Al Capone Shines My Shoes by Gennifer Choldenko

Nov26

I read Al Capone Does My Shirts by the same author last February, and I thought it was a good premise, well-executed. A group of kids living on Alcatraz Island in the 1930’s learn to get along with each other and to co-exist with the convicts who share their island home. Moose is the protagonist, an easy-going kid who loves and protects his autistic sister Natalie even though her behavior is sometimes difficult to understand and to explain to others.

Al Capone Shines My Shoes continues the story of Moose, Natalie, their parents and Moose’s other friends on Alcatraz. Natalie has been accepted into The Esther Marinoff School, a special school for mentally handicapped children, and Moose think that his letter appealing to Al Capone for help in getting her admitted was the deciding factor. So he owes the infamous convict something. However, Moose’s dad tells him to treat the cons with respect but never to trust them and never to owe them anything. Moose finds out too late that his dad’s advice is good, and as he deals with Al Capone’s demands for recompense, Moose also has to figure out how he feels about the warden’s daughter, Piper, and what he’s going to do about it.

This second book about Moose and his mysterious relationship with Al Capone felt darker and more troubled than the first book. Moose is growing up, and he gets himself into some real trouble in this book. I would go so far as to use the term “moral ambiguity” to describe the atmosphere of the story. For Moose there is no clear right or wrong decision in most of the choices he must make over the course of the book. Moose must choose whether to help, and perhaps become indebted to, a convicted felon, or lose his sister’s last chance at getting an education and a more normal life. He has to lie and connive and deceive, all to protect Natalie and to keep his father’s job. And then it all backfires anyway.

Maybe the moral ambiguity in the book is a reflection of the ambiguity and mixed feelings inherent in dealing with a family member with autism. The word “autism” is never used in the story because, of course, it wasn’t an identified diagnosis back in the 1930’s. Author Gennifer Choldenko, in her author’s note at the end of the book, tell us a little bit about her own sister, Gina, who was identified as autistic. Then Ms. Choldenko writes this note about autism and its effects and prognosis:

“Though we still know surprisingly little about what causes autism, the treatment options have improved dramatically over the last fifteen years. The possibility of partial or even complete recovery from autism is greater now than it was when my sister was a kid. The chances of a life rich in its own rewards for children on the autism spectrum is much more likely today. For Gina, who died when she was eighteen, autism was a prison without a key. I like to think I’ve given my sister’s spirit a new life in the pages of these books.”

For a book about what it feels like to be autistic, I really prefer Anything But Typical, another Cybils nominee that I reviewed a few weeks ago. And for a book about what autistic children can do, despite or even because of their disability, check out last year’s London Eye Mystery. For siblings of children who are autistic, you can’t beat Cynthia Lord’s Rules, a Newbery Honor book in 2007.

Books about autism or featuring autistic characters
For children:
London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd.
Rules by Cynthia Lord.
Anything But Typical by Nora Leigh Baskin.
Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork.
Emma Jean Lazurus Fell Out of a Tree by Lauren Tarshis. Semicolon review by Brown Bear Daughter here.
The Very Ordered Existence of Marilee Marvelous by Suzanne Crowley.

For adults:
The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon. Semicolon review here.
the curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon. Semicolon review here.
Daniel Isn’t Talking by Marti Leimbach.
A Wild RIde Up the Cupboards by Ann Bauer.

Amazon Affiliate. If you click on a book cover here to go to Amazon and buy something, I receive a very small percentage of the purchase price.
One or more of these books is also nominated for a Cybil Award, but the views expressed here are strictly my own.

Rescuing Seneca Crane by Susan Runholt

Nov26

With this book I got an education in all things Scottish, including haggis and kilts and castles, and a rousing mystery story in the tradition of my childhood heroines Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden. Not a bad deal at all.

Lucas and Kari (both girls, age about fifteen) are off to Scotland in this second book of a series. In the first book, which I haven’t read, genius Lucas and intuitive Kari solve the mystery of a forged painting, The Mystery of the Third Lucretia. In Rescuing Seneca Crane, the girls meet Seneca, a gifted concert pianist their age who’s wishing for a more normal life. Seneca, also a girl, is caught up in her own desire to be really good at what she does but also in her (stage) mother’s ambitions and dreams on her behalf. Then Seneca gets kidnapped, and the adventure begins.

