Words in the Dust

Words in the Dust by Trent Reedy

The second 2014 Caudill Nominee I picked up to read had one thing in common with Wonder, the first nominee I read. Their main characters both have facial deformities. Auggie of Wonder has a rare syndrome that produced severe problems and required more than twenty surgeries thus far and will need additional ones in the future. He will never look normal. Zulaikha was born with a cleft palate. Her lip is split in half all the way up to her nose. Her nose is affected as well as her teeth. Her front teeth stick out forward. Cleft palates are not a problem in the western world and are usually fixed at birth. Zulaikha lives in Afghanistan. She is nearly a teenager and her family is unaware that her problem can be easily fixed. After reading Zulaikha’s story, Auggie seems like a spoiled brat.

Words in the Dust is a promise made and fulfilled by an American soldier who served a tour of duty in Afghanistan. His unit discovered a girl like Zulaikha and when American soldiers see a child in need, they set out to fix it. In the process, the author discovered a story that needed to be shared. He had felt the victim of the terrorists that carried out 9/11, but he discovered that the Afghani people were more the victim, especially the children, and in particular the girls. This male American soldier chose not to tell his story, but instead, the story of a young Afghani girl. The American soldiers are not the improbable heroes coming to the rescue. They are the bumbling, socially backward, strangers who manage to change one aspect of a young girl’s life. And he is successful! Twice, in my opinion.

Zulaikha is the daughter of an educated Afghani woman, a woman who loved classic Afghani poetry and shared it with her children. Zulaikha’s mother was killed in their home by the Taliban for keeping forbidden books in her possession. Zulaikha’s father had two wives. His second wife shows no love to Zulaikha. The young girl job is to cook and clean and run errands and watch her younger half-brothers. Another baby is on the way. Zulaikha’s future won’t change unless her father can arrange a marriage for her. Her disfigured face is a problem.

Accidently, Zulaikha runs into an old friend and teacher of her mother’s, Meena. Meena offers to teach Zulaikha how to read and write – complete the task Zulaikha’s mother began. Zulaikha learns in stolen, infrequent, moments. Education offers an alternative track for the young girl. Education would not be hindered by her appearance. The most thought-provoking portion of the book comes after Zulaikha is offered the chance to fix her appearance and Meena asks her, “If you had your surgery and you looked normal, what would you do?” The alternative to education would be marriage… and this is the second unexpected success of this book.

Zulaikha has an older sister, Zeynab. Zeynab is beautiful and of marriageable age. Through the course of the book, her marriage is arranged, to a successful business man three decades her elder. Zeynab will be the third wife. She will be the young and beautiful one, but she will also have the least seniority. She will cook and clean and watch the many children by day and she will satisfy her new husband at night. If Zulaikha’s story is one of hope, Zeynab’s is one of despair.

This is a beautiful book that gives American children a glimpse of the world of the Middle East. We do not realize how wonderful we have it. We are unaware of how bad things could be and how bad things are in other countries. I would highly recommend this book to 5^th through 8^th graders as well as older. It is a powerful, thought-provoking story based upon truth. And it is not entirely easy to read. Spoiler… Zeynab dies a tragic, horrible death.

Splendors and Glooms

Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz (audio book)

Here it is! I have read all of the Newbery winner and honor books and I have MY official winner. If I were the 2013 Newbery Committee, I would have given the Newbery Medal to… Splendors and Glooms! I would have awarded ONE honor medal to… Bomb! I still back Bomb as a winner, but since it did receive three awards this year, AND because Steve Sheinkin had a great true story to work with, I give Laura Amy Schlitz the medal. These 384 pages came straight out of her head.

Once upon a time, there was a witch who acquired her power through a stolen gemstone – a fire opal. The fire opal was also her curse. It sabotaged her health even as it filled her with influence over those around her. It would also claim her life if she refused to give it up. One of those under her sway was a young magician. Well, he was young at one time. He was a master puppeteer as well as an accomplished thief. He wanted the opal and tried to make it his own, but he didn’t understand the rules even though he was aware of the curse.

