Dotti Enderle

This is a cute tale about the gingerbread man escaping from his book in 398.2 in the library. He encounters various characters such as a word wizard, an origami bird, Olympic runner Jesse Owens, and others who try to stop him and make him get back to his spot in the library. Young readers who love the "Catch me, catch me, if you can . . . " story will enjoy this variation. There are a few problems with the book. The biggest one is probably that the author classifies individual biographies in show more 920. That is the number for collective biography which includes a wide range of persons from different occupations, but individuals are generally now classified under their subject matter. Many public and school libraries still use the letter "B" to signify biography rather than using Dewey to categorize them. While it's possible that an arctic fox would be in a book about the Arctic regions, it seems that the gingerbread man should have encountered the fox in the zoology section near his encounter with the giraffe. Knock knock jokes are usually classified in 398.7 with "Jokes and Jests" rather than in 818 which is a more literary type of humor, such as one would encounter in the writings of Mark Twain. It's still an enjoyable read that children will love, even if it does have a few Dewey issues. show less

The gingerbread man escapes from his address (398.2) and runs along the library shelves, meeting and then outrunning figures who pop out of books to try to catch him. I think the DDC is pretty baffling to kids, and can be very dry; this is a fun way to liven it up. A Word Wizard pops out of a Thesaurus in the 400s, a giraffe comes out of the 500s, a robot from the 600s, an origami crane out of 700, and historical come out of biography.

Curriculum: This is a uniquely "library" spin on the show more traditional gingerbread man folktale that probably has limited appeal outside the library. It is, however, my favorite resource for introducing elementary students to the Dewey Decimal Classification System. The story is familiar enough and beloved. The suspense at the end is just right, and it is a great springboard for nonfiction library lessons.

Enderle, D. & Madden, C. (2010). The Library Gingerbread Man. Janesville, Wis: UpstartBooks. show less

Grandpa For Sale is another character building story book for children. Lizzie watches her mother's store for the day and ends up achieving much more. An upity lady, Mrs. Bradley, who had lots of money and enjoyed buying the nice things in life, came into the store that day and wanted to buy Lizzie's grandpa who was alseep on the sofa. She thought he looked like a nice antique. She offered Lizzie a lot of money for old grandpa, but after much thought and imaging what she could do with all show more that money, she decided that life without grandpa would not be worth it. This book teaches children that family is priceless and should be cherished. show less

With Jesse as narrator, readers get a very real sense of the times, as well as his personal struggles. The story is well written and has a level of suspense and mystery that kept me turning pages well after bed time.

Pros: Suspense and strong characters give readers lots to enjoy (and think about) in this historical fiction novel. The story has great depth, and this would make an excellent high interest / low reading level book.

Cons: None, really. Guns are part of the plot and relevant to the show more context of the story. This is not a Hollywood-style "Western," but those who oppose all references to guns may want to screen this before sharing with young audiences.

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