Books with author Carol Fenner

Fifth grader Yolonda determines to prove that her younger brother is not a slow learner but a true musical genius in this Newberry Honor Book from Carol Fenner.Yolanda is smart, tough, and big for her age. Back in Chicago where they used to live, everyone knew better than to mess with her or her little brother, Andrew. Andrew doesn’t talk very much and he can’t read, but he can create unbelievable music on the old harmonica their father left him. When Yolanda reads the definition of “genius” in the dictionary, she knows it describes Andrew, and she’s determined to convince the world, especially their mother, of Andrew’s gift. Then one day when Yolanda’s back is turned, the unthinkable happens, and the music stops. Now Yolanda’s mission is more important than ever. How can she open people’s eyes to Andrew’s talent and help him find the music again?

Fifth grader Yolonda determines to prove that her younger brother is not a slow learner but a true musical genius in this Newberry Honor Book from Carol Fenner.Yolanda is smart, tough, and big for her age. Back in Chicago where they used to live, everyone knew better than to mess with her or her little brother, Andrew. Andrew doesn’t talk very much and he can’t read, but he can create unbelievable music on the old harmonica their father left him. When Yolanda reads the definition of “genius” in the dictionary, she knows it describes Andrew, and she’s determined to convince the world, especially their mother, of Andrew’s gift. Then one day when Yolanda’s back is turned, the unthinkable happens, and the music stops. Now Yolanda’s mission is more important than ever. How can she open people’s eyes to Andrew’s talent and help him find the music again?

Tiger, Tiger A quiet, well-conceived picture book.Publishers Weekly Warm and deliciously suspenseful and scary.Booklist A poetic, completely harmonious and beautiful picture book.HornbookGorilla Gorilla1973 Christopher Medal for non-fiction; Library of Congress Book of the Year; ALA Notable Book; Outstanding Science Trade Book for Children. Fenner has turned a reading of Schallers Year of the Gorilla and her own zoo observations into a sound and vividly empathic account, and Shimins soft, gray drawings reinforce the mood of her prose.Kirkus Based on impressive research, this is the story of a young gorilla who grows from a babe in his mothers arms to become the strongest male of his tribe. The illustrations are spellbinding and so is the story.Publishers Weekly

Inside your wall, no one can touch you It was Randall's sister who first told him about the invisible wall that protected her from the cruelty of her classmates. By the time Randall is in fifth grade, he's had his own wall for years. Inside his wall, he doesn't have to think about his abusive father, gone for several months, or his thin, suffering mother, who never leaves the house -- the house with no running water for laundry or baths. Inside his wall, he can dream about picnics, about riding on his Uncle Luke's motorcycle, and, always, he can lose himself in his drawing. But one day Randall makes a friend, and slowly, frighteningly, his wall begins to crumble. And miraculously, the gift that comforted Randall within his wall opens up a new world outside it.

Eleven-year-old Ian and his Vietnam veteran father have been homeless for years, but now his father has found a perfect place for them—an abandoned city courthouse with heat, plenty of bathrooms, and lots of exits and entrances. Then, two things happen that threaten Ian’s fragile security: his father disappears, leaving Ian to fend for himself with the survival skills he’s learned through the years, and Ian discovers that a local museum is mounting an exhibition of kites in the courthouse.Suddenly, Ian’s safe hideaway is filled with people—and with extraordinary, beautiful kites that spark Ian’s imagination and draw him out of his shadow existence. Will the kites be Ian’s downfall…or his salvation?

Fifth grader Yolonda determines to prove that her younger brother is not a slow learner but a true musical genius in this Newberry Honor Book from Carol Fenner.Yolanda is smart, tough, and big for her age. Back in Chicago where they used to live, everyone knew better than to mess with her or her little brother, Andrew. Andrew doesn’t talk very much and he can’t read, but he can create unbelievable music on the old harmonica their father left him. When Yolanda reads the definition of “genius” in the dictionary, she knows it describes Andrew, and she’s determined to convince the world, especially their mother, of Andrew’s gift. Then one day when Yolanda’s back is turned, the unthinkable happens, and the music stops. Now Yolanda’s mission is more important than ever. How can she open people’s eyes to Andrew’s talent and help him find the music again?

Artistically talented but socioeconomically underprivileged, a fifth-grade boy has built a wall of defense to protect himself from the pain of human relationships--a wall which begins to crumble when a dynamic and compassionate classmate decides to interfere in his life.Artistically talented but socially underprivileged, a fifth-grade boy has built a wall of defense to protect himself from the pain of human relationships--a wall which begins to crumble when a dynamic and compassionate classmate decides to interfere in his life

Read by Alan Ruck4 hours 56 minutes, 3 cassettesEleven-year-old Ian and his father, a Vietnam veteran, have been homeless for several years. Now his father has found the perfect place for them, the vast, old, now unused city courthouse. As a historic monument, it is kept heated and has lots of bathrooms and a variety of exits and entrances. Then Ian's father fails to return one night, and Ian discovers that a local museum is going to put a six-week exhibit of kites from around the world in one fo the largest courtrooms.As the kites arrive and the exhibit is mounted, Ian is increasingly fascinated by what he sees when no one is there and what he overhears. The kites are beautiful—extraordinary, imaginative, and varied. Because he reads all the books on kites what are there, Ian becomes quite an expert. He bluffs his way into being accepted as a very bright and knowledgeable boy who can, when the exhibit opens, take groups of schoolchildren around.Ian's precarious survival on his own, following all the precautions his father has taught him, makes absorbing reading in this highly unusual, realistic story of a closely knit remarkably independent father and son but the author of the 1996 Newbery Honor winner, Yolanda's Genius—also available on audio from Listening Library.