Reasons I love Rainbow Rowell

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Can I just remind everyone that Wayward Son is coming out soon (September 24^th, people!) and having just re-read Carry On, I am a-flutter with excitement. 

So, I’m actually not here to review anything today.  I’m just here to remind everyone how authors like Rainbow Rowell matter to readers, all kinds of readers – middle-aged library geeks like me, teenagers like my son, chicks in their twenties, ALL kinds.  Having a welcoming, chatty, safe, and hilarious imaginary world to spend time makes the regular world less brutal.  It is no small thing to have an escape from the mean and bitter, let me tell you. 

I’m not even going to list her books, because if you’re reading this, you should just search your library’s online catalog or go online and buy all her books already.  Reading anything she’s written is like talking about stuff at 2 a.m. with your best friend from high school who was always way hipper than you were.  You know who you are, high school buddies. 

Also, Rainbow’s from Nebraska, on the border of both the state I grew up in and also the one I live in now. And those titles are clearly references to lyrics from a song by Kansas, which also gives things a Midwestern flair. (Side note: one of our student teachers in high school was actually in the band before they became famous. Clearly, teaching high school students to play world history baseball was the much better career move. He showed us pictures with his formerly rockin’ long hair and maybe even a leather vest on. Classic.)

So, thank you, Rainbow Rowell!  Baz and Simon may be going on a road trip soon, but I’m excited for my own trip.

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

A grim beginning, some art, some angels, a car chase or two…

 

Sometimes I don’t know why I pick books up.  Maybe I saw something about it online?  Maybe a co-worker added it my stack thinking I’d like it?  Maybe someone, somewhere mentioned it?  Maybe I liked the cover?

Sometimes books just call out to you, I guess.  The cover reminds me a bit of Moon Over Manifest, an excellent book by Clare Vanderpool which won the Newbery some years ago, although The Road to Ever After has a boy facing away and headed down a road with a dog, while Moon has a girl coming towards you on a train track.  It doesn’t suggest a grim dystopian beginning, the magic of a young artist, or anything resembling a walk with Death, but it drew me in, so let’s see where it goes, right?

It’s a quirky kind of a book, but a wonderful one.  Davy David, the unacknowledged angel artist of brooms and twigs, is on his own in a grim sort of town with some unpleasant and unkind adults.  The library, his sanctuary, is going to be closed, and he’s at loose ends until Miss Flint announces that she needs to drive him somewhere – he doesn’t know how to drive – so that she can die.  She might look old and feeble, but she’s smart and has enough of a spark to lead him on a minor crime spree on the way to the shore and her planned death.

It’s not your average middle grade read, but that might just be the reason to pick it up.

The Road to Ever After by Moira Young with illustrations by Hannah George

 

Stars and rainbows and gun violence

I was at work  when I learned about the latest mass shooting.  We heard again that “this kind of thing doesn’t happen around here.”  Clearly, it does happen around here, more and more often.  And it’s been happening around here for a while.  We’re not really even surprised by it.

I’d been reading The Stars Beneath Our Feet for a few days, and while it’s set in New York — which might seem far away to anyone knowing where I live – it’s not far away at all.  I recognize these kids, having worked in a program similar to the one described in the book, just out here in good ol’ Iowa.  They’d lost family members to gun violence and drugs, and some lived every day with traumatic pain, not seeing any way to get out of it all.  Some of my favorite kids could be Lolly and Vega and Big Rose.

I wish they had all known Lolly and this book.  It might have given us one more way to talk about the really awful choices in front of them, things adults all want them to avoid and resist, but which, like Harp and Gully, just kept landing in the middle of the sidewalk in front of them, unavoidable.  My own Lolly, much loved by his family and friends, didn’t make the same choices and will most likely be incarcerated for many years, missing his kids’ birthdays and everything else.  His decisions will ripple out to affect even more people.  The pain just spreads.

After finishing the book, it struck me that these tragedies — mass shootings or gun violence in our neighborhoods – they’re not so far away from any of us, whether we’re in the suburbs or the city or a small town.  We act like one thing is different from another, but maybe it isn’t.  And as a country, we don’t do anything about either, no matter how many lives are ruined and wasted on it all.

