Ambassador by William Alexander

12 Thursday Jun 2014

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I don’t have a picture for this book because I read a “prepub” edition, but I think it deserves to be looked at when it is published.  Here is the review I sent to the publisher:

Alexander has given us a whole new way of looking at aliens – both human and non-human. Gabe is an ordinary boy who thinks his summer will be the usual thing of playing with his friends and helping his parents care for his twin siblings.  His world is turned upside down when an alien named the Envoy invites him to be Earth’s ambassador to the Universe and thus to save the Earth.  This excites Gabe, yet he doesn’t understand how he, as a boy, can help save the world.

At the same time, his parents are arrested because they are illegal aliens and his parents are in danger of being deported. A neighbor offers to take care of Gabe and the twins because they are American citizens. His older sister has gone into hiding because she, also, is an illegal alien.  Gabe had no idea that his parents were not American citizens, and he also has no idea how to save his family.

As an ambassador, Gabe learns about conflict resolution, about talking of similarities of the inhabitants of the universe, and about trying to solve problems rather than fighting.   He still doesn’t know what he can do to save his family, but he knows that anger will not solve his problems.

This is an excellent book to help younger readers see that they are not alone with their conflicts.  It may help readers learn methods of communication, which are so very necessary in our world.  It would appear that there may be more stories of Gabe, the ambassador to come.  If that is true, I trust they will continue along the same line. I recommend this book for the elementary library.  The publisher is Simon and Schuster.

 

Dark Lord:School’s Out by Jamie Thompson

05 Thursday Jun 2014

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The saga of the Dark Lord continues.  In this tale Sooz is in the Darklands, and Dark Lord (aka Dirk Lloyd) along with Chris is trying to get her back.  At the same time he is trying to get back to his realm and continue his reign as the terror of the Darklands.

Sooz is accepted by the Dark Lord’s minions as his fiancé.  They make her their queen, and she institutes some changes for good in the kingdom, but Sooz is captured by Lord Hasdruban who is intending to kill her.

Dirk and Chris get back to the Darklands and save Sooz, but Dirk changes back into the Dark Lord.  He begins to live the evil life he had lived before, but his minions refuse to go back to the evil they had to endure before.

Sooz manages to change him back to a boy and the three of them go back to the real world where they hope to be free of Lord Hasdruban – only to find that he has become their new principal. More to come, obviously.

This is a fun “read” for upper elementary students.  It teaches students that looks aren’t everything and that good can really conquer evil. I recommend it – especially if you already have the first of the series.

the strange and beautiful sorrows of ava lavender

06 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by in Fantasy, Young Adult

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I did not make a mistake typing the title!  This is exactly how the title appears on the book.  Strange, isn’t it? But, it fits the story because this book is weird from the get-go.

This is a story of love, life and death.  It begins with Ava’s great-grandparents who emigrate from France to the U.S.  The family has strange things that happen to them both in France and in the U.S. The father is a big hard-working man with a very over-active imagination.  One day he goes to work and never is seen again. The mother is very quiet, and she finally disappears into a small pile of blue ashes. Emilienne is thought by many to be a witch. Pierette, the youngest, falls in love with an ornithologist and turns herself into a canary to make him happy.  When she dies, Emilienne carries her body around in a lozenge box.  René, the only boy, has girls swooning over him, but he prefers boys and gets himself killed because of it.  Margaux becomes pregnant, and Emilienne discovers that her fiancé is the father of her sister’s baby, but both Margaux and the baby die, and Emilienne throws her former fiancé out a window. (He lives and runs away.)

After the death of all of her loved ones, Emilienne marries Connor Lavender, a man she doesn’t love, because she wants to be a good wife to him BUt mostly it is because she wants to leave her past behind. Still, she feels she can’t give her heart to anyone because she will only lose that person.  Connor Lavendar and Emilienne move to Seattle where they live into a house with a very unusual past. No one in Seattle wants to live there so the couple has no problem obtaining it.  Emilienne gives birth to one child, Vivianne. Connor is very devoted to Emilienne, but he dies on night of a heart attack. Emilienne takes her baby to the bakery shop Connor had started and continues to his work.

