JIM MURPHY - PATHFINDER



Jim Murphy: A Pathfinder To His Life, Work, and History


Jim Murphy has written over 30 books for children and young adults.  A New Jerseyian by birth, he spent his childhood traipsing through the Meadowlands, playing in abandoned factories, and living life with not a care or bother.  He was not an early lover of books, but became intriqued when a teacher told him not to read a certain banned book.  Murphy quickly ran out to find what the fuss was about and has been an avid reader ever since. 

Murphy graduated from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ and completed graduate work at Radcliffe College.  He started his career in juvenile publisher and moved up to Managing Editor over time.  It was this position that he moved away from when he chose to devote himself entirely to his own writing.  In 1978, he published his first book, Weird and Wacky Inventions.  His claim to fame, however, has been his historical fiction.  He has a passion for reading about subjects that interest him and is quite skilled as a researcher.  His books scan a broad range of topics, from the Civil War to the terrific and deadly Blizzard of 1888. 

Murphy's Books, Awards, and Accolades

Many of Jim Murphy's books have been honored with a varity of awards recognizing their quality and comprehensiveness.  As an avid researcher, he is extremely detailed in the portrayal of each historical event he writes about.  His forte is the ability to make the characters in his books multi-layered, entertaining and stimulating.  It is rare that one would pick up a Murphy book and not be anxious to turn page after page. 

This is a list of all the awards that Murphy has actualized throughout his writing career:

2010 Margaret A. Edwards Award -

2 ALA Newbery Honor Book Awards

ALA Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award

ALA Robert F. Sibert Honor Book Award

National Book Award Finalist Medal

3 NCTE Orbis Pictus Awards

3 Jefferson Cup Awards

2 SCBWI’s Golden Kite Award

The Washington Post/Children’s Book Guild Award for Distinguished Nonfiction

Boston Globe-Horn Book Award

The American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 has earned nine awards, in and of itself.  

Several of his books has been used by the media to highlight and enhance a variety of current events.  Specifically, during a recent blizzard, Murphy was interviewed by ABC News to compare and contrast the modern day weatherology with the disasterous storms of the past that would surprise the residents or victims of the disaster (as the case may be).  The link below leads you to a video of one such telecast interview. 

Frost Flashback: The Blizzard of 1888 | Video - ABC News

Murphy has written three new books since 2009.  The first, A Savage Thunder: Antietam and the Bloody Road to Thunder, published in July, 2009, is the story of the bloodiest, single day battle of the Civil War. 



The School LibraryJournal says this about the book:

 "It is terrible to march slowly into danger, and see and feel each second your chance at death is surer than it was the second before." These words from a Union office begin to provide some reckoning of the horror that was the 1862 Battle of Antietam, which surely changed the course of the Civil War and provided Lincoln the opportunity to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. Murphy provides readers with a lucid and compelling narrative...From the drama that unfolded in the cornfield to the brutal confrontation on the sunken road, the unflinching prose compels readers forward in anticipation of the events yet to unfold...An outstanding account of a battle that was truly 'a savage thunder.' "

www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6667921.html



Soon after, in October of 2009, Murphy publishes Truce, the true story of a momentary miracle of peace during what was then called the Great World War. 

Booklist, an ALA magazine, wrote this about Truce:

"Murphy's excellent telling of this unusual war story begins with an account of the events that led to WWI and follows the shift in the soldiers' mind-sets from the feverish rush to join before the war ended to the painful realization that no end was in sight. Printed in tones of sepia, the illustrations in this handsome… vividly portrays the context and events of the Christmas Truce." 

http://www.ala.org/offices/publishing/booklist/

In December 2010, Murphy produces his most recent book, The Crossing: How George Washington Saved the American Revolution.  The Kirkus Review gives this opinion:

"Murphy brings the winter of 1776 to life with powerful prose and captivating illustrations. ….A superbly written, well-researched and attractively illustrated account…."

http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jim-murphy/crossing-murphy/



Internet Connections 

If you are interested in learning more about his books you may want to visit his website, http://www.jimmurphybooks.com/, or you may access a list of his books at Jim Murphy Booklist. 