This should probably have filled me with sadness and hopelessness, but it didn’t.  Lolly’s story, you see, is like a rainbow of Legos reaching out to us across that pain.  (I like the image, although I know it’s a little silly on paper.)  It needs to be read by all kids, whether they sound and look like Lolly or not.  Kids in small town and urban Iowa may look or sound different, but they live their own stories with strikingly similar challenges.

Can a book change the world or a life?  It can.  This one just might.

The Stars Beneath Our Feet by David Barclay Moore

Re-reading my personal classics…

Most years, I experience Charlotte’s Web in bits of pieces, since I’m almost always volunteering in Mrs. P’s room just after lunch recess during literature time, and she always reads it to her third graders.  Other books pop up again and again, sometimes because I’ve sought them out, sometimes because the kids at school or the library remind me how wonderful they are.  It’s usually a good experience, since reading them again reconnects me with something from my youth when I first read them.

Because I recently re-read Counting by 7s (by Holly Goldberg Sloan) and The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp (by the always wonderful Kathi Appelt), I’ve been thinking about other books that do the work of capturing moments in my life I want to revisit.  And here they are…

• A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L’Engle) – Whether it’s because of Meg Murry and Charles Wallace, or because it mentions tesseracts and led me into some great science fiction, re-reading this one is always powerful. There is loss – a lot of loss – and being an outsider and trying to figure out what the heck is going on and it all just seems like too much.   It’s both your worst family trip and your best one.  From there, I might head back into When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead or A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
• A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver (E.L. Konigsburg) – This somewhat unlikely book for middle graders and teens is about Eleanor of Aquitaine. She’s in heaven, waiting to find out where her second husband, King Henry II of England, will be headed.  How does this seem like something that would have fascinated me when I was young?  It’s Eleanor.  Well, Eleanor and the great writing, which made these long-dead historical figures seem real to me.  Reading about her made me think more critically about women and power and history, which could conceivably have pushed me in several directions that affected real-life choices for me.  After reading this one, I like to move on to biographies of Eleanor Roosevelt or other lesser-known rad women.  (See this blog post for more.)
• The Dark is Rising sequence (Susan Cooper). This series actually starts with Over Sea, Under Stone, and I have to admit that I haven’t re-read it lately, so who knows what I’ll think of it now?  (I know I’ll still love it.) However, it was fantasy in the time before Harry Potter, and brought together a bunch of kids into a fight between Dark and Light, complete with connections to Arthurian legends and other fun stuff.  The Dark was really dark, and there were wizards, and that’s all you need to know if you haven’t read them.  I remember dreaming myself into the stories when I was a kid, and then thinking about what my mind made them into while I was at school the next day.  What an excellent use of “quiet work” time!

I’m sure there are more, many more.  Some books hold up better than others over the years.  Some characters remind you of who you used to be, and others connect with you in new ways.  It’s all good.

Re-Counting by 7s

Sometimes books just hit us at the perfect moment.   There’s something in our past, our present, or what we think might be our future, something that a book or a character or even just a phrase captures precisely.  That, my friends, is Willow Chance and Counting by 7s in a nutshell.  Willow is obsessive, awkward, analytical and an outsider.  But somehow, she’s all of the things we know ourselves to be, too.  She’s trying to find her way.

I don’t do much re-reading – there are always too many new books to get to– except for my annual trips to Hogwarts in French and German, which is my way of reminding my brain of its many and varied pathways.  But my book club decided to read Counting by 7s, and after trying to listen to it in the car unsuccessfully (some books work that way for me and other just don’t), I scrounged up my son’s copy. (He rereads it regularly.)

Holly Goldberg Sloan’s writing is just incredible–direct, powerful, illuminating, wonderful.  Switches of perspective happen seamlessly, although the characters don’t seem to share very much.  Willow is an oddball genius, as labeled by Dell Duke, her school counselor who lies about having a cat and can’t throw things away.  Her new friends, Mai, Quang-ha and Pattie probably have a few issues, too.  Mai would like to have bunk beds; Quang-ha would like to be left alone; Pattie thinks about nail polish a lot, maybe too much to realize what her life is really about.  Then there’s Jairo, a cab driver who becomes convinced Willow is his personal angel.

