Maximum Ride: School's Out--Forever

Author: James Patterson
Year: 2007
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Pages: 407
Reading Level: Intermediate (ages 9-12)

Genre: Action/Fantasy
Series Information: Second of the Maximum Ride series
Location: Eastern United States, especially Virginia, Florida
Time Period: Present Day (2006)

Plot: Maximum Ride and her five friends: Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gassman, and Angel are special. Kidnapped in infancy, they've been raised in a lab where they were genetically altered. Now they are half human, and half bird, and they are trained with military defense tactics. Max and her flock have escaped from the lab, and now they're on the lam. However, they quickly meet trouble when the Erasers (a human/wolf/bird hybrid) catch up to them. Fang is mortally wounded in the fight, and he has to be taken to the hospital. The FBI finds out about Max and her flock, and a head agent offers Max the chance for all of them to stay at her house and recouperate. The next thing Max knows, she and her friends are all enrolled in a private school, and the FBI agent is talking about making the arrangement permanent. This doesn't sit well with Max, who has her own agenda: to find the lost family members of her flock, and to take down the evil power that genetically altered her flock in the first place. Can she convince the others to leave their comfortable new existence? SPOILER! When Max and her flock discover that the FBI agent is actually one of the heads of the lab where they were made into mutants, Max and her flock head off on their own again. They head for Florida for information about their past. Following a lead that points them to the headquarters of a large corporation, Max and her friends break in and are very nearly captured--but not before learning more about their past and their possible future destiny.

Comments: I picked up this book thinking that it looked like one that would appeal to boys. Even though the cover shown here isn't the same as the cover of the book I read, it has the same idea: the silhouette of a winged teenage boy. Surely that boy was the main character, Maximum Ride? It was therefore rather surprising to me to find out that Max is actually a winged teenage girl. Kudos should be sent to James Patterson for writing a very strong female character, but I still think this type of book will appeal to boys more than it will to girls.

All in all, the book was a fun, quick read. Sentences are short and to the point, as are the chapters, which average about two pages in length. Patterson's writing style fits perfectly with this setup. Dialog is quick and witty. The book is filled with one-liners. The action scenes are extremely fast-paced (and a little gruesome). And, impressively, even though Patterson gives hardly any recap of what happened in the first book in the series, the plot is still easy to follow. This is achieved by the fact that most of the book is written from Max's perspective, so you get a lot of her innermost thoughts. Even though Max is "Avian-American," she still has extremely human emotions. And lots of them since she's a fourteen-year-old teenager. This makes Max relatable even though her actions are tough.

Perhaps the biggest downfall of the book is that so much of the book is spent with hardly anything happening. This allows us to get to know Max better, and it's part of why she's as relatable as a genetically enhanced, military trained being can be, but if this series is supposed to be a sci-fi thriller, why are they taking a break to attend school? I wasn't too bothered by this fact while I was reading the book. The fast-paced dialog does help this section move along, but it's something that puzzles me now.

Themes: Evil Corporations, School, Definition of what a Family is, Saving the World

Red Flags: Violence (breaking bones, explosions, etc.) in the fight scenes.

The Manny Files

Author: Christian Burch
Year: 2006
Publisher: Atheneum
Pages: 304
Reading Level: Intermediate (Ages 9-12)

Awards: 2007 Josette Frank Award

Genre: Realistic Fiction
Series Information: First of the Manny books
Location: New England (New York area)
Time Period: Present Day (2006)

Plot: Third grader Keats Dalinger is extremely excited about the new nanny his mother just hired--he's a boy just like Keats is! The nanny insists that everyone call him the Manny, but the fun doesn't end there. He puts fun notes in Keats' lunch, reminding him to "be interesting." He meets Keats after school wearing crazy costumes. And when Keats and his sisters are bored, the Manny always has an idea of something fun to do. Keats and his sisters India and Belly love the Manny, but the oldest Dalinger sibling, Lulu, has other ideas. She keeps notes of all of the weird things the Manny does in a notebook named the Manny Files, and Keats is afraid that she's hoping to gain enough ammunition to get the Manny fired. Lulu's done it before. Can the Manny win Lulu over too before it's too late? SPOILER! When Lulu calls a family council to reveal all of the Manny's misdeeds, Keats finally gets over his fear of his older sister and asserts his opinion that the Manny is the best nanny they've ever had. The Manny gets to stay, and Lulu learns to appreciate him as well.

Comments: I'll admit it: I originally picked this book up because it had a guy doing the Mary Poppins pose on the front of it. I love Mary Poppins! It didn't take long, however, to enjoy the book for it's own merits. The book is witty and clever, and I found myself laughing aloud many times. The plot is rather subtle, and not very developed or fast paced, but it seems the point of the book is more to show the Dalinger family and the Manny growing together and learning about each other on a day-to-day basis than it is about deciding whether or not the Manny should stay. Potentially hard issues are brought up in the book, but they're done so gently and light-heartedly that it doesn't get depressing. Keats himself is a fun, quirky character to pick as the narrator of the story. His starry-eyed worship of the Manny is endearing, as is the evidence that the Manny is someone who really encourages Keats to get out of his shell be who he really is. Younger children will enjoy the fun escapades the children have with the Manny, while older readers will enjoy the subtler themes as well.

