Review of Bink and Gollie: Two for One, by Kate Di Camillo and Alison McGhee

Bink and Gollie
Two for One

by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee
illustrated by Tony Fucile

Candlewick Press, 2012. 80 pages.
Starred Review
2013 Capitol Choices List
2012 Sonderbooks Stand-out:
#6 Picture Books

This follow-up to Bink and Gollie is as irresistible as the first. Bink is short and wild. Gollie is tall and sedate. They spend a day together at the fair.

In many ways this book is about failure. Failure at Whack-a-Duck and failure at the Talent Show. But it’s not treated as failure. Not at all. After both events, the girls find happy compensation.

The pictures are the crowning glory of this delightful book. Yes, the words are wonderful, but the pictures bring it to life. Bink’s efforts to throw the ball and Whack a Duck take up an entire dramatic two-page spread. Gollie’s stage fright is communicated without a word as the scene widens to show just how many people are listening to her and the frozen look on her face.

There are not very many words on each page, but there is lots and lots of story on each page. Beginning readers will feel they’ve accomplished something, and skilled readers won’t be bored for a second.

The two girls finish up the day in a fortune teller’s tent.

“I see two friends,” said Madame Prunely.
“Is one of those friends tall?” said Gollie.
“Yes,” said Madame Prunely.

“And is the other friend short?” said Bink.
“Yes,” said Madame Prunely.

“Are they together?” said Gollie.
“Without question,” said Madame Prunely.

“That’s all the future I need to know,” said Bink.
“Come on, Gollie!”

An absolute delight for beginning readers.

binkandgollie.com
candlewick.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Review of The Cabinet of Earths, by Anne Nesbet

The Cabinet of Earths

by Anne Nesbet

Harper, 2012. 260 pages.
Starred Review
2012 Sonderbooks Stand-out:
#2 Children’s Fiction: Fantasy and Science Fiction

It’s hard not to like a children’s fantasy tale set in Paris. (Okay, it’s hard for me not to like any book set in Paris.) Now, Maya, the main character, is not happy to be in Paris, and I like the way they explain it, not in a feel-sorry-for-herself way:

Her mother had a saying for bad days: Life is full of lessons, and the grades aren’t fair. By which she might as well have said, Sometimes your mother gets sick — really sick, like having to go through chemo and losing all her hair and most of her get-up-and-go — and you have to be a very good sport. Not just for a day or a summer, but for years. And here are the lessons Maya had learned about trying to be always, always a good sport:
1. it’s exhausting; and
2. nobody notices; and
3. it doesn’t really work very well, anyway.

After Maya’s mother is recovering from chemo, she encourages Maya’s dad to accept a fellowship he’s been offered to move the whole family to Paris for one year. Maya’s mom has a cousin in Paris. Maya’s little brother is annoyingly happy with the whole thing, and makes French-speaking friends at his new school almost instantly.

But there are some strange things happening in Paris. The Society of Philosophical Chemistry that gave her dad the fellowship has some mysteries. Its director is a distant relation. He’s young and handsome, and he seems awfully eager to meet Maya and her brother James. For years, children have gone missing from that section of Paris. Then there’s Cousin Louise, who is strangely invisible and unmemorable. She has to ask Maya to get even a waiter’s attention.

She was strangely hard to see. No color to her, somehow, just an oddly muted effect, as if there were a curtain of frosted glass between Maya’s eyes and her. Or a kind of haze in the air, almost. Just an ordinary sort of woman, but too vague to be properly ordinary, because ordinary ordinary people become more vivid when you pay attention to them, and this woman — well, you couldn’t quite focus on her, somehow.

All the mysteries seem to be focused around an amazing and beautiful old cabinet filled with bottles of earth that is in the possession of another distant relation of theirs — an eccentric old man who never leaves his home.

The mysteries and the adventure and the danger are woven together skillfully. Maya has to figure out her part in all these secrets, and then try to avert disaster.

I had one teeny-tiny complaint: I didn’t think that James talked like a five-year-old. But that’s minor, and I was able to adjust my image of him when the author mentioned his age. Perhaps his annoying charisma that makes everyone love him also made him a precocious conversationalist.

