Cybils Round One Fun

Cybils, Sonderling Sunday 0

Tonight my plan was to post Sonderling Sunday on Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone looking at the translations in German — and French!

But instead, I took a longer Sunday afternoon nap than planned. And then my sister called. To say the traditional “Tomorrow we can say tomorrow is Christmas!” Yay! And then our Cybils Round One chat went way longer than I thought it would.

So next week I will plan to do an unusual tri-lingual Sonderling Sunday.

But meanwhile: The Cybils: What fun!

I’m on the Cybils Round One panel for Middle Grade Science Fiction and Fantasy. So I’ve been reading like crazy. And still feel like a slow reader compared to the others. We had at least two people read every title nominated — at least read enough to know if they needed to read on, anyway. And we all read any title that anyone shortlisted. Or at least we will have come very close to that by the time we finalize the list.

Round One is fun because you get to read widely, and you’re going for a list, so you don’t feel too bad if one you don’t like ends up on the shortlist. If people you trust loved it, it’s probably got a lot of merit. We found our group doesn’t have a whole lot of consensus — and we haven’t made a final list yet, but discussing these books is a lot of fun. It’s always a fun challenge to be able to come up why you like or dislike a book.

The Cybils strives for a combination of literary merit and kid appeal, so besides coming up with what we like or dislike, we also tried to figure out where that was from good or bad writing and which things would matter to kids.

This is much more than my reviews. In my reviews, I admit I like to focus on recommending books and telling what’s to like about them. It’s kind of fun to tear apart books I don’t like — in the privacy of a committee where most people will never ever see it. I hope I won’t like it so much that I do that sort of thing more widely! But there is some value in figuring out precisely where a book fell short. And was it a flaw? Or simply a personal preference?

I warned them in advance, and it proved to be true: My demon is internal logic. If a fantasy book has problems with the internal logic, it really really bugs me. There were a couple books that, to me, really dropped the ball at the end. I didn’t believe the characters would act that way, or I didn’t believe the magic would work that way. And there was one that I thought was lacking in explanation of the fantasy all the way along.

But it’s nice that I’m just one person on the panel. So my personal preferences and idiosyncracies won’t dominate the list, just influence it. I think we have a nice variety of viewpoints and preferences in our panel.

We now have settled on only one book that will definitely be on our shortlist. (Not that any of us think it’s the best — just that there was one book we all agreed on.) We have several to keep for now to discuss later, and we have several more that we sent to a corner with cookies to possibly come back if the list needs rounding out. We’ll be reading and rereading and discussing again later this week.

And we will announce our shortlist to the world on January 1st! Stay tuned!

And don’t forget to tune in next week to look at Harry Potter #1 in British, German, and French!

Review of Twelve Kinds of Ice, by Ellen Bryan Obed

Beginning Chapter Books, Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 0

Twelve Kinds of Ice

by Ellen Bryan Obed
illustrated by Barbara McClintock

Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, Boston, 2012. 61 pages.
Starred Review

It doesn’t seem like it would work in a children’s book — an adult talking about what it was like for her growing up as a child in Maine. But the story is told firmly from a child’s perspective, and it does work, completely. I’m afraid it may cause a wave of discontent across America. If I had read it as a child growing up in Los Angeles, already sad because I never got to have snow, it would have added a new thing to wish for — ice.

The story is told beautifully and simply. You’d think it would lose effectiveness because it’s about all their childhood winters, and isn’t the story of one particular year — but it stays wonderfully evocative.

And who knew it took so long before they could use their vegetable garden as a rink? The beginning “chapters” (almost more like poems) are simple:

The First Ice

The first ice came on the sheep pails in the barn — a skim of ice so thin that it broke when we touched it.

(There’s a full page illustration of three kids looking in the bucket.)

The Second Ice

The second ice was thicker. We would pick it out of the pails like panes of glass. We would hold it up in our mittened hands and look through it. Then we would drop it on the hard ground to watch it splinter into a hundred pieces.

(This time the illustration shows a girl looking through a round pane of ice.)

The different types of ice continue. There’s field ice and stream ice and black ice, where they can skate on the lake. All of those come before they’re ready to turn their summer vegetable garden into a skating rink for the entire community — Bryan Gardens.

