That Boy Red by Rachna Gilmore (Red Cedar Book 2012)

I have to be completely honest here. I am a Rachna Gilmore fan. Seriously, I have never read anything of hers I did not love. One of my all time favorite books is A Group of One. If you haven’t read it go straight to your local book store or library and get it. (After you read this of course)

So it was weird that I wasn’t sure at first if I would like That Boy Red. It starts out slow and the historical setting is different from what I am used to with her work.

However, after a few pages I was riveted by the story of eleven-year-old Red MacRae and his family. Red is growing up on a farm in Prince Edward Island during the great depression of the 1930’s. While life isn’t easy for the family, they not only survive, they manage to help out their less fortunate neighbors. The book spans one tumultuous year in the family’s life. It is a collection of vignettes highlighting a number of events that play an important role in Red’s life.

Red is a spunky scalawag who is prone to getting into trouble. His hijinks will, for the most part, send you into gales of laughter. I dare you to keep a straight face while reading how Red, and his brother, Mac, drop their grandmother’s treasured lock of hair into cow manure, try to clean it and end up trying to substitute horse hair for it. At other times, like when he gets lost in a winter storm and ends up holed up in a neighbor’s outhouse to escape the blizzard, you are likely to alternate between admiration, admonishment and amusement. Unfortunately, Red’s antics are not always benign. When he and a friend tricked his little sister into thinking she had killed him, it ended up causing the community great distress and nearly led to disaster. 

Red’s parents value education. Despite the disparaging opinions of other farmers, Mr. and Mrs. MacRae took out a loan to send Ellen, their oldest child, away to school. Now she works as the local schoolteacher to earn money to pay for Alex, the eldest boy, to go away to university. As you can imagine, it isn’t easy having your older sister as your teacher. Some of the predicaments Red finds himself in are a direct result of this. 

This is a lovely coming of age tale. Readers will enjoy peeking in on this year of Red’s life as he matures, learns from his mistakes and comes to appreciate himself, his family, his community, and his own place in it.  

This book reminded me of Farley Mowat’s book, Owls in the Family. If you liked it you will like this.

I am happy to say that Rachna Gilmore didn’t let me down.

Ice Storm by Penny Draper (Red Cedar Club 2012)

In 1998 an ice storm hit the province of Quebec and other parts of Eastern Canada. Montreal, a city of 3 ½ million people was extremely hard hit. This is the story of Sophie and Alice, cousins and close friends who lived in different parts of the province. Told from the points of view of the two girls, we see how this disaster slowly escalated from a minor inconvenience to a near catastrophe. Alice lived in Montreal with her father who worked for Hydro Quebec. Sophie lived in rural Quebec on a dairy farm with her brother, mother and father. Against the backdrop of the storm, Alice and Sophie have to deal with details of their own lives.

Alice loved to skate and train for hours each day before and after school. In spite of this, competitions were a nightmare for her. When she was in front of a crowd she seemed unable to do anything right. When the storm hit, her father was occupied trying to get the power grid running and left Alice alone at home. At first she was comfortable, but as the storm progressed, all bridges to Montreal were shut down. Her uncle was unable to pick her up and bring her to the farm as planned, but her father was unaware of this. As the freezing rain continued and became more treacherous, trees in her neighborhood split, power lines collapsed and Alice was truly abandoned. She rescued a cranky older neighbor when a tree collapsed onto her house and they ended up in a shelter together. This doesn’t mean that things got better.

Before the storm Sophie’s most difficult challenge was dealing with her brilliant and very weird younger brother. She bottled her feelings up deep inside and was unable to say what she wanted.  Because her parents had the foresight to purchase a generator, it seemed at first that Sophie’s family and farm animals would be fine. Then the generator failed and they were forced to watch helplessly as their farm animals began to die.

Ultimately this is a story about how disaster brings out the best and worst in humankind. It shows us how ordinary individuals not only cope; they grow and become stronger under these kinds of challenging situations.

This is the kind of book that makes learning history a pleasure.

LARKLIGHT or The revenge of the white spiders! or To Saturn's Rings and Back! A Rousing Tale of Dauntless Pluck in the farthest Reaches of Space as chronicl'd by Art Mumby, with the aid of Philip Reeve

I just adore this book.

My niece told me about the series ages ago, but when I tried to get a copy of it for the library, it was out of print. When I found a copy published by Scholastic, I grabbed it!

I am so glad I did.

Philip Reeve’s creative genius has resulted in a story that is a fabulous example of steampunk. The illustrations by David Wyatt just top it off perfectly.

Any great adventure tale should have intrigue and suspense, battles and chases, and to top it off, romance and humor.

Larklight has it all and more.

Throw in a generous amount of strange mechanical devices and unique creatures from across the universe and nearly any reader who opens the first page will be hooked.

I was. I started reading and couldn’t put the book down.

Arthur and his sister, Myrtle, are an ordinary set of squabbling siblings from Victorian times. What is not so ordinary is that they live on Larklight, a cobbled together house that orbits around the moon.