As I indicated this book reminded me of the set of thirty plus Nancy Drew mysteries that used to sit on the shelf in my bedroom when I was twelve years old and of my beloved Trixie Belden mysteries that still amuse and entertain my children. There’s nothing terribly deep or disturbing or philosophically challenging about Rescuing Seneca Crane, just good clean fun. I liked it.

What’s your favorite children’s or young adult mystery series?

Dani Noir by Nova Ben Suma

Nov25

Film noir: genre of film, originally between 1940 and 1960, originating in the United States, employing heavy shadows and patterns of darkness, in which the protagonist dies, meets defeat, or achieves meaningless victory in the end.
A film/movie characterized by low-key lighting, a bleak urban setting, and corrupt, cynical or desperate characters.
Dark film, a term applied by French critics to a type of American film, usually in the detective or thriller genres, with low-key lighting and a somber mood.

Danielle, aka Dani, is a big fan of film noir. She’s especially fascinated with femme fatale actress Rita Hayworth. And it’s good for Dani that she has something like old movies to think about and a place like Little Art movie theater to go to, because the rest of her life . . . well, as Dani herself observes, “If this were a movie, I would’ve walked out by now. . . . Kick the slimy dregs of popcorn under the seat and head home.”

I loved reading this book. Dani is a self-centered, thirteen year old brat in some ways, but I didn’t get annoyed with her the same way I do with some bratty characters either in books or in real life. Maybe I felt as if Dani was trying to deal with the difficulties in her life in the only way she knew how. She’s not very kind to her dad, but then again he’s just recently left Dani’s mom and moved in with his girlfriend, Cheryl, in a house on the other side of the river. And Dani isn’t very patient with Austin, the guy who works at the movie theater, but he really is sort of annoying. Also Dani doesn’t obey her mom and she lies to her mom and she is determined to get her own way, but Dani’s motives are pure, or at least sort of pure: she’s trying to help a friend and right an injustice.

Unfortunately, just like in a noir movies, there are a lot of shadows and grey areas and lies and imperfection in Dani’s life. And in the end movies are just movies and reality is something else, something that keeps going and doesn’t end, not with a gunshot nor with a kiss. But movies do help Dani, as she says:

“Movies can do that: make people forget everything that’s bad about their lives, and bad about the world, even make them ignore the fact that they’ve already run out of popcorn. All that matters is what’s on-screen, that world in black-and-white or bright color, the story that’s got its hold on you. Movies really can make it better.

If this were a movie and the sun was going down on Shanosha, the femme fatale would have the last laugh, of course, walking off into the sunset with all her secrets.”

Great book. It made me want to go watch all of the films mentioned in the book: Notorious (with my favorite, Cary Grant), The Lady From Shanghai (Rita Hayworth), Casablanca, The Big Sleep (Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart), and The Postman Always RIngs Twice (Lana Turner).

Dani Noir is a fairly typical middle grade divorce story, but it’s enlivened by the noir atmosphere and the references to film and film history and by Dani’s voice which is snarky and vulnerable at the same time, like a femme fatale. Read it if it sounds like your kind of story, and in the meantime I have two questions for you to answer in the comments.

1. What is your favorite film noir?

2. What is your favorite comfort movie? What do you watch when you want to forget about your problems and get lost in movie world?

Girl Power!

Nov24

Yes, a girl CAN become a naturalist! (The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly/ Semicolon review here.)

Yes, a girl CAN sell newspapers and even become a newspaper reporter! (Newsgirl by Liza Ketchum)

Yes, girls CAN fly airplanes and perform daring rescues! (Born to Fly by Michael Ferrari)

Yes, girls CAN play baseball! (The Girl Who Threw Butterflies by Mich Cochrane/ Semicolon review here.)

Yes, girls CAN rock out on the guitar and even write songs. (The Kind of Friends We used to Be by Frances O’Roark Dowell/ Semicolon review here.)