Then the book changes. She talks about rink rules, her Dad’s skating tricks, skating parties, and having a big Ice Show. Here’s a chapter from later in the book:

Late-Night Skate

After homework was done, after Dad had flooded, after lights were out in neighbors’ houses, my sister and I would sometimes go out for a skate. Late-night skates were more exciting than daytime skates. We were alone with our dreams. We would work on our figure eights. We would work on our jumps and spins. We would put on music and pretend we were skating before crowds in a great stadium. We would try out moves that we’d seen figure skaters doing on television or in a picture in the newspaper. We were planning and practicing for some distant Olympics.

This is a lovely little book. It’s short and not intimidating, but it’s going to be hard to know which children might be interested in it. It will be a good choice for readers beginning with chapter books. There’s definitely not an action-packed story, but the reader who tackles it will be drawn into a world of anticipation, joy, and skill. I’m looking forward to finding out what kids say about it at our Mock Newbery Book Club in January.

I’m not sure what to call this book. My friend who grew up in Maine says things aren’t like that any more there, so I think the closest category is Historical. I’ll probably cop out and call it a beginning chapter book, since it’s so short, has lots of pictures, and is non-threatening. It pulls you into a time where children’s activities were centered around the world outdoors. Even reading about such a time and place is refreshing.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/12_kinds_of_ice.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely 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.

Prime Factorization Blanket – Second Row

Mathematical, Prime Factorization 0

I’ve finished the second row of numbers (third row of rectangles) in my Prime Factorization Blanket!

The fun part was that my brother and his wife found out on the 17th of December that their baby is a girl. So, since I was coming up on the prime number 17, I chose to use pastel pink to represent 17. For good measure, I used a pretty rose pink to represent 19.

I only hope that having all that turquoise blue won’t make people think it’s a blanket for a boy, but I’m hoping it’s multicolored enough, it won’t give that idea.

I couldn’t manage to write in all the numbers on the picture, like I did after the first row, but in real life I assure you, you can tell when there are two factors of the same prime.

So here’s how you read the blanket:

The bottom row starts with a blank space for 0.

1 is the same as the background color, since 1 is a factor of every number.

2 is turquoise blue.

3 is yellow.

4 = 2 x 2, so two sections of turquoise.

5 is green.

6 = 2 x 3, so a section of turquoise and a section of yellow.

7 is purple.

8 = 2 x 2 x 2, so three sections of turquoise.

9 = 3 x 3, so two sections of yellow.

Then I did a row of white rectangles (diamonds). Second row of color:

11 is red.

12 = 2 x 2 x 3, so two sections of turquoise and one of yellow.

13 is brown.

14 = 2 x 7, so a section of turquoise and a section of purple.

15 = 3 x 5, so a section of yellow and a section of green.

16 = 2 x 2 x 2 x 2, so four sections of turquoise.

17 is Pink!

18 = 2 x 3 x 3, so a section of turquoise and two sections of yellow.

19 is rose pink.

Next I’ll do a row of white rectangles, then start the next row with 20. The primes in that row will be 23 and 29, so I’ll have to bring in two new colors.

The color sections will show up better after I’ve knitted the white rectangles, but I was impatient to show what I’ve done!

I’m very pleased with how this is turning out. I may have to make myself a Pascal’s Triangle Shawl when I’m done….

My posts on Mathematical Knitting and related topics are now gathered at Sonderknitting.

Review of Feynman, by Jim Ottaviani

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Graphic Memoir, Nonfiction Review, Science, Starred Review, True Stories 0

Feynman

written by Jim Ottaviani
art by Leland Myrick
coloring by Hilary Sycamore

First Second, New York, 2011. 266 pages.
Starred Review

How to make the life and work of a brilliant, if quirky, physicist accessible to the general reader? Jim Ottaviani and Leland Myrick have done an amazing job by putting the biography in graphic novel form.

Not only do they present the scope of Richard Feynman’s accomplishments, including such a wide variety from work on the atomic bomb to work on the committee investigating the space shuttle’s explosion, they also present the basic idea of some of his pioneering concepts in physics. And they talk about his personal life, including his first wife who died not too long after their marriage, and his defense of a man who was running a strip club, and his decision to give up drinking.

The one thing I didn’t like? It was hard to tell apart all the physicists in their shirts and ties. I finally got to where I could spot Feynman by his crazy hair, but that was about as far as I got.

However, this book inspired me to want to read more about Feynman, and it was a fascinating and interesting story in its own right. It didn’t inspire me the way Feynman’s Rainbow did, but it was another side to a man who made a big difference on our planet.

