Review of Kilmeny of the Orchard, by L. M. Montgomery

Classics, Historical, Old Favorites, Romance, Teen Fiction Review 0

kilmeny_of_the_orchard_largeKilmeny of the Orchard

by L. M. Montgomery

Bantam Books, New York, 1989. First published in 1910. 134 pages.

I turned 50 last month. As a way of celebrating, later in the year during the few weeks when all three of us are 50 years old, two childhood friends and I are hoping to visit Prince Edward Island. In preparation for that trip, and as part of my celebration, I thought I’d reread L. M. Montgomery’s books. Update: The trip’s not going to work out after all this year, but we’re going to try to go before we turn 55. And it’s still a good excuse to reread the books!

Kilmeny of the Orchard is actually the first novel Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote, though she didn’t get it published until after her classic Anne of Green Gables was published and was immediately wildly popular. To be honest, as a writer it encouraged me greatly to learn this. If L. M. Montgomery’s first effort was a masterpiece, well, then, who was I to think I could ever write anything?

Let’s just say that after reading Kilmeny of the Orchard, I was not surprised to learn it was the author’s first effort. A lovely first effort, yes, but not a masterpiece like her first published novel.

Kilmeny of the Orchard, like all but one of L. M. Montgomery’s books, takes place on beautiful Prince Edward Island. It’s a romance, simple and sweet. There is lots of flowery description and the young lovers are good and true and the story will make you happy.

Yes, the plot is highly unlikely. L. M. Montgomery used to find surprising stories in the news and then put them in your fiction — not realizing that fiction needs to be less surprising than truth in order to be believed. Worse, there’s a villainous character who is clearly villainous because he’s from “Italian peasant stock.” And our heroine is essentially the most beautiful woman in the world, and innocent and sweet (even though she’s lived away from people except her aunt and uncle and the villain all her life). The hero is handsome and smart and rich, but working as a schoolteacher to help a friend.

However, you still can see the seeds of L. M. Montgomery’s greatness. She may overdo the description in this book, but she has a gift for it. And you can already see the quirky characters appearing whom she is so good at bringing to life.

All the same, this is the book that reassures me that L. M. Montgomery was human, too. She, too, had to work at her craft.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/kilmeny_of_the_orchard.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, purchased years ago.

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.

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

Review of Sawdust in His Shoes, by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Old Favorites, Starred Review 0

sawdust_in_his_shoes_largeSawdust in His Shoes

by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

Coward-McCann, New York, 1950. 246 pages.
Starred Review

I’m on a roll getting Interlibrary loans of books I loved in childhood which are no longer in print. And what a shame this one is not in print! Some other books by Eloise Jarvis McGraw (which I have never read) are in print, but not this one that I checked out over and over again and loved so much!

I actually was reminded of this book about a year ago when I was looking at a site that had craft projects (I think purses) made out of old books. I was scandalized when I saw that this wonderful book had been used in such a way! I looked for it on Amazon, but the only availability was hugely expensive. So then when we were asked to try out the new Interlibrary loan system at our library, I realized this was my opportunity to revisit this childhood favorite.

And I’m happy to report that Sawdust in his Shoes is every bit as wonderful as I remember it being! Yes, there are some old-fashioned bits – most of the families are farmers, and they have a party phone line – but the core of the story about a boy who’s lost everyone he loves and then finds a home, learns about acceptance, learns to trust, and achieves excellence – that story will touch hearts forever.

Joe Lang was born in a circus wagon. His father’s a lion tamer and his mother was a tightrope artist. But after his mother’s death, his father remarried a gillie, a non-circus person, and Joe and his stepmother never did get along. For years, Joe has lived in the wagon of his best friend, Mo Shapely, a clown who trained Joe as an equestrian trick rider.

Joe is on the verge of starring in his own act when tragedy occurs. Mo tries to convince the court that he’s an appropriate guardian for a fifteen-year-old boy, but the wheels of justice turn slowly. Joe is sent to the Pineville Industrial School for Boys. It’s a horrible place, and no one has ever escaped. But Joe tries to reach the circus before they head out to the other side of the country. He ends up injuring himself when trying to jump over a barbed wire fence.

But that injury lands him in the home of a farm family unlike any people he’s ever met before. Joe won’t tell them his last name, since he doesn’t want to get sent back to Pineville, but Pop Dawson takes him on as a farm hand.

The story from there is delightful. All the family members are well-drawn. A lot of the action is shown through the perspective of Henry, three years younger than Joe and lacking in self-confidence. Henry’s sister Ann is talkative and enthusiastic and confident. And then Shelley, the little one, wins Joe’s heart by simply trusting him.

There are some old-fashioned parts of this book. Besides the party line, Pop Dawson smokes a pipe even after heart trouble. Joe gets in a fist fight in Henry’s defense, and all the men of the community cheer him on. For that matter, I’m sure there aren’t so many family farms in Oregon these days.

