Chapter Books

Anna Hibiscus – Brilliant New Series

| Tasha

Anna Hibiscus by Atinuke

Hooray for Anna Hibiscus! by Atinuke

Anna Hibiscus lives in Africa in a great big house filled with relatives, including her parents, her little twin brothers, her grandparents, her many aunts, her many uncles, and all of her cousins.  She is never lonely because there is always someone to play with, share stories with, and have fun with.  In the first book in the series, Anna Hibiscus discovers that it’s not so easy to have a family vacation with just your small family.  She meets her Aunt Comfort who lives on the other side of the ocean, though she frets that Aunt Comfort will have forgotten how to be African.  Anna Hibiscus also learns about hard work and dreams of seeing snow for the first time.  In the second book in the series, Anna Hibiscus sings before a crowd, refuses to get her hair braided,  loves the quiet of nights without electricity, and travels to the other side of the city. 

Obviously written by a storyteller, these books are unique and offer American children a fascinating glimpse of life in Africa that is guaranteed to break stereotypes.  The stories are all set definitively in Africa and all of the stories have a focus on things that make Africa special.  Another positive for the books is how the simple pleasures of life are the best, something that so many children in America need to learn. 

Anna Hibiscus is a great protagonist.  She is still learning herself about the differences between her own life and that of the poor children she sees around her.  She learns about this in very concrete and tangible ways that children in any country can relate to.  Nicely, Atinuke has created books for children that instead of shying away from difficult subjects like poverty embrace them and focus attention about them.

Atinuke’s use of rhythm and repetition in her stories adds to the feeling of them being written by a storyteller.  There is also a powerful tie to the oral traditions of Africa thanks to these storytelling phrases.  Beautifully written and wonderfully simple and straight forward, these books are something very special.

Highly recommended, these books belong in all public and school libraries.  They are a wonderful modern look at Africa and the people who love her.  Appropriate for ages 5-7.

Reviewed from copies received from Kane Miller.

Also reviewed by Fuse #8.

Finally

| Tasha

Finally by Wendy Mass

Mass returns to Willow Falls, the setting of 11 Birthdays.  This time it is Rory’s turn to have a birthday and she is finally turning twelve.  Her entire life her parents have told her that she could do things when she turned twelve.  She can have a pet, shave her legs, go to a girl/boy party, have a cell phone, get her ears pierced, and much more. But hours before her birthday, she finds herself stuck in a drainpipe and rescued by a little old lady who has surprising strength.  That women tells her, “You won’t get what you want, Rory Swenson, until you see what you need.”  Rory though is sure that her list of promises from her parents are exactly what she both wants and needs.  As Rory works her way through the list, her efforts meet with disaster.  It is especially bad when they start filming a movie at her school and all of her disasters could force her to give up her new job as an extra.  It just may take a gold allergy, an evil murderous bunny, and loss of skin on both legs for Rory to see what she needs.

Written with a strong voice in the first person, Rory’s take on life is wry, funny and always upbeat.  She is a great character whose disasters make for laugh-out-loud moments that are perfect for the tween age group.  Her personal wants may not match those of readers, but they will easily see themselves in her.  She is utterly understandable, completely accident prone, and simply delightful to spend time with.

This book reads quickly as readers move from one of her wishes to the next with Rory, each resulting in if not surprising, then very funny events.  Rory’s family members are just as vividly written.  Her parents are busy but involved and caring if a little overprotective.  Her toddler brother offers just the right amount of distraction and silliness too. 

Take humor, a zing of some sort of magic, and an accident prone tween, and you have this winning book.  The cover is bright, friendly and will invite children to pick it up and read it quickly.  Appropriate for ages 10-13.

Reviewed from Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) received from publisher.

Also reviewed by Kate Messner on her blog.

Cosmic

| Tasha

Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce

Liam is a twelve-year-old who looks like a he’s thirty.  He’s the tallest in his class and even has a wispy beard growing in.  So Liam is able to do things that other kids his age can’t.  He rides carnival rides that they are all too short for.  He is mistaken for a teacher on his first day of school.  He pretends that a girl in his class, Florida, is his daughter.  And he almost test drives a Porsche before his father stops him.   Thanks to these mistakes, Liam lives in a place between childhood and adulthood.  So when Liam is asked to bring his daughter on the trip of a lifetime to the best theme park in the world, Liam easily decides to do it.  He needs to pose as one of the world’s best dads to get on the spaceship, and it just may take a child to be the best father in the bunch.

I love Boyce’s books because you never know what journey you are about to start out on.  The book will seem to be one thing and delightfully morph into something else along the way.  Readers will start out thinking this is a book about space travel, but it is so much more.  It is an exploration of what age means, a novel about what it takes to be a parent and what it takes to be a kid.  It is a deep book that never loses its light heart and sense of fun.