This is Teen Nonfiction, and I decided to post it on the regular nonfiction page rather than the Children’s Nonfiction page, because even in the graphic memoir format, it’s going to go way over the heads of most children, but most adults won’t mind reading a comic book about a great scientist.

firstsecondbooks.com

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

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely 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 The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection

Fiction Review, Mystery, Starred Review 0

The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection

by Alexander McCall Smith

Pantheon Books, New York, 2012. 257 pages.
Starred Review

Ah, when I finish a No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Novel, I feel I’ve spent some time with my dear friends in Botswana. Never mind that they are fictional!

In this installment, at first I was annoyed with Mma Makutsi. She’s feeling a bit grandiose after her marriage to Phuti Radiphuti. But there were soon plenty of things to distract from that. This book was filled with personal troubles that needed to be solved: Mma Potokwane of the orphanage was being dismissed. Fanwell, Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni’s former apprentice was arrested. And Phuti Radiphuti and Grace, his new wife, were having a house built. What’s more, the detective agency has a very special visitor, a visitor who’s been referred to many times, but whom readers have never met before.

Some of the solutions to these problems are not terribly surprising, though we do enjoy the way they play out. One solution was completely unexpected and made me laugh out loud, even in a doctor’s waiting room.

I like the customary reflective paragraph at the beginning:

In Botswana, home to the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency for the problems of ladies, and others, it is customary — one might say, very customary — to enquire of the people whom you meet whether they have slept well. The answer to that question is almost inevitably that they have indeed slept well, even if they have not, and have spent the night tossing and turning as a result of the nocturnal barking of dogs, the activity of mosquitoes or the prickings of a bad conscience. Of course, mosquitoes may be defeated by nets or sprays, just as dogs may be roundly scolded; a bad conscience, though is not so easily stifled. If somebody were to invent a spray capable of dealing with an uncomfortable conscience, that person would undoubtedly do rather well — but perhaps might not sleep as soundly as before, were he to reflect on the consequences of his invention. Bad consciences, it would appear, are there for a purpose: to make us feel regret over our failings. Should they be silenced, then our entirely human weaknesses, our manifold omissions, would become all the greater — and that, as Mma Ramotswe would certainly say, is not a good thing.

I felt warm and content when I finished reading this book, and closed it with a smile.

alexandermccallsmith.com
pantheonbooks.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/limpopo_academy.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely 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!

Bedtime Math!

Mathematical, Prime Factorization 0

I’m so excited! Today, thanks to a note in the ALSC (Association for Library Service to Children) newsletter, I found out about Bedtime Math.

Why do I think Bedtime Math is so awesome? Because that’s totally what I did with my younger son.

My first Master’s degree was in Math, and I was a college math instructor for ten years. College students in general ed math classes are generally not excited about math. So when we started doing math problems with my excited son at bedtime — I’m not sure how it started — my son quickly learned those magic words I absolutely COULD NOT resist — “Just one more math problem, Mommy, please!” He could extend bedtime forever with those magic words.

I don’t remember how it got started, but I do know that we were in the thick of this when he was 5 years old. His brother turned 12 years old in March. I turned 36 in June. Sometime in there, I told him that when he turned 6, then his age plus his age would equal his brother’s age. But, even better, his age TIMES his age would equal my age. His next question was pretty natural, “What’s TIMES?”

One week later, his brother asked him a problem I never would have tried: “What’s 16 times 4?” Timmy (the 5-year-old) figured it out *in his head.* Without knowing times tables. So that was the context of “One more math problem, Mommy, please.” I’d give him progressively harder addition problems — and then it got to be progressively harder multiplication problems. All done in his head, at bedtime. For fun.

Of course, it all starts with counting. I remember with my older son, just counting as high as he could go in the car while running errands. It’s fun when they really realize how it works and that they could go on and on forever. He was also the one who kept making up words for “numbers bigger than infinity.” I couldn’t quite convince him that didn’t work.

(Now my younger son, a Freshman at the College of William & Mary, recently spent his free time devising an algorithm to choose a completely random book from all the volumes in the campus library. That’s my boy!)

In my current job as a librarian, I was thinking about all the counting and math we did when my kids were small. And then thinking about the Every Child Ready to Read workshops, where we encourage parents to read, talk, write, sing, and play with their kids. I’m going to do the workshop “Fun With Science and Math for Parents and Children” — only I think I’m going to take out the Science and just focus on Math.

