Saving Zasha by Randi Barrow

Saving Zasha by Randi Barrow

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


In 1945 Russia, dogs are rare--because of the war, many died from starvation or in battle. This is why 13-year-old Mikhail is shocked to one day find an injured man with a German Shepherd in the woods near his home.

Mikhail's family did all they could for the man, but he dies, leaving behind his dog whose name, they learned, is Zasha. Zasha is such a good dog that they decide to keep her, although it will be dangerous for them because some might view them as traitors for having a German dog (the Russians hated all things German during the war, and, even though the war is over, many people continue to feel that way). They must do all they can to keep Zasha safe from those who might do her harm or try to kidnap her--especially since they find out that she is expecting puppies!

Readers will appreciate Mikhail's love for Zasha--along with the trying times he and his family experience in post-war Russia. Those who enjoyed this book about dogs and World War II might also enjoy Eyes of the Emperor by Graham Salisbury.



View all my reviews

The Hidden Gallery by Maryrose Wood

The Hidden Gallery (The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place #2) by Maryrose Wood

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This story continues the tale of Penelope Lumley and her three charges, the Incorrigibles. The children are still learning how to behave like children--instead of wolves--and the group faces more challenges when they take a trip to London with the Ashtons while the mansion is being repaired.



Strange things keep happening to Miss Lumley and the children: the guidebook they have doesn't seem to be of the normal variety, they encounter a fortune-teller who gives them a cryptic warning, and they notice Mr. Ashton getting twitchy near the time of the full moon. Luckily, Miss Lumley finds a friend in Simon, a young man who helps them find their way when they first arrive in unfamiliar London. Throughout all of this, Miss Lumley can't stop thinking about her parents--where they are and who they are.



I was excited to get this because I really enjoyed the first book (The Mysterious Howling) but I have to say that I was disappointed. This story felt like it lacked the humor/excitement/special something that the first book did. This book ended with many loose ends, so I expect there will be another book in the works.









View all my reviews

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


11-year-old Delphine has always watched out for her sisters, and she continues to do so during the summer of 1968 when their father decides that they should spend a month across the country with their mother Cecile—whom they barely know. Thinking that they’d spend their time at Disneyland having fun and getting to know Cecile, the girls are disappointed when they quickly learn that she wants nothing to do with them and that they’re visiting only because their father insisted on it.

Cecile doesn’t let them come into the kitchen because that’s where she does her poetry work. She
also doesn’t want them around during the day, so she sends them to the local Black Panthers’ Community Center. At first Delphine doesn’t pay much attention to the activists, but then she finds that the ladies there are actually very nice. She uses some of the strength she learns from them to finally stand up to Cecile.

This is a great book—readers will definitely like the girls: Delphine, who seems older and wiser than her years; Vonetta, the drama queen; and little Fern, who carries her (white) babydoll Miss Patty
Cake around with her everywhere. Those who enjoyed the setting of this book might also enjoy My Life with the Lincolns (Brandeis) or Sources of Light (McMullan).




View all my reviews

I, Emma Freke by Elizabeth Atkinson

I, Emma Freke by Elizabeth Atkinson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


12-year-old Emma doesn’t feel like she fits in anywhere—even her name is strange (‘Emma Freke’ sounds just like ‘I’m a freak’). She stands out in her mother’s side of the family because they tend to be short with dark hair, while Emma herself is tall with red hair. She thinks this probably has something to do with her father, whom she’s never met.



When she receives an invitation to a reunion for her father’s side of the family, she’s shocked. Although Emma’s mother tells her that her father will likely not be there, Emma is curious about this group of people she’s never met who make up half of her DNA. She decides to make the reunion trip—alone—to Wisconsin from her home on the east coast. Will she fit in any better than she does with her mother’s side of the family? Will they be nice? Will she regret the decision to attend this reunion for the rest of her life? Emma has tons of worries about whether she made the right choice to go.



This is a cute story about fitting in that I enjoyed very much. Emma is a very likable character with whom young girls will surely be able to identify. Those who enjoyed this book might also enjoy The Last Best Days of Summer (Hobbs).





View all my reviews

The Candymakers by Wendy Mass

The Candymakers by Wendy Mass

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Every year, the Life is Sweet candy factory sponsors four 12-year-old contestants to compete in the Confectionary Association’s candymaking contest. Each contestant’s goal is to create a new and different candy that, if chosen as the winner, will be made available worldwide.



