Recommended for ages 8-12.Hair--we’re all obsessed with it, to one degree or another. But how many of us spend time thinking about the history of hair? Veteran non-fiction writer Kathleen Krull does--her first “book”, written when she was ten, was called “Hair-Dos and People I Know,” a collection of hair-dos of all kinds. So it should be no surprise that her newest book looks at the history of hairstyles, and of those individuals who “made history with their hair.” In the beginning, she reminds us, “everyone is furry.” But over the centuries fur coats grow smaller and smaller, until they’re mainly on top for sun protection. Now we’ve got hair instead of fur. Krull touches briefly on many hair related topics in chronological order, from the evolution of hair color (how and why did a cavewoman wind up with blonde hair?) to Egyptians who shaved their heads to get rid of bugs but then wore wigs to protect their heads from the hot sun, to punk rockers’ Mohawks and Dorothy Hamill’s wedge cut. Kids will especially relish descriptions of all kinds of disgusting-sounding early hair products. Did you know “goat pee” and “pigeon poop” were early remedies to get rid of baldness? Cleopatra recommended a blend of horse teeth and deer marrow, mixed with toasted mice, to her bald lover, Julius Caesar. Avocado, bear grease, and butter were used in various time periods to make hair soft and shiny. Flour helped powder wigs for 17th and 18th century aristocrats, and Marie Antoinette and her friends sported huge hair-dos adorned with everything from miniature ships to birdcages and toys. Back matter includes “hair extensions,” providing further details about hair in each of the time periods portrayed in the text as well as a bibliography with other sources suitabl
Recommended for ages 8-12.
Jennifer Holm's 1999 novel
Our Only May Amelia (which received a Newbery Honor in 2000) is one of my all-time favorite historical novels for kids, and I was eager to read the sequel which has just been released this spring. If you haven't read the first book, May Amelia is the only girl in a large family of Finn immigrants living in a remote area of Washington State around 1900. Amelia fits into the tradition of feisty tomboy frontier girls like Laura Ingalls, and her first story both made me laugh and made me sob (no spoilers, for those who haven't read it).
While the sequel doesn't quite pack the emotional wallop of the first book, I greatly enjoyed this book as well. In fact, I felt like I was visiting an old friend whom I hadn't seen in quite some time, one I was glad to catch up with. How to describe 12-year old May Amelia? Holm opens the book with the following description: "My brother Wilbert tells me I'm like the grain of sand in an oyster. Someday I will be a Pearl, but I will nag and irritate the poor oyster and everyone else until then." Her Pappa tells her "he would rather have one boy than a dozen May Amelias because Girls Are Useless." She lives in the middle of nowhere with no girls to keep her company, and she's always being teased by her seven older brothers. Her father not only runs the family farm but also works at a nearby logging camp for extra cash.
When a quick-talking stranger comes to town, May Amelia finally proves useful to interpret for her father from English to Finnish. The stranger's looking for investors to develop the land around the Nasel river, and assures Pappa he has powerful supporters. Pappa would have to mortgage the farm, but is this a once in a lifetime opportunity to bring the family out of poverty and into prosperity? And will May Amelia finally demonstrate to her father that she has "sisu", or guts?
This story is based on the author's own family history, in particular that of her great-grandfather, who settled on the Nasel River in 1871. But it is young May Amelia who's the star of this funny but also moving tale of the Western frontier. She's one of those characters who stays with you long after you've finished her story. I'd love to see Jennifer Holm continue with more stories about May Amelia as she grows up. But I hope we won't have to wait twelve years for the next installment!
For more great books for tweens, check out
Green Bean Teen Queen's weekly meme, Tween Tuesday.
By:
smmorris,
on 5/12/2011
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4 STARS Phillip Isaac Penn, who goes by the nickname “PIP,” shares a week of his error prone life where he seems to hear his name as more of a shout than anything else. He awakes to the sounds of his mother calling out, “Pip!” Then dad chimes in with “Pip.” And then sister yells [...]
Recommended for ages 8-12. This second offering in
Laurie Calkhoven's Boys of Wartime series for middle-grade readers tells the compelling story of 12-year old Will, who lives in the quiet town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and dreams of glory as a Union drummer boy. He's too young to enlist without his parents' permission, which his mother is not about to give, but when the book opens Will has no idea of the important role he'll be asked to play for the Union cause.