For an interesting personal perspective on Jim Murphy, read an interview on :

     - ALA 2010: Q&A with YA Author Jim Murphy 

To view a trailer of his book, Across America, the story of Robert Louis Stevenson's railway trip to meet his new wife, play the video below:

Contact Jim Murphy and Affiliates

To contact Jim Murphy directly: jimmurphybooks@gmail.com

To contact Clarion/Houghton Mifflin about books, appearances, or other matters:

Jennifer Groves at Jennifer_Groves@hmco.com 212-420-5881
For book ordering: Houghton Mifflin's Trade Customer Service Dept. at 1-800- 225-3362
or 1-800-634-7568 (fax).

To contact Scholastic Inc. about books, appearances, or other matters:

Stephanie Nooney at snooney@scholastic.com or 212-389-3772
For book ordering: 800-SCHOLASTIC or 800-724-6527 - ext. 3.

War Horse - The Movie

War Horse
    Novel by Michael Morpurgo
    Movie by Steven Spielberg (via Walt Disney Pictures & Dreamscape)

War Horse, set in England and Europe during World War I, is a story of a young boy's love for a red bay colt that he raised and trained against odds and the wishes of his father.  The hero of this story is the horse, who much in the same fashion as Black Beauty, is allowed to tell his own tale. 

In 1914, Joey, a classy red bay gelding is sold to the army by the young boy's (Albert) father to help pay the monies due to keep the family farm.  He is purchased by a kind and gentle English captain and is, at first, well tended.  As can be expected in a war story, Joey's soldier is killed in battle and he is taken by the Germans and put to use on the Western Front.  As the story progresses, Joey finds strength and courage in a bond with a beautiful black stallion, and they miraculously are able to stay together through several misadventures during the war.

At home, Albert (15 when the gelding was sold) is finally old enough to join the fight and signs up for the veterinary corps.  It is his belief that he will someday find his beautiful horse and they will be together again.  Joey lives through many terrors of war but also finds love and tenderness from a small French girl named Emily who is able to, with the help of her grandfather, keep both horses safe for a period of time.  However, he ultimately finds himself and his black companion captured by the Germans and put to work pulling the great war guns.

Topthorn, the black stallion, does not survive this life and dies in the harnesses, leaving Joey to break away and look for a way out of these horrific circumstances.  He is terrified by an approaching German tank and runs frantically through the front into No-Man's Land where his is injured by barbed wire. 

It is this deadly situation that prompts a short truce between two soldiers on either side of No-Man's Land, one English and one German, as they work together to provide Joey with a chance to survive.  It is this act of kindness and cooperation between the two that helps him finally find his way home.

Michael Morpurgo is one of England's most loved children's book writers. He has written over 100 books including Homecoming,  Sparrow, and An Elephant in the Garden.  Morpurgo has won the Smarties Prize, the Whitbread Award, and recently the Blue Peter Book Award for Private Peaceful. He is also written a sequel to War Horse called Farm Boy. You can visit him online at http://www.michaelmorpurgo.com/.

    

You can also learn more about horses and mules used in World War I by visiting http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWhorses.htm

Paintings From the Cave by Gary Paulsen

PAINTINGS FROM THE CAVE: THREE NOVELLAS
     by Gary Paulsen

 

This short story collection contains three novellas: Man of the Iron Heads, Jo-Jo the Dog-Faced Girl, and Erik's Rules.  These stories allow the reader to embrace three troubled children, Jake, Jo, and Jamie, who are growing up in environments that no one, much less a child, should have to endure.  Jake lives in a city polluted with gangs, drugs, and violence.  He lives by one rule: You stop moving, you're done!  Next to the building he hides in to avoid the drug lord and his minions is a newly constructed apartment building protected by security and guarded entrances.  As he scrambles and sneaks through the wrecked interior of his building in an effort to avoid the druggies and crackheads who inhabit the front rooms, he spots a man across the alley who seems to be creating an iron head out of putty.  Intrigued and mesmerized, Jake risks exposure to find a window to better see the man work.  As he watches, fascinated, the man looks up and their eyes meet.  Jake has spent his entire life hiding from evil and protecting his friend, Layla, who is pregnant from being raped in the stairwell of her building.  His entire world changes, however, when he meets the eyes of this stranger across the alley. 

Jo lives in a low-class suburban area, where her drunk parents spent their days either screaming at each other or beating Jo.  She became very good at moving silently through the days of her life, attracting as little attention as possible...that was before the dogs.  Jo's first dog was a terrier that a neighboring family had left behind tied to the fence as they pulled away.  Mike became the first of her canine family, followed shortly thereafter by Carter, a skinny brown mutt that had a permanent smile.  It wasn't long before Betty joined them...laying in a box outside the grocery store sporting a sign that read, "Free Puppies".  Jo spend her days going to school, where she was the brunt of a considerable amount of bullying due to her ragged clothes and unkept appearances.  She learned to shoulder this distain along with the neglect her "biologicals" afforded her.  This all changed when she found the dogs...and when the dogs found a small girl with dark, sad eyes named Rose.

Jamie was an artist.  He didn't feel like one or believe he had any talent, but it was his art that kept him from going insane.  Jamie and his brother, Eric had a major challenge in their life...they are runaways, running from a live of abuse and neglect from their mother and her alcholic boyfriend.  Eric is fifteen and Jamie's ten and they have hidden in cars, slept in alleys, in the park, stayed over at the houses of a few sympatheic strangers, and even slept on the benches of the burger joint that Eric worked at after school.  Eric has rules: Rule #1...Don't talk about, or think about, what happened before.  Jamie tries to follow this rule, but the nightmares still come in the dark of the night and he wakes screaming and trembling with fear as Eric holds him close, comforting him, waiting for the shaking to stop.  Eric is trying to keep them together, in school, clothed and fed, and most importantly, out of sight.  Eric's Rule #5...Stay off the grid, out of sight, out of the loop, don't do anything to call attention to yourself because the least little thing could trip you up. 
This was a rule that Jamie was very good at following, he was small, quiet, unobtrusive.  It was his art that caused him to break this rule, his art that led him to the dogs, and it was the dogs that gave him and Eric a chance for a short stay in heaven. 

A short glimpse of these three novellas may be seen at:
http://play.google.com/books/reader?id=viMwInQ1qiQC&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&hl=en

Gary Paulsen is heralded as being "one of the best-loved writers alive".  After reading these novellas, I can completed understand why this may be so.  His youth was troubled and he ran away from home at the age of fourteen.  As with many of his story characters, he was also "saved" by art and dogs.  A short bio-glog can be seen at glogster.com. 

 http://cdoerksen.edu.glogster.com/gary-paulsen/

Rotters - An Odyssey Award Winner

Rotters                          
     by Daniel Kraus

Are you wondering how a book about grave diggers ended up winning the 2012 Odyssey Award?  The Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production is given to the producer of the best audio book produced for children and/or young adults.  The author, Daniel Kraus, has managed to successfully endear us to Joey, an high school outcast who's only triumph in life is the achievement of straight "A"s and a talent with the trumpet.  At sixteen, when his mother tragically dies and he is sent to live with the father he has never met.  Unwelcome, ignored and neglected by his father, Joey Crouch is even more bullied at his new high school.  When he is forced to steal money for lunch, he is caught and labeled as "bad" and taunted by teachers and students alike.  At home, he sleeps on the floor in front of the kitchen sink and is disgusted at the filth and smell that trails his father when he is in the house.  As Joey maintains his "A" average, a fervent wish of his mother, he watches his father and notices a strange intellect and purpose that surrounds his actions.  

A bit reminiscent of A Tale of Two Cities, (those of you who remember the man whose wife cleaned his boots every evening only to find them full of mud the next morning) Joey's father has a similar secret.   As a member of a morbid by proud society of grave diggers, assigned to a specific territory by an old pact, Harnett peruses stacks of newspapers daily to decide who has died and where the best wealth may be buried.

My obvious inclination, were I in Joey's shoes, would be to bolt and find a new place to live.  He, however, realizes that the apple falls not far from the tree and opts to join his father's pursuits and passions.  The story is quite intriguing as he is constantly challenged to be the best "Digger" he can be (all the while trying to maintain his grades).   As he is indoctrinated into this society, he meets the Diggers from around the country and find that they are, in fact, a dying breed...no pun intended.  Lionel, his father's mentor, had actually trained another Digger along with his father and the plot becomes intense when we realize they were both in love with the same woman, Joey's mother. 

Rotters is quite a long journey for a YA novel.  It is divided into two parts, the first telling of his learning/training days, and the second depicting his fall from normal society and journey into the "dark side" of the rotter world.  Baby, his father's counterpart, has a vendetta for Joey and his father and becomes a constant nemesis.  As the Digger culture falls apart, Baby creates "The Rotter Book", a photo-journal of all the graves he has dug and plundered.  This sets a macabre spin to the plot and Joey is very much in danger of being destroyed. 