See, the thing is, I don’t believe for a second you have to “make” Math fun. I think math *IS* fun, and children naturally think so, too. Can I communicate that to parents?

I’m also planning to do a program with older kids about using math to make coded messages with colors or shapes. It uses ideas from my Prime Factorization Sweater and my Coded Blessing Blanket. I did the program a few years ago, a little afraid I’d lose the kids, and they totally loved it.

All this is to say: Bedtime Math! YES! I can present this as an idea for parents who need help thinking of problems to talk about with their kids, who might not think them up as easily as I did. (I also taught my kids the chain rule in calculus because I wanted to teach it to someone who would get it right. But I don’t think I’ll recommend that to parents.)

I still say, as a librarian, part of my job is the FUN side of learning. At libraries, we help people find information to teach themselves. But in the children’s department, a huge part of our job is helping parents make learning a natural and fun part of their family life. We don’t have to test them! We don’t have to follow the book or the curriculum! We can show them ways to think about the concepts that are just plain fun!

I’m going to be looking for more articles about early learning of mathematics. I think it can fit in nicely with Early Literacy Skills that we emphasize so much. But mostly I’m jazzed. Other Moms are going to hear those magic words: “Just one more math problem, Mommy, please!”

Review of Shiny Objects, by James A. Roberts

Current Issues, Nonfiction Review, Personal Growth 0

Shiny Objects

Why We Spend Money We Don’t Have in Search of Happiness We Can’t Buy

by James A. Roberts

HarperOne, 2011. 353 pages.

Here’s a timely look at materialism in America. The author says in his introduction:

We are a nation in love with shiny objects. Our homes, our cars, our offices, our purses, and that storage unit we hate to admit to are all overflowing with our precious belongings. Whether your personal weakness is shoes, cars, jewelry, cigars, or any other possession (vintage posters, books, and watches are my downfall), we Americans love our money.

When it comes to spending money, are you more of a tightwad or a spendthrift? . . . Given that we are a nation of consumers, you might be surprised to learn that the majority of Americans would be classified as tightwads. With a high percentage of people living from paycheck to paycheck, how can consumerism be so rampant? It all boils down to how we pay for our purchases and the “pain of paying” associated with each payment method — it’s not that tightwads don’t want to spend money, they just don’t want to feel like they’re spending money. We are a nation addicted to plastic. Using credit cards greatly reduces the pain associated with paying for our purchases — so much so, in fact, that credit cards have earned the nickname “spending facilitators” by those of us who do research in this area. When we use credit cards, we make quicker purchase decisions, are more likely to buy, and are willing to pay more. . . .

As a professor at Baylor University, I have spent over twenty years conducting research with thousands of consumers from all walks of life on the related areas of materialism, credit card use, and compulsive buying. Why, in a land of plenty, do Americans want more? And why is more never enough? Given that most Americans would readily admit that money and material possessions are not going to make us happy, why do we continue to act as if they will? This book is the culmination of my efforts and those of other researchers to answer such questions. And though consumers are inscrutable, we have begun to unlock some of the mysteries behind materialism and its impact on our lives.

That gives you the idea. This book looks at studies done on consumer behavior and attitudes toward money. And it also attempts to teach the reader and gives tips for getting your actual behavior more in line with the things that matter most to you — which usually, bottom line, is not money. This book is both interesting and helpful.

harperone.com

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

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely 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 If Rocks Could Sing, by Leslie McGuirk

Contemporary, Facts, Good for the Very Young, Picture Book Review, Readalouds, Starred Review 0

If Rocks Could Sing

A Discovered Alphabet

by Leslie McGuirk

Tricycle Press, Berkeley, 2011. 42 pages.
Starred Review

Quite simply, this book is wonderful.

It’s an alphabet book where all the letters are made of rocks. What’s more, all the objects that the letters start for are also made of rocks.

She’s got some normal words for alphabet books with surprising rock shapes: e is for elephant. (Yes, the rock is shaped exactly like an elephant head!) i is for igloo. (Yes, an igloo-shaped rock, complete with a door.) L is for Lemon. r is for rabbit. You get the idea.