This year, Logan, the son of the Life is Sweet’s head candymaker, is old enough to participate and he doesn’t want to let his parents down. Also competing is Miles, a quiet boy whose oddly light backpack never leaves his shoulder; Daisy, who reads aloud from her romance novel whenever she’s alone; and Philip, a snobby boy who never misses a chance to make fun of someone. Will this peculiar group stay out of each other’s way long enough to make an awesome new candy?



I enjoyed this book very much, and I think both boys and girls will have a good time reading it. Plus, who doesn’t want to read about what goes on in a candy factory? Each contestant tells his/her own story, so the point of view switches in each section of the book, starting with Logan. Recommend this book to those who enjoyed The Mysterious Benedict Society books (Stewart).





View all my reviews

Savvy by Ingrid Law

Savvy by Ingrid Law

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I thought that I should read this book, seeing as it's on the 2010 Rebecca Caudill list and students really seem to like it AND the sequel (_Scumble_) came out not that long ago...so I finally got around to it. And I was disappointed!



The writing (in my opinion) just isn't that good. For example (I listened to this story, so maybe I noticed this more because of hearing it) the author uses more similes and metaphors in the first few pages of the book than one should have in the entire book. I swore to myself that if I heard one more 'something something WAS LIKE something something', the cd was coming out of the player and I would be done with it. Luckily I suppose, the similes and metaphors became more spaced out so I was able to deal with them as they came.



I also found the story to be inconsistent. I often found myself wondering, 'well, if this is like this, then why did this happen then? Wouldn't this happen instead?'



Finally, I just didn't find the characters all that likable. They're fine, but I didn't really get attached to any of them. And, just to be petty, I hated the fact that all the kids in the family are named something weird: the main character is Mibbs, and her brothers are Fish, Rocket, and [something I forget] and her sister is Gypsy. Even the other kids in the story are named Bobby (a girl) and Will Jr. Ugh! All of this just made me dislike the book more.



I'm glad I know more about what the book is about now, but I will not be reading anything else by this author.



View all my reviews

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This was a good book! I liked the four characters very much. We first meet Reynie at the orphanage where he's lived ever since his parents passed away when he was a baby. Having only one (sort of) friend--who's actually his tutor--he feels quite alone. Everything changes the day he sees an ad in the paper asking for gifted children to come take a test to see if they would qualify for a special 'opportunity.' Having nothing to lose, Reynie decides to take the test.

Reynie and 3 other children (Sticky, Kate, and Caroline) qualify for the special opportunity, which requires them to infiltrate, more or less, a special school to see what the headmaster is up to. If any of this group, self-named The Mysterious Benedict Society, wants to quit at any time, s/he is welcome. No one quits, so they head off to the school to see what they can find out.

This is an entertaining story that will keep the reader on the edge of his/her seat at certain points. This book is the first in the series, followed by The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey, then The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma.

View all my reviews >>

Alchemy and Meggy Swann by Karen Cushman

Alchemy and Meggy Swann by Karen Cushman


My rating: 2 of 5 stars
When Meggy’s mother unexpectedly sends her to live with her father, a man she’s never even met, Meggy accepts this without much hesitation because her mother has never loved her. Her father wants an apprentice in his alchemy lab, although he decides that he does not, in fact, want her to assist him once he sees that: 1) she’s a girl, and 2) she needs sticks to help her walk.

Having lived in a small town up until now, Meggy immediately hates London; it’s too loud, crowded, and confusing to her. She relies on her bitterness about her disability to help her get through each day. However, once she’s there awhile, she gets used to the city and begins making friends...and becomes less bitter. And when she learns about her father’s involvement in a sinister plot, she does all she can to protect him—although he barely acknowledges her existence.

This story is interesting because it follows the life of a sort of girl not typically written about in historic London—she’s not a princess (or rich) and she has a disability. Readers might also enjoy Avi’s The Book without Words: a Tale of Medieval Magic—another book about girls in long-ago England dealing with alchemy.

View all my reviews >>

Falling In by Frances O'Roark Dowell

Falling In by Frances O'Roark Dowell


My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Isabelle has always felt as though she doesn’t belong; she knows that other kids think that she’s strange. For this reason, she is not too upset when one day she opens a door in the nurse’s office and inexplicably falls into another world.