And like I said, that complaint was extremely minor. Overall, this book is a highly unusual magical adventure tale. We’ve got a modern child up against sinister forces in an unfamiliar environment and a mystery to solve before it’s too late. And it’s all set in Paris! Win-win!

annenesbet.com
harpercollinschildrens.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of The False Prince, by Jennifer A. Nielsen

The False Prince

by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Scholastic Press, New York, 2012. 342 pages.
Starred Review
2012 Sonderbooks Stand-out #1 Fantasy and Science Fiction for Children

So, funny thing. I read this book earlier in the year, as an Advance Reader Copy, and although I enjoyed it, I decided there were too many flaws, and I didn’t want to review it. I read it afresh at the end of 2012, as part of my reading for the Cybils, and this time I loved it.

What was the difference? I believe that both times I read it in one sitting, into the small hours of the morning, so I certainly found it a page turner both times.

I think the first time, it reminded me so much of The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner, I couldn’t help but be disappointed. That’s an unfair comparison for almost any book, so when I figured out the big reveal fairly easily, I held it against the author and thought she should have done the revealing differently. The second time I read it, I knew what I knew (and some other reviewers thought she intended us to figure it out), so I didn’t worry about that. I firmly did not compare it to The Thief, and this time I loved it.

The book opens with an orphan named Sage stealing a roast for the orphanage and then being captured and bought by a nobleman. Conner, the nobleman, gets three other orphan boys and tells them one of them is going to replace the prince who’s been missing for four years. The rest of the royal family is dead, and the country will find out in two weeks’ time. If one of the boys can get everything right in two weeks, he will be the new king and live in luxury the rest of his life. Of course, it’s pretty clear that whichever boys are not chosen will need to be killed to keep the secret.

Sage isn’t one to capitulate to Conner’s power, and he clearly has plans of his own. How it all gets worked out is wonderful tale. If the big twists and turns don’t take you by surprise, there are still some little details that will slip through. The book is hard to put down, and the action keeps going. I do have to say that, like Megan Whalen Turner’s books, you do spot more details when you reread the book that you won’t have realized were significant the first time around.

The best thing about this book? It’s “Book One of the Ascendance Trilogy.” The book does stand alone beautifully, and tells a complete story. But I’m definitely looking forward to finding out what happens next.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/false_prince.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

2012 Sonderbooks Stand-outs: Science Fiction and Fantasy Children’s Fiction

I’m doing blog posts about my 2012 Sonderbooks Stand-outs, and I’m finally getting to the category for which I was a Cybils judge, Science Fiction and Fantasy for Middle Grade Readers. The Cybils list was created by our panel of 7 people, and they were a fabulously insightful group to work with. The list here simply represents my own personal favorites. The Cybils list has a little more variety (and, yes, I’m very happy with it and proud of it), but this list has a whole lot of love.

I haven’t posted all the reviews for these books yet. Soon! Soon! Do stay tuned! I’ll try to start with posting two tonight and catch up the rest within the next week or two.

I should add that judging for this category was a treat. I do love fantasy books, and this year I got to indulge more than ever. All of these books are recommended reading.

That said, here are the Fantasy and Science Fiction Children’s Books I most enjoyed reading in 2012:

1. The Mysterious Howling, by Maryrose Wood
2. The Spy Princess, by Sherwood Smith
3. The False Prince, by Jennifer L. Nielsen
4. Ordinary Magic, by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway
5. Starry River of the Sky, by Grace Lin
6. Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities, by Mike Jung
7. The Cabinet of Earths, by Anne Nesbet
8. Renegade Magic, by Stephanie Burgis
9. The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, by Catherynne M. Valente
10. The Prairie Thief, by Melissa Wiley
11. The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, by Christopher Healy

Watch for the remaining reviews!

And how about you? What were your favorite fantasy and science fiction books for children you read in 2012? (Links to other lists are welcome.)

Happy Reading!

2012 Sonderbooks Stand-outs: Other Children’s Fiction

Tonight I’m posting about my 2012 Sonderbooks Stand-outs in the category of “other” Children’s Fiction — all except Fantasy and Science Fiction, which was the category I judged for the Cybils, so had a lot of books.

This category includes most of my Newbery hopefuls, though I didn’t choose them for award winners, but just ranked in terms of how much I enjoyed reading them. I’m posting this category tonight because it’s the only category where I have all the reviews already posted. I’m getting to this late tonight because today I went and looked at a townhome that I’m going to make an offer for! I found that the best way to make such a big decision was to take a nap!

Anyway, here are my 2012 Sonderbooks Stand-outs for Non-Fantasy Children’s Fiction:

1. Summer of the Gypsy Moths, by Sara Pennypacker
2. The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate
3. Wonder, by R. J. Palacio
4. Liar and Spy, by Rebecca Stead
5. Twelve Kinds of Ice, by Ellen Obed Bryan
6. The Lions of Little Rock, by Kristin Levine

You may have noticed that I don’t have the same number of stand-outs in each category. That’s because these are the books that stand out in my mind after a year of reading, and I try to hold the same standard to all categories. So some have more choices than others.