Yes, a girl, even a slave girl, can be a spy! (Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson)

Have you got the message yet? Middle grade fiction authors believe in Girl Power! I read Born to Fly by Michael Ferrari and Newsgirl by LIza Ketchum back-to-back, and both of these middle grade fiction novels had strong female protagonists who were obviously meant to be role models for girls reading the books. In his Author’s Note at the end of Born to Fly, Mr. Ferrari says he wrote the WWII action adventure story especially for “a ten year old girl who wanted to fly a P-40 Warhawk and her brother said she couldn’t.” In the book eleven year old Bird not only gets to fly an airplane, she also rescues someone-who-shall-remain-nameless (because I don’t want to spoil the story) from assassination and saves her friend’s life, too. It’s an exciting story, mandatory for anyone, boy or girl, who’s interested in airplanes, flying, or World War II stories.

“Just ’cause I was a girl in 1941, don’t think I was some sissy. Shoot, I saw stuff that would’ve made that bully Farley Peck pee right through his pants. . . . Seeing me in my World War One pilot’s skullcap and goggles and my Huck Finn dungarees, you would’ve never guessed that someone with a neat name like Bird McGill was actually just an eleven-year-old girl. But I was. I worked the controls carefully, scanning the skies for bogies at twelve o’clock.”

Newsgirl by Liza Ketchum takes place a century earlier than Born to Fly, but it has the same theme: Girls Can! Amelia, her mother, and their friend Estelle have come all the way from the East Coast to San Francisco to start a new life. They have their personal effects, some dry goods to make ladies’ clothing to sell, and a small amount of money saved up to buy land on which to build themselves a house. When Amelia discovers that people will pay a whole dollar for a two month old newspaper from New York or New Jersey, she cuts her hair, dresses as a boy, and sets out to sell papers herself, even though San Francisco is a dangerous town for a girl all alone.

Newsgirl is all about the empowerment of girls and women, and about Amelia’s longing to know her father, someone her mother has never been willing to talk about or even acknowledge. Amelia’s desire for a father, or at least a father-figure, is resolved in the book, rather unrealistically, by a succession of male friends who are kind to Amelia and her mother and by Estelle, Amelia’s mother’s friend and partner in business and Amelia’s “second mother.” Still, the story is exciting and fun and full of good solid historical detail. Amelia gets to ride in a hot air balloon, pan for gold, witness a horrendous fire that burns down half of San Francisco, and help her family to survive.

So, if you’re looking for strong, independent heroines in a book with a good story line, check out Born To Fly or Newsgirl —or one of the books listed above. And welcome to Middle Grade Fiction where all the women (and girls) are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average!

By the way, don’t you love those covers? Both books are definitely in the running for my personal Best Cover in Middle Grade Fiction 2009 Award.

After by Amy Efaw

Nov24

I read this one because my eighteen year old brought it home from the library and read it, then recommended it to Brown Bear Daughter, who is almost fifteen. Then I found out it was about a girl who abandons the unexpected baby to whom she gives birth in the beginning of the novel. Then I saw that it was recently published (2009) and I looked to see if it was a Young Adult Cybils nominee. It is.

So I had to read it, even though I’m supposed to be reading about fifty more Middle Grade Cybils nominees. My final verdict as far as Brown Bear Daughter is concerned is a qualified “yes.” The story is intense. Devon, a straight-A, straight-arrow, responsible, star soccer player, is the last girl anyone would expect to become pregnant, hide the pregnancy from everyone, even herself, and then abandon the baby after its birth in a trash can. But she does. And After is the story of what happens to Devon, well, after that disastrous decision is discovered.

I’m not sure if Brown Bear Daughter will read the book or not. She’s very busy. If she does, I would want to talk to her about what she read and what she thought about Devon and her self-deception, and the perfectionism that leads her into making such bad choices. The book is well written, and the subject matter is something teens would be likely to see on the news or in a Law and Order-type TV episode. However, I find reading about a character’s inner feelings and thoughts a more intimate and disturbing experience than watching the same story on TV. Devon got under my skin, and I wanted so much to be able to share with her the grace of God and freedom from the legalistic code she imposed on herself, a code that wouldn’t even let her admit to herself that she had made a mistake and that the people around her might extend forgiveness instead of condemnation if they knew.

