WWRW July Link-Up

These titles are just the tip of the iceberg known as my reading pile.

Shadow on the Mountain by Margi Preus, a 2016 Caudill nominee, is a story about a boy named Espen who joins the Norwegian resistance during WWII. I love WWII fiction and Shadow on the Mountain is a solid addition to that genre. The character of Espen is based on actual events in the life Erling Storrusten, who was a teengae spy in Lillehammer during the Nazi Occupation.

Shadow on the Mountain is appropriate for any reader who can handle blood, shootings, beatings, and all the things that come with a Nazi story. Edmund can't wait to read it.

I was seriously scared at the beginning of Hidden by Helen Frost. An eight year old girl, Wren, waits in the car while her mother runs into a gas station. Gun shots. Someone gets in the car and drives away, not knowing about the child in the back seat. Wren hides in the car and then in a boat in the garage for days before  *SPOILER* she escapes and is rescued.

During her days of hiding, readers overhear conversations the driver of the car has with his wife and daughter,Darra, as well as hearing some domestic violence too. Darra leaves food and water out for Wren, while her parents think she must have gotten out of the car after the shooting.

Fast forward several years, Darra and Wren end up at the same summer camp. Wren has a happy family life, security, wealth. Darra's dad went to prison, her parents divorced, and she blames Wren for her woes.

Written in the girls' voices, the style of poetic verse changes back and forth. I didn't realize until I read the Author's Note at the end that the last words of Darra's longer lines tell another version of the story. Incredibly cool!  I love secrets like that!

Hidden is also a Caudill nominee, and though frightening at first, I think it would be okay for ages 10 and up.

Need picture book recommendations? Search the #housewifespicepicturebook hashtag on Instagram for everything we've enjoyed lately.

I'll be posting again next Wednesday. I have some new stuff from Pauline Press and Ignatius/Magnificat Kids to share with you. Susan and Lucy each have a review to share as well!

An InLinkz Link-up

WWRW: June Bundle of Books

It's been real busy in these parts. You know. May and all that comes with it, plus four birthdays at my house. I did manage to read a few books though.

Yes, I do bring books to my kid's baseball games. He's not always up to bat.

Speaking of Edmund, we both enjoyed Gerald Morris's The Squire's Tale. Our young protagonist, Terence, cares for a hermit with the gift of prophecy. When a wanna-be knight crosses his path, the hermit foretells both of their futures. Terence leaves with the future Sir Gawain as his squire.

Off they ride, to meet King Arthur and go on a quest. Like other Arthurian tales, some of the adventures are somewhat bizarre, but all come with a lesson to take away. Morris gives these ancient characters new life with flaws and personalities all their own. Terence is a kind-hearted boy and Gawain is a likable knight struggling to be noble.

This is not a new series. Just new to us. Back in 1998 the good people at School Library Journal wrote,

"Overall, this is a good story, well told, both original and true to the legend of Gawain, counteracting his lesser position in Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur. Readers who savor swashbuckling tales of knighthood will enjoy this adventure. Librarians will find a great choice of comic and breathtaking quests for booktalks."

I agree with those statements and with their assessed age of appropriateness as Grades 5 to 9. Edmund and I just got Book 2 of this series of 10 (hooray for series!): The Squire, His Knight, and His Lady.

The lovely Laura Pearl wrote a new novel for middle schoolers, Erin's Ring.

When Molly McCormick, new girl in Dover, New Hampshire, finds an old claddaugh ring outside the local Catholic church, she sets out on a journey of discovery about the city's history and Catholic heritage.

There are lots of heroines in this novel. We learn the lineage of the ring's owners while Molly makes a friend and works on a history project for school. Each of the women who owned the ring faced different challenges as immigrant, factory worker, single mother and widow, and star-crossed lover.

Erin's Ring is a sweet story with lots of Irish-American history and idioms. The Irish brogues are very thick and there is a glossary in the back of the book to help those unfamiliar with Irish vernacular.

I did note one anachronism is Erin's Ring.  One of the nineteenth century heroines finds herself on January 1st, bemoaning the fact that there is no Catholic church in town to celebrate the Solemnity of Mary. January 1st was the Feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord until 1969, when it was changed to the Solemnity of Mary. I know this because the pastor at the parish where I grew up joked that the diocese had been naming parishes after events in the life of our Lord. When our parish was built, there were only two events left: the Transfiguration and the Circumcision. But this doesn't affect the story in any way.