This is neither the witch nor the magician’s story, but they are our villains. The magician took his business to London where he recruited a helper from the workhouse. His new ward, Parsefall, is a young orpheling whose future was dim until the magician chose him. Parsefall learned the business, both puppetry and pickpocketing and he excelled. The magician ensured that Parsefall would never leave him through macabre means. Parsefall would not leave. His thoughts are filled only of mastering his skills with the puppets. He is an uneducated street urchin. He is dirty and doesn’t mind.

One child was not enough for the magician. He also acquired a young girl when her actor parents succumbed to cholera. Lizzie Rose is the polar opposite of Parsefall. Lizzie Rose is a lady despite her situation. She uses proper English, grammar and diction. She would like to rise above her condition and bring Parsefall along. She considers him her brother. Lizzie Rose is goodness itself. She is the kind of saint who strives to be her best, but always worries that she does not do good enough. If there was a voice that told the story with the most clarity, it was Lizzie Rose.

It is this trio, performing their puppet show in the square that Clara Wintermute stumbles upon and with which she falls in love. Clara’s life is one of mourning. Her four siblings all died from the cholera and her mother has not recovered in seven long years. Clara has suffered for it and she longs for some happiness. So she convinces her father, a wealthy doctor, to hire the Puppet Master to provide the entertainment at her twelfth birthday party. Clara goes a step further and arranges to have tea with the children, Parsefall and Lizzie Rose prior to the performance. It is enough to make an impression upon them.

This impression saves Clara’s life. The magician has more in mind than a mere performance. A wealthy family in mourning for several dead children would be willing to pay anything to get their remaining daughter… back. Yes, Clara is kidnapped, but before the ransom can be paid, the witch summons the magician to her side with the opal. The magician cannot ignore the summons, not even for 10,000 pounds. The magician disappears and Clara is hidden under Parsefall and Lizzie Rose’s noses. And then the adventure begins!

This is not a quick read. It might be children’s literature, but it is rich and worthy of time and patience. It is meant to be savored. It is Victorian Gothic full of the morbid and macabre. The villains are evil and the heroes are flawed. The ending was richly rewarding and satisfying. I am recommending this magnificent work to avid readers, sixth grade and up. I bet girls will take to it better than boys. Parsefall is a boy of few words and many talents.

Shatterproof

Shatterproof by Roland Smith

This could very easily be the 39 Clues book with which I decide to finish – forever – and not look back. It was that bad, boring, uneventful.  It is a shame to say this since an important character is actually killed. That ought to be important. That should mean something. But there was no suspense and no surprise and no good reason. The plot didn’t go anywhere. Even the huge diamond on the cover of the book is really irrelevant to the plot of the story. It is such a minute and inconsequential part to wind up upon the cover.

When I put the book down and looked back on what I had just read, I realized that it was very dissimilar to the previous three books in the Cahills Vs.Vespers series. I went back and reread my reviews of those novels and was surprised that I found any interest in them. I was surprised at how much I seemed to know about the plot and the characters and their actions. Why they were where they were and for what goal they were working towards. Because after reading this most recent addition to the series, I don’t think I could have explained any of it without the help of the reviews.

In this case, Dan and Amy, along with Atticus and Jake, are asked to steal an obscenely huge and priceless diamond from a German museum. But in the end, they were only creating a diversion for another, separate, Vesper theft in the background. The Cahill’s mission was not the actual goal.

The group back in the states who are trying to locate the hostages, make very little of an appearance in the book. And when they do make a brief appearance, no real information exchanges hands. Ian goes at it with Saladin the cat – and that is it!

