One Came Home, by Amy Timberlake

Title:  One Came Home

Author: Amy Timberlake
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Year: 2013
Pages: 272
Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery
Themes:  Loyalty, Bravery
Age Range: 4th-8th Grade

Summary: from Goodreads

In the town of Placid, Wisconsin, in 1871, Georgie Burkhardt is known for two things: her uncanny aim with a rifle and her habit of speaking her mind plainly.
But when Georgie blurts out something she shouldn't, her older sister Agatha flees, running off with a pack of "pigeoners" trailing the passenger pigeon migration. And when the sheriff returns to town with an unidentifiable body—wearing Agatha's blue-green ball gown—everyone assumes the worst. Except Georgie. Refusing to believe the facts that are laid down (and coffined) before her, Georgie sets out on a journey to find her sister. She will track every last clue and shred of evidence to bring Agatha home. Yet even with resolute determination and her trusty Springfield single-shot, Georgie is not prepared for what she faces on the western frontier.

Review:

This is an odd little book.  I enjoyed it, both as a mystery story, and as the story of a strong young woman, but the subject matter seems a little mature for the intended audience.  While there is very little in the nature of graphic descriptions or violence, the fact is that the major impetus for most of the plot is the discovery of a decomposing body.  I think there are definitely readers in the targeted age range that are mature enough not to be put off or frightened by that, but the fact of it makes it a little more problematic for use as a while group or guided reading novel  Of course, a case could be made that there are many video games or movies that kids this age are exposed to that are more casually graphic about violence, but I'd probably stay away from it as required reading at the bottom of the range.

That said, there are many things that are really good about the book.  It was listed on many lists of he best children's fiction in 2013.  Georgie is a strong, sassy female characters, which I am always happy to see in books for kids.  Her loyalty to her sister known no bounds, and she is brave, even if impulsively so.  The historical context of the novel provides an interesting look at both passenger pigeons, which were hunted to extinction, and the small towns that were affected by their yearly migrations.  The mystery itself is pretty engaging, and there are elements of danger that make the story pretty exciting.  Overall, I think this is a good book to have as part of a classroom library.

The Danger Box, by Blue Balliett

Title:  The Danger Box
Author: Blue Balliett
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Year:  2010
Pages: 320
Genre:  Realistic Fiction, Mystery
Themes:  Friendship, Family, Science
Age Range: 4th-7th Grade

Summary:
 Zoomy, now twelve, was found on the doorsteps of his grandparents as an infant, with a note explaining that he is their run-away 19 year old's son.  The immediately take him in and raise him as their own, no questions asked.  Zoomy's childhood in bucolic Three Oaks, Michigan is not free from problems however.  Zoomy has pathological myopia, rendering him legally if not completely blind.  He also has symptoms reminiscent of Tourette's Sydrom or Autism Spectrum Disorder, including an obsession with tiny plant and insects and a penchant for list-making.  These conditions make it difficult for Zoomy to make a friend, but he finally finds one in Lorol, a girl his age who's mother is working at a local summer camp.  His life has never been better, but it is all threatened when his father reappears in town, bringing a mysterious box with him.  Concerned that the box may be part of a crime, Zoomy's grandparents open it to discover an old notebook.  Antique store owners that they are, they take the box, but give Zoomy the old notebook.  What Zoomy reads in the notebook leads him to an amazing discovery, and also brings danger to his small home town.

Review:
Balliett takes on a completely different vibe with this novel.  Her fourth mystery for the 9-12 year old set, The Danger Box is not set in the usual urban landscape of Hyde Park in Chicago, but in the lovely rural countryside of southwestern Michigan, just an couple of hours outside the city.  I can attest to the loveliness of the scenery there-I recently drove right past the exit for Three Oaks on my way back from a visit to Traverse City, Michigan.

