So I really don’t want to say to much about the book because I didn’t know a single thing about it when I read it, so the little twist at the end was a really nice surprise.  It’s also the type of book that as soon as you close the very last page, you want to open the first one again and start all over again.  I borrowed this one from the library but it’s a keeper that I’d like to add to my library and I think would also make a great read-a-loud as a family.

A perfect compain book to When You Reach Me is A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (which by the way I hated! Previous link is my review).  Our main charater in When You Reach Me, Miranda, has this FAVORITE book which she reads over and over again.  When she first mentions the plot but without mentioning the title (not given till much later – so the comparison between the two books may go over some people’s heads), I thought to myself – ugh, that sounds like it’s SO not my type of book.  At the next book reference I realized that her favorite book was A Wrinkle in Time and yep – so not my type of book!

But When You Reach Me IS my type of book.  One that I would wholeheartedly recommend even if I didn’t tell you anything about it.

Links of interest: Rebecca Stead website and blog, more book blogger reviews.
Genre:  Middle Grade Fiction, approx ages 9-12.
Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books.  July 14, 2009.
Hardcover, 208 pages. ISBN 0385737424
When You Reach Me is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

The boy, ten-year-old Peter, is an orphan who is being cared for by a cranky old soldier who wants nothing more for him than to train to be a soldier as well.  When Peter finds a coin on the street, he visits the tent of a fortune teller.  He only has one question.  Is the sister whom he has been told died in childbirth alive?  The fortune teller’s answer is ambiguous and mysterious:  follow the elephant.

An elephant?  He’s never even seen an elephant!  The answer makes no sense whatsoever.  Imagine his surprise when a magician performing at the local opera house mistakenly conjures an elephant which falls through the roof and into the lap of Madam LaVaughn.  Now crippled, Madam LaVaughn insists that both the elephant and the magician be locked up right away.  Peter knows that the mystery of his sisters existence and the path for a new future lies with the elephant.  If he can bring about a chain of events to bring him and the elephant together, perhaps not all hope is lost.

The Magician’s Elephant is a beautiful telling.  It’s magical.  It’s mysterious.  It’s hopeful.  It’s also sad in the sense that a cloud of darkness always loomed over the story.  DicCamillo’s narrative is stunning.  Each word carefully chosen and not a single word in there that wasn’t meant to be.  I enjoyed the story and its magical elements although I wasn’t falling head over heels for it – if you know what I mean.  I really liked it but didn’t loooove it.  Even so, it’s a special book and I recommend it.

I think that this could be hit or miss with young readers to tell you the truth.  I could see them either really loving it or either hating it.  I do hope that they love it.  It’s not often that a book like this comes along.  It deserves an audience.  But it’s DiCamillo that we’re talking about here.  If you haven’t discovered her yet, it’s high time that you do.  And this is one not to be missed.

Kate DiCamillo reading the first chapter of The Magician’s Elephant:

Links of interest:  Kate DiCamillo website, more book blogger reviews,  illustrator Yoko Tanaka website.  Maw Book reviews of Because of Winn Dixie, The Tiger Rising, The Tale of Despereaux, Great Joy,and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.
Genre:  Middle Grade Fiction, approx ages 9-12.
Publisher: Candlewick.  September 8, 2009
Hardcover, 208 pages. ISBN 0763644102
The Magician’s Elephant is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Loved it.

Read on . . .

One of my favorite types of books to read are books that take place around World War II and the Holocaust.  There will never be a drought of stories to tell from this horrific part of history.  But I was shocked when I picked up Someone Named Eva by Joan M. Wolf.  I had never read a book told from this particular perspective during the war.  Completely and utterly fascinating to me.  A true example of how a piece of historical fiction can open my eyes into a world that I knew nothing about.  I could not put this book down.  I carried it with me everywhere the day I read it.

Just a few short weeks after Milada’s eleventh birthday, Nazi’s storm every home in her town in Czechoslovakia and take everybody away.  Milada, her mother and grandmother are immediately separated from her father and brother and taken to a gymnasium where she undergoes a physical and doctors measure her features.  Milada and another classmate are torn again from their families, placed on a bus and sent to Poland.  When they arrive in a new girls school, Milada realizes that each girl there shares two traits in common:  blue eyes and blonde hair.  In addition, each has exactly the right size head or nose.

It is at this school that their indoctrination to Germanization begins.  She is renamed Eva and each girl is trained to forget everything about their past.  They have no past.  They only have futures of being the perfect German citizen and be raised up to be perfect German wifes.  Eva struggles with her new identity, the new language and to remain true to her upbringing and background.  She holds on to a pin from her grandmother to always remember who she is.