Themes: Nannies, Bullies, Family, Death, Finding out who you really are

Red Flags: Keats' grandma dies; there are subtle comments about the growing relationship between the Manny and Uncle Max, but it's handled very gently and younger children probably won't even pick up on it.

Mr. Lincoln's Boys

Sub-Title: Being the MOSTLY True Adventures of Abraham Lincoln's Trouble-Making Sons, TAD and WILLIE
Author: Staton Rabin
Illustrator: Bagram Ibatoulline
Year: 2008
Publisher: Viking Press
Pages: 36
Reading Level: Intermediate (ages 9-12)

Genre: Picture Book/Historical Fiction
Location: White House, Washington, D.C.
Time Period: Civil War (1860's)

Plot: Tad and Willie live with their parents, Martha and Abraham Lincoln, in the White House in Washington, D.C. Even though their father is a very busy man, the President of the United States always makes time for his sons. The boys are also mischievous, and they often get into trouble. They have a toy soldier that they frequently charge for some violation or another, then they come up with a different way to execute and bury the doll. SPOILER! During one of these execution plays, The gardener finds Tad and Willie digging in the flower bed to bury the toy soldier. Furious, the gardener chases Tad and Willie away. Unable to carry out the execution, Tad and Willie must figure out what to do with their doomed doll. They take the problem to their father, who is the middle of a meeting, and ask for a pardon. The President awards the doll a pardon, and it is shown that the President's stressful life is made easier by watching his son's antics.

Comments: When you're writing about events that really happened in world history, it's easy to stick to facts and take all of the emotion and story out of it. Staton Rabin does an excellent job focusing on that emotion and story, and successfully creates a tale not just about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, but about fathers and sons and the importance of making time for family. Rabin is open about the fact that he changed the way things happened in order to help children relate with the story, and it's possible that he helped them understand a little more about the Civil War because of it. Despite all of this, I appreciated the notes found in the back of the book explaining exactly what the author changed, and why. With this, an explanation about who the characters in the story are, and a list of further reading, this book makes a good way to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth.

Of course I have to mention the artwork of Bagram Ibatoulline, who illustrated one of my favorite children's books of all time, found here. Ibatoulline succeeds again in capturing the mood just right. The pictures are warm and golden and very lifelike, and I laughed at the realistic look on the boys' face as they solemnly walked into the President's Office to ask for a pardon. Both the pictures and the prose work well together in telling the story of an amusing thing that happened during a very somber period of American history.

Themes: Civil War, Soldiers, Abraham Lincoln, Importance of Family, Fathers and Sons

Red Flags: Willie and Tad imagine different ways to execute their toy soldier.

The Graveyard Book

Author: Neil Gaiman
Illustrator: Dave Mckean
Year: 2008
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 320
Reading Level: Intermediate (ages 9-12)

Awards: 2009 Newbery Medal, 2009 ALA Notable Books for Children, 2009 ALA Best Books for Young Adults, 2008 Horn Book Fanfare Award

Genre: Gothic fantasy
Location: A forgotten graveyard in Britain
Time Period: Present Day (2008)

Plot: When a baby boy hides in a graveyard while a man named Jack murders the rest of his family, the inhabitants of the graveyard agree to adopt him. They name him Nobody (Bod) Owens, and bestow on him the power of the graveyard, which allows him to fade from sight, walk through walls, and see in the dark. Bod spends the next fourteen years in the graveyard. He makes friends with the inhabitants, learns to read by deciphering gravestones, and learns English history from people who lived it. While Bod wants to learn all he can about the world, his not-quite-dead and not-quite-living guardian, Silas, warns him that the man Jack is still out there, searching for him. SPOILER! When Jack discovers where Bod is, he and his band, the Jacks of All Trades, infiltrate the graveyard. It will take all that Bod has learned and the help of all of his friends in the graveyard to defeat this mighty foe. However, when this is done Bod no longer needs the protection of the graveyard, and he is allowed to leave the graveyard and seek his fortune in the world.

Comments: I did something I don't normally do when I read—instead of actually reading the book, I listened to the book on CD, which is narrated by the author. Gaiman is a great storyteller, and it was fun to hear the story come to life in his telling of it. He gave different inflections to most of the characters in the book, sounding young and youthful whenever Bod spoke, ghostly and ethereal when a character from the graveyard spoke, and deep and harsh whenever the man Jack spoke. My favorite voice, however, what the Scottish accent Gaiman used whenever Bod's only living friend, Scarlet, was on the scene.

The story itself is interesting, and it grabs your attention from the very first sentence: "There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife." Although the wording and the setting are both dark and tense, Gaiman keeps this book light, allowing the reader to experience Bod's wonder and pleasure in the world around him. The book follows Bod's adventures as he grows up, and for awhile I wondered if the tense scene at the beginning with the man Jack would ever be referred to again. The time Gaiman takes in telling the story pays off, however, when Bod uses the knowledge he gained from almost every chapter before when the man Jack finally makes another appearance.