William S. and the Great Escape by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Nov22

Zilpha Keatley Snyder is still writing books? I remember reading The Velvet Room, The Egypt Game, and The Headless Cupid when I was a kid of a girl, and despite my youtful appearance and attitude, that was a long time ago. So, I looked at Ms. Snyder’s website to see how old she was and found there this note from the author herself:

As any reader of my books knows, some of them have been around a long time. As a matter of fact, so have I. Actually I’m quite a bit past retirement age. But for several reasons I keep on writing. The first and most important is that I like doing it. I just feel better when I’m involved with a set of characters whose lives I’m trying to unravel and turn into stories because . . .? well, because stories are things that have fascinated me since I was a very young child when, I am told, I wept bitterly when my mother’s nightly reading brought us to the end of a given book. (Heidi, Peter Pan, whatever) Not because it was a sad ending, but because it was done. The story was over.
So I keep on writing.

Isn’t that a delightful explanation from an octogenarian (b.1927)?

Well, all I can say is, more power to her. She hasn’t lost a beat. William S. and the Great Escape is a great story about an abused child during the Great Depression (1938) who loves Shakepeare and acting. In fact, William inserts the “S” in his name to emulate his favorite author, William Shakespeare. And he carries around a copy of Shakespeare’s Complete Works, given to him by his English teacher, everywhere he goes. And he acts out the part of Ariel from The Tempest to amuse his little brother and sister. Just great stuff.

Think The Boxcar Children. Or Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt. Maybe a touch of Ballet Shoes or some such similar siblings-helping-each-other kind of book. William S. and his younger sisters, Jancy and Trixie, and the youngest of all of them, four year old Buddy, decide to run away from home because things have become unbearable. The last straw is when the children’s older siblings do something really horrible to Jancy’s pet guinea pig. Can the the children travel over a hundred miles to their aunt’s house without getting caught? What will happen to them when they get there? Will their dad, Big Ed Baggett, come after them? Will their aunt let them stay if they do make it to her house?

I highly recommend this book. The abuse, consisting mostly of beatings and neglect, is bad, but not too graphically described for an audience of children. And the courage and determination displayed by the children plus the fact that the adults in the story do finally come to the rescue make this an inspiring read.

Read Aloud Thursday: Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

Nov19

Z-Baby has been listening to the audiobook CD version of Kate DiCamillo’s award-winning book about India Opal Buloni, her smiling dog, and her preacher daddy all week long. The narration by Cherry Jones is great, with a thick Southern accent and different voices for all the characters.

Me: What made you laugh in this book? Why?

Z-baby: Well, what was kind of funny was that her dad called her by her middle name, Opal, which was her dad’s mom’s name. And it’s the same with me. I have my dad’s mom’s name for a middle name. And she called the Dewberry boys “bald-headed babies,” and that was kind of funny.

Me: Why do you think Opal wanted to know ten things about her mother? Can you tell what her mother is like from the ten things her father describes to her? Do you think that ten things can really describe a whole person?

Z-baby: Not really. If Daddy told me things about you and I had never seen you, I probably wouldn’t really know what you were like. But she probably wanted to know because most people want to know about their own mom.

Me: What else might Opal want to know about her mother? What else would you like to know?

Z-baby: She would want to know where her mom is and why did she go away. I would, too. Also, what color were her eyes? And was she a girly-girl or a tomboy? I would want to know a lot of things.

Me: Do you think you’d like to eat a Littmus Lozenge? Why or why not?

Z-baby: I don’t know. Probably, because I’d like to see what they mean by it makes them feel sad.

Me: Opal believes that life is like a Littmus Lozenge – that it’s sweet and sad all mixed up together and hard to separate out. Do you agree? Why or why not?

Z-baby: No, I don’t believe that. Life isn’t always sweet, and life isn’t always sad. And I’ve never experienced sweet and sad mixed together.

Me: At the end of the story, Opal seems to accept that her mother is not coming back. Why is this an important part of the story? What is something difficult in your life that you’ve had to accept?