Then the story really gets strange. A young man from town takes advantage of Vivienne and impregnates her with twins.  Vivienne’s son is strange – today we would call him autistic, – and the girl, Ava, is born with wings.  No one seems to know why she has wings.  She can’t fly with them, but the doctors say they can’t remove them.  Vivianne isolates the children at home to keep the people in Seattle from making fun of them, but as all teenagers are wont to do, Ava sneaks out with a neighbor girl she had become friends with and joins up with some teens at the reservoir.

The teens accept Ava with her wings, and life goes on. A young man even falls in love with her, but another man in their community becomes obsessed with her.  This man attacks Ava, rapes her, and cuts off her wings one night as she is coming home from the reservoir. The entire book is about these strange people, but nothing is explained about what caused Ava’s wings – or anything else for that matter. There seems to be very little plot.  There are characters that seem very real and draw the reader into their personalities. These characters are multidimensional and their lives are intertwined, but there is no real resolution to any situation.

The book reminds me, for some reason of As I Lay Dying.  (I couldn’t figure out the purpose for that book either.)  Even the end of this book is difficult to explain.  Ava’s wings regrow, and she soars off into the night. But is she really alive? or is she soaring off to death? I honestly can’t find any reason to recommend it for purchase by school libraries.  Perhaps another reviewer might feel differently, but that is my opinion.

Into the Unknown by Stewart Ross

24 Thursday Apr 2014

Posted by in Children's Books, Children's Non-fiction

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I love to read historical books, both fiction and non fiction. This one is a delightful work of non-fiction designed for the elementary reader, but greatly appreciated by this adult. It is also a Boston-Globe-Horn Book Honor winner. This book first came out in 2011 as a hardback, but has recently been released as a paperback. Ross has given the reader a glimpse into the sort of lives that early explorers lived as they made discoveries that would change the world.

Ross introduces some explorers and explorations that I did not know about, such as Pytheas the Greek and the Treasure Fleet of Emporer Zheng He of China. Every chapter, even those about well-known explorers, has something in it that is not well-known.  These details make the book all the more fascinating.

For example, until I read this book, I did not know that the Chinese built their fleet inland and floated them out to the sea in man-made canals. I had never heard of Pytheas the Greek and his exploration of the North Atlantic. I also learned that the father and son team of Auguste and Jacques Piccard both soared into the stratosphere in a hydrogen balloon and descended into the deepest part of the Mariana Trench in a bathyscaphe (a feat the has never, yet, been repeated).

The illustrator, Steven Biesty, did an amazing job with the illustrations. Although all illustrations are drawings, they are so detailed that they come alive on the page. I was fascinated about how the explorers could tell by using the sun whether they were traveling north or south and how Viking knar boats were built so that they could twist in a storm. Biesty’s illustrations allowed me to visualize what they had seen.

The chapters are arranged in chronological order, which makes it easy for readers to find information about a particular time period. Ross also includes an excellent index, a glossary for unfamiliar terms, a list of sources and acknowledgement of direct use of information. These items make the book a good source for teaching research to young students.

Each chapter has at least one foldout page. This makes the book more interesting, but it could be a deal-breaker for those libraries with a small budget. (I would most certainly enforce the foldouts with hinge tape before allowing it to circulate.) However, the low cost of the paperback version at $9.99 is almost unbelievable for today’s market and would allow for replacement.

If at all possible, this book should be added to your collection. I do not often highly recommend books, especially paperbacks; but I highly recommend this book for elementary and middle school readers.

The Secret Box by Whitaker Ringwald

11 Friday Apr 2014

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This is a cute story about a girl named Jax Malone who received a package on her twelfth birthday from a person she had never heard of.  Her mother snatches the package before she can open it and attempts to return it. Of course, Jax’s curiosity is piqued and she MUST find out what is in the box.

She needs the help of her two cousins, Ethan and Tyler. Ethan is not very excited about helping Jax, but he goes along with her ideas in order to keep Jax from trouble.  Tyler is a typical teenager who thinks his twelve-year-old brother and cousin are little pests.  Ethan and Jax manage to grab the package before it is returned.  After they find that the package contains a strange looking box, they try to open it only to discover that they have only ten tries to get in it. They waste three tries before they realize that they have to quit trying until they figured out a strategy. The box tells them how far away they are from the spot they must be in to open it, but nothing else.

Ethan and Jax then enlist Tyler to help them figure out where to go.  Tyler is none to happy about his little cousin and brother bothering him while he is trying to develop a video game. But, in order to get rid of them, he tells them what to do.

Tyler explains that the kids must use geometry to figure out where the secret place is in relation to where they are. They know that they need to travel 193 miles to the correct place.  Tyler shows them how to calculate where that might be drawing an arc of a circle on a map that equals 193 miles.

They start by guessing the direction to begin and going to the place where the package originated to see if they are closer. When they get there they discover that they are now 206 miles further away. Again using geometry, they draw another circle and notice that the two intersecting points meet in the middle of a lake and in Washington D.C.

The kids trick Tyler into taking them – with their parent’s approval – in his car to Washington. D.C. On the way there, the box is stolen by two elderly people, and all three children embark on an ever-escalating adventure. On their trip, Tyler tells them the legend of Pandora’s box, and they begin to wonder if this box contains trouble.  They discover a great-aunt that the two younger children didn’t know they had, and Jax finds out more about her father, whom she had never met. Ethan finds out that he is braver than he had believed himself to be, and Tyler discovers that there is life beyond computer games.

This fast-paced tale will satisfy those readers of adventure and mystery stories.  There are no scenes of drinking, smoking or of sex.  No unacceptable words appear on the pages. Although the kids do things they shouldn’t (such as breaking into a motel room), they are ever mindful of the consequences of their actions and of their parents’ reactions to those behaviors.  I especially liked the fact that they had to use math in order to solve the mystery, and that mythology was introduced to the reader.

I recommend this book for upper elementary and middle school readers. I believe that there may be more stories of Jax, Ethan, and Tyler yet to come.  Stay tuned!

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Lady Thief by A.C. Gaughen

01 Tuesday Apr 2014

Posted by in Historical Fiction, Young Adult

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Scan0028       Lady Thief is the second book of the Scarlet series. These books are a retelling of the Robin Hood stories with a big twist. The reader of the first will know that Scarlet is also known as Will Scarlet, but Scarlet is in reality Maid Miriam. She came to be known by Robin Hood’s band as Will Scarlet in the first book. In this tale Lord Gisbourne, the man she was forced to marry, but a man she doesn’t love, is competing with Robin Hood for the title of the Sheriff of Nottingham. Scarlet really loves Robin Hood, of course, but she can’t do anything about that love because she is already married and does not want to add the sin of adultery to her soul.

When the royal court, Queen-mother, Eleanor of Aquitane, and Prince John come to Nottingham to name the new sheriff, Scarlet learns more about her family and about her connection to the royal family. She learns of the high price she must pay continue to keep Robin Hood safe.

This is a fast-paced, suspenseful story that will leave the reader hoping the next one comes out quickly. I recommend its purchase, especially if you have already have the first.

Divided We Fall by Trent Reedy

26 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by in Political fiction, Young Adult

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Scan0027 If you have problems with high school seniors smoking and drinking and with casual sex discussed (but with no overtly descriptive behavior) this book is NOT for you or your children. However, having said that, I would like to add that I recommend this book for high school and adult readers. It is a powerful, thought provoking piece that provides an in-depth discussion of states’ rights and federal laws.
The main character, Daniel Wright, is a high school senior who joined the National Guard and completed his basic training between his junior and senior year. Daniel goes home from basic to finish his senior year and play football. One night he gets a call from his commander that his unit has been deployed to protect the capital from protestors who disagree with the governor and the state legislature’s position against a federally mandated Social Security card that would allow the government to track the movements of the holder.
As the guard unit moves into position, they are increasingly threatened by the protestors until gas grenades are deployed, a rock is thrown that cracks Daniel’s gas mask, and he accidentally fires his weapon. At that, others begin shooting, both from the protestors and from the guard, and people are killed.  This sets the stage for the state of Idaho to protect its guardsmen, or to bow to popular demand and the federal government to prosecute the guardsmen involved. Of course, the biggest problem is the way the press “covers” the situation which keeps things stirred up and allows no one the freedom to tell the truth.
The incident causes discussions of the Kent State killings, and also points out the steps that President Johnson took to make it impossible for Gov. Wallace to call up the National Guard to stop the desegregation of Alabama schools.
I could not put the book down.  It seems to end with an implication that more is to come; but if the book just stops, the reader will forced to consider what will happen next. Get it, read it, and then decide for yourself, but I think it might have a place for a classroom discussion.