But the core of the book is timeless. Joe finds a family and learns to trust, but also works to rise to his proper place in the world, doing what he was born to do.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/sawdust_in_his_shoes.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 interlibrary loan borrowed via 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.

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

Review of The Interrupted Tale, by Maryrose Wood

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Historical, Humorous, Starred Review 0

interrupted_tale_largeThe Interrupted Tale

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, Book 4

by Maryrose Wood
read by Katherine Kellgren

Listening Library, 2013. 8 hours, 19 minutes on 7 compact discs.
Starred Review

Brava! Another installment in the incredible series about The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place. This series makes fabulous listening. I laughed and laughed during my commute, my only regret being that in my own car I had no one to share the joke with, and since I listened to it, I can’t quote hilarious bits in this review.

The plot is outrageous, but told in all seriousness. Katherine Kellgren’s proper British accent strikes exactly the right note.

In this fourth book, mysteries that have followed the Incorrigibles through the entire series are beginning to be uncovered. For the bulk of this book their governess, Penelope Lumley, is invited back to her former home, the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females, just in time to learn of an insidious plot to change it into the Quinzey School for Miserable Girls.

Meanwhile, the charming Simon Harley-Dickinson, he of the spark of genius, has been silent, captured by pirates, and the cannibal book from Lord Ashton’s library gains weighty importance.

The plot is wild and unlikely – and oh, so much fun! The style reminds me of Lemony Snicket’s, only far more hopeful and uplifting. This is a series I highly recommend listening to, because you will appreciate its brilliance even more than if reading it on your own.

maryrosewood.com
booksontape.com

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

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

Review of The Mystery of the Green Ghost, by Robert Arthur

Adventure, Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Mystery, Old Favorites 0

green_ghost_largeAlfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators in

The Mystery of the Green Ghost

by Robert Arthur

Random House, New York, 1965. 181 pages.

My co-worker and I got to talking about The Three Investigators series, which we both enjoyed as kids, and he ordered the first three via Interlibrary Loan. After he let me read the first one, I went ahead and ordered number four, The Mystery of the Green Ghost. However, it came in before numbers two and three, so I had to read them out of order.

But that really doesn’t matter. I think reading the first one first is good, but each adventure is basically self-contained.

And, no, it doesn’t hold up perfectly over the years. But they’re still full of adventure and highlight kids outsmarting adults. Now, this one is terribly politically incorrect, with lots of Chinese people who are treated quite stereotypically. We’ve got a kid who’s one quarter Chinese whose nickname is Chang, and who talks about his “honorable aunt.” There are still no girls in the book whatsoever.

But the adventure is good. And Jupiter’s deductions are quite plausible, but still very clever.

It begins when Bob and Pete hear piercing scream coming from a supposedly haunted house that’s about to be torn down. Then a group of men happen to be wandering by, and when they go inside, all of them see a green ghost, dressed in long flowing green robes. They’re sure he’s the ghost of Mathias Green, who died in the house long ago.

And the ghost is seen around town, even at the graveside of Mathias Green by the chief of police. And when they explore the house further, a skeleton of Mathias Green’s missing wife is discovered, wearing a string of valuable “ghost pearls.”

And then the trail leads up north to a vineyard in Verdant Valley. Pete and Bob are invited to the home of the woman who inherited the house, who has a nephew, Chang, the boys’ age. They’re ready for action when the pearls are stolen. Meanwhile, back in Rocky Beach, Jupiter is making deductions — which are crucial when Bob and Pete and Chang disappear.

It’s all fast-moving and action-packed. All three investigators contribute to solving the mystery. In this one, there’s not as much focus on their cool headquarters with its secret entrances, and they never even ride in their gold-plated Rolls-Royce. But what they do is solve a mystery with brains and action and working together (and okay, some luck of being in the right place at the right time) — a mystery that stumps adults.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/green_ghost.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 interlibrary loan borrowed via 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.

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

Review of The Great Trouble, by Deborah Hopkinson

Children's Fiction Review, Historical 0

great_trouble_largeThe Great Trouble

A Mystery of London, the Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel

by Deborah Hopkinson

Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2013. 249 pages.
2013 Capitol Choices Selection

The Great Trouble is a novelization of actual historical events. Cholera broke out in London in 1854, with many sudden deaths. The current theory was that bad air caused cholera, but a Dr. Snow figured out the real reason. He also had to convince the townspeople, though.

Deborah Hopkinson adds a mudlark named Eel into the story. Mudlarks searched the Thames for things they could sell. But Eel gets a better job, working for Dr. Snow, gathering information about the cholera cases.

Meanwhile, Eel is trying to protect his little brother from their stepfather, and his friends are in danger of succumbing to cholera.

