The House of the Sixty Fathers

The House of the Sixty Fathers by Meindert DeJong

This is a 1950’s Newbery Honor book that is more satisfying than recent bestsellers. It still amazes me that this book with the unobtrusive, faded cover can so easily capture my attention and stir my emotions. It doesn’t have any of the bells and whistles of modern day novels. You certainly cannot purchase it for your Kindle. And yet it is worth the $6 you would have to spend to buy the paperback. Had I spent $9.99 on the most recent novel I reviewed, I would have been horrified! Not worth the binary code it was written with!

This is the story of Tien Pao, a young boy of unspecified age. He is the first born son of a small family from the village of Tien in China. They own little – a small pig, three ducklings and a stone mill for grinding rice for Tien Pao’s baby sister, Beauty-of-the-Republic.

When the novel begins, Tien Pao’s family is hiding in the town of Hengyang. The Japanese have invaded China and chased the people from their villages towards inland. Tien Pao’s family ran with no food or money. They only escaped by taking a sampan, (houseboat,) that was left on the river unattended. Many days and many nights the small family journeyed against the river’s current to find safety from the Japanese army.

Tien Pao’s mother and father leave Tien Pao with the sampan, the pig and the ducklings while they search for work to earn money to buy food, Beauty-of-the-Republic strapped to his mother’s back. Tien Pao has strict instructions to stay aground for the river is too strong and too swift for a child so young and weak.

An American Airman seeks out Tien Pao to take him across the river in exchange for money. Tien Pao agrees with the urging of his sampan neighbor. Tien Pao is assured that he will receive yen in exchange for the trip. Hoping to please his family, Tien Pao agrees.

Tien Pao earns 100 yen – enough money to feed his family for weeks – as well as the distrust and disappointment of his father. Tien Pao’s mother scolds him for disobeying – he could have been hurt or worse. Tien Pao vows never to do it again, but he cannot control his fate. Purely by accident, the sampan is set adrift and rides down the river unbeknownst to the boy.

When Tien Pao realizes what has happened, he finds that he has drifted all the way back into enemy territory with a small pig, three ducklings, a handful of rice and a broken sampan. He has many hard decisions ahead, but he keeps the pig and names him Glory-of-the-Republic. Glory-of-the-Republic is the friend that gives Tien Pao the support and warmth he needs to make his way through the mountains, past the Japanese and back up the river to find his family.

Glory-of-the-Republic is also the distinguishing characteristic that sets Tien Pao apart from the many Chinese refugees and war orphans. Glory-of-the-Republic marks the boy as the one who not only ferried the American Airman across the river, but also saves his life not once, but twice in the mountains.

And that is how Tien Pao earns the right to live in the House of Sixty Fathers.

Beautifully written. Woven like a tapestry. Tight. No loose ends. And everything important to the story.

I realize how hard this book will be to sell. It does not look like much. But this is how a book should be written. Maybe I can find a World War II buff out there… Or maybe my daughter would like to tackle another 1950’s Newbery book… Meindert De Jong has never let me down!

The Death Curse

The Death Curse by James Dashner

This is not the book you are looking for.

Move along.

If I ever suggested that this was the next “Hunger Games” series, I am retracting. If I ever told you to try this trilogy to satisfy your need for more dystopian literature, I apologize. If I ever led you to believe that this series was worth a gander, please ignore me. I was wrong. Very wrong.

Take The Maze Runner alone. Be satisfied with it. It is good. It is satisfying. Yes, it poses many questions. Yes, it leaves you wanting to know more. But the problem is that those questions will never be answered. You will never know more. The wizard behind the curtain is never unveiled with a flourish.

From the very first, the main character Thomas has only ever really wanted one thing – his memory back. All of the boys in the Glade suffer from the same problem – their memories have been erased. So as much as they can ask questions… no one has answers.

If you get stung by a Griever, you undergo the Change and you gain some of your memory back. In fact, Thomas purposefully gets stung for this reason. He regains a few memories from his time as a boy at home with his mother, but he never gains any solid insight into his time spent with WICKED.

In this, book three, WICKED has finally decided to end the trials and give the boys their memories back. YEA! No. Not at all. Our narrator and his closest friends decide to abstain. They no longer want their memories back. Seriously? When Thomas is finally forced to undergo the surgery to reinstate his memories, he manages to block them from his consciousness. Please. I’m done. I’ve had enough.

In the good old days, (last year?) you could expect that all hints, clues, questions would be addressed. Loose ends would be tied. Every word and action had a purpose. And when you finished the book, you could be wowed by the outcome. Or rewarded with the answers. You could say “ah-hah!” You would be mystified. You’d rush to go back and reread the novel and be in on the secret.