This list does have one book, The One and Only Ivan, that was on our Cybils shortlist for Middle Grade Fantasy and Science Fiction, by virtue of animals talking to each other. But I maintain that in spirit, it’s not a fantasy novel at all, so for my purposes, it’s on this list.

Come to think of it, all of these books are on our Mock Newbery Book Club shortlist for voting on January 14th at 4:30 pm at City of Fairfax Regional Library. I guess that makes sense, since I made the shortlist! Also on our shortlist are two other Sonderbooks Stand-outs: Palace of Stone and Starry River of the Sky, and two books I haven’t read yet: Bomb, by Steve Sheinkin, and Three Times Lucky, by Sheila Turnage. If any of my readers live in the area, please come join us, even if you haven’t read all the books!

Tonight I’ll update the review pages for all these books to reflect their Stand-out status. If you haven’t caught these books yet, I recommend them all highly. And who knows, maybe you can beat the crowd for checking out some Newbery honorees!

Review of Liar & Spy, by Rebecca Stead

Liar & Spy

by Rebecca Stead

Wendy Lamb Books, 2012. 180 pages.
Starred Review

Georges has just had to move; his Dad lost his job; his Mom is working extra shifts at the hospital; his best friend started sitting at the cool table; and he’s dealing with more and more bullying at school. Then there’s a post in the laundry room: “Spy Club today.” When Georges investigates, he meets a kid named Safer.

Safer and his family aren’t much like the other kids Georges knows. Safer plans to train him to be a spy. It starts with things like watching the lobbycam but goes on to checking the laundry of Mr. X, the man who dresses only in black, and progresses to breaking and entering.

I think Safer pictures a little box of evil in a corner of Mr. X’s apartment, and he thinks that if he can find it, he’ll save the world, or at least a small part of Brooklyn.

And who am I to say that he’s wrong?

This is a quiet book, but has more of what Rebecca Stead does well: quirky characters who feel just quirky enough to be real; group dynamics of classes of kids; the strange details of middle school; and especially making new friends.

This book is a lot like When You Reach Me, but without the time travel, so it’s a quieter book. The result is not as flashy, but still excellent, about an ordinary kid coping with a lot of things, and doing it with some stumbles, but coming out on top.

randomhouse.com/kids

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of One Dog and His Boy, by Eva Ibbotson

One Dog and His Boy

by Eva Ibbotson

Scholastic Press, New York, 282 pages.

This book could have been named, A Poor Little Rich Boy and his Adventures with Five Dogs, but the actual title does tell you about the central story of one boy finding the dog who’s right for him, and that dog finding the boy.

The book begins with the boy:

All Hal had ever wanted was a dog.

He had wanted one for his last birthday and for the birthday before, and for Christmas, and now that his birthday was coming around again he wanted one more desperately than ever. He had read about dogs and dreamed about dogs; he knew how to feed them and how to train them. But whenever he asked his mother for a dog she told him not to be silly.

“How could we have a dog? Think of the mess — hairs on the carpet and scratch marks on the door, and the smell. . . . Not to mention puddles on the floor,” said Albina Fenton, and shuddered.

And when Hal said that he would see to it that it didn’t smell and would take it out again and again so that it didn’t make puddles, she looked hurt.

“You have such a beautiful home,” she told her son, “I would have thought you would be grateful.”

This was true in a way. Hal’s parents were rich; they lived in a large modern house in the suburbs with carpets so thick that your feet sank right into them and silk curtains that swept to the floor. There were three new cars in the garage — one for Albina, one for her husband, and one for the maid to use when she took Hal to school — and five bathrooms with gold taps and power showers, and a sauna. In the kitchen every kind of gadget hummed and buzzed — squeezers and coffeemakers and extractors — and the patio was tiled with marble brought in specially from Italy.

But in the whole of the house there was nothing that was alive. Not the smallest beetle, not the frailest spider, not the shyest mouse — Albina Fenton and the maids who came and went saw to that. And in the garden there were no flowers — only raked gravel — because flowers mean earth and mess.

When Hal persists in asking for a dog, his father gets a bright idea. He will rent a dog from Easy Pets for the weekend. After all, “By the time the dog has to go back, Hal will be tired of him — you know how quickly children get bored with the things you give them. He only played with that indoor space projector we got him for Christmas for a couple of days and it cost the earth.”