As Confederate troops march into the town, prowling the streets "like hungry wolves," even forcing the local candy story owner to open his shop so they can clear out the goodies, Will makes an unexpected friend--a drummer boy his age from Tennessee, a friendship that will soon prove more valuable than he can imagine. Will is as surprised as can be when he finds himself inviting the hungry and dirty boy to supper, where he is greeted with courtesy by Will's family (his mother even offers the ragged boy clean clothes). Through Will's eyes, we see how the battle came about, with the two sides meeting pretty much by chance at the crossroads of ten major roads at Gettysburg, making a battle at a town the commanders of both armies had never heard of all but inevitable.
As the battle draws near town, Will's sisters are taken to a neighbor's farm nearby, where his mother thinks they will be out of the way of the battle. As Confederate soldiers take the town on July 1, Will meets an injured Union officer who is desperate to get a message to General Meade. Can Will help him get through the Confederate lines to complete his mission? Should he join up with the Union officer and become his messenger?
This is an exciting war novel for middle grade students; as a civilian, Will's character offers a different perspective on the war than we find in many children's novels. First he's excited to see all the soldiers, and dreams of enlisting himself. Soon, however, he experiences the horrible sights, sounds, and even smells of battle as he discovers that the peaceful farm where his sisters had been sent has been converted to a hospital, crammed with injured and dying men moaning in pain, begging for water, and filled with the noise of the surgeon sawing off ruined limbs. He finds himself on the battle's front lines in spite of himself, as the battle progresses to different locations around the town. Calkhoven vividly describes the sights and sounds of the battlefield--the cannon fire shaking the earth, the roaring of the guns--making us feel that we are right beside young Will. She also gives us a good perspective on what is happening in the town, where Union soldiers are hiding in Will's mother's house, which is searched by Confederates who Will's mother winds up cooking dinner for. His house, too, fills up with wounded soldiers.
Calkhoven concludes her novel with Will hearing Lincoln's very short--but later very famous--address at the dedication of the cemetery for the thousands of dead soldiers at Gettysburg. Will even has a chance to shake the famous man's hand.
The novel includes an historical note, brief biographical information on real historic characters who appear in the novel, a timeline of the battle of Gettysburg and the Civil War, and a glossary.
I am madly trying to get in the last few Paris books left in the pile before the end of April!
Natalie Savage Carlson's 1959 Newbery classic The Family Under the Bridge
may not be on your radar but it should be.
In Paris, congenial Armand is a self-proclaimed hobo and likes it that way. He professes that living free without any obligations is how he wants to spend his days. He definitely does not want any children messing things up. That is, until he meets a recently homeless (and fatherless) family living under his bridge during the frigid Christmas season. While the mother works during the day, Armand takes the children around Paris. They manage to worm their way into his heart (which was never as hard as he pretended it to be) until finally he decides to sacrifice, get a job (don't worry, not a taxing one) and warm home for his new found family.
This is a delightful, sensitive, and touching story with lots of great Paris details. The busy workings of the city are woven into the text. The magical adventures include: watching crepes being made (again with the food!), gypsy fortunes being told in Notre Dame square, walking along the Seine next to ancient buildings, visiting the chaotic food market, a Christmas service under the Tournelle Bridge, and many, many other tantalizing visits to other Parisian locations.
A great read aloud for children ages 5/6 and up, or a read alone for ages 8/9 and up.
Want More?
Read a longer review at Books 4 Your Kids.
The image of Armand as a "happy homeless" should be tempered with some discussion about the stark realities of homelessness.
Just go ahead and book your tickets to Paris right now. You know you want to.
Big Kid says: Why didn't he want to live in a house?
Recommended for ages 10-14.
Release date: April 18, 2011
In a companion to his acclaimed novel,
The Wednesday Wars, award-winning writer Gary D. Schmidt revisits the Vietnam era in
Okay for Now. Doug Swietech, a secondary character in the Wednesday Wars, becomes the focus of this story; it's close to the end of the summer, and Doug and his very dysfunctional family have just moved to a "dump" of a town in upstate New York when the book opens. Doug idolizes Joe Pepitone of the Yankees, and his most treasured possession is a jacket signed given by his idol. His home life is dominated by his abusive father and his bullying older brother, while another brother is off fighting in Vietnam.
The library and the town's kind librarian, Mr. Powell, play a key role in the story, as Doug discovers that although "maybe stupid Marysville was a dump,...this place wasn't." At the second floor of the library, he finds a special room, with a huge book--a book displayed under glass, with only one picture showing. It's a gigantic picture of a bird, and Doug can't take his eyes off it. "It was the most terrifying picture I had ever seen. The most beautiful." It's an original Audubon, and it haunts Doug's imagination. Although Doug doesn't draw (since, as he quips in the book, only girls with pink bicycle chains draw), the kind librarian is soon leaving drawing supplies near the Audubon display that Doug is drawn to by some powerful magnetic force. When he finally picks up a pencil to copy Audubon's drawing, it felt "spectacular, " and Mr. Powell is soon giving him drawing lessons (was that in Mr. Powell's librarian job description?)
As much as Doug hates "stupid Marysville", he is quickly befriended not only by Mr. Powell, but also by Lil, a girl whose family owns the town's deli, and gets Doug a job delivering groceries on Saturdays for some of the more eccentric citizens of Marysville. Things aren't going too bad for Doug, until his older brother is suspected of some local robberies, his father's physical abuse is revealed to all his classmates, his brother comes back from Vietnam maimed physically and emotionally, and to top it off, pages of the precious Audubon manuscript are being sold off to pay the town's bills. Can Doug stop the cycle of abuse in his family and perhaps even put the town's Audubon book back together?
Schmidt is a masterful writer, managing to incorporate pathos, humor, loss, the power of art, friendship and more into this memorable novel. Doug's voice and his journey is one that the reader will not soon forget. The novel is pulled together by the Audubon prints, which serve as titles for each chapter and are pictured in the novel as well, and often seem to mirror what is happening in Doug's own life. As Doug comes up with ways to reconstruct the precious book, he is also making sense of his own life and future.
Okay for Now is already getting some pre-Newbery buzz, and perhaps Schmidt will be adding a Newbery to his two Newbery honor awards (for
The Wednesday Wars and
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy. Schmidt, who is a professor of English at
Calvin College with six children of his own, is working on the third volume of
The Wednesday Wars trilogy. That's a book that will definitely be on my "to read" pile.
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Invisible Inkling by Emily Jenkins Hank Wolowitz, please call him Wolowitz, lives with his sister and parents in an apartment above their Brooklyn ice cream shop called the “Big Round Pumpkin: Ice Cream for a Happy World.” His best friend Wainscotting has moved to Iowa City leaving Wolowitz feeling alone. It doesn’t help that Wolowitz [...]
Susie Morgenstern's Secret Letters from 0 to 10 is a delightfully quirky book filled with interesting and appealing characters who will charm their way into your heart. Young Ernest has lost his mother and his father has been missing since he was one day old. He lives a very quiet life with his grandmother and their housekeeper who won't let them eat fat, meat or sugar (Heeeellllo! This is France. Food is All.). Enter the chatty Victoria, sister to 13 brothers. Victoria befriends Ernest and through her and her family, he is introduced to a world of yummy foods, grocery stores, movies and the telephone. Even his grandmother ventures outside. When Ernest sees his father's name on a history book he musters up the courage and writes to him, with wonderful results.
Morgenstern's book won numerous French literature awards, and rightfully so. Morgenstern's writing style appears at first to be quiet and deliberate, but she sucks you in with Victoria's honest vivacious gabbing contrasted with the gentle direct observations made in Ernest's... well, earnest... voice as he discovers how interesting life can be. To give you a taste, here are some of my favorites:
Ernest looked carefully at this woman who had spent ten and a half years of her life pregnant, had had fourteen babies (maybe a world record), and despite it all seemed perfectly normal.
If someone invites you, go right ahead! For what could be more incredible, fascinating and amazing than another human being?
How could he be holding a baby? This was impossible. But just then he felt something funny. He felt a smile come across his face, stretching his mouth from ear to ear. ... Ernest had never been hugged before. This truly was seventh heaven.
After I read this book I realized that, despite being listed under Paris (France) -- Fiction in the card catalog, Paris might never have been mentioned at all, although the book oozes Frenchness especially by way of the food -- the kids go home from school to have a leisurely lunch (beef fondue!), Ernest writes an essay about trying couscous for the first time, and he discovers that fat and white flour croissants are not the enemy. There is really not a lot of emphasis placed on the City, except that it is a backdrop for Ernest's discoveries. The families live in apartment buildings, climbing numerous stairs to reach their homes. With Victoria, Ernest feels "daring, like an urban hunter, an explorer in his own neighborhood, almost a hero."