I enjoyed this story immensely, but be forewarned, it is not a quick read.  I feel it is an amazing story of challenge, choice and chilling scenarios.  This is a story of strength, determination, dedication and devotion is a completely unexpected venue.  It would be a terrific summer vacation or cruise ship read.

For more information about the author, Daniel Kraus: his bio, book trailer, and his other works go to http://danielkraus.com/.

To get know more about The Odyssey Awards, go to http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/news/ala/listening-library-wins-2012-odyssey-award-rotters.

Ship Breaker

Ship Breaker
    by Paolo Bacigalupi

Ship Breaker is a post-apocalyptic novel that tells of a teenager's journey from a low paying, dirty and dangerous job of "ship breaker" or salvaging valuable scrap off wrecks, to running for his life with a beautiful, rich "swank" who he finds barely alive within a clipper ship wrecked during a violent storm.  Nailer, along with his "crew", his work group, stay alive while working scrap by observing a strict code of honor of loyalty and trust.  Pulling scrap copper and other medals off the beached iron ships that have been abandoned after the polar ice caps have melted and covered many of the major cities of the world is a deadly job since, at any time, the creaky and rusted duct works could collapse sending a body tumbling into the bowels of the wreck.  Nailer's life is drastically changed one day when, as he is trying to recover from such an accident, a huge "city killer" storm hits the beach where the impoverished workers live.  In the aftermath of the storm, he and his crew chief Pima, stumble across the wrecked clipper and decide to investigate it for any wealth they can pull off it.   In one of the luxurious bedrooms they find a body of a beautiful young girl.  When they decide to remove her jewelry, her fingers are too swollen.  As they attempt to cut off her fingers to pull of the rings she comes to live unexpectedly.   Nailer and Pima have to decide whether to kill her to take the wealth that will make them rich for life or let her live and chance that she will reward them for their help. 

As a YA science fiction, I loved the plot and action of this novel.  Once "involved" with the characters, which I admit took me awhile, I was engrossed in the story line and couldn't wait to see where Nailer and Pima's decision would take them.  The dog-men, genetically engineered half-human half-dog, loyal and devoted to their "patrons", added a unique danger factor when we found out that "Lucky Girl" (as they named the clipper survivor) was being pursued by murderous corporate moguls trying to capture her and use her to force her father to agree to their power hungry demands. 

Paolo Bacigalupi has done a phenominal job with this second full length novel.  His first, The Windup Girl, received many awards.  Ship Breaker has been nominated for the 2011 Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy.  Bacigalupi has finished his third novel, a sequel to Ship Breaker called The Drowned Cities.  To read reviews on this story, go to Goodreads, http://www.goodreads.com/book/photo/12814594-the-drowned-cities. 

The Iron King

     First in the Iron Fey Series by Julie Kagawa

Quite basically, this is a story about a young high school girl, Megan Chase, who lives an uneventful life with her mother, step-father, and brother on a pig farm.  She's ignored in school and at home, and the only highlight in her life is her best friend Robbie, whose antics and humor keep her life bearable...until the day her brother is kidnapped by a Faery king from Nevernever (nothing like NeverLand) and the "changeling" (an evil look-alike) attacks her and her mother.  Why read this book?!?  Well, frankly, that what I said.  As I read the reviews, several articles criticized this story for being too much like all the other "faery" stories, such as Never Ending Story, Midsummer Night's Dream, Alice In Wonderland, and Labyrinth.  And, truth be told, it has borrowed many elements from these stories, Robbie turns out to be Robyn Goodfellow, "Puck", from A Midsummer's Night Dream.  The four year old brother is being held captive by a rogue Faery king much like in Labyrinth.  And there is a cait sith (disappearing cat) with much the same attitude as the Cheshire in Wonderland...minus the smile.  My love for fantasy, however, overruled these criticisms and I began my journey, albeit far too casually, into the world of Faery and Megan Chase.  And, what a trip!!  As Megan and Puck passed through the portal in her brother's closet and entered the Wyldwood of Nevernever, we find a brutal world of evil and aggression inhabited by nasty queens, kings, and princes, as well as a battalion of "fey"...ogres, trolls, nixies, satyrs, goblins, dragons and the like.  No place is safe for Megan who finds, much to her chagrin, that she is in actuality half human/half faery, an offspring of the King Oberon of the Summer Court, a small detail her mother neglected to mention.   