I couldn’t remember why Jonah and Hamilton were in Pompeii in the first place. It wasn’t reiterated. Here they tail Luna. They even follow her out of country, but I don’t know why and what that has to do with their original mission of going to the cities - cities that the lawyer directed them to because they were so vitally important.

Amazingly, the hostages finally manage to escape. Exasperatingly they are immediately recaptured save one who may or may not be dead. We finally find out where the hostages are being held. The reader does anyway, but not the characters that are desperate for such information…

Amy and Dan are sent on yet another clue hunt in the middle of a desert. They have very little information and a tremendous number of “libraries” to squirrel through. And of course, as always, a ridiculously limited amount of time in which look. There is absolutely no way that they will be able to succeed. But they do.  Kind of.

HUGE disappointment on all fronts. Please stop. This is sooo less of a well-developed series compared to the original 39 Clues. It’s a laughable money machine. OR the author is inept at least where this series is concerned. Perhaps he just got handed the worst section of the series.

The 39 Clues: Cahills Vs. Vespers
Book 1: The Medusa Plot
Book 2: A King's Ransom
Book 3: The Dead of Night

Three Times Lucky

Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage (audio book)

You never know what you are going to get. Three Times Lucky was another book I had checked out because it was getting Newbery attention. And I wasn’t excited for one reason – the word “lucky” in the title. I am utterly serious. In 2007, The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron won the Newbery Award and I downright despised it. That book might be the very one that began my love/hate relationship with the Newbery Committees. I look forward to award announcements with spastic excitement and lambast their decision with equal fervor. I am a librarian, what can I say – I want books that I can actually recommend to my young patrons. So when Three Times Lucky received a Newbery Honor, I was resigned to read it.

No, it is not Bomb, not even close, but it blows Ivan out of the water, easily, for me. I had just finished the choppy, disjointed, fictional docu/biography No Crystal Stair and I was in need of beautiful, flowing language. Three Times Lucky had it – readability – to give in abundance. From the first page I was hooked. I was in love. Here were kids, characters, free to roam and do as they please, including running the town café when the adults are in absentia. Pure fiction in my mind, but I don’t, in fact – mind.

Moses LoBeau and her best friend Dale Earnhardt Johnson III spend their summers fishing and serving up peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with Mountain Dew at Mo’s adoptive parents’ Café. But this summer, these “rising sixth graders” will be too busy to do either. This summer, the kids will become the “Desperado Detective Service” solving murder mysteries and locating lost felines.

There is more than one mystery to solve in this novel. Mo LoBeau is in search of her “Upstream Mother.” Mo was blown into Tupelo Landing, on the winds of a hurricane, lashed to a raft. Mo was discovered and rescued by a man known as the Colonel who would become her father. The Colonel is a mystery as well. He doesn’t remember the person he was before the accident that placed him on the scene of Mo’s blustery arrival. However, the book surrounds the mystery of the murder of Mr. Jesse, a man so crotchety that no one is sorry to see him go except the Sheriff who must find the killer.

If I had any complaint with this book, it was that there were two too many twists and turns towards the end. Confusion was added when a secondary character known by her surname, started being referred to by her first name. However, the list of quirky characters served up with a dose of southern slang, more than made up for such paltry complaints. I can picture this book being played out on Broadway. The characters are big enough to hold an audience. There is already a sequel in the works!

The Unicorn's Tale

The Unicorn's Tale by R. L. LaFevers

My favorite part of this series continues to be my children’s enjoyment of it. Even tonight, the eight-year-old asked out loud, “I wonder when the next Beastologist will be out.” I don’t know dear. I don’t know, but I am looking for something to tide her over until it is published.

For such a slight novel, only 144 pages, it is amazing how well it holds their attention and keeps them clamoring for more. The chapters are short enough that I try to read two a night and when we run out of time for books, I don’t feel guilty sneaking one chapter in anyway. The cliffhangers continue and they keep them guessing. You can see their gears turning.