Erin's Ring is both shorter and more innocent than Laura's first novel Finding Grace, making it appropriate for any middle-school reader.

I'm trying to read more grown-up books this summer. I'm about a third of the way in to Jennifer Chiaverini's Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule. We are going to Galena later this month, and I have some distant familial ties to Ulysses S. Grant, so this historical novel is of particular interest to me.

As @reinventingmother commented on my Instagram photo, it is a little slow. Sometimes slow is what I need however. "Slow" allows me to take in all of the historical and political details of the time.

Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule is a tale of two women, both named Julia. One is the Southern belle, Julia Dent who eventually marries the quiet Captain Grant, and the other is her slave since childhood, Jule.  Jule was given to Julia at the age of four to be her playmate.

I was unaware that the great military mind of the North was married to a slave owner from St. Louis. The family politics alone are worth the read. Julia is the lesser of two heroines, at least where I am in the novel. She is naive to the feelings of the "help" and over-confident in her role as master/beneficiary.

What I like about this book is that it's missing the sex and graphic violence that I've come to expect from best-sellers. That's not to say that there isn't any romance or tales of the horrible treatment of slaves. Chiaverini does an excellent job with both without offending my delicate sensibilities.

Now for the monthly link up for people who found time to read books and write what they thought about them.

An InLinkz Link-up

WWRW: The Good, the Bad, and the May Link-Up

Did you miss me on A Seeking Heart with Allison Gingras this past Monday?

No worries. You can still listen to us discuss turkey bacon, tiaras, and technology by clicking here.

I've read lots of fiction for kids this past month, and quite honestly, not much of it is worth recommending.

This is what you do want to read:

Popular: How a Geek in Pearls Discovered the Secret to Confidence by Maya Van Wagenen.

Maya discovers a vintage book on popularity written in the 1950s and puts each chapter to the test in her 8th grade year at a public middle school in Brownsville, Texas. This book is NON-fiction. An actual 8th grader did things like wear a girdle, put vaseline on her eyelids, and sport a hat and gloves.

Maya is terrific writer, especially because at this time she is only fifteen. I hear that her book might be made into a movie. The chutzpah she had to do what she did...I have to say I really admire her.

Brownsville middle school is not a G rated place. Pregnant seventh graders, drug-sniffing dogs, in-school lock-downs are routine. This book is definitely not for the faint of heart.

Does Maya become popular? It's hard to say. The conclusions she comes to in her year-long experiment are incredibly insightful and can be applied to all ages. Maya is one "swell" kid.

It's no secret that we are bigtime John Flanagan fans over here. I recently re-read the first of the Brotherband Chronicles, The Outcasts. I remember being underwhelmed the first time around but now that I own an autographed copy of Book 5 (squee!) I began again.

Now I remember! I was frustrated that a plot twist in the last chapter or two chops off the story in media res.

This time however I was able to dive right into The Invaders: Brotherband Chronicles, Book 2. Hal and his seafaring friends are still on a long term quest, but I feel more settled now that Book 2 ended on a more positive note.I even got Book 3 from the library, because I must follow this until the end.

For all of you die-hard Ranger's Apprentice fans, Hal and Thorn are like Will and Halt. But with boats. Lots of boats and no horses.

Now for the rest or What Not to Read. I'm not going to bother making Amazon links for these, because they're just not worth my time or yours.

Masterminds by Gordon Korman. Meh. Kids in a seemingly perfect town learn that they are clones in a social experiment (The Truman Show?), and that their "parents" have lied to them their entire lives.

Very angst. Many hurts. Much unhappy with the grown-ups.

Also, the book is one big set-up for a series so the ending is really just the beginning and you know how I get irritated by that. Of all the books that I'm down on, this one is the least objectionable. I was annoyed by it, that's all.

Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson is about a girl, her quirky family, and the hotel they run in NYC. Could be fun and cute except that on page 1 we learn that it's Scarlett's fifteenth birthday. In the next few chapters, she falls in love with her college age brother's friend. Can you say statutory rape? Also her brother, the 19 or 20 something one is getting involved with one of the guests. A guest who is easily in her 50s. Hello Mrs. Robinson. Ew. I didn't finish it.