Their ordinary morning goes awry when Mr. Webster, the visitor they have been expecting, turns out to be a monstrous talking spider wearing a bowler hat. Although they escape, their day goes from bad to worse. They are captured by a gigantic potter moth to feed to its larva, and barely saved by the famous pirate, Captain Jack Havock. They survive an attack by the royal navy, only to be attacked by the spiders again.

The children find themselves in a battle for much more than their own survival: it is a battle to save the entire universe!

Larklight is the first in a trilogy but thankfully; the ending is satisfying just as it is. (I hate books that leave me hanging – that sort of thing is ok with chapters, but not when I get to the finish)

I will buy an extra copy for the library and can’t wait to get my hands on Starcross and Mothstorm.

I suspect the text will be daunting for all but strong readers in an elementary school. It is loaded with Victorian vocabulary and the level on the back of my scholastic edition says the reading level is 8.8. However, because the story itself is suitable for younger readers, it will make a fabulous read aloud!

Powerless by Matthew Cody

I have been working my way through the pile of books recommended to me by students. I was told this was a fantastic book by a charming grade 7 boy.
He was right.

When Daniel Corrigan and his family moved to the town of Nobel’s Green to be with his ailing grandmother, he was full of nervous apprehension. It is a good thing he loved to read detective novels and dreamed of being Sherlock Holmes. Not only did it help pass time, it prepared him for his new life in Nobel’s Green.

Ok, so nothing in life could really prepare him for his new friends. They seem a bit odd, but it isn’t until one of them saves his life that he discovers that his new friends have super powers. Molly can fly. Rohan has hyper senses. Eric can fly and has incredibly strength. Simon can control electricity. Rose can become invisible.

Unfortunately there is a dark side to their lives. They must abide by four important rules.

1. Use Your Powers To Help. Never Hurt.
2. The North Face And The Old Quarry Are Off-Limits. Danger Waits For Us There.
3. It Ends At Thirteen
4. Never Ever Let Grown Ups Know

When the children turn thirteen, not only do they lose their power, their memories of their super powers and of their friendships also disappear. This is where Daniel comes in. While he may not have super powers, he is extremely good at detecting and he uses this to help his friends figure out why they lose their powers, and what they can do to stop it.
 
It involves breaking the rules. There are also some terrifying and suspenseful moments fighting ‘the shroud’.  I was sucked into the story from the very beginning.
It is both a book about superheroes and a mystery at the same time.
Seriously, what more could you ask for? 

You could ask for a sequel. You would get it. Super has just been published. Can't wait to get my hands on it. 

Chu Ju's House by Gloria Whelan

The best part of being a teacher librarian is when a kid comes in to the library holding a book against his or her heart and tells me that this is the best book they have ever read.  Sometimes these are popular fiction that everyone is reading, but sometimes they are hidden treasures.  These treasures are books that speak a personal truth and trigger something profound in a few children.  Chu Ju’s House is one of these books.  It has been on my list of books to read ever since Nancy, an ESL student from China, told me it was the best book ever, and I should read it.  This is the book that got her hooked on reading. 

I finally got around to reading it.

The thing about books like Chu Ju’s House, that are set in modern history in a different culture, is that I can’t judge the authenticity of the time, place or cultural relationships among the characters.  What I can tell you is that it felt real to me. 

The story is set In China in the 1970’s, a time when poor families could only have two children.  It begins with the family awaiting the birth of a child that they desperately hope will be a boy.  Nai Nai, (her grandmother) refers to Chu Ju as a useless girl.   
The new child ends up being another girl. 

Chu Ju is an amazing character.  She is a strong, resourceful girl.  When Nai Nai makes arrangements for her baby sister to be sold so that the family can try for a boy child, Chu Ju runs away.  At first she finds work on a traveling fishing boat.  Then she looks after silk worms with girls who have been sent from an orphanage to work for the owner.  Eventually she connects with a woman and her son on a small farm.  She ends up living with them until the son goes off to Shanghai to work and escape the farming life. 

Apart from being an entertaining adventure and coming of age tale, this book seems to open a window to the world of China in the 1970’s.  While it is a predominantly rural setting, the reader is also exposed to a flavor of city life. There are hints about what might have happened to her sister and other girl babies who were abandoned to orphanages had Chu Ju not left.  There are also hints as to what might befall a single girl on her own were it not for the ultimate goodness of many people she meets on her way. 

I too think this is an amazing book.

Tree Girl by Ben Mikaelsen

This book is set in Guatemala in the 1980’s during the time of the civil war, a time of genocide for the indigenous population.  The main character, Gabriela, is a real person.  This story (with her name changed to protect her) is based on interviews Mikaelsen had with her.  

Gabriela grew up in a small Mayan canton in the high mountains of Guatemala surrounded by her family and friends.  The trees in the forest outside her village were her refuge and solace. She loved climbing them and spent so many hours in them that she acquired the nickname Tree Girl. This ability would later save her life.