But you don't need to love the city, to enjoy this
Secret Letters from 0 to 10
. In fact, I'm not sure how anyone could help
but love this book. It would make a great read aloud for kids about ages 6/7 and up, or a read alone for kids ages 9 to 109.
Want More?Visit the
author's website.
Recommended for ages 8-12.
In her second novel for young people,
Rosanne Parry takes us back to Berlin in 1990, at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of communism in Eastern Europe. The novel has a terrific opening line:
"If we had known it would eventually involve the KGB, the French National Police, and the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, we would have left that body in the river and called the Polizei like an normal German citizen..."
Our narrator, Jody, is a army kid, used to moving constantly and not forming bonds that are too tight. But she's made two really good friends in Berlin at the American school--Giselle and Vivian--and the three take music lessons together. As the novel opens, Jody will soon be moving back to the States since her father is retiring from the army. In the meantime, she and her friends are preparing for a chamber music ensemble contest in Paris when their teacher falls ill and tells them he can't be their chaperone on the trip from Berlin to France. On their way home from the lesson, the girls witness a terrible crime in East Berlin, and save a Soviet soldier from drowning in the river. When they get the idea to have him impersonate their music teacher--providing them with a chaperone and getting the young Estonian away from the Russian army in one fell swoop--they can't foresee what the consequences will be, nor who exactly the young Estonian might be. Is he friend or foe? Are the Russians following them on the train to Paris, looking for the Russian sergeant?
The three girls have the adventure of a lifetime in Paris, with lots of local color thrown in, including a stay at
Shakespeare and Co., the famous English-language bookstore in Paris. This is an engaging story of friendship, music, and freedom set in what's a long-ago era for today's tweens--the end of the Cold War. A time before kids were constantly checking in via texting and phone with their parents--positively the Middle Ages for today's kids!
Second Fiddle was recently picked as a
Spring 2011 Kids Indie Next list, from the independent booksellers association.
Disclosure: Review copy provided by publisher.
Recommended for ages 10 and up.
I love a good dog story, and was delighted to find a terrific dog heroine (and no, she doesn't die at the end!) in this new historical fiction perfect for middle schoolers by debut children's novelist
Randi Barrow. Don't forget to check
The Fourth Musketeer tomorrow for a fascinating interview with Randi!
Set in Russia at the end of World War II, this page-turner opens as thirteen-year old Mikhail finds a dying soldier and his beautiful German shepherd in the forest near his house. When the soldier doesn't make it, the family is faced with a dilemma--what to do with his dog, Zasha? The Germans were so hated by the Russians at the end of the war that German dogs were shot in the street out of vengeance, and Mikhail and his family decide to hide Zasha to save her life.
Dogs of any kind or breed were a rarity in the Soviet Union right after the war--many had starved to death or been killed in combat after being trained to blow up German tanks. The Russian army has realized that it needs dogs after all, and Zasha is in constant danger from armed dog thieves looking for dogs to sell on the black market, a nosy neighbor girl who secretly craves a dog for herself, and a Russian soldier who is charged with breeding a new Russian superdog at a nearby farm. Mikhail and his family fall desperately in love with the loving, smart, and loyal Zasha. They've lost so much in the cruel war, including Mikhail's papa, who's still missing--will they lose Zasha too?
This is a fast-moving adventure story that will have a broad appeal to both boys and girls; we can't help but fall in love with Zasha, and empathize with her new family. Nothing is simple in wartime, including innocent dogs, who were trained as vicious guard dogs and made to sacrifice themselves in battle. But we also see how Zasha has an incredible healing effect on this family, whose members have suffered during the war.
 |
| Black Russian Terrier |
Although this story is fiction, the author includes an afterword on the breeding of the
Black Russian Terrier, a hardy Russian dog which was bred after the war, mostly with dogs imported from East Germany because there were indeed hardly any dogs remaining in the Soviet Union.
A great read-along for this book would be Cynthia Kadohata's
Cracker! The Best Dog in Vietnam (Atheneum, 2007), the story of a young soldier's bond with his bomb-sniffing dog in the Vietnam war.
