Review of Tucky Jo and Little Heart, by Patricia Polacco

Historical, Picture Book Review 0

tucky_jo_largeTucky Jo and Little Heart

by Patricia Polacco

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2015. 48 pages.

This is another of Patricia Polacco’s tear-jerker touching true stories. This one’s about war, so it’s more for school-age kids, even though it is a richly illustrated picture book.

The story is told in the words of a man who fought as a youngster in World War II. It’s not completely grammatical, but it gives the flavor of his words with phrases like “faster than a scared jackrabbit” and “hit the eye out of a gnat.”

When stationed in the jungle, “Kentucky Jo” meets a little village girl, who tells him about a plant to put on his bug bites. He gets to know the girl, brings her food and toys, and eventually his troop adopts the whole village – until they have to be evacuated.

Well, the tearjerker part brings us to the present – when that little girl again shows up in Tucky Jo’s life when he’s an old man needing medical care.

It’s good Patricia Polacco tells us this is a true story, or we wouldn’t believe things had turned out so beautifully!

Although this is a story of war, and we do hear that Little Heart’s mother was killed by soldiers and her father and brother taken away, the author doesn’t dwell on gory details. Instead, she focuses on the heartwarming part of this little girl and her village in the jungle, providing a bright spot in the middle of war.

And in its lovely way, the book shows the lasting impact of love and good deeds.

PatriciaPolacco.com
KIDS.SimonandSchuster.com

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs 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.

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Review of Newt’s Emerald, by Garth Nix

Fantasy, Historical, Romance, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

newts_emerald_largeNewt’s Emerald

Magic, Maids, and Masquerades

by Garth Nix

Katherine Tegen Books (HarperCollins), 2015. 291 pages.
Starred Review

Garth Nix, author of Sabriel and other fantastic books, has written a Regency romance! With magic! (The romance is in a world with magic. I don’t think he actually wrote it with magic.)

Lady Truthful Newington is eighteen years old and soon to be launched into fashionable society in London. But on her birthday, her father gets out the famous Newington Emeralds, which she will inherit when she turns twenty-five, and a storm comes up and they are stolen.

Her father lapses into illness after the loss, blaming her cousins, the Newington-Lacys. Truthful knows they wouldn’t have done such a thing, but she can hardly investigate herself as a young female. However, when you have an aunt skilled with glamours, it’s possible to disguise yourself as a young male relative, who would of course be authorized to search for the emeralds.

Along the way in the search, she encounters a young man also on the trail of the thief. Of course there’s a problem that she’s not who she appears to be.

This book doesn’t have a complicated plot or romance. The magic is mostly light-hearted and about the appearances of things. But it’s definitely a fun story. If you like Regency romances (and who doesn’t enjoy one now and then?), the magic in this one adds some extra spice.

Here’s Truthful worrying about how she’ll do in London:

In London, Truthful felt sure she would be considered plain, particularly as her sorcerous talents did not include any particular skill with the glamours that would enhance her charms. Truthful had the small weather magic that ran in her family; she could raise a gentle breeze, or soothe a drizzle. In addition to this, horses and other animals liked her and would do her bidding. But she had none of the greater arts, and little formal training.

Truthful’s time in London ends up being much more interesting than merely balls, including peril on land and sea. But you can’t have a Regency Romance without balls, and this book is no exception.

garthnix.com
epicreads.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs 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.

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Review of Tower of Thorns, by Juliet Marillier

Fantasy, Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 0

tower_of_thorns_largeTower of Thorns

by Juliet Marillier

A Roc Book, 2015. 415 pages.
Starred Review

This is the second book about Blackthorn & Grim, and yes, you should read the books in order.

In Tower of Thorns, like the first book, there’s a mysterious enchantment that Blackthorn and Grim need to break. Along the way, we find out more about both of their painful pasts.

This series is set in ancient Ireland. Monks are around, but also Wee Folk and others of the fey. Blackthorn is a wise woman. She wants nothing else than to bring vengeance and justice to the chieftain who had her husband and baby killed. But she is under conditions given by the fey who set her free from prison to not seek vengeance for seven years — and to help anyone who asks her.