The story is captivating as Megan and Puck encounter numerous trials and challenges throughout their quest.  They travel back and forth from Faery to the human world through various portals and eventually meet up with a drop-dead-gorgeous prince of winter named Ash.  This occurrence does not thrill Puck who has secretly been in love with Megan for many years and also has vowed to kills Ash, his once best friend.  I love a good "faery"-tale, adventure, thriller, romance, comedy....and this story had all of these elements.  For a wonderful synopsis of these stories, view the following trailer.

As I traveled with Megan, Puck and Ash,  I was mesmerized and constantly looking forward to finding out what would happen next.  The author, Julie Kawaga, has performed a miracle using "old" material in weaving a dynamic entertaining quadrilogy.  As I finished the first book, I discovered that Kawaga had written two e-novellas that connected the second book (The Iron Princess) to the third, (The Iron Queen) and this to the fourth (The Iron Knight).  The interesting feature of these quick reads is that they are only available in ebook format and provide a deeper dimension into the storyline that you would not have otherwise. 

I think what I enjoyed the most about The Iron Fey series  is the twist on the traditional fairy mythology involving technology and its affect on the fantasy world...you have to read to see what I mean!  The triangle between Megan, Ash, and Puck also added a romantic element that kept me enthralled, being the hopeless romantic that I am.  I found the books wonderfully captivating and will definitely purchase the trilogy for my middle daughter who is a fantasy lover as well. 

Julie Kawaga grew up in Hawaii but now lives in Kentucky.   She began writing at an early age and gave up a career as a dog trainer to write full time after her first book published.  You can learn more about her and her books on her website, http://www.juliekawaga.com/.  But, after a quick look there, I would definitely head to her blog http://juliekagawa.blogspot.com/.  It is chuck full of interesting things like her newest book, The Immortal Rules, a story of Allison Sekemoto, katana-weilding vampire.

      Julie Kawaga, the Iron Fey Series



      

Sword, A Novel

Sword, A Novel

By Da Chen

Sword is a story set in ancient China.  According to the author, it is actually a retelling of a tale told to him by a man named Ar Kin.  Ar Kin was an old man when Chen was a boy.  He was a bit of an outcast in his village and lived on the banks of a river.  In the evenings, people young and old would come from the village to listen to Ar Kin tell his stories of ancient times.  This story of a daughter of a widow, Miu Miu, tells of how she came to journey many miles from her village to avenge her father’s death at the hands of the evil Emperor Ching. 

Miu Miu’s father was a renowned sword maker and sought out by the most important warriors and rulers in China.  When Emperor Ching, though incredible means, came in possession of a rare metal that seemed to glow from a magical source, he had Miu Miu’s father brought to the Palace to make a sword for the Emperor out of the metal.  This sword, when completed, glowed with a blood-red hue.  It was a very special sword that gave the Emperor special powers when it was wielded.  Miu Miu’s father was killed after the Emperor was given the sword because he did not want him to make another one like it for any of the Emperor’s enemies. 

When Miu Miu reached her fifteenth birthday, she was not prepared in the way of most young girls formarriage.  She was, by permission of the town elder, turned into a boy so that she could make the solo journey to the Palace to seek revenge for her father’s death and kill the Emperor.  Before she was dressed as a boy and sent on her way, her mother revealed a small sword her father had made for her that glowed in a magical blue light.  This sword was made for a girl and contained the same powers as the red sword the Emperor possessed.

This story has many wonderful elements that middle school students may find attractive.  The heroine is a young girl that is forced to take a path untraveled by other’s her age.  She is working on saving her family name and growing into an independent, free-spirited woman.  There is quite a bit of martial arts in this story, which will delight those who take Kung Fu or similar martial art disciplines.  The journey is filled with dangers and love.  She is able to reach the end of her objective, but not in the way she anticipated.  The ending of this story is both sweet and tragic, and will undoubtedly surprise the reader.

The following sites will give you more information about the author and his other works.

http://www.dachen.org/

 http://www.kidsreads.com/authors/au-chen-da.asp

  http://www.blueflowerarts.com/da-chen

For more information about ancient China, go to…

http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/china/

http://cybersleuth-kids.com/sleuth/History/Ancient_Civilizations/China/