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 The Magic Bojabi Tree, by Piet Grobler and Dianne Hofmeyr

Animal Characters, Picture Book Review, Readalouds 0

The Magic Bojabi Tree

by Piet Grobler and Dianne Hofmeyr

Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, 2013. 32 pages.

Here’s a picture book that begs to be read aloud. It’s set in Africa during a drought. All the animals are hungry. They find a tree covered in red, ripe fruit smelling of sweetest mangoes, fat as melons, and juicy as pomegranates. But there is an enormous python twined around the trunk of the tree, holding the branches out of reach. He will only move if they can tell him the name of the tree. And only Lion, the King of the Jungle knows the name of the tree.

One by one, the animals go and ask Lion the name of the tree. One by one, the animals forget on the way back. Finally, tortoise goes slowly and carefully and makes a song of the name of the tree.

This story has plenty of fun in the animals’ attempts to remember “Bojabi” – “Bongani”? “Munjani”? And of course tortoise’s chant will be one that will entice children to join in.

Just right for Storytime.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/magic_bojabi_tree.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.

Review of Dreams of Gods and Monsters, by Laini Taylor

Fantasy, Paranormal, Teen Fiction Review 0

Dreams of Gods and Monsters

by Laini Taylor

Little, Brown and Company, New York, 2014. 613 pages.

This is the culminating volume of the trilogy that began with Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I’ve been waiting impatiently for it since I finished Days of Blood and Starlight.

This book begins not as expected, with the Seraphim of Eretz coming to earth as a legion of angels, which happens in the second chapter. Instead, the first chapter introduces a new character, a graduate student named Eliza, who has horrible dreams of worlds being devoured, dreams involving gods and monsters.

We do get back to Akiva and Karou, still in love, but pulled apart by circumstances. Now they need to work together to save earth from Jael, the evil emperor of the Seraphim who has gone to earth, pretending to lead the heavenly hosts from earth’s religions, but actually planning to acquire weapons of mass destruction, to do away with the Chimerae once and for all.

Can the remaining Chimerae, led by Karou and the White Wolf, and the Misbegotten, the disillusioned Seraphim, led by Akiva, possibly form an alliance to overcome astronomical odds and defeat Jael? Can they overcome their hostility and generations of enmity for a greater good?

Let me say first off that this book does provide a satisfying, epic conclusion to the trilogy. We see both Akiva and Karou come into their own. And I especially like the way lowly humans Zuzana and Mik contribute their talents to saving the world.

I was surprised, however, by how long it took me to get through the book. More than just the length, I think the omniscient narrator and the epic scope meant there were many places where it was easy to put the book down. The tone was a little too self-aware in spots – it called my attention to the narrator.

This part was probably a good thing, overall, but I also got discouraged by the many setbacks our heroes faced. Now, they did manage to overcome almost all of them, but at times it looked too dark for me, which provided more points where I was willing to put the book down. And the author did throw in yet more plot threads that were only hinted at in the earlier books, or were entirely new, such as Eliza’s part in the bigger picture.

And this love at first sight thing? This idea of soulmates knowing each other instantly despite years of one’s people being enemies? This is perhaps overdone. It makes a nice story, and I’m especially happy for the characters involved, but I was a bit skeptical. Nice, though. I can’t help being happy for those who found this Destiny, even if there did seem to be an awful lot of them.

However, I do have to say that by the end of the book, the author had pulled together the various threads masterfully. She wrote an epic tale about the fate of worlds and wove it nicely with ancient religious tales. And she made us wonder: What if gods and monsters are simply souls like us, dressed in bodies that don’t necessarily express the hearts inside?

daughterofsmokeandbone.com
lainitaylor.com
lb-teens.com
bookish.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/dreams_of_gods_and_monsters.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 Jane, the Fox & Me, by Fanny Britt and Isabelle Arsenault

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

Jane, the Fox & Me

by Fanny Britt and Isabelle Arsenault

translated by Christelle Morelli and Susan Ouriou

Groundwood Books/ House of Anansi Press, Toronto, 2013. First published in Montreal in 2012. 101 pages.
Starred Review

Hélène is a girl who’s relentlessly insulted. On the stall door of the second-floor washroom, on the blue staircase, in the schoolyard, on her locker door.

So Hélène is not happy when she learns their whole class is going to be going to Nature Camp. “Four nights, forty students. Our whole class.” She is not excited. She’s scared and nervous.

She goes with her mother to buy a bathing suit and looks like a sausage. On the bus, for comfort, she’s reading Jane Eyre. Jane has a terrible childhood, but grows up clever, slender, and wise. But even Jane Eyre needs a strategy. At camp, Hélène uses the strategy of pretending to look for something in her suitcase, and ends up in a tent with the Outcasts.

But some surprises happen at camp, including a close encounter with a fox. Things start to change for Hélène.