In this volume, there’s a lady who lives near a tower that has cast a blight on all the land around it. But she’s not telling Blackthorn the full story.

And while Blackthorn is working on that curse, she sees an old friend, whom she’d thought was dead. He says that he will be able to bring the evil chieftain to justice if she goes with him. But there’s no way she’s going to take Grim into danger, so the only answer is to lie to him. Or so she decides.

In this installment, we get more insight into what happened in Grim’s past. We see, though Blackthorn doesn’t, how strong the bond has grown between them.

Juliet Marillier’s writing is magical. I read this on my flight across the country, and had to continue until I’d finished.

Blackthorn and Grim are described as people dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. They have their own curses of flashbacks and have trouble trusting anyone, and certainly don’t claim to faith in God. But the reader cannot help loving them as they struggle on and try to do good in the world, in spite of themselves. The description of their journey is pitch perfect and brings the reader along with them. I can’t wait for the next installment! This is a wonderful series, even if I wasn’t quite as enthralled as I was with the first volume. That was mainly because most of the people they were dealing with weren’t nearly as good-hearted as those in the first book. But Blackthorn and Grim themselves are people I can’t hear enough about.

julietmarillier.com
penguin.com

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Review of A School for Brides, by Patrice Kindl

Historical, Romance, Teen Fiction Review 0

school_for_brides_largeA School for Brides

A Story of Maidens, Mystery, and Matrimony

by Patrice Kindl

Viking, 2015. 251 pages.

A School for Brides is a sequel to the delightful Keeping the Castle, but is primarily dealing with totally new characters, so you can feel free to read this book without having read the first.

Like Keeping the Castle, this is a humorous and light-hearted tribute to regency romances. There’s a quotation taken from Jane Austen’s The Watsons at the front. The Watsons was unfinished, but is also the only Jane Austen book I haven’t read, so I don’t know if A School for Brides mirrors the plot of The Watsons the way Keeping the Castle mirrors the plot of Pride and Prejudice.

I read this at an unfortunate time, having recently finished two other girls’ boarding school books: The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place, by Julie Berry, and As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust, by Alan Bradley. And try as I might, I didn’t get too enthusiastic about yet another book with a large cast of characters and young ladies in a boarding school, so it took me a long time to read it.

But there is fun to be had here. We’re back in the delightfully-named village of Lesser Hoo, this time at a finishing school, the Winthrop Hopkins Female Academy. Girls have been sent there to find husbands. There’s one problem: No eligible men live anywhere near Lesser Hoo.

However, the problem is solved rather quickly when a gentleman suffers an accident near the academy, and must be taken there to recuperate. Of course his friends come to visit him in his convalescence, and couples happily pair off.

There are some surprises and obstacles. A wicked governess tries to interfere with one of the students, and some of the suitors are not so acceptable as one might wish. There is also a mystery, as promised in the subtitle, when a valuable necklace disappears. Is the thief the handsome footman, Robert, who is under suspicion simply because he’s a servant? Well, the reader will suspect not, but how then was the theft carried out?

Here is the beginning of the book:

“Mark my words. If something drastic is not done, none of us shall ever marry. We are doomed to die old maids, banished to the seat farthest from the fire, served with the toughest cuts of meat and the weakest cups of tea, objects of pity and scorn to all we meet. That shall be our fate, so long as we remain in Lesser Hoo,” said Miss Asquith.

Extravagant as Miss Asquith’s mode of expression was, her fellow scholars at the Winthrop Hopkins Female Academy could not help but feel that she had a point. They nodded in solemn agreement, and Miss Victor, who was only twelve, began to cry.

The other young ladies frowned and attempted to turn and regard Miss Victor with disapproval at her outburst. This was rendered difficult by the fact that all eight were bound to backboards, wooden devices that forced their necks and spines into an erect posture. The backboards required them to rotate their entire upper bodies when they wished merely to turn their heads.

This book gives you light-hearted romance, lots of couples, a ball, and missing jewels. Lots of fun.

patricekindl.com
penguin.com/teen

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs 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.

