Age: Preschool-2nd grade

Isadora provides an accurate retelling of The Ugly Duckling, complete with the instances of death (birds being shot down), bullying, and the inclusion of specific settings including the meeting with the cat and hen. However, the tale is "softened" by excluding the family alienating the ugly duckling. Although not part of the original tale, I like how the farmer's family took the Ugly Duckling in during the winter months so that when springtime came and the duckling was too big, the farmer released him, allowing the duckling to see himself grown for the first time in the reflection of the lake.

The difference of the ugly duckling is told through his color (gray), his large size, and his clumsiness.

The artwork is always a plus when reading Isadora, and this tale is no different. She uses color, white space, and texture to a tee.

Age: Preschool-1st grade
Art: Dancing, stage freight

This is a perfect book for girls that love to dance, but not on stage with an audience watching them. Although not all girls will be able to call upon a group of furry monsters to help them get over their fear, the book provides a funny way to talk about this issue.

Props for mentioning krump dancing.

Age: Kindergarten-2nd grade

What happens to my bucket when I leave it behind on the beach? Lift-the-flap to reveal a wordless picture, perfectly suited for discussion. This would be great with a classroom follow-up activity of "what happens when..."

A cute premise as a guessing game to try and find out what the narrator is. But the game gets old very fast and the repetition and silliness turn towards being obnoxious. Each page is meant to narrow your guess but it only tells you what the narrator is not. Some of the clues are helpful such as "I'll eat every peanut you put on my plate" but others are useless. For example, "I'm not a buzzard invited to France."

First line: "There was a boy in her room."

I had so much fun reading this! From reliving Harry Potter obsession, to Cath's fantastic character development, to all the relationships and all the characters, to the unique story line set in college, to the beautifully developed romance between Cath and Levi--I loved it all. But what I loved most and will make me a Rowell fan fo lyfe? Her writing style! There were the greatest cultural asides (although product name-dropping was at an all-time high in this book, unfortunately) that I was smiling along with her wit (see quotes below) and Cath's character had soooo much dimension from her back story to her personality to her relationships. I never wanted this story to end. Can there be a book for every year of college? Although, the ending was quite perfect and provided a perfect arc.

Favorite Quotes:

"'I swear to god, every surviving Volvo produced between 1970 and 1985 is being driven by quirky fictional girls.'" (198)

"'I'd give you the moon right now,' she said. Levi's eyes flashed happily, and he hitches up an eyebrow. 'Yeah, but would you slay it for me?'" (347)

I was pleasantly surprised by this conglomerate of literary genres. I have read some saccharine, idealistic, predictable, unpleasantly gender-stereotyped romance novels (thanks Kresley Cole) and I was bored and pity-laughed most of the way through. Soulless actually has an intriguing plot with romance as a side-character (but when it's there, IT'S THERE). I even found myself smiling at the over-the-top one-liners. Outside of the book, these one-liners would have been eye-rollers, but inside the character of the writing, they were goofy and laughable because they were so bad.

Apparently, this series becomes much more fantasy instead of romance, which could be another reason why I liked it.

A fun example of different collage styles of art with a story that actually makes sense and rhymes.

Age: 4th-middle school

A fantastic, multifaceted tale of Auggie, a 5th grade boy with severe facial abnormalities. Palacio has a spectacular way of giving dimension and providing unique voices to all the characters that describe their real and special interactions with Auggie, giving Auggie the most authentic voice of all.

Spoiler

I thought the ending was phenomenal with the principal's speech on kindness and Auggie winning the school medal. But, what really struck me was when Auggie says, "It's like people you see sometimes, and you can't imagine what it would be like to be that person, whether it's somebody in a wheelchair or somebody who can't talk. Only, I know that I'm that person to other people, maybe to every single person in that whole auditorium. To me, though, I'm just me. An ordinary kid. But hey, if they want to give me a medal for being me, that's okay. I'll take it. I didn't destroy a Death Star or anything like that, but I did just get through the fifth grade. And that's not easy, even if you're not me." Most books end with the bullied child being glorified for just being themself. They endure a unique life experience based on how they look or how they behave but, in the case of Auggie, he wants to be seen alongside everyone else.

Palacio has woven a marvelous tale for kids just becoming aware of bullying, and exclusion because it ends light-hearted with everyone in school on Auggie's side (a good model) but it feels believable. The multiple perspectives format keeps the book moving along and gives everyone their fair representation.