This graphic novel is a beautiful story of a sensitive and thoughtful girl going through relentless cruelty. And it ends well! Readers won’t be able to help but cheer for Hélène as things change for her.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/jane_fox_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 The Writer Who Stayed, by William Zinsser

Musings, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

The Writer Who Stayed

by William Zinsser

Paul Dry Books, Philadelphia, 2012. 175 pages.
Starred Review

This is a book of essays by a master of the form — indeed, the man who wrote the book on writing nonfiction (On Writing Well). It’s actually a collection of “columns” which were posted online. I would have called them blog posts, but The American Scholar, the magazine that posted them, calls them essays, and coming from William Zinsser, that’s completely appropriate.

I mostly read an essay per day, kind of like you’d read a blog. Each day I enjoyed having some insightful reading, and something to muse over for the day.

The essays are not long, and each word is used well. I want to give you some quotations, to show his wonderful use of language, but that doesn’t convey the completeness of each essay, the way he sets up something at the start that pays off by the end.

This is the ending of the essay “Content Management: In Praise of Long-Form Journalism”:

“As a journalist,” I tell my despairing students, “you are finally in the storytelling business.” We all are. It’s the oldest form of human communication, from the caveman to the crib, endlessly riveting. Goldilocks wakes up from her nap and sees three bears at the foot of her bed. What’s that all about? What happens next? We want to know and we always will.

Writers! Never forget to tell us what’s up with the bears. Manage that content.

Here’s another paragraph about writing, from the essay “Permission Givers: To Teach Is to Allow and to Encourage”:

Writers! You must give yourself permission, by a daily act of will, to believe in your remembered truth. Do not remain nameless to yourself. Only you can turn on the switch; nobody is going to do it for you. Nobody gave George Gershwin permission to write “Rhapsody in Blue” at the age of 25, when he had only written 32-bar popular songs. Nobody gave Frank Lloyd Wright permission to design a round museum.

The essays are by no means all about writing. Here’s the beginning of one that made me laugh:

Last week I got a letter from the man I once thought of as my broker, who now calls himself my investment counselor and would probably call himself my wealth management adviser if I had any “wealth” for him to manage. He was writing to tell me that Sandra, “the lead assistant assigned to your relationship, has decided to change careers and become a full-time mother of 10-month-old Brad.”

I didn’t even know I had a relationship with Sandra. She never mentioned it, probably because she already had a relationship — evidently quite a long one — with the father of 10-month-old Brad. But my investment counselor said he was “happy to announce” that Daniele had joined his office and would now be managing my relationship.

A few days later I went into my Citibank branch to get some cash and found a message on the ATM. It said, “Now you can have a dedicated relationship manager!” That got me wondering about Daniele. I knew she would be caring. But shouldn’t she also be dedicated?

This book contains good writing that will give you something to muse over. Definitely worth dipping into.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/writer_who_stayed.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.

Sonderling Sunday – Kapitel Siebzehn

Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge, Sonderling Sunday 0

It’s time — at last! — for Sonderling Sunday! That time of the week when I play with language by looking at the German translation of children’s books!

It’s been a *very* long time since I last posted. My blog had issues, and my life was busy, the most fun part of that being that I started dating someone! Juhu!

This week, it’s back to my standby, Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge, The Order of Odd-fish, by James Kennedy. We left off right at the halfway point, at the beginning of Chapter Seventeen.

I do enjoy starting with the opening sentence:

“Jo and Ian sat in a gloomy parlor, waiting for an old woman to speak.”
= Jo und Ian saßen in einem dämmrigen Salon und warteten darauf, dass die alte Frau sprach.

“dim and dreary” = dämmrig und trübselig

“ancient lace drapes strangled the sunlight” = alte Spitzenvorhänge hielten das Sonnenlicht fern
(“old lace curtains held the sunlight far”)

Here’s a useful sentence:
“Jo couldn’t stop her leg from jiggling.”
= Jo konnte nicht verhindern, dass ihr Bein wippte.

“the whole enterprise” = diese ganze Angelegenheit

“insulting” = beleidigend

“the last of his enthusiasm vanished” = der letzte Rest seiner ursprünglichen Begeisterung verpuffte
(“the last remnant of his original [ancient-sprung] enthusiasm evaporated [puffed out]”)

“She was a withered noodle of a woman.” = Sie war eine vertrocknete, dürre Frau
(“She was a dried-up, withered woman.” Pooh! Lost the metaphor there.)

“thick dark veils” = dichten, dunklen Schleier (That’s kind of fun to say.)

“incredulous disdain” = ungläubiger Verachtung

“icy silence” = eisiges Schweigen

“tightly controlled rage” = mühsam beherrschter Wut
(Google translates that as “tedious dominated rage.”)

“She hooted, gurgled, and shrieked” = Sie heulte, gurgelte, und kreischte

“Hoo nelly, that’s rich!” = Nie und nimmer, das ist ja köstlich!
(“No way [Not and never], that is expensive!”)

“Oh, you can’t make this stuff up!” = Oh, so etwas kann man sich nicht mal ausdenken!

“moldy cake” = muffigen Kuchen (Oo, can’t you just see the “muffigen” cake?)

“guided” = manövrierte

“a rattling cackle” = ein schrilles Keckern

“threatening letters” = Drohbriefen

[Incredible! At this point, I finished the post — and then WordPress ate the last part of what I posted! Urgh! I will now try to reproduce it.]

