Book Reviews

Mercury

| Tasha

Mercury by Hope Larson

A fascinating combination of history and fantasy, this graphic novel tells two parallel stories, both set in Nova Scotia.  Different generations of the same family, one modern and one from 1859, are played against one another.  Tara is the modern girl who is dealing with her family home burning to the ground.  Her mother has had to leave and find work elsewhere while Tara stays with a friend.  Tara has been homeschooled the last two years, and is returning to the school district that she used to attend.  She soon finds romance and magic.  Josey’s story takes place 150 years earlier.  Josey is the sheltered daughter of a farmer who is besotted when she finds herself the focus of a stranger’s attention.  The man has found gold on her father’s farm and soon the two of them enter into business together mining the gold.  Tara finds her own modern world connected to that of Josey in unexpected ways.

Larson has created an intriguing and winning book.  While the two stories are vaguely parallel in romance, they diverge quickly into very different stories.  The book is beautifully designed.  Readers will immediately understand that the historical story is bordered in black while the modern is bordered in white.  Larson’s art is welcoming and great fun to read.  She has created a story with the best of graphic novels, romance and fantasy woven seamlessly together.  The two heroines are very different people, but both romantics and both tied together in intriguing ways.  There were some characters that I wish had been more fully developed such as Tara’s mother and the family she is living with.  I think it would have made it easier to enter her world.

Highly recommended, this graphic novel is one that will easily cross borders between teens who enjoy graphic novels and those who read romance or historical fiction.  This is a great entry book into the world of graphic novels for new readers.  Appropriate for ages 13-15.

Reviewed from copy received from Atheneum.

Also reviewed by:

Three Rivers Rising

| Tasha

Three Rivers Rising: A Novel of The Johnstown Flood by Jame Richards

Celestia has always been the daughter who obeys her father, preferring books over boys.  But when she meets Peter, a boy who works at the hotel she is staying at with her family, she falls in love.  The two of them spend secret hours together swimming in Lake Conemaugh, talking and stealing kisses.  Distracted by her budding relationship, Celestia is not aware that her sister is also in love, but Estrella has gone much farther and ends up pregnant.  Celestia must now give up her love and attend to her family.  When she returns a year later, Peter no longer works at the hotel, and Celestia must make a fateful choice – to be disowned by her wealthy family and follow her heart or to obey and marry a man she doesn’t care for.  Her choice, made in 1889, comes just before the historical disaster of the Johnstown Flood.  Far more is about to be at stake than being disowned.

Tautly written in verse, this book immerses the reader into the culture of the day.  It is a world where class is protected, where wealth is new or old, where hotel boys do not mingle with guests, where children are disowned, where love flourishes despite it all.  Richards has cleverly taken different voices and told their stories here.  The reader knows that disaster is about to happen, keeping you on the edge of your seat throughout the story.  As each voice speaks, there is another character to care about, another perspective to view the flood and the society from. 

Though this is the story of the flood, it is also the story of love that transcends barriers.  It is at heart a romance set in a terrible time.  Richards’ poetry is by turns sweet and bitter.  As the flood occurs, readers will find themselves amazed, saddened and devastated.  We are in Richards’ hands here and what great hands they are.  It is hard to believe this is a debut novel given the confidence and ability that she demonstrates.

Highly recommended, this book is historical fiction at its best combined with the best of a verse novel.  Prepare to be mesmerized.  Appropriate for ages 12-15.

Reviewed from library copy.

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Illyria

| Tasha

Illyria by Elizabeth Hand

Maddy lives in a sprawling complex with her large extended family.  Descendants of a famous actress, the family members are dramatic, eccentric and interesting.  Maddy is wildly in love with her cousin Rogan.  As children they stole kisses under the porch, but it becomes more serious and complicated as they become teens.  During one of their secret trysts together in the attic, the two discover a tiny stage hidden behind the wallboards, complete with effects and lighting.  When Rogan and Maddy are both cast in their school’s performance of Twelfth Night the magic that is the two of them together is threatened. 

In a world of bloated, oversized teen novels, this short book is a powerful gem.  Hand has created a book that really shines with its strong setting of the family home where so much of the action takes place.  Hand’s descriptions bring the entire book to life as she paints a vivid picture for the reader.  What is amazing is that she has created a story with such depth in so few pages. 

The story is based strongly in reality, making the discovery of the tiny stage that much more special and strange.  The book is a beautiful realistic story with a strong thread of magic running through it.  This is helped by the romantic, beautiful writing that soars with detail. 