What is the same, of course, is Balliett's high quality storytelling.  Balliett takes a real life mystery-on of Charles Darwin's missing notebooks-and uses it as the back story for her fictional story.  In the process of discovering whether the notebook was authentic, Zoomy and Lorol provide the reader with tons of interesting information about Darwin's life and work, making this novel a perfect tie in to a life sciences unit of study.  In the process, Zoomy's fears about his father coming back into his life, and his observations about the different way in which he sees the world, provide good fodder for discussions about family structures, what makes a family, and how people perceive the world differently.  And as always, Balliett's writing style shows an ease and flow that are a study in author's craft.  I highly recommend this book as an addition to any reading program, whether it be independent reading, guided reading, literature circles, whatever!

Teacher Resources:
Scholastic Discussion Guide
Blue Balliett's Website

Dead End in Norvelt, by Jack Gantos

Title: Dead End in Norvelt
Author: Jack Gantos
Publisher: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
Year: 2011
Pages: 341
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Themes:  Mid-20th Century America, Mystery
Age Range:  4th-8th Grade

Summary:
In the Newbery Award-winning Dead End in Norvelt, Jack Gantos (the fictional one, not the real-life one) has his whole summer vacation stretching before him like the blue Pennsylvania sky-at least, until he finds himself in the middle of his parents' feuding and ends up grounded.  He fears that he will see no more of Norvelt, the small town where he lives, than the walls of his own bedroom, but he is given an unexpected reprieve when his mother starts loaning him out to the old woman down the road for chores.  His most important-typing up the obituaries for the town paper now that she has become too arthritic to do it herself.  His new job teaches him about the history of his town, designed as a modern day Utopia by Eleanor Roosevelt herself for soldiers returning from World War II, and the very flawed people who inhabit it.  When the old-timers start dropping dead, Jack senses a mystery to be solved. Despite his parents' fighting, his near constantly bleeding nose, and a few Hell's Angels, Jack helps uncover the disturbing truth about the deaths.

Review:
Jack Gantos decided to name his main character after himself, and apparently he has merged facts about his own childhood with a completely wild made-up tale about murder and mayhem in a small town.  Despite the 50 years between Jack's childhood and today, I think that he is a character that lots of kids, especially boys, could relate to.  He's mischievous but not mean, with a self-deprecating voice that rings true.  The fact of his ever-present nosebleeds and overprotective mother are things that would speak to any child who has ever been embarrassed by something over which they have very little control.  Jack sneaks out of his house, plays with his dad's war mementos, and lies to his parents when he thinks they need to be lied to.  He loves to play baseball, wants to learn to fly his father's plane, and uses binoculars to watch the drive in movies from his own yard.  In short, he feels very much like an average kid who happens to get drawn into extraordinary circumstances.

Miss Volker, Jack's "employer", is a feisty old woman, bent on preserving the town and its history, dedicated to making sure that Mrs. Roosevelt's dream of a peaceful, fair world becomes a reality.  She uses the obituaries she writes (which are honest to a fault, reputations be damned) to remind residents of Norvelt of the importance of their town, and about the values of fairness, equity, and tolerance that it was build on.  She also writes the "on this day in history" column for the paper, and she is very careful to choose events that support the very ideals that Norvelt stands for.  There are other examples of children and oldsters forming close relationships in children's literature (Opal and Miss Franny Block from Because of Winn Dixie come to mind), but while Miss Volker fulfills the role of mentor and guide to young Jack, she does so with a great deal more piss and vinegar than the average fictional 80 year old.  Through her, Gantos (the author, not the character) shows the importance of knowing your history, for those that don't are doomed to repeat it.

The subject matter, while not graphic, does include murder and arson.  Not to mention the Hell's Angels.  I actually think that this book would make a great read aloud, because the language has a lovely flow, but if you don't think that your kids can handle hearing the word "hell" spoken aloud by their teacher, then I'd avoid it.  I definitely this that it belongs in any classroom library for upper elementary or middle school, and I'd use it in guided reading, or even as part of a social studies unit.

