Module 7: A Dog Called Kitty by Bill Wallace & Anything but Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin

 Summary: Ricky and his family have just moved to a farm in Oklahoma. They come to find that they have an array of stray cats and a small pup that come for scraps of food every day. Ricky must overcome his fear of dogs in order for the pup to live because the cats eat all of his food. One day he decides to let go of his fear and starts to take care of his new pup named Kitty. His family and he name the pup Kitty because the pup would always come when they called all the cats for feeding. One day Ricky and Kitty have to go searching for their missing cow that Kitty had scared off. Kitty confronts these 4 stray dogs in an attempt to save the young cow and gets beat up badly. Ricky is so worried that he kicks the stray dogs off of Kitty but it is too late. Kitty had not recovered and dies at the vet. Ricky is so upset that he vowed never to have another dog again. When he returns home, he finds another little pup that startles his mother. He quickly becomes joyful and remembers his little pup and what he used to tell him.     

Citation: Wallace, B. (1980). A dog called Kitty. New York, NY: Holiday House.  

Impressions: I enjoyed the country voice that they story was told in. When I was reading out loud I could really get into character with the book and appreciated the unique dialect. It is a brave story about a boy overcoming his fears. I think that students can relate to this book in many ways such as dealing with different fears they might have. There is some violence in the book such as all the fights between the boys but I think they are handled well enough for students who read it to make their own judgments about it.

Reviews:

From School Library Journal

Grade 3-5. Bill Wallace's story (Holiday, 1980) of the bonding between a boy and a dog is not to be missed. This presentation, read by L.J. Ganser, is so softly dramatic that it not only captures the essence of gentle emotion but essentially transports readers to the Oklahoma farm where Ricky exhibits courage beyond belief. Ricky is terrified by dogs because as a toddler he was mercilessly mauled by a rabid dog and left to die. Sixty-three stitches later with no anesthesia, Ricky is scarred with the emotional and physical memories that constantly recall his tragedy. The softness of Ganser's voice reflects the softness of Ricky's heart when a puppy is left to starve because he responds with a littler of kittens for food but is rejected. Hence, the name Kitty. Ricky musters all his courage and feeds the puppy, building a closeness that only friends realize and conquering his all-consuming fear. With Ricky, readers suffer the loss and feel the anguish when Kitty is accidentally killed at an oil rig. Hope, however, still prevails and happiness does come through sorrow. Ganser brings life and emotion to a powerful story with his dramatic rendition. This touching and encouraging story add a further dimension to the significance of boy and dog relationships, and should be high on public and school library priority lists.

Brown, P.M.(1997). Review. School Library Journal. Retrieved from amazon.com

From the Publisher

The puppy was small and fuzzy, with a friendly, wagging tail -- and Ricky was afraid of him! No wonder, since he was attacked by a dog when he was just a baby. So when a stray puppy comes sniffling around the farm, Ricky tells it to get lost. But the puppy keeps trying to play with Ricky. And every time Ricky's Mom feeds the cats, the little dog comes running. The cats aren't sharing their food, however, and the poor pup is slowly starving. If Ricky doesn't overcome his fear, the little puppy may die -- butif he lets himself get close enough to feed it, he may find the best friend he's ever had! Winner of the Texas Bluebonnet, the Oklahoma Sequoyah and the Nebraska Golden Sower Awards.
Retrieved from amazon.com

Suggestions: I think that this book might be a hard one to sell. This could be one that definitely would benefit from a book talk or a book trailer to make it more enticing. It ends sadly and I think would help students who might be recovering from losing their pets. The theme could be about pets and students could share their stories about their pets that are living or have died.

Summary: Jason Blake is an extraordinary writer. He loves writing stories for his storyboard website and reading his comments. One comment in particular that he awaits every time is from Phoenixbird, a fellow storyboard writer. Soon he figures out that Phoenixbird is a girl named Rebecca. He starts to develop feelings for Rebecca and wants so desperately for her to be his girlfriend. He is afraid though that Rebecca won’t accept him. Jason is autistic. As a surprise, Jason’s parents have agreed to take him to the storyboard convention in Dallas. Jason is terrified of meeting Rebecca and tells her he is not going. Rebecca finds him since there aren’t many kids their age and is polite to Jason and his mom. Jason does not say a word and feels like he blew his chances. He is contemplates never writing another story again. The rest of a convention is a blur until the last day when Rebecca shows up to the convention party. She tells Jason that she would love to stay friends and continue to read each other’s stories. Jason is fulfilled by this requests and finishes his story on storyboard with a happy ending.   

Citation: Baskin, N.R. (2009). Anything but typical. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Impressions: The title of this book does not give it justice. I went into the book thinking that this was going to be a sad story about a boy who struggles with school and girls. I had the impression that it was a typical high school bad romance book. It was so much more than that. Jason’s character was beautifully written. He did make a reference to The Catcher in the Rye by Salinger and that was one of the first thoughts that came into my head when I started reading this book. This book is a true coming of age story with a sweet ending. I enjoyed all of the story elements that Jason explained and his complete outlines of emotions and thoughts.

Reviews:

From Kirkus Reviews

People say 12-year-old Jason Blake is weird. He blinks his eyes oddly and flaps his hands, his fingers jerking “like insects stuck on a string.” Jason is autistic. He hates art class and PE, where there’s too much space and unorganized time, but he feels at home on his computer, writing stories on the Storyboard website. When he meets a fellow writer named Rebecca online and has the chance to meet her in person at a Storyboard conference, he panics. What will happen to their comfortable online relationship when she meets him? Baskin’s delineation of an autistic boy’s world is brilliant, putting readers into Jason’s mind, showing how he sees the world, understands how his parents feel about him, frets about fitting in and yearns to find at least one friend in the world. Readers even get some tips about writing short stories as they observe Jason composing his way to self-acceptance. “This is who I am. This is me,” as one of his characters says. (Fiction. 10-14)

Associates of Kirkus Reviews. (March 24, 2009). Review. Kirkus Reviews Online. http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/nora-raleigh-baskin/anything-but-typical/

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Baskin tells this luminous story entirely from the point of view of Jason, an autistic boy who is a creative-writing whiz and deft explainer of literary devices, but markedly at a loss in social interactions with “neurotypicals” both at school and at home. He is most comfortable in an online writing forum called Storyboard, where his stories kindle an e-mail-based friendship with a girl. His excitement over having a real friend (and maybe even girlfriend) turns to terror when he learns that his parents want to take him on a trip to the Storyboard conference, where he’ll no doubt have to meet her in person. With stunning economy, Baskin describes Jason’s attempts to interpret body language and social expectations, revealing the extreme disconnect created by his internalization of the world around him. Despite his handicap, Jason moves through his failures and triumphs with the same depth of courage and confusion of any boy his age. His story, while neither particularly heartbreaking nor heartwarming, shows that the distinction between “normal” and “not normal” is whisper-thin but easily amplified to create the chasm between “different” and “defective.” This is an enormously difficult subject, but Baskin, without dramatics or sentimentality, makes it universal. As Jason explains, there’s really only one kind of plot: “Stuff happens. That’s it.” Grades 4-7. --

Ian Chipman,I. (February 1, 2009). Booklist review. Booklist. Retrieved from http://www.booklistonline.com/Anything-But-Typical-Nora-Raleigh-Baskin/pid=3172507

Suggestions: This book could coincide with developing a special school blog for students to write their stories on. They could share their thoughts and feelings on a forum to create a community of readers. They could even give tips to each other as well as praise and appreciation.