Caroline Starr Rose

picture book and middle-grade author

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Classroom Connections: Alone by Megan E. Freeman

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form / genre: middle grade verse novel; survival story
age range: 10 and up
Megan E. Freeman’s website

This exciting story of tenacity, determination, and ingenuity is hard to put down, and thank heavens nothing happens to the dog.
— NPR

Madeleine relates her own riveting, immersive story in believable detail, her increasingly sophisticated thoughts, as years pass, sweeping down spare pages in thin lines of verse in this Hatchet for a new age. . . . Suspenseful, fast-paced, and brief enough to engage even reluctant readers.
― Kirkus Reviews

The novel is gripping and the plot fast-paced…This is a tense, engrossing survival story on par with classics such as Hatchet.
— Booklist   

Please tell us about your book.

Perfect for fans of Hatchet and the I Survived series, Alone is a harrowing middle grade novel-in-verse from a Pushcart Prize–nominated poet that tells the story of a young girl who wakes up one day to find herself utterly alone in her small Colorado town.

When twelve-year-old Maddie hatches a scheme for a secret sleepover with her two best friends, she ends up waking up to a nightmare. She’s alone—left behind in a town that has been mysteriously evacuated and abandoned.

With no one to rely on, no power, and no working phone lines or internet access, Maddie slowly learns to survive on her own. Her only companions are a Rottweiler named George and all the books she can read. After a rough start, Maddie learns to trust her own ingenuity and invents clever ways to survive in a place that has been deserted and forgotten.

As months pass, she escapes natural disasters, looters, and wild animals. But Maddie’s most formidable enemy is the crushing loneliness she faces every day. Can Maddie’s stubborn will to survive carry her through the most frightening experience of her life?

What inspired you to write this story?

When my daughter was in fifth grade, we were in a mother-daughter book club and we read Island of the Blue Dolphins. In the discussion afterward, we talked about how challenging it was for Karana to survive on the island alone, and I started thinking about what it would be like for a contemporary middle school student to find themselves in a similar situation. I couldn’t get the idea out of my head, and it became the seed that grew into ALONE.

Could you share with readers how you conducted your research or share a few interesting tidbits you learned while researching?

I had to learn what would happen in a town if all the power went out and how it would affect things like heating and cooling and running water. I talked to an expert who works at a water conservancy district and learned that if an entire power grid shut down, it would also impact the ability to have running water and indoor plumbing, since water management systems depend on electricity to operate. I had to figure out what my main character, Maddie, would do about cleaning and cooking and flushing the toilet when the power goes out and there is no running water. 

I also had to research emergency communication plans and learn some of the language that is used in planning for national emergencies. Through online research I was able to find actual federal documents that are used in planning for national emergencies. By reading those documents, I learned terms and phrases and planning strategies that would be used in a real emergency situation. 

What are some special challenges associated with paralleling your book with a classic? 

In Island of the Blue Dolphins, once Karana’s tribe leaves the island, she has no way to communicate with them. Any interactions she has with other humans happen only when people occasionally come to the island to hunt and fish. But my story is set in the 21st century, so Maddie and her family would have cell phones and telephones and computers and all sorts of ways to communicate with each other. I knew that I had to figure out a way to not only isolate Maddie geographically, but also isolate her technologically, so that she could have no connection to the outside world and the outside world could have no connection to her.

What topics does your book touch upon that would make it a perfect fit for the classroom?

Maddie has to overcome all sorts of challenges, and she has to rely on herself for everything from food to first aid to entertainment to comfort. She essentially has to become her own parent, doctor, chef, consoler, and protector. And all the while, she struggles with wondering if she’s making the right decisions or if she should be doing something differently to try to get out of her situation. Some themes to explore might be perseverance, resilience, family (including divorce and stepfamilies), independence, hope, and fear. Maddie also comforts and entertains herself in many creative ways, inventing games to play alone, reading books, making art, and exploring on hikes and bike rides. 

