Christopher Paul Curtis
Yearling, 1995
Kenny's older brother Byron is big trouble. Hanging out with his delinquent friends, playing with matches in the bathroom, stealing cookies from the grocery store---Byron is not the kind of older brother a kid can look up to. When Byron dyes his hair his parents decide that's the last straw. His sentence - leave Flint, Michigan and spend a summer with Grandma Sands in Birmingham, Alabama. The whole family piles into the "Brown Bomber" and takes off on a marathon drive from the icy north down to to the deep south to drop of Byron at Grandma's Detention Center.
Sure, there's been some trouble down there in Alabama, something about segregation, but that won't stop the Watsons from taking a trip to the old hometown.
Byron's antics and Kenny's hilarious commentary create a heartwarming picture of a family just trying to do their best to get along in hard times. Quirky and human in a deeply believable way, by the end of the book the Watsons feel like part of your family.
Which makes the Sixteenth Avenue Baptist Church Bombing so much more than a historical event. It becomes a heart-stopping tragedy.
A book that reminds us how precious life is, how ugly hate is, The Watsons Go to Birmingham is a great piece of historical fiction. Mild language and vulgarity, some bullying situations. For readers 13 and up.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
Petronella Saves Nearly Everyone
Dene Low
Houghton Mifflin 2009
The very title of this book made me want to pick it up and read it.
Petronella Arbuthnot would like to be a very proper Victorian-era young lady, but never lets that aspiration get in the way of her adventurous spirit. When her coming-out party is overshadowed by a collapsed party-tent and a couple of political kidnappings, she puts on her sleuthing hat, and, in company with her dearest friend and dearest friend's bothersomely attractive older brother, scours the countryside and braves the foggy streets of London in search of clues. With a hilarious cavalcade of bossy aunts, irritating cousins, undesirable suitors, and helpful domestic servants in tow, Petronella carries the day with dash and style...
...and saves nearly everyone!
Packed with delightful period details, this book sparkles with personality as mischievous Petronella narrates her sometimes rather un-ladylike adventures. Best enjoyed by readers ages twelve and up.
Houghton Mifflin 2009
The very title of this book made me want to pick it up and read it.
Petronella Arbuthnot would like to be a very proper Victorian-era young lady, but never lets that aspiration get in the way of her adventurous spirit. When her coming-out party is overshadowed by a collapsed party-tent and a couple of political kidnappings, she puts on her sleuthing hat, and, in company with her dearest friend and dearest friend's bothersomely attractive older brother, scours the countryside and braves the foggy streets of London in search of clues. With a hilarious cavalcade of bossy aunts, irritating cousins, undesirable suitors, and helpful domestic servants in tow, Petronella carries the day with dash and style...
...and saves nearly everyone!
Packed with delightful period details, this book sparkles with personality as mischievous Petronella narrates her sometimes rather un-ladylike adventures. Best enjoyed by readers ages twelve and up.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow
Jessica Day George
Bloomsbury, 2008
On the promise that her impoverished family will be blessed with riches, a young girl goes to live for a year in an enchanted palace with a mysterious white bear. Just as she begins to unravel the dark secrets of the curse on her host, her curiosity and fear drive her to betray the man she has come to love. To redeem him, she must journey beyond the edge of the world and face the Troll Princess herself.
East o'the Sun, West o'the Moon, always one of my favorite folk-tales, finds new life in this charming adaptation. I loved how Jessica Day George followed the traditional storyline so faithfully, but added an intriguing new twist of her own. She floods the pages with details about Scandinavian culture and language. A good, solid performance, and a recommended read for ages 10 and up.
Bloomsbury, 2008
On the promise that her impoverished family will be blessed with riches, a young girl goes to live for a year in an enchanted palace with a mysterious white bear. Just as she begins to unravel the dark secrets of the curse on her host, her curiosity and fear drive her to betray the man she has come to love. To redeem him, she must journey beyond the edge of the world and face the Troll Princess herself.
East o'the Sun, West o'the Moon, always one of my favorite folk-tales, finds new life in this charming adaptation. I loved how Jessica Day George followed the traditional storyline so faithfully, but added an intriguing new twist of her own. She floods the pages with details about Scandinavian culture and language. A good, solid performance, and a recommended read for ages 10 and up.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Ida B
Katherine Hannigan
Greenwillow Books 2004
Energetic, imaginative Ida B lives in Wisconsin, in a valley full of apple orchard with a stream running through it and a mountain behind it. Her loving parents are good, wise, and kind enough rescue her from the "Place of Slow but Sure Body-Cramping, Mind-Numbing, Fun-Killing Torture" more commonly known as public school. Ida is home-schooled, but she isn't lonely. As she roams the valley she talks to the apple trees and the brook and the rocks, and they talk back, just the way I remember trees and rocks talking when I was young. By the time I get through the first few chapters, I'm drooling just as much as Ida B's dog, Rufus. I wish I'd grown up in a place like that.
