Library Mama

Usually, when the year’s Newbury-award-winning book is announced, I check to see whether I’ve read it or not, and add it to my mental “to read” list if I haven’t. I will note that a mental list is very good for avoiding stress and guilt for not keeping up with the reading, but not so good at actually getting the books read. This year, I put the Newbury and Caldecott books on hold right away, and am currently listening to one of the Odyssey books (for best childrens audio) with the boy. (The actual winner of the Odyssey, Rotters is all about corpse robbing, and therefore not for me.)

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos. It’s 1962 in Norvelt, a Pennsylvania town founded as a self-sufficient homestead community by Eleanor Roosevelt in the Depression. Now, in 1962, the original residents are slowly dying off – all women, as the men died of black lung from working in the mines much earlier.When I first started this book, about a boy named Jack Gantos growing up in the same town as author Jack Gantos, I was prepared for another thoughtful and moving but ultimately somewhat boring book about growing up in a slow, long-ago time. The start felt a tad slow to me, as young Jack gets in trouble for accidentally firing a Japanese WWII rifle that he hadn’t thought was loaded at the local drive-in screen. One of his major entertainments seems to watching war movies from his yard using binoculars. Maybe not boring for boys, but boring for me. The tension ramps up for Jack as his father orders him to mow down his mother’s treasured field of corn for feeding the poor, with the upshot that Jack is grounded for the summer. His big project is digging a bomb shelter and a runway for the old fighter plane his father is trying to fix up. This plane and destruction building the runway causes are symptomatic of the tension between Jack’s mother, who was born in Norvelt and loves it, and his father, who wasn’t and who considers it a dead-end town to be escaped. The only time Jack is allowed to leave the house is to help one of the original residents, the former town nurse, Miss Volker, type obituaries of the others as they pass, as Miss Volker is too arthritic to do so. Long ago, she promised to marry Mr. Spizz, the tricycle-riding town sheriff, when all of these ladies were dead, and he never lets her forget it. Additional color comes from the nosebleeds Jack gets whenever he is frightened, from his best friend Bunny, a fierce Small Person who is the daughter of the local mortician, and the unexpected death by truck of a strange Hells Angel. All of these elements weave together into a story that has lots of over-the-top gross humor combined with nostalgia and sorrow at the ending of a utopia as well as good old-fashioned kid fun. Spoiler – the old ladies turn out to be dying of unnatural causes, and somehow, this is mostly treated as something to laugh at. This treatment makes the book lighter for the grade-school readers it’s aimed at, but I still found the casualness the murders were treated with a little horrifying. For those who can get past this, this book has enough excitement to pull a reader in as well as enough meat to leave the reader with something to think about.

Cross-posted to http://library-mama.dreamwidth.org and http://sapphireone.livejournal.com .

Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne. Read by Stephen Fry, Judi Dench, and a whole host of others. This is a recording of Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner. It is delightfully narrated by a nearly full cast of talented British actors with varying accents. The only voice actor I was unsure of was the one playing Christopher Robin, clearly an actual child, whose inflections seemed a bit wooden at times. Aside from that, once again, hearing an old favorite aloud like this reminds one of just how delightful the words really are. This version has the added pleasure of having had music composed for Pooh’s many hums. The words are read with the music played on piano underneath, so that while it’s not sung, you can hear how it’s meant to sound. This is a wonderful version to share with a favorite child, or to reacquaint yourself with the wonders of Pooh.

I am indebted to Colleen at http://www.chasingray.com/ for this as well as the Sisters Grimm… I think she wrote a column about mysteries for kids and teens last summer. Somehow I missed the first in the series and started with the second… though I made it through without noticing, you might wish to start with the first book, The Case of the Missing Marquess.

The Case of the Left-Handed Lady by Nancy Springer. Read by Katherine Kellgren. Enola is the much younger sister of Sherlock – just 14, and knowing her older brother mostly through Dr. Watson’s famous books. Her mother recently ran away, and Enola is now living on her own, hiding from her brothers, who want to send her to boarding school. She and her mother communicate via ciphers in the newspapers, which enterprising readers could try to solve for themselves. Enola is posing as the secretary to a Scientific Perditorian or finder of lost persons, intending to do the finding herself. Dr. Watson comes to her office, seeking help in finding her, but accidentally leading her to the case of a missing society lady, only a few years older than herself. The police and Sherlock Holmes assume that she’s eloped, but Enola doesn’t believe it and uses her wits and multiple disguises to solve the mystery. Enola is an excellent character, determined to stay independent but still figuring herself out, and ever conscious that her name, backwards, spells “Alone.” Raised feminist by her mother, she knowingly manipulates the Victorian conventions regarding females to fit in multiple places without resorting so low as to disguise herself as a man, from high society houses to London’s poor and sooty underbelly. My husband and I both very much enjoyed these. For the children it’s actually aimed at, parents should be aware that there is some violence that could be disturbing for younger or sensitive children – I’d put it as more appropriate for 12 and up than the 10 years I read on the case. Katherine Kellgren’s assured British accents are perfect for Enola and adapt themselves well to the many characters of different classes in the book. Enola might not exist without Sherlock, but she’s well worth reading in her own right, a strong character in a vivid (if vivid is the right word for sooty fog) setting with just the right balance between plot tension and introspection.

Sacred Myths: Stories of World Religions by Marilyn MacFarlane When I was in the sixth grade at a religious school, my teacher skipped the brief pages on other religions at the beginning of our religion text. She was trying to teach us Christianity, not those other false religions.

For those who want their children to have a somewhat broader exposure to the world’s many religious traditions, I recommend this book. Each of seven major world religions is given a one-page summary, including its version of the Golden Rule in large and decorative type. While Mr. FP had no patience for these sections, he was mesmerized by the five myths told for each religion. All are illustrated with images from appropriate religious art enmeshed in bright graphic design – hard to describe, but interesting to look at. Religions included are Buddhism, Hindusim, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Native American and Sacred Earth. Stories include the births of Buddha, Ganesh, Mohammed and Jesus, as well as many less well-known stories; a pre-Hellenic retelling of Demeter and Persephone, where Persephone goes willingly to the Underworld to help the spirits there; and Mr. FP’s favorite, “How Grandmother Spider Stole the Sun.” The stories are engagingly told and brief enough to work for older preschoolers (OK, my preschooler - Publisher’s Weekly says age 10… judge your own child) up through adult. It also includes a helpful pronunciation guide, glossary, and books for further reading. For educators, her website says that she also has a classroom guide available, with questions for discussion as well as explanations of all the symbols in the pictures. I’ve not seen the guide, but the stories are well worth reading.