Hold Fast, Blue Balliett

Title:  Hold Fast
Author:  Blue Balliett
Publisher:  Scholastic Press
Year:  2013
Pages:  288
Genre:  Realistic Fiction, Mystery
Themes:  Family, Poverty, Homelessness, Reading
Age Range:  4th through 8th Grade

Summary:  from Goodreads

Where is Early's father? He's not the kind of father who would disappear. But he's gone . . . and he's left a whole lot of trouble behind.

As danger closes in, Early, her mom, and her brother have to flee their apartment. With nowhere else to go, they are forced to move into a city shelter. Once there, Early starts asking questions and looking for answers. Because her father hasn't disappeared without a trace. There are patterns and rhythms to what's happened, and Early might be the only one who can use them to track him down and make her way out of a very tough place.

Review:
Run, do not walk, and get this book!  Balliett's writing is always magical-the way she uses language to create not just evocative settings and believable characters but truly beautiful prose is astonishing.  Both of the novels I've read by her have been such a treasure of beautiful language usage!  And while the language itself is worth reading the book for, the plot is nothing to sneeze at either.  Balliett deals with issues of homelessness and poverty in such a delicate, compassionate way, making very difficult topics accessible to child readers.

Early as narrator is frank and honest, at times wise, other times naive about the way the world works.  The one unshakable fact of her life is her father's love and loyalty.  There is not one minute of his disappearance that she is not sure that he would come home if he were able.  She throws herself into solving the mystery of his kidnapping with a fervor that is only matched by her desire to help her mother survive their present circumstances.  When her family ends up in a homeless shelter, Early's mother has a hard time holding fast to her hope, but Early is there to comfort her and prod her into keeping herself together for the sake of her younger brother Jubie.  Balliett's description of the shelter is honest and forthright, neither exaggerated or minimized.  The people at the shelter do the best they can to provide warmth, food, and help to the many families that come to them, but as the revolving door of characters moving into and out of Early's life at the shelter shows, working with the homeless population in Chicago is a more daunting task than a few hot meals and a bed for the night can accomplish.

While the most compelling parts of the book for me were the ways that the life of the family was affected by homelessness, there is actually a really good mystery in here as well.  The people at the shelter may think that Early's father just took off, as so many men seem to do, but Early knows he would never abandon them, and she is right-there are some nefarious characters that have taken advantage of her father's good nature.  The big reveal is made even more powerful by the knowledge that the terrible situation that Early and her mother and brother found themselves in is almost over.

There are so many things to love about this book.  Balliett uses the poetry of Langston Hughes as a frame for the events in the story, and the family shares a love of words and reading and learning that touched me. Early's parents do all the right things, but still find it so difficult to lift themselves out of poverty.  Balliett's characters put the lie to the assertion that people live in poverty because they lack the ability to plan for the future, or that they don't value education enough, or that they don't work hard enough.  In no fair world should someone as bright and capable as Early's family be denied the same opportunities that those who come from privilege already have.

Secrets of the Cicada Summer, Andrea Beaty

Title:  Secrets of the Cicada Summer
Author:  Andrea Beaty
Publisher:  Harry N. Abrams
Year: 2008
Pages: 176
Genre: Mystery
Themes: Overcoming Loss
Age Range:  3rd-5th Grade

Summary: 
Lily is invisible-not because people can't see her.  Anyone who was looking would see her.  But no one looks her way, not anymore.  After the death of her brother, Pete, Lily retreats into silence, and over time people stop paying attention to the girl who never speaks.  And that is just fine with her.  Lily has a secret, one that she is sure will make her father stop loving her if he finds out.  No one sees through her silence, until Tinny comes to town.