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Review of The Safest Lie, by Angela Cerrito

Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 0

safest_lie_largeThe Safest Lie

by Angela Cerrito

Holiday House, New York, 2015. 180 pages.
Starred Review

Full disclosure right up front: The author of this book is a friend of mine. We were in a writers’ group together in Germany. So naturally, I snapped up an Advanced Reader Copy of her book when she told me they were available at ALA Annual Conference.

This is a Holocaust book. So honestly, I might not have picked it up if my friend hadn’t written it. But it’s yet another story of the Holocaust I hadn’t heard before. This book is about a Polish Jewish girl from the Warsaw ghetto who is smuggled out and stays in a series of homes, finally with a Polish Catholic family whose own daughter looked like the “master race” and had been sent to Germany.

Anna Bauman is nine years old when she’s told that she needs to be Anna Karwolska. Her Mama and Papa send her away to keep her safe, and she goes along with different heroic people, learning how to appear Catholic at an orphanage, always afraid of the ever-present German soldiers, seeing other people resisting and other children in hiding.

Anna has to learn Anna Karwolska’s birthday and history. She remembers her grandmother’s saying: “The safest lie is the truth.”

I like the scene where a German soldier is questioning the children at the orphanage. It’s sinister, but I like the way Anna turns it around.

Then he asks a question that I’ve never practiced. “What type of work does your father do?”

“My father is dead, sir.” I don’t feel sad or afraid telling him that my father is dead. I never knew Anna Karwolska’s father. Maybe it would help if I share a bit of truth. “He made furniture.” I want to catch the words as soon as they are out of my mouth. I don’t know if making furniture is a job only a Jewish papa would have.

But the soldier just nods his head, as if he’s bored. “What type of food did you eat for Christmas dinner?”

“The very best of food.”

“What type?”

“All types. There were sweets and meat and vegetables and . . .” — I swallow, thinking of all the good food — “sweets.”

“What exactly?”

“I’m not sure. I was very young and it was so long ago.” It’s true. Anna Karwolska would have been even younger than I was before the war began.

“Anna. Anna. Anna.” I don’t like the way he says my name. “Have you answered every question truthfully?”

I swallow. “Yes, sir.”

The soldier reaches under the table and a moment later metal clinks against the wooden tabletop. “Do you know what that is?” I do, but I can’t speak. “It’s my gun.” He smiles.

It’s a shiny silver gun with a black handle. There’s a screw connecting the handle. It seems like if I had the right tool and a moment to myself, I could remove that screw and the whole gun would fall to pieces.

“It’s your gun,” I say.

“I will use this gun, Anna. If you’ve told me a lie, I will shoot you and all the other children here. Do you understand?”

The screw is a small silver circle on a black rectangle. “It’s not made properly,” I say, staring at the screw.

“What?”

“The gun. It’s not made properly. There’s a screw showing on the outside.”

“Anna. This is very serious.”

I know it’s serious. I understand that more than any of the other girls in this room. “My papa always said that when furniture is made correctly, no one can see how the pieces are put together. But with your gun –”

He laughs. “Anna, you really are the daughter of a carpenter.”

A nice addition to the book is the Author’s Note at the back, where Angela Cerrito tells of her chance to meet Irena Sendler, a Polish woman who saved Jewish children, was tortured for it, and continued to save Jewish children during the war. This explains the ring of truth to the book. I love that this book is a tribute to those who risked their lives to save others.

angelacerrito.com
holidayhouse.com

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Source: This review is based on an Advanced Reader Copy I got at ALA Annual Conference.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs 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.

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Review of Billy’s Booger, by William Joyce

Historical, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

billys_booger_largeBilly’s Booger

A Memoir (Sorta)

by William Joyce and his younger self

Moonbot Books, Atheneum Books for Young Readers (Simon & Schuster), New York, 2015. 54 pages.
Starred Review

In this book, William Joyce explains for kids how he got his start writing picture books. He was in fourth grade, and he wrote a book for a school contest.

He worked hard on it. He exercised his imagination. The book he wrote and drew the pictures for is included in the center of this book.

