Review of Palace of Stone, by Shannon Hale

Palace of Stone

by Shannon Hale

Bloomsbury, New York, August 2012. 321 pages.
Starred Review

This year, I keep changing in my hopes about the Newbery Medal:

First, I read Wonder, by R. J. Palacio, and hoped it would win the Medal. Next, I read The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate, and hoped it would win the Medal. Then, I read Summer of the Gypsy Moths, by Sara Pennypacker, and hoped it would win the Medal. Finally (???), I read Palace of Stone, by Shannon Hale, and hoped it would win.

I think this will be my final choice, but I’m proving awfully fickle. I’m not sure I completely trust myself over Palace of Stone, because I like Shannon Hale’s writing so much, and I’ve met Shannon and like her so much, and she sent me an Advance Reader Copy of this book with a tremendously nice inscription and signature, so I may well be biased. But I am going to have fun making a case for Palace of Stone for the win on the Heavy Medal mock Newbery blog, and maybe I can partially express here why I think this book is outstanding.

Palace of Stone is the sequel to Newbery-Honor-winning Princess Academy. Princess Academy on the surface seems like a trite idea: A bunch of mountain girls training at a school because one of them is going to be chosen by the prince to be his princess. But Shannon’s books are definitely not trite. She paints a picture of Miri loving her mountain yet wanting to learn more, of Miri learning how to help the village get out of poverty, of Miri learning to be a friend, and of Miri figuring out the magic in the stone of the quarry on Mount Eskel.

In Palace of Stone there’s also a rich mix of things going on. Miri is going to the capital city, along with some other girls from Mount Eskel, to help her friend prepare to be the princess. She gets to study at the school at the Queen’s Castle while she is there. Peder is going at the same time, to be apprenticed to a wood carver.

But when Miri and her friends arrive, they learn that rebellion is brewing. And when the king’s advisors tell him that now Mount Eskel is a province, they should be taxed, Miri can’t help but have sympathy with the rebels. A kind fellow student introduces her to a Salon of plotters, and that handsome student seems to have a lot more time for Miri than Peder does.

In both books, I’ve been a tiny bit annoyed with how simplistic Miri’s thinking is at times. But on reflection, she has lived on the mountain without any education at all except the one year in the princess academy. It would be silly for her to use sophisticated concepts.

And Shannon Hale weaves sophisticated concepts into the setting of this book. Why does a king rule? What right does he have to tax his people? How does government work? There are also implications about the Palace of Stone. Only the king’s quarters are made from linder blocks from Mount Eskel, and common people are not allowed to go there at all.

Like before, Miri still characteristically pulls big ideas from books:

Timon had said first Asland; the rest of Danland would follow, and then all the world. His promises felt as real as paper in her hands, just awaiting the ink strokes of action.

But Miri was not the only one who took sick that winter, and revolution proved no match for a head cold. Salons emptied, as did the Queen’s Castle. Now Miri found time to haunt the palace library.

Master Filippus had said they needed to study History to understand what had worked in the past. Miri found the Librarian’s Book and started to read all she could on tributes, hoping for clues on how to defend Mount Eskel. There were laws that limited how much tribute a noble could take from a commoner, but as Miri had seen from the Grievance Official’s ledger, if they took more anyway, no one could stop them. And no laws limited the king.

This is a sequel to Princess Academy. I think you’ll enjoy it more if you read the first book first, though I’m sure you can understand what’s going on even without that. But as with all of Shannon’s books, why would you want to? In fact, I used this as a delightful excuse to reread Princess Academy. I enjoy her books more every time I read them, and now here’s one more to return to again and again.

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Review of The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, by Christopher Healy

The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom

by Christopher Healy

Walden Pond Press, 2012. 438 pages.
Starred Review

Have you ever noticed how many fairy tales claim that the hero action was done by Prince Charming? The author of this book explains that there’s a reason for that.