Tinny, 12 years old like Lily,is a rough customer.  As soon as she shows up in the small town of Olena, IL to stay with her Aunt Fern, bad things start happening.  Candy starts disappearing from Aunt Fern's store, and then money.  Tinny blames it on Lily, who can't defend herself without admitting she could talk all along. And then, a mean looking man shows up looking for Tinny.  Lily has to uncover the mystery and save Tinny-but it will mean confronting not just the mean looking man, but her own grief and guilt.

Review:
Cicada Summer is a sweet story about a little girl dealing with some pretty serious issues.  Her mother died when she was too young to remember her, and her brother died in a tragic accident when he was 12 and she was 10.  Despite the loving care of her father and kindly Fern, she has so much guilt over her part in her brother's death that she tries her best to disappear-staying silent, sidling around town just out of everyone's vision.  But this makes it easier for her to learn things that grown-ups might not want a child to hear, which in turn helps her become a real life detective, like her idol Nancy Drew.

 The story goes back and forth between present day and the time period right before and after Pete's death.  Beaty uses the flashbacks to develop Pete's character, so that the emotional impact is heightened when the truth of what happened to him is finally revealed.  By then the reader has also come to care about not just Lily, but her father and Fern and even that rough ol' Tinny.  The narrative structure makes a good model for early writers.  They can practice writing their own story that includes both flashback and present day.

The one criticism I have is that the resolution of the mystery happens very quickly, in just a few pages.  What was meant to be a suspenseful scene with the mean looking man cornering the two girls ended up feeling a little bit rushed to me, lacking in detail.  Perhaps that was to keep it from being too scary for the intended audience, and it may be my reading it as an adult that makes it seem that way, but it did feel like a whole lot of build-up for a pretty slim ending.  But I think this book could be used as a read aloud, in guided reading, or as part of a classroom library.

Teacher Resources:
Teachingbooks.net Lesson Plans
Wild Geese Guides Discussion Guide

Pie, by Sarah Weeks

Title:  Pie

Author:  Sarah Weeks
Publisher:  Scholastic
Year:  2011
Pages:  183
Genre:  Realistic Fiction, Mystery
Themes:  Overcoming Loss, Family
Age Range:  3rd-6th Grade

Summary:  (from Goodreads)

When Alice's Aunt Polly, the Pie Queen of Ipswitch, passes away, she takes with her the secret to her world-famous pie-crust recipe. Or does she? In her will, Polly leaves the recipe to her extraordinarily fat, remarkably disagreeable cat, Lardo . . . and then leaves Lardo in the care of Alice.
Suddenly, the whole town is wondering how you leave a recipe to a cat. Everyone wants to be the next big pie-contest winner, and it's making them pie-crazy. It's up to Alice and her friend Charlie to put the pieces together and discover the not-so-secret recipe for happiness: Friendship. Family. And the pleasure of donig something for the right reason.

Review:  
Everybody loves pie!  Sarah Weeks must have known that going into writing this book.  Each chapter starts with a real pie recipe that goes along with the plot, an interesting literary device that can add to the conversation with students-why did the author choose this recipe to go with this chapter?  And the pies look delicious!  Perhaps the best thing for me as the reader of this book is a bunch of new recipes to try for my next holiday desert!

Alice follows a line of children's book characters with parents that just don't understand her.  Alice's mother is a pretty horrible person for most of the book-greedy and high-strung and rather neglectful.  Her father is portrayed as a long-suffering spouse who really has no control over his wife's over-the-top emotional tendencies.  Luckily for Alice-and the reader-her mother has an epiphany towards the end of the story that leads to a reconciliation between her and Alice that helps round out the books overall sweet appeal.

Alice herself is plucky, a word almost always reserved for a young female character who shows spunk and determination.  Alice had both of those things in spades, and her desire to figure out who is trying to steal her aunt's pie crust recipe is the driving force of the novel.  But the book also explores issues of identity, grief, and friendship, making it ripe with possibilities for discussion and written response.