And then the impossible happens.  Eva can no longer remember her true name.  What did people use to call her?  Can she recall it?  She can’t remember her name.  The Germans have taken everything from her.

After the intense period of training, each girl is adopted into a German family.  With a new name, a new language, a new sister and a new mother and father, will Eva be able to remember who she really is?  Or will she be lost forever?

Stunning.  This story had me jaw dropping all over the place.

There is a seven page author’s note at the end of the book which really brought the whole thing home for me.  Inspired by the true events that took place in the town of Lidice where Hitler had a personal vendetta for a particular officer there, Hitler ordered the entire town to be emptied and razed.  The men and boys were shot immediately while the women and children spent three days in the Kladno school gym.  Their heads were measured and their eye and hair colors examined to see if they matched Aryan standards.  Children who were selected for “Germanization” and the very youngest were sent directly to orphanages where they were adopted by German citizens.  Many children in the retraining program were literally kidnapped off of the streets.  At the end of the war, these Lidice children were tracked down and returned back home to their families.   And for the smallest children who remembered nothing of their former lives were traumatized when removed from their adoptive German parents.

Someone Named Eva introduced me to this horrific aspect of World War II.  Eva’s story was beautifully told and I felt so drawn to her.  Even to the very last page, I had no idea where Eva’s story would go.  I’d love for more people to pick this book up.  It deserves a wide audience.  In fact, the more I think back on this book, the more I love it.  An excellent book and I’d highly recommend it for readers of all ages.

(And by the way, the hardcover has a terrible cover.  It’s the copy that I read.  Thank goodness they improved the paperback.)

Links of interest:  Joan M. Wolf website.  More book blogger reviews.
Genre:  Middle grade historical fiction.  Approx ages 9-12.
Publisher: Clarion Books.  July 16, 2007.
Hardcover, 208 pages. ISBN 0618535799
Someone Named Eva is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Skeleton Creek finished with a huge cliffhanger.  Argh!  I couldn’t wait for the next book.  I had no idea that I would be receiving a copy of Ghost in the Machine, so I know that I let out an audible squeal when I opened a mystery package one day and it was this book!  Seriously, so excited to read this one.

In Ghost in the Machine, Ryan and Sarah are still forbidden to see each other and trying to solve the mystery at the gold dredge, which is haunted by the ghost of Old Joe Bush.  Time is running out because the town has decided it’s become so dangerous that they are going to burn it down.  But things get complicated when Ryan and Sarah uncover a secret society called The Crossbones which keeps the secrets of the dredge and Ryan’s father is in the middle of it all.

This is a great follow-up to Skeleton Creek.  Kids will enjoy the mystery and love getting spooked with the videos.  I remember that I jumped in one video and for another I had to keep pausing it because it was just plain scary.  Such fun!  But nothing to lose sleep over at night – unless maybe you don’t finish the book before you go to sleep which is virtually impossible because you’ll want to read it in one sitting.

The videos do take some time to load so I recommend skipping ahead to the next video as soon as you finish one so it’s already loaded by the time you get to it.  Be warned though, it’s hard to not have your eyes glaze over potentially spoiling text when skipping ahead.   Although everybody is in need of a few acting lessons, the videos are great.  I was hoping for a third book but everything wrapped up pretty tightly.

Which does remind me.  Ryan writes in his journal like ALL the time.  So I was surprised to see at the end of the book he doesn’t write for four days.  His last entry reads like an epilogue.  It wasn’t in his character to not write during those four days where everything gets wrapped up.  And Sarah also writes in the journal at the end too.  I’d much rather her stick to the videos.  So the ending felt a little bit unbelievable to me because they acted out of character.  But all in all nothing to spoil my enjoyment of the book.

My biggest disappointment is that there is not another book in the series.  I’m not ready for it to be over, I’d love to have more.  And the mystery/ghost story is the PERFECT genre for this concept.   October is also a great time to read this book especially together as a family.  I can see everybody gathered around the computer watching the videos and somebody else poking somebody right in the middle of a cliffhanger.  I can see screams.  Oh, I love it.

Great book, great fun!  We are reading mysteries this month for my Children’s Literature Book Club.  I can’t wait to meet next week to see what everybody thought about this one.

So are you up for it?

Links of interest: Maw Books review of Skeleton Creek (including book trailer to give you an idea of video content), more book blogger reviews, Patrick Carman’s website, extensive alternate reality Skeleton Creek game.
Genre:  Middle Grade Fiction with video elements, approx ages 9-12
Publisher: Scholastic.  October 1, 2009
Hardcover, 192 pages. ISBN 054507570X
Ghost in the Machine is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Twelve-year-old Jason Blake has been diagnosed on the autistic spectrum disorder and in this story Jason shares with us what his life is like.  Incredibly intelligent and talented, Jason has a difficult time communicating with others.  Having a conversation with somebody takes all of his concentration.   He’d rather not say anything at all.

