to tell!
From Sea to Shining Sea
4th graders from the King School have been using the library for the past month to research the five regions of the United States. By choosing one state to study within each region, students have learned about the incredible variety of places and people in our country. 4th graders are creating Power Point presentations to tell others about what they’ve learned, but we wanted to be able to share their new knowledge with a broader audience.
Today we read some of Buster’s Postcards from around the country, and learned about blogs, bloggers, posts and commenting. We’re eager to start an online conversation of our own, about the regions of the USA. Stay tuned for new posts from our guest bloggers!
Young Authors
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. School has many young authors. All year students have been writing and publishing their work. These three authors asked to have their published books placed in the library for others to enjoy. They wrote and published their work with the help of Ms. Elizabeth Mayhew.
From China to Guatemala
On April 25, the Amigos 4th and5th graders had a wonderful author visit with Amelia Lau Carling. Ms. Carling is from a Chinese family which immigrated to Guatemala from China during WW2. During her childhood she was spoken to in Chinese, but she and her siblings responded to their parents in Spanish. Her own children encouraged her to write about her unique childhood experiences in her two books, La Tienda de Mama y Papa (Mama and Papa Have a Store) and Alfombras de Asserin (Sawdust Carpets) 
Cambridge: How it came to be our city
The Amigos 3rd graders have been learning about the history of our city. Ms. Kit Rawlins from the Cambridge Historical Commission has been showing them slides and teaching them about the history of Cambridge. She presents three lessons to the students: Settlement of Cambridge, Immigration to Cambridge, and the history of African-Americans in Cambridge. The third graders have had wonderful questions for Kit. Ask them what they’ve learned about Cambridge. Did you know Rindge Towers stands where a clay pit for a brick making factory once stood? Or that Lechmere Station used to be the site of a glass making factory and a meat packing factory? Thank you Kit for giving us a different perspective on Cambridge.
General George Washington lived in this Cambridge house for a winter.
Down on the Farm
The King first graders, junior K and kindergarten students had a visit from Farmer Matt of Drumlin Farm in Lincoln. The first thing the students told him was that he didn’t look like a farmer! Poor Farmer Matt. By the end of the visit he had them convinced. Students tasted carrots and lettuce, played a game about a tomato’s journey from farm to store, and peppered Farmer Matt with questions about farms. We’ve been reading non-fiction books about crops and farm animals along with some fun farm picture books to prepare for this special visit. The visit was a gift from CitySprouts. (Open House for CitySprouts garden at King/Amigos on May 30 at 2 p.m.) We’re realizing that it’s one thing to look at pictures of chickens, but it would be much better to see the chickens scratching in the dirt. We’re planning a fieldtrip to Drumlin Farm or one of the other area farms, Codman Farm or Wilson Farm. We’ll let you know which farm books were hits with the kids and teachers.
Spring Cleaning
We’ve been working out of Rent-a-Crates since November, and were thrilled to hear that our furniture should be arriving and installed next week! We’re keeping our fingers crossed that the first week of April will finally allow us to do justice to the expanding library collection and great materials we’ve got to offer students of both schools.
As a way of marking the March weeks, we’ve kept track of “lion” and “lamb” days this month, and are finding that the lambs seem to have the upper…hoof. This is good news for our Citysprouts friends who will begin work in a new garden very soon. There is newness in the air!
Jaqueline Woodson
After years of reading Jaqueline Woodson’s books, some of her biggest fans got a chance to hear her speak. Some of us went to Porter Square Books for a reading and question and answer time and others went to a reading in a Jamaica Plain library. I had already heard her speak at a children’s literature conference so mostly I just wanted to watch the students faces when they got to meet her. At one point in her talk she mentioned the book, If You Come Softly, and spontaneous applause erupted. She told us the applause was better than a gold medal on her books!
Wampanoag Visitor – Randy Joseph
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| From Library Photos |
Wednesday was an exciting day for the King 3rd and 5th graders and the Amigos 3rd graders. We had a Wampanoag educator come to speak to us about the Wampanoag way of life before the Pilgrims first landed in Massachusetts. We also learned about how the Wampanoags keep different customs alive today such as hunting, dancing, and healing ceremonies. The kids loved getting to touch the artifacts that Randy Jospeh brought to share with them.
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| From Library Photos |
We’re hoping this will be a yearly visit for the King/Amigos library. Thank you to the Plimoth Plantation Foundation for Kids and the Schrafft Fund for giving us the grant to pay for this visit.
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| From Library Photos |
Journeys of the Senses
Jimmy Liao’s brilliantly illustrated book, “The Sound of Colors: A Journey of the Imagination” tells the story of a solitary girl traveling through the subway. The commuting experience, difficult at times for anyone, is even more daunting for this girl because she has recently lost her sight. Imagining the possibilities of all the subway tracks in the whole world joining together, she finds herself emerging from the underground into a forest full of elephants and apples, into the sea where she sunbathes on the back of a blue whale, and into a topiary maze that she and her little dog navigate together.
Translated from the original Chinese, the text expresses the girl’s emotions elegantly and promotes discussions with students about the ways in which we experience the world.
“Now I listen for the sound of the colors I can’t see. I try to smell the shapes, taste the light and dark.”