Z-baby: A lot of times when somebody doesn’t have somebody and then they want that person, in the story they do get the person back. But it’s important that you listen and know that Opal’s mom isn’t coming back. Sometimes I ask my brothers or sisters to please do something for me, but they don’t. And I just have to accept that they’re not going to do it.

Me; Who was your favorite of Opal’s friends?

Z-baby: Probably Sweetie Pie Thomas. She’s five years old, and she invites Opal to her sixth birthday party. When Opal comes out of the pet store, she sees Sweetie Pie, and they talk about things.

Me: What kind of people do you think would enjoy this story?

Z-baby: The reason I listen to my audiotapes over and over again is that sometimes there’s something in it that I don’t understand the first time. But then when I listen again, I do understand. And people who like to listen to stories over and over would like this story because there’s always more interesting stuff there to hear.

Scholastic Discussion Questions for Because of Winn-Dixie.
More educational resources for Because of Winn-Dixie.
Because of Winn-Dixie Teacher’s Guide.

Bull Rider by Suzanne Morgan Williams

Nov13

Eight seconds of danger . . . a lifetime of honor.

Yeah, well, maybe. Bull-riding is not so much a sport as it is a deliberate courting of death or serious injury. The question is not whether you’ll get thrown off the bull, but when and how hard. And will you be able to scramble up and scale the fence before the bull turns around and tramples you?

Cam O’Mara is a member of a bull-riding family. His grandfather was a bull riding champion. His older brother, Ben, was a bull rider, too. Cam is more interested in skate-boarding, a sport with its own skills and dangers. However, when Ben returns from Iraq with TBI (traumatic brain injury) and confined to a wheelchair, Cam sees only one way to impress Ben and get him to work at his own recovery. Cam makes a bet with Ben: if Cam can ride Ugly, the fiercest, most dangerous bull on the circuit, then Ben will do whatever it takes to recover from his war injuries.

I really thought this book was both well-written and well-plotted. The details about the sports of skate-boarding and bull-riding felt right to me, although I probably wouldn’t know if they weren’t. Cam and Ben and their parents and Grandpa Roy all are full, well-rounded characters, and I wanted to know what would happen to them, how they would cope with the challenges posed by Ben’s injury. Author Suzanne Morgan Williams doesn’t give easy answers; Ben doesn’t miraculously recover to full health just because Cam tries to ride an angry bull. But there is hope and the support of family and friends. I recommend this book and the four others that I’ve read, published this year, about dealing with the stress of having a family member in or returning from Iraq or Afghanistan.

Do you have any other suggestions for this list?

Other 2009 fiction books for children about the family of service members and the aftermath of war:

Peace, Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson.
Heart of a Shepherd by Roseanne Parry.
Operation Yes by Sara Lewis Holmes.
Scat by Carl Hiaassen.

A Recipe 4 Robbery by Marybeth Kelsey

Nov12

Nothing deep. No burning political questions. No kids who are out to save the planet. No serious relationship issues. No murder and mayhem. A Recipe 4 Robbery is just a plain vanilla kids’ mystery about a jewel robbery. This mystery is just right for middle school readers who still don’t want to deal with the violence and seriousness of YA and adult mysteries, qualities which are working their way down into children’s mysteries, too. One of my daughters, even when she was junior high age, wouldn’t read mysteries at all because she said they frightened her. A Recipe 4 Robbery would have been something she could enjoy without being scared.

It all takes place at The Bloomsbury Cucumber Festival where Lindy is doing her best to avoid all vegetables, especially any concoction cooked up by Mrs. Unger, aka Granny Goose. Unfortunately, Lindy’s mom helps her plate to a heaping helping of Granny’s cucumber casserole. Fortunately, Lindy finds a ruby necklace hiding under the cukes and goop. Unfortunately, Lindy and her friends know that if they turn in the necklace to the police, Granny Goose’s goose will be cooked, and she’ll probably be arrested for the theft that happened a few days before at the Grimstone Estate. Besides, there’s a reward for the intrepid crime busters who find the perpetrators of the robbery.

