A Girl Called Problem
By Katie Quirk
Eerdmans Books for Young Readers
$8.00
ISBN: 97800-8028-5404-9
Ages 9-12
On shelves now.
Who says that mystery novels for kids all have to include the same tropes and settings? I tell you, half the time when a kid comes up to a reference desk asking for a mystery they think what they want is the standard white kids in suburbia model perfected by Encyclopedia Brown and his ilk. They’re wrong. What they really want is great writing and a good mystery with a twist they don’t see coming. So I will hereby give grand kudos and heaping helpfuls of praise to the librarian/bookseller/parent who hears a kid ask for a mystery and hands them Katie Quirk’s A Girl Called Problem. This book is a trifecta of publishing rarities. A historical novel that is also a mystery set in a foreign country that just happens to be Tanzania. Trust me when I say your shelves aren’t exactly filled to brimming with such books. Would that they were, or at the very least, would that you had as many good books as this one. Smart commentary, an honestly interesting storyline, and sharp writing from start to finish, Quirk quickly establishes herself as one author to watch.
The thing about Shida is that in spite of her name (in Swahili it would be “problem”) you just can’t get her down. Sure, her mom is considered a witch, and every day she seems to make Shida’s life harder rather than easier. Still, Shida’s got dreams. She hopes to someday train to be a healer in her village of Litongo, and maybe even a village nurse. In light of all this, when the opportunity arises for all of Litongo to pick up and move to a new location, Shida’s on board with the plan. In Nija Panda she would be able to go to school and maybe even learn medicine firsthand. Her fellow villagers are wary but game. They seem to have more to gain than to lose from such a move. However, that’s before things start to go terribly wrong. Escaped cattle. Disease. Even death seems to await them in Nija Panda. Is the village truly cursed, just unlucky, or is there someone causing all these troubles? Someone who doesn’t want the people of Litongo there. Someone who will do anything at all to turn them back. It’s certainly possible and it’s up to Shida to figure out who the culprit might be.
The trouble with being an adult and reading a children’s work of mystery fiction is that too often the answer feels like it’s too obvious. Fortunately for me, I’m terrible at mysteries. I’ll swallow every last red herring and every false clue used by the author to lead me astray. So while at first it seems perfectly obvious who the bad guys would be, I confess that when the switcheroo took place I didn’t see it coming. It made perfect sense, of course, but I was as blindsided as our plucky heroine. I figure if I honestly as a 35-year-old adult can’t figure out the good guys from the bad in a book for kids, at least a significant chunk of child readers will be in the same boat.
Now I’ve a pet peeve regarding books set in Africa, particularly historical Africa, and I was keen to see whether or not Ms. Quirk would indulge it. You see, the story of a girl in a historical setting who wants to be a healer but can’t because of her gender is not a particularly new trope. We’ve seen it before, to a certain extent. What chaps my hide is when the author starts implying that tribal medicines and healing techniques are superstitious and outdated while modern medicine is significantly superior. Usually the heroine will fight against society’s prejudices, something will happen late in the game, and the villagers will see that she was right all along and that she’ll soon be able to use Western medicine to cure all ills. There’s something particularly galling about storylines of this sort, so imagine my surprise when I discovered that Quirk was not going to fall into that more than vaguely insulting mindset. Here is an author unafraid to pay some respect to the religion of the villagers. It never dismisses curses but acknowledges them alongside standard diseases. Example: “Though Shida was certain Furaha should take medicine for malaria, she was equally certain she should guard the spirit house that night. Parasites were responsible for some sicknesses and curses for others, and in this case, they needed to protect against both.”
Quirk is also quite adept at using the middle grade chapter book format to tackle some pretty complex issues. To an adult reading this book it might be clear that Shida’s mother suffers from a severe form of depression. There’s no way the village would be prepared to handle this diagnosis, and Shida herself just grows angry with the woman who stays inside all the time. You could get a very interesting book discussion going with child readers about whether or not Shida should really blame her mother as vehemently as she does. On the one hand, you can see her point. On the other, her mother is clearly in pain. Similarly well done is the final discussion of witches. Quirk brings up a very sophisticated conversation wherein Shida comes to understand that accused witches are very often widows who must work to keep themselves alive and that, through these efforts, acquire supposedly witchy attributes. Quirk never hits you over the head with these thoughts. She just lets her heroine’s assumptions fall in the face of close and careful observation.
All this could be true, but without caring about the characters it wouldn’t be worth much. I think part of the reason I like the book as much as I do is that everyone has three dimensions (with the occasional rare exception). Even the revealed villain turns out to have a backstory that explains their impetus, though it doesn’t excuse their actions. As for Shida herself, she may be positive but she’s no Pollyanna. Depression hits her hard sometimes too, but through it all she uses her brain. Because she is able to apply what she learns in school to the real world, she’s capable of following the clues and tracking down the real culprit behind everyone’s troubles. Passive protagonists have no place in A Girl Called Problem. No place at all.
