War Horse

 
War Horse by Michael Morpurgo

The first time I ever heard about War Horse, it was on Good Morning America. The London stage play, War Horse, had finally crossed the ocean and was premiering in New York. The trio of puppeteers for Joey, the titular character, brought him to life in the newsroom and I was mesmerized. What amazing talent! I am relatively certain that Joey also made an appearance on Live with Regis and Kelly. I stood spellbound in my kitchen. Oh how I longed to witness the magic for myself.

And then War Horse was made into a motion picture by Stephen Spielberg himself in 2011. I wasn’t interested. I wanted the mystical quality of the puppets on stage. But even then, I had not a clue that the play and the movie were based upon a CHILDREN’S BOOK!

No, it wasn’t until I received the 2013 Illinois Bluestem Nominee Master List last year that I did a double take. WHAT!!?? Not only is it juvenile fiction, but it is a VERY slight novel. I read it in a day in the truck driving towards Mt. Rushmore. Had I read the book as a child myself… it was published in 1982… I doubt that I would have envisioned it as the type of book that would be made into anything… It has obviously touched many lives.

I am trying not to regurgitate what so many already know about the story. I also realize that the three different versions are not identical due to the nature of the various media arts. I will tell you the way I see the story. Through a non-human participant, Joey, the reader is shown that many people, even the ones that are supposed to be our enemies, have good in them.

The most obvious example occurs when Joey is caught between two trenches, one belonging to the Germans and one belonging to the English. Both armies spontaneously accept a ceasefire long enough to rescue the injured and lost Joey from between the two sets of barbed wire. The men who enter the area known as “no-man’s-land” agree to the conditions of a coin toss and thereby Joey is saved and placed once again in safe, capable hands. The two soldiers agree that they would both rather be at home tending to their own affairs rather than fighting the battle for which they no longer understand the reason. Neither wants to be in the business of killing men.

Even at the beginning of the story, Joey’s young master, Albert, has a drunkard for a father. In fact, much of Joey and Albert’s troubles come from the father’s drinking binges. Joey was purchased out of a drunken spite. Joey is beaten out of drunken rage. Joey is forced into manual labor out of a drunken bet. Finally, Joey is sold to the army out of a drunken need for money. But when Albert’s father wakes from his drunken coma, he is regretful and remorseful and contrite to an extent. It is his vice that is evil. The reader hopes that he will learn to shun alcohol.

The story would have bored me when it wasn't bringing me to tears if not for the climax and resolution. When Albert finally finds Joey! It is BEAUTIFUL in my opinion. And I thought the ending was very clever. Recommended to boys who enjoy war stories. Too sad and depressing for my girls, I believe. And not your typical horse book either. Wouldn't recommend to animal lovers.

Close to Famous

Close to Famous by Joan Bauer

I finished this 2014 Caudill Nominee on the first leg of my family’s summer vacation trip to Mt. Rushmore – the first of six books that I devoured over the course of a week. I find reading to be an excellent way to spend many, many, many hours in a truck. I feel nothing but sympathy for the poor souls who are unable to read in a moving vehicle without getting carsick.

The most interesting facet of this book is its foray into pop culture. No, there is no reference to Justin Bieber or Shake It Up or anything else with which a junior high tween would be enamored. Instead, a good portion of the book’s blueprint relies on a popular television network – The Food Network. I don’t know how many contemporary children watch The Food Network channel, but in our house it is a daily affair. We are hooked on Chopped; Iron Chef; Diners, Drive-ins and Dives; and The Next (fill in the blank.) My children would like nothing more than to host their own Chopped and I always offer to judge the contestants. Our Sunday evening ritual finds us sitting in front of the newest contest to hit the network. We get quite competitive with our favorites.

Here I had a book I could suggest to both my 13-year-old and my almost 9-year-old! And I might even get cupcakes out of the deal. Check out that delicious cover! Yes, book talks are free vacation offerings.

I like the main character that is both skilled and smart despite her major reading disability. Foster McFee barely passed the sixth grade and I wonder how she managed. She cannot read even simple street signs. So here is a gal who can waltz into the local dive and offer a sample of her delectable cupcakes and muffins in the hopes of selling them from said establishment. She wins their hearts through their stomachs and bakes to order. Yet she has never been able to read a recipe from a cookbook! She hears them on television and commits them to memory along with any tips that would be useful for future flavors.

Once I was on vacation and free from life’s labors, I truly enjoyed this novel. I thought it read very much like real life. There is never only one problem in one’s life. And we are always surrounded by people with their own unusual circumstances. It would be a rather dull life otherwise. It is the downs that make the ups soar. And it is the different people at various stages of life’s roller coaster that lend us support, encouragement and sympathy.

