2/20/2022 Chapter Book & Graphic Novel Round-Up: Beagles & Balloons

Chapter Book

Title: Shiloh

Author: Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Recommended for: Grade 4

Basic plot: Marty Preston finds a beagle in the hills behind his house & nurses the little guy back to health. A deep bond forms between the two. There’s only one problem. The dog belongs to Judd Travers & he’s not giving him away without a fight. A legal one.

Why I love it: God bless Mrs. Hough. She was my fourth grade teacher & not only do I fondly remember her reading this to us in class, but she also had us act out a trial! That moment started my lifelong obsession with Reader’s Theaters. It was truly the talk of the school. The jury were treated with utmost respect at recess. The lawyers wore their parents' heels & shoulder-padded-blazers (I had the edge, since my Mom actually worked at the courthouse). The star was my best friend, Nick, who looked a bit like Marty does on the cover below & just so happened to own a beagle named Tobie. He brought her to the school (it was a different world then), we chose our rudest classmate to play Judd, & we were off in an impassioned legal proceeding for several days. I remember being scandalized when Judd pretended to smoke a pencil. Those were the good ol' days.

Funny thing is, there wasn’t even a trial in Shiloh. Marty actually puts in manual labor to even up the score with Judd, but in my memories, a judge bangs a gavel & the whole town learns what a rotten man he is & he is fitfully punished & not allowed to own any pets ever again.

I think part of why Shiloh stands the test of time is that it really is a story where innocence is shattered early on. It isn’t a hopeful, happy story. It is evident in the first few chapters that Shiloh is being neglected by Judd. It is also evident that Marty would be a much better owner. As is often the case with the way the world works, instead of acknowledging his failings, apologizing, or improving his custody, Judd gets testy about his hunting dog being kidnapped & truly believes Shiloh is his to abuse. It almost has a Judgment of Solomon feel to it.

We’ve all pulled into a parking lot & seen a dog locked in a car with the windows up in a hot Florida summer. We’ve stood in outrage, searched for owners, traded harsh words & scoldings, even called cops or store managers to the rescue. Marty is no different. His unwillingness to let a dog suffer & live anything other than its best life is heartwarming & extremely mature for a kid of his tender years. It’s impossible not to root for him. He’s a simple country boy who is all of eleven, but he is as loyal & altruistic as they come.

Plus, this book is a great way to get your child accustomed to dialect, as the entire thing is written in a West Virginia country twang.

Where can you find it? Amazon, eBay, AbeBooks, Thriftbooks, OverDrive (cheapest $0.99 & up, used). I’m willing to bet that your nearest bookstore has this in stock, used or new. It’s as common as air.

Extension activity: I love this Teacher’s Guide from Scholastic. With everything from an author bio to chapter questions & a glossary, it’s the bee’s knees:

https://www.scholastic.com/content/dam/teachers/activities/migrated-files-in-body/shiloh-bookfile.pdf

Beyond that, consider volunteering at an animal shelter one weekend to pay it forward. I know of some teachers who pair this novel study with informational texts about dogfighting & the ASPCA, or even contrast it with a reading of Old Yeller, but I prefer to keep my Shiloh experience pristine & standalone. I remember participating in a discussion about what makes someone a good pet owner & looking for textual evidence to support each point, so if you need extra busywork, consider that.

Graphic Novel

Title: The Space Race of 1869 (Castle in the Stars series)

Author & Illustrator: Alex Alice

Recommended for: Grades 6-8

Basic plot: Seraphin’s mother disappeared searching for the mysterious element aether. A year later, Seraphin & his engineer father receive a summons to retrieve her logbook. But nothing is as straightforward as it seems. Espionage, sabotage, betrayal & adventure all await them at the court of King Ludwig II. But can they escape potential kidnapping & will their hot air balloon fly?

Why I love it: Take me back to Germany, pretty pretty please. I absolutely love how this French artist has woven a technological aspect into the mystique of the Swan King. Hot air balloons & castle turrets are a heady combination. There’s humor, politics, grit, the promise of something thrilling to come, friendship, longing…it’s sort of like if you crossed Kenneth Oppel’s Airborn with Titan A.E. I’m expecting the mom from Moody’s Point to materialize any moment (that’s an Amanda Show reference for all you millennials).

The villain is basically Slugworth from Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. The king looks like a vampire from a paranormal romance cover. There’s an overwhelming amount of swans, basic physics & aerodynamics that I don’t understand & never will, & lederhosen. It is a big, Bavarian bon voyage & I gobbled it up like a pretzel.

Where can you find it? Amazon, eBay, AbeBooks, Thriftbooks, OverDrive (cheapest $3.89 & up, used). Make sure you buy an English edition! The original is in French.

Extension activity: I wish we could all go on hot air balloon rides, but alas, they are expensive, hard to come by (even the tethered one at Disney has crazy wait times), or unpredictable (don’t even get me started on the fiasco that was the first annual Hamlin Hot Air Balloon Festival! Those babies went down like the Titanic herself).

So, this extension activity is a bit more pen-to-paper: Have your kiddo take a historical place (a monument, park, building, etc.) & write an alternate history for it. For example, Area 51 is actually where they create everyone’s doppelgangers. Or the Empire State Building has an elevator that goes down INTO the Earth, where a great city lies just below the crust, etc.

Conversely, hot air balloon crafts are a dime a dozen on Google. Have at! Your kiddo may enjoy building a mobile or a diorama of the scenery in this stunning novel.

If you have a World Market nearby, buy a tin of Churchill’s biscuits & keep the container for decoration.

Are there any castles near you? Take a field trip! Here in Florida, we have the Castillo de San Marcos, Cinderella's Castle, Hogwarts, Solomon's (which is made of tinfoil), Castle Otttis (yep, 3 t's), & Coral Castle in Homestead. Nothing quite simulates reading about castles like being in one.

Thanks for tuning in! Keep the pages turning until we meet again.

Love,

Sash