The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley is about a girl with a clubfoot in England at the start of World War II. She is abused by her single mother, escapes the apartment she has been confined to her entire life, and gets relocated with other evacuees (including her brother) in rural Kent. In Kent, she finds acceptance and love in the home of her host.

Two problems.

First of all, I have read this book before. Different title. Boy child abused by his single mother, evacuated to rural England, rehabilitated by his host. It was called Goodnight Mr. Tom by Michelle Magorian. Both books are terribly tragic. The abuse story-lines are hard to stomach.

Secondly, in The War That Saved My Life, the woman who takes in the disabled girl and her brother is quite clearly a lesbian. She has suffered depression since the death of her lover. Taking in and caring for two evacuated, underfed, and disadvantaged children pulls her out of self-absorption and despondency.

Girls Like Us by Gail Giles. I want to like this book. The story of two special-ed high school graduates getting a home together and starting their adult lives is touching.

Let me just mention a few of the troubling topics.

Gang rape.

That's probably enough but there's more.

More rape.
And violence.
And abuse.

It was very painful to read.

Yes, the two mentally disabled young women become friends and find support and get their lives in order. But in a kids' book?!

Ok. I can't end on that note so let me direct your attention to my Instagram feed.

La, la, la, la, la...happy happy joy joy! That's Jill reading Perfect Square by Michael Hall.

Looking for picture books? I read far too many to review so I take pictures of the good ones and use the hashtag #housewifespicepicturebooks.

The collection grows every day. Jill is insatiable and my library has no limit on check-outs. Take a gander at the bounty of beautiful books that are actually appropriate for children!

*deep cleansing breaths*

That's better.

Now link up your book reports! I mean book reviews. Here's hoping your reads have been more peace filled than mine. This link up will be open til around May 30th. Perfect for the procrastinating reader.

An InLinkz Link-up

WWRW: April Link Up and Saint Books for Kids

The Life of Saint Benedict by John McKenzie and Mark Brown is told in full page watercolor pictures. The text explains what is shown in each painting. Brother McKenzie did an excellent job making the story of St. Benedict's life accessible to children.

This book is lengthy, however. Not your typical "sit down let's read a story." I used it to supplement Edmund's history studies this month and it meshed nicely with the spread of monasticism/early middle ages unit we are currently working on.

I'm so glad I read this book with Edmund and was able to share my memories of visiting Subiaco and Montecassino, as well as the World War II Battle of Montecassino and subsequent re-building. I think it makes history more real if you can make it a little personal.

I was provided this book in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own.

The Queen & the Cross: The Story of Saint Helen and The Saint Who Fought the Dragon by Cornelia Mary Bilinsky fit the tiny niche of books that interest both my three year old and my twelve year old.

These faithful re-tellings of the lives of St. Helen and St. George are brief but accurate. Both are lovely additions to any collection of saints picture books.

We've had all of the Fr. Lovasik Book of Saints books for many years.

The illustrations are...shall we say...very stylized? The 12 part series is also lacking many of our more recently canonized saints.

I was delighted to find the Pauline Press Little Book of Saints in six volumes at a nearby shrine giftshop. Jill was thrilled that Book 1 has her patron saint, St. Bakhita as well as Sts. Faustina and Juan Diego.

Other newcomers include Blessed Damien of Molokai, St. Paul Miki, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, Blessed Miguel Pro, St. Katharine Drexel, St. Gianna Molla, St. Marguerite d'Youville, and St. Edith Stein, all represented in later volumes, as well as even more newer saints and blesseds that I'm unfamiliar with. Of course all of the "regulars" that you would expect are covered as well.

Would you prefer this St. Madeleine?

Or this one?

The illustrations are in the newer Pauline Press books are fresh, simple yet charming, colored drawings. None of the romantic steaminess of the vintage Lovasik series.

Amazon does not carry the six volumes of Little Book of Saints, but you can buy them online here.

You can link up your April book reviews Here!