It's the small touches Gaiman adds to this book that really make it great. With every new character introduced, the epitaph on their gravestone is read. Bod is a precocious main character, and he learns life lessons that even adults will find interesting and applicable. Even though Bod is in a situation that would never really happen, it seems completely natural that a boy in this situation wouldn't find death scary or frightening at all, which makes the book more believable. Oddly enough, despite all that happens in this book, the scenario I had the most trouble accepting was that fact that Bod was allowed to leave the graveyard and seek his fortune at the young age of 15. This is a fact that will be appealing to younger readers, however, and it's not a hinderance to the story.

I really enjoyed this book. My only regret from having listened to the book instead of reading it is that I missed Mckean's dark, jagged drawings, a few of which I have seen and which I think would add just as much character and life as Gaiman's inflections added. I'll just have to read the book again, won't I?

Themes: Murder, Family, Definition of Home, Seeking one's Fortune, Destiny, Standing up for what you believe in.

Red Flags: Bod deals with bullies, Silas gets run over by a car (but that's okay, because he's not alive), the book contains (good) werewolves, goblins, ghouls, murderers, and other creepy things that go bump in the night.

A Firefly Named Torchy

Author/Illustrator: Bernard Waber
Year: 1970
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company
Pages: 29
Reading Level: Beginning Reader (ages 4-8)

Awards: 1971 Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor

Genre: Picture Book
Location: The edge of the woods
Time Period: Present Day (1970)

Plot: Torchy the Firefly wants to join his friends in twinkling, glowing, flashing, and sending secret messages. But when he turns on his light, it's so bright that it feels like day. The day animals wake up, the night animals hide, and the flowers open up. Everyone complains that Torchy's light is too bright. Sad and dejected, Torchy wanders off on his own to figure out what the problem is. SPOILER! When Torchy sees the lights of a big city, he discovers that there are many different kinds of light. Torchy learns that his light is special and unique, and he decides that he shouldn't hide it just because it's different.

Comments: I originally found this book while I was looking for non-fiction books about fireflies, but the book's title and the lovely 1960's font (as seen here) made me want to read it. Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover.

Torchy is a cute little firefly, and the message of the book is a great one for kids. As with most picture books, the artwork tells most of the story on its own, with night-black pages splashed with thick, muted colors. The excitement of the city is show with big, bold strokes and bright colors. The text of the story is amusing too. A lot of repetition is involved, with Torchy and the lights around him twinkling and glowing and flashing. Perhaps a better example of this, though is the part where Torchy wakes up all of the forest animals and they all have the same reaction. The flow of the story is simple, but the repetition would make it a good one for both group and individual enjoyment.

Themes: Fireflies, Self-Confidence

Haroun and the Sea of Stories

Author: Salman Rushdie
Year: 1991
Publisher: Viking
Pages: 219
Reading Level: Young Adult

Awards: 1992 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature

Genre: Fantasy
Location: On Earth, in a city that has forgotten its name in the mythical country of Alifbay; Also, the mythical moon Kahani
Time Period: Once upon a time (but in the near past)

Plot: Rashid Khalifa is a storyteller who is so good at his craft that people clamor for his stories from miles around. However, when his wife leaves him and his son, Haroun, Rashid loses the will to tell another story. Alarmed, Haroun decides to go on a quest to restore his father's storytelling ability. With the help of the water genie Iff and his mechanical Hoopoe bird Butt, Haroun flies to the moon Kahani, where the source of all stories, the Ocean of the Streams of Story, is located. There, Haroun finds trouble is brewing. The evil villain Khattam-Shud is poisoning the streams of story, and plotting to put a stopper in the wellsprings of the ocean. Khattam-Shud has also captured Princess Batcheat, and he is threatening to sew up the lips of her and her rescuers in an attempt to rule the world and turn it into a place of eternal silence and darkness. It is up to Haroun and his friends to defeat Khattam-Shud before it becomes too late. SPOILER! Haroun and his friends succeed when Haroun manages to get the moon to start turning again, assuring that no one will ever be in complete darkness forever. Khattam-Shud's evil lairs of ice and shadow are ruined in the sunlight. Because Haroun has helped save Kahani, the people of Kahani offer Haroun a boon. He wishes for a happy ending, and arrives home to find that everyone is happy, Rashid's powers of storytelling have been rekindled, and Haroun's mother has come back home.

Comments: I read this book for book club, and it was interesting to see the different opinions people had about it. One person loved it. Another person couldn't stand the writing style. The book had many elements of a classic hero adventure tale, which is something I love, but I could see where the person who didn't like the book was coming from.

Rushdie's writing style is very epic and exotic. He frequently repeats the same idea three times in three different ways. For example, Rashid the storyteller is an Ocean of Notions, the Shah of Blah, given the Gift of Gab, etc. The repetition sets the tone of the story nicely, but it also has an edge of humor in it. This is, after all, designed as a child's tale. The humor can be somewhat off-putting because it is sometimes silly, but it is something that children should love.