Some readers will find the two cousins in a romantic relationship to be confusing and startling.  Hand has woven this sort of deep feeling into the text in such a way that it feels very real, very honest.  This is not there for effect, rather it is an important, inherent part of their relationship and roles with one another.  Their closeness is deepened by their kinship.

A beautiful soaring novel in a tightly-written package, this book is sure to appeal to those who enjoy fantasy but also those readers looking for a great romance.  Appropriate for ages 15-18.

Reviewed from copy received from Viking.

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Ladybug Girl at the Beach

| Tasha

Ladybug Girl at the Beach by David Soman and Jacky Davis

The latest Ladybug Girl book explores what courage means.  Ladybug Girl and her family head to the beach in the book, and it’s Lulu’s first time on a beach.  She is sure she is going to love it.  But when she sees the huge waves and hears the roar of the surf, she is afraid to get into the water.  Lulu and her dog Bingo spend a lot of time avoiding the water.  They build a sandcastle, fly a kite, go for ice cream, and plays on the shore.  It isn’t until the emergency of her bucket floating away gets her into the water that she realizes that she was right!  She does love the beach!  And even better, she’s not afraid any more.

Soman and Davis have once again captured the emotions of childhood with humor and honesty.  Lulu continues to be true to the character she was in the first Ladybug Girl book, still wearing her antennae and her wings.  It’s great to see a character who is so self-assured be scared and overcome it.  Soman’s art is wonderful.  He uses lines to capture emotions with such skill.  Even background characters have great body language and facial expressions.  His use of large washes of color for the beach, sea and sky add to the summery, sunshine, sand feel of the title.

Recommended for any library where Ladybug Girl is popular, this book stands just fine on its own and will have new families and children asking for the other titles.  A perfect summer beach read for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy received from Dial Books.

Easy as Pie

| Tasha

Easy as Pie by Cari Best, illustrated by Melissa Sweet

Jacob’s favorite TV show is Baking with Chef Monty, so when Jacob sets out to bake his first pie, he knows all of Chef Monty’s rules by heart.  He knows that: a happy baker makes a happy pie.  He finds all of his ingredients in the kitchen and sets to work.  When his sister Charlotte comes to get him ready to go out for dinner and celebrate their parents’ anniversary, Jacob makes sure he keeps working because one of the rules is: Concentrate on what you’re doing – no matter what.  He rolls out the dough, fixing his mistakes like Chef Monty advises.  He flutes the edges of the pie and pricks holes in the top crust, slightly larger than Chef Monty would have recommended.  Soon the pie is in the oven, though his family is getting tired of waiting for Jacob to be ready to go.  But there is one solution to that!  Dessert first!

So many children’s books about cooking have the child making a horrible mess, combining strange and unappetizing ingredients together, all resulting in an inedible creation.  This turns that formula on its head with a child who is confident and capable, creating a pie that makes the parents’ anniversary even more special. 

Best’s writing is a pleasure to read aloud with the sprinkling of Chef Monty quotes throughout, great asides of noises, and plenty of action.  Sweet’s art is light-hearted and funny, filled with peach-colored splashes and funny touches like the titles of the books on the shelves.  The writing and text go together like ice cream and warm pie.

A great read aloud for any classroom starting a cooking project or any story time where food will be featured.  Guaranteed to be a favorite around Thanksgiving too.  Appropriate for ages 4-7.

Reviewed from copy received from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

The Dancing Pancake

| Tasha

The Dancing Pancake by Eileen Spinelli, illustrated by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff

Bindi is facing a lot of changes in her life.  First, her father has left their family to find a job in another city.  A few months later, she learns that her parents have separated.  Now her mother and her aunt are starting a restaurant called The Dancing Pancake.  They will be moving into the apartment above the restaurant and out of their house.  As all of these changes hit, Bindi finds herself feeling sad and angry about them.  People at the restaurant and her extended family help her deal with her feelings and show her the positive in her life. 

This verse novel features a full cast of interesting characters.  The poems are written from Bindi’s point of view.  She is a protagonist who is open and honest about her feelings, even when she is struggling with them.  She offers readers a clear view of what children deal with when parents separate and life changes.  At the same time, she is uniquely Bindi, a girl who loves to read, worries about what sort of friend she is, and tries to help others whenever she can. 

Spinelli’s verse is short and sweet.  It has a clarity and understated feel to it that makes it very easy to read.  Lew-Vriethoff’s illustrations have a breezy, effortless quality to them.  They are simple line drawings that capture the moments in the book.  The verse format and the illustrations throughout the book will make this a very inviting title for young readers.

Highly recommended, this book strikes just the right balance between a girl’s life falling apart and a family ready to catch and hold her.  Appropriate for ages 7-10.

Reviewed from copy received from Knopf.