In the end, all of these oddballs form a family. It’s a happy ending, but it doesn’t feel sappy or cloying.  And passing through their lives reminded me of so many painful and happy days of my own – experiencing soul-crushing grief, seeing a garden grow, and finding a new friend who is completely different but perfect for me.  It’s a trip you should take, too, whether you’ve been there before or not.

Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan

This is the book

You didn’t know you needed three magical children, a holy dog, an adventure with dragons, mishaps, danger, a variety of bad guys, an inquisitor, and oh, maybe the King of France – did you?  Monks, religious zealots, illuminated texts?  Really?

Oh yes, this is the book you have been waiting for.  You may need it to escape a day full of devices and computer screens or maybe just the onslaught of shrieking talking heads.  You might need to forget your workplace drama or a wicked boss or that annoying co-worker or student who comes to work sick and gives everyone else the flu.  Or maybe your family is driving you crazy, leaving glasses around the house, not turning off lights, having laundry crises, demanding snacks at all hours.  Who knows?

But this, this, is a book for a great escape. Find your porch swing, the chair under your favorite tree, the bed with the big pillows.  Settle in and hear the tale of Jeanne, William and Jacob, and their journey across France to right wrongs and settle a few scores.  You won’t be sorry you did.

The Inquisitor’s Tale – or, the three children and their holy dog by Adam Gidwitz

Caring and sharing – making a difference in your daily life

Wow.  I’ve set expectations kind of high today.  Maybe we can change the world with just a smile?  But here’s the thing.  We have to start somewhere.  Are we all about ourselves and what we are entitled to and deserve, or are we about doing what’s best in a larger sense, for our family, for our community, for the world?

Talking about this with kids is important, because what you learn at home and in elementary school sticks with you for the rest of your life.  It can be hard to imagine how you, as a six year old, can become one of those people who makes a difference.  As I mentioned the other day, the Ordinary People Change the World series by Brad Meltzer shows how people like Jackie Robinson and Jane Goodall started on the path to change.  Or you could read A Hat for Mrs. Goldman by Michelle Edwards and G. Brian Karas.

Mrs. Goldman knits for others but never seems to have a hat of her own on the cold, blustery days.  Sophia, who knits poorly but makes awesome pom-poms, sets out to right that small wrong in the world.  It’s that simple.  We can all make metaphorical hats for our communities.  Whether you’re Mrs. Goldman or Sophia, you have the power!  Get out there and do something kind, people.

Read, enjoy, start making hats.

A Hat for Mrs. Goldman by Michelle Edwards and G. Brian Karas

Asteroids, the prom and life

Yuri is really, really good at physics.  He’s so good that when NASA figures out that an asteroid will hit Earth in less than a month, they convince the Russians to let Yuri come to the U.S. to help stop it.  Yuri’s life has always been about school, science, and eventually getting a Nobel Prize.  “Normal” things – girls, relationships, politics—are a bit beyond him.

His story becomes about more than a complicated math problem when he meets Dovie.  She and her family provide him an escape from the situation at the lab, and suddenly he’s doing things he’s never done before – going to prom, sneaking out of his room, talking back to authority figures, and learning to swear in English.   It’s not just about saving the world from an asteroid now.  Yuri realizes that the life he wants to live has fundamentally changed and yet not changed at all.

Yuri’s internal dialogue, his humor, the reality of the daily petty stuff he has to deal with, and his confidence and insecurity carry the story along.  (I know…but it works.  He knows he’s often the smartest guy in the room, but at the same time, he’s enough of a perfectionist to be terrified of ever being wrong about anything at all.)  There are a lot of balls in the air here – the asteroid, his cultural confusion, his feelings for Dovie, his past as a prodigy, the Russians—but they’re juggled effectively, and in the end, he gets the life he isn’t sure he wants but is happy with it.  And he maybe saves the world, too.