It could be fun in a classroom for students to imagine what they might do if they found themselves in Maddie’s shoes:

  • What might be exciting about being all alone in a town? 
  • What might be frightening? 
  • Which of Maddie’s choices do you agree with and which ones would you make differently? 
  • What kind of animal would you want to be stranded with?

Some higher level questions could include:

  • Maddie finds a lot of comfort in reading books from the library, and she is surprised to discover that she loves poetry. Why might poetry be comforting during challenging times?
  • The poet Emily Dickinson creates a metaphor for hope by comparing it to a bird (“Hope is the thing with feathers”). What other metaphors might describe hope? What are some metaphors that could describe fear, loneliness, perseverance, and love?
  • The poet Mary Oliver asks the readers of her poem “The Summer Day” what they will do with their “one wild and precious life.” Why do you think she calls life “wild and precious”? What other adjectives could be used to describe life? How would you answer Mary Oliver’s question?
  • Maddie’s feelings about her family are complicated, and they change over the course of the story. How do family dynamics impact a person’s perception of themselves and their place in the world?

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Filed Under: authors, books and reading, classroom connections, poetry, teaching, the writing life

Classroom Connections: Many Points of Me by Caroline Gertler

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genre / topics: contemporary fiction; art, creativity, grief and friendship
age range: 8-12
Caroline Gertler’s website

Sensitive and thoughtful—a story about loss, friendship, and the beauty of self-discovery.
— Rebecca Stead, Newbery Medal-winning author of When You Reach Me

Like an impressionist painting, Gertler’s novel provides splashes of color ultimately revealing the emotions, drama, and truths of tween life. . . . Gertler’s vivid word choice details color and the senses, creating an authentic and relatable tween girl voice tinged with the perspective of a budding artist.
— School Library Journal, starred review

A realistic, poignant exploration of loss, friendship, and self-discovery.
— Kirkus Reviews

Please tell us about your book.

Many Points of Me is about Georgia Rosenbloom, who’s grieving the loss of her father, a famous artist. When Georgia finds a sketch that Dad made of her before he died, she sets out to prove that he intended to paint her for his last, great unfinished painting. Set in New York City, this is a story of creativity, grief, friendship, and finding the many different points of yourself.

What inspired you to write this story?

The inspiration came from wanting to write a story that incorporated my love of art history and museums—the Metropolitan Museum of Art, specifically. I grew up loving books like From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and now, contemporary art-related middle grades, including Under the Egg, Masterpiece, and All the Greys on Greene Street. 

For my story, I wanted to explore the specific angle of what it would be like to grow up with a father who was a famous artist. I was interested in that on an emotional level—what would it be like to grow up in his shadow, if you’d lost him too young. And as a mystery—what if there was some question he left unanswered—in this case, the last asterism painting, which he didn’t get to finish.

Could you share with readers how you conducted your research or share a few interesting tidbits you learned while researching? 

I suppose I’d already done the research I needed for this book with my academic studies in art history (I have an MA from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London) as well as the volunteer education work I do at the Met. I underwent a year-long training program to become a Met docent, leading tours of the museum, and did further training and research to specialize in Old Master paintings. I did some extra thinking about which artists to include and mention in Many Points of Me and wanted to focus on women artists, who tend to be under-represented. 

One other neat thing I did in the name of research—though perhaps more for fun, as I’m not really sure it finds its way into the story—was going to an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum a few years ago on Georgia O’Keeffe, whom my Georgia was named after.

Lastly, there are a few references to astrophysics-related topics, such as the planets, the moon, and the stars. Georgia’s dad was inspired in his art by star-watching. I first heard the term “asterism” in a class I took at the American Museum of Natural History with one of my children.

What topics does your book touch upon that would make it a perfect fit for the classroom?

Many Points of Me would be a great fit for the classroom in connection to studying art; perhaps if a class was doing a unit on self-portraits, in particular. Also, there’s the intersection between art and science: Georgia’s dad’s last series of paintings are of asterisms. Other relevant topics include social-emotional experiences, such as grief—how Georgia is processing the loss of her father and its effect on her ability to make her own art. The ways friendship can change and shift over time, as well as what constitutes a family: Georgia and her mom are a family unit, and their best friends are also a single-mother-child unit. Together, they become like a family. And there’s always the New York City setting, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art!

