Sarah Supahan’s Selections:

Books for all ages:

Where the Sidewalk Ends

By Shel Silverstein

Shel Silverstein’s masterful collection of poems and drawings is funny as well as profound.

I’ve liked this book since I first read it in the 7^th grade. I also love his book The Giving Tree,

which almost always makes me cry.

The Harry Potter series – Start at the beginning and read all the way through! My son and I

(he’s now 19) read each book as soon as it came out and THEN we went to see the movies. You

understand so much more that way.

ANY book created by “Paper Engineer” Robert Sabuda, the genius of pop-up illustrations.

Books for Ages 9-12, and adults like me:

Holes

By Louis Sachar

Stanley Yelnats and his family have never had anything but bad luck, so it's not really a surprise

to him when he is falsely accused and convicted of theft. Given the choice of jail or Camp Green

Lake, Stanley chooses Green Lake because he's never been to camp before. Unfortunately,

Camp Green Lake doesn't have a lake and it isn't really a camp. It's a juvenile detention facility.

And to build character, the warden, who paints her fingernails with snake venom, has each

"camper" dig a hole five feet deep by five feet wide by five feet long every day, even Saturdays

and Sundays. What Stanley and the rest of the boys don't know is that the warden isn't just

building character, she's looking for the lost buried treasure of outlaw, Kissing Kate Barlow.

So begins Holes, a terrific, action filled story. It's a strange story, but strangely compelling.

Mare's War

By Tanita S. Davis

I read this book for the first time during the summer of 2009. It’s about two sisters, Octavia

and Tali who are dreading the road trip their parents are forcing them to take with their grand-

mother over the summer. After all, Mare isn’t your typical grandmother. She drives a red sports

car, wears stiletto shoes, flippy wigs, and insists that she’s too young to be called Grandma.

But somewhere on the road, Octavia and Tali discover there’s more to Mare than what you see.

She was once a willful teenager who escaped her less-than-perfect life in the deep South and

lied about her age to join the African American battalion of the Women’s Army Corps during

World II

Number the Stars

By Lois Lowry

137 pages

Won the 1990 Newbery Medal

“Ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her best friend Ellen Rosen often think of life before

the war. It's now 1943 and their life in Copenhagen is filled with school, food shortages, and

the Nazi soldiers marching through town. When the Jews of Denmark are "relocated," Ellen

moves in with the Johansens and pretends to be one of the family. Soon Annemarie is asked

to go on a dangerous mission to save Ellen's life.” I read this book when my daughters read

it in 6^th grade. I couldn’t believe that youth fiction could be this good.

If you like this author, you might also like her book The Giver.

Whisper in the Dark

By Joseph Bruchac

192 pages

This is one scary book and I love scary books: “Thirteen-year-old Maddie lives with her aunt

Lyssa in Providence, Rhode Island. Her parents' death in an automobile accident has left her

among the last living descendants of Canonchet, a Narragansett chief who died fighting for

his people's freedom. Although of mixed race and living with her white aunt, Maddie learned

many of the Narragansett ways from her father, and Grama Delia continues to share with

her the stories of their people. When Maddie receives two threatening messages and discovers

her Irish setter wounded by beastlike slash marks, she is convinced the Whisperer in the Dark--

a formidable Narragansett monster--has come for her. To confront it, Maddie relies on the

assistance of a loyal friend and a good-hearted cabbie, and on the power of her Native heritage.”

If you like this author you might also like his book Skeleton Man, and Return of Skeleton Man.

I read them in one quick sitting – page turners!

The Phantom Tollbooth

By Norman Juster

256 pages

I still remember the first time I read this book in 5^th grade. I thought it was pretty good then,

and I found it to be good, as well as very clever when I read it as an adult. "It seems to me that

almost everything is a waste of time," Milo laments. "[T]here's nothing for me to do, nowhere I'd

care to go, and hardly anything worth seeing." This bored, bored young protagonist who can't see

the point to anything is knocked out of his glum humdrum by the sudden and curious appearance of

a tollbooth in his bedroom. Since Milo has absolutely nothing better to do, he dusts off his toy car,

pays the toll, and drives through. What ensues is a journey of mythic proportions, during which

Milo encounters countless odd characters who are anything but dull.”