This is a story that I think adults would appreciate too. Despite the sometimes silly humor and repetition, there are many layers of meaning to the story. What goes on in Kahani can be directly related to what is going on down on Earth below. The book also tries to raise the question, "what's the use of stories if they're not real?"

Haroun is a likeable character whose braveness is fueled by his love for his father and by his yearning for Rashid to be happy. Most of the other characters are somewhat cookie-cutter characters, but that works for this type of story.

I liked the story a lot, and I would recommend it to others. The ending left a little something to be desired because it all ended so suddenly and so neatly, but it is the classic happy ending that a tale of good vs. evil should have.

Themes: The power of Storytelling, Good vs. Evil

Red Flags: Haroun's mother leaves Rashid for the upstairs neighbor, who ends up being Khattam-Shud.

Multicultural Elements: Although this is a fairy tale, the characters and storytelling elements are very much influenced by an Indian/Asian storytelling influence.

What Charlie Heard: The Story of American Composer Charles Ives

Author/Illustrator: Mordecai Gerstein
Year: 2002
Publisher: Live Oak Media
Pages: 32
Reading Level: Beginning Reader (ages 4-8)

Awards: ALA Notable Book 2003, Horn Book Fanfare 2002

Genre: Picture Book/Historical Fiction
Location: Small Town America
Time Period: 1874-1954

Plot: Describes the life of American composer Charles Ives (1874-1954), who wrote music which expressed all the sounds he heard in the world, but which was not well received during his lifetime. SPOILER! At the end of the book, Charlie's music is accepted, and he contemplates writing his greatest work, the Universe Symphony.

Comments: The magic of picture books is that sometimes there is a story that can be told better in pictures than it can through words. Gerstein does a good job of using words to explain how everything Charlie heard could be considered music—from the swish of his mother's skirts to the creaking of a door. Then he shows how Charlie hears the world by filling the pictures full of sounds. By the end of the book, it's hard to see the pictures for the number of sounds that are written across the pages. The pictures are warm and bright, and the text is engaging. Because there is so much going on in the text and in the pictures, this would be a good story for older children who are learning to read on their own rather than for younger children.

This story made me want to learn more about Charles Ives. I even checked out a CD of his music the next time I went to the library because of the book. (Gerstein even recommends a CD at the end of the book.) Combining this book with a sample of a CD would help children find more meaning in the music. Parents and teachers can say, "Remember that part where Charlie's dad directed two bands at once? Can you hear them in this song?" or "What do you think Charlie was thinking of when he wrote this piece?"

Themes: Music, Modernism, Persistence, Doing what you love

Tuff Fluff: The Case of Duckie's Missing Brain

Author/Illustrator: Scott Nash
Year: 2004
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Pages: 40
Reading Level: Beginning Reader (ages 4-8)

Genre: Picture Book/Mystery
Location: Los Attic
Time Period: Present (2004), a.k.a. 3:29, by the stopped watch on the wall

Plot: When Bluebell the stuffed bear comes to Tuff Fluff, Private Investigator, for help, Tuff Fluff is immediately on the case. Bluebell's friend Duckie was reading Bluebell a story when he suddenly lost the ability to speak. Now all Duckie can do is quack. Upon further investigation, Tuff finds out that Duckie's seam has come unsewn, and the fluff that made up his brain has been stolen. Is this the work of the residents of Beantown, an area of toys in Los Attic who think they are better than everyone else because they are stuffed with beans instead of stuffing? SPOILER! When Tuff Fluff, Bluebell, and Duckie confront the inhabitants of Beantown about the crime, they find that the residents of Beantown enjoy Duckie's stories too. Everyone in Los Attic bands together to find Duckie a new brain. Eventually, Bluebell donates some spare fluff to make a new brain for Duckie, and the Beantown residents contribute a bean as well. Duckie is recovered, and everyone joins together to hear him tell stories once again.

Comments: This is a fun appealing adventure story with an exciting tone. The story is told from Tuff Fluff's perspective, and children will enjoy trying to guess what will happen next. Besides the narration, the pictures are also engaging. They are simultaneously dark enough to match the mood, but bright enough to keep the story light-hearted. Fun details are added to each picture: a ceiling fan made out of a pencil eraser and paperclips, and houses made out of cardboard boxes.

As fun as this book is, it can also be off-putting as well. This is listed as a book for children ages 4-8, but it's also a chapter book disguised as a picture book. Each chapter is about two to three pages long, and is accompanied by many full page illustrations. Because of this, the book is really for older children in the age range. See the Red Flags section as well.

Themes: Cooperation, Stories, Mysteries, Toy Animals, Accepting others' differences.

Red Flags: SPOILERS! Duckie's brain is eventually found: it's a ball of fluff, marking the place in the book Duckie was reading to Bluebell. The stuffing just simply fell out. Before they can put the stuffing back in, however, a wind comes through the room and blows Duckie's stuffing brain into Bluebell's mouth, who promptly swallows it. This isn't too disgusting when one focuses on the fact that it is simply stuffing being swallowed by a stuffed bear, but the implications are kind of gross. Children would probably not be bothered by this fact, however.

I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Author: Ally Carter
Year: 2006
Publisher: Hyperion
Pages: 284
Reading Level: Young Adult

Genre: Action/Adventure
Series Information: First of the Gallagher Girls novels
Location: The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women in Roseville, VA
Time Period: Present (2006)

Plot: Cammie Morgan is a second generation Gallagher Girl. She attends a top secret school for spies in Rosemont, Virginia. The residents of Rosemont think Gallagher is en elite private school for socialites, and they look down on anyone who goes there. When Cammie meets a cute town member named Josh while on a secret assignment, she can't tell him who she is. Josh likes Cammie because she not like any of the other girls at the local high school, and Cammie likes Josh because she gets to play the part of a normal girl instead of a genius spy in training. Things quickly get out of hand, however, and Cammie must decide where her loyalties truly lie: with her new boyfriend, or with her fellow classmates. SPOILER! Cammie eventually decides that she is tired of living a lie with Josh. She knows he won't like her if she tells him who she really is, so she decides to break up with him. She sneaks out of the school to talk to him, and is "kidnapped" in front of Josh by her covert operations teacher as part of the sophomore class final. Josh immediately tries to save Cammie, and learns the truth. The book ends with Cammie knowing that she truly belongs at the Gallagher Academy, but whether she and Josh can get back together remains uncertain. It is implied that Josh has been slipped a memory modification drug that will cause him not to remember the truth about Cammie.

Comments: This was a fun read. More adventure story than romance, teens will like the idea of a teenage spy who takes classes about how to blow things up instead of the usual subjects like art and history. The book has a good message as well: be true to yourself and your friends.

A book like this could be either very engrossing, or very badly written. The writing style was a little campy, but also fun and frivolous. Cammie, Josh, and Cammie's friends were all believable characters, even though they were put in unexpected and unfamiliar surroundings. An easy, light-hearted book that makes for great pleasure reading.

I did a little research on this book, and found that it's been optioned as a movie, so it may come out soon. The possible directors also directed The Princess Diaries and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, which I believe are good read-alikes for this series.

Themes: Spies, First Love, Families, Friends, School, Being True to Yourself

Red Flags: None

Duck at the Door

Author/Illustrator: Jackie Urbanovic
Year: 2007
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 32
Reading Level: Beginning Reader (ages 4-8)

Genre: Picture Book/Animals
Series Information: First book in the Max the Duck series.
Location: A farm in the country (U.S.A.)
Time Period: Present Day (2007)

Plot: When Max the Duck decides he wants to see what winter is like, he is taken by surprise—it's so cold! He knocks on the door of Irene and her birds, cats, dogs, rabbit, and ferret, and is welcomed with open arms. Soon Max makes himself right at home—hogging the TV, experimenting with recipes in the kitchen, and playing with his rubber duckies in the bathtub. SPOILER! When Spring comes, Max leaves to join his flock. Suddenly life without Max seems boring. When Winter comes again Max comes back, and he brings his flock with him!

Comments: This book is a great example of how pictures can tell a lot of the story if you let them. You wouldn't really think that the animals are annoyed with Max's antics if you didn't see the annoyance on the animals' faces. Each watercolor picture is simply done, but it speaks volumes. Words placed by each animal on the page also help convey what each animal is thinking. There is plenty of white space on the page, which makes this a great book for younger children. However, because a lot of the story is told in the pictures instead of the words, I wouldn't recommend this for a very big crowd.

The animals themselves steal the show, and Max is hilarious. No wonder this book and the others in the series are on the New York Times Bestseller list!

Themes: Ducks, Animals, Migration, Winter, Spring, Pros and Cons of Friendship

The Book Thief

Author: Markus Zusak
Year: 2006
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Pages: 550
Reading Level: Young Adult

Awards: 2007 ALA Best Books for Young Adults, 2007 Book Sense Book of the Year Award, 2007 Michael L. Printz Honor, 2007 Ten Best Books for Young Adults, and many others

Genre: Historical Fiction/World War II
Location: Molching, Germany (just outside of Munich)
Time Period: 1930's and 40's (World War II)

Plot: On the way to stay with foster parents in Molching, Germany, Liesel Meminger's brother dies. Traumatized by the event, Liesel has a recurring nightmare about the incident. Liesel eventually learns to deal with her grief in a number of ways: She learns to read with the help of her step-father, Hans, and a select number of books she steals throughout the story. She becomes best friends with her next door neighbor, Rudy Steiner. She visits the mayor's wife, and learns of her story. When air raids come, she reads to her neighbors as they wait together in a bomb shelter. She makes fast friends with Max, a Jew her parents are hiding from the Nazis in their basement. Leisel then writes of all of these experiences in a journal, which Death later finds, reads, and relates to the reader. SPOILER! Leisel is up late one night, writing in her journal, when the street she lives on is hit in an air raid. Everyone who lives on the street dies except for Liesel, who is eventually reunited with Rudy's father and Max.