But Ida B's idyllic life doesn't last forever. Hard times come, and Ida B has to go back to school. Her family even has to sell some of the orchard. Ida B's a plotter and a planner, she's not going to take this lying down, but will her schemes for fighting back make things better or worse?
One thing very special about this book - Ida B's voice makes ordinary life feel as big and important as it really is. I loved it. Recommended for ages 10 and up.
Greenwillow Books 2004
Energetic, imaginative Ida B lives in Wisconsin, in a valley full of apple orchard with a stream running through it and a mountain behind it. Her loving parents are good, wise, and kind enough rescue her from the "Place of Slow but Sure Body-Cramping, Mind-Numbing, Fun-Killing Torture" more commonly known as public school. Ida is home-schooled, but she isn't lonely. As she roams the valley she talks to the apple trees and the brook and the rocks, and they talk back, just the way I remember trees and rocks talking when I was young. By the time I get through the first few chapters, I'm drooling just as much as Ida B's dog, Rufus. I wish I'd grown up in a place like that.
But Ida B's idyllic life doesn't last forever. Hard times come, and Ida B has to go back to school. Her family even has to sell some of the orchard. Ida B's a plotter and a planner, she's not going to take this lying down, but will her schemes for fighting back make things better or worse?
One thing very special about this book - Ida B's voice makes ordinary life feel as big and important as it really is. I loved it. Recommended for ages 10 and up.
Friday, September 25, 2009
The Anybodies
by N.E. Bode
HarperCollins 2004
I wish I had written this book.
Once a week, I volunteer at a school library. They don't know I'm a writer. I haven't told them yet. When I go, I feel like I'm doing secret agent undercover work, spying out what kind of books the kids are reading, finding out what kind of books the publishers are publishing. So last week, as I was slicing alphabetical labels off the shelves with a razor blade (the labels were from an old, outdated shelving system, were all wrong, and were driving me crazy whenever I tried to re-shelve the books), the spine of The Anybodies caught my eye.
I can't say what about it attracted my attention. The title was hidden by a big sticker with the letters PB (for paperback) and then FIC (for fiction) and then BOD for Bode. Maybe it was the charming, powder-blue color peeking out from around the sticker. Anyways, I took the book off the shelf, opened it up and read the dedication:
"THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED to you. Yes, you. Don't be so shocked. Haven't you always secretly thought that you deserved a book dedicated to you and you only?"
I smirked. I grinned. I stood up and asked the school librarian, "Excuse me, but are parents allowed to check out books too?"
The truth is, The Anybodies was written just for me, and for every other person who loves to read. This is a book for readers, and since most books are read by readers, I'd say it hits the market right on target. It is one of those books that just had to be written by somebody, and so it is only fitting that it should have been written by N.E. Bode. It's funny. Hilarious. I laughed out loud several times, once even punching my fist in the air in triumph. The book is also adventurous and heartwarming, for that's what readers want, isn't it? And there are plenty of other goodies, like children accidentally swapped at birth, retired circus performers, fairies that pop out of books, giant peaches, mysterious diaries written in code, a bitter love-triangle, grouchy henchmen, and a perfectly ordinary squirrel.
I'd recommend this book to any child (or adult) who has read everything on the shelf and is hungry for a little something different.
HarperCollins 2004
I wish I had written this book.
Once a week, I volunteer at a school library. They don't know I'm a writer. I haven't told them yet. When I go, I feel like I'm doing secret agent undercover work, spying out what kind of books the kids are reading, finding out what kind of books the publishers are publishing. So last week, as I was slicing alphabetical labels off the shelves with a razor blade (the labels were from an old, outdated shelving system, were all wrong, and were driving me crazy whenever I tried to re-shelve the books), the spine of The Anybodies caught my eye.
I can't say what about it attracted my attention. The title was hidden by a big sticker with the letters PB (for paperback) and then FIC (for fiction) and then BOD for Bode. Maybe it was the charming, powder-blue color peeking out from around the sticker. Anyways, I took the book off the shelf, opened it up and read the dedication:
"THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED to you. Yes, you. Don't be so shocked. Haven't you always secretly thought that you deserved a book dedicated to you and you only?"
I smirked. I grinned. I stood up and asked the school librarian, "Excuse me, but are parents allowed to check out books too?"
The truth is, The Anybodies was written just for me, and for every other person who loves to read. This is a book for readers, and since most books are read by readers, I'd say it hits the market right on target. It is one of those books that just had to be written by somebody, and so it is only fitting that it should have been written by N.E. Bode. It's funny. Hilarious. I laughed out loud several times, once even punching my fist in the air in triumph. The book is also adventurous and heartwarming, for that's what readers want, isn't it? And there are plenty of other goodies, like children accidentally swapped at birth, retired circus performers, fairies that pop out of books, giant peaches, mysterious diaries written in code, a bitter love-triangle, grouchy henchmen, and a perfectly ordinary squirrel.
I'd recommend this book to any child (or adult) who has read everything on the shelf and is hungry for a little something different.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
The Golden Goblet
Eloise Jarvis McGraw
Puffin, 1961
Time to introduce another one of my favorite authors, Eloise Jarvis McGraw. She wrote a stack of books in her lifetime, historical fiction, fantasy, and even added three volumes to the Oz franchise. My favorite thing about her writing is her minor characters. In most books, the minor characters are shallow, flat, uninteresting creatures. You never meet one of those in McGraw's books. Every last character who walks on the scene is a living, breathing, fascinating, complex human being. I wish I could have met her. From the way she writes her minor characters I'm guessing she had the gift to see everyone in the world as a real person.
She also does her homework. Set in ancient Egypt, The Golden Goblet rings with authentic details about Egyptian culture and life. But in addition to historical fiction, this book is a crime-solving mystery. Ranofer, who dreams of apprenticing to a goldsmith and becoming an artisan, is forced to work for his older brother instead. Then Ranofer discovers his brother has been grave-robbing, and Ranofer has unknowingly been helping to sell the goods. Can Ranofer expose his brother without being caught and punished himself?
This book offers a compelling story of a boy who wants to be free to pursue his dream and find his place in the world, along with a lot of sneaking around night-time Egyptian streets, and a nail-biting action climax in a dark, Egyptian tomb. Recommended for readers ten and up.
Puffin, 1961
Time to introduce another one of my favorite authors, Eloise Jarvis McGraw. She wrote a stack of books in her lifetime, historical fiction, fantasy, and even added three volumes to the Oz franchise. My favorite thing about her writing is her minor characters. In most books, the minor characters are shallow, flat, uninteresting creatures. You never meet one of those in McGraw's books. Every last character who walks on the scene is a living, breathing, fascinating, complex human being. I wish I could have met her. From the way she writes her minor characters I'm guessing she had the gift to see everyone in the world as a real person.
She also does her homework. Set in ancient Egypt, The Golden Goblet rings with authentic details about Egyptian culture and life. But in addition to historical fiction, this book is a crime-solving mystery. Ranofer, who dreams of apprenticing to a goldsmith and becoming an artisan, is forced to work for his older brother instead. Then Ranofer discovers his brother has been grave-robbing, and Ranofer has unknowingly been helping to sell the goods. Can Ranofer expose his brother without being caught and punished himself?
This book offers a compelling story of a boy who wants to be free to pursue his dream and find his place in the world, along with a lot of sneaking around night-time Egyptian streets, and a nail-biting action climax in a dark, Egyptian tomb. Recommended for readers ten and up.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Black and Blue Magic
Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Aladdin, 1972
Awkward, accident-prone Harry Houdini Marco has a long, boring San Francisco summer to look forward to. He can't go on vacation because his mother has to stay and take care of the boarding house, and there's no money to send him to camp with his friends. Then, one day, Harry notices a strange little man who loses his suitcase on the bus. When Harry returns the suitcase the grateful man gives him a magic potion, a potion that gives Harry his own pair of giant, white-feathered wings!
It sounds like the ultimate wish fulfillment for a nearly twelve-year-old boy, but Harry gets bruises just trying to walk around. What's going to happen when he can fly?
This is my very favorite book by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. She's got a way of describing people that makes them pop right off the page. This hilarious book has a bitter-sweet ending in which Harry discovers that what he's gained from his summer of flying will last long after the potion runs out.
Aladdin, 1972
Awkward, accident-prone Harry Houdini Marco has a long, boring San Francisco summer to look forward to. He can't go on vacation because his mother has to stay and take care of the boarding house, and there's no money to send him to camp with his friends. Then, one day, Harry notices a strange little man who loses his suitcase on the bus. When Harry returns the suitcase the grateful man gives him a magic potion, a potion that gives Harry his own pair of giant, white-feathered wings!
It sounds like the ultimate wish fulfillment for a nearly twelve-year-old boy, but Harry gets bruises just trying to walk around. What's going to happen when he can fly?
This is my very favorite book by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. She's got a way of describing people that makes them pop right off the page. This hilarious book has a bitter-sweet ending in which Harry discovers that what he's gained from his summer of flying will last long after the potion runs out.
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