Blame the lazy bards. You see, back in the day, bards and minstrels were the world’s only real source of news. It was they who bestowed fame on people. They were the ones who sculpted any hero’s (or villain’s) reputation. Whenever something big happened — a damsel was rescued, a dragon was slain, a curse was broken — the royal bards would write a song about it, and their wandering minstrels would perform that tune from land to land, spreading the story across multiple kingdoms. But the bards weren’t keen on details. They didn’t think it was important to include the names of the heroes who did all that damsel rescuing, dragon slaying, and curse breaking. They just called all those guys “Prince Charming.”

It didn’t even matter to the bards whether the person in question was a truly daring hero (like Prince Liam, who battled his way past a bone-crushing, fire-blasting magical monster in order to free a princess from an enchanted sleeping spell) or some guy who merely happened to be in the right place at the right time (like Prince Ducan, who also woke a princess from a sleeping spell, but only because some dwarfs told him to). No, those bards gave a man the same generic name whether he nearly died (like Prince Gustav, who was thrown from a ninety-foot tower when he tried to rescue Rapunzel) or simply impressed a girl with his dancing skill (like Prince Frederic, who wowed Cinderella at a royal ball).

If there was anything that Liam, Duncan, Gustav, and Frederic all had in common, it was that none of them were very happy about being a Prince Charming. Their mutual hatred of that name was a big part of what brought them together. Not that teaming up was necessarily the best idea for these guys.

That’s the narrator getting ahead of himself. The Princes Charming don’t start out teaming up. Things start when Cinderella decides Prince Frederic has too little sense of adventure. She wants to go find Rapunzel, who really seems to have adventures. She ends up getting involved with a witch, and Gustav and Frederic try to save her. Meanwhile, Prince Liam discovers that Briar Rose is not a nice person at all. He doesn’t want to marry her. But she has her little ways of getting revenge.

But all four princes encounter one another and end up having to fight the witch, who now has a big plot to massacre thousands, including the princes and destroy the kingdoms.

This book is very funny, and a great twist on all the old fairy tale themes. I think this would be excellent classroom reading that would keep an elementary class hooked day after day.

Now, I myself thought the first hundred pages or so were hilarious. After that, it started to drag for me. It wasn’t really less funny; it was just going on and on and on. I’d happily read a chapter a night, but not until the last hundred pages or so did I get absorbed enough to finish up, so the book took me more than a week to finish. I would have liked it a good bit shorter, but I doubt that kids will mind.

The author keeps his irreverent and humorous tone throughout the book. Here’s where Frederic meets Gustav:

Over the years, Frederic had met his fair share of other princes. None of them were anything like this prince of Sturmhagen. Gustav was so gruff. He had no patience, no manners, and ridiculously poor communication skills. Frederic could only presume the man’s flamenco dancing was just as awkward.

Lots of silliness; lots of surprises; lots of fun coincidences. My only complaint is that it runs long-winded, but the better to keep kids entertained, right? And judging by the “Book 1” on the side, there will be more to come in the future.

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Review of A Confusion of Princes, by Garth Nix

A Confusion of Princes

by Garth Nix
read by Michael Goldstrom

Listening Library, 2012. 9.5 hours on 8 CDs. Unabridged.
Starred Review

This book had me mesmerized as soon as I turned it on. I brought a CD into the house to listen to the next complete disc not once, but twice when I got home from work.

Khemri tells you right from the start that this is the story of his first three deaths. Khemri’s a Prince of the Empire, and Princes are mostly immortal. Of course, the Aspect of the Discerning Hand does not have to choose to bring a Prince back to life. If the Imperial Mind is not witnessing the death, they will not come back. And if a new Prince is killed before they gain their contact with the Imperial Mind, they will not come back. But no one tells the Prince candidates that.