Comments: This book may look daunting, but the author writes in a very clipped, short style that makes the book easy to get through. I never consciously sat down to read this book. I read it in stolen moments, and got through a lot of it that way.

The idea of having Death as the narrator is an interesting one. Despite all of the red flags written below, this book didn't seem too gruesome to me. It is a war story, so that must be kept in mind, but Death tries to find a kind of poetry in the world around him that makes the concept easier to deal with. However, Death is also extremely snarky, and his dark sense of humor sometimes got a little old. Take the last line of the book: "I am haunted by humans."

The best part of this book was the characters. They all seemed very fleshed out and very real to me. Liesel's step-father is so loving and kind you want to give him a great big hug. Liesel's step-mother is the typical hard-shell-on-the-outside, warm-and-caring-on-the-inside person. And Liesel's best friend, Rudy Steiner, steals the show. I kept rooting for him to succeed, even though he kept getting beaten down. Even minor characters such as the lady down the street and the mayor's wife have endearing qualities. Liesel was a real person to me, but having Death as the narrator made her not as fleshed out as she could be. I wanted to hear the story in her voice.

Although I liked the tone of the book, as set by Death's strange little asides and jokes, I also found the writing style somewhat annoying. Death is not a good storyteller. He gives away major plot points 50 or 100 pages before you even want to know them, and when you do get to the critical part, it doesn't seem as momentous because he'd already told the main points of the story eons ago, and he doesn't repeat them.

Overall, I liked the book. I liked the message, I loved the characters, and for the most part, I liked the writing style. I just wish the narrator had built up the climax a little more.

Themes: World War II, Nazi Party, Jews, Stealing, Friendship, Love, Books, Standing up for what you believe in, Death

Red Flags: Profuse swearing (mostly in German, so you can't understand it); Description of some of the lighter effects of war--a man comes back from war with a bloody stump for a hand, bombings, air raids, plane crash, Death talks about all of the casualties of war he has to pick up, etc.; Emaciated Jews are forced to march through the city streets; Death describes his job; Stealing books, food, etc.; Bullies.

Multicultural Elements: Max is a German Jew.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

Author/Illustrator: J.K. Rowling
Year: 2008
Publisher: Children's High Level Group
Pages: 111
Reading Level: Intermediate (ages 9-12)

Genre: Fairy Tale
Location: England
Time Period: Long Ago with Present Day (2008) Commentary

Plot: A collection of five popular "wizard" fairy tales, including The Wizard and the Hopping Pot, The Fountain of Fair Fortune, The Warlock's Hairy Heart, Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump, and The Tale of the Three Brothers (which was also told in the last book of the Harry Potter series). Each story is accompanied with commentary written by Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Comments: J.K. Rowling has a gift of being able to craft a story that combines the myth and morals of a fairy tale with humor. That's why I enjoyed the Harry Potter series, and that's why I enjoyed this book. I could imagine being told these stories as a young child, just as I was told fairy tales like Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Jack and the Beanstalk, and others. Like most fairy tales, each story ends with a moral. Even though the characters in these stories are magic, they still have to rely on their head and on their heart to solve their problems. The commentary by Albus Dumbledore points out these morals and expounds on them, and adds an extra bit of humor. For example, his note about the retold tales of Mrs. Beatrix Bloxom was especially funny. I also liked Rowling's pictures—I was impressed that she wrote the story and did the illustrations.

Themes: Fairy Tales, Charity, Service, Being Happy with what you have, Making your own Future, Importance of Love, Trickster Tale, Mortality

Red Flags: The Warlock's Hairy Heart is rather gruesome—SPOILER! It ends with the warlock cutting out a maiden's heart, and trying to switch it with his own.

Coraline

Author: Neil Gaiman
Illustrator: Dave McKean
Year: 2002
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 162
Reading Level: Young Adult

Awards: 2003 ALA Notable Children's Book, 2003 ALA Best Books for Young Adults

Movie Adaptation: Coraline

Genre: Suspense/Adventure/Horror
Location: A large house which has been renovated into apartments
Time Period: Present Day (2002)

Plot: When Coraline goes exploring in her new home, she finds a door that leads to nothing—the room behind it has been bricked up. However, weird things are happening, and Coraline is hearing strange noises coming from that door. When Coraline investigates, she finds that the door is suddenly not bricked up any more. Instead, what's behind it is an exact replica of her own house, only better and more exciting. An exact replica of Coraline's mother and father are there too, and they're happy to see her. There's just one problem. Coraline's Other Mother and Other Father and all of the other living beings in that world have black buttons for eyes. Coraline thinks this other world is wonderful, but in order to stay, she must replace her eyes with buttons too. SPOILER! When Coraline refuses the Other Mother's offer, the Other Mother takes revenge. She kidnaps Coraline's real parents, and is keeping them and the souls of other children she has captured in hidden places throughout the Other house. It is up to Coraline to find the souls of the other children and her parents before the Other Mother successfully steals Coraline's soul as well. With every soul Coraline finds, the Other Mother gets more and more vengeful. And when Coraline succeeds, she still must get through the bricked up door before she gets trapped in the Other World forever.

Comments: I have never read Alice in Wonderland, but this seems like a more menacing version of the Alice series. With that said, this may seem like an extremely terrifying book, but the scariness factor was mostly okay for me, and I don't do very well with scary. It obviously helped me that this is a horror book written for children, but I think older children should be fine with it as well. Coraline is definitely a braver, pluckier heroine than I would ever be, but that's the point. You have to be that strong when you are facing evil forces.

If this book was all about the scariness of the situation (see below for examples), I definitely would not have liked it. However, there were a few good morals/important points that helped me like the book and helped me see a point for the strangeness of it all:

1. Coraline realizes that the witch and the scary things around her don't really have any power. In the words of the book, the Other Mother "could only twist and copy and distort things that already existed" (p. 118).
2. Coraline realizes that giving in to the Other Mother will not make her happy: "I don't want whatever I want. Nobody does. Not really. What kind of fun would it be if I just got everything I ever wanted? Just like that, and it didn't mean anything" (p. 120). Ah Coraline, you are so wise.
   

Themes: Importance of Family, Sticking up for What You Believe In, Confronting Fears, Learning that Immediate Happiness is not always the Best Kind of Happiness, Using Your Head to Think Through Problems

Red Flags: Battling a Witch, Humans turning into Blobs, Disappearing Parents, A Man who always has Rats up his Sleeves/Under his Hat, Sinister Plots, People with Buttons for Eyes, An Animate Yet Disembodied Hand Chasing Coraline. (For the Movie: A Claymation/Digital Lady who is Mostly Naked)

Read All About It!

Authors: Lara and Jenna Bush
Illustrator: Denise Brunkus
Year: 2008
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Pages: 32
Reading Level: Beginning Reader (ages 4-8)

Genre: Picture Book
Location: Good Day Elementary School
Time Period: Present Day (2008)

Plot: Tyrone loves school. He loves hanging out with his friends and solving math problems and watching the science teacher make things explode. However, there is one thing he doesn't like—reading books. Tyrone doesn't pay attention when it is time for story time. But one day, even Tyrone becomes enthralled with the book Miss Libro reads to the children for story time. Suddenly, the characters in the books seem to pop right out of the pages and visit with the schoolchildren. SPOILER! When the children's favorite story character, a pig strongly reminiscent of Wilbur, disappears, Tyrone and his friends go on a search for him. They eventually find the pig and all of the other characters they have met throughout the year in the school library.

Comments: I don't usually read the picture books written by celebrities. It seems highly likely that the books are getting published not because they have any literary merit, but because the author's name is popular and thus profitable. However, I do have a soft spot for Laura Bush since she's a fellow librarian, so I thought I'd try the children's book she wrote with her daughter.

On the whole, but book was cute. The message of finding good friends in a book (and in the library) was a little contrived, but isn't that one reason why I read? I like meeting new people and wondering what it would be like to be them. The pictures were bright and clear and interesting, and there were a lot of fun details specific to each page that were fun to find. For example, the class Book List and Class Rules changed on each page.

The most distracting thing for me was a small thing that most readers wouldn't even think twice about: All of the signs, books, posters, etc. in the artwork used fonts that you'd find in word processing software. They weren't painted in like the rest of the picture, but were obviously added in digitally later. It was just slightly jarring to me. But on the whole, I think this is a good book that young elementary-age readers will enjoy.

Themes: Reading, Story Characters, Libraries

Multicultural Elements: One or two of the children in the classroom are obviously of different races, but that is it.

Chalice

Author: Robin McKinley
Year: 2008
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Pages: 263
Reading Level: Young Adult

Genre: Fantasy
Location: Willowlands
Time Period: Not specified

Plot: Mirasol was a simple beekeeper until the leaders of the country, called Master and Chalice, were killed in a violent fire. Suddenly, Mirasol's bees are making fountains and fountains of honey—a sign that Mirasol is the new Chalice, destined to protect the land and help keep it whole. This is not an easy task, especially since the next Master left Willowlands seven years ago to become a priest of fire, and therefore he is now more fire than human. The people are wary of their new Master, and others are considering revolting and finding a new one. Mirasol knows that losing another Master so soon would completely destroy Willowlands, and it is up to her to keep the land together, no matter what the cost.

Comments: Robin McKinley is one of the authors I keep track of. When a new book of hers comes out, I tend to read it without even looking to see if I'll like it first. I like her continued theme of strong female characters who have to embrace their true potential in order to save the country. Even in the strangest of circumstances, her characters are believable, and the world they inhabit is believable too.

There is one thing that is sometimes off-putting to me, however, and that is the fact that McKinley's writing style is very much a stream of consciousness. This sometimes leads to large tangents in the middle of conversations, and going in roundabout ways to make her point. This style is what makes the characters believable, but there are some times when I'm reading a book, and I just wish she would get to the point.