But the thing people see the most is his silence, because some kinds of silence are actually visible.

Anything can go go wrong at school.  It’s difficult for him to remain in control.  But there is one place where he can always control his environment and that’s at an online writing message board.  He writes stories and posts them online.  He can interact with others in this space called the internet without having to deal with all the extras.  He has a voice:

When I write, I can be heard.  And known.

But nobody has to look at me.  Nobody has to see me at all.

And he can listen to others more easily:

Neurotypicals like it when you look them in the eye.  It is supposed to mean you are listening, as if the reserve were true, which it is not; Just because you are not looking at someone does not mean you are not listening.  I caan listen better when I am not distracted by a person’s face:

What are their eyes saying?

Is that a frown or a smile?

Why are they wrinkling their forehead or lifting their cheeks like that?  What does that mean?

How can you listen to all of those words when you have to think about all of that stuff?

He develops a connection with a girl on the writing site who calls herself PhoenixBird.  He likes to think of her as his girlfriend and they exchange a few messages back and forth and critique each other’s writing.  For Jason’s birthday his Dad registers him for a large writing conference, one that he’s excited for but also very apprehensive about.  So when PhoenixBird writes to say that she’ll be at the conference at well, he reaches a crisis.  That means that she wants to meet him and while he’s curious about her, that’s the last thing he wants to do.  Will he be able to show her his true self?

I remember reading Nicola’s review at Back to Books after I finished reading Anything But Typical.  Nicola’s son has also been diagnosed on the Autistic Spectrum and she herself has Asperger’s.  I appreciated her review because it made me realize that Nora Raleigh Baskin got it right.  I’d highly recommend checking out her review but I’ll quote two points here.

The author has the inside feelings of an autistic person down to a “T”. She has either researched very well or lived with someone on the spectrum herself”

and

It would be a great read for teens on the Autism Spectrum so they can relate to what the main character has gone through and for other teens interested in the subject matter. I also recommend the book to adults with any interest in the field of autism as I can personally vouch for the validity of the feelings and inner turmoil portrayed by one with ASD. A rather bittersweet ending but then such is life.

I particularly liked getting inside Jason’s head.  I loved how his little brother loved him so much that he also picked up some of Jason’s behavior so he could be just like him.

So glad that I picked this book up on a whim.  It’s a winner!  And one definitely worth adding to any book list for those who want further reading that feature characters with Autism.

Links of interest:  Nora Raleigh Baskin website, more book blogger reviews.
Genre:  Juvenile Fiction, approx ages 9-12.
Publisher:  Simon and Schuster.  March 24, 2009
Hardcover, 208 pages.  ISBN: 1416963782
Anything but Typical is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s and Amazon.

Marcus is having a hard time both at home and in school.  Since the death of his sister, his father has moved out of the house and his mother is having a hard time just keeping it together.  Marcus has begun to fight at school and is headed down a road that will get him kicked out of school and his house and one that will be difficult to travel back from.

While at the park, he is challenged to a game of chess from C.M., a nickname that stands for Chess Man, Check Mate and Chess Master.  It is through their games together that Marcus begins to learn how to keep his own emotions in check and to always be looking at least three moves ahead – both on the chess board and in real life.

The dust jacket says, “Inspired by inner-city school chess enrichment programs, Chess Rumble explores the ways this strategic game empowers young people with the skills they need to anticipate and calculate their moves through life.”  This is a statement that I would completley agree with.  I do also agree with Ms. Yingling’s statement that the size and format (including page stock) of the book borders too closely of a picture book.  I just can’t see a teenage boy feeling cool touting this book around, if you know what I mean.

Chess Rumble is also told in verse, a format which I always enjoy. Overall, I liked Chess Rumble and found it well worth the read.  I just wonder if the same could be said of its intended audience.

Book trailer:

Links of interest:  G. Neri website, follow on Twitter, more book blogger reviews,
Genre:  Middle Grade Fiction, approx age 9-12.
Publisher:  Lee and Low Books.  November 8, 2007
Hardcover, 64 pages.  ISBN  1584302798
Chess Rumble is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Determined to prove his bravery, he decides to face his fear by confronting it directly.  His journey will take him to a remote and desolated island where he must use his skill to find his way home.  Will he return home not only a hero but also conquering the ocean itself?