Learning to Swear in America by Katie Kennedy

6 so far – middle grade favorites of 2016

I haven’t been reading as much this summer as I have in the past, but in looking back at the spring, I can see that it’s still been a wonderful year for middle grade books.  As a recap, here are some faves of the first half or so of 2016.  (My previous “reviews” are linked to the titles — sometimes I end up writing less about the actual book than you might expect for a “book review.”)

Raymie Nightingale – Kate DiCamillo

It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel – Firoozeh Dumas

The Seventh Wish – Kate Messner

Poison is Not Polite – Robin Stevens

Maybe  a Fox – Kathi Appelt with Allison McGhee

The Wild Robot – Peter Brown

How can it already be the beginning of August?  I’ll start volunteering at my neighborhood elementary school again soon, switching out fifth grade for kindergarten but staying with the library and third grade.  Before you know it, a new crop of 9^th graders will be showing up after school at the library.  I’ll find out some of my favorite  story time kids have headed to kindergarten, and we’ll start seeing more adults who have headed back to college but need help with research projects.  Time just flies along, but fortunately, there are more good books still in the stack.  Next?  Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

 

Not Awful. Love falafel…and the book, too

Cindy/Zomorod Yousefzadeh is living in 1970s California, just trying to be like everyone else.  She dreams of things like beanbags and gauchos and is frustrated by her parents’ insistence on hanging on to their life in Iran.  Sure, Cindy – as she wants to be known (like one of the Brady Bunch) – misses her cousins and other family still in Iran, but she would maybe like to fit in, too.

Her neighbors and friends at school don’t seem to really know much about Iran, at least not until the Shah is overthrown.  Suddenly, everyone has an opinion, and she has to explain her culture constantly, attention which she would happily avoid.  Before long, she finds herself trying to protect herself and her parents from ignorance and stereotyping.

What’s nice about this book is that it captures a moment – the 1979 Iranian revolution and the hostage crisis – from a unique perspective, one with a lot of humor which could provoke some really interesting conversations with kids.  Cindy and her family are not refugees, but as immigrants, they are outsiders.  Her father is a businessman working in the oil industry, but that doesn’t make them any less affected by the crisis when it happens.  How would moving to another country affect our perspective?  Would we be able to laugh about the embarrassing mistakes we made?  How would we react in Cindy’s situation?  How can you defend your country and culture without agreeing with what’s happening there?

It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas

Kate DiCamillo – cheerleader, life coach or Jedi knight?

What is it with Kate DiCamillo, and how is it that I don’t hate her?  Her writing about everyday life is so good, so luminous, that I have laughed, cried, and gasped while reading her books.  Her characters are so perfect and imperfect that I feel like I know them, and yet they are 5,000 times more interesting than anyone I’ve actually known.  She could write my shopping list and make it a million times better, funnier, and more interesting, joining Kathi Appelt and J.K. Rowling in a rather exclusive little club I’ve created in my head for awesome writers.

I mean, really.  You hear these people have new books coming out, and you think, “Ok, excellent!  I have something to look forward to now!”  Sometimes, almost always, the books live up to what you are hoping for, because these writers are just that good.  But once in a while, you get a Raymie Nightingale, which has not just several baton twirlers, but also a few crazy old ladies, many strong women, and some difficult and delusional new friends.  And there’s Mrs. Sylvester, with her voice like a cartoon bird, and the ever-mysterious Marsha Jean, who’s got Louisiana Elefante and her grandma always on the run.  And there’s more!  There are sentences you would not believe – “People left and people died and people went to memorial services and put orange blocks of cheese into their purses” – which are completely crazy but always work perfectly somehow.

Kate DiCamillo is like a high school cheerleader, the one who’s nice to absolutely everyone and manages to pull off the Farrah Fawcett haircut to boot.  She’s the college professor who’s everyone’s life coach, who’s unfailingly supportive when others are not and who seems to honestly believe you really can do what you dream of,  She’s a Jedi knight, bringing light to a dark, scary world, fighting for something bigger, and recognizing the remarkable humanity inside all of us imperfect humans.  I’ve known these people (except for the Jedi knight, although I have some pretty wonderful friends who might stand in) and while you’d kind of like to hate them sometimes, you can’t.  They are just too good.

