WWRW: Five for Summer Reading

I've been tearing through the 2015 Caudill nominees and here are soundbites about five that I've read recently.

1.

Saving Zasha by Randi Barrow is set in post WWII Russia, all the German shepherds and pretty much all the dogs in Russia have been destroyed.  Anti-German sentiment still runs high, but a fatherless family with three kids risks everything to save a German shepherd found in the forest.

This story starts out grim but turned out much less dark than I anticipated.  In fact, the ending was downright pleasant.  Plus, it's always interesting to read yet another perspective on World War II.

2.

The Clockwork Three by Matthew J. Kirby is The Invention of Hugo Cabret meets Oliver Twist and A Little Princess.  The Clockwork Three includes Frederick the orphan apprenticed to a clockmaker who is secretly making an automaton, a mechanical man, in the basement of his master's shop, Hannah, a servant in the grand hotel who by a lucky turn of events becomes the personal assistant to the wealthy Madame Pomeroy, and Giuseppe, a talented violinist who owes everything to the evil "Fagin" in charge of all the buskers.

Part steampunk, part fairy tale, part depressing Dickensian novel, The Clockwork Three is a mesmerizing tale or three whose plotlines all cross and become united at the end. Madame Pomeroy is a medium at a seance invoking the dead and she does a reading with tarot cards, and there is quite a bit of violence, lots of beatings, locking young boys in a cellar full of rats, and a murder threat hanging over the local man of the cloth.  Definitely for the mature student.

3.

Ungifted by Gordon Korman.  What would happen if a hyper possibly ADD kid accidentally caused a disatrous accident at his middle school and when he got caught by the superintendent his name was inadvertently added to the list of kids to be transferred to the local school for the gifted and talented?

Donovan Curtis may not be a genius on paper, but his impact on the Academy for Scholastic Distinction and its students is undeniable.  Not only does he change the students and the way they approach problems and take risks, but Donovan grows in sensitivity, protecting these nerds from ridicule from his homeboys back at Hardcastle Middle School.

4.

Tuesdays at the Castle by one of my favorite authors, Jessica Day George, is an adventure in a land of royalty and wizards, but in this story the Castle Glower itself is an important character.  Also of note is the loving pair of parents (the king and queen), and the three royal offspring who love and respect each other (even if they don't always agree).  A fun read for any competent reader.

5.

Never Say Die by Will Hobbs is about a GROLAR bear!  Yes, you read that right.  Part grizzly, part polar bear, this hybrid creature is the result of disappearing ice in the Arctic circle due to global warming.  I thought everyone knew that global warming isn't really a thing, but I digress.

Nick Thrasher is the half-white half-Inuit teen who discovered the grolar when packs of fresh caribou meat were ripped from his back while hunting.  Nick's half brother Ryan contacts him for the first time ever about going on an expedition on the Firth River for a month.

Ryan is thirteen years older than Nick, an expert outdoorsman, and a professional wildlife photographer for National Geographic. Ryan would surely love to snap a cover photo of a grolar.  Ryan and Nick meet disaster pretty early.  The fact that Ryan insisted Nick leave his gun behind is likely to come back to bite them.  But I can't say for certain, since I'm not finished.

Yes, there is a lot of politics mixed into this tale of wilderness survival.  Nick's mother and father were never married.  His father was also an adventurer, and died somewhere in the Himalayas one month after Nick was born, which is just one more reason why I will never mess around in the Himalayas.  If you can stomach the environmental and anti-gun sentiments, this book is appropriate for middle-school and up.

Since I review five books here, I just might link-up my link-up to Heather's Five Favorites, not that these are my favorite books...whatever.

An InLinkz Link-up

WWRW: What this family is reading

Peter is starting a lot of books but not finishing them.  I think he's giving up too quickly. Sometimes I have to force myself to read the first 100 pages of a book before I fall into it, but he's not taking any advice from me these days.

I referred him to Nick Offerman.  Nick Offerman, that manliest of men, who played Ron Swanson on Parks and Recreation did an interview and had many wise things to say on many topics.  His words on books are what stuck in my mind.