Giveaway information: Scholastic has generously donated a copy of Saving Zasha for one of my lucky readers--to enter to win, please leave a comment below with your e-mail and the title of your favorite dog book (for kids or adults!)
Release date: April 12, 2011
Recommended for ages 8-12.
Set in 1936, at the height of the Great Depression,
Bird in the Box is described by the author as "mostly a book about the power of the human spirit, and of how one man's triumph brought glory to so many people." This moving novel weaves together the story of three different children in Elmira, New York: the sassy Hibernia, the daughter of a reverend, whose mama ran away to New York City right after she was born with dreams of being a jazz singer; Willie, who lives with his abusive, drunk father and his suffering mama while he dreams of being a boxer like his idol Joe Louis; and Otis, an orphan whose parents were killed in a tragic accident, and who keeps their memories alive by remembering his father's riddle-jokes. All three children idolize
Joe Lewis, the Brown Bomber. As Otis' ma tells him,
"When Joe Louis fights, it's more than just throwing punches, Otis. That boy's fighting for the pride of Negroes. When he loses, every colored man loses a little piece of his own pride."
Andrea Pinkney captures the unique voice of each of the three narrators, whose lives converge at the Mercy home for Negro Orphans, where Willie's mother sends him to escape the abuse of his violent fathers. At Mercy, he becomes friends with Otis, as the two bond over Otis' Philco radio. Hibernia meets the boys while singing with the church choir at a special holiday performance for the orphans. A stray cat the boys name Bird joins their ersatz family, and before you know it, they're all gathered by the radio listening to Joe Louis' championship fight. By using actual transcripts from radio broadcasts of Joe Louis' boxing matches, Pinkney provides an immediacy to her descriptions, as we can feel the excitement of the children listening to the matches on the radio.
This book is filled with appealing characters, from the three children to the supporting cast, from the strict Reverend to the kind Lila, who works at the orphanage. Pinkney skillfully weaves in historical information about Joe Louis, a key figure in African-American history, and as Pinkney describes him in her author's note, "a strong and beautiful symbol of hope." The author's note includes biographical information on Joe Louis, as well as information on her great-grandfather, an amateur boxer in Elmira, New York, who was the model for the character of Willie in this novel.
For more on Joe Louis for young people, see the following:
Matt de la Pena and Kadir Nelson.
A Nation's Hope: The Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis (Dial, 2011)
George Sullivan.
Knockout: A Photobiography of Boxer Joe Louis (National Geographic, 2008)
William Miller and Rodney Pate.
Joe Louis: My Champion (Lee & Low, 2009)
Recommended for ages 10 and up.
Curious about what happened to the slaves who ran away to seek freedom in Canada? Unfortunately, not everything went smoothly for all the runaways who made it to Canada. In this historical fiction novel for young people, author Ann Towell spins a tale based on a real race riot that took place in 1863.
The story is narrated by Titus, a 12-year old boy who stows away in his older brother's wagon to the Canadian oil fields in Oil Springs, Ontario, around the time of the Civil War. Titus has been living with his Aunt Sadie and her husband, and he's had just about enough of his aunt's nagging. When his brother Lemuel plans to leave to go to his Uncle Amos' house at the oil fields, Titus figures it's time for him to have some adventures rather than go to school. On the road to the oil fields, they meet up with a stranger, John, whom Titus figures is bad news. "There didn't seem much about him that was honest and true," Titus tells the reader.
With the cover image of a young black boy, I was convinced at first that the narrator, Titus, was black himself. It took me quite a few pages to figure out that the character we see on the cover is in fact not the narrator, Titus, but rather Moses, a young black boy that Titus befriends when he arrives at Oil Springs. Moses is the first Negro Titus has ever seen, and he describes his face as a "dark color like the beautiful walnut sideboard Aunt Sadie had in the dining room." Moses and Titus even start a business together, giving tours of the oil fields to curious folk from the cities.
But the former slaves didn't leave all their troubles behind--some of the oilmen are trying to wreak havoc about the black people working on the oil wells, stirring up trouble by telling people that the blacks are taking jobs away from them by working for less pay. When their tactics don't work, they stoop even lower to rile up the crowds and drive the blacks out of town. Titus winds up an eyewitness to the violence. Can Titus save his friend Moses and his family and help bring the troublemakers to justice?