Not here. Alas, so many misdirections either intentional or accidental. So many things that I was interested to have cleared up. I couldn’t wait to see the big picture. But there wasn’t one. Disappointment.

The Maze Runner

The Scorch Trials

How Tia Lola Came to Visit Stay

How Tia Lola Came to Visit Stay by Julia Alvarez

I am not fond of contemporary realistic fiction.

I sit here and stare at that sentence. It is the absolute truth. Contemporary realistic fiction bores me. Oh, there are a few that stand out – distinguish themselves from the pack. They usually end up on the Caudill list. It might be humor that makes the ordinary enjoyable. Or it might be an unusual situation that holds the reader’s attention. With the most recent list of nominees, it was the point of view, the unique narrator’s voice that added the twist.

This title comes from the Bluestem Award list which in and of itself bores me. I find it redundant. It covers a group of children that are already covered via the Caudills and the Monarchs. However, the Caudills seem to be maturing right along with the children who are reading them. The Monarchs are mostly picture books which might seem babyish. And so we have a list that is “younger” than the Caudills and “older” than the Monarchs, but draws further into past books and also revisits old Caudills. Is it just that we have too many books being published?

So, the ordinary… Here we have another book about displaced children. Main character Miguel and younger sister Juanita have moved from New York City to a small town in Vermont following the divorce of their parents. What is nice… we are never told why the parents divorced. This is not a subject that is ever broached. This feels realistic for me. I never understood why my parents separated. I was too young for such an adult subject. And any arguments never played out in front of me. I don’t know how true this is for other children affected by divorce.

What I identified with… a very colorful “aunt” who brightens up any room, any day and can make any hurt feel better. Yes, I have my very own Tía Lola. I call her Auntie Phyllis and she is not my aunt. She is my mom’s best friend from her younger days – her first roommate after leaving home and heading for the big city of Decatur. Auntie Phyllis has always been in my life and she has always been a special treat to look forward to. She is unique and unusual. My best description for her would be from the plaque hanging above her kitchen sink. “Only dull people have immaculate houses.” You could get lost in her home from the piles. So what I didn’t understand… Miguel is embarrassed by his bigger than life aunt. He wants to pretend that she doesn’t exist. He hides her from his potential friends.

Miguel is a child trapped between two cultures. He is an American born of Dominican immigrants. While his family lived in New York, he fit in. There was a substantial Dominican presence. But he stands out in Vermont and his aunt makes their family unforgettable. Tía Lola is the best thing Miguel has going for his family and he cannot recognize it. He spends most of the book counting the minutes until she leaves only to discover he is the one who asks her to stay.

If there is one thing that I appreciated about the book, it was Tía Lola’s ability to communicate easily and effectively with everyone, (save Miguel,) without having even a basic knowledge of the English language. It shows that the spoken word is only a fraction of language.

The Bluestem Award is recommended for 3-5 graders. I’m just not enthralled by it.

Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom

Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom by Eric Wight

Part graphic novel/comic book and part chapter book. Part Indiana Jones and part middle school boy next door. This Monarch nominee captured part “my imagination” and part “what every child dreams of.” And was devoured in one sitting.

When I was growing up, my room was my Narnia and my backyard was my Galaxy Far, Far Away. I could easily escape into my fantasy and away from the demands of my mom by climbing across the swing set and into the fields beyond. I could quickly evade my younger siblings and their tantrums by closing my bedroom door. In fact, I probably spent more of my time in my mind than in the physical present. Now I see that it was how I survived and it was not unusual for a few of my closest friends to join me when we were younger. But they left it behind sooner than I did. Actually, I still live there much of the time.

As I started reading this book, I thought, “The author really gets it. He has a true grasp of the mind of a child with a vivid imagination.” For instance, there are pictures on every page. This child never really leaves his fantasy, but you can tell when he has fully entered it when the pages leave prose behind and enter the standard framework of a graphic novel. The fantasy grows, expands or changes as a different toy is discovered or a new person enters the room.

Frankie Pickle, (an endearing nickname for the more cumbersome Franklin Piccolini,) is your average adventure-loving, superhero-adoring, laundry-illiterate boy. No different from my own children, when Frankie is called away from his latest escapade, he leaves everything right where it is so he can pick up where he left off – later. Later might be after dinner… or next week. He might have several “storylines” going at a time. And forget everyday chores. Why pick up the laundry when the Dryer Sheet Fairy will take care of it in due time.

Unfortunately for Frankie, the Dryer Sheet Fairy goes on strike when Frankie’s mother decides to let Frankie keep his room the way he prefers best – messy. As you can imagine, Frankie’s got everything under control and exactly how he likes it when things start to go wrong. He steps on and breaks his favorite GoGo Robo which he doesn’t see under the pile of dirty clothes. An unusual stench begins to fill the air – something rotten – and he cannot seem to locate the source. His empty closet requires some creative (embarrassing) dressing. Finally, no one wants to play with him on family game night because of the stink emanating from his own person – yep, Frankie’s not cleaning his room and he isn’t cleaning himself either!

It’s not until the nightmares begin – whirlpools of garbage sucking him out of his house – that he realizes he has a new job – damage control. Thus begins Frankie’s most difficult adventure yet – making a pathway through his room to the Closet of Doom. Will Frankie defeat the eight-eyed mold monster? More importantly, will the Dryer Sheet Fairy return before he’s down to his birthday suit?

Looking forward to more! The Monarch Award is geared towards Kindergarten thru 4^th-graders, but I think there would be some older kids that would enjoy a 30 minute diversion back into their "childhood!"

The Enchantress

The Enchantress: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott

In my very first post to this blog, I stated that I read so that you don’t have too. In the case of this series, I would suggest – don’t bother. Don’t waste approximately 72 hours of your life for this series. You will be disappointed. I know I was and I am not alone.

The ending was entirely unsatisfying.

One third of the series was spent on Alcatraz Island. And it never even figured into a solution to the problem. It was only a diversion (to the reader?)

Do you know how much I complained about how wishy washy and whiney the teenage twins were? How they never really did anything on their own. They were only ever manipulated. Yeah, well. They weren’t the only puppets on strings. Why it seems that the whole cast of characters was being manipulated all along. And the reader too?

The twins never really worked up any gumption. In fact, I hardly believe their final decisions. Oh, I believe Sophie a bit – she remained true to herself and her meager convictions over the course of two weeks. But Josh. Josh was always just lost… like the author.

I believe the author bit off more than he could chew and got terribly lost. He had too many ends to tie up.

At one point, a character remarks that many “people” sacrificed their lives to some great purpose. I’m not sure if that was to save or to destroy the world. But let me tell you. Not very many of those all-powerful people actually died. The author seems too emotionally connected to off a one of them.

It feels as if the cast of characters are just as exhausted as the author was and they all kind of gave in. What the heck, why don’t we just change sides. Either side has just as great a chance of winning – surviving – as the other. Hey, I know we’re enemies, but why don’t we be friends for a while and kick some other-worldly derrieres.

I suppose, I could reread the series and look deeper for clues. But I just don’t really care. I haven’t since The Sorceress.

But if anyone out there can explain to me how and why this made sense – as in didn’t knock us out from left field – be my guest. And if there are any kids who have enjoyed this series. Send them my way. Otherwise, I’m going to quietly forget them.

Ya know, maybe the author just needed more time to think these things through and out before he committed the ideas to paper… I think editors rush their authors too fast to churn out “any” product over “quality” product.

Why don’t I tell you how I really feel?

The Alchemyst

The Magician

The Sorceress

The Necromancer

The Warlock

Forged by Fire

Forged by Fire by Sharon Draper

The more I read books, the more critical I get and the more selective I am about what I truly like or enjoy. The truth is that there are as many books out there as there are people to read them. And they are just as different and unique as the people who enjoy them. I will not like all of them. And we will not have the same taste. But I always thought I would be able to appreciate them for what they are and what they represent for those who will discover reading through them.

But this book positively grated on my nerves for being many things that I was taught weren’t good literature. And it bothered me more that the author has received national acclaim for her writing and teaching and she continues to teach her students how to write. And this book won the Coretta Scott King Award. Disconnect between education and reality.

Well, we were always taught in elementary school that you never ever start a sentence with “and” or “but”. (See previous paragraphs.) Then in junior high and high school we were taught how we could get away with it and write more interesting sentences. And then college teaching assistants told us to throw everything we had ever learned out the window. Now I see that you can be published and rewarded for the very writing we were punished for in school. Ugh!

Our main character is Gerald. When the book begins, he is three years old. His mother, Monique, has an unusual way of teaching her son life lessons. When he has an accident in his pants, she makes him sit in it all day. When he plays with fire, she burns him enough to leave a scar. And he learns very early that he cannot depend upon her because she regularly leaves him home alone, hours at a time, to find, buy and do drugs.

Despite the lesson in “don’t play with fire,” the fiery dancer within the lighter is still too intriguing to leave alone and Gerald inadvertently sets their apartment on fire. Gerald lives. Monique goes to jail. Aunt Queen gets custody. The good win and the bad are punished.