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Filed Under: authors, books and reading, classroom connections, teaching, the writing life

Classroom Connections: The Lonely Heart of Maybelle Lane by Kate O’Shaughnessy

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age range: 8-12 years
genre / topics : contemporary fiction; road trip, family
Kate O’Shaughnessy’s website

Maybelle Lane finds courage she didn’t know she had—and it’s contagious. A rich and rewarding debut.
— Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Lyrical and full of heart, this road trip story gets to the core of what it means to create family, to be brave, and to accept the flaws of being human.
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

There is healing in this book, and laughter, and grace, and surprising love. Don’t read it with a box of tissues—just cry, then smile and grow.
—Gary D. Schmidt, author of The Wednesday Wars, a Newbery Honor Winner

Please tell us about your book.

When 11-year-old Maybelle Lane finds out that her radio DJ father—who she’s never met—is going to be judging a singing competition in Nashville, TN, she impulsively signs up as a contestant. Despite having a beautiful singing voice, there are two big problems: first, Maybelle has terrible stage fright. And second, she has no way of getting to Nashville without her mom finding out. But with the help of her neighbor and a stowaway classmate, Maybelle makes the journey to Tennessee—where she hopes she’ll not only be able to win the competition, but also her father’s heart.

What inspired you to write this story?

I’d say the biggest inspiration was emotional. I had just moved across the country from the east coast to California, away from my entire family. It had been a couple of months, and I didn’t feel like I’d found my footing or my community in my new city. Basically, I was really lonely. And I’m also a big morning journaler. I write about anything that I want. Sometimes I write about my dreams, sometimes I doodle, something it’s just a boring to-do list of tasks I have to get done that day, like “go to the post office and do a load of laundry.” But one morning, Maybelle’s voice just sort of… appeared. And I knew I wanted to know more about her. In the story, she moves away from her grandparents to a new place, and she has that same feeling of “I don’t fit in here” loneliness that I had. 

Could you share with readers how you conducted your research or share a few interesting tidbits you learned while researching?

Research was one of the best parts of writing this book because I got to do something so fun: go on a road trip! I’m not from the South, and I felt that it was important that I got the details of the setting to feel as real as possible. So I decided to go on Maybelle’s road trip! My sister was a senior in college at that time, and she joined me as co-pilot over her spring break. We took almost the exact same route that Maybelle takes in the story, except we started in New Orleans because the town of Davenport, Louisiana (where Maybelle lives) is fictional. It was so interesting because I spent so much time looking out the window—but not casually; I was really looking deeply. I took notes on sounds, smells, the way the roads curved, the plants, the kinds of signs I saw flashing by on the highway. While lots of things are fictional—like the hot dog restaurant and the hotel they stop at–lots of the details I noticed on my own road trip made it into the book. In my school visit presentation I like to make the point that research can be SO FUN if you are writing or studying something you really love. I love road trips, so I wrote a book about one—and got to go on a road trip as my form of research.

What topics does your book touch upon that would make it a perfect fit for the classroom?

Oh, I think there are lots of things! There’s a lot of discussion about mental health and wellbeing in the book—Maybelle suffers from panic attacks and anxiety, Tommy has some serious issues with his home life, and Mrs. Boggs, the teacher, is also dealing with grief after losing someone she loves. I based Maybelle’s panic attacks on my own experience with them, so I hope it will be an interesting window for students who don’t suffer from anxiety and a mirror for those who do. There’s also a big focus on sounds in this story, so I hope it can help students think about using their five senses in a new way. For example, Maybelle doesn’t collect coins or sneakers or stickers—she collects sounds on a little recorder. She likes the quieter, more every day sounds, like doors swinging shut and crickets singing. I hope this story makes readers think about what sounds they would collect. What sounds are important to you in your life? What sounds make you feel happy, sad, or excited? I have my own list of meaningful sounds, but I always love hearing from readers about their sounds, too.

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