"I love a series of books that perpetually fleshes out a world," Offerman said, "like Wendell Berry's Fiction (start with The Memory of Old Jack or Nathan Coulter), The Lord of The Rings, Madeline L'engle's Wrinkle In Time series, The Horatio Hornblower series, Patrick O'Brian's 21-volume Aubrey/Maturin series, The Flashman Papers, The Sharpe series, Little House On The Prairie, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Martin Amis' Dead Babies and Time's Arrow, As I Lay Dying, Michael Pollan's entire catalogue, for a start."

Now, I'm not familiar with all of these titles, but LOTR, L'Engle, Horatio, Patrick O'Brian, and Little House are all stellar picks, so I'm thinking the rest are probably good too, except Dead Babies.  Not going to recommend a book with that title, especially based on the Amazon review.   (Yes, I've read the Faulkner, but I'm not a big Faulkner fan.  Go ahead.  Revoke my English degree.  Just not into Faulkner.)

A week later and I am happy to say that Peter is just finishing The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings for the very first time.  Actually, I'm a little ashamed to say that.  Stupid movies ruining it for the bibliophiles.

Susan:  Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility

She never did read the Anne books, but she's very much into Jane.  I suppose I can deal with that.  (Click here to get the complete collection of Anne books on your Kindle or eReader for only $.99! Yes, it's an affiliate link and I will get about a tenth of a penny for every click-through.)

Lucy:  The Silent Governess by Julie Klassen

Come for the cover art, stay for the Romantic-Victorian knock-off.

Susan and Lucy have read quite a few of these Julie Klassen books.  I really need to read one myself.  "Fans of the Janes (Austen and Eyre) won't want to miss it."  High praise. Must check it out.

Edmund:  Rivals by Tim Green

Once upon a time, I heard former NFL player-attorney-best-selling author Tim Green speak about writing for children.  I bought loads of his books at that time.

Tim Green writes sports-themed mysteries and dramas for kids.  Edmund chose this book for himself, and he loves to tell me what page he is on, and what is going on.  His last update included bits about the kid who threw a bean-ball intentionally at the hero. Rather than take the base, the kid at the plate chose to finish the at-bat, which you can do apparently, according to the rules of the game in this book.

He's reading, he's reading at will, and he's enjoying it.

Jill:  All the things but especially Kevin Henkes' Lilly's Big Day (which is about being a flower girl, something that Jill is an expert at now), Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, and Chrysanthemum.

NOT Kevin Henkes' Julius Baby of the World which is everything I cannot stand in a "new baby" book including the words "I hate the baby."

Polly:  Polly, Jill, and I all fit in my mama bear chair like puzzle pieces, so Polly gets to listen in on the ten to a billion books I read aloud every day.  No fears about not following the latest advice from the American Academy of Pediatrics about reading to your newborn.  Not around here, no sir!

Me:  So Big by Edna Ferber...a Grown Up Book!

Want to wow the hospital staff after your next delivery?  Pull out a Pulitzer prize winner for those long nights and early mornings.

Giant and Ice Palace  by Ferber have entertained me in the past and I recommended them to Susan and Lucy for summer reading, so I requested  So Big  from the library a weeks ago.

 So Big is the story of Selina DeJong, on the outskirts of Chicago in the early part of the 20th century.

Beautiful, young Selina was raised in Chicago and many other cities by her widowed gambling gentleman father.  When he dies suddenly of a gunshot wound, she is left alone with two diamonds and nearly $500 cash.  She decides to become a teacher in the rural town of High Prairie.

High Prairie is settled by Dutch vegetable farmers, and though Selina is struck by the back-breaking hard-work of "truck farming" she finds herself doing exactly that after a whirlwind romance.  Disaster strikes, then fortune comes calling, and Selina is able to raise her young son, Dirk, exactly as she likes giving him a college education and a bright future.

Then the novel switches focus from Selina to Dirk, and starts to read like The Great Gatsby as Dirk is entranced by the "plastic" people, the wealthy, the socialites, and starts to feel shame about his roots and the woman who sacrificed everything to get him where he is.