Then there are also some surprising words, with perfect rock illustrations: c is for couch potato. (A potato-shaped rock is resting on a couch.) J is for Joy. (Two happy faces smiling at one another.) O is for Ouch! (This rock looks like it’s been punched in the nose.) T is for Toast. (I would not realize that rock was not a piece of bread if it weren’t in this book.) And the book does pass the X test: X is for XOXO. The rock looks exactly like two people locked in an embrace.

At the end of the book, the author explains how her collection got started:

This is a book born from the sea. Some people walk the beach searching for shells, all the while passing by the little rocks that make up this book.

This collection began more than ten years ago, as I discovered rocks on the Florida seashore that looked like letters. It became a real passion of mine to complete the entire alphabet. For many years, I waited for the letter K to appear. There was nothing I could do to make it show up. I understood that nature has its own timing, and my job was to be aware and expectant. The natural world is rich with inspiration. Finding these letters, and rocks that looked like objects to match them, was a process of believing that anything is possible. These are beautiful sculptures, little works of art. I feel honored to share these rocks with the world. These compositions are intended to allow these rocks to speak for themselves . . . and for us to imagine what we would hear if rocks could sing.

This book will inspire the reader to start a collection of their own. Or at the very least to look at nature with fresh eyes. This is now among my favorite alphabet books.

lesliemcguirk.com
randomhouse.com/kids

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

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely 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 – Seltsamen Sonderlinge Chapter 12

Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge, Sonderling Sunday 0

It’s time for Sonderling Sunday! When I play with language by looking at the German translations of interesting phrases found in children’s books. This week, it’s back to the book that started it all, Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge, that is, The Order of Odd-Fish, by James Kennedy.

Last time, we finished Chapter 11, so now we’re ready to tackle Chapter 12, on page 136 in the original English, and Seite 173 auf Deutsch. I will endeavor to give no spoilers, but merely tantalizing phrases that will lure my readers into reading the book itself, if you have resisted so far. I don’t think you have to know German to enjoy this series, and I’d love to get some comments about how some of these phrases might be said in other languages. (I enjoyed Reads for Keeps‘ recent post on children’s book titles in Chinese. I’m not the ONLY one who thinks about this!)

I still say German makes bureaucracy sound even worse. In fact, maybe this is where we got the term “bureaucracy”?
“The Municipal Squires Authority’s offices” = Die Büros der Städtischen Knappenbehörde

Here’s a nice long word:
“fallen into disrepair” = vollkommen heruntergekommen

“twisty trees” = krumme Bäume

“roots oozed over tumbled blocks like melted cheese” =
Wurzeln überzogen zertrümmerte Quader wie geschmolzener Käse

“with a crazy quilt” =
mit einem seltsamen Flickenteppich (There’s the word seltsamen again!)

I like the sound of this phrase:
“dimly lit” = schlecht erleuchtet

Now this one we simply must find out how to say in German:
“sweaty civil servants in ill-fitting suits” =
verschwitzten Beamten in schlecht sitzenden Anzügen

“confidence” = Selbstvertrauen (“self-trust”)

“punched Ian’s arm” = knuffte Ians Arm (I’m pretty sure it would have been a different word for punching with intent to hurt. I like knuffte – the ‘K’ is pronounced – for a playful punch on the arm.)

“the nastiest, stalest lumps of crud” = die widerlichsten und muffigsten Teigklumpen
(Google translates muffigsten as “mustiest”)

“crumpled” = zusammengesunkener (“together-sunken”)

“wretch” = Schuft

“eyepatch” = Augenklappe

“Milquetoasts” = Duckmäuser

“This whole week has been a waste.” =
Die ganze Woche war reine Zeitverschwendung
(“The whole week was pure Time-disappearance.”)

And you must want to know how to say this:
“pancreas” = Bauchspeicheldrüse (“belly-saliva-gland”)

“pleasantries” = Schmeicheleien

“Excuses!” = Ausflüchte!

“rasped” = knarzte

Oops! The translator accidentally said that Korsakov knarzte, when it was Olvershaw, and assigned the entire speech that follows to the wrong person. This is the first actual mistake I’ve found.

“Ignominious!” = Absolut erbärmlich!

“You insects!” = Ihr Ungeziefer! (Google translates it “vermin.”)

“satisfaction” = Genugtuung

“her stomach felt full of bees” = sie Bienen im Bauch zu haben schien

“Lint” = Leinsamen (translates as “linseed” — not sure that’s the right idea)

“bashful” = schüchternes

“one obnoxious remark” = einer aufsässigen Bemerkung (She did give him some sass.)