So Khemri’s in for a big surprise when his candidacy is over and he’s an official Prince. He doesn’t get to roam the galaxy in his own ship. Fortunately, he has an excellent Master of Assassins, who can help him survive the initial attacks. You see, others of the millions of Princes hope to advance by eliminating some of the competition. In a mere two years the Emperor is abdicating, and one of those Princes will become the new Emperor.

Much of this book is taken up with a fascinating look at mankind’s future in this world. They have mastered three technologies — MechTech, BiTech, and PsyTech. And Princes are enhanced in all three ways. But Khemri gets into a situation where he needs to learn how to live and work in an unenhanced body. He needs to learn how actual unenhanced humans think. That may be the greatest challenge of all.

Through most of the book, I was afraid I was going to get to the end and then hear, “To Be Continued.” But, no, this book is stand-alone, fantastic, and hugely satisfying.

Part of the brilliance of this book is the elaborate future world created. It all works, all makes sense. As Khemri deals with having and not having his enhanced powers, you come to understand what they are and how they work. Another level is what happens inside Khemri. When he’s acting as a regular human, he encounters people who hate Princes and you see him learn to understand and care about them. You see Khemri change and understand why he’s changing.

I also enjoyed the production. There is plenty of telepathic messaging between the Imperial Mind and the Princes and some of the BiTech engineered machines. Those messages are easily designated with a sound effect on the CDs so you can easily understand what is going on.

This is an outstanding science fiction tale that covers what is most important about being human.

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listeninglibrary.com

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Review of Just a Second, by Steve Jenkins

Just a Second

A Different Way to Look at Time

by Steve Jenkins

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, 2011
Starred Review

I think this is the first time I’ve read a book by Steve Jenkins where I pored over the words without noticing the exquisite art the first time through. Make no mistake, his cut-paper art is as detailed and amazing as ever. It’s so realistic, I’m not sure I noticed at first that it was his usual cut-paper art and not drawings.

But the text! This is a practical way to explain time. He mentions where seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years came from (most being a long-time-ago invention of man). Then he tells some things that happen in each amount of time.

Did you know that in one second “A peregrine falcon in a dive, or stoop, plunges more than 300 feet”?

Did you know that in one week “Moose antlers, the fastest-growing tissue of any mammal, can add 6 inches to their length”?

Did you know that in one year “More than 2,000,000 people are killed by mosquito-borne diseases”? “Humans cut down 4,000,000,000 trees”?

The book is full of facts like that: some fascinating, some surprising, some disturbing. Some, like “In one year an estimated 50 people are killed by sharks,” may be included because the accompanying illustrations are so much fun.

This book definitely succeeds as a “Different Way to Look at Time.” Good for children learning about time, as well as for science buffs, as well as for the simply curious.

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Review of Mom, It’s My First Day of Kindergarten! by Hyewon Yum

Mom, It’s My First Day of Kindergarten!

by Hyewon Yum

Frances Foster Books (Farrar Straus Giroux), New York, 2012. 36 pages.
Starred Review

I would have never checked out this book. I mean, come on, how many books do we need about getting ready for Kindergarten? When I did read it because it is being considered for the Capitol Choices list, I became convinced that we don’t need any of the other books. We need this one!

This is a book about the feelings of a kid and his Mom when the child is starting Kindergarten. Those feelings are beautifully expressed by size and color. I especially love the way the sizes and colors change from page to page, because feelings on such a momentous day are volatile. Feelings change.

At the start, the big boy is excitedly waking up his little, blue mother, because he’s ready to start school.

Mom makes my lunch and she starts to worry. “Do they have snacks in kindergarten? What if you don’t have time to finish your sandwich at lunch? You’ll be so hungry.”

“I can eat fast, Mom.”

The picture on that page clearly demonstrates the big, confident boy wolfing down his breakfast in an Enormous Mouthful. All Mom’s other worries, he can handle. And he’s consistently pictured as large and confident, while Mom is much smaller and completely shaded in blue.

They rush to school, with the big, happy, confident boy pulling along his tiny Mom. The reversal of the usual tropes continues, and the big boy mounts the steps to the big school.