Dirk's education is not over til the very end.  He falls for a girl who is the total package: smart, savvy, talented, successful, and she recognizes that the man she wants must have "scars on his hands," and that probably eliminates Dirk.

Despite the abrupt ending, I thoroughly enjoyed So Big.  Ferber is an excellent writer (Pulitzer prize!) and her historical settings provide a rich backdrop to all of her novels.

I'd say her novels are appropriate for readers of any age, but probably only teens and up are going to be able to savor and appreciate the writing and the history.

Now it's your turn:

An InLinkz Link-up

WWRW: Summer Reading Reviews here!

I have not reviewed every book by Roland Smith that I've ever read, but I've relished them all.  I did review Elephant Run here, and mentioned several others here.

Roland Smith writes fast-paced action novels about boys in tough situations.  Storm Runners is no exception.

Chase Masters lives on the road with his father, traveling from one weather related disaster to another doing home repair at high prices for the desperate and storm damaged.  His mother has passed away, and his father's life changed when he survived a lightning strike, selling his construction business and becoming a nomadic contractor.

Chase and his father, and his father's one employee, Vargas, make for Florida in the advent of Hurricane Emily.  Chase is put up at the "farm" of a friend of a friend in a supposedly safe zone, while his father and Vargas head to the expected site of the hurricane to drum up business.

The farm isn't exactly a farm.  It's the winter grounds of a circus, complete with lions, bears, and elephant about to give birth (totally sympathized with the elephant in this book).  The "farm" is run by a family of Little People, people with dwarfism, who own the circus.  Chase treats everyone with respect, and gets along with all the people and animals including the clairvoyant grandmother with second sight.

When the principal of the local middle school forces everyone (including Chase) onto to school buses during the storm of the century, Chase tries to reason with her, pointing out that the school cafeteria would be the safest place of all.  The principal wins, and everyone else loses, even to the loss of life.

Chase and the two girls who survive the deadly bus trip have to cross five miles of alligator infested flood waters to reach the farm, and when they get there, more dangers await.  Specifically, leopards and lions are on the loose, the power is out, and the elephant is ready to deliver.

Don't get too comfortable folks!  Storm Runners ends with the cliffhanger of all cliffhangers.  You are going to need Storm Runners Book 2: The Surge in hand to pick up where the Book 1 leaves off.

Might as well get Storm Runners Book 3: Eruption while you're at it and find out how the gang ends up in Mexico during a volcanic eruption just days after the hurricane in Florida.  More dangerous situations, more daring rescues, and more wild animals on the loose!   Perfect for summer reading on a rainy day.

Almost Home is my second Joan Bauer book.  I reviewed Close to Famous here.

Unlike Roland Smith novels, Joan Bauer's books tend to have spunky young female protagonists put in heart-breaking situations, and their mothers' are suckers for bad relationships with men.

That's not to say that there aren't any good adult male role models.  On the contrary.  Sugar Mae Cole idolizes her recently deceased grandfather, King Cole, as well as her sixth grade teacher, Mr. Bennet.

Times have been tough since King passed away.  Her biological father and two-time husband of her mother, Mr. Leeland, is a gambling addict, borrowing against the house, and losing big every time, even to the point of thugs coming to the house and threatening Sugar and her mother.

Sugar and her mother lose the house.  Kicked to the curb, rejected by the one cousin who had an extra-room, they end up in shelters, eventually making their way from Missouri to Chicago.  When the dream job her mother pinned all their hopes on fails to pan out, Sugar's mother loses her mind too.  Nearly getting recruited by a pimp in Millenium Park of all places, Sugar luckily ends up in foster care while her mother has a stay in a psych hospital.

Through it all, Sugar keeps writing poetry, keeps fighting for her dream of safe place to live for her and her mother.

Almost Home is the well-told story about a strong girl, and there is a happy ending, but there is so much sadness in this book too.  Too much for young readers in my opinion.