We learn so little in school about our neighbors to the north that I am always glad to discover a historical novel that explores Canadian history, particularly as it intersects with our own past. Clearly racism didn't end at the Canadian border, despite the lack of a history of slavery in Canada. This novel offers an interesting perspective on the Civil War period from the other side of the border, and it's also a moving coming-of-age story about a young man who's forced to confront his fears in order to pursue what's right.
Other blog reviews include:
Ms. Yingling Reads,Quill and Quire,
Good Books and Good Wine,
Bookish Blather,
The Magic Lasso,
Journey of a Bookseller.
Recommended for ages 7-10This new biography of jazz great Louis Armstrong tells the story of his childhood from the perspective of his first trumpet, bought from a run-down pawn shop in New Orleans. This unusual narrator provides a distinctly different point of view in this engaging biography for young children.
Author Weinstein describes Armstrong's very poor childhood in the toughest neighborhood in New Orleans (known as The Battlefield), but notes that Louis never complained; "he said [complaints] hurt his ears as much as a horn's sour notes." Despite his poverty, Louis had the ability to look on the bright side of life. From an early age, Louis was known for his huge smile, which everyone said was as wide as an open satchel. So they called him "Satchelmouth," eventually shortened to Satchmo.
We see Louis introduced to jazz, so fascinated by the pulsing rhythms that he would sneak into clubs and hide under tables to listen to the music. Although it was clear from an early age that Armstrong had a great gift for music, with his family's poverty, there was no money for an instrument or music lessons. But when he was about seven, he went to work in the junk business of the Karnofskys, a Russian Jewish family who lived on the edge of the black neighborhood. The Karnofskys fed Louis, gave him work, and in honor of their kindness, he wore a Star of David necklace his entire life. According to this book, the Karnofskys loaned Louis money to buy his first cornet, our narrator, the five dollar horn in the pawn shop.
With the need to make money, there was little time for Louis to go to school, and he dropped out in the 5th grade to take up singing with a quartet of boys on a street corner. But when he was 12 years old, Louis was arrested for firing a gun in the air on New Year's Eve, and sent to the Colored Waif's Home for Boys, out in the countryside, a combination orphanage and reform school. There he had the opportunity to study music and even play in a band, and had clean clothes and three meals a day. He spent a year and a half there, and when he left, he worked shoveling coal during the day and singing in a quartet and playing cornet after that. Before long he was discovered and earning a dollar a night to play in a band with King Oliver, who took Armstrong with him later to Chicago.
This book ends as Armstrong is becoming successful and famous, and doesn't deal at all with the later part of his life. However, an Afterword describes how he was considered the greatest cornet player in the world, and later the greatest trumpet player. The author describes what made Armstrong special, including his skill at improvisation and his scat singing. She also points out that despite his lack of formal schooling, Armstrong enjoyed writing and kept journals as well as writing two autobiographies. The book also includes a glossary of jazz terms and jazz slang, as well as a brief bibliography.
This is an entertaining and interesting book for young readers, although it doesn't strive to give a complete picture of his life, concentrating instead on his colorful childhood in New Orleans. It also doesn't delve into the more controversial parts of Armstrong's biography, such as his reputation among some in the black community as an "Uncle Tom," or his initial lack of public support for the civil rights movement.
For more on Armstrong, check out the
website for his home in New York, now a museum, which offers a comp
Recommended for ages 8-12.
In her first novel for middle grade readers, author
Jerdine Nolen presents a fictional diary of a 12-year old slave in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1854, as she escapes to freedom in Canada through the help of the Underground Railroad. Much like Scholastic's
Dear America series, the story is told in diary entries that take place over the course of a year.
Eliza is not an ordinary slave; at a time when it was against the law for slaves to learn to read and write, she was taught by her mistress to do so. But it is not her mistress but fellow house slave Abbey who gives Eliza the unused diary Mistress had thrown away, along with two lead pencils. But she knows she must write in it in secret, far from the eyes of Sir, the plantation's cruel owner. Eliza's mother has been sold away, leaving her with only her memories and a beloved story quilt to remember her by. This quilt has twelve panels, each symbolizing a different story her mother loved to tell, including two blank squares, for Eliza to quilt her own stories on. Eliza's own narrative is peppered with her mother's stories, some of which have African roots, others coming from the Bible.
