Melanie Dulaney > Recent Status Updates

Challenging vocab-infectious, tyrannical (all in the first 7 pages)

Higher level vocab w/picture and rich context to aid comprehension-bedraggled, catapulted, rapscallion

Maisie-12 yrs old
Walt-14 yrs old

Descriptions of the demons-outstanding! Gross, imaginative, powerful and fearful sounding. Right alongside all the different appearances of the dragons.

Rompus-training fight between dragons on Skralla

Buffalo, NY area, late winter/early spring at the beginning & ends in June

Included treatments for Jo’s OCD include: anti-anxiety, anti-depressant, sleeping medications, exposure therapy, progressive muscle relaxation, visualization techniques, therapist/psychiatric/school counselor care both in and outpatient

OCD is about compulsions caused by intrusive thoughts that become overpowering; the compulsions may be manifested in the counting, repetitive behaviors, and exacting behaviors that are typically shown in book and entertainment characters but can also include self-harm as in Jo/Josie’s case.

Dimitri the bunny, George the goose and Hal the goat.

Harmony & her dad-Black, he’s a blues musician, mom died when Harmony was a baby
Lena & son Robby-brown-skinned, Lena has tight coil curls but when Robby & Harmony go on the ghost tour, she looks for someone else Black. So what is Robby?

Exposure therapy
Cognitive behavior therapy

Katherine-17
Ella-15
California
Month long family camp

Doc says that Nico likes “…that thing on the computer with the square people.” And Kestrel thinks they might be green! Will probably cause some laughing eye rolls from middle grade kiddos!

Langston, college intern-Black
Poppy, college intern-South Asian

Sally-Asian
Nico-Latino
Doc-Caucasian
Kestrel & mom-Caucasian

True Survival series: Juliane Koepcke, Lost in Peru NF picture book

I disagree with professional reviews’ opinion that this is a middle grade book. With its detailed and embedded passages further explaining things like bacteria the physics of thrust plus Juliane’s age (17 and a high school senior), this is more for the jr high and up age group altho the absence of profanity and sexual content makes it OK for middle grade readers wanting a more challenging survival story.

Inset passages on topics that correspond to events such as an article on plane lift and safety features as Juliane’s plane begins to plummet and bacteria and viruses as she contemplates drinking from a bubbling water source without the ability to boil it first.

Another unfamiliar word, likely British vocab-chunder. Context clues clearly indicate it means to throw up, vomit.

Lots of references to British locations, foods like “barkers,” expressions like Butter My Crumpets and vocabulary like collywobbles. May be off-putting to some readers but there is always plenty of context to support understanding of at least the basic idea if not the exact meaning or understanding of British sights.

River, Mia, Tony-4th graders
Tony’s little brother ZoZo-4 yrs old

Mia’s mom-PA
Tony’s family owns dry cleaning business
River’s mom owns the resale clothing shop

Not as short on text as an early chapter book but font is large, great sketches sprinkled throughout and simple plot line; some phrasing, such as calling the 3 kids going to one home after school a “play date” sounds very young and not a phrase most 2nd-4th grade students would use.

A dragon book that makes me laugh? Yup. Subtle humor as well as somewhat silly like there being such a thing as a drag-on dragon, a species characterized by its tendency to tell very long and boring stories!!

This is going to be a good one. Not a typical dragon book, but a good one nonetheless.