Magic Elizabeth

By Norma Kassirer

192 Pages

One day in 4^th grade on our visit to the library we HAD to pick a book to check out. Not knowing

the first place to start in finding a book I would like (I thought then that I hated to read) I

only picked this book because the girl and I shared aname (my middle name is Elizabeth). Then I

found out that another character’s name was Sarah, and that was only the beginning of the magic.

It turned out that this was one of two books that started my absolute love of reading.

(The other book was “The War of the Worlds.”) I didn’t know books could be this good! I’ve read

It since and so have many other women who read it as girls. We all feel that it will still be magical

for many young girls today as well.

Books for ages 7-12, and adults like me too:

Long March: The Choctaw's Gift to Irish Famine Relief

By Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick

32 pages

This moving book quietly and effectively describes a bit of a little-known historical episode.

In 1847 the Choctaw, themselves impoverished, raised $170 (the equivalent of more than

$5000 today) to aid the Irish, then in the midst of the great potato famine. The gift is

eloquently explained by Choona, an elderly Choctaw who flashes back to his 14th year, when

the gift was made. When the people of Choona's tribe hear that Choctaw leaders have

asked everyone to contribute, some wonder why they should help the Nahullo (Europeans),

who drove them from their home only 16 years earlier. Then Choona's great-grandmother

speaks, describing the arduous 500-mile march to Oklahoma, during which starvation and

fever decimated the tribe.’ She says, "We have walked the trail of tears. The Irish

people walk it now. We can help them as we could not help ourselves."

A portion of the proceeds from this title benefits Celts & American Indians Together,

an Irish/Choctaw organization dedicated to world famine relief.

Indian Shoes

By Cynthia Leitich Smith

80 pages

Here are six stories about a Cherokee-Seminole boy named Ray, secure in the care of his

Grampa Halfmoon and his extended family in Chicago and rural Oklahoma. From trading his

own high-tops so that Grampa can have a pair of moccasins, to overcoming a really serious

wardrobe dilemma, to finding a creative solution to a horrible haircut, to caring for their

neighbors’ many pets on Christmas Day, to midnight fishing and finding out that contests

are not always about winning, the stories are goofy, quirky, laugh-out-loud funny, and

poignant, sometimes all together. Indian Shoes is “about belonging to family and community,

about helping neighbors, about learning life’s lessons, and about sometimes feeling different

but most times knowing who you are in the world.”

Books for primary students and for adults like me who like to read to their grandchildren:

Grandparents Song

By Sheila Hamanaka

30 pages

A beautifully illustrated rhyming book that tells the story of our country’s collective,

and diverse, family tree.

Over in the Meadow

By Olive A Wadsworth

32 pages

A counting rhyme with great illustrations. Each picture echoes the number from the

number rhyme on that page over and over (if you look carefully).

Love you Forever

By Robert N. Munsch

32 pages

I can never read this book to anyone without getting choked up thinking about how much

I love my own son. “The starting point for a first-rate library for your grandchildren...

a tender ode to the life cycle of a family.”

The Doorbell Rang

By Pat Hutchins

22 pages

Ma made a dozen delicious cookies that her two children are about to enjoy when the

doorbell rings and rings and rings again. The grandma saves the day! (That’s always nice.)

AND it’s a math book in disguise! Take a look and see what I mean.

How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin

By Margaret McNamara

32 pages

Another math book in disguise, and one with a great subtle moral about being small.

I also learned something about pumpkins!

I Can’t Have Bannock But the Beaver Has a Dam

By Bernelda Wheeler (Cree/Ojibwe/Métis)

32 pages

In this “add-on” story*, a boy learns the relationship between the oven and a beaver,

and how a beaver can delay the making of bannock – the boy's mother cannot make bannock

because a beaver has chewed a power pole and cut off their electricity. Fortunately, the

boy's father works for Manitoba Hydro and is able to fix the problem. * Like ‘This is the

house that Jack built’.

Also by Bernelda Wheeler:

Where Did You Get Your Moccasins?

26 pages

In answer to his classmates’ questions about his moccasins, a boy describes in detail how

his kookum, his grandmother, made them. Like I Can't Have Bannock, each page builds on

the previous one with a humorous ending.

Baby books:

Tickle Tickle

By Dakari hru

24 pages

This is my absolute favorite rhyming baby book. I can read over and over to my demanding

grandsons and never get tired of it.