Well, you can imagine how well it goes over when Albina has to bring the dog back. (Hal’s father was so conveniently scheduled to leave on another trip before Easy Pets opened.)

Hal ends up running away with his dog, heading to his grandparents, who live in the north of England. But he ends up traveling with a girl whose sister worked at Easy Pets and four other dogs who also were not where they belonged.

The story includes lots of coincidences, but it’s sweet and happy and funny. Spoiler alert: All the dogs end up where they should be, but the process is reminiscent of the great adventure in Dodie Smith’s The 101 Dalmatians.

Here’s a story of great love between a dog and a boy, and best of all, no dogs are harmed in this story! Here’s a dog story that doesn’t end in tears, but with lots of smiles. Okay, maybe it’s not the likeliest of stories, but it’s a fun read.

scholastic.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/one_dog_and_his_boy.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on an Advance Reader Copy I got at an ALA conference.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Twelve Kinds of Ice, by Ellen Bryan Obed

Twelve Kinds of Ice

by Ellen Bryan Obed
illustrated by Barbara McClintock

Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, Boston, 2012. 61 pages.
Starred Review

It doesn’t seem like it would work in a children’s book — an adult talking about what it was like for her growing up as a child in Maine. But the story is told firmly from a child’s perspective, and it does work, completely. I’m afraid it may cause a wave of discontent across America. If I had read it as a child growing up in Los Angeles, already sad because I never got to have snow, it would have added a new thing to wish for — ice.

The story is told beautifully and simply. You’d think it would lose effectiveness because it’s about all their childhood winters, and isn’t the story of one particular year — but it stays wonderfully evocative.

And who knew it took so long before they could use their vegetable garden as a rink? The beginning “chapters” (almost more like poems) are simple:

The First Ice

The first ice came on the sheep pails in the barn — a skim of ice so thin that it broke when we touched it.

(There’s a full page illustration of three kids looking in the bucket.)

The Second Ice

The second ice was thicker. We would pick it out of the pails like panes of glass. We would hold it up in our mittened hands and look through it. Then we would drop it on the hard ground to watch it splinter into a hundred pieces.

(This time the illustration shows a girl looking through a round pane of ice.)

The different types of ice continue. There’s field ice and stream ice and black ice, where they can skate on the lake. All of those come before they’re ready to turn their summer vegetable garden into a skating rink for the entire community — Bryan Gardens.

Then the book changes. She talks about rink rules, her Dad’s skating tricks, skating parties, and having a big Ice Show. Here’s a chapter from later in the book:

Late-Night Skate

After homework was done, after Dad had flooded, after lights were out in neighbors’ houses, my sister and I would sometimes go out for a skate. Late-night skates were more exciting than daytime skates. We were alone with our dreams. We would work on our figure eights. We would work on our jumps and spins. We would put on music and pretend we were skating before crowds in a great stadium. We would try out moves that we’d seen figure skaters doing on television or in a picture in the newspaper. We were planning and practicing for some distant Olympics.

This is a lovely little book. It’s short and not intimidating, but it’s going to be hard to know which children might be interested in it. It will be a good choice for readers beginning with chapter books. There’s definitely not an action-packed story, but the reader who tackles it will be drawn into a world of anticipation, joy, and skill. I’m looking forward to finding out what kids say about it at our Mock Newbery Book Club in January.

I’m not sure what to call this book. My friend who grew up in Maine says things aren’t like that any more there, so I think the closest category is Historical. I’ll probably cop out and call it a beginning chapter book, since it’s so short, has lots of pictures, and is non-threatening. It pulls you into a time where children’s activities were centered around the world outdoors. Even reading about such a time and place is refreshing.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/12_kinds_of_ice.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Review of The Mysterious Howling, by Maryrose Wood

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place

The Mysterious Howling

by Maryrose Wood

Balzer + Bray (HarperCollins), 2010. 267 pages.
Starred Review

I’m so glad I finally read this book! In a way, it’s nice that I took so long, because the final three words are those dreaded ones, “To Be Continued . . .” I can go straight to rushing to read the next two volumes.

I found The Mysterious Howling completely delightful. The story is of Penelope Lumley, a Poor but Deserving young fifteen-year-old girl, penniless and sent away from her boarding school to try her luck at a grand house, Ashton Place, to be the governess.