I don’t think I have ever mentioned the illustrations. The original volume featured the main character’s own sketches as well as black and white illustrations, but by the fourth book, those have disappeared. We haven’t missed them. The pictures are charming even if they aren’t contributed to a ten-year-old boy. My favorite memory from reading this particular book came when we were reading about a guivre, French for serpent, but here a legless water-dwelling dragon. I didn’t know how to pronounce it let alone know what it was, but we turned the page and the three of us, simultaneously, went “awwwwwwwwwwwwwww” long enough to attract their father’s attention. He had to have a gander. Imagine a large snake with the head of a cow and the frills of a lizard behind its “ears”. I’d take a book on just that little guy.

This addition to the series is not about dragons. It is about something dearer to a young girl’s heart – UNICORNS! Who knew there were so many types of unicorns? There is even an excerpt from the Book of Beasts on the different kinds of unicorns, from the Unicornis monocerus (rhino) to the Unicornis kirinus, an Asian variety.

The Fludd’s are called away from their pursuit of their evil cousin Obediah. They travel quickly to France. The unicorn in the forest of Broceliande is behaving out of character. She is stealing blankets and pillows and acting aggressively towards the caretaker. Something is wrong and Aunt Phil must determine the problem and provide a remedy before someone is seriously hurt. The caretaker, a faun, is a novelty in and of himself. Fortunately, the Fludds have a secret weapon at their disposal – a young maiden – the gremlin, Greasle. Love it!

Aside from the guivre, the best part of this book is that we finally learn more about what happened to Nate’s parents. There is a chance they could be alive! And Obediah might be in a position to bargain… The series really should be read in order. If you are interested, start with…

Book 1: The Flight of the Phoenix

Book 2: The Basilisk’s Lair

Book 3: The Wyvern’s Treasure

Recommended to kids Kindergarten through 5^th grade (reluctant readers). Although even the 7^th grader enjoys it as a relaxing read aloud!

No Crystal Stair

No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson

This work of documentary fiction is a 2013 Coretta Scott King Honor book. I was thrilled that out of the entire list of King winners this year, there was only one work of fiction – less for me to read.

Please keep in mind that I am (still) COMPLETELY enamored (and spoiled) by Bomb, my first cover to cover nonfiction juvenile/young adult book that I wasn’t forced to read. Whereas Bomb was nonfiction that read like a fast-paced spy thriller, No Crystal Stair read like, well, stale nonfiction. While Bomb read like a trustworthy, well-researched work based upon fact, No Crystal Stair was forced to be called fiction because of the lack of sources to fill in the blanks.  It became difficult to determine what was based upon fact versus that which was based upon supposition.

I will get the negative out first, so please stay tuned for the positive. There were approximately 36 different voices contained within about 162 pages. It is tough to keep track of so many minds. It actually made the book read more like a scrapbook or a yearbook. Obviously some stories were more interesting than others. The FBI files were a flop. FBI files are only interesting when they show proof of shifty dealings. The files only showed that despite the high traffic of African Nationals, Lewis Michaux was not a risk.

In some cases, important personages were mentioned because they frequented the Harlem bookstore, Malcolm X for instance. And those people were often times more fascinating to read about than the actual subject of the novel. The reader is led to assume that the bookseller is important by the presence of these people.

The book covers a ridiculous amount of time – The 1930s to the present, ending with the thoughts from people alive today who knew, were influenced, or benefitted from by Dr. Michaux. It made for a very choppy read. It also threw potential suspense right out the door. One memorable flaw was when Mr. Michaux started being referred to as Dr. Michaux for no apparent reason. Then in a later chapter, his honorary degree is finally mentioned. Backwards.

I really did not enjoy reading this book. I never got excited about it. I was elated to finally get it over with and that is unfortunate. There was no depth. Lewis Michaux is a charming, intelligent, ambitious and motivating character. I really wanted to learn more about the work he did.