Mom doesn’t look happy.
“We don’t know anyone here. I miss your old teachers and your friends.”

“I like to make new friends, Mom, and you’ll make new friends in no time.”

I say hi to the girl with a pink ribbon.
She says hi.

And her mom says hi to my mom.
My mom smiles back.

On that page, color beautifully dawns on Mom’s face and body. She smiles with pink cheeks, and the pink and yellow radiate into her blouse. The top of her head and her legs are still blue, but you can see that she’s warming up.

And then, on the next page, they’re back to life size. The boy is tinged with blue as he faces the open classroom door. Mom’s bigger now, and colorful, and she provides a stable place for him to hug. (There’s some blue at her waist where he’s hugging her.)

The teacher comes out to greet them, and the boy gets his confidence back. And his large size. There’s a wonderful picture on the page when the teacher says it’s time for the parents to leave. “Mom hugs me, and kisses me, and hugs me, and kisses me.” The boy is about to pop from the force of the hugs, and Mom’s face is blue again, but she’s smiling.

Then we get to work.
Kindergarten is awesome.

There’s a truly wonderful double page spread at the end of the day when the Kindergartners are lined up, ready to go home. They are all huge and confident, completely filling the page and smiling. “When we line up, I feel so much bigger.” He looks bigger, too.

Mom, waiting out in the school yard, is back to blue. But when they have a big hug, she’s back to normal color and size.

Until the boy has his final question:

“Mom, can I take the school bus tomorrow, please?”

This book is perfect in so many ways. It so wonderfully shows the feelings taking place here, using the art to say so much more than words can. Then there’s humor in the Mom’s worries, and the confident, reassuring child. But I love that even he has moments of being blue, because that’s the way it really happens.

If you know of a child getting ready to start Kindergarten, I can’t think of a better choice than this book!

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

Review of Cinder, by Marissa Meyer

Cinder

The Lunar Chronicles: Book One

by Marissa Meyer

Feiwel and Friends, New York, 2012. 390 pages.
Starred Review

I’ve always loved fairy-tale retellings, but this science fiction version of Cinderella is even better than most. Once again, I stayed up all night reading to finish the book, even though I know that’s not good for me. But the book was so good! Since I was able to take a nap the next day, I’m afraid my bad behavior was reinforced, and it was totally worth it.

Cinder is set in New Beijing, 126 years after the end of the fourth world war, after which the kingdoms of the earth have been at peace. They’ve been at peace, but not without problems. There’s a plague raging, and even the Emperor of the Eastern Alliance is sick with it.

Linh Cinder is a cyborg, which is why she’s a second-class citizen. She’s 63.72% human, but she has some machine parts, like her left hand and foot, and some brain and sensory enhancements. She doesn’t remember anything from before the accident and fire that burned her when she was eleven years old.

Since her adoptive father died, Cinder’s been the one making a living for her family as a mechanic. She’s a good mechanic, as her cyborg enhancements give her special abilities, but she’s surprised when Prince Kai brings in an old android that needs repair.

Cinder barely heard him above the blankness in her mind. With her heartbeat gathering speed, her retina display scanned his features, so familiar from years spent watching him on the netscreens. He seemed taller in real life and a gray hooded sweatshirt was like none of the fine clothes he usually made appearances in, but still, it took only 2.6 seconds for Cinder’s scanner to measure the points of his face and link his image to the net database. Another second and the display informed her of what she already knew; details scribbled across the bottom of her vision in a stream of green text.

There’s something important about the android, but Prince Kai has many other things to worry about. The evil queen of the Lunar Colony wants to marry an earth emperor. But the people who live on the moon have evolved the ability to control the minds of others. If she marries Kai, she will enslave the people of his country as she has her own. But she can apply powerful pressure.

In the meantime, there is a draft of cyborg “volunteers” to test potential plague antidotes. When Cinder’s stepmother decides it’s time for Cinder to “volunteer,” Cinder learns some surprising new things about herself. But she also runs into the prince again.

