Blog: #kidlit Book of the Day - Page 1339 of 1360

Night on Fire
by Ronald Kidd (Author)

Booktalk: Thirteen-year-old Billie Simms doesn’t think her hometown of Anniston, Alabama, should be segregated, but few of the town’s residents share her opinion. As equality spreads across the country and the Civil Rights Movement gathers momentum, Billie can’t help but feel stuck–and helpless–in a stubborn town too set in its ways to realize that the world is passing it by. So when Billie learns that the Freedom Riders, a group of peace activists riding interstate buses to protest segregation, will be traveling through Anniston on their way to Montgomery, she thinks that maybe change is finally coming and her quiet little town will shed itself of its antiquated views. But what starts as a series of angry grumbles soon turns to brutality as Anniston residents show just how deep their racism runs.

The Freedom Riders will resume their ride to Montgomery, and Billie is now faced with a choice: stand idly by in silence or take a stand for what she believes in. Through her own decisions and actions and a few unlikely friendships, Billie is about to come to grips with the deep-seated prejudice of those she once thought she knew, and with her own inherent racism that she didn’t even know she had.

Snippet: One day in the spring of 1961, my street was the center of the world.

People read about it in newspapers and watched it on TV. They heard about it on NBC, the BBC, and Radio Moscow. The president held meetings. The FBI investigated.

Six Traits Mini Lesson

Traits: Voice The opening line of this young adult novel makes it clear that story is being told in first person.

One day in the spring of 1961, my street was the center of the world.

The words “I,” “me,” and “my” are the clues we need to figure out that a story is being told by a first person narrator–and this story takes place on:

my street

This opening sentence stands alone as the first paragraph. The four sentences in the second paragraph fill in the details. They back up the narrator’s claims.

People read about it in newspapers and watched it on TV. They heard about it on NBC, the BBC, and Radio Moscow. The president held meetings. The FBI investigated.

The words “I” or “me” or “my” are not in the second paragraph, but that doesn’t change the voice of the story. Thirteen-year-old Billie Simms is the narrator and she is telling her story.

Story characters use the words “I,” “me,” and “my” in their dialogue, but this is NOT dialogue. There aren’t any quotation marks in this excerpt. Billie is not talking to another story character. These words are not spoken aloud.

In this first person story, readers are inside the narrator’s mind. We know what she knows. We see what she sees. Billie will be our tour guide for the duration of her story.

The Smart Girl’s Guide to Privacy: Practical Tips for Staying Safe Online
by Violet Blue (Author)

Booktalk: The whirlwind of social media, online dating, and mobile apps can make life a dream—or a nightmare. For every trustworthy website, there are countless jerks, bullies, and scam artists who want to harvest your personal information for their own purposes. But you can fight back, right now.

Award-winning author and investigative journalist Violet Blue shows you how women are targeted online and how to keep yourself safe. Blue’s practical, user-friendly advice will teach you how to:

* Delete personal content from websites
* Use website and browser privacy controls effectively
* Recover from and prevent identity theft
* Figure out where the law protects you–and where it doesn’t
* Set up safe online profiles
* Remove yourself from people-finder websites

Even if your privacy has already been compromised, don’t panic. It’s not too late to take control.

Snippet:

RECOVERING FROM HARASSMENT

Telling a victim “You shouldn’t have done it,” or “What did you expect?” is pointless, unfair, stupid, and just plain wrong. Instead of blaming and shaming, how about some information you can really use to help you make the decisions that are right for you? I’ll equip you with tools to mitigate, minimize, and even possibly avoid damage if something goes wrong.

Six Traits Mini Lesson

Trait: Conventions Ever wonder how to quote a sentence inside of another sentence? This excerpt shows you how. The first quoted sentence is written just like dialogue. After the opening quotation marks, the first word of the quoted sentence begins with a capital letter.

Telling a victim “You shouldn’t have done it,” or

The last word of the quoted sentence begins has punctuation before the closing opening quotation marks. The first quoted sentence ends with a comma, just like it would if the sentence was written as a stand alone line of dialogue.

The word or lets the reader know that more is coming…

or “What did you expect?” is

Just like the first quoted sentence, the first word of the second quote begins with a capital letter. It is the ending of the sentence that is different. The first sentence was a statement, so the period at end was changed to a comma when it was converted to dialogue.

The second quoted sentence was a question, so the ending punctuation remained the same. The end punctuation for a question is always a question mark. The closing opening quotation marks come after the question mark.

The word or lets the reader know that more is coming…

or “What did you expect?” is pointless, unfair, stupid, and just plain wrong.

The complete sentence also has end punctuation. This one ends with a period because it is a statement.

When this sentence is spoken aloud the pauses shown in the punctuation are auditory. The listener can hear the silence, the pauses, indicated here by the punctuation. On the written page, however, we use punctuation to add those pauses. All of this punctuation adds meaning and helps the reader understand what the writer is trying to convey.

It’s Nonfiction Monday!