Teacher Resources:
Scholastic Interview with Sarah Weeks

The Sherlock Files: The 100 Year Old Secret, by Tracy Barrett

Title:  The Sherlock Files: The 100 Year Old Secret
Author:  Tracy Barrett
Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
Year:  2008
Pages:  157
Genre:  Mystery
Themes:  Art, Deduction
Age Range:  3rd-5th Grade

Summary:  from Goodreads

Xena and Xander Holmes have just discovered they’re related to Sherlock Holmes and have inherited his unsolved casebook! The siblings set out to solve the cases their famous ancestor couldn’t, starting with the mystery of a prized painting that vanished more than a hundred years ago. Can two smart twenty-first-century kids succeed where Sherlock Holmes could not?

Review:
Xena and Xander are two smart kids, but then you'd have to be to solve hundred year old mysteries left behind by Sherlock Holmes.  Barrett does a good job creating a setting that somehow feels British, even though the main characters are American.  There's talk of their flat, and the Tube, and boarding schools...all very UK.  This is the first book in a series that so far has three books, so children who enjoy the first mystery can continue visiting Barrett's fictional  London.

As mysteries go this one is pretty good.  The kids follow clues and use deductive reasoning throughout.  Not all of their ideas pan out, but they show a perseverance that is a good example for real live children who seem increasingly adverse to "try and try again".  They also have something that the "real" Sherlock Holmes did not-21st Century technology. Conveniently, their mother is a reviewer of new gadgets for some online magazine, so they often have prototypes of new technology hanging around the house.  To solve this mystery, they needed a device that would locate metal behind a wall.   In the course of the search they meet Watson's youngest descendant, a painter, a gallery owner, the headmaster of a school, and a girl in a purple hat.  Figuring out how all of these people are related to the painting they are looking for takes brains, which Xena and Xander have in spades.  There isn't exactly a lot of deeper meaning here, but as an example of the mystery genre this book does the job adequately.

Eleven, by Patricia Reilly Giff

Title:  Eleven
Author:  Patricia Reilly Giff
Publisher:  Random House Children's Books
Year:  2008
Pages:  176
Genre:  Realistic Fiction/Mystery
Themes:  Friendship, Family, Mystery
Age Range:  4th-7th Grade

Summary:  from Goodreads

Sam is almost 11 when he discovers a locked box in the attic above his grandfather Mack’s room, and a piece of paper that says he was kidnapped. There are lots of other words, but Sam has always had trouble reading. He’s desperate to find out who he is, and if his beloved Mack is really his grandfather. At night he’s haunted by dreams of a big castle and a terrifying escape on a boat. Who can he trust to help him read the documents that could unravel the mystery? Then he and the new girl, Caroline, are paired up to work on a school project, building a castle in Mack’s woodworking shop. Caroline loves to read, and she can help. But she’s moving soon, and the two must hurry to discover the truth about Sam.

Review:
I must admit to not being sure what I was getting when I started reading this book.  from the blurb it almost sounded like it could turn out to be a fantasy novel, what with all the talk about castles and such.  Maybe I was just making the (false, as it turns out) connection between  Sam's reading disability and that of the demi-god Percy Jackson from Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.  At any rate, what I got was a pretty good mystery novel for the upper elementary set.

There are many things that are interesting about this book, beginning with the cast of characters.  Sam lives with his grandfather Mack, who can build anything out of wood.  They live in an apartment above Mack's woodworking business, in the same building as Mack's best friend Onji and his deli, and a sweet grandmotherly type named Anima who owns an Indian restaurant.  You don't find references to chicken curry or samosas in a kids' book that isn't about India.  Sam himself is a very relateable character.  His learning disability makes him shy and a little anxious in many situations, and his uncertainty about his place in the world is something that I imagine many students feel, whether they are searching for the truth about their family history or not.