Call it Courage is a survival story.  A story  of surviving on the ocean and alone on a deserted island using skill and a bit of luck to endure.  It’s ultimately a  story of Mafatu fighting against nature and also himself.  I enjoyed the culture of the story.  However, the book is very short and I’m afraid that if it was any longer I easily would have set it down.  Luckily, I was able to read it in a single sitting.  Younger readers may find themselves bored stiff but those who like more introspective stories may find it interesting.  Not one of my favorite Newbery books but I’m thrilled to cross another one off of my list in my ongoing project to read them all.

Do you like reading survivor stories?  Man vs. nature stories?  Any favorites?

I read Call it Courage as part of Banned Books Week (which ended Friday).  Although I found this book on more than one banned books list, my searches for exactly why came up empty.  If I were to guess it would be because during a storm, Mafatu loses all of his clothes and he arrives on the island naked and it’s not until much later that he finally  makes himself some new clothes.  Although the book mentions his nudity, not once does Mafatu ever think about his nudity.  It’s not even important except for the thought of what would it be like to try to survive without even a shirt on your back.

Links of interest:  Armstrong Sperry resource website, more book blogger reviews.
Genre:  Juvenile Fiction, approx ages 9-12.
Publisher: Simon Pulse.  January 2008.  (Originally published 1940 – the copy that I read published 1963 by Scholastic)
Paperback, 128 pages. ISBN 141695368X
Call It Courage is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

So I decided that it was high time that I actually read the book.  And I must admit that there was no way that I could read the book without the movies influencing me.  I was constantly comparing them to each other and taking note of how both movies adapted the book to screen.  So I feel like I have now come full circle and finally discovered the words that inspired both movies.

Do I even need to summarize?  The infamous Willy Wonka hasn’t shown his face in years and is opening his factory to five lucky children for a tour and a promise of something grand and wonderful to one of them.  Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt, Violet Beauregarde, Mike Teavee and Charlie Bucket (how could you forget those names?) all get more than they bargained for in Wonka’s wild and crazy factory.

I found Charlie and the Chocolate Factory delightful.  Dahl is a master storyteller and the book was fun to read.  I did find that although the book was short, I found myself unable to read it straight through.  Not sure why I needed little breaks from the narration.   It’s a perfect book to read-a-loud as a family or one-on-one with younger kids.  It’s fast paced and funny.  A story for everybody of all ages to enjoy.

As soon as I finished, I had to put in the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Johnny Depp version) movie and and have it playing now.  This review is taking me forever because I keep watching the movie instead.  I’m not going to go into a movie critique  at all.  Suffice it to say that there are noticeable differences in both movies from the book which I think make both stories better.  It’s fun to see which dialogue they’ve changed and what they’ve kept especially has I have the book fresh in my mind.

And to prove just how influential this story is in our household, check out these family photos from about three years ago:

Can I just mention that I sewed that vest?  Because I don’t sew.  So I was  impressed with myself.  And for those who will ask (because they always do) – yes, that is my husband’s real  hair.

I read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl as part of Banned Books Week.  In 1988, a Colorado librarian placed the book in a locked vault because she thought that it espoused a poor philosophy of life.  I would highly recommend reading this essay entitled Charlie and the Political Correctness Factory which I found very enlightening about how Dahl changed some of his text after it was printed and the changes made in the movie.

Links of interest:  Roald Dahl website.  Other Maw Books reviews: James and the Giant Peach (which I reviewed last year for Banned Books Week),  The Witches and yesterday’s post about the Mike Teavee song lyrics (where I ask which movie you liked better).
Genre:  Juvenile Fiction.  Approx ages 9-12.
Publisher:   Puffin.  June 1998.  Originally published 1964.
Paperback, 176 pages.  ISBN 0141301155
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Gilly has been bouncing around in foster care homes for as long as she can remember.  She has a rough exterior and she won’t allow herself to get close to anybody.  Because what’s the point?  She’ll just be gone soon anyways.  But she’s smart and bright.  She does well in school just to prove everybody wrong and at the height of her success she purposely stops trying.  She feeds off of being able to control her surroundings and being able to manipulate those around her.

Gilly is in yet another new home.  One that she obviously will not tolerate.  How could she with  Maime Trotter, her obese foster mother, her new brother William Ernest who cowers at the slightest look in his direction, and the blind man next door who loves poetry – but that’s not the worst of it – he’s black too.  Gilly carries around a photo of her mother Courtney and knows that one day she will come and get her.  But when she finds herself beginning to care about her new family, she realizes that she better abandon them before they abandon her and she devises her own escape.