And Raymie Nightingale?  It’s too good, too.

Graduates, retirees, job-changers…really just about everybody will like this book

High school graduations are coming soon to a family or neighborhood near you, and finding the right gift can be tough.  When I graduated from high school, one of my uncles gave me a luggage cart instead of his traditional dictionary/thesaurus combo.  I’ve always been grateful for that.  He saw in me something that I didn’t see in myself yet.

Well, my friends, The Bear and the Piano is here to help solve your problem.  And even if you don’t have any graduations or major life changes coming up around you, you should still read it.  Really.

I read The Bear and the Piano without even thinking about the two family favorites who are finishing high school this year until one of the last pages – you’ll know what I mean when you see the book yourself.   This amazing bear heads off into the world, completely out of his element, and when he decides to return home, he wonders if everyone he’s missed will have forgotten him.  The ending is such a powerful reminder of how leaving your home can be a challenge and full of exciting opportunities, but that going away doesn’t mean all of the people who’ve cared about you will forget you.

What a beautiful book!  I can’t shut up about it, partly because the message is such a positive and beautiful one which could remind children (big and small) that they connect with and carry with them many people – family, friends, neighbors, teachers, school custodians, librarians…  We have such mobile lives, and this book is also a way to acknowledge that people retire or move to different jobs or find a new home and still don’t forget about the people they love.

So, if Kate or Shelby’s parents are reading this, DO NOT get them this book.  It will come from me, along with a note to remind them that we’re all excited about their great new adventures, and we’ll be loving them and cheering them on from a distance

The Bear and the Piano by David Litchfield

Circus Mirandus – B3 Winner!

Our Super 64 was whittled down to two the week before spring break – The Lightning Thief vs. Circus Mirandus.  It was a long road for both, past favorites like The One and Only Ivan, The Terrible Two, Smile, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Calvin & Hobbes.

The winner, finally, was Circus Mirandus, by four votes.  New pencils and a fun bookmark marked the occasion, and I talked with the kids about a brief email exchange I had with the author, Cassie Beasley, the day before.  They had talked about loving her book because of the depth of the characters and the great story, although I’m sure they also loved that it was something their teacher read aloud, so they experienced it together.  Without that added boost, it might not have made it to the finals.  As their teacher noted, classmates might have voted for or against books they’d never read.  Everyone knew and loved Circus Mirandus.  I mentioned some of this to the author, who commented on the great list of books and being excited about winning.  She promised there were books on the way from her.  Yay for all of us!

I wasn’t much of a fangirl when I was a kid, but as an adult, I’ve occasionally written authors to let them know how much their work means to me.  Authors spend a lot of time alone with their work before editors, agents, critics, and regular people ever get access to it.  I wonder sometimes how it feels to have your words picked apart, even when reviews are good.  Does the work even feel like your own at that point?

I look at things I wrote years ago, and it can sometimes be strange to imagine that I was the person who wrote it!  Hmm, I’ll think, that really was pretty good, even if it doesn’t seem like I could have come up with it.  I have to think that most writers appreciate the feedback when it comes from people who truly love their work, and if they don’t, well, they just won’t respond, will they?   Enough said.

Well done, Cassie Beasley.  Thank you for Micah, Grandpa Ephraim, Jenny, the Lightbender and even Aunt Gertrudis.

If You Plant a Seed by Kadir Nelson

Add this one to my list of favorites by Kadir Nelson, along with We are the Ship, I Have a Dream, Heart and Soul, Nelson Mandela, and Baby Bear.

It’s a deceptively simple story – plant a seed and things will happen. You might get some nice vegetables, but then what? Good things can come and multiply if you share. Bad things might happen if you don’t. There isn’t much text, but there’s a lot going on – humor, action, friendship. As you’d expect from Kadir Nelson, the illustrations are flat out wonderful, detailed and expressive. For small children, it’s a sweet story about bunnies and mice and birds and sharing, but there’s much more you could do with this. Could it really be about social justice and the kind of world we want to have? Maybe. Just maybe.