Finally, in an era of Common Core Standards I cannot help but notice how much a kid can learn about Tanzania from this book. Historical Tanzania at that! A Glossary at the back does a very good job of explaining everything from flamboyant trees to n’gombe to President Julius Nyerere’s plan for Tanzania. There are also photographs mixed into the Glossary that do a good job of giving a contemporary spin on a historical work.
Windows and mirrors. That’s the phrase used by children’s literature professionals to explain what we look for in books for kids. We want them to have books that reflect their own experiences and observations (mirrors) and we also want them to have books that reflect the experiences and observations of kids living in very different circumstances (windows). Mirror books can be a lot easier to recommend to kids than window books, but that just means you need to try harder. So next time a 9-12 year-old comes to you begging for a mystery, upset their expectations. Hand them A Girl Called Problem and bet them they won’t be able to guess the bad guy. In the process, you might just be able to introduce that kid to their latest favorite book.
On shelves now.
Source: Galley sent from publisher for review.
Like This? Then Try:
Notes on the Cover: Now was that so hard? We ask and we ask and we ask for brown faces on our middle grade fiction and still it feels like pulling teeth to get it done. Eerdmans really blew this one out of the water, and it seems they spared no expense. The book jacket is the brainchild of Richard Tuschman who you may know better as the man behind the cover of Claire Vanderpool’s Newbery Award winning Moon Over Manifest. Beautiful.
Other Blog Reviews: Loganberryblog
Professional Reviews: A star from Kirkus
Misc:
- This is utterly fascinating. In this post author Katie Quirk talks about the process that led to the current (and truly lovely) cover.
- And Ms. Quirk shares what a typical day for Shida might look like in this video.
Twelve Dancing Princesses, by Rachel Isadora
A Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator gives this classic fairy tale a brand-new setting!
Night after night, the twelve princesses mysteriously wear out their shoes. But how? The king promises a great reward to any man who can solve the mystery. Rachel Isadora has revitalized and reimagined this well-loved Brothers Grimm fairytale by bringing the story of the twelve princesses to Africa...
If you liked this, try:The Fisherman and his Wife
Sleeping Beauty
Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave
Puss in Boots
The Wild Swans
I'm so happy to announce that my beautiful new VHP edition of Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge is now available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
My new publisher,
Vanilla Heart Publishers, have done such a great job! If you like mysteries, nature trails, Southern folk tales with a generous helping of humor and supernatural happenings, you'll love the adventures of Lily Claire and Willie T. in the woods of Alabama.
From a family background filled with haunting images and delicious mirth, a couple of eight-year-old adventurers discover their own world of mischief, music, and magic in a special place called Moonlight Ridge.
Follow these two witty and wise youngsters as they find out that sometimes the greatest treasures are found in the most amazing and unexpected places.
Capture the Flag
by Kate Messner
Scholastic Press, 2012
review copy came from the library (because I really am trying to dial back my book buying to only the most essential for my classroom...it's working...I've read at least one this summer that EVERYONE else loved and I didn't, so I'm glad I didn't spend any money on it...no, I'm not telling...if you follow me on Goodreads, you can already guess...)
Since I'm moving from 4th to 5th grade this year, the bar for ALL of my read alouds has been raised several notches. Unless I want to deliberately reread a book that my students heard last year, I'm not going to be able to fall back on ANY of my old standards. (Not that I had a laminated list of read alouds, but I did love
Emily's Fortune
...)
So, what does it take to be picked for the first read aloud of the year?
It needs to have a strong hook for all listeners. Not only does Capture the Flag have a strong first chapter with an incredible cliffhanger (way to leave a thief in the chamber with the Star Spangled Banner, Kate!) it has a punchy lead with short sentences and carefully placed details that will become important later in the story. This is a beginning chapter to return to for craft study in writing workshop.
It needs to have good characters for all listeners. Anna wants to be a reporter, like her mom. She's got the burning curiosity and the bulldog tenacity that will become important. Henry's got his video games. Kids are going to love it that what he's learned from playing video games will help the characters at almost every turn in the story. Jos
é has a backpack full of Harry Potter and a quote for every occasion. What José has learned from reading, along with the books themselves, will be crucial to the story. There is also a dog, an 8 year-old from Pakistan who collects and sketches idioms, and a secret society who protects famous art in the world. So there's at least one character for everyone in this book.
It needs to be fairly fast-paced and adventure-filled. Three kids trapped by a snowstorm in an airport with a mystery to solve, chase scenes in the baggage holding area, evil guys with snake tattoos. Yeah, Capture the Flag has plenty of action.
