Category: Children’s Fiction Review

Tuesdays at the Castle

by Jessica Day George

Bloomsbury, New York, 2011. 232 pages.
Starred Review

I always wish for fantasy books to get some Newbery glory. It’s my favorite genre, and although some win, some years outstanding books get passed over. This year, the fantasy book I’m rooting for is Tuesdays at the Castle, by Jessica Day George.

Okay, it’s got some tough competition in the form of Okay For Now, by Gary Schmidt. Tuesdays at the Castle is much lighter fare, not covering big, heavy issues that come up in Okay for Now. However, what Tuesdays at the Castle does, providing a light, intriguing fantasy tale for middle grade readers, it does exceptionally well.

It’s a story of a medieval-type world with a princess at the center of the tale, yes. But the magical setting is highly unusual and delightfully different:

“Whenever Castle Glower became bored, it would grow a new room or two. It usually happened on Tuesdays, when King Glower was hearing petitions, so it was the duty of the guards at the front gates to tell petitioners the only two rules the Castle seemed to follow.

“Rule One: the Throne Room was always to the east. No matter where you were in the castle, if you kept heading east you would find the Throne Room eventually. The only trick to this was figuring out which way east was, especially if you found yourself in a windowless corridor. Or the dungeon.

“This was the reason that most guests stuck with Rule Two: if you turned left three times and climbed through the next window, you’d end up in the kitchens, and one of the staff could lead you to the Throne Room, or wherever you needed to go.

“Celie only used Rule Two when she wanted to steal a treat from the kitchens, and Rule One when she wanted to watch her father at work. Her father was King Glower the Seventy-Ninth, and like him, Celie always knew which way was east….

“The Castle didn’t seem to care if you were descended from a royal line, or if you were brave or intelligent. No, Castle Glower picked kings based on some other criteria all its own. Celie’s father, Glower the Seventy-Ninth, was the tenth in their family to bear that name, a matter of great pride throughout the land. His great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather had become king when Glower the Sixty-Ninth’s only heir had turned out to be a nincompoop. Legend had it that the Castle had repeatedly steered the old king’s hairdresser to the throne room via a changing series of corridors for days before the Royal Council had declared him the next king, and the young man who should have been Glower the Seventieth found himself head down in a haystack after having been forcibly ejected from the castle through the water closet.

“King Glower the Seventy-Ninth, Lord of the Castle, Master of the Brine Sea, and Sovereign of the Land of Sleyne, knew when to leave well enough alone. He married the beautiful daughter of the Royal Wizard when the Castle guided them into the same room and then sealed the doors for a day. He paid attention when the Castle gave people larger rooms or softer chairs. When his oldest son, Bran, kept finding his room full of books and astrolabes, while his second son, Rolf’s, bedroom was moved next to the Throne Room, King Glower sent Bran to the College of Wizardry and declared Rolf his heir.

“And when little Celie was sick, and the Castle filled her room with flowers, King Glower agreed with it. Everybody loved Celie, the fourth and most delightful of the royal children.”

But Celie ends up facing some big problems. Her parents go to Bran’s graduation from the College of Wizardry, and on the way home, they are attacked by bandits in the pass. Bran’s horse is found dead, but they don’t find the bodies of the royal family. However, the king’s Griffin Ring, which rumor says can only be removed at the king’s death, was found at the site of the attack.

Search parties are sent out, but the king and queen and Bran are not found. But things don’t look hopeful for them, and the ministers don’t want to be without a king. Princes from their neighboring countries come with armed guards, plus servants and advisors and ministers of state. Ostensibly they are coming for the funeral. But Celie and her brother and sister don’t want to have a funeral. Though there seems to be no reasonable hope of finding their father alive, the Castle has not yet turned Rolf’s bedroom into the Royal Bedchamber, where the Crown of Sleyne remains. So the current King Glower must still be alive.

But with the king missing, the neighboring kingdoms see Sleyne as weak. The ministers want to go ahead with Rolf’s coronation, but at fourteen they think he’s too young to rule, and will need a regent. The Castle is filled with foreign soldiers and now the foreign princes say they’re staying for Rolf’s coronation. How can Celie and her sister and brother salvage the situation and save the kingdom? And how can Celie use her knowledge of the castle to defend the country and her family?

The story that follows is inventive and suspenseful and wonderfully creative. One lovely thing about it is that, though there’s a little romance with Celie’s big sister, the main focus all the while is on Celie, who is firmly a child, about ten years old. I love it that this child saves the day, doing realistic things for a child and little sister to do. For example, Celie is interested in the Castle and has been mapping it out. She knows it better than anyone. Which enables her to go places no one else can go….

A huge strength of this book is its wonderfully imaginative setting, though perhaps I should say the strength is really
in the characterization, because the Castle is like a character itself. The three royal siblings left at the Castle are all distinct personalities and contribute to the solution in ways that are true to their character. And the plot is wonderful, too — with plenty of twists and turns showing up like castle corridors changing direction, but all arising naturally out of the inventive situation the author has created. This book is tremendous fun, and my favorite children’s fantasy book of the year so far.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/tuesdays_at_the_castle.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 Review Copy I got at ALA Annual Conference.

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Bigger Than a Bread Box

by Laurel Snyder

Random House, New York, 2011. 226 pages.
Starred Review

The more I read Laurel Snyder’s work, the more I like what she does! This is a wonderfully written story of a girl dealing with her parents’ divorce. She finds a magic bread box that will grant wishes — as long as the item wished for can fit in the bread box. But of course wanting her parents to get back together doesn’t fit in a bread box.

Now, honestly, this book was painful for me to read, because it’s too soon after my own divorce. It had me crying. I just hate what kids have to go through when their parents divorce, and that got me mad at my husband again for leaving, and that makes me realize I have more forgiveness work to do. It’s one thing to forgive him for what he did to me, but harder to forgive him for what that meant for our kids. But let’s face it. I’m doing great. Yes, my younger son had an especially hard time, but he is doing great now. We just had a wonderful evening together playing a game. Holding a grudge on his behalf will definitely not help things. (Okay, I’m talking to myself now… I digress…)

Anyway, this book doesn’t give generalizations about divorce. It doesn’t preach. But it shows how it feels to one kid in this situation. And you can’t help but notice that her parents aren’t paying a lot of attention to how she feels.

The book starts with Rebecca overhearing a fight when their power went out. This is an efficient way for the author to show us something’s up and what some of the issues are. It works very well, with the viewpoint firmly from Rebecca’s perspective. I like her observation when the power came back on:

“I stood up. I made myself walk. I kept my eyes on my feet. Even so, out of the corner of my eye I could see Mom leaning against the side of the recliner, still wearing her blue scrubs from work, her arms limp and her face all wet. Dad was sitting on the couch, staring past her at the blank TV. He looked sad too, but also, weirdly, he looked a little like he wanted to smile. I guess maybe that was because now everyone knew he had paid the power bill.”

A few days later, on Halloween, her mom takes her two-year-old brother Lew trick-or-treating, and Dad stays home with Rebecca, which is a first. But she doesn’t think much else has changed, except for her dad sleeping on the couch.

Then her mom packs them up in the middle of the week and takes them from Baltimore to Atlanta, where Rebecca’s Gran lives. She doesn’t get to say good-by to her friends, and leaving her dad is awful.

“That was how we left him, through an open car door. My mom stepped on the gas. The car began to move. My dad jumped back to the sidewalk, off balance. When I turned around, I could see him standing in the street. He was calling after us. My dad was yelling in the street for everyone to hear; then he was running behind the car. He was calling, ‘Come back! Come back!'”

When they get to Atlanta, Rebecca learns that her mom has gotten a temporary job and enrolled Rebecca in school. She doesn’t whine about it, but she does get mad. Readers can easily see for themselves that her mom isn’t thinking a whole lot about what this means for Rebecca.

When she goes to the attic to sulk, she finds a collection of bread boxes, and one is bright and shiny. She takes it down to her room and feeling homesick for Baltimore, she wishes there were gulls in Atlanta. And then she hears the cry of a gull — in the bread box!

Naturally (after shooing the two seagulls out the window), she tries out what the bread box can do. It can give her money; it can give her food; it can’t give her things that don’t exist, like a real magic wand, or things that don’t fit in a bread box like wishing she were home.

So Rebecca has to adjust to a new school, where right away everyone calls her Becky. She figures she can be a different person here, someone cool. She has the bread box, after all. She can wish for little gifts for her new friends. She can wish for an ipod and listen to music. She can wish for a little TV and watch shows under the covers.

But magic always has a catch. And when Rebecca finds out what’s really going on with the bread box, it seems like she’s in a worse fix than ever.

This isn’t a problem novel. This isn’t trying to teach anyone how to deal with divorce. But it does tell Rebecca’s story in a tough situation that a lot of kids also have to face. Rebecca has magic to help, but that doesn’t solve the real problems at all.

Now, as I mentioned, I was extra sensitive to this story. I’m afraid I cheered for Rebecca when she finally had her meltdown:

“But Mom didn’t apologize. Instead, in an angry, grown-up voice, she said, ‘I am in charge of this family, young lady, and what I do, I do for you. I only want what’s best for you–‘

“Hearing those words, I didn’t feel bad anymore. I felt justified. ‘That’s a lie,’ I said. My voice was rising, and I couldn’t help it. ‘Because what’s best for me is home, and Dad. Anyone could tell you that, even Gran. But you don’t care about that, not at all. You aren’t thinking about me, or Lew. You’re thinking about yourself, and what you want and what you need.’ I spat this last part in her face. I couldn’t believe I was talking to her this way. I meant to keep my cool, stay calm, but I couldn’t. I forgot about ‘less is more,’ and the words just flew from me like fire — and exploded into loud, angry sounds.”

Now, don’t get me wrong. The author does not present this as the solution to the problem. Like real life, the blow up creates more new problems, including hurting her mom and getting her mom angry. But I wanted it to be said, and I think it does remind her mom that she needs to consider her daughter more than she has been doing. Rebecca also gets new problems when she tries to solve the problems she inadvertently created by using the bread box.

Anyway, I liked it that someone wrote a book from the perspective of a kid caught up in the middle of her parents’ divorce. The feelings ring true. The story is compelling. And it does make you wonder: If you had a magic bread box, what would you wish for?

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/bigger_than_a_bread_box.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 Review Copy I picked up at ALA Annual Conference.
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The Silver Bowl

by Diane Stanley

Harper, 2011. 307 pages.
Starred Review

I read this book during the 2011 48-Hour Book Challenge, and completely loved it. It helped make the challenge a beautiful experience.

The Silver Bowl is traditional fantasy, but with a very unusual plot. You won’t know what to expect, and you will be enchanted and delighted with the story.

Molly is the seventh child of a poor man with a mad wife, so she’s sent away to work at the castle when she’s only seven. Her mother guesses why Molly is “troublesome,” because she gets visions like Molly’s. Molly’s mother is on her deathbed, but she gives Molly a necklace her father made, and some advice:

“Now listen to me and remember what I say: when these things happen in the future, try not to draw back in horror and surprise, or to cry out. It’s natural to be frightened, I know, and it may be that you haven’t the skill to hide it. If that is the case, then you must spin some tale. Say a spider bit you or that you are prone to fits. But whatever you do, don’t tell anyone the truth.”

Molly means to follow her mother’s advice. But then she’s set to polishing a beautiful silver bowl, and the bowl gives her visions — visions of a curse on the royal family, a curse about to strike. Who can Molly tell? Will anyone believe her? Can she save the king?

I love Molly’s feisty character in this book. And the people she meets and makes friends with among the castle servants are well-fleshed-out, too. I especially like the Donkey Boy, Tobias. Here’s the scene when Molly is new to the castle and meets Tobias:

“I was put under the charge of a big girl named Bertha, who’d worked there for several years. She enjoyed ordering me about as though she were a duchess and I was her lowliest servant. Yet she was just a scullion, same as me, except that she was trusted to handle the fine and delicate things, while I attended to the pots and the spoons, and whatever could not be broken.

“On my third day she happened to go to the privy, leaving some goblets on the sideboard waiting to be washed. They were made of fine crystal, etched with cunning designs and rimmed with gold — worth a fortune I’m sure. I should never have touched them. But I thought to impress Bertha by showing how helpful I could be. Perhaps she would be kinder to me then. And so I picked up one with my soapy hands.

“You’ve already guessed that I dropped it.

“The donkey boy was standing in the doorway. His hair was in his eyes, his nose ran, and his mouth hung open. Naturally, I took him for a dimwit. Never did I dream he could be quick.

“But quick he was. He saw the goblet fall; and suddenly there he was, upon his knees, hands outstretched. He caught it before it hit the ground, lost his balance, rolled over onto his side, then onto his back, all the while holding it safely aloft. At last he rose to his feet again and handed it back to me — after which, having spoken nary a word, he returned to his place by the door.”

This is a beautiful book about a little servant girl who tries to save the kingdom.

Buy from Amazon.com

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

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