Deborah Hopkinson has made a compelling story out of this situation, giving Eel the power to help save lives as well as get a better life.

DeborahHopkinson.com
randomhouse.com/kids

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

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

Review of From Norvelt to Nowhere, by Jack Gantos

Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Historical 0

From Norvelt to Nowhere

by Jack Gantos
read by the Author

Macmillan Young Listeners Audiobook (Farrar Straus Giroux), 2013. 6 hours on 5 CDs.

Here’s a wild follow-up to Newbery-winning Dead End in Norvelt. We thought we knew who’d killed all the old ladies of Norvelt at the end of the first book. When Jack decides to dress up as that villain for Halloween, he’s surprised when an old lady (who’d recently come back to town from elsewhere) says that someone who looked just like him gave her Girl Scout cookies. And then she drops dead.

This sets Miss Volker on the rampage. When her sister dies in Florida, she convinces Jack’s parents to let him come with her to make funeral arrangements. But there are people on their trail, hoping they will make connection with the killer, who seems to also be following them. So they decide they’d better buy some wheels rather than taking the train.

Of course, Jack’s only experience driving is driving Miss Volker around Norvelt, but she insists he take the task on, even though their attempts at camouflaging the car with paint seem to do the opposite.

Jack has been reading classics in comic book form, and Miss Volker is inspired by Captain Ahab of Moby Dick, determined to spear the white whale.

Where else are you going to read about a crazy old lady on a road trip with a 13-year-old boy seeking revenge on a killer? Jack Gantos reads the story himself, and his voice grows on you. He knows how to spin a tale.

macmillanaudio.com
mackids.com

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

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

Review of The Secret of Terror Castle, by Robert Arthur

Adventure, Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Mystery, Old Favorites 0

Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators in

The Secret of Terror Castle

by Robert Arthur

Random House, New York, 1964. 179 pages.

This isn’t going to be a review so much as an appreciation.

A few weeks ago, I was talking with a co-worker about series mysteries. We both had read the Bobbsey Twins and Nancy Drew, but I never read the Hardy Boys. I said that the really good series was The Three Investigators, and he said he agreed — he hadn’t brought them up because most people haven’t heard of them. So then we got to talking about Jupiter Jones and all the cool things about the Three Investigators. I said that my brother had all of them, but he didn’t let anyone else read them, so I had to borrow them from my friend Georgette.

Well, the library has recently gotten a new system for ordering Interlibrary Loans, and administration had asked staff to try it out by making some requests. So my co-worker decided to request the first three Three Investigators mysteries. Naturally, I asked if I could read them after him. When he said there might not be enough time in the loan, I said it would be funny if he behaved exactly like my brother. Anyway, when the first book did come in, he finished it well ahead of the due date, and I got to read it, too.

We’re both trying to figure out what it is about The Three Investigators that made them so completely cool. The writing is not stellar, though there is a nice habit of closing chapters on a cliff-hanger (or rock slide). But you’ve got to love a group of kids independently traveling around in a gold-plated Rolls-Royce (which Jupiter won the use of) with an English chauffeur. Jupiter is super smart and outsmarts adults routinely. Their headquarters is fantastic — an old mobile home hidden in a junkyard, completely surrounded by trash. The entrances are all secret, and involve things like crawling through a tunnel.

Yes, the books are dated. I laughed when the boys discovered the “mobile telephone” in the Rolls-Royce. “One pushes the button and gives the desired number to the operator.” They also make their own business cards by fixing an old printing press that came into the junk yard. And the book isn’t at all politically correct. Various ethnic groups are represented stereotypically. And there are no girls in the book whatsoever. (But it’s true, I loved the books anyway.)

I hadn’t remembered that Bob Andrews — at 13 or 14 years old — worked in a library. This paragraph on the very first page made me laugh aloud:

“How was the library?” [his mother] asked.

“It was okay,” Bob told her. After all, there was never any excitement at the library.

Later on, “Bob had been swamped with work at the library, re-cataloguing all the books. One other helper was out sick, so Bob had been working days and evenings too.” My goodness, such responsibility to give a kid!

I like some of the exclamations Pete comes up with: Gleeps! Whiskers! Golly!

I’m not crazy about Skinny Norris, the obligatory bully of the books. Solving mysteries wasn’t enough — there has to be a rival gang, taunting them.

But overall, this book holds up. You’ve got a spooky setting and clever kids, acting on their own, who get into danger and solve the mystery. Rereading it made me feel like I was twelve years old again.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/terror_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 a library book borrowed via Interlibrary Loan.

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.

Review of All the Truth That’s in Me, by Julie Berry

Historical, Mystery, Romance, Starred Review, Suspense, Teen Fiction Review 0

All the Truth That’s in Me

by Julie Berry

Viking, 2013. 288 pages.
Starred Review

I read this book simply because it’s in School Library Journal’s Battle of the Books, which commences March 10. I’m not sure what I expected, since I hadn’t heard much about it, but I was blown away and kept reading well into the night.

