Author: Park, Linda Sue
Rating: 
Reading Level: 3rd to 6th grade
Pages: 48
Publisher: Clarion
Edition: Hardcover
I am absolutely delighted and pleased by the collection of Sijo poetry (a traditional Korean form of short poems) paired with playful and often surprising illustrations. It will be fun to see children and grownups trying their hands on creating this kind of poems!
Author: Lynne Jonell
Rating:
Reading Level: 4th - 6th grade
Pages: 352
Publisher: Henry Holt
Edition: Hardcover, 2007It's impressive how Jonell manages to inform the readers of all characters' personalities, feelings, and actions without ever straying away from Emmy's perspective: readers only know what she sees, hears, and thinks. The outlandish circumstances with all the super(magical?)-powers of the rodents are accompanied by a gentle tale of friendship, longing for parental love, and the essence of stable families. I mentally applauded the several jabs at the absurdity of the over-scheduling of our children.
The illustration with the flip-book margin of Rat falling and Emmy catching him ceases being a gimmick when it visually sums up the spirit of the story: "Don't worry. We're friends. I will catch you if you fall."
Author: Sandi Toksvis
Rating:
Reading Level: 5th - 7th
Pages: 191
Publisher: Roaring Brook (originally Randomhouse, UK, 2005)
Edition: Hardcover, 2007What a feat... a tender, courageous, and often wryly humorous tale about the horrors of the Nazi occupation of Denmark. (Even if it's just a small corner of the world the Nazi's had a hold on.) Because of the courage and ingenuity and the strong belief in human equality of the Danish people, most of the 8000+ Jews were sheltered, transported to safety, and survived. This story from pre-and-early-teen Basme's (Teddy Bear) view point should be introduced to as many young readers as we can! It does not have extremely gruesome depictions that will upset young readers who have yet to know this part of our history, but it has plenty of nerve-wrecking moments and conflicts to hold one's attention and interest. There is great sacrifice and a few upsetting events (at least two quite irrevocable sufferings) toward the end of the tale, justifiably depicted. I cried, laughed, and gasped with terror, during the great theatrical scene that Mama staged to save their neighbors. Knowing that the story is inspired by family histories and relatives of the author I bought the story even more.
Author: N.D. Wilson
Rating:
Reading Level: 4th to 7th
Pages: 224
Publisher: Random House
Edition: Hardcover, 2007A great survival story, a thrilling adventure, an intriguing mystery, and a tall tale. It reminds me of Paulsen's survival stories but seems to have even more layers and with incredibly enjoyable wry humor: "It was a face deciding what to say and how to say it, and the truth didn't look as if it was a factor in the decision making."
"The bottom of the trash bag was full of boiled crawdad dead. Those remaining in the pool wandered about, confused by the sudden spaciousness."
"Jeffrey was dragged out by his shoulders and then propped up with his back against the couch. The bag was still blood-glued to the back of his head and stood out around it like a white plastic halo."
Yup, a few gruesome scenes: for example: dealing with and collecting useful things from a dead body. I loved those scenes.
Author: J.K. Rowling
Rating:
Reading Level: 5th and up
Pages:
Publisher: Scholastic
Edition: Hardcover, 2007I got the book shortly after midnight on Saturday morning, July 21..., at "The Harry Potter Place" party hosted by Scholastic. Spent 2 hours reading it (1:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m.) -- thought, "Now, this is quite good. I'm not annoyed by redundant adjectives or adverbs or repetitive verbs... And I'm really sucked back into this world again. How wonderful this feels!" Then, most of the day and evening of July 21 was spent reading/dozing off/reading/dozing off on the comfy chair in the living room. Dozing off, not because the story wasn't exciting but simply due to exhaustion. So, these early chapter and adventure took on a dreamy quality -- I wonder if it's the text or just because I was dreaming ... and Harry was doing a lot of dreaming and seeing through another's eye. His was nightmares, mine was a reader's trance. Being a slow reader, I couldn't finish it on Saturday. And I dared not get online to visit any book places, in fear of knowing what comes next. Not that it would have spoiled my experience... but, in a book full of deliberately hidden clues and mysteries, it was more fun to not know anything and slowly discover the "truth." Sunday saw me busy entertaining house guests and stealing moments to dip back into the tale. By bedtime, I was so deep into the world and so engrossed with the plot threads that I knew today (Monday) couldn't be spent in any other way but finishing it.
And finishing it I did, with much shedding of tears, much satisfaction with certain of my "predictions" came true, delighted in the reappearance of certain characters and elements from previous books, and inevitably slightly annoyed by a couple of threads and characters left underdeveloped. But, over all... it was a truly satisfying conclusion to a long journey. The many many pages in this case are not wasteful or draggy, but fitting for the exhausting and arduous journey that Harry and the Gang undertook. I'm just, really, pleased.
This sounds really fun. Thanks for the rec!
Someone compares this to a Dahl story and I asked my 3rd grade daughter if she feels that way. She disagreed, saying that there is a deliberate "mystery and problem solving" going on (actually, there are more than one mystery in the story) which makes it different from stories by Roald Dahl. She couldn't put it down, finishing it in 2 days!
Reading that your daughter couldn't put it down is the best review of all. Thanks for passing that on!