Her interview with Lady Constance is unusual. Even Penelope, with no experience in such things, finds it surprising how quickly Lady Constance offers her the job and that she won’t speak of the children. She closes the interview like this:

And with that, they both affixed their signatures to the bottom of the letter of terms that Lord Ashton had prepared. Penelope hardly thought this necessary, but Lady Constance assured her that signed, binding contracts were the custom in these parts, a charming formality which she would not dream of omitting.

When Penelope does meet the children, she learns that they were, in fact, raised by wolves, and discovered by the mysterious Lord Ashton in Ashton Forest on one of his hunting parties. Penelope must revise her hopes and dreams of what she can teach the children, but her compassion, and her binding contract, compel her to stay.

The rest of the book concerns itself with Penelope teaching the children, trying to get them not to chase squirrels and teach them enough words to speak politely to people. In fact, when Lady Constance plans a big party on Christmas Day, Lord Ashton particularly wants the children to be there, so Penelope is under deep pressure to teach them proper things to say to the guests, and drill them on how to behave. It’s not her fault if things don’t go as she plans….

Meanwhile, there’s a mystery at Ashton Place. In a tribute to Jane Eyre, besides the mysterious howling from the children before Penelope met them, there’s a sound coming from a room in the attic.

I’m not sure who exactly the audience for this book is, except that I am firmly in it. Definitely those who have read and loved Jane Eyre will find themselves laughing over Penelope Lumley’s expectations of being a governess and the rich contrast with the children she actually teaches. There are obvious sections inserted to delight the adult reader, such as this one:

“My heavens!” Mrs. Clarke exclaimed. “I am sure I have never seen three such extraordinarily handsome and well-turned out children!”

As you may know complimentary remarks of this type are all too often made by well-meaning adults to children who are, to be frank, perfectly ordinary-looking. This practice of overstating the case is called hyperbole. Hyperbole is usually harmless, but in some cases it has been known to precipitate unneccessary wars as well as a painful gaseous condition called stock market bubbles. For safety’s sake, then, hyperbole should be used with restraint and only by those with the proper literary training.

However, the book is written at a child’s reading level, and I do think children will enjoy the story. There is silliness with the children learning how to speak and how to behave, despite a tendency toward howling, and a thread of a mysterious something bigger throughout the story.

Here’s a section shortly after Penelope has learned the nature of her charges. She goes, naturally enough, to the library:

It was chilly and dark, even on a sunny afternoon, with many more books than even the library at Swanburne had contained. The section on animal behavior was exceptionally well stocked. In short, Penelope was in library heaven, and she prepared to start taking notes. She quickly found a book on wolves, which provided many thought-provoking tidbits of information and even shed light on some of the children’s more intriguing habits — the way Alexander, for instance, would occasionally discipline his siblings by knocking them to the ground and rolling them onto their backs. Or the way Beowulf would rise from his bed during the night and gaze out the nursery window, mournfully ahwooing for hours on end. Or Cassiopeia’s tendency to scamper closely after Penelope and sit at her feet the instant she stopped moving.

Of course, I can’t help but think the most ideal audience would be a family read-aloud, or perhaps a classroom read-aloud. I am planning to listen to the second book on CD, so it will be fun to see if that reader does the story justice.

maryrosewood.com
harpercollinschildrens.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/mysterious_howling.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on my own copy, which I purchased at an ALA Conference and had signed by the author.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Beswitched, by Kate Saunders

Beswitched

by Kate Saunders

Delacorte Press, 2011. First published in the United Kingdom in 2010. 244 pages.
Starred Review

I didn’t think I’d like this book at first. A spoiled girl is upset because she has to go to boarding school, but it’s a fancy upscale boarding school, “Penrice Hall — Individual Fulfillment in a Homelike Atmosphere.” Her grandmother broke her hip and is coming to live with their family, and her parents need to go to France to close up the house and bring her back.

But on the train to school, Flora falls asleep, has a strange dream, and wakes up in 1935, on her way to a very different boarding school. She’s in the place of a girl whose parents were in India, so the only part she doesn’t have to pretend about is that it’s her first time living away from her parents.

She makes the mistake starting out of trying to explain she’s from the future, and when the girls from her dorm room find out, they don’t react the way everyone else did. In fact, they were experimenting with a book of spells and tried one to “summon a helpful demon from the future.”

But there’s no spell to send her back.

So Flora must figure out how to get along in the past, at a school much stricter than the one her parents picked out for her.

This is an old-fashioned good-hearted school story with the twist of looking at it with the eyes of someone from our time.

randomhouse.com/kids

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/beswitched.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!