When Gerald turns nine, his mother returns to claim him. She comes with a new husband, Jordan, and Gerald’s half-sister, Angel. Aunt Queen vows to fight to keep Gerald and fight for Angel, but doesn’t live long enough to keep her promise.

Gerald knows that Jordan is abusive, but by the time Gerald enters high school he has become aware that his step-dad has also been molesting Angel. A friend’s father helps Gerald to put Jordan behind bars. Monique is angry. Angel is confused but safe. Gerald can enjoy being a teenager. The good win and the bad are punished.

Jordan returns rehabilitated. Monique is happy. Angel is a basket case. Gerald is afraid to put his guard down, but he cannot be around all the time. Gerald will make a final stand for the family that he was given. He will endure the fire one more time.

The book reads more like a case study in child abuse and less like fiction. I can see it on the shelves in a counselor’s office more than I can on a library’s shelves. This is problem number one I see in conflict with the interpretation of literature as I was taught. Problem number two is the point of view. Mainly we are seeing the world through Gerald’s eyes, but on occasion we are given a glimpse through the eyes of various characters. It is jarring and confusing and the reader knows too much. Gerald’s position is powerful enough without added explanation.

Now that I have that out of the way, this novel was a quick and engaging read. It was eye-opening as contemporary realistic fiction. It is written for the older reluctant reader and I am sure that it would resonate with teenagers who experienced similar situations. And frightening for those of us who were sheltered.

The Serpent's Shadow

The Serpent's Shadow by Rick Riordan (audio book)

The Serpent’s Shadow is the conclusion, (all be it seemingly premature for one of Riordan’s series,) of the Kane Chronicles… or is it? With a mixture of confusion and delight, I read that the Egyptian-based mythology series was in fact a trilogy. I was confused because Riordan’s Percy Jackson series was completed with five books. And I have assumed, perhaps mistakenly, that Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus series would be five books as well. I was delighted because I prefer short series over those that go on and on and on and on. Ultimately, I was disappointed because I have preferred the Kane Chronicles from the beginning.

As humans chose to ignore, deny and forget the (Egyptian) gods, said gods went into exile. In some cases, the gods, including the god of the sun, Ra, checked into assisted living and nursing homes. At the close of The Throne of Fire, Carter and Sadie have successfully found and retrieved Ra only to discover that his mental faculties leave much to be desired. Considering that Ra was their only and best hope at defeating Apophis, the god of chaos, the Kanes are not just disappointed, they feel defeated. And Apophis continues to rise growing stronger on a daily basis. Time for Plan B.

An ancient magician wrote a scroll titled Book of Overcoming Apophis of which there are limited copies. The Kanes have spent their time in between books 2 and 3 trying to acquire and protect a copy. In each instance, Apophis has beaten them to it and left a wide swathe of destruction in his wake. There is one copy left in a nome in Dallas. If the Kanes fail, it is almost certainly the end of the world. You know, it wouldn’t be a long book, over 400 pages, if they succeeded. And where is the adventure in success?

Some advice comes in the form of a “face in the wall” in the museum in Dallas. It instructs Sadie to concentrate, not on the rare scroll, but on a small gold cabinet. There is a clue to the solution to their problem inside. Unfortunately, the kids find exactly nothing inside. But the nothing is more than it seems. The face in the wall is more than it seems as well. Can you guess what was inside? Here is a riddle.

Only one color, but not one size,
Stuck at the bottom, yet easily flies.
Present in sun, but not in rain,
Doing no harm, and feeling no pain.
What am I?

The Kanes learn that in Egyptian mythology, the soul has 5 parts: the Ren - name, the Ba - personality, the Ka - spark, the Sheut, and the Ib - heart. The cabinet houses a person’s Sheut or Shadow. If the Kanes can capture the shadow of Apophis, they might be able to send Chaos away and protect the world for another age. They have already a built a statue of Apophis in which they can imprison the shadow, but they still need the magic incantation in which to draw his shadow out and away. With the last copy of the Book of Overcoming Apophis destroyed, there is only one option left – the Book of Thoth. It is hidden and protected by countless enchantments and there is only one person left who knows where it is and how to obtain it – the ghost of the son of Ramses the Great Himself – he is not to be trusted – ever.

I don’t think we have seen the last of Carter and Sadie Kane and here are two reasons why. Number One: The ghostly spirit of an evil magician named Setne has once again escaped the Hall of Justice and proper sentencing to Oblivion. At some point, I am sure he will wreak much havoc upon the world and will have to be re-recaptured. Number Two: There are other gods at work in the world and we can guess that they will eventually butt heads – Greeks, Romans and Egyptians meet/merge into a new series. I would like to see/read that!

Book 1: The Red Pyramid

Book 2: The Throne of Fire