Cinderella Smith: The Super Secret Mystery

20 Thursday Feb 2014

Posted by in Children's Books, Mystery and Suspense, Uncategorized

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Stephanie Barden has written a cute little story about a young girl named Ella who needs to do a research report of endangered species, but all the books she needs to use have been checked out from her school library.  Although she can find material on her subject, she is required to use print materials in her report (I love that teacher). She goes back for them the day they are due, but finds out that the books were renewed. So, she must come back, AGAIN.  However, the librarian tells her that she will now put a hold on the books; so that when they are returned, they will be kept at her desk for Ella (Cinderella). When she gets a message from the librarian that the books are in, she goes to the library to pick them up only to discover that someone has stolen them from the librarian’s desk.

She begins to try to figure out who would want to sabotage her report, and several classmates pop to mind. But her immediate concern in not finding the culprit, but finishing her report. After a trip to the public library where she finds the books she needs, she gets a mysterious note saying, “Look behind J.” She tries to figure out the message, but no ideas come to mind. The due date for the report is looming, but she still wants to figure out what happened to the books and why her former best friend is acting so strangely.

This is a cute little mystery book and will serve to introduce young readers to the genre. This appears to be part of a series, although I am not familiar with it.  I do recommend this book for readers in third through fifth grade,

I love the library references and the way the story is used to teach students what librarians, both school and public, can do for them. The series has the possibility to become like the Nancy Drew mysteries for younger readers..

Welcome to Normal by Erin Soderburg

11 Tuesday Feb 2014

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Molly and Penelope Quirk are twins; they also have a bratty little brother named Finn. The children live with their mother and their grandfather.  That sounds normal, but the family is anything but normal.  Their grandmother  lives with them, but in a little birdhouse outside of their home. She is a fairy godmother.  Their grandfather can make time go in reverse.  Their mother has the power of mind control, except that it exhausts her to use it.

Penelope can create, in reality, whatever her mind is imagining at the time.  Finn can become totally invisible.  He can be felt and heard by others, but Molly is the only one who can see him.  Molly is normal, except for the ability of seeing Finn, but she spends most of her time trying to conceal her family’s quirks from normal people.

The family has a pet of sorts, Niblet, a furry creature conceived one day from Penelope’s imagination that refused to leave the family. Trying to keep all the strange happenings around their home from the townspeople, the residents of Normal, is very trying to all the family members.

This is a very funny story. I believe it is a good introduction to fantasy for the younger reader. It will also get the reader thinking about what is and what is not normal.  I recommend it for grades three through five.

The Secret Prophecy by Herbie Brennan

05 Wednesday Feb 2014

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I read this last year, but I have been thinking about it lately, so I thought I would share. Edward Michael Groverton, or Em, as he is known is devastated when his father suddenly dies. At the funeral he sees a man with a gun. Things begin to really get strange when their house is broken into and only his father’s study is ransacked. His mother encourages him to go to France with a friend of his father and his daughter, Charlotte. What he discovered about his father and Nostradamus leads the three of them on a dangerous journey through London and eventually to Arizona.  This fascinating tale, a mixture of fantasy, science, and politics will keep the reader engaged right to the end. The end itself seems a little contrived, and there is no doubt that this is the first of a series. Still, I recommend it for middle school readers. Watch for the second book!