| Booktalk
#1
Imagine that your body and
mind are sizzling and fireworks are going off inside of you. How
can anything at school compete against those kinds of volcanic activity
inside of a person? Come and read for yourself what is it like to
be inside that body trapped with all kinds of behaviors you don't want
but can't seem to stop. You might even know someone like Joey.
(Jeannie Bellavance bellavance@erols.com.
for
Pennsylvania
Young Reader's Choice Awards)
Bootkalk #2
How many of us can say we've
been in a classmate's head? Jack Gantos puts us smack in the middle
of Joey's and it is a scary, bumpy ride! Joey learns things the hard
way through a haze of "dud meds" used to control his ADD, hyperactivity,
and mood swings. We listen to Joey as he tells himself what he needs
to do and yet we know what's in store. Joey sharpens his finger in
the pencil sharpener, swallows his house key on the day it doesn't hang
from its usual string around his neck and runs with scissors and injures
a classmate. Thankfully, placement in a special education program begins
to get Joey the help he needs and gives readers insight into kids who are
different, perhaps even a Joey in their own classroom. Every student,
parent, teacher, and administrator should read this humorous and yet on-the-money
account of Joey. (New Hampshire Great Stone Face Committee)
Booktalk #3
Joey Pigza is a wired kid.
After lunch his meds start to wear off and then he is trouble. In
math he knows the answer to the question, 9x9, but instead of answering
he blurts out, “Can I get back to you on that?” He kept doing it
until he was sent into the hall. Here he still gots into trouble
for bouncing off the lockers like a Tazmanian Devil. Read Joey Pigza
Swallowed the Key to find out what other sort of trouble he finds.
(Missy Smits, Library Media Specialist, DePere, WI) |