It needs to have potential for big discussions beyond the book. I can imagine that my very international mix of students will have passionate discussions about immigration laws, cultural stereotypes, and discrimination. I'm thinking we'll research where the presidential ca
I was lucky enough to score an ARC of Y. S. Lee's second book in The Agency series (The Body at the Tower) last Fall. Shame on me for not reviewing it here. When I saw the third book, (The Traitor in the Tunnel), I scarfed it up. Now all I have to do is read the first book.
Fans of Victorian England will eat this series up. The period details are well drawn and in the third book the readers even get to meet Victoria herself!! Here's the set-up. Mary Quinn is a half-Chinese, half- Irish orphan who is rescued from a life of crime by The Agency, London's only all female private investigation operation. Mary gets a good education, room and board and training in detective skills. In
The Body at the Tower, she investigates a scam at an expensive building site and meets James Easton, a dashing engineer.
In
The Traitor in the Tunnel, Mary is assigned to Buckingham Palace to solve the mystery of small thefts from the Blue Room. While she is on assignment in the palace, a drinking buddy of the Prince of Wales is murdered in an opium den and the suspect just may be Mary's long-lost father. Mary discovers a secret tunnel - not on any of the palace maps - that leads to the new sewer tunnels and a project overseen by....James Easton! Romance, intrigue, an attempt on the Queen's life and an attempt to find and save her father keep Mary very busy in this third outing. And there is a promise of more to come and very interesting developments at the end of this book.
I was talking with a friend last week, and somehow we started talking about 2012 television shows that were cancelled. I was sad to hear that GCB (abc) Prime Suspect (abc) and Alcatraz (fox) were cancelled. I am not surprised about GCB it was a very funny show with a lot of potential to get better, but it never stood a chance that that unmemorable title. Though I was surprised Prime Suspect and Alcatraz are off the air.
I am always bit sad when shows I enjoy get cancelled, (Arrested Development, Wonderfalls anyone) I suppose I could write letters to the network, but it is not that serious. Though it's a shame when good shows get pulled off the air.
A few days after that conversation I started reading
Vanity, Vengeance, & A Weekend in Vega$ by
Kyra Davis. This is the sixth book in the Sophie Katz series and the first one that the author self published. I love me some Sophie Katz (and her friends) . And I gotta love an author that can work references of Alice Walker, Ayn Rand, David Sedaris and Emily Bronte.
''What part of the mafia do you think Fawn objected to? She's in jail for attempted murder so obviously it wasn't the violence." Maybe she didn't like working with other people?" " Yeah," Dena replied, "maybe she just didn't like the corporate culture. She's an individualist. Like Ayn Rand with a Quentin Tarantino edge."Sophie Katz is a bestselling mystery author/ accidental sleuth. Somehow she is always stumbling across dead bodies. Her Russian boyfriend Anatoly could give Ranger from the Stephanie Plum series a run for his money. Both characters have that dangerous/mysterious sexy vibe. Halfway into Vanity, Vengeance, & A Weekend in Vega$, I could not help but be thankful that books can not be cancelled.
If an author can't come to a contract agreement with their publisher, they can always submit their work to another house or self-publish. Of course the latter option is not easy and the financial gain is probably small. Yet some authors go this route, I am very happy Kyra Davis is one of them and that the Sophie Katz series could not be cancelled.
I don't normally do disclaimers, however since this is boarding on fan gushing beyond what is decent I will do one now. I purchased Vanity, Vengeance & A Weekend in Vega$, and it was money well spent.
Three Times Lucky
By Sheila Turnage
Dial (an imprint of Penguin)
$16.99
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3670-2
Ages 9-12
On shelves May 10th
The Southern Girl Novel. It’s pretty much a genre in and of itself in the children’s literary world. Some years produce more of them than others but they all tend to follow the same format. Sleepy town plus spunky girl equals mild hijinks, kooky townspeople, self-awakening, etc. After a while they all start to blend together, their details merging and meshing and utterly impossible to separate. I’m just mentioning all this as a kind of preface to Three Times Lucky. Sure, you can slap a Gilbert Ford cover on anything these days and it’ll look good. It’s how the insides taste that counts. And brother, the one thing I can say with certainty about Three Times Lucky is that you will never, but ever, mistake it for another book. We’ve got murder. We’ve got careening racecars. We’ve got drunken louts and amnesia and wigs and karate and all sorts of good stuff rolled up in one neat little package. I’ve read a lot of mysteries for kids this year and truth be told? This one’s my favorite, hands down.
It was just bad timing when you get right down to it. Dale just wanted to borrow Mr. Jesse’s boat for a little fishing and his best friend Mo LoBeau would have accompanied him if she hadn’t been working the town’s only café while her two guardians (the elegant Miss Lana and the amnesia-stricken Colonel) were unavailable. Then Mr. Jesse offered a reward for the boat, and that seemed worth taking advantage of. That was before he ended up dead. Caught inadvertently in the middle of a murder mystery, Mo decides to help solve the crime, hopefully without making Detective Joe Starr too angry in the process.