Reality is not always a fun read

Joseph is an eighth grader with a past so troubled that his new foster brother counts his smiles, spaced as they are over weeks instead of hours. Joseph’s reason for living is his daughter, Jupiter, the only thing left of the one person he loved.

Jack, Joseph’s foster brother,  is a sixth grader who has never known the kind of anger and pain Joseph carries with him. He lives on an organic dairy farm with his parents, a place of quiet routine and peace. He shares Joseph’s story so simply and powerfully that at times, I felt the book as much as I read it.

This is not an easy book, but it’s a realistic one, and one that older middle grade readers and teens will connect with. It’s tragic, upsetting, sad and even brutal at times – none of those adjectives being things that usually qualify as a “fun read”. It’s not a fun read, but it’s not trying to be one, either. This story could have been written so that it was more focused on the action or friendship or other elements, but it would have been a lesser book that way. This one is perfect just as it is.

Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D. Schmidt

365 days – 1,342 items in the book bag, give or take a few

Why would one person check out this much stuff? Books, magazines, graphic novels, movies, music, picture books, middle grade, teen, mysteries, history, sci-fi, tv series, the occasional puppet and so much more. E-books and e-audiobooks aren’t even included, nor are the things which never end up in my email folder of library receipts. If I actually buy something, it’s not counted – and those are often the books I’m most excited about and can’t wait for the library to get. My husband and son also figure into this number; it’s usually just easier to check out what they want when I’m at work. And some things never get read or watched, even though they come home with me.  So I’m never sure exactly how many books I read.

Still, why so many?  It’s not just that I love the library and work in one. My healthy holds list means that I’m never short on new things to look at. (Often there are 80-90 things on that list in addition to everything I have checked out.) I also follow authors and what’s new in publishing, and I lead a writing group, which frequently has me thinking about storytelling or word choice or past favorite reads. Teaching a college class this fall also meant I needed books to look over and consider for student assignments. Some of those items are books or cds I requested when I was scheduled to lead story time or wanted to talk about a particular topic at one of my volunteer gigs.

When I look at everything the library shared with me (for free!), I see new favorites and things to laugh about, scary stories, great friendships, love, grief, fear, and hope. My life is so much more exciting and full because I read. I can’t wait to see what the next year holds – more books, more tears, more laughter, more joy.

Not everything I read was published in 2015, but many were. Here are just a few of my 2015 favorites, in no particular order, grouped by loose categories:

Picture Books

Wolfie the Bunny

Rude Cakes

Float

Last Stop on Market Street

Please, Mr. Panda

Boats for Papa

Leo: A Ghost Story

Imaginary Fred

Nerdy Birdy

We Forgot Brock!

Red

 

Middle grade

The Terrible Two

Echo

Gone Crazy in Alabama

Nightbird

The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate

Beware the Power of the Dark Side

Confessions of an Imaginary Friend

The Thing about Jellyfish

Circus Mirandus

 

Graphic Novels

The Graveyard Book, vol. 1 & 2

March

The Sleeper and the Spindle (I’m putting this one with the graphic novels, because it’s such a beautifully illustrated version.)

The Phantom Bully

Little Robot

Awkward

Nimona

Hilo

 

Teen Fiction

Under a Painted Sky

Silver in the Blood

Carry On

Everything, Everything

Dumplin’

Library of Souls

 

Teen Nonfiction

Symphony for the City of the Dead

Most Dangerous

I Will Always Write Back

 

Adult

Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend

A God in Ruins

Between the World and Me

Another Rumble in Funjungle

Big Game by Stuart Gibbs

Teddy Fitzroy’s adventures started a few books ago – first Belly Up, then Poached, now Big Game. Switching between middle school drama and life at FunJungle, a zoo/theme park which is also his home, these stories manage to weave in first crushes, bullies, fun facts about animals, and research on conservation. Big Game continues the exciting ride and throws in appearances from familiar, comic characters like Large Marge and TimJim, the inseparable twin bullies.