“impertinence” = Unverschämtheit

That finishes up Jo’s initial meeting with Olvershaw. Next time, we’ll find out about quests….

Meanwhile, I always find the insults more interesting than the Schmeicheleien, with the exception of Schmeicheleien itself.

Sometimes, I think that looking at all these translations is reine Zeitverschwendung, but I must admit it gives me great Genugtuung.

Bis nächste Woche!

Review of The Mysterious Howling, by Maryrose Wood

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

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place

The Mysterious Howling

by Maryrose Wood

Balzer + Bray (HarperCollins), 2010. 267 pages.
Starred Review

I’m so glad I finally read this book! In a way, it’s nice that I took so long, because the final three words are those dreaded ones, “To Be Continued . . .” I can go straight to rushing to read the next two volumes.

I found The Mysterious Howling completely delightful. The story is of Penelope Lumley, a Poor but Deserving young fifteen-year-old girl, penniless and sent away from her boarding school to try her luck at a grand house, Ashton Place, to be the governess.

Her interview with Lady Constance is unusual. Even Penelope, with no experience in such things, finds it surprising how quickly Lady Constance offers her the job and that she won’t speak of the children. She closes the interview like this:

And with that, they both affixed their signatures to the bottom of the letter of terms that Lord Ashton had prepared. Penelope hardly thought this necessary, but Lady Constance assured her that signed, binding contracts were the custom in these parts, a charming formality which she would not dream of omitting.

When Penelope does meet the children, she learns that they were, in fact, raised by wolves, and discovered by the mysterious Lord Ashton in Ashton Forest on one of his hunting parties. Penelope must revise her hopes and dreams of what she can teach the children, but her compassion, and her binding contract, compel her to stay.

The rest of the book concerns itself with Penelope teaching the children, trying to get them not to chase squirrels and teach them enough words to speak politely to people. In fact, when Lady Constance plans a big party on Christmas Day, Lord Ashton particularly wants the children to be there, so Penelope is under deep pressure to teach them proper things to say to the guests, and drill them on how to behave. It’s not her fault if things don’t go as she plans….

Meanwhile, there’s a mystery at Ashton Place. In a tribute to Jane Eyre, besides the mysterious howling from the children before Penelope met them, there’s a sound coming from a room in the attic.

I’m not sure who exactly the audience for this book is, except that I am firmly in it. Definitely those who have read and loved Jane Eyre will find themselves laughing over Penelope Lumley’s expectations of being a governess and the rich contrast with the children she actually teaches. There are obvious sections inserted to delight the adult reader, such as this one:

“My heavens!” Mrs. Clarke exclaimed. “I am sure I have never seen three such extraordinarily handsome and well-turned out children!”

As you may know complimentary remarks of this type are all too often made by well-meaning adults to children who are, to be frank, perfectly ordinary-looking. This practice of overstating the case is called hyperbole. Hyperbole is usually harmless, but in some cases it has been known to precipitate unneccessary wars as well as a painful gaseous condition called stock market bubbles. For safety’s sake, then, hyperbole should be used with restraint and only by those with the proper literary training.

However, the book is written at a child’s reading level, and I do think children will enjoy the story. There is silliness with the children learning how to speak and how to behave, despite a tendency toward howling, and a thread of a mysterious something bigger throughout the story.

Here’s a section shortly after Penelope has learned the nature of her charges. She goes, naturally enough, to the library:

It was chilly and dark, even on a sunny afternoon, with many more books than even the library at Swanburne had contained. The section on animal behavior was exceptionally well stocked. In short, Penelope was in library heaven, and she prepared to start taking notes. She quickly found a book on wolves, which provided many thought-provoking tidbits of information and even shed light on some of the children’s more intriguing habits — the way Alexander, for instance, would occasionally discipline his siblings by knocking them to the ground and rolling them onto their backs. Or the way Beowulf would rise from his bed during the night and gaze out the nursery window, mournfully ahwooing for hours on end. Or Cassiopeia’s tendency to scamper closely after Penelope and sit at her feet the instant she stopped moving.

Of course, I can’t help but think the most ideal audience would be a family read-aloud, or perhaps a classroom read-aloud. I am planning to listen to the second book on CD, so it will be fun to see if that reader does the story justice.

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Source: This review is based on my own copy, which I purchased at an ALA Conference and had signed by the author.

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