An InLinkz Link-up

After you've linked up or read and commented on all the great book reviews (you do leave comments right?  Like calling cards from the Austen era?), be sure to enter the Not Just for Pre-Schoolers Busy Time Giveaway!

WWRW: Summer Reading Kick Off

Don't have time to read this summer?  

Have your kids write your posts!  

Summer reading programs are running in libraries all over the US right now.  Research shows again and again that "kids who participate in library summer reading programs significantly improve their reading skills."

Here are a few titles to start them off:

A Diamond in the Desert is the story of a 12-year-old boy, Tetsu, and his time in the Gila River Japanese Internment Camp during World War II.   A Diamond in the Desert is also the story of how baseball not only makes his life better, but improves morale for the whole camp.

There was one little part about this book that I didn't like.  On page 6, Tetsu hears the newlywed neighbors have an argument.  Fitzmaurice writes, "...much later, they went to bed having forgiven each other their harsh words and ... you know."  This scene is very vague and serves to illustrate the lack of privacy in the barracks where the families were housed.  But it occurred so early on in the story, I was unsettled, wondering if that type of scene was going to be a common event in the book.  I am happy to note that it was a one-time occurrence.

One little part about this book that I loved is the Author's Note at the end of the book, Fitzmaurice reveals her research process, which was largely based on interviewing actual detainees who played on the actual Gila River team.

At the end of her Note, she reveals the meaning of the Japanese word, gaman.  In her words, "Simply, it is enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity."

If I had to sum up the theme of A Diamond in the Desert in one word, that word would be gaman.

"Cleverness and bravery are absolutely necessary for good adventures."


Thus opens The Hotel Under the Sand, a beautifully written fantasy by Kage Baker.  Check your sense of reality at the door, because anything can and does happen in this whimsical adventure.

Emma has lost everything and is washed up on a beach during a storm.

It might have been a storm with black winds, with thunder and lightning and rising waves.  It might have been a storm with terrible anger and policemen coming to the door, and strangers, hospitals, courtrooms, and nightmares.  It might have been a storm with soldiers, and fire, and hiding in cellars listening to shooting overhead.  There are different kinds of storms.

See what I mean by "beautifully written?"

She befriends Winston, the ghost of a bellhop who used to work at the Grand Wendlocke Hotel, 100 years ago, before the Grand Wendlocke was buried under the sand.

Another storm comes and uncovers the magnificent hotel, in all of its glory.  Emma and Winston decide to make a go of re-opening for business, along with a cook, a spoiled young heir, and a pirate.  Time is manipulated like play-doh in this lovely, crazy story appropriate for readers of any age.

A few WWRWs ago, I mentioned that Edmund was reading Gary Paulsen's Mr. Tucket (The Francis Tucket Books).  In that post, Edmund gave us his thoughts on Mr. Grimes, the mountain man that rescued 14-year-old Francis Tucket.

Some background info:  Mr. Tucket is the 14-year-old boy that got captured by the Pawnee while his family was on the Oregon Trail.  Mr. Tucket is rescued from the Pawnee by Mr. Grimes.  Mr. Grimes is a mountain man who *SPOILER ALERT* brutally and unnecessarily scalps his enemy at the end of the book. At the end of the book, Mr. Tucket strikes out on his own to find his family in Oregon, rather than stay in the company of a murderer.

Edmund has since written a few sentences about his opinion of the young Mr. Tucket which are below:

Mr. Tucket was a good man and these are some reasons why.  Mr. Tucket was a nice guy because he didn't want to kill.  Also he was a good person because he walked away when Mr. Grimes scalped Braid.  He was a hard worker and he  made good choices.
That's my opinion of why he's a good person.

this is for your blog. FROM THE COOLEST KID IN THE WORLD EDMUND!!!!!!!

An InLinkz Link-up

What We're Reading Wednesday: Thievery, Time Travel, and Pie

If you're looking for a magical adventure story similar to Harry Potter, you won't go wrong with The Vengekeep Prophecies by Brian Farrey.  