What I love about it is that it reminds me of the stories my sons wrote when they were in about fourth grade. The smaller book is called Billy’s Booger and explains how Billy and his booger got bonked by a meteorite and gained super powers. The booger became a mathematical genius, and Billy could call on it at all times. The President of the United States asked advice from Billy and his Super-Booger!

Billy is tremendously disappointed when he doesn’t win any prize at all, not even honorable mention.

But the librarian puts all the kids’ books in the library — and Billy’s Booger gets checked out more than any other book.

And so began the adventures of a picture book author.

KIDS.SimonandSchuster.com

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs 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.

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Review of Gone Crazy in Alabama, by Rita Williams-Garcia

Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 2

gone_crazy_in_alabama_largeGone Crazy in Alabama

by Rita Williams-Garcia

Amistad (HarperCollins), 2015. 293 pages.
Starred Review

This is Rita Williams-Garcia’s third book about the Gaither sisters, growing up in 1960s America. The first book, One Crazy Summer, had them in Oakland, with their mother who left them when they were small. The second book, P. S. Be Eleven, saw them back home in Brooklyn, as their father was falling in love with a new woman. This book has them visiting their grandmother Big Ma in Alabama, where she lives in the home of Ma Charles, their great-grandmother, across the creek from their great-great aunt Miss Trotter.

I loved the first book, but wasn’t as enamored with the second. I think I love this book best of all, and have been completely won over again by these sisters.

Gone Crazy in Alabama is a family story, a sisters story. As Delphine and her two younger sisters squabble, so does Ma Charles squabble with her half-sister. The two haven’t spoken to each other in years, but they exchange barbs through the words of a willing Vonetta.

The girls learn about their messy heritage, getting a different slant as their great grandmother and great-great-aunt each tell it. They’ve got a handsome cousin living across the creek, a cousin who tends cows and dreams of being a pilot and has lived through his own horrible tragedy.

I still love the way Rita Williams-Garcia portrays the sisters. Delphine, the responsible one, is always trying to look out for her younger sisters, but the ways she does that are not often welcome. Each girl has her own distinctly lovable personality, though there’s plenty of realistic rivalry between the sisters.

And lots of laughter — this novel is infused with humor throughout, mainly by the crazy and realistic quirks of human nature.

When a great crisis occurs at the end of the book, it pulls everyone in Delphine’s big crazy family together.

I love the overall theme of walking through the storm.

Such a wonderful book! You can get away with reading this book without reading its predecessors, but a history with Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern will make it all the better.

ritawg.com
harpercollinschildrens.com

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs 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.

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Review of The Unmapped Sea, by Maryrose Wood

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Historical 0

unmapped_sea_largeThe Unmapped Sea

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, Book 5

by Maryrose Wood

illustrated by Eliza Wheeler

Balzer + Bray (HarperCollins), 2015. 404 pages.

Aaugh! The story is still not finished! Yes, I love spending time with the Incorrigibles and their dauntless governess Penelope Lumley, but when will the story end?

The plot has progressed, so you really should read these books in order. We now know the exact words of the curse on the Ashton family – but we don’t know how to break it. Penelope’s fate has taken a dramatic turn, and the Incorrigibles are in danger.

Meanwhile, we’ve got the usual silliness. Lady Ashton is expecting a baby, and when a doctor suggests a holiday by the sea, they go to Brighton in the middle of winter. Lady Ashton is sure that her Frederick actually intends to take her to Italy, which starts a long and silly charade by the staff. Penelope gets in educational moments throughout, and they meet a family of badly-behaved Russians also vacationing in Brighton.

I decided that I should have patiently waited until my library purchased the audio version of this book. I listened to most of the books, and I’m much more patient with audio. The narrator reading the books in a perfectly serious way milks the silliness and makes it much more fun. As it was, though by now I hear the narrator’s voice in my head, I got a little impatient with the pace when I was simply reading it myself. So any future books, I will try to restrain my eagerness (not sure I can – I really am interested in Penelope’s fate!) and wait for the audio version.

maryrosewood.com
harpercollinschildrens.com

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

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Review of All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr

Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 0

all_the_light_we_cannot_see_largeAll the Light We Cannot See

by Anthony Doerr
read by Zach Appelman

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2014. 13 compact discs.
Starred Review
2015 Alex Award Winner
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize

All the Light We Cannot See is a rich, gently moving novel about some extraordinary people in wartime.