An InLinkz Link-up

WWRW: Non-Fiction I Have Loved

The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia by Candace Fleming is an intense page turner.  Fleming braids three historical perspectives together in one book that I found engrossing as well as enlightening.

First, she provides an intimate look at the seven Romanovs themselves, the backgrounds of both Nicholas and Alexander, and many, many details of their lives. This is made possible by the release of primary sources, diaries, letters, etc. by the Russian government in 1991.

Secondly, she provides step-by-step explanations of Russian governments from the tsars through Stalin. This historical information provides the backdrop against which the Romanov tragedy plays out.  The reader is provided a view of the social and political conditions of early 20th century Russia that Nicholas and Alexandra either were not privy to (due to being surrounded by ministers who hid the nasty bits from them) or would not believe,which according to Fleming, happened quite a bit.

Lastly, the Romanov drama is contrasted with snippets of newspaper articles and journal entries of peasants, factory workers, and Russian soldiers from the same time period.

I would like anyone who reads this book to come over soon and dish with me over vodka drinks and caviar.

SO MUCH TO DISCUSS! How could Alexandra better fulfilled her grandmother's (Queen Victoria's) wish that she win the people's love?

What if Nicholas II had not abdicated? What if the White Army had reached Ekaterinburg before the executions/murders? Would his dynasty have been re-instated?

Are the Romanovs saints? According to some Orthodox Churches they are. They were certainly pious, though according to Fleming they were anti-Semites.

Marie Antoinette and the Romanovs. Similarities and differences. Go.

I am not familiar with the Russian Orthodox Church's canonization process. How does it differ from the Roman rite?

I was not aware that in some Orthodox churches, there are different kinds of saints, or degrees of sainthood.  The author takes pains to explain some of these "levels" at the end of the book.

Rasputin. All the mystery of Rasputin. Was he a madman? Was he possessed? Was he simply a con man and Alexandra his greatest "mark?" Could he actually hypnotize people by staring deeply into their eyes? I wrote my high school senior year term paper on Rasputin.  I still find him and his hold on the Russian royal family fascinating.

Did you know THEY FOUND THE MISSING ROMANOV BODIES in 2007? Did you know that the American team of DNA scientists and the Russian team disagree on which five Romanov bodies are interred in the royal vault in the cathedral in St. Petersburg?

I can't even tell you all of the good stuff in this book.

Yes. It is a "kid's book."

Shut. Up.

The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia won the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Non-Fiction and was a Robert F. Sibert Honor Book.

The Robert F. Sibert Award is awarded "to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished informational book published during the previous year."

I haven't read all of the Sibert Award Winners and Honor Books (though I would love too), but I have read some such as:

Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weapon (Newbery Honor Book) by Steve Sheinkin

We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson

Secrets Of A Civil War Submarine: Solving The Mysteries Of The H. L. Hunley by Sally M. Walker

An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 (Newbery Honor Book) by Jim Murphy

The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler

I also read As the Waltz Was Ending by Emma Macalik Butterworth. It's not an award winner, but it was recommend by an old friend and it is a historical memoir.  It takes place during World War II which is my favorite time period.

 As the Waltz Was Ending is the memoir of a young Austrian girl in the 1930s. She is accepted into the Vienna State Opera Ballet School just as Hitler comes to power.  Her adolescence and ascendance through the ranks of the ballet academie and the spread of Nazi Germany are told in tandem.

As you may expect, Emma's story is a sad one. Sad but interesting enough.

SUPER SAD SPOILERS AHEAD!

Then I hit the last chapter where Emma and her friend get abducted by Soviets, they are raped in a farmhouse (disturbing but not detailed), from which Emma escapes but her friend is killed in the attempt.

oh. Her father kills himself too.

But, she marries an American guy, moves to the United States and lives happily ever after, then writes this memoir.

As the Waltz Was Ending is okay, but go forth and read The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia instead.

When you get your hot little hands on The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia , don't bother flipping to the index in the back of the book looking for the Prince or Princess Kuragin, recent guests of the Dowager Countess Grantham.

There is no index.

WWRW: Twitter Style.

The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp by Kathi Appelt. National Book Award Finalist. Might be my favorite Appelt book. Holes meets Hoot with raccoons, sugar pies, gator wrestling, and a cryptid. Gotta love a cryptid.

Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin. Winner of the first #CharlotteHuck award. High-functioning autistic girl loves rules and homonyms. Loses dog in hurricane. Sad homelife with single dad who drinks. Happy ending makes it worthwhile.

Pi in the Sky by Wendy Mass. very sci fi. Not my fave. Hard to get into another world, species, etc. Protagonist runs around most of the book trying to find a solution to his problem, but not finding it. Enjoyed the afterword.

Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh. Pura Belpre Illustrator Honor Book and Robert F. Sibert Honor Book. Little known (to me) story of California's desegregation of Mexican American schools. Fascinating pictures with Aztec? influences? Jill thought the ears were weird.

The Dean's Watch by Elizabeth Goudge. Old favorite. Big time Goudge fan here. First few chapters are rough going. Much description. Very historical background. Stick with it because this book is a treasure. New discoveries every time I read it. Also, Jill may be Bella.

An InLinkz Link-up

WWRW February Link-Up

Welcome back to the What We're Reading Wednesday book review link-up party!

I post book reviews nearly every Wednesday here at Housewifespice{dot}com, and I used to have a weekly link-up. Then I had a baby. A high-need baby. Then, I fell off the blogging wagon.

I'm clawing my way back, slowly but surely, but I'm not confident enough yet to host a weekly link-up, so monthly it is. For now.

Here's what I've been reading.

Old college friends were discussing old books on the Facebook. I'm a sucker for old books. So I cracked my knuckles and opened up the World Catalog on my library's website and proceeded to track down some endangered titles with the skill of a Tatooine bounty hunter.

Hannah Fowler by Janice Holt Giles, where have you been all my life?

We first meet Hannah in the wilds of unsettled Kentucky territory, in 1777.

I said SEVENTEEN seventy-seven.

Not Eighteen seventy-seven, like those Ingalls and Wilder folks. Livin' the easy life in the 19th century. Railroads and telegrams and sewing machines. Pish posh.

This book is hard core.

Hannah is tending her pa, Samuel, who is suffering from a self-inflicted ax wound. They are alone and had been on their way to Daniel Boone's fort when the accident occurred. Alone. In the middle of an unsettled land filled with unknown dangers, Indians, mountain lions, bears, wolves, tetanus. Dutifully and skillfully, Hannah hunts and forages, tends the camp, and nurses her father. She is SurvivorWoman.

Hannah is a plain woman. When her mother died, Samuel raised her "as good as a man." She can hunt, track, handle an ax, build a loom, cut fence posts, as well as cook, spin, weave, and bake. There's not much she can't do.

She is painfully shy however. And extremely humble.

She has a chance meeting with another human in the endless forest. Tice Fowler had been searching for his stolen horses when he meets Hannah. He kindly stays with Hannah and her father until they can travel. Unfortunately, Hannah's father does not survive his injury. Tice kindly helps Hannah bury her father and offers to escort her to civilization.

Hannah accompanies Tice to Ben Logan's fort and sees her safely esconced in the care of Mrs. Ben Logan. It doesn't take long for word to get around that there is a single female in the area.  Hannah is courted by every eligible bachelor and widower for miles around.

Only one man will do for Hannah. She overcomes her shyness to make Tice Fowler her partner for life.

The novel goes on to tell of their marriage, the building of a home and a family, the accumulation of stock, the passing of seasons.

I was perfectly content for the book to stay this way, happily ever after and so on and so forth. But deeeeep into the novel, 4/5 or 5/6 of the way in, danger and destruction threaten. Hannah is up to any hardship though. Nothing can stop her.

Janice Holt Giles is real fond of writing the dialogue in a countrified dialect. It's a mite burdensome at the get-go, but you'll soon be swimmin' like a duck. Giles wrote this epic in 1956, and her treatment of Native peoples is less than politically correct, historically accurate though it may be. I do not know.

Hannah Fowler is a novel about real love, romance, and contentment. It is also a novel about crazy people who went to live in the vast unknown in the middle ages with nothing but a gun, an iron kettle, a spinning wheel, and an axe head. For real. Just the axe head. Hannah makes the handle herself.

I will stop now.

Now for the part we've all been scrolling down to see...

An InLinkz Link-up