This book takes the framework of the fairy tale and plays with it. I don’t think it’s too much of a spoiler to say that instead of losing a shoe when she leaves the ball, Cinder loses a foot. I admit I was sad that there wasn’t a fairy godmother in this story, because I wanted that for Cinder, but it’s quite amazing what she manages to accomplish herself.

And there’s no Happily Ever After yet for Cinder, but the title page warned that this is Book One, so I didn’t expect it. But at the same time, it tells a satisfying story, following the Cinderella basic framework, yet adding in an intricate plot all its own. The future world is credibly and skilfully built. And the romance between Cinder and the Prince is done well.

I’m going to want to read the next volumes just as soon as they come out. Though I will definitely try to start very early on an evening when I have no other plans.

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Review of Wisdom’s Kiss, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Wisdom’s Kiss

A Thrilling and Romantic Adventure, Incorporating Magic, Villainy, and a Cat

by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2011. 284 pages.
Starred Review

Here’s another fairy-tale-type story set in the world of Princess Ben. In fact, Princess Ben, as a grandmother, makes an appearance, though you don’t at all have to have read her story to understand what’s going on.

Wisdom’s Kiss centers around two princesses, named Temperance and Wisdom. They are granddaughters of Queen Benevolence and share the tradition of character-based names in the kingdom of Montagne. The story is also about Trudy, a young maid with the Sight. She loves the miller’s son Tips, who has gone off to learn to be an acrobat, and an excellent one.

Despite his mother’s machinations toward the throne of Montagne, Duke Roger of Farina is betrothed to Wisdom, the younger sister. She must travel to Farina for the wedding, and along the way she gets a new lady-in-waiting, Trudy, even though when Trudy looks at Wisdom, she feels great pain.

But then Tips’ troupe is performing in the capital of Montagne, and when Wisdom sees him, she finds out what she really aspires to. But royal betrothals are not easily gotten out of.

This is a fun story, with very creative story-telling, including several different perspectives, The Imperial Encyclopedia of Lax, letters, and a play script. The plot moves along with nice twists and turns and is never the least bit boring.

A lot hinges on love at first sight, which I wasn’t crazy about, but mostly everyone’s actions seem true to character, and even that love seems to have a basis in the characters of the people involved.

This is an entertaining tale, creatively told, and does include romance, magic, and villainy to delight all readers.

catherinemurdock.com
hmhbooks.com

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Review of The Reading Promise, by Alice Ozma

The Reading Promise

My Father and the Books We Shared

by Alice Ozma
Narrated by the author

Hachette Audio, 2011. 7 hours on 6 CDs.
Starred Review

It should come as no surprise that I’m crazy about a book about a father reading to his daughter. Alice Ozma and her father Jim Brozina had “The Streak” going — he read to her for 3,218 days in a row, from a day when she was in third grade to the time she went off to college.

My initial reaction? I’m mad at myself for never counting the nights their Dad and I read to our sons. And what a brilliant idea! With a “streak,” the kids don’t decide they’ve outgrown being read to nearly as soon. Indeed, Alice’s father had exactly that in mind, because he didn’t want Alice to decide she was too old for this, as her sister had done. Obviously, the strategy worked beautifully.

Alice Ozma reads the audiobook herself. At first, I thought her voice sounded way too young for it, but as the book got going, since she’s talking a lot about when she was a child, that is perfect, and I got used to her voice by the time she was talking about being older. In a lovely touch, her father narrates the foreword he wrote, and reads all the sentence excerpts from classic children’s books placed at the beginning of each chapter.

This isn’t an outline of every book they read. They don’t talk about every day of reading. Instead, there are lovely vignettes about different times in Alice’s reading life and her relationship with her father.