A good first page is worth its weight in gold in a children’s novel. I always tell the kids in my bookgroup to closely examine the first pages of any book they pick up. That’s where the author is going to clue you in and give you a hint of how splendid their writing skills are. Heck, it’s the whole reason I picked up this book to read in the first place. I had finished my other book and I needed something to read on the way home from work. Deciding amongst a bunch o’ books, I skimmed the first page and was pretty much hooked by the time I got to the bottom. It was this sentence that clinched it: “Dale sleeps with his window up in summer partly because he likes to hear the tree frogs and crickets, but mostly because his daddy’s too sorry to bring home any air-conditioning.” Aside from the character development, I’m just in awe of the use of that term “too sorry” which sets this book so squarely in North Caroline that nothing could dig it out.
Turnage’s writing just sings on the page. Naturally I had to see what else she’d created and the answer was a stunner. Mostly she’s done standard travel guides to places like North Carolina (no surprise) and some haunted inns. The kicker was her picture book Trout the Magnificent. It was her only other book for kids so I checked to see if my library had a copy. We most certainly do . . . from 1984. To my amazement, Ms. Turnage has waited a whopping twenty-eight years to write her next book. The crazy thing? It was worth the wait. I mean, I just started dog-earring all the pa
It's been one hair-raising, fun-filled adventure after another for twelve-year-old best friends, Cynthia and Gus. I've penned (okay...typed) five...count 'em...FIVE books taking the girls through a magic trunk in Cynthia's attic back more than 50 years to the Louisiana Bayou, Switerland, France, a steamship crossing the Atlantic, and even Southern Indiana, the original setting. They even traveled forward 50 years, meeting another pair of best friends.
Leading up to the release of the final book in the series, Cynthia's Attic: The Legend of LupinWoods, I'm highlighting some of these colorful characters (my relatives!).
Great Grandpa Charles:
As one of the early music teachers in Southern Indiana, he was a pioneer in his field. His enthusiasm for all things music inspired others to make it their chosen field.
He was also one of the first to turn his passion into a business, Conrad Music; still going today! He's shown in this picture driving the buggy he'd use to transport musical instruments he sold throughout Southern Indiana.
His love for music, and the fact that I've heard through many stories what a loving and generous man he was to his family and the community, is the main reason I decided to showcase Grandpa Charles in Cynthia's Attic: The Magician's Castle.
In this story, Grandpa Charles is taking an organ to the circus for the evening performance. What he didn't know until after he delivered the organ, is that his daughter,
Bess (earlier post), her friend, Clara, along with Cynthia and Gus, hitched a ride.
I pulled Cynthia behind a deep fold in the heavy canvas seconds before the procession marched by, and as we watched, it was pretty obvious from the pained look on Bess's face that her father hadn't been at all pleased with the unexpected company he'd found hidin
One great thing about my new job is I get to read a lot when there's down time. Some people at work are even starting a book club and I'll give the good and bad of it, after sharing some great books I've read recently. All of which I'd highly Recommend.
1.The Boy in the Suitcase by Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friss - After Nina picks up a suitcase from the train station for a friends, she discovers a little boy inside. I loved this one.
2. Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall the Groveland Boy, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King . This was excellent. I don't read much nonfiction but I couldn't put this one down. It was nice learning more about Thurgood Marshall.
3The Reckoning by Jane Casey - Another mystery, this is the third book in a series, featuring young detective name Maeve Kerrigan. Set in London Kerrigan in the first female officer in her department. I don't know how I've missed this series, but Kerrigan is one of the best new mystery protagonist out. Picking up the Burning by Casey from the library this week
4 Equal of the Sun by Anita Amirrezvani - This isn't something I would normally read but the publisher was kind enough to send a review copy. So I figured the least I can do is the give the book a try and I am so glad that I did. I loved it. The authors language is beautiful and the pages just flew by. Looking forward to reviewing this one here, closer to the release date in June. A must read for anyone who loves historical fiction or novels based around Royal families
5. Ada's Rules: A Sexy Skinny Novel by Alice Randall - I loved the main character Ada Howard, who is on a journey to loss weight in time for her 25 yr college reunion. This was so much fun and very well done. At times I was reminded of What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day by Pearl Cleage. Will be reviewing this one here soon.
Back to the book club. Bad news first, the first book is Fifty Shades of Grey by James. I decided to be a good sport and join in anyway.
The good news, I brought four other books from amazon. Into the Wise Dark by Meminger, Ship of Souls by Elliott, Chulito by Rice- Gonzalez and Forgotten Country by Chung
Since I've already read and very much enjoyed
Into the Wise Dark (
My review)
And Ship of Souls (
My review)
3 Comments on Reading While Working (Giveaway, In a Sharing Mood), last added: 4/15/2012
I was pleasantly mystified this week when a good number of $7 e-books on Writing Mysteries for Young People were sold.