But I do wonder at how much a tween is able digest when even some of the adults complain. There is A LOT of drama here in 250 pages. Foster’s father died, a soldier in Iraq. Her mother is a backup singer who wishes to take center stage. The two are on the run from an abusive boyfriend who happens to be an Elvis impersonator. They end up in a town with problems of its own. A prison was built with the promise of jobs that never were offered locally. A church is for sale and the preacher’s wife sits on the steps scaring off the buyers. A boy wants to make a documentary but needs a chance as well as help. And a jilted Hollywood star lies sick in bed waiting for her next big offer. And that is just what I remember from a month ago!! I think girls who enjoy cooking and making their own drama will delight in reading Close to Famous.

Wednesdays in the Tower

Wednesdays in the Tower by Jessica Day George

Tuesdays at the Castle could have stood on its own and I would have been satisfied. I am so glad it will be at least a trilogy. I read Tuesdays to my girls over a year ago and we were enchanted. So much so that my youngest, at seven, purchased a paperback copy at the first Scholastic book sale (There are notes in the margins). So much so that my oldest wrote her first book report of her seventh grade year on Tuesdays. So much so that my youngest decided to write her own seven page summary. Her copy of the book AND the summary were either in her book bag or next to her bed the ENTIRE school year. Charmed. Perhaps enthralled.

It was like Christmas in July, when I marched home with Wednesdays. And my girls were just as captivated and now eagerly awaiting “Thursdays”. I will share three, no four things that I as the reading-aloud-adult noticed about the sequel. First, in a way it is utterly different from the original novel that included intrigue, espionage, pranks and assassinations. This novel is less dark and sinister. It revolves around an egg that appears in a new tower and the castle goes out of its living way to protect it and ensure that Celie, our main character from the first novel, is the guardian of the creature that hatches from it. The tone is of nurturing wonder and amazement. Life as opposed to death.

Second, the new novel goes in an unforeseen direction. In Tuesdays, the castle protects, reassures and affirms Celie’s royal family despite the horrible things that happen to the individual members. The Castle Glower lends aid in the form of found objects and secret passageways. The castle plays a supporting, yet vital role. In Wednesdays, the castle takes a starring role. The book begins to tell the story, the history, of the castle. Every new room added is a piece to a greater puzzle. The castle is laying out its history for Celie and her siblings if they only pay attention. The creature in the egg is the first clue. Oh, why don’t I? It’s right on the cover! The creature is a mythical griffin!

Next, my only complaint. I prefer books that complete a story arc within its covers. The perfect series will have one solid overreaching arc that begins in book one and finds completion in the final book. But each individual book will have its own conflict and resolution separate from the larger picture. This book doesn’t have the lesser arc. It begins an arc that ends abruptly. The last chapter is a major cliffhanger and provides absolutely no resolution. I would be a VERY unhappy camper IF the book had not taken a unique and completely unexpected turn. I am curious! I am keen to learn! Forgiven.

Finally… this book is full of the same childlike humor that the first book was loaded with. Children, forced to grow up quickly due to circumstances, but still able to retain their childlike sensibilities. Highly unusual in my opinion. Wait until you get to the part where you meet “Flat Squirrel”! I could hardly get through the sentences; we were all laughing sooooo hard!! I will highly recommend this series to girls 2^nd grade through junior high. Remember, my oldest is highly sensitive and much prefers fantasies of the mythical creature comedy variety! And I don’t blame her. This world could use a smile and a laugh now and again.

I, Emma Freke

I, Emma Freke by Elizabeth Atkinson

There are not many that I have come across in my reading, but I have met a few. It seems that I have met more of them in recent times. This book is one of them – a stumbling block – in more ways than one. I kid you not! This 233 page Caudill Nominee for 2013 took me more than a month to finish.

It would be fair to add on my behalf as well as the book’s that I was ridiculously busy with all things in preparation for the summer programs and then the summer programs themselves covering three separate events and two separate places. I really didn’t know if I was coming or going or even eating. Not to mention school was out and schedules completely change.

However, if the book had been remotely enticing in anyway, I think I would have been able to finish it much sooner. As it was, I didn’t even bother to finish it quickly to put myself out of my misery. In fact, I rather ignored it… Very unusual for me. Consequently, the review simply wouldn’t write itself.

Quick synopsis: Emma is freakishly tall, freakishly pale, freakishly smart and has freakishly bright red hair. She is also freakishly introverted. Her last name is Freke and saying her first and last name together, aloud, is freakishly bad form. It would not be so freakish if her mother shared any of these same traits, but she doesn’t. Not a one.

Emma’s mother is short and round and olive-skinned. She is the epitome of an Italian American woman. But she is also a free-spirited, bohemian who couldn’t find her head if it wasn’t attached to her neck. She owns a business, but doesn’t exactly run it. In fact, she relies upon her twelve-year-old daughter to keep it open, staff and organize it. Donatella is more than willing to let customers think that Emma is her employee rather than her daughter.