Because she reads the newspaper to her nearly-blind Mistress, Eliza is more aware than most slaves of the unrest in the country over slavery, and learns through the paper about the underground railroad. She wonders what that could be. "Do they mean departure by an underground railroad train? Is there a way they escaped on a train that runs under the ground? I want to know how to find that train station. I want to know how to get three tickets: one for Abbey, one for Mama, one for me."
When Eliza is sent with her mistress to "Mary's Land," she meets Harriet Tubman, who one of the other slaves tells Eliza is the Moses of their people, coming back to show others the way to freedom. Be ready in the spring, they tell her, when Miss Harriet will be back. But when she finds out Sir is coming to take them back home, she knows she can't delay any longer; she must go north to freedom.
The diary chronicles Eliza's journey on the Underground Railroad, and how she used markers and the North Star to find her way from safe house to safe house. Although the happy ending that awaits Eliza in Canada seems a bit forced, the book is likely to be popular with young readers looking for historical titles. There is plenty of suspense as Eliza makes her way north, and the author does an excellent job capturing Eliza's voice and her everyday life as a slave before she runs away.
An author's note explains that the book started as a collection of her favorite stories and folktales, and she was subsequently inspired to add the voice of young Eliza, the storyteller. She also mentions
Canterbury Tales as a source of inspiration as well.
The book includes a bibliography of related books and websites.
Check out other blog reviews at
Fuse #8,
Tutu's Two Cents,
Kirkus, and
1 Comments on African American History Month Book Review: Eliza's Freedom Road: An Underground Railroad Diary , by Jerdine Nolen (Simon & Schuster, 2011), last added: 2/8/2011
Recommended for ages 10 and up.After reading
Candace Fleming's
Barnum biography earlier this year, I was happy to have the opportunity to learn more about Tom Thumb, "discovered" and made famous by Barnum himself. This very accessible biography by George Sullivan, who has written more than 100 non-fiction books for young people, is a fascinating book for children or adults.
 |
| Tom Thumb and P.T. Barnum |
Charles Stratton was born in 1838, and was actually over 9 pounds at birth. But before his first birthday, Charley seemed to have stopped growing. The doctors were perplexed, since Charley was healthy in all other ways and perfectly proportioned. Because of his small size and winning personality, Barnum offered to show him at his museum in New York. Although his mother was initially against the plan, Charley's parents agreed to try it out for a sum of $3 a week. Not yet five years old, Charley's show business career had begun as General Tom Thumb, a name Barnum chose from English folklore.
Because Tom Thumb and Barnum's lives were so intimiately entwined, the book provides plenty of anecdotes and background about Barnum's life as well as the "freaks" at his museum. With the extensive archival photographs and original documents, such as the text of one of Tom Thumb's scripts, we are able to easily imagine his shows, in which, among other antics, he sang, danced, and sold kisses to the ladies. Tom's popularity grew quickly, and before long his salary went up to a princely $25 per week.
Although Tom's exhibition as entertainment may seem distasteful to our twenty-first century sensibilities about people who are "different," the author is careful to put Tom's career in the perspective of the time. No conventional careers would have been open to Charley other than entertainment, and under Barnum's tutelage he because very wealthy and traveled the world, even performing for Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, and their children. Background is also provided on dwarves throughout history, explaining how dwarves had a long tradition of serving as entertainers at royal courts and elsewhere.
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| Tom Thumb's Wedding in 1863 |
Readers of this book will see how Barnum fanned the cult of celebrity to maximize his--and
Recommended for ages 10 and up.
Release date: February 15, 2011Author
Anna Myers' newest historical novel for children is a dark tale indeed, opening with a creepy graveyard scene in which young Robby and his Da steal a corpse from a freshly made grave. The theft is described in great detail, as poor Robby has to get into the grave with the corpse in order to help his father remove the body. As long as they leave the clothes and any valuables, no crime was considered to have been committed. The body, that of a young girl, is then sold to the medical school, where Robby meets Dr. Bell, the head surgeon. Robby is disgusted by this work, but his father insists Robby help him, threatening otherwise to take Robby's mother along.