Gilly begins as a little girl with many prejudices and a rough exterior that she won’t let anybody through, as well as a heart that doesn’t want to be broken again.  She only wants one thing and that’s to be wanted.  But it’s the one person that she wants the most that doesn’t want her in return.  And when the chance comes will she realize that she was only chasing a dream?

A beautiful story about breaking through walls and the softening of the heart.  I highly recommend it.

I read The Great Gilly Hopkins as part of  Banned Books Week (I’m reading one banned book a day) and it was in the top 25 of most often challenged books from 1990-2000.  And to tell you the truth, it felt pretty obvious while I was reading what some parents would find offense about.  This includes Gilly’s language particularly the use of the words “damn” and “hell.”   But she is always reprimanded for it, she knows it’s wrong and the language is specifically used to illustrate the background that Gilly came from and how she changes.   Her character simply wouldn’t be the same without it.  Another reason is that Gilly is prejudice against her black school teacher and her black next-door neighbor Mr. Randolph.  Although Gilly doesn’t think much of them, both characters are portrayed in nothing but the best light.  At the end of the book, both are people who Gilly love dearly.  It’s an example of how prejudices are overcome once you actually get to know somebody.  And really, that’s something that is supposed to be wrong?  Hmmm . . . she also steals money.  So that could be another reason.  A ridiculous one at that.  (Edited to add – I found it ridiculous because she was made to return the amount and pay it off by doing chores).   SmallWorld Reads has some great commentary over at her blog about Gilly’s language that is worth checking out.

All valid reasons for having a parent know what their children are reading so they can discuss things like how words can effect people or prejudices are wrong.  I think it’s sad that somebody would rather try to remove it from a library’s collection instead of using the opportunity to engage their child with meaningful dialogue and teachable moments.

Links of interest:  Katherine Paterson website.  Other Paterson books reviewed by Maw Books:  A Midnight Clear, Selected Christmas Stories, Bridge to Terabithia (often challenged as well).
Genre:  Juvenile Fiction, approx ages 9-12.
Publisher:  Harper Collins.  June 1987.  (Copy I read and cover shown here is from Scholastic reprint 1995)
Paperback, 160 pages. ISBN 0064402010
The Great Gilly Hopkins is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing is about nine year old Peter but mostly it’s about his two year old brother Fudge who is probably the cutest thing grown ups have ever seen.  But he’s a huge handful and always getting into trouble.  The book is ultimately about the adventures of Peter “managing” Fudge.  Because if it wasn’t for him, nobody would be able to control Fudge.  This involved helping out with Fudge’s birthday party, finding him when he disappears at a movie theater, trying to get Fudge to eat and convincing Fudge to ride a trike for a TV commercial among other things.  And then there is a very unfortunate incident with Peter’s pet turtle Dribble.  This scene was so impressionable on me as a child that I remembered some twenty years later exactly what was going to happen.  A mark of a great book?  I think so.

As a mom, I loved Fudge’s antics and the families attempts to “parent” him.  It’s the type of book that parents will enjoy reading with their children because both will come away with something fun.  I couldn’t help but think if I had read this book when I only had my first child if I would have found it believable or not.  See, my first child was not a talker.  No way would I have believed that a 2 1/2 year old would have talked as well as Fudge.  Luckily, my second does.  I couldn’t help but think about how our life experience always plays a role in our reading.

I loved Peter.  I loved Fudge.  I can’t wait to revisit them in Superfudge, Double Fudge, and Fudge-a-Mania. Such fun to read a book from my childhood and not come away being disappointed.

I read Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing as part of Banned Books Week. Judy Blume is no stranger to her books being challenged.  In 2004, the ALA announced that Blume was the 2nd most highly challenged author of the past 15 years.  So what is it about Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing that has parents shaking in their shoes?  One reference I found in the School Library Journal was because it included a scene with a dead turtle.  Blume is quoted as saying,  “She said, ‘Don’t you know that reptiles have feelings, and reptiles feel fear?’”  I was surprised that it was because of the dead turtle not the fact that the turtle was swallowed, which reminds me of my review of How to Eat Fried Worms from last years Banned Books Week because people said it encouraged kids to eat worms.  Crazy stuff.

Links of interest:  Judy Blume website, Maw Books review of Are You There God?  It’s Me, Margaret (another highly challenged book) which I read for last years Banned Books Week.
Genre:  Juvenile Fiction, approx ages 4-12.
Publisher: Puffin.  April 5, 2007.   Original publication 1972.
(I read the Scholastic student edition  (cover shown here) published 2002,  ISBN 0439559863)
Paperback, 128 pages. ISBN 0142408816
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon