Welcome to another Marvelous Middle Grade Monday!
Today I present the fourth book in my quest to provide support to past titles. I call it The Nurturing of Middle Grade Books.
My other favorites included CLUTCH, THE UNEXPECTED LIFE OF OLIVER CROMWELL PITTS, and THE SWEETEST SOUND. I hope you will give all of these a go, including today’s selection…
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I wasn’t more than fifty pages into this unusual tale when the thought struck me: This would make a great movie…maybe an animated one. And to my surprise others already had the same thought. SPUTNIK’S GUIDE TO LIFE ON EARTH will be heading to the big screen thanks to DreamWorks.
Prez is the boy on the cover. He use to live with his grandad until the beloved caretaker started to have issues with his memory. Prez is sent to what is called THE TEMPORARY, where homeless children wait for a new family or hopefully some day return to their original one.
Summer arrives and Prez goes off to live with a foster family for a few months on their farm. He doesn’t talk but begins to fit in with the family. Then the doorbell rings— despite the fact they don’t have a doorbell. Prez answers and another boy stands there dressed in a leather helmet and kilt. His name is Sputnik. The rest of the family sees Sputnik as a dog (character two on the cover). The dog talks to Prez by somehow reading his thoughts. From there it goes from strange to weird and wild.
Sputnik is hilarious and hasn’t read the manual on how to be a dog. Let’s just say gravity isn’t always in reach. There’s an war old chest, juvenile delinquents, and a boy longing for his life with Grandpa. A great story to be shared with a message that will touch your heart. Write it down on a post-it note and then read the book full of its own post-it notes.
PUBLICATION DATE: 2017 PAGE COUNT: 336
THE OFFICIAL STORY BLURB (From Harper Collins Children Books)
Prez knows that the best way to keep track of things is to make a list. That’s important when you have a grandfather who is constantly forgetting. And it’s even more important when your grandfather can’t care for you anymore and you have to go live with a foster family out in the country.
Prez is still learning to fit in at his new home when he answers the door to meet Sputnik—a kid who is more than a little strange. First, he can hear what Prez is thinking. Second, he looks like a dog to everyone except Prez. Third, he can manipulate the laws of space and time. Sputnik, it turns out is an alien, and he’s got a mission that requires Prez’s help: the Earth has been marked for destruction, and the only way they can stop it is to come up with ten reasons why the planet should be saved.
Thus begins one of the most fun and eventful summers of Prez’s life, as he and Sputnik set out on a journey to compile the most important list Prez has ever made—and discover just what makes our world so remarkable.
FIVE THINGS TO LIKE ABOUT:
SPUTNIK’S GUIDE TO LIFE ON EARTH by Frank Cottrell Boyce
- Every time you think you have the plot figured out it goes in another wacky and surprising direction. Life is not like this, but it sure would be fun.
- The grandfather’s map holds many answers and it was a marvelous way to bring the story to a climatic ending.
- Sputnik…Need I say more? Yes, he should have his own talk show.
- Imaginative and just the type of story I love reading out loud to the targeted audience.
- Earth is a pretty amazing place if we’d stop for a few minutes and notice.
FAVORITE LINES (from Sputnick):
“That’s something I love about this planet. Only one moon. No wonder you have the best gravity. We had a dozen moons where I used to live. Imagine that—a moon going past every half an hour. The tide was up and down like a frog on a frying pan.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Frank Cottrell Boyce is the author of Sputnik’s Guide to Life on Earth, The Astounding Broccoli Boy, Cosmic, Framed, and Millions, the last of which was a New York Times bestseller and was made into a movie by Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle. His books have won or been nominated for numerous awards, including the Carnegie Medal, the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, and the Whitbread Children’s Book Award. Frank is also a screenwriter, having penned the scripts for a number of feature films as well as the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics. He lives in Liverpool with his family.
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And that was only the beginning. They did in fact love the story and thought it was sequel worthy. I thanked them and spent the evening contemplating more changes. They have a promising future based on their professional comments.
The loss of a parent at any age is traumatic. But when you’ve always been Dad’s little girl, it is especially tough for 13-year-old Briana. Her dad passed away suddenly from a rare heart condition. She lost both a father and her rock of support.
THE GIRL WITH MORE THAN ONE HEART
A Carolina folktale comes to life in this story that is part Brother’s Grimm and part Little Red Riding Hood. Never trust an alligator as young Blossom journeys through the river swampland. Her goal is to deliver mosquito-fever medicine to an ailing grandmother. Both Blossom and the alligator provide the biggest surprises in a whimsical adventure sure to please readers of all ages.
than a decade to arrive and what I found reflecting back on both books is a passionate love of animals, the good in people, and the beauty in our world. The length of this one might scare away some young readers, but the message coming out of the story is one they shouldn’t miss.