Robby's mother runs a boarding house in 19th century Philadelphia, with only one lodger, the kind but very elderly Miss Stone. But it appears their luck might be changing when an important-looking man, William Burke, shows up with his young daughter Martha to rent rooms. Robby's intuition tells him that something about Burke is sinister, and when he follows him to see what he's up to, he discovers Burke is a professional gambler. But there's more to Burke than gambling, and soon he gets Robby's Da involved in his schemes. Now Robby doesn't have to go robbing graves during the night anymore, and indeed he gets a small job working for Dr. Bell at the medical school. But there's a truly evil project going on right under Robby's nose: one that results in several murders carried out right in the boarding house! Can Robby expose Burke's evil-doing without leading his own father straight to the executioner?
An author's note explains how this book was partly inspired by the infamous case of Burke and Hare, who committed a series of gruesome murders in a Scotland boarding house in order to sell the bodies to medical schools. The publicity about this case led to a law passed in Great Britain making it a crime to take bodies and at the same time providing that unclaimed bodies be given for medical school use. Grave robbing was prevalent in the United States as well.
Although the publisher recommends this book for ages 8-12, I would suggest the book for middle schoolers (10-14) because of the very dark nature of the content. The story itself is well paced and exciting, and could be a good choice for reluctant readers looking for a historical title, particularly those who like "scary stories." Robby is an appealing character who tries to do what's right, even at the expense of his own family. The book does play to the stereotype of the long-suffering Irish mother and the drunk, abusive Irish father. Robby's mother makes excuses for the father's behavior, telling Robby not to hate his father, but rather to feel sorry for him and to pray for him. She tells her son that she can't leave his father, but Robby can when he's old enough. While this may offend out 21st century sensibilities, many women indeed were trapped in unhappy marriages during this time, with no feasible way out, especially since their husband controlled all the property.
Disclosure: Review copy provided by publisher.
Recommended for ages 8-12.The first in a new history series from Scholastic, this slim volume focuses on biographical sketches of six key players during the Civil War: Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Clara Barton, George McClellan, Robert E. Lee, and Matthew Brady, and how their lives intertwined. Suitable for elementary school-aged readers, the book is abundantly illustrated in full color, with photographs, maps, and paintings selected to bring these famous individuals to life.
Each person is profiled in a separate chapter, about 20 pages long, telling about his or her childhood, early years, their families, and their accomplishments, in an easy-to-read format. The biographical format also allows the author to compare and contrast the different individuals, explaining how Lincoln and Frederick Douglass had many things in common, for example, both having started their lives poor and having become famous speakers and leaders, and how Matthew Brady's photography helped make Lincoln president.
This is a good choice for students interested in learning more about famous individuals from the Civil War, but it is not a book chronicling the war itself. While the information provided is not in-depth, it provides a useful introduction to the various figures profiled, and may spur students' interest in exploring their lives in more depth in other biographies or Internet resources. Enough details are provided on each of the six figures to be used in an elementary school biographical report as well; the book could also be a good selection for older middle school or even high school students with lower reading skills, since the small size and low page count (150 pages) make it less intimidating for reluctant readers than some other nonfiction choices. Included in the text is a bibliography of relevant books, articles, and websites, as well as an index.
Disclosure: Review copy provided by publisher.
by Sundee T. Frazier. Delacorte Press, 2010. (Library copy). Minni and Keira are eleven years old twins. They are biracial, with a Black mom and white dad. Minni is lighter skinned and looks like dad, while Keira is darker and looks more like mom. Everywhere they go people remark over them and wonder how they could be born of the same parents, since they look so completely different. Minni and
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I always have stacks of books to review for this blog, but sometimes one or the other gets bumped to the top because someone else has requested it from the library, putting a stop to my endless online renewal activity. Such is the case with Amy Hest's 
. That's okay, though. It comes at a good time as one of my favorite book bloggers, 
It's quite trendy these days to proclaim that one is a "Free-Range Parent," but of course such a term was never necessary when everyone already was a so-called "free-range kid." A perfect example of this is Elizabeth Enright's 1941 classic, 
, in which all the kids, aged 6 to 13 are allowed roam about New York City by themselves. Well, the 6 year old was not supposed to go out by himself, but... still!
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Wow, fascinating story! I actually think it's great that McDonalds is handing out books instead of plastic toys!
I agree with you--Chik-fil-A here in California was giving out copies of classic Golden Books with their kids meals instead of toys, which I thought was a welcome change from the junk that the kids usually get at fast food restaurants.
My daughter read this and loved it...it's on my reading list too.
This one is on my TBR. I've read a number of Morpurgo's book- Private Peaceful is one of the most extraordinary books for young people that I've ever read.