And my goodness, they have some entertaining vignettes! I laughed and laughed over the way Alice’s father convinced her she could go out on a highwire act — except they didn’t have a costume the right size. Or the way the family accommodated her at the funeral of Franklin the fish. Or how her father convinced her that getting in the dreaded kiss-lock with a boy was life-threatening. But the funniest one of all (and I’m just a little ashamed of saying this) was when she talked about her terrible fear of the corpse of John F. Kennedy.

To be completely fair, it was not the person himself whom I was afraid of, initially. I was afraid of his dead body, and I had somehow become convinced that it would appear one night on my bottom bunk, all laid out and ready for a funeral. I don’t know where I got this idea, and I’m happy to report that today it makes me laugh. Then, though, it was a very grave and serious matter.

Every night, I would go through a huge ordeal to avoid the body. At first I tried going to bed while it was still light out, but because it was winter that only gave me an hour or so from the time I got home from school. And if I went to bed early, it meant waking up early, while it was still dark out. So the darkness was unavoidable. Instead, I tried turning on all the lights in my room and sleeping with them on. My parents didn’t even yell at me, but finally the overhead light in my room burned out and I wasn’t tall enough to replace it. My father was, but I think he made a conscientious decision not to do so. As I got older, contrary to my parents’ expectations, the fear actually got stronger. By middle school, avoiding JFK’s dead body, which was obviously lying in state on my bottom bunk, was the focus of my evening….

The fear soon shifted from JFK’s dead body to JFK in general and included even photos of or quotes about him. So it was with great terror that I learned my father was planning a family trip for my sister and me shortly after my mother moved out, and one of the stops was the JFK Memorial Library. My father tried to convince me that I liked libraries more than I feared JFK. I had to point out to him that he did not know his own daughter.

I like the way she finishes off that sad but hilarious chapter:

I couldn’t appreciate it then, but it takes creativity to lie shivering and shaking in your bed, wondering if your cats will know how to defend you, not against ghosts or the boogeyman, but against the immobile body of one of the most famous and beloved ex-presidents of the United States. Thanks to The Streak and my father, imagination was not something I lacked.

The book does progress beyond these vignettes to a sad story of its own. Alice Ozma’s father was a school librarian, and an outstanding one, who emphasized reading to children. In the name of “progress” he was ordered to stop reading to them, to emphasize computers, and his entire collection was put in storage. Here’s where he tells Alice, now in college, about it:

“Neither of them understand what I’m trying to do. [The principal] ordered hundreds of new books this summer without listening to my suggestions. He said we needed all new, current books because students like new things. He put everything but the picture books, fiction or nonfiction, in storage.”

I put up my hand to fight in defense of the collection my father had spent years building, but he raised his eyebrows and gestured his hands in agreement and continued.

“I know! It’s absurd! Here’s the worst, Lovie — the library already owned some of the books he ordered! We had them in hardcover, and he ordered them in paperback. I never order paperbacks because they fall apart in less than a year. He ordered flimsy, paperback versions of books we already had. After all the budget cuts, that is how he uses our precious library money. When there are things we really needed, books that the children would have cherished. And where is the collection I spent so many years putting together? In boxes, in the school basement.”

Mr. Brozina did fight back, but eventually, he retired. However, Alice got a front row seat on this battle and how much it hurt the kids in the school. By the end of the book, her dad’s reading to seniors and preschoolers and to children in hospitals.

But inevitably, his mind wandered back to the children he had left behind. After working in a school made up mostly of minorities and almost entirely of children who qualified for free lunches from the state, he always worried about the students who slip through the cracks. A library without books seemed like a nightmarish punishment for students who desperately needed literacy to move on in the world and rise out of poverty. I knew that he couldn’t settle with the injustice for too long. His announcement did not come as a surprise.

“I’m running for the school board,” he said one day, as though waking up from a long nap.

Alice Ozma ends her book with something of a manifesto.