The book begins at the end of World War II, with the bombardment of Saint-Malo. The author spotlights two people caught in the siege, and later a third who is looking for something there. The scenes in the spotlight move slowly, inexorably through the book – coming just often enough to keep us fascinated.

In between, we get the history of these people through the war years. Marie-Laure is blind. She lived in Paris with her Papa, and went with him to his work at the Museum of Natural History. He carved a complete model of their neighborhood in Paris which Marie-Laure could navigate with her fingers, and then he taught her to navigate the actual streets.

When Paris falls to the Nazis, they flee to Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s crazy great-uncle Etienne lives. Her Papa is carrying something for the museum. Is it a fake, or is it the Sea of Flames, an amazing diamond with a curse on it? The curse promises eternal life to its keeper – at the cost of disasters happening to all the ones they love. Is this why disasters are striking their family?

Another main character is a young orphan named Werner. He is fascinated with radios and soon gets the attention of the authorities with his ability to repair radio equipment. This attention gets him enrolled in the Hitler Youth and then in the army before his time.

Uncle Etienne has a radio transmitter, and Werner ends up in a unit looking for illegal transmitters.

Meanwhile, an expert on gems is looking for the Sea of Flames. He is patient, and follows one lead after another, during all the war years.

This audiobook was a wonderful choice. The narrator captured the tone of the book perfectly. The detailed descriptions had me mesmerized. I felt like I knew what it was like to be a blind girl in World War II France and a brilliant orphan drawn into the Hitler Youth.

The story is mostly wonderful and transcends wartime – but it did have some horrible moments, because this was wartime. I didn’t find the ending satisfying. Perhaps I read too many young adult books – I wanted things tied up a little more neatly than they were and hated at least one part of the ending.

I also wasn’t entirely sure what happened with one aspect. I wondered if I’d missed something because of listening rather than reading. But when a character speculates about what might have happened, I figured the reader was supposed to speculate, too. I’m not sure I like it that way.

So I’m not sure I completely liked where the journey took me – but I definitely enjoyed the journey. Marie-Laure and her Papa and Uncle Etienne and Werner and his sister Jutta are characters who will live on in my heart.

simonandschuster.com

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs 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.

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Review of Blizzard, by John Rocco

Historical, Picture Book Review 0

blizzard_largeBlizzard

by John Rocco

Disney Hyperion, Los Angeles, 2014. 40 pages.

I’m reading this book just a few days too late for our snow season, but I do think that kids will enjoy this book at any time.

The best part about the story in Blizzard, by a Caldecott Honoree, is that the story it tells is true.

When John Rocco was ten years old, his town in Rhode Island had a record-breaking blizzard, where it snowed for two days and forty inches of snow fell. The snow plows didn’t make it to their street until the end of the week – so the family was running out of food and milk for hot cocoa.

On day five, I realized it was up to me to take action. I was the only one who had memorized the survival guide. [He’s reading a book called Arctic Survival.]

I was the only one who knew what equipment was required. [He’s tying tennis rackets to the bottoms of his boots.]

I was the only one light enough to walk on top of the snow.

After he sets out, a fold-out map shows his route. I love the natural 10-year-old detours: to help build a snowman, to climb a lookout tree, to make a snow angel, to explore an igloo, and to join a snowball fight.

He successfully gets groceries for his own family and for the neighbors – and has quite a tale to tell.

Now in the first place, this book makes our recent snowfall seem not so bad at all. In the second place, it can’t help but communicate the playful side of a big snow. And a kid gets to be the hero, and it ends with the snow plows making it through.

A cozy story for a winter day or a nice cooling story for a hot summer day, but especially a playful adventure story with a kid in the starring role.

DisneyBooks.com

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs 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.

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