Jaxter Grimjinx is the young and clumsy son of a long line of thieves.  His one talent lies in thwarting magical burglar alarms with non-magical concoctions of herbs.  His family lives off of the spoils of their successful jobs.  They are not without some honorable characteristics.  Their "marks" must always be of a certain class, display a certain amount of wealth, for the Grimjinxes would never steal from the needy.

The town lives by their Prophecies.  Every year, a new tapestry is revealed that was woven in the past by the town's prophets.  This year however, the tapestry shows the worst predictions ever:  numerous dire events, magma men, floods, droughts, flying skeletons, etc. as well as the the four Grimjinx family members, clearly foretelling that the Grimjinx family will save the town of Vengekeep from disasters.

But the tapestry is a forgery.  Jaxter's mother, the best forger in the land, created the tapestry to get them out of a heap of trouble.  Unfortunately, she unknowingly wove it with forbidden fateskein, which means that everything on the tapestry WILL ACTUALLY OCCUR.

The Grimjinx family is in for it now.  Jaxter comes up with a plan to create a chemical solution that will destroy the tapestry,but he must journey all over the five provinces to collect the ingredients.

With his one and only friend, Callie, by his side, epic adventures ensue.  Will the Grimjinx family of shysters finally fulfill their destiny as heroes?  Ya gotta read it to find out.

I loved it.  You will too.

Also, Brett Helquist drew the imaginative pictures.  You may remember him from such books as The Series of Unfortunate Events, or the mind-bending Chasing Vermeer, or one of my favorites, Listening for Lions.

The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens is an exciting if confusing tale of time travel.  Three children shuffled from one horrible orphanage to the next, end up as the only residents of a dark mansion, the wards of a mysterious Dr. Pym.

The plot is very involved as the children accidentally discover that they can travel through time by placing a photograph of the destination (when and where) in an old book that they find in the mansion.  The books is of course, the Emerald Atlas, and the evil Countess wants it badly.  Too bad she's in the past.  She captures one of the siblings though, so back and forth, forth and back, the children and the atlas go.

The Emerald Atlas is a fine read, but there was one desperate scene where the youngest of the three children wishes desperately and unfulfillingly for something to pray to.

That and the fact that Amazon etc. keep comparing The Emerald Atlas to both Lewis's Narnia and the Pullman's His Dark Materials (remember that hullabaloo?  Decidedly anti-christian author writes his own "Narnia" books) series makes one wonder...

Looking for the perfect cottage read while on vacation?  Need something heartwarming and fun for the beach?  Those four sisters, that Hound, and their very best friend (in the style of Little Women's Laurie) are on vacation too!  The Penderwicks at Point Mouette is the third tale in the series by Jeanne Birdsall.

This time the Oldest Available Penderwick (OAP) will not be Rosalind as she is going to New Jersey with a friend.  Soccer-loving Skye takes center stage as she and Aunt Claire take the rest of the gang to a tiny cottage near the coast in Maine.

Bonus:  The cottage is just down the road from a general store that sells fresh pies every day.  I want to go to there.

The plot is mostly about Skye finding it in herself to be responsible, Jane learning about romance and getting her heart broken, and Jeffrey discovering the answer to one of his life's greatest mysteries, "Who is his father?"

Jane does kiss dashing and rude skateboarder, Dominic, at the park, only to find out later that he was dared to kiss as many girls this summer as possible by his brother.  She is thoroughly distraught and Skye blames herself for letting this silliness get out of hand.

The mystery of Jeffrey's father is solved when the cottage owner next-door finds out by chance that his short-lived marriage 13 years ago resulted in a son.  Jeffrey's mother never told his father about Jeffrey.  Jeffrey's love of music has been squelched by her also because it brought painful memories of his father.  Jeffrey is upset by all of this, and angry at his father (though how could it be his fault that he was never in touch if he never knew he had a son?).  Can their shared love of music and the Penderwicks help them to reconcile?

I have always loved the Penderwick sisters and their strong familial bonds, their mishaps and escapades.  They are an awful lot like a modern March family from Little Women, with a great big dog thrown in.