We called it The Reading Streak, but it was really more of a promise. A promise to each other, a promise to ourselves. A promise to always be there and to never give up. It was a promise of hope in hopeless times. It was a promise of comfort when things got uncomfortable. And we kept our promise to each other.

But more than that, it was a promise to the world: a promise to remember the power of the printed word, to take time to cherish it, to protect it at all costs. He promised to explain, to anyone and everyone he meets, the life-changing ability literature can have. He promised to fight for it. So that’s what he’s doing.

She ends with a sample Reading Promise in which you can fill in your own name, with this explanation:

My father was not the only person to make this promise. I made it, too, just as millions of people have made it around the world. Since books were first created, copied by hand beside glowing firelight, many have recognized them for the treasures they really are. Men and women everywhere have valued and protected these treasures. They may not start a reading streak, but the commitment is still there. There is always time to make the commitment to read and defend reading, and it is a commitment that is always worthwhile. This is more important now than it has ever been before. Unfortunately, my father’s situation is not unique: day by day, literature is being phased out of our lives and the lives of our children. This is the time to act. This is the time to make a promise.

There you have it. This book includes heartwarming stories about a girl and her father, and it progresses to a call to action about the power of literature. This wonderful story will remind you of the power of reading together and stir you to action.

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

Review of Front and Center, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Front and Center

by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Houghton Mifflin, 2009. 256 pages.
Starred Review

This book was a lovely end to the Dairy Queen trilogy. I was disappointed the library didn’t have this one on CD, but that was a cool excuse to purchase the book at get it signed by Catherine Gilbert Murdock when I got to hear her speak.

DJ’s back to school, and hopes to just melt into the woodwork, but she finds herself the center of attention. She’s trying to figure out where to go to college, trying to improve her basketball game, and trying to forget Brian Nelson. But then Brian starts acting differently, actually willing to be seen with her, while her good friend Beaner wants something more than friendship. DJ’s got life and college and romance to figure out, and it all makes a lovely conclusion to the trilogy.

I don’t really need to say a lot about this book, because those who have come through the first two books with DJ will definitely want to know what happens next. I promise you’ll enjoy the final installment!

catherinegilbertmurdock.com
www.hmhbooks.com

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Source: This review is based on a book I purchased and had signed by the author.

Review of Temple Grandin, by Sy Montgomery

Temple Grandin

How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World

by Sy Montgomery

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

Years ago, I read Temple Grandin’s book for adults, Animals in Translation, and named it a 2005 Sonderbooks Stand-out. In that book, she described how being autistic has given her extra insight into how animals think, and touched off her amazing career.

This book, written for children, tells more about that amazing career. She talks about what it was like growing up autistic, and how different she was from other kids. There are plenty of pictures, including some of her drawings of ways to make slaughterhouse systems more humane.

The overall message of Temple’s life is that the things that made her different from other people were the things that made her work so notable and so needed. This book is phrased to fascinate people interested in Temple Grandin’s life and achievements, but also to inspire kids who feel like no one understands them. Maybe their differences are the keys to their strengths.

In an early chapter, we read:

Along with these problems, people with autism often have amazing talents. It’s as if the brain makes up for deficits in one area with special gifts in others. “Autistic people have a really stellar ability to use the visual parts of the right side of the brain to compensate for problems with language processing,” Dr. Minshew says. Most children take a long time to find Waldo hidden in a detailed cartoon — but autistic children usually spot him right away. In situations like this, says Dr. Minshew, autism “may be a decided advantage!” And, these kids may be able to make friends with others who share their interests, such as art, music, computer programming, or writing.

“If I could snap my fingers and be nonautistic,” Temple says today, “I wouldn’t do it. It’s part of who I am.” One man who first heard Temple speak when he was a young soldier stationed in Denver, phoned a call-in radio show years later to talk to her. “Thank you so much,” he said, “for giving me the inspiration to say that my brain’s not broken. Just different.”

A fascinating book about a remarkable woman.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/temple_grandin.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 an ALA Conference and checked against a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.