Liam is a great character who even when he is acting like a great father never could be confused with an adult.  Boyce has written a wonderful hero here who is smart, intuitive and thoroughly juvenile in a great way.

I only have one teeny quibble with the novel.  Boyce uses World of Warcraft as one of Liam’s main interests.  I play WOW and so will many of the kids who read this novel.  The problem is that Boyce gets a lots of the details of the game wrong.  Some he has right, but others are really jarringly off.  This doesn’t detract from the book’s quality, but it may really bother some young readers.  I know that whenever he got a detail wrong it pulled me right out of the story, which is unfortunate.

Highly recommended, even for WOW junkies, this book is a beauty of a novel filled with humor, grace and a hero for our times.  Appropriate for ages 10-14.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by Nayu’s Reading Corner and Fuse #8.

Wishing for Tomorrow

| Tasha

Wishing for Tomorrow: The Sequel to A Little Princess by Hilary McKay

I have been a huge fan of A Little Princess since I was a little girl.  It was my favorite book for years and have read it so many times that I can’t count.  My favorite version was the one with the illustrations by Tasha Tudor.  The pictures matched the ones in my head so beautifully.  I am also an enormous fan of Hilary McKay and her Casson family series.  So how would one of my favorite authors do with a sequel to one of my favorite books?

Now that Sara has left Miss Minchin’s school, things are very different, especially for Ermengarde who misses Sara very much.  One thing though has bothered Ermengarde ever since she got a glimpse of Sara’s attic cell after the magic transformed it.  Why did Sara never tell her of how her world had changed?  With Sara gone, Lottie returns to her mischief and Lavinia once again is the leader of the girls.  A new maid replaces Becky.  She brings with her a fresh attitude and a no-nonsense point of view that is soon beloved by the girls.  When a boy moves in next door with a wandering cat, everything is poised to change again. 

When I first heard of a sequel to A Little Princess, I assumed that it would focus once again on Sara Crewe.  Then I was disappointed, now I am delighted.  Continuing the story of the girls we met in the first book was a great choice.  McKay lets us see into the other girls in the book and each girl is surprising and interesting.  McKay’s writing pays homage to the original but has a wry humor that keeps the book from ever becoming sentimental.  I would compare this book to your best friend moving away and realizing that other girls that were there all along are also wonderful companions. 

Bravo to the very brave McKay for taking on such a challenge and creating a winning story that both honors the past and takes its own direction.  Well done!  It is a book just like the first that I intend to read again and again.  Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from copy received from publisher.

Also reviewed by Charlotte’s Library, Nayu’s Reading Corner, and So Many Books.

Camille McPhee Fell Under the Bus

| Tasha

Camille McPhee Fell Under the Bus by Kristen Tracy

Camille is having a rough time as a fourth grader.  Her best friend has moved to Japan, and Camille has not gotten a letter from her yet.  She has low blood sugar and has to carry extra food to school in a cooler which makes her stand out from the others.  Her desk is right under a dangling hornet.  And to top it all off, she fell under the bus when she was trying to get on.  It’s enough to make someone give up entirely!  But not Camille McPhee.  Instead she is hopeful that things will get better.  She even has a plan to avoid making new friends by acting like a lone dingo.  And how could that fail?

Tracy has created a book that is modern and fresh.  It speaks to everyone who has been accident prone, or a misfit, or just has days or years filled with things going wrong.  In other words, it will speak to everyone.  Camille is a great heroine with a spot-on voice that is wry, funny and entirely herself.   Throughout the book, we can see Camille grow despite her own best efforts at staying the same.  The secondary characters are equally interesting from her warring parents to the girls who just might become her friends if she lets them.

A funny book about self-esteem, friendship and life in general, this book is a winner of a novel.  Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from copy received from publisher.

Check out Kristen Tracy’s website.

Odd and the Frost Giants

| Tasha

Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Brett Helquist.

Odd’s father died on a Viking ship, leaving Odd and his mother behind.  A few weeks later, Odd tried to chop down a tree with his father’s axe and ended up shattering his leg.  Now he still walks with a limp and is teased and mocked at home.  Tempers are rising in the village because spring should have come but winter continues its hold on the land.  Odd heads off to his father’s hunting lodge to escape the increasing teasing.  There he meets three animals: an enormous bear, a fox and an eagle.  The three turn out to be Norse gods who are trapped in animal form and banished from Asgard which has been invaded by Frost Giants.  Can one limping boy and three animals get back into the land of Asgard, bring peace and return spring to the land?

