2019 Global Reading Challenge

Team Challenge

This year my youngest daughter participated in the challenge as a member of Team Nerdy Birdies. They tied with another team for first place, moving into a sudden death quiz match that lasted seven rounds. Both teams got some of the bonus questions right, and both teams missed the same ones until the Nerdy Birdies were ultimately ousted by a question with the answer “Frankenstein.” Another team went on to represent her school at the semi-finals in March, but she and I are both winners because we got to read 10 really good books we probably would have missed otherwise.

The PS Brothers

Maribeth Boelts, 2010

Sixth-graders Russell and Shawn, poor and picked on, work together scooping dog droppings to earn money for a Rottweiler puppy to protect them from bullies, but when they learn the puppies’ owner is running an illegal dog-fighting ring, they are torn about how to respond.

I loved that the protagonists in The PS Brothers were not from wholesome, middle-class families. The reading level was at the lower end of the spectrum, but the subject of animal cruelty was presented in a realistic yet age-appropriate way. It was a bonus for us because my daughter was working on a social issues paper about animal abuse when we read this book.

The War That Saved My Life

Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, 2015

A young disabled girl and her brother are evacuated from London to the English countryside during World War II, where they find life to be much sweeter away from their abusive mother.

The War That Saved My Life is one of those books you hand to people who don’t think children’s books count as literature. Ada’s journey from shut-in with a clubfoot and an abusive mother to ward of a caring but grieving lesbian widow brought me to tears more than any book since I read Bridge to Terabithia in the 4th grade. I couldn’t continue the GRC until I read the sequel, The War I Finally Won, which might have beat the new tears record.

Fish in a Tree

Lynda Mullaly Hunt, 2015

Ally’s greatest fear is that everyone will find out she is as dumb as they think she is because she still doesn’t know how to read.

Fish in a Tree does a marvelous job of clarifying that learning disabilities do not equate to lack of intelligence and letting readers feel what it’s like to live with dyslexia. The book highlights the charater’s talents as well as her challenges. Even though misfit Ally becomes “popular” by the end of the book, bonus points for emphasizing the importance of her good friends (the class nerd and the only African-American in the class) to her happiness rather than “fitting in.”

Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer

Kelly Jones, 2015

Through a series of letters, Sophie Brown, age twelve, tells of her family’s move to her Great Uncle Jim’s farm, where she begins taking care of some unusual chickens with help from neighbors and friends.

I am a sucker for a faux-nonfiction title like Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer. I loved the wry, self-aware tone of this book that references all previous chicken-related kid-lit. And I loved biracial city girl Sophie’s voice. Her perceptive observations about her parents and her community contrasted beautifully with her magical-realism interpretations of her unusual chickens’ behavior. It’s a bonus that the author is local.

Power Forward

Hena Khan, 2018

Fourth-grader Zayd yearns to play basketball on the Gold Team, but when he skips orchestra rehearsal to practice, his parents forbid anything basketball-related, and tryouts are coming soon.

My daughter felt that there were altogether too many sports books in this year’s challenge. I have to agree that there seemed to be an even bigger focus than usual on books with an appeal to boys (and lower reading skill levels). But I still appreciated the approach taken in Power Forward. The protagonist is a non-Arabic Muslim boy from an immigrant family; despite his love of sports, he is a good student and not particularly athletic; and he balances a tightrope between traditional ethnic and American pop cultures in the seamless way that only children of immigrants can.

The First Rule of Punk

Celia C. Pérez, 2017

Twelve-year-old María Luisa O’Neill-Morales (Malu) reluctantly moves with her Mexican-American mother to Chicago and starts seventh grade with a bang–violating the dress code with her punk rock aesthetic and spurning the middle school’s most popular girl in favor of starting a band with a group of like-minded weirdos.

I loved this book. Even though I never really got into punk music, I have always been drawn to everything else about that subculture. The First Rule of Punk taught me a lot about an aspect of that culture I knew nothing about. A lot about Malu’s personality reminded me of my own fourth-grader (who dyed her hair black this year, which fortunately did not phase the administration at her funky Fremont school). Strangely, she didn’t really get into this book. Maybe because she read it so close to the end of the challenge she was getting burned out.

The Red Pencil

Andrea Davis Pinkney, 2014

After her tribal village is attacked by militants, Amira, a young Sudanese girl, must flee to safety at a refugee camp, where she finds hope and the chance to pursue an education in the form of a single red pencil and the friendship and encouragement of a wise elder.

The refugee experience is so wrenching that the only age-appropriate way to relate it to children seems to be in verse. Like the earlier challenge book Home of the Brave, The Red Pencil is told in verse. Even with that softening element, my daughter ran into my office wordlessly demanding hugs while she was reading it. I have always thought that no one who saw El Norte as a kid the way I did could ever begrudge someone entry to our country. Kids who read The Red Pencil are not likely to grow up mistaking refugees for terrorists.

Ghost

Jason Reynolds, 2016

Aspiring to be the fastest sprinter on his elite middle school’s track team, gifted runner Ghost finds his goal challenged by a tragic past with a violent father.

Another sports book, this time with an African-American protagonist. The boy who calls himself Ghost wants to play basketball, but finds his talent on the track field. Like my daughter, I’m not usually much for sports books, but I liked Ghost for its focus on doing your best regardless of your circumstances and for the character’s learning arc where he comes to realize that finding a place to belong is better than “being cool.”

Pelé, the King of Soccer

Eddy Simon, 2017

A biography in graphic novel format of Brazilian soccer star Pele.

I didn’t know much about Pele beyond “Famous soccer player” so Pelé, the King of Soccer was educational for me. Yes, there were a lot of sports books this year. I thought my daughter would at least enjoy this one, since she plays soccer. But she disapproved mightily of Pele’s womanizing ways and did not think his soccer prowess negated that sufficiently to merit a biography.

How I Became A Ghost: A Choctaw Trail of Tears Story

Tim Tingle, 2013

A Choctaw boy tells the story of his tribe’s removal from the only land its people had ever known, and how their journey to Oklahoma led him to become a ghost–one with the ability to help those he left behind.

My family’s indigenous ancestry is diluted to the point that it’s insensitive to claim it, but that vestigial ethnicity was strong enough that I grew up more aware of the Trail of Tears than the average suburban American kid. But How I Became A Ghost: A Choctaw Trail of Tears Story was still the first book I read on the subject. How I Became a Ghost sanitizes the historical facts for a middle grade audience – which is remarkable considering that the narrator is a dead child.