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Children will connect with characters with realistic issues

Local children's librarian offers suggestions

Date published: 11/10/2009

OLIVER OLSON'S problem is over- protective parents.

When his third-grade teacher opens a space unit by asking, "How many of you would like to walk on the moon?" Oliver doesn't raise his hand.

"Oliver's parents would never let him walk on the moon. The moon was too far away. It was too cold. It didn't have enough gravity. The rocket might explode."

And when his teacher announces that the whole class is invited to a space sleepover at school, he knows he won't be allowed to go. Ever since Oliver was a sickly preschooler, his parents have worried about him too much.

Claudia Mills' "How Oliver Olson Changed the World" offers a portrait of overly protective parents that many families will recognize. Yet since readers see Oliver's parents through his eyes, we can sympathize with them, too, even when they insist on making his solar system diorama for him.

How Oliver finally strikes out on his own--in a safe way--makes for a satisfying, funny story for readers 9 and up.

Another real kid with real problems is 9-year-old Calvin Coconut, a high-energy kid who finds trouble wherever he goes in his beach-side Hawaiian town.

In the first chapter of Graham Salisbury's "Calvin Coconut, Trouble Magnet," Calvin agrees to watch a kite-surfer's gear for just a few minutes, but he can't resist strapping it on himself. Next thing he knows, the wind has picked up and Calvin is being dragged down the beach at a great rate. He ends up covered with sand and scratches, but he's had a good time.

Calvin's mom, his little sister, and the 15-year-old family friend who moves in with them make up a loving if sometimes challenging family. Humor, action, funny line drawings and short chapters make this book and its companion, "Calvin Coconut, The Zippy Fix," fun, easy reads for fourth and fifth graders.

Moxy Maxwell is having a great summer except for one problem: her fourth grade teacher has assigned the class to read "Stuart Little" by E.B. White over the summer. Tomorrow is the first day of school, and she still hasn't read it.

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Date published: 11/10/2009