Stand Straight, Ella Kate

| Tasha

Stand Straight, Ella Kate: The Story of a Real Giant by Kate and M. Sarah Klise

When Ella Kate was born in 1872, she was normal sized, but that soon changed.  At school she needed a larger desk that her father built for her, and she was wearing her father’s shoes, size 12.  Ella Kate was sometimes ridiculed for her size.  At age 17, she reached 8 feet tall, finally growing to a height of 8 feet 4 inches tall.  When she was 18, she was approached to appear at a museum because of her height.  This started a six year tour of museums, exhibitions and circuses where she made enough money to pay off her family’s farm and build her own house.  It was a house that was built specifically for her height with very high ceilings and tall windows.  After building her home, Ella Kate returned to the exhibition circuit, continuing her travels around the world.

Ella Kate is an example for all of us: she took what made her different and strange and made it into an asset.  The Klise sisters have created a book that has just the right tone.  It is playful and fun, but always treats Ella Kate with awe and respect.  It is not just her size that is impressive for modern readers, but an understanding that Ella Kate was an independent woman in a time when women did not live that sort of life.  The art in the book, done with acrylics, echoes the playful spirit of the text.  The images often show Ella Kate’s height in a unique way without it being mentioned in the text.  Just the family laundry on the line is worthy of attention.

A warm picture book biography of a giant of a woman.  Appropriate for ages 5-8.

Reviewed from copy received from Dial Books.

Accomplice

| Tasha

Accomplice by Eireann Corrigan

This book will be released in August 2010.

It was a perfect plan, but then it all went wrong.  When their college prep advisor tells them that it takes more than good grades and community service to get into the best schools, Finn and Chloe decide to make themselves and their college essays very special.  They stage Chloe’s kidnapping, hiding her in the basement of Finn’s grandmother’s house because she is out of town.  It was supposed to be simple, but their carefully staged deception starts to wear on Finn as she is forced to lie to everyone, carefully staging her emotions and reactions to not only keep the lie going but to make sure that they get enough attention from the media.  When CNN shows up to cover the kidnapping, Finn and Chloe know that it cannot end the way they had planned and are forced to make dreadful choices.  Don’t pick up this page turner without clearing your day first, it is impossible to put down!

With a great premise, the book opens with Finn in the midst of the situation already.  There is little time to draw breath as readers are immediately plunged into a faked kidnapping staged by two very smart but very naive girls.  The drive to have a bit of fame combined with the pressures of college applications make for a potent combination for a book. 

The story is told from Finn’s point of view as she deals with attending school and lying to everyone in her life, including Chloe’s parents and her own. Finn is in denial about a lot of things throughout the book, facing complicated feelings about her best friend.  This tension about their relationship and what is at the heart of it makes the book even more compelling as Finn tries to navigate a situation of her own making.

This riveting novel is tightly written.  The book builds tension as Finn struggles with her emotions and with the fallout from the kidnapping.  It is not breakneck paced, rather it is woven into an intense read. 

Ideal for booktalking to teens, this book will have everyone right from the premise.  It completely lives up to its promise as a thrilling look at lies and fame.  Appropriate for ages 14-17.

Reviewed from ARC received from Scholastic.

How to Clean a Hippopotamus

| Tasha

How to Clean a Hippopotamus by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page

A fascinating tour through symbiotic relationships in the animal kingdom, this book uses comic book frames and short text bubbles to become incredibly appealing to reluctant readers.  Filled with Jenkins’ paperwork illustrations that offer clarity beyond that of photographs, this book is a visual treat.  It is also filled with interesting facts, and is sure to surprise even the most informed reader with several of the relationships inside.  Journey through symbiotic relationships where one animal cleans another one to others where enemies become friends and supporters for a time.  Get this one into the hands of children who love animals and struggle with books, they are sure to feel right at home here.

Jenkins’ art is done with such confidence and cleverness.  His use of fuzzy papers to get the feel of fur, of color to get the feel of skin, and of pattern to get the texture right really take him beyond most other paper artists in children’s books today.  The fact that he manages to capture what an animal actually looks like is amazing.  Animals have a light in their eyes, a focus and in this book a relationship with each other, all captured with paper. 

The facts here are done with just the right amount of text and a playful, interested tone.  The book invites readers in and marvels alongside them.  The design here is wonderfully done, breaking what could have been paragraphs of text to wade through into windows of color filled with bite-sized bits of text that get readers wanting more.

Highly recommended, every library needs this book on their shelves.  Guaranteed to go home over and over again.  Appropriate for ages 5-9.

Reviewed from library copy.

Check out another review at A Patchwork of Books.