The positive. What an amazing dream this man had. Lewis Michaux grew up a thief, but grew into a man who knew the importance of not only books, but reading them and reading as many of them as one could get a hold of. But more significantly, it was the kind of books he made available and the people he made them available to. Dr. Michaux was determined that the black people read. He wanted them to read books by, for, and about black people, American, African or otherwise. The banks run by white men would not finance his dream because they did not think that black people would choose to read. Dr. Michaux saw this as a challenge. He found the money and started with five books and a book cart. It grew into a community.

It is sad, frustrating for me to look around and see the apathy of the American people. I think Dr. Michaux would be ashamed. I think we need people with a dream to better their people and motivate them into action. We have become too lazy. I would love to a have a Harlem library at the library. I just need to find the right person to staff it. Dr. Michaux was unique, special, flawed, but he got the job done.

I recommend learning more about the Harlem Bookseller… I just wish a had a better resource to recommend.

Wonder

Wonder by R. J. Palacio (audio book)

Wonder is the book I was hoping against hope would win the Newbery award because I wanted to read it most desperately. After reading the scholarly reviews, I couldn’t understand why we had ordered only one copy for our shelves. I was positive it would fly off said shelves and never be available. I was determined to purchase more. No, it didn’t win the Newbery. In my opinion, it won bigger. It is on BOTH the 2014 Caudill Nominee list AND the 2014 Bluestem Nominee list. And of course I’m talking it up all over the place!

I’m going to call this a “walk-in-another-person’s-shoes” book. We had a couple of them on the Caudill list last year. There was Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper about a quadriplegic girl in special education, but with an amazing, photographic mind. There was Anything But Typical about the autistic boy who could communicate well through writing, but not in person. Wonder is about ten-year-old Auggie, a boy born with a cranial facial abnormality. For those of us who don’t understand subtleties – his face is deformed. He suffers from a form of Treacher-Collins Syndrome with additional, unspecified complications. He is hard to look at and he knows it.

This novel is told in six voices. Auggie begins the book and ends the story. His is the voice that we most want to hear. Very few of us have any idea whatsoever what it feels like to be substantially different. I know that when I have even a fever blister on my lip, I feel as though everyone is looking at me in disgust. It is the only thing they look at – stare at. It makes me feel like I want to stay in bed. I go to great lengths to cover it up. Auggie states, “I won’t describe what I look like. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse.” Auggie is used to people looking at him in horror and disgust and fright. It breaks my heart that a child would have to go through life this way. That is the uniqueness of the book. We get to hear his story without having to face him. We fall in love with the child he is inside. And our own lives are put into perspective.

Other voices we hear from include his big sister, Via, her childhood best friend, Miranda, and Via’s first and new boyfriend, Justin. We also hear from a couple of kids, true friends, from his new school, Summer and Jack. Theirs are the voices that we most need to hear. I readily admit that I have a hard time seeing/finding the real person behind the unfortunate circumstances. It is hard to look, but it is also hard to look away. The person becomes the syndrome and loses their individuality. They become a tragedy rather than a miracle. Kids have testified to me that they are scared to look at someone who looks so different. I am ashamed, but I am afraid we are only human until we find the humanity. This book gives us the opportunity to see the person.

So Auggie has been homeschooled up until the age of ten. Part of the reason that his parents kept him home was because of the tremendous amount of painful surgeries Auggie had to go through. They had to protect him from pain and infection. But the obvious reason was to protect his young heart from the stares and the cruelty and the ridicule. His mom decides that he needs to socialize and perhaps she has taught him all that she can, as well as she can. Auggie’s father is blunt. He thinks sending Auggie to a school, even a private school, is like leading a lamb to the slaughter. Auggie is not thrilled, but eventually warms to the idea. And the rest is in the book. Auggie makes his mark. Not with everyone, but with enough people to change the atmosphere of the school. This is an ace in my book! Recommend to 3^rd through 8^th grade kids and their parents.

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