“joke quests” = albernen Aufgaben

“clouds of dust” = Staubwolken

“make my death swift and merciful” = gewähren Sie mir einen schnellen und gnädigen Tod

“villainous” = schurkischen

“Sincerely” = Mit vorzüglicher Hochachtung

“smelling salts” = Riechsalz

That’s it for tonight!

I have to add that I recently saw “Muppets Most Wanted,” and one of the funniest things (to me) was when Kermit was mistaken for a criminal mastermind frog and captured in Germany. The headlines screamed about the “Evilen Froggen”! Readers of Sonderling Sunday will know the correct translation is Böse Frosch, but of course how to translate English to German is just to stick “en” on the ends!

And look at the useful phrases we’ve learned tonight! Now if you travel to Germany and get pulled over by police, you know how to say, “Gewähren Sie mir einen schnellen und gnädigen Tod!”

May your week be the opposite of dämmrig und trübselig!

Mit vorzüglicher Hochachtung,

Sondra Eklund

Review of When Did You See Her Last? by Lemony Snicket

Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense 0

“When Did You See Her Last?”

All the Wrong Questions, Book 2

by Lemony Snicket
read by Liam Aiken

Hachette Audio, 2013. 4.5 hours on 4 CDs.

“When Did You See Her Last?” is the second entry in the All the Wrong Questions series of crime noir for kids. Young Lemony Snicket continues to stay in Stain’d-by-the-Sea. He and his chaperone are asked to solve another mystery, and once again his chaperone is completely misled, but young Snicket follows a progression of clues and reveals answers.

These books should be read in order. A master villain is hanging about, the statue from the previous book makes an appearance, and we get more clues as to what is going on with Lemony Snicket’s sister, but no answers.

These make wonderful listening. You’ve got a gripping story with plenty to set you chuckling. This would be ideal for a family trip. Now I just hope the next installment is coming out soon!

LemonySnicketLibrary.com
HachetteAudio.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/when_did_you_see_her_last.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 Right Attitude to Rain, by Alexander McCall Smith

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Fiction Review, Light Reading, Literary 0

The Right Attitude to Rain

by Alexander McCall Smith
performed by Davina Porter

Recorded Books, 2006. 8 CDs.

I started the Isabel Dalhousie series years ago, but lost interest. Now I’ve discovered the way to read them — on audio, when one can be entertained by the lovely Scottish accents.

It’s misleading that these are shelved in the mystery section, because they’re not traditional mysteries. Yes, a crime occurs — in the last part of the book, on the last CD. But Isabel doesn’t solve it, she philosophizes about it.

Isabel is a philosopher, independently wealthy, and the editor of an ethics journal. She keeps saying that she thinks too much, but the listener does enjoy the digressions which her thoughts take.

In this book, most of her musings are about her relationship with Jamie, a man 14 years younger than her, whom she has fallen in love with. So she thinks about every possible side of the ethics of that relationship. And Jamie was once the boyfriend of her niece Cat, so there’s that to consider as well. Meanwhile, Isabel’s cousin Mimi and her husband are visiting, and the whole group is invited to a house party given by a wealthy Texan and his fiancé. But is the fiancé just after his money? That’s what it seems like to Isabel.

Alexander McCall Smith’s books don’t have a plot that progresses at a rapid pace, and I think that has a lot to do with why I stopped reading this series. But listening to it in the car on the way to work and back is a delightful way to approach it. I find myself smiling at each new diversion and thinking about the philosophical implications during my day, but I haven’t had too much trouble shutting the car off when I get to work. (There were a couple times…) This book makes a pleasant travel companion, and I’m going to be quick to take up the next book in the series.

recordedbooks.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/right_attitude_to_rain.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 Constable & Toop, by Gareth P. Jones

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

Constable & Toop

by Gareth P. Jones

Amulet Books, New York, 2013. 391 pages.
Starred Review

I like the blurbs at the front of Constable & Toop. They’re by “The Ghost of Oscar Wilde,” “The Ghost of Dr. Johnson,” and other distinguished ghosts. The Ghost of Emily Brontë says, “I very much enjoyed the melancholy and tragedy contained within these pages. The humor was less to my taste.”

Sam Toop can talk to ghosts. The ghosts know him as a “Talker,” and often ask him to help them with their unfinished business, like give a message or uncover a hidden will. But there’s something terribly wrong at the church where one of the ghosts wants his body buried.

Meanwhile, Lapsewood has been doing his desk job faithfully, in death as in life. But when he gets transferred to another department, and expected to check on residents of haunted houses, as the past Outreach worker has gone missing, he also stumbles on something terribly wrong.

At the same time, Clara’s parents invite an exorcist to their home. As Clara had suspected, they did have a ghost haunting their home, but the exorcist banishes her. After that event, nothing feels right, but things are even worse after the body of a girl is found in their home.

Constable & Toop is set in Victorian London, at a time when people were obsessed with death and funerals and the supernatural. Gareth Jones spins an entertaining tale of plots and murderers, among the living and the dead, and good people who try to do their bit to help.

This story is highly imaginative, intricately plotted, and a whole lot of fun.

Buy from Amazon.com

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