The world Isabelle falls into appears to have a witch; the children she meets are hiding in the woods to avoid being eaten by her. Isabelle thinks that the witch sounds interesting, so she heads in the opposite direction of the children to find her. On the way, Isabelle meets a girl named Hen who has gotten separated from her siblings. They soon come upon an elderly healer named Grete, who sees that they need help and invites them to stay with her. Isabelle is happy where she is and has no desire to return to her normal life—plus, how would she even get back?

I liked this story; Isabelle is a great narrator and a sympathetic character. I didn’t think she was “strange” or “weird”—rather, I think the other kids at her school were the uninteresting ones! For those who enjoyed this book, recommend Now You See It— (Vande Velde) or The Great Good Thing (Townley), as both of these have regular girls being thrust into new worlds unexpectedly.

View all my reviews >>

The Music of Dolphins by Karen Hesse

The Music of Dolphins by Karen Hesse


My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Told in journal format, this is a story about a teenage girl who is found in the ocean off the coast of Cuba by the Coast Guard. They name her Mila (Spanish for ‘miracle’) and discover that she has been living with dolphins for most of her life. She is placed into a special hospital/school where she can learn how communicate and behave like a human.

Mila’s progress is clearly documented in her journal entries; her entries start off very short with little vocabulary, then grow longer as she learns more. She likes her doctors/therapists very much and is happy where she is…but she also desperately misses the ocean and her dolphin family. At times she feels trapped living in the special house; she is always under someone’s supervision and unable to live freely, the way she did in the ocean. She has learned so much about humans, but will she ever really feel like she fits in?

This was a very interesting story. I think it’s remarkable that someone who lived wildly for so many years, not clearly remembering being around other humans, would be able to progress so rapidly with her speech and human behaviors. Readers who enjoyed this book about a wild child might also enjoy the classic The Jungle Book (Kipling) or Passager (Yolen).

View all my reviews >>

The Year the Swallows Came Early by Kathryn Fitzmaurice

The Year the Swallows Came Early by Kathryn Fitzmaurice


My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Groovy’s life always seemed pretty normal—until her father gets arrested one Saturday morning as they were walking together.  When she explains what happened to her mom, her mom’s unconcerned reaction seems crazy until she tells Groovy that she was the one who called the police.

Groovy cannot comprehend why her mother would do such a thing!  What could her father have done?  After putting off an explanation for what seems like ages to Groovy, her mom explains that Groovy was left an inheritance to use for college from her great-grandmother, but that her father gambled it all away.  This was money she could have used to attend cooking school—her dream!  Can she find it in her heart to forgive him for taking her inheritance…and her mother, for being the one who turns him in?

This is a sweet story with memorable characters who are all trying to deal with huge issues the best way they know how.  Groovy is especially likeable.  Suggest this book to readers who enjoyed How to Steal a Dog (O’Connor) and The Big House (Coman).

View all my reviews >>

A Taste for Red by Lewis Harris

A Taste for Red by Lewis Harris


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Stephanie (who prefers to be called Svetlana) moves to a new town and attends a new school.  Many of the kids think that she’s a bit of an oddball; Svetlana prefers wearing black, only eats red food, has extrasensory powers, and believes that she’s a vampire.   Is that really so strange?  What Svetlana finds strange is her new neighbor Mrs. Bones.  At first glance, Mrs. Bones seems like a perfectly normal old lady, but Svetlana soon learns differently.

Meanwhile, Svetlana and her classmates meet their new science teacher Ms. Larch.  For some reason, Ms. Larch smells like rotting garbage to Svetlana and no one else.  And as she spends more time with Mrs. Bones, Svetlana realizes that Mrs. Bones smells like cookies baking.  What is going on?  Late one night, Svetlana wakes to the sound of her dog barking and finds Mrs. Bones in her treehouse (which she calls The Oak of Doom).  There, Mrs. Bones tells Svetlana that she is not a vampire, but one “who knows” and is now part of the Circle, a secret group who fights vampires throughout the world.  Their first task, Mrs. Bones explains, is to eliminate evil Ms. Larch!

This is a great book; Svetlana is a snarky girl who has a good head on her shoulders.  The two dorky boys she enlists to help her are funny cowards, while Ms. Larch is a smooth villian!  Recommend this to female readers who want a good book about vampires but aren’t ready for the Twilight  series yet.

View all my reviews >>