Then I read Jan Field’s free newsletter, where she mentioned the Middle Grade Mystery Writing Contest with a grand prize of $500!
[That prize money sounded like a good reason for an extra post this week. Next Wednesday we'll continue with our discussion on motivation and commitment.]
Follow the Rules
According to the contest website:
The contest is for a well-constructed fictional mystery that will engage readers 9 to 12, to 900 words. Entries will be judged on structure, appeal for the audience, use of the best elements of the mystery genre, and an interesting protagonist.
Among the possibilities are a scary but age-appropriate story, a puzzle the reader is asked to solve using problem-solving skills, or a mix of mystery with another genre, such as historical, inspirational, or humorous fiction. The judges will look for originality, and publishability.
Entries must be received by April 30, 2012.
Specifics of the Mystery Genre
Hopefully you will be one of the five people who wins a free copy of Writing Mysteries for Young People that Jan is giving away. In case you aren’t, these are the topics covered in the ebook. It can take the mystery out of writing mysteries!
- Introduction: “Once Upon a Mystery”
- Chapter One: “Amateur Sleuths: The Basics”
- Chapter Two: “Amateur Sleuths: Tricky Traits”
- Chapter Three: “Villains: the People You Love to Hate”
- Chapter Four: “The Perfect Victim: Do’s and Don’ts”
- Chapter Five: “Setting: Scene of the Crime”
- Chapter Six: “Choosing Your Crime”
- Chapter Seven: “Pre-Thinking Your Plot”
- Chapter Eight: “Plots and Subplots”
- Chapter Nine: “Avoid Plot Clichés Like the Plague”
- Chapter Ten: “Planting Clues”
- Chapter Eleven: “Climax and Denouement”
- Chapter Twelve: “Finding Ideas for Mysteries”
- Chapter Thirteen: “Killer Openings”
- Chapter Fourteen: “The Magazine Mystery”
- Chapter Fifteen: “Cracking the Case”
- Chapter Sixteen: “The Mystery Notebook”
Never have I read a book that made me feel the gut-wrenching sorrow of the person left behind like this scrapbook/novel has. Evan was the best bud of Ariel, who took her life. Or did she? How are all these photographs showing up at his locker, in her bedroom shrine, in the countryside? Has his grief gone too far? Did Ariel commit suicide? What part did her boyfriend have in all this? The final two pages give the answers and hope. Few people could pull this off. But David Levithan can.
ENDERS' Rating: ****
David's Website
Today I spent the day inputting all the changes I so painstakingly made by hand awhile back to my mystery novel. I am eager to get these changes made on computer, and finally online so I can relaunch my ebook. I am always an early adopter of new media, and this book came out in 1999 as an ebook published by a press that is no longer in business. My reader at that time cost almost $300, and hardly anyone had one. Hardly anyone bought ebooks either. My novel was the best-selling mystery novel (ebook) for 1999, so that tells you how many were sold that year. Ha. Especially considering that it wasn't even published until October! Still, it did get good reviews, so I have high hopes for it in its new life. As it was written so long ago, it definitely needed to be brought into the new millennium, with cell phones and so on. Otherwise, it holds up. I'm going to need two more full days to finish the uploading.
I also want a new cover. And a marketing campaign. This will not happen overnight as much as I would like for it to. Why can't things happen more quickly? Life is too short, and yet things take too long. It has been ever thus.
Do you write mysteries? Do you have a designer you want to recommend to do my cover? I have someone in mind, but they don't specifically do mysteries. I'm open to suggestions.
Leave a comment.
By:
Donna Earnhardt,
on 2/14/2012
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It. Is. Coming. Closer… and closer… and closer… ARE YOU READY? WHEN? March 16-17. WHERE? North Greenville University, near Greenville, SC WHAT? FIND OUT HERE!!! Filed under: writing for children Tagged: christians who write for children, Jesus, kidlit, mysteries, novels, picture books, Write2Ignite, writing conference, writing for children
By: Laura,
on 8/23/2011
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For better or for worse, as parents, librarians, and teachers, we rely a lot on series to get reluctant readers to keep reading. Heck, even very strong readers love the predictability and familiarity they have with characters and storylines they’ve encountered before. To that end, there are some #2 books coming out in new series this fall and they just might be the perfect recommendation for the kids in your library or classroom (or home):
THE FAMILIARS #2: SECRETS OF THE CROWN by Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson
THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING EVERYTHING by Ben H. Winters
MO WREN, LOST AND FOUND by Tricia Springstubb
THE MAGNIFICENT 12: THE TRAP by Michael Grant
What other series are your kids
By:
Betsy Bird,
on 10/7/2011
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A Fuse #8 Production
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Icefall
By Matthew J. Kirby
Scholastic
$17.99
ISBN: 978-0-545-27424-1
Ages 9-14
On shelves now.
There’s a certain breed of middle grade fiction novel for kids that defies easy categorization. Call them fantasies without fantasy. These strange little novels pop up from time to time encouraging readers to believe that they are reading about something fantastical without having to throw magic spells, ghosts, or singing teacups into the mix. Frances Hardinge’s Fly by Night and Fly Trap fit this description. Ditto any book that really involves an alternate world. Now when I received my copy of Matthew Kirby’s Icefall I had an inkling that it would definitely be that kind of book. This notion was confirmed when I flipped to the first entry in my advanced reader’s galley and read the following classifications. They call it: “Action & Adventure”, “Science Fiction, Fantasy, Magic”, and “Mysteries & Detective Stories”. Highly amusing since there isn’t much in a way of science fiction or fantasy or magic here. Action, Adventure, Mysteries, and Detective Stories though? Tons! And entirely worth discovering too.
It’s tough being the middle child. Solveig knows this, but it doesn’t make her life any easier. Neither a beauty like her older sister Asa nor . . . well . . . male like her younger brother Harald, Solveig has never attracted the attention of her father, the king. Now with their nation at war, the three children have been sent to a distant mountain fortress to wait out the days until the battle’s end. As they wait they are joined by their father’s guard, the highly unreliable and frightening berserkers. At first Solveig is put off by their manners and actions, but as time goes on she grows to trust them. That’s part of the reason she’s so shocked when someone attempts to poison them all off. Though the community in this fortress is small, someone amongst them is a traitor. And in the midst of her training to be a storyteller, Solveig must discover the culprit, even if he or she is someone she dearly loves.
Now when I said that this book didn’t contain so much as a drop of magic within its pages I was being facetious. Truth be told, aside from the whole alternate world building Kirby does allow Solveig some premonitions in the form of dreams. And yes, the dreams seem to foretell what will occur in the future. Admitted. That said, I get the feeling that Mr. Kirby included the dreams almost as an afterthought. To be perfectly blunt, they come right out. Their sole purpose is to foreshadow, and foreshadow they do. There are certain fictional tropes for kids that just rub me the wrong way, like prophecies and the like. Portentous dreams, as it happens, don’t bother me one way or another unless they rate too much importance. In Icefall Kirby grants his characters’ dreams just the right amount of attention. Not too much. Not too little.
The book would actually make a fairly effective murder mystery play, should someone wish to adapt it. Like any good murder mystery the suspects are limited, cut off from the rest of the world. Scenes can only be set in the woods or in the buildings, and not much of anywhere else. The
By:
admin,
on 10/31/2011
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Manno, Mike (2010) End of the Line: A Parker Noble Mystery. Five Star Publishing of Gale, Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-1594148637. Litland recommends of interest to adults, acceptable for older teens.
Publisher description: When former banker R. J. Butler is found murdered on a city transit bus, police take little time making a connection with the embezzlement at his former bank. But is that the motive for his murder? State police detective Sergeant Jerome Stankowski and his persnickety “partner,” Parker Noble, are called to investigate and run into a host of possibilities including a trophy wife on drugs and an ex-wife desperately needing a church annulment R. J. was blocking..
Our thoughts:
The second installment of the Parker Noble series, End of the Line, is a fun yet engaging, quick-paced detective mystery. Parker Noble may be the genius who solves the crimes, but it is Detective “Stan” Stankowski’s antics both on and off the job that lighten the story. Truly a man’s man, Stankowski enjoys girl watching while being easily manipulated by his somewhat-girlfriend Buffy the reporter. He tries to juggle dating 3 girls at the same time, each end up having a role in solving the mystery. Meanwhile, the contrast of Parker’s rigidly-ordered life to Stan’s adds color, and both humor and clues surface throughout the story just often enough to keep the reader alert. My favorite dialogue pertains to Parker’s dog, Buckwheat Bob the basset hound, who listens to talk radio while Parker is at work:
(Stan) “I take it that the human voice is soothing for him?”…(Parker) ”Not really, he likes to listen to the political talk”…”You don’t think he understands all of that, do you?”…”Don’t know, Stanley. All I can tell you is that he’s turned into quite a Republican.” LOL!
A cozy mystery written for adults, it would probably have a PG rating if a movie: use of the bird finger; one suspect referred to as tramp, hussy, nude model; Buffy pressuring Stan into taking a vacation together. However, Stan remains chaste in his girl-chasing and the story is focused on the relationships between all the characters, which adds depth, interest and a few chuckles along the way. A fun story available in the Litland.com Bookstore.
By:
admin,
on 10/31/2011
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Bradley, Alan. (2010) The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag. (The Flavia de Luce Series) Bantam, division of Random House. ISBN 978-0385343459. Litland recommends ages 14-100!