The mystery is one central point of the story, but really it is the foundation for a broader theme of what it means to be a family.  Sam's family is certainly non-traditional.  While more and more kids are being raised by grandparents, it's not usually grandpa by himself, and certainly not with such interesting companions helping with the parenting.  Sam feels very ambivalent about searching for the truth about his relationship with Mack, considering giving up the search for fear that he would find out the man he loved is complicit in taking him away from his "real" family.  But in the end he decides he needed the truth.  This could be an interesting discussion point if using this book in a guided reading group or kids book club.

The book is also about friendship, and Sam's friendship with Caroline shows how being vulnerable can make a friendship deeper.  In order to solve his mystery he has to be very open with Caroline about his reading disability, but she also has to open up to him, admitting how hard it is to make friends when her father keeps moving their family around all the time.  I always appreciate a well written friendship between a boy and a girl, and this fits that bill.  They each bring different strengths to the friendship, and use them to work together to solve the mystery of Sam's story.

Teacher Resources:
WebEnglishTeacher Guide
Multnomah County Teacher's Guide

Peeled, by Joan Bauer

Title:  Peeled
Author:  Joan Bauer
Publisher:  Putnam Juvenile
Year:  2008
Pages:  256
Genre:  Realistic Fiction
Themes:  Truth, Fear, Manipulation of the Press, Community, Loss
Age Range:  5th through 10th Grade


Summary:  from Goodreads

Something's rotten in the heart of apple country!

Hildy Biddle dreams of being a journalist. A reporter for her high school newspaper, The Core, she's just waiting for a chance to prove herself. Not content to just cover school issues, Hildy's drawn to the town's big story--the haunted old Ludlow house. On the surface, Banesville, USA, seems like such a happy place, but lately, eerie happenings and ghostly sightings are making Hildy take a deeper look.

Her efforts to find out who is really haunting Banesville isn't making her popular, and she starts wondering if she's cut out to be a journalist after all. But she refuses to give up, because, hopefully, the truth will set a few ghosts free.

Review:

Writers like to write about writing-that is clear.  Bauer chose to write about journalism in this book, and she did an excellent job of showing what good journalism can be, even when done by high school students.  But what made this book more charming was the fact that it was essentially a cozy mystery for the tween set.  If you aren't familiar with cozy mysteries, they are mystery novels written around a specific industry or community.  There are cozy mysteries about farmers' markets, wine sellers, tea sellers, book sellers...they always remind me of  that old show Murder, She Wrote.  The setting for Peeled is apple growing country in upstate New York.  Much of the novel revolves around apple growing, apple orchards, selling apple products, etc...The mystery itself is pretty innocuous.  There is a death, but it was not a violent one.  What really drives the novel is the conflict between real journalism and sensational, tabloid style journalism.  While the book is an easy read, there is enough substance there that you could have a discussion about how people can use the media to manipulate public opinion.  Whether you choose to use it as a teaching tool or not, this is a good book to have in your classroom library.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Happy Monday!  I hope that everyone had a great weekend.  While I spent most of yesterday nursing a summer cold, I did get to spend Friday night and Saturday at a youth leadership event, where I got some good insight into the kinds of books that teens are reading right now.  I was telling them about the children's lit class I'm taking, and it started an hour long discussion on books they like or don't-very interesting stuff.  Reminded me why I've spent so much time reading young adult literature for this class.  These kids are dying to read good books that speak to their actual lives (though most of them also love sparkly vampires).

That event ended up being the perfect way to end a week of reading young adult stuff.  Here's what I got done this week:

The View from Saturday, by E.L. Konigsburg

Rainbow Boys, by Alex Sanchez

Almost Perfect, by Brian Katcher (Review coming soon!)

Hello Groin, by Beth Goobie (Review coming soon!)

This coming week I get to go back to reading some adult titles as well, since my major book project is due today for my kiddie lit class.  I am hoping to get to:

Another Thing to Fall, by Laura Lippman

Wild Seed, Octavia E. Butler

I will also get to the following YA titles:

Bait, by Alex Sanchez

Ten Things I Hate About Me-Randa Abdel-Fattah

Have a great reading week, everyone!