So, Lindy, her best friend, Margaret, and saxophonist Gus Kinnard team up to find the crooks. Lindy wants to get enough reward money to go to band camp this summer. Gus wants to show off his skills gained as a member of the computer-based Not-So-Clueless Crime Buster Club (NSCCB). And Margaret just wants to be a part of the band –and vindicate Granny Goose, of course. As I said, it’s good clean fun.

Does anyone remember the Alfred Hitchcock 3 Investigators series? This book reminded me of those books: simple plot, quirky suspects, and kids running around having fun.

Author Marybeth Kelsey’s website.

Return to Sender by Julia Alvarez

Nov12

As soon as I realized that this middle grade fiction book was about illegal immigrants from Mexico and particularly about the plight of children brought to the U.S. by their parents, I was looking for a political bias or for an author with an axe to grind. And I found it. This story was unabashedly sympathetic to the difficulties and even horrors experienced by these economic immigrants, and it had a message. From the author’s letter to readers at the end of the book:

“Many farmers from Mexico and Central America are forced to come north to work because they can no longer earn a living from farming. They make the dangerous border crossing with smugglers called coyotes, who charge them a lot of money and often take advantage. . . . National troops are being sent down to patrol the border. We are treating these neighbor countries and migrant helpers as if they were our worst enemies.”

I could argue with some of what Ms. Alvarez says. (Forced? We shouldn’t patrol our own border? Maybe some of them are our worst enemies?) However, I couldn’t help finding my own sympathies engaged with the immigrants in the story who are, I believe, emblematic of most of the immigrants who do come to the U.S. Mari and her family come to North Carolina, then to Vermont, in search of simple things: work, a place to live, and opportunity. Mari’s father, uncle, and cousin are hard workers, content with low pay and long hours and a difficult job on a dairy farm. Mari herself is an intelligent, obedient child who just wants to do well in school and take care of her little sisters in the absence of her mother.

Because Return to Sender is a novel, not an essay or a working paper, Ms. Alvarez only has to tell a good story and present more than one aspect of the issue. She fulfills that task. I didn’t feel as if I were being preached at or tricked into believing that all immigrants should be allowed free rein in the U.S. even though the author rather obviously believes something of the sort. The book is written partly from the point of view of Mari, who quickly becomes a sympathetic character, and partly from the viewpoint of Tyler, the eleven year old son of the farmer for whom Mari’s family, the Cruzes, work. Tyler’s feelings and actions are conflicted. He doesn’t understand why his parents are willing to break the law in hiring illegal immigrants even while they tell him that he must obey the laws and rules to be a good citizen. He doesn’t know what to do about his sympathy for Mari’s family and his respect for the law of the land. Tyler even does something he knows is wrong while justifying it to himself with excuses, unintentionally mirroring his parents’ actions. Tyler ultimately falls on the side of compassion and friendship for Mari and her family but not without some bumps along the way.

Tyler, his parents, Tyler’s grandmother who also befriends the Cruz family, the elderly anti-immigration Mr. Rossetti, even Mari and her family, none of them ever resolve the underlying questions that the novel raises. What do we, the United States, do about the thousands of illegal immigrants who cross the border every year? Can we find a way to accommodate them, allow them to work here, and still maintain some kind of security that keeps criminals and terrorists out? Are these immigrants an asset to our country and our work force that should be welcomed or a drain on our resources that should be shunned and criminalized? What about the children who come the United States with their parents or who are born in this country to parents who are here illegally? How can we be compassionate as a people and still maintain the rule of law? What should individuals who are confronted with these situations do? Is it morally wrong, even if it is illegal, to hire people who want to work and whose work you need to keep your business or farm going? Is it morally wrong for people to cross a border to find work? Would you do the same thing if your family were living in poverty with no other way out?

Ms. Alvarez doesn’t really have answers for those questions. I don’t either. But we had better start talking about them seriously and effectively. This novel might be a good start to that conversation for middle school children, particularly if a teacher or other adult can bring out all the nuances and conflicting opinions on this issue. Yes, the book is biased in favor of the open immigration, and it repeated the obligatory, but annoying, slogan of the environmentalists: “we are citizens of the world, and you can save the planet.” Still, the characters and the plot are engaging, and the book could provoke a good, healthy discussion.

Semicolon

Books we must have though we lack bread.

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