Publisher’s description: Flavia de Luce, a dangerously smart eleven-year-old with a passion for chemistry and a genius for solving murders, thinks that her days of crime-solving in the bucolic English hamlet of Bishop’s Lacey are over—until beloved puppeteer Rupert Porson has his own strings sizzled in an unfortunate rendezvous with electricity. But who’d do such a thing, and why? Does the madwoman who lives in Gibbet Wood know more than she’s letting on? What about Porson’s charming but erratic assistant? All clues point toward a suspicious death years earlier and a case the local constables can’t solve—without Flavia’s help. But in getting so close to who’s secretly pulling the strings of this dance of death, has our precocious heroine finally gotten in way over her head? (Bantam Books)
Our thoughts:
Flavia De Luce is back and in full force! Still precocious. Still brilliant. Still holding an unfortunate fascination with poisons…
As with the first book of the series, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, we begin with a seemingly urgent, if not sheer emergency, situation that once again turns out to be Flavia’s form of play. We also see the depth of her sister’s cruelty as they emotionally badger their little sister, and Flavia’s immediate plan for the most cruel of poisoned deaths as revenge. Readers will find themselves chuckling throughout the book!
And while the family does not present the best of role models (smile), our little heroine does demonstrate good character here and there as she progresses through this adventure. As explained in my first review on this series, the protagonist may be 11 but that doesn’t mean the book was written for 11-year olds :>) For readers who are parents, however (myself included), we shudder to wonder what might have happened if we had bought that chemistry kit for our own kids!
Alas, the story has much more to it than mere chemistry. The author’s writing style is incredibly rich and entertaining, with too many amusing moments to even give example of here. From page 1 the reader is engaged and intrigued, and our imagination is easily transported into the 1950’s Post WWII England village. In this edition of the series, we have more perspective of Flavia as filled in by what the neighbors know and think of her. Quite the manipulative character as she flits around Bishop’s Lacy on her mother’s old bike, Flavia may think she goes unnoticed but begins to learn not all are fooled…
The interesting treatment of perceptions around German prisoners of war from WWII add historical perspective, and Flavia’s critical view of villagers, such as the Vicar’s mean wife and their sad relationship, fill in character profiles with deep colors. Coupled with her attention to detail that helps her unveil the little white lies told by antagonists, not a word is wasted in this story.
I admit to being enviou
By:
Betsy Bird,
on 11/7/2011
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A Fuse #8 Production
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The Romeo and Juliet Code
By Phoebe Stone
Arthur A. Levine (an imprint of Scholastic)
$16.99
ISBN: 978-0-545-21511-4
Ages 9-12
On shelves now
It seems unfair that my attention was first drawn to The Romeo and Juliet Code because of its cover. No book deserves to be held responsible for its misleading jacket and Phoebe Stone’s latest is no exception. Set during the Second World War, the book looks like a rejected shot from a GAP catalog more than a historical novel (pink Converse?? Really??). When ire was aimed at the jacket early on I remember many a supporter saying, “It’s such a pity it has that cover because the story is wonderful!” Willing to give it the benefit of the doubt (after all, The Trouble with May Amelia has a similar problem and is a magnificent bit of writing) I plucked up a copy from a friend and started to read. Oh my. No book, as I say, deserves to be held responsible for the sins of its jacket, but this book has sins of its own above and beyond its packaging. Ostensibly a kind of mystery for kids, folks with a low twee tolerance would do best to steer clear of this one. It is indeed beloved in its own right but this particular reviewer found its style to be strangely grating. As historical fiction goes, this does not go to the top of my list.
Flissy has found herself unceremoniously dumped. One minute she is living happily in her flat in England with her parents Winnie and Danny (though she doesn’t much care for the bombing going on outside). Next thing she knows they’ve managed to hitch a ride on a ship bound for America and she is left in the care of an unmarried uncle, an unmarried aunt, and a grandmother, none of whom she has ever met before. Her initial homesickness and loneliness are partly appeased when she starts uncovering the secrets lurking in the house. A hitherto unknown cousin by the name of Derek is found upstairs. Uncle Gideon is receiving strange coded messages and they seem to be coming from Flissy’s Danny. And why does everyone keep talking about the whispers in the nearby town? What other secrets can one family harbor? Flissy doesn’t know but with the help of her cousin she is bound to find out the whole truth.
I have an unattractive habit that comes out whenever a book starts to grow repetitive in some way. I count. Which is to say, I count the number of times that repetitive element appears. When I read Eragon for the first time I counted how many times a chapter began with some version of “Eragon woke up” (final count: twenty-one chapters do this). In the case of The Romeo and Juliet Code my weirdness was prompted by the author’s use of the term “ever so” as in “I was ever so interested in the number of times `ever so’ appeared in this book.” There are thirty-seven moments when the phrase pops up. In two cases the phrase appears twice on a single page. Reading an advanced readers galley of the book I was convinced that this had to be a typo of some sort. Surely the author got a little carried away and the copy editor would lay down the law before publication time, yes? Apparently not. On the child_lit listserv the book’s editor spoke about the ubiqui
By: Tarie,
on 12/7/2011
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Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind
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Tu Books publishes speculative fiction for children and young adults featuring diverse characters and settings. Our focus is on well-told, exciting, adventurous fantasy, science fiction, and mystery novels featuring people of color set in worlds inspired by non-Western folklore or culture. We welcome Western settings if the main character is a person of color.
We are looking specifically for stories for both middle grade (ages 8-12) and young adult (ages 12-18) readers. (We are not looking for picture books, chapter books, or short stories. Please do not send submissions in these formats.)
For more information on how to submit, please see our submission guidelines. We are not accepting unagented email submissions at this time.
What we’re particularly interested in seeing lately: Asian steampunk, any African culture, contemporary African-American stories, Latino/a stories, First Nations/Native American/Aboriginal fantasy or science fiction written by tribal members, original postapocalyptic worlds, historical fantasy or mystery set in a non-Western setting. Please note that while our focus remains on main characters that are people of color, we strongly welcome GLBTQ characters as well.
We look forward to reading your book!
I read
Mukoma wa Ngugi's Nairobi Heat (part of Melville House's
International Crime series) a few weeks ago, but haven't had the time to write much about it, so what I say here is likely to be more general than it would have been before. Though I think the novel has some significant flaws, those flaws are mitigated, for me at least, by a number of real strengths, and in the weeks since finishing it, moments from the novel have scratched through my thoughts and memory. For that reason, I think it's a book well worth reading.
First, to get unpleasantness out of the way, here's what I see as the novel's flaws: Events often feel like they exist for the sake of the plot's convenience and not for any reason organic to the narrative; some moments that should evoke an emotional connection from readers are not set up in a dramatic way that would allow such emotion to come to the surface and are instead sped through (a particular fault in the romantic relationship that propels some of the major events of the second half of the book); some of the characters are little more than hardboiled detective novel clichés in their general outline, if not their particulars.
However, I would not write about a small press publication of a writer's first novel if I didn't think its virtues were greater than its flaws, and it is the virtues I think worth spending time with here.
The greatest virtue of
Nairobi Heat is the way it uses a page-turning story to do what a lot of mediocre, self-consciously literary fiction aims to do, and does dully: show the complexities and paradoxes of identity, particularly identity as it is constructed through geography, race, and ideology. The narrator, a black American cop in Madison, Wisconsin, is named Ishmael, and at first I groaned at the obvious Melville
reference (hey, and it's published by Melville House! How cute!) — of course he says at one point, "Call me Ishmael" — but by the end of the novel I liked it, because while of course there are all the possible
religious meanings of the name, I kept Melville in mind: I liked thinking of him as sharing a name with the narrator of one of the most revered American novels — indeed, one of the novels most frequently cited as defining the
American part of American novels — and yet wearing it not as a badge of honor, but as a burden or, at best, a joke. He's got the wrong name to be a character in his own story. (Or, alternatively, the novel may be in part the story of how he grows into his name.)
Ishmael starts out by peppering his narration with a bunch of blunt statements about race in the U.S. For instance, "If I was to give advice to black criminals, I would tell them this: do not commit crimes against white people because the state will not rest until you are caught", "My partner, a white guy, had just retired and I knew where this was going — a white partner for the nigger cop to make everyone feel safe", and "The whites felt they were under seige; the black folk felt that white justice was going too far in incriminating Joshua." In a more naive or amateur book, these statements would be bare-faced statements of theme. They would reflect the writer's sense of an objective reality outside the narrator's perceptions. That's not the case here. While anybody even half co
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End of the Line: A Parker Noble Mystery
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Many thanks for bringing this title to my attention! I cannot wait to read it, add it to the Library & share it with my students. Our 6-8th graders spend a term studying African countries, especially post-colonial development, and it’s fabulous to have a terrific mystery to complement their studies.
Bonus: the author has an irresistible name!
Oh, it’s ideal for post-colonial development studies! Really it’s a discussion of some of the attempts made by the administration after President Julius Nyerere was elected . . . but in a kid-friendly way. Don’t know how Quirk pulled that one off, but she does.
True! Though I had to fight with myself not to write Quick each time I mentioned it. “Quirk” just seemed like authorial wishful thinking on my part.
[...] Elizabeth Bird of Fuse #8 at School Library Journal just wrote an amazing review of A Girl Called Problem. This woman is major royalty in the middle-grade and young-adult universe. She’s served on the Newbery committee, written for Horn Book, and weaves together the most intelligent, thorough, and sassy reviews out there. Talk about voice! It’s such an honor to have her review the book. Here’s a snapshot of the beginning of the review–ain’t it pretty?–and here’s the full review. [...]
[...] Library Journal blogger Elizabeth Bird reviewed Katie Quirk’s A Girl Called Problem on A Fuse 8 Production, calling it “a trifecta of publishing rarities.” Loganberry Books also published a [...]