There is a book because this summer, Emma is invited to the family reunion of her, before now, unknown father’s unknown side of the family. And guess what? Emma’s blood relatives who are accepted happen to be tall, pale and red-headed! Cursed is the child born otherwise. Exiled is the child born with a creative bone in his body. The Freke’s are an organized routine-driven clan.

Of course Emma discovers that she loves the creatively free-spirited life in which she has been raised. But she is ultimately relieved that she is not adopted and there is a reason for her looks and some of her character-traits that obviously didn’t come from Donatella.

Wasn’t so quick was it…

So I’ll keep my personal objections to a minimum.

When the book opens up, Emma is in her counselor’s office and the counselor is asking ridiculous analogical questions regarding popularity. I have a very hard time believing that Emma would be required to see a counselor for something as trivial as lack of friends when the real problem in her life is a neglectful mother.

I also find it hard to believe that Emma is excelling in her school work no matter how smart she proves to be. She receives no support from her mother or the elderly grandfather that lives in their apartment with them. Emma also ditches afternoon classes twice a week preferring to watch her mother’s bead shop in Donatella’s forever absence. And it goes unnoticed.

The characters and situations are simply not believable.

My favorite character, for I do have one, is Fred Freke, a literal outcast. He is so different from other blood Frekes – he short, dark and he wants to be an entertainer – that the rest of the clan is required to ignore him. The reader cannot even tell who his parents are. Not believable, but delightfully rebellious nonetheless and he makes Emma more likeable and less monotonously whiney.

How to Seize a Dragon's Jewel

How to Seize a Dragon's Jewel by Cressida Cowell

PAY ATTENTION! I’m Gobber the Belch and I’m the soldier in charge of this book review!

SILENCE! Anyone to speak has limpets for lunch for the next THREE WEEKS! YES! They are a bit like WORMS and a bit like SNOT and a lot less tasty than either, but I am in charge and that is an ORDER!

I will be leading you through this book review, although I am, admittedly, completely useless for this job. I will do it because I was ordered to by Stoick the Vast, O Hear His Name and Tremble, Ugh, Ugh, the CHIEF of the Tribe of the Hairy Hooligans, and that’s the way things go with us Vikings. Where do you think you are, the REPUBLIC OF ROME? Anyway, that is the least of your problems today. You are here to prove yourself as a Viking Hero. And it is an ancient tradition of the Hooligan Tribe that you should … … FIRST CATCH YOUR DRAGON!

WAIT!

That’s the dragon initiation test … … FIRST READ THE BOOK!

You see, this is the story of how to become a hero the HARD WAY! And if you are smart, you have already read all of the books in the How to Train Your Dragon series. You would have to be IDIOTICALLY STUPID not to have done so.

Sometimes, becoming a hero the hard way involves a little bit of BRAINS and a whole lot of PERSEVERANCE. Sometimes it requires being banished into EXILE and living alone with your two itty bitty dragon friends who live in your waistcoat. Sometimes it requires wearing a helmet that is far too LARGE for you and gets in the way of your line of sights. And FINALLY, sometimes it requires wearing a fireproof dragon suit.

Becoming a hero the hard way might mean facing the two most important personages in your life. In this, the book numbered TEN, my one time STUDENT, and now my KING, must stand up to both his mother, Valhallarama, and his father, Chief Stoick. He must prove that … … (i cannot believe i am saying this) … … sometimes, OCCASIONALLY, brains can overpower brawn. Loyalty outweighs self-preservation. And faith will see you through, EVEN THROUGH A DESERT SEA OF RED SAND WHEN ALL HOPE IS LOST AND YOU ARE STANDING AT THE ZERO HOUR!

Finally, sometimes the scariest thing in the archipelago is not a DARKBREATHER, MONSTROUS STRANGULATOR OR A BURROWING SLITHERFANG. No, sometimes the scariest thing in the archipelago is a little girl with black hair and big, doomy eyes, dressed in a BEAR SUIT!! EEEEEEKKKKKKKEEEEEE!

WHAT ARE YOU STARING AT … … READ THE BOOK!

How to Train Your Dragon

 

The Apothecary

The Apothecary by Maile Meloy

I remember the day I started this book fondly. School was still in session and I was taking a day off, probably because I had just worked a Saturday or I was getting ready to work a full weekend. I was ready to splurge! I had just finished a lackluster novel and was excited to try again. I was curled up on my black leather recliner with a “cat” blanket wrapped around my shoulders. My shoes were kicked off. The dog was at my feet. The cat was in my lap. My coffee was next to me. A glass of water was within reach. I was only missing some delicious pastry…

And I dug in!