Neil Gaiman has written a small jewel of a book about an unexpected hero.  It is a focused story told in a voice that is meant to be shared aloud.  Odd is a pleasing character.  A smart boy with a sad past who is braver and stronger than anyone knew.   Gaiman’s language here is plain and simple, the story short and fast-moving.  Yet at the same time this is not a shallow piece.  It has heart and plenty of depth.  The occasional illustrations by Brett Helquist add to its friendliness for young readers and offer tantalizing glimpses of Odd’s world.

Any teacher doing a unit on mythology should add this book to your list.  It will also be useful with reluctant readers who will enjoy the direct story and the fast pacing.  Appropriate for ages 8-11, younger for reading aloud.  This is a perfect book for cold winter nights.

Reviewed from library copy.

Reviewed by Tor, Charlotte’s Library, Eva’s Book Addiction, and Chasing Ray.

Eidi

| Tasha

Eidi by Bodil Bredsdorff

This second book in The Children of Crow Cove series begins years after the first.  This book focuses on Eidi, the daughter of Foula who has just had a baby, Eidi’s half-brother.  The house feels to crowded with the baby and Eidi decides it is time that she heads off to help the shepherd Rossan by spinning his wool into yarn.  When she reaches his home, Rossan is about to head off to town to sell his wool, so she accompanies him.  Eidi acclimates to the town, which is the largest community she has ever seen.  While she is there, she gets work with a man to knit shawls and discovers a beaten and underfed boy.  She befriends the boy but is soon in a situation where she has to take drastic action to save him.

Bredsdorff’s language is so simple that it is poetry.  Her writing matches the simple lives of the people, their hard work, and the Danish landscape where there is beauty and harshness.  Reading this second book was like returning to a place you never knew you had been missing.  The book is without pretense as the story is told matter-of-factly but with such attention to detail that it is like living it.  Here is one lovely example from Page 15:

Eidi got out of her settle bed and put on her clothes.  When she stepped outside, she could see everything plainly in the dawn twilight, but it was all gray.  The houses were light gray, the roofs dark gray, the sky overcast, without a star.  It as a world where color didn’t exist.  She sat down on the stone steps and waited, without knowing what she was waiting for.

The passage continues as the sun rises and color returns to the landscape.  This is writing that speaks volumes without being verbose.  Haunting, beautiful and skillfully done.

Characters in the book are complex.  Bredsdorff is not afraid of having villains be human, heroes make bad choices, or having people who are both hero and villain at once.  Though simple, her book has layers of meaning.  Lessons are learned with no preaching, children are not cosseted but are seen as capable, strong and vital. 

Highly recommended, this book is a great sequel to the first.  Read both of them to have the full experience of Crow Cove.  Appropriate for ages 10-12.

Reviewed from library copy.

Today I Will

| Tasha

Today I Will by Eileen and Jerry Spinelli

The Spinellis have created a book that offers a quote for each day of the year.  The quotes come from children’s literature and feature favorite books and stories that instantly create warm memories.  The quotes speak to a quality of life, a sense of connectedness, and an affirmation of self.  They are diverse, insightful and a lot of fun.  The book is meant to be read over the course of a year, one quote and its ensuing insight at a time.  But I loved opening it at random and enjoying returning to beloved reads.

The book does not become overly sweet because the tone remain firmly footed in reality.  Some of the entries do speak to larger issues while others are refreshingly mundane and tangible like calling a grandparent or not smoking. 

An ideal book for children who love to read, this could also be used in a classroom setting as journal prompts or makes a wonderful teacher gift for the holidays.  Appropriate for ages 8-12.

Reviewed from copy received from publisher.

The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity

| Tasha

The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Adam Rex

Steve was a great fan of the Bailey Brothers who star in a series of detective novels.  In fact, Steve considered their series and The Bailey Brothers’ Detective Handbook to be the best books ever.  But even though he had read their books through several times, Steve was very surprised when he went to the library to work on his report about early American needlework and was attacked!  Steve now had to recover a national treasure, evade secret-agent librarians, and clear his name of national treason.  Oh, and finish his report by Monday.

An amazing riff on and homage to classic detective series like the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, this book is hilarious, exciting and just pure fun.  Barnett’s tone dances between tongue-in-cheek and sincerity with great ease.  Steve is a great protagonist, eagerly following the advice of the Bailey Brothers throughout his own adventure even though things rarely go as planned. 

Rex’s illustrations are vintage Hardy Boys, done in black and white with gray washes of shadow.  Just as with the novel itself, Rex plays with the format, making it modern but vintage at the same time. 

Highly recommended for all libraries, this book begs to be shared with others.  It would make a super read aloud for elementary school classes, because of its episodic nature and cliffhanging chapters.  Appropriate for ages 9-13.

Reviewed from copy received from publisher.

Also reviewed by Book Trends, TheHappyNappyBookseller, and Fuse #8.