This time, Rhonda the Rhino is in danger from someone who might want her horn. (It’s worth a lot of money in Asia for its reputed medicinal qualities, as if it wasn’t enough that she’s endangered and pregnant.) In the past, there were hippo assassins and koala kidnappers to stop. Funjungle still seems ill-prepared to deal with both security logistics and elephant stampedes, although J.J McCracken, its wealthy founder, has expectations of everyone, including Teddy. J.J. McCracken’s daughter, Summer, has come back into the picture after leaving boarding school back east to be middle school queen bee in Texas.

Stuart Gibbs also has two other series – Spy School and Moon Base Alpha – and all are fun for middle grade readers. There’s always a good mix of action, humorous misunderstandings, and silly mishaps in his books, and the fun is blended with really interesting tidbits of information and realistic relationships. The cool kids aren’t always cool. The parents aren’t always clueless. The bad guys aren’t always 100% bad. And the endings aren’t always quite as predictable as you might expect, which is an especially nice twist when you read a lot of middle grade.

What to read when the holiday season gets annoying…

Sometime around now, the holiday decorations and perky greetings begin to wear on me. If the weather’s been all snowy and scenic, it’s even worse. Has there been hot chocolate? Have the homemade sugar cookies and candied pecans come out? All that ho-ho-ho-ing…. Sigh.

That’s when Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree needs to make a visit. First published in 1963, it’s one of my all-time favorite books. Mr. Willowby gets a tree. It’s too big, so he lops off the top. Someone rescues the top, but it’s still too big. You get the picture. It’s simple, it rhymes, and there are merrymaking bunnies.

It’s the perfect recipe for getting back in the holiday spirit. Thank you, Robert Barry. And happy holidays!  Now, where’s my hot chocolate?

Imaginary Fred

Imaginary Fred brings together several things I love, most especially Oliver Jeffers, Eoin Colfer, and imaginary friends.

Fred fades in and out of existence as he’s required, helping kids who need a friend, always reminding himself that nothing is permanent. He expects it to be the same when he meets Sam, and, in fact, the early signs are there – Sam makes a new friend – named Sammi of all things! — and leaves Fred behind to meet her. Sadness. But it won’t stay that way.

This is a whimsical story, so it’s no surprise that Oliver Jeffers’ drawings add to it perfectly, tossing in a little visual humor to add to the lightness of Eoin Colfer’s words. It’s also a reminder on a very basic level of how friendships can change, but who we are can keep expanding in the most unpredictable and wonderful ways.

5 things I loved about The Blackthorn Key (by Kevin Sands)

1. The book begins with this: “Let’s build a cannon.”   I can’t tell you the number of times that’s happened to me, and pretty much any book which starts that way will capture my attention. My older brother was a master of blowing stuff up and shooting off bottle rockets with odd attachments when we were kids. It might seem like nothing good is going to come of it – you might blow off stuffed bears’ private parts if you do this inside, for example – but you know you’re going to get a pretty interesting story out of it.
2. Christopher and Tom’s friendship. Neither one of them has an easy life, but when they’re together, they are a team. And when they’re not together, they’re loyal. Tom protects Christopher. Christopher shields Tom.
3. Christopher and Master Benedict’s relationship – Master Benedict is a secretive guy, and not very cuddly or warm. But he has a deep affection for his apprentice Christopher, one which becomes more clear after Master Benedict is gone.
4. The power of a few sticky buns. Tom comes from a baking family. His father is a miser, as well as bitter and angry about almost everything, but Tom’s mother finds ways to pass on sticky buns and rolls to neighbors who don’t have enough and to Tom, who’s just lost everything. It’s a reminder that everyone can find a way to be kind, even if they have little themselves.
5. Knowledge and quick thinking win out over brute force, fear, and ignorance. Christopher seems like a normal kid, maybe a little smarter than some others, but not a genius by any means. His love of puzzles means that he can stay one step ahead of the bad guys who are not just out to get Master Benedict and then him, but who want to use a powerful discovery to overthrow the king. It all ends well, even if it’s a little messy getting there.

The Blackthorn Key is set long in the past, but it’s reminiscent of contemporary books with puzzles and mysteries to solve. Sands makes the past so lively and real that you can easily imagine yourself as Christopher, running through the streets, loving your friends, and ultimately outsmarting the bad guys and finding a path to a new life.