This is a rare book that’s written in second person voice, addressed to “you.” But the speaker is not addressing the reader. It soon becomes clear that she’s addressing the young man she loves.

Here’s how the book begins, with the heading “Before”:

We came here by ship, you and I.

I was a baby on my mother’s knee, and you were a lisping, curly-headed boy playing at your mother’s feet all through that weary voyage.

Watching us, our mothers got on so well together that our fathers chose adjacent farm plots a mile from town, on the western fringe of a Roswell Station that was much smaller then.

I remember my mother telling tales of the trip when I was young. Now she never speaks of it at all.

She said I spent the whole trip wide-eyed, watching you.

She still watches him. She remembers when he smiled at her, gave her posies. But something terrible happened, and now the whole village barely notices she is there.

We get bits of what happened, all along the way. We find out why she doesn’t speak. She was gone for two years. When she came back, she was out of her head, left for dead, with half her tongue cut out.

Then ships are sighted off the shore, coming toward the town. The Homelanders are bringing war to them, wanting their fertile farms. All the men of the town must fight, even though their arsenal was destroyed, even though they are doomed.

But Judith knows where to find help – only she must confront her own nightmares.

And after she does so, everything changes.

This book is marvelously constructed, revealing bits of the past at a natural pace, as it comes up in the present, finally with mysteries solved at the very end. I find myself wanting to read it all over again, knowing now how it all fits together.

And ultimately, it’s a love story. And a story of healing. And a story of courage. And a story of a wounded girl finding her voice.

julieberrybooks.com
penguin.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/all_the_truth_thats_in_me.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 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.

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

Review of Africa Is My Home, by Monica Edinger, illustrated by Robert Byrd

Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 0

Africa Is My Home

A Child of the Amistad

by Monica Edinger

illustrated by Robert Byrd

Candlewick Press, 2013. 60 pages.
Starred Review

I should mention right up front that I’ve met Monica Edinger on a few occasions and had a chance to talk with her and enjoyed the conversation tremendously. She is one of School Library Journal’s Battle Commanders in the Battle of the Books! So I was definitely predisposed to like this book.

But there’s a whole lot to like! This book is based on a true story of Margru, a girl who was on the ship Amistad, where the slaves fought back. She ended up gaining her freedom and going back to Africa in her adulthood as a missionary.

The book is presented as fiction, but the author explains in a note at the back that she researched the book intending to write nonfiction, but because of a lack of material about when Margru was a child, she was able to present the story more effectively writing as fiction, from Margru’s point of view, “giving Margru a voice of her own.” The author says, “The story is still true; those instances where I have imagined her feelings, invented dialogue, or created scenes are based on my research and on firsthand experiences in Sierra Leone.”

And the story is a dramatic one. It covers Margru being sold into slavery, the dramatic revolt on the ship (after they had already landed in Cuba and been sold), and then the long process where the mutineers were put on trial and their fate was decided. During this process, it also describes Margru’s feelings about America (All those clothes! And snow!) and how she went to school, became a Christian, and decided to train to be a teacher to teach her people at home in Africa.

The book is not long, and there are illustrations on every set of pages, so it’s accessible to children who are as young as Margru, nine years old when she was sold into slavery. A powerful story that really happened, this will capture children’s imaginations.

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

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

Review of Rose, by Holly Webb

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Historical, Starred Review 0

Rose

by Holly Webb

Sourcebooks, 2013. 234 pages. Originally published in Great Britain.
Starred Review
2013 Cybils Finalist

Rose lives in an orphanage. She wants nothing more than to get out of the orphanage and go into service some day. She wants to do a good job as a maid, and have nobody notice her.

So when she’s selected to be underhousemaid at a grand house, the home of an important alchemist, she thinks her dreams have come true. But why does it feel like the walls and stairs are moving, like she can talk to the plants, and how can she hear the cat talk to her?

Strange things happen around Rose, and she’s terribly afraid she’s not the ordinary person she wants to be. But then some children in the neighborhood mysteriously disappear, including Rose’s best friend from the orphanage. She’s determined to find her friend, even if it means using magic to do so.

This is a warm and sparkling story, with a lot of heart. You can’t help but like Rose, with her humble aspirations, excitement at living in a grand house, and loving desire to help her friend.

My one quibble is that the rules of magic in that world aren’t clear. (Though they aren’t for Rose either.) At her level, it seems like she can do anything she wishes for hard enough. I hope as the series goes on, those things will become more clear. But even with that quibble, I enjoyed every bit of this book.

We’ve got the below-stairs look at a grand English house — with magic thrown in. The result is a lot of fun.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/rose.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 copy I received as a judge for the Cybils Awards.

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.

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