Gabi was the only child in her family sent to school to learn to read and speak Spanish, and more importantly, to learn to think. While she was growing up, her community was mildly troubled by conflict between the guerillas and government soldiers asking them to tell about the actions of the other. They continued about their business hoping they would be ignored.  

It was not to be.

Following her mother's death, Gabriela took on more responsibility for her family. After a journey to the larger center to sell their produce, she returned to discover that government soldiers had massacred her entire community. She found her sister, Alicia, and injured brother, Antonio, hiding in the forest, and fled with them. Antonio died shortly afterwards.

Desperate to find food for them, Gabriela entered a village just prior to the arrival of government soldiers. She climbed into a tree in the middle of the square and hid while they brutally humiliated and slaughtered the residents.  Afterwards, unable to find her sister, she set out on her own for Mexico, always searching for them.

Eventually she reached a refuge camp. Life in the refuge camp was not easy, but in it Gabriela began to recover from the trauma she experienced and find the goodness in herself again.

I finished this book thinking of the recent hype around The Hunger Games. In The Hunger Games, the heroine, Katniss, has to fight for survival in a dangerous, futuristic, but fictional world. In Tree Girl, the heroine, Gabriela, has to fight to survive in the very real world of Guatemala in the 1980's. It is not for the faint of heart. The brutal, casual violence is far more horrific than that in The Hunger Games, because the indifferent rape, torture and murder of approximately 200,000 people is not fiction.

There are two powerful themes that intertwine throughout this book.  On the one hand we see and experience vicariously the human capacity for evil. On the other we see and experience the human capacity for hope and goodness.

Perhaps these themes are also articulated in The Hunger Games, but the authenticity of them in Tree Girl forces the reader into a profoundly different awareness of what it means to be human. It also forces the reader into taking a closer look at the real world that we all share. My first reaction after finishing this book was to go in search of more information about the Guatemalan conflict.  A simple google search revealed that the Indigenous peoples’ struggle in Guatemala is far from over.  I’m still pondering what I will do about it.  Doing nothing is not an option.

The Year the Swallows Came Early by Kathryn Fitzmaurice

There is absolutely nothing sweeter than a simple tale, well told. The Year the Swallows Came Early by Kathryn Fitzmaurice is one of them.
Groovy (Eleanor) Robinson has big dreams. She loves to cook and plans to go to school to become a famous professional chef. At age 11, she is already on her way.
In the mean time she lives with her mother and her father “in a perfect stucco house, just off the sparkly pacific” in San Juan Capistrano where the swallows migrate to every year. One Saturday morning while she and her daddy are out walking, the local policeman stops them and takes him off to jail.
Groovy is beside herself with disbelief and certain that this has been a terrible mistake. To add to her confusion and distress, her mother confesses to having called the police herself. It turns out that her father has indeed done a terrible thing. His actions have robbed her of her dreams.

When the reality of it finally takes hold:

“The feelings started real slow, like tiny raindrops that can’t make up their minds if they’re going to pour from the clouds, or pass through with the breeze.
But then the more I looked at his handwriting in the bank book----the zero scratched in black pen---the faster those drops fell, until it felt like I was sitting in a big, blowing thunderstorm. And just like those storms that can be so sneaky, I didn’t see it coming. And before I knew it, I felt soaking wet, with nowhere to go. So I sat there for a long time, until I shivered from all the cold swirling around me.
And then it happened. It started coming up into my toes, staying there for a minute, waiting to see if I would push it away.
But I didn’t.
So it crept up past my knees, and then into my stomach, finally finding its way to my heart. Where it stopped and settled in deep.
And here’s what I thought: I wished I’d never found what was in that box because feeling mad at Daddy was a million times worse than feeling sad.”(pp 167-168)

Groovy changes her name to Eleanor, and sinks deeply into paralyzing feelings of grief, anger and emptiness.
Frankie, her best friend, has his own cross to bear. Two years ago his mother left him with his stepbrother to go away for a week. She hasn’t returned. Frankie won’t read her letters or postcards. He is filled with such anguish that he is making himself ill.

This is a beautiful book – I picked it up and couldn’t put it down till I finished it. It is a treasure. Tiny gold and silver nuggets of words you find yourself rereading just to savor them. There is beauty in the descriptions. Kathryn Fitzmaurice, takes the reader into a hypersensitive awareness of atmosphere - physical, emotional, and spiritual. Enthralled by her writing we live vicariously through her very real characters as they experience loss and sadness, anger and despair, and just maybe, joy and peace.
Each spring the swallows return to nest bringing awe and wonder with them. This book brings its own kind of awe and wonder as it wends it way into our hearts with its story of friendship, family, and forgiveness.

I would recommend this book to fans of the Lucky books by Susan Patron, Katherine Hannigan’s Ida B, Deborah Wiles Each Little Bird That Sings or Love, Ruby Lavender, and Phoebe Stone’s, Deep Down Popular.