I kind of felt this way when I started reading Chalice, but when I finally sat down and read it and just relaxed into the story, it didn't matter as much. I think I like this book more than her last few offerings, but that might be because with this book she goes back to the fairy tale feel that her last two books were lacking. Beauty and The Blue Sword will probably always be my favorite Robin McKinley books, but this one is one of my top picks too.

Themes: Beekeepers, Monarchs, Duty, Fire

Red Flags: Nothing too graphic, but there is a light battle sequence and a description of a forest fire.

Timothy and the Strong Pajamas

Author/Illustrator: Viviane Schwarz
Year: 2007
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
Pages: 40
Reading Level: Beginning Reader (ages 4-8)

Genre: Picture Book/Animal Adventure Story
Location: Not Specified
Time Period: Present Day? (2007)

Plot: When Timothy Smallbeast's mother fixes his favorite pajamas with "patches of power" and "buttons of braveness," Timothy suddenly finds that he has super strength. Determined to use his new superpower for good, he sets out to help an elephant, an old lady, a princess, some sailors, a zookeeper, a kitten, and a bear. SPOILER! When Timothy's pajamas rip, he loses his super strength, and must ask for help from those he just helped himself. When he gets home, his mother fixes his pajamas again.

Comments: If the storyline of this book is not fun enough, Schwarz makes this book even more fun by using various font sizes to emphasize particular points. The pictures are also bright and full of bold, yet simple color schemes. At times this book looks like a graphic novel, with different panes on one page. At other times, a single image takes up the entire page. I especially liked the comments of Timothy's stuffed monkey, who gave commentary on Timothy's feats of amazing strength. This is a book that I think any child will enjoy.

Themes: Friendship, Favorite Objects, Helping Others

11 Planets: A New View of the Solar System

Author/Illustrator: David A. Aguilar
Year: 2008
Publisher: National Geographic Society
Pages: 48
Reading Level: Intermediate (ages 9-12)

Genre: Non-Fiction/Science
Location: the Solar System
Time Period: Present (2008)

Book Summary: Discusses the different objects that make up our solar system according to the new standards written by the International Astronomical Union. Covers objects from the sun to the planets, to the new dwarf planets, to comets, and more.

Comments: I've been wanting to read this book for awhile, because the title was so intriguing to me. Eleven planets?! I thought we only had eight now! How did we gain three? Upon reading the book, it all became clear: this book includes the three newly-defined dwarf planets (one of them being Pluto) in its list of planets. It even includes a little mnemonic device for memorizing them all: My Very Exciting Magic Carpet Just Sailed Under Nine Palace Elephants.

The facts in the book seemed accurate, labeling each object as a planet or a dwarf planet, although it didn't really go into the explanation of what makes one thing a planet, and what makes another a dwarf planet. I'm actually still confused on that point, but it kind of seems like the scientific community is still confused about it as well.

Despite my confusion, this is a nice brief overview of the solar system that I think children will enjoy. Most of the pictures in the book are photographs or realistic-looking illustrations, and many pictures are labeled. A glossary, index, and other fun facts are included at the back of the book.

Themes: Science, Solar System, Planets, Exploration

Red Flags: None

These Happy Golden Years

Author: Laura Ingalls Wilder
Illustrator: Garth Williams
Year: 1943
Publisher: Harper
Pages: 288
Reading Level: Intermediate (ages 9-12)

Awards: 1944 Newbery Honor

Genre: Historical Fiction/Western
Series Information: Eighth book in the Little House series
Location: De Smet, North Dakota
Time Period: Mid 1880's

Plot: Laura is growing up, and she is experiencing many firsts. She now has the opportunity to help earn money to send her older sister Mary to a school for the blind. Even though she's only fifteen, and hasn't officially graduated, she passes a teacher's exam, and takes a teaching job. The job is far away from home, and Laura is lonely until Almanzo Wilder is willing to make the long journey through the snow to let her come home for the weekend. In the summer, Laura helps Almanzo break horses by going on Sunday buggy rides with him. SPOILER! When Almanzo proposes, Laura embraces the chance to go on the biggest first of them all, and the two get married.

Comments: I grew up loving these books, as you may be able to tell, so when I picked up and skimmed through a non-fiction book about Laura Ingalls Wilder's life, I suddenly felt the compulsion to re-read a few of the stories again. I skimmed through The Long Winter and Little Town on the Prairie, but I just had to read this one all the way through.

As I read the books, I came to realize that perhaps the reason why these books are so popular is that even though Laura led a life completely different from my own, I could still relate to her. Her characters are believable, and I could see my family in hers. Laura also makes learning about an earlier time interesting.

One thing I wasn't expecting was to feel sorry for Nellie Oleson. I don't remember feeling sorry for Nellie when I was younger, but her story is such a pathetic one that I couldn't help feeling sorry for her now.

Themes: Growing Up, Prairie Life, School Teachers

Red Flags: Weather-related danger, including the stories of a boy being killed by a tornado and Laura and Almanzo almost freezing to death.