I recall exclaiming, “This is brilliant! Lovely! Delightful!” over and over and over. The book was unique and sucked me right in. I was in paradise in more ways than one. An adult Janie Scott was looking back on her childhood and recalling the spring of 1952 in which her memory drew a blank. She was able to share her memories only through her very diary that had finally been returned to her. She recognized her diary merely because she recognized her own handwriting.

What had happened in 1952 that had caused her to lose her memory? Magic!

Rereading the first chapter or two, I see why I was so entranced. The book begins as historical fiction covering an era I know less about – America during the age of McCarthyism. Janie’s parents were Hollywood screenwriters who were blacklisted for their liberal ideas. When U.S. Marshall’s began to follow fourteen-year-old Janie, her parents decide it is time to leave. They take a job in London and move the family. Janie drags her feet all the way!

I remained captivated through the family’s move to London and Janie’s miserable first day at the elite St. Beden’s Academy where she met a perfectly perfect rich girl and witnessed a rebelliously charismatic boy. I fell in love with the local Apothecary who recognized Janie’s homesickness and prescribed an antidote that might even work if you were willing to try it.

And just when the fantastical begins to take place and one would think there will be ever more glorious adventures…

Well

It

Just

Fell

Flat

How sad.

I don’t quite remember when I became bored with the book. Ne w and interesting characters were introduced including a show-stealing Dickensian street urchin named Pip who claims the lovely rich girl for his own. There are spies and double agents and even a scar faced man. There is a Chinese chemist who has discovered how to capture radiation in mass quantities and protect the people from such atrocities as the atomic bomb.

There is so much here to like. In the end, I believe the problem with this novel is that it tries to do too much. Be too much. It is quantity over quality in my opinion. There is magic… but not enough. It is historical… but not enough. It is mystery… but not enough. Perhaps picking one genre and sticking with it would have produced a stronger novel. If it would have just been about the cold war, I would have been fascinated. And I love the idea of apothecaries being a secret society of alchemists trying to protect the world from harm.

I really wish I could have loved it. I won’t have to recommend it. It is a nominee from the Rebecca Caudill 2014 list.

Theodosia and the Staff of Osiris

Theodosia and the Staff of Osiris by R. L. LaFevers

Two family-reading books ago, I read the second Theodosia novel to my girls. They were both extremely eager to begin it. Every evening they were impatient to continue it. After each chapter, they begged for one more. Sometimes they hid under the covers. And I confess, sometimes I instigated the hiding… The talent of reading ahead while reading out loud is exceptionally useful for drawing greater suspense as well and preparing to frighten unsuspecting children. HA HA HA HA HA!!!

I enjoyed this book for the pleasure it gave to my girls. Anything that gets them into their pajamas quickly is a winner in my book. Whatever gets my girls to brush their teeth in a timely fashion gets an A+ in my records. I will read through dull and boring and lackluster if they ask. Really, I will. I am glad that I don’t have to because they both have fine tastes. They recognize inferior writing… It will fall to the bottom of the pile. Five thumbs up for the second Theodosia. They loved it… I was not as enthralled myself.

There were many elements that I appreciated significantly. There were three separate plot lines that I would have loved to stick with. My favorite was seemingly unfinished. Grandmother Throckmorton is on the hunt for a governess for Theodosia. She interviews them and then brings them to the Museum of Legends and Antiquities to meet and teach Theo. We meet three of them in this volume. Each is funnier in their manners than the next. It is Theo’s mission to run them off. Hilarious in my opinion, but not the main plot and never completed. I loved it, but it isn’t really necessary to the plot even… just extra added laughs.

My second favorite plot line involves another secret society! The Arcane Order of the Black Sun is the “most secret of societies, dedicated to studying and understanding the wisdom and power of the ancients.” The Museum’s nervous and bumbling Third Assistant Curator is a member. Unbeknownst to Theo, he has been watching her and her peculiar brand of magic – removing black curses. And he is bringing her before his secret Order because he believes that she is the Queen of all goddesses reincarnated! The Black Suns wish to worship and protect her! I haven’t laughed so hard for a while. But again, is this plot necessary or just more laughs thrown in?

Finally, the main plot line! Very enjoyable once… but three times? All of the mummies in London are disappearing! And they can be found… you guessed it! At the Museum of Legends and Antiquities! They seek out the Staff of Osiris which happens to be in the “catacombs”. Theo uncovers it herself, puts it back together and discovers its power all on her own. She also devises as plan to prevent the mummies from returning a fourth time. It is imperative! Or her father will be thrown in jail!

Still recommending to the 5^th through 8^th grade crowd, particularly girls. We shall read the third and fourth as well. I will not deny my two!

Book 1: Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos