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Wishing for Tomorrow by Hilary McKay

Oct24

Ah, Ms. McKay! How many ways do I love thee and thy books?

I love the Cassons: Cadmium, Saffron, Indigo, and Permanent Rose and their strange but lovable parents Bill and Eve. And now you’ve given me a new/old set of characters to love: the young ladies left behind at Miss Minchin’s Select Seminary for Young Ladies. Left behind? Yes, back when Frances Hodgson Burnett first wrote Sara Crew, or The Little Princess, at the end of the book Sara took her friend Becky, the scullery maid with her when she went on to fame and fortune, but she left several other young ladies, her friends, under Miss Minchin’s dubious care. Hilary Mckay in Wishing for Tomorrow gives readers the story of plain, plodding Ermengarde, mischief-making Lottie, scholarly Lavinia, sister Amelia, and poor Miss Minchin herself.

Poor Miss Minchin? Yes, Hilary McKay is such a capable author that she manages to make us even feel some sympathy for Miss Minchin, the erstwhile villain of the piece. You see, Miss Minchin was a misunderstood Victorian girl who really wanted to learn and go to university as her brothers did, but her ambitions were thwarted by Victorian standards for female behavior and education. So she became the Miss Maria Minchin who made Sara Crewe into a maid and practically starved her when Miss Minchin realized that Sara had no money.

Well, I almost felt sorry for Miss Minchin. After all, Maria Minchin loves Shakespeare! How could she be all bad? And Miss Amelai Minchin just wants to marry the curate. And Ermengarde St. John just wants Sara to come back and be her best friend. And Lavinia just wants to learn, well, everything. And lovely Jessie just wants to do girl stuff like shopping for dresses and curling her hair and making eyes at the boy next door. And Lottie just wants to have fun and have someone else do her sums for her.

Oh, my, I learn from her website that Ms. McKay has other series of books that I’ve never even seen! Has anyone read any books by Hilary McKay besides the Casson family series? Are her other books as good as these? Ooooh, there’s also a new (and final) Casson family book due out next year called Caddy’s World. Thank you, thank you, Hilary McKay. (What’s this? It may not be published in the U.S.? Not good.)

Wishing for Tomorrow lives up to the McKay/Burnett brand name. If you’re a fan of Sara Crewe reading this sequel is a must. If you’ve never read A Little Princess, you should do so immediately so that you can enjoy Wishing for Tomorrow to the fullest.

Wishing for Tomorrow has been nominated for the 2010 Cybils Awards in the Middle Grade Fiction category.

The Private Thoughts of Ameila E. Rye by Bonnie Shimko

Oct21

If I don’t much like spending time with the characters in a novel, especially the narrator, it’s hard to summon up enough interest in the plot and the writing to finish the book. Ms. Amelia warns her readers at the beginning of her “personal memoir” that the book is private and that she’s not a goody two-shoes, but rather a liar and a user of bad language. So enter at your own risk.

Actually, the lying and the cursing were mild and not nearly as off-putting as the title of the first chapter: “My mother tried to kill me before I was born. Even then I disappointed her.” The author proceeds to spend the first nine tenths of the book making us hate Amelia’s mother who is racist, hypocritical, cruel, neglectful, and cold-hearted. Then at the very end we’re supposed to have a change of heart, along with Amelia, and understand that Mrs. Rye “really did love [Amelia]. She just didn’t know how to show it.”

Sorry, I’m not buying. Amelia isn’t the most lovable child I’ve ever met between the pages of a book, but at least I could make excuses for her. Her father deserted her, and her mother “took a flying leap out the window” when she found out she was pregnant with Amelia. So it’s a wonder Amelia turned out as well as she did.

The chapters in this book are somewhat episodic. The first gives some family history, and the others tell stories of how Amelia’s mother mistreats her daughter or how Amelia makes a friend or how Amelia’s jailbird brother returns home. If there’s an overarching theme it comes in the form of a platitude given to Amelia by her grandfather (before he has a stroke that makes him unable to communicate): “All a person needs in life is one true friend.”

True enough. However, the nice people in this book are not very interesting, and the mean people are just too mean for me to want to spend time understanding them. If a child had good parents and read this book, it might make him thankful for what he’s got. If a child had bad or absent parents and read this book, it might make her want to burn the book for suggesting that a mother as cruel as Amelia’s had redeeming features–even if she does.

Not my cup of tea.

The Private Thoughts of Amelia E. Rye has been nominated for the 2010 Cybils Awards in the Middle Grade Fiction category.

8th Grade Super Zero by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich

Oct18

Wow! Talk about Christian faith-driven, faith-drenched young adult fiction, this book is full of God-talk and Biblical references and church and kids trying to work out their beliefs and suit their actions to those beliefs. And it’s published by Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic. Go Scholastic!

Faith and Christianity and church shouldn’t be the last taboo subjects in young adult literature. More than half of all Americans, including teenagers, are members of a religious body, mostly Christian churches of some kind, and about forty percent of all Americans say they attend religious services regularly. Why should this fact not be regularly portrayed and discussed in young adult fiction and nonfiction? 8th Grade Super Zero, with its African-American protagonist who goes to church and struggles with the application of his faith to daily life, should not be the exception to the rule, but it is. I can name the YA books from mainstream publishers that I’ve read this year that discuss or at least mention faith, and especially those that portray such faith in God sympathetically:

Saving Maddie by Varian Johnson.
Somebody to Listen To by Suzanne Supplee. Semicolon review here.
Finding My Place by Traci L. Jones. Semicolon review here.
Hush by Eishes Chayill. Semicolon review here.
Bamboo People by Mitali Perkins. Semicolon review here.
The Long Way Home by Andrew Klavan. Semicolon review here
The Last Summer of the Death Warriors by Francisco X. Stork. Semicolon review here.
This Gorgeous Game by Donna Freitas.

That’s about a third of the YA novels I’ve read this year, and as a percentage of YA novels that discuss faith respectfully it’s probably way high since I tend to seek out and review these types of novels. So, 8th Grade Super Zero is a welcome addition to the corpus of faith-driven literature for young adults published by mainstream publishers.

Reggie McKnight sees himself as a loser. His nickname is Pukey because he embarrassed himself on the first day of eighth grade by, well, puking on stage in front of the entire student body at Clarke Junior School. Clarke Junior is a “smart kids’ school that supposed to have high standards.” As the year progresses, Reggie’s youth group at church becomes involved in ministry at a homeless shelter in their neighborhood, and Reggie finds himself “accidentally” running for class president. The story is about getting past the cliches of community service and Christian living to find a way to really help the homeless people in the shelter and really lead his Reggie’s peers to make a difference in the community and in the way they treat each other at school.

In the Acknowledgements section at the back of the book, Ms. Rhuday-Perkovich names several people who helped her write this book. Among others, she thanks “my dear friend, Pauls, whose boundless love and generosity of spirit is everlasting, and Madeleine for the perfect writing advice.” That would be Paula Danziger and Madeleine L’Engle, two writers with whom Ms. Rhuday-Perkovich “studied writing as an adult.” I am green with envy, and I’m not even a (novel) writer, so what would I have studied if I had had a chance to meet Madeleine L’Engle before she died? Anyway, now I know one reason Reggie’s faith in God is treated so respectfully and is so thoroughly explored.

Not that Reggie has it all figured out. In fact, he’s not sure why God allows suffering and war and homelessness, and he’s not sure how to trust a God who does allow those things to happen. And he says he has “questions all the time.” Reggie’s youth group leader, Dave encourages him to continue to ask questions and act on the things he does understand and do what he can to help make the world better in small ways. Good advice for all of us, and it doesn’t come across in the book as preachy or patronizing. In fact, the entire book is full of faith lessons that don’t read like lessons. The story just reads like life.

And that’s a pretty good compliment to a well written story.

8th Grade Super Zero has been nominated for the 2010 Cybils Awards in the Young Adult Fiction category.

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger

Oct13

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda is soooooo sixth grade/middle school. I felt as if I were transported back in time to my sixth grade year. Yes, there were guys like Dwight who did weird stuff. Dwight carries a talking origami Yoda around on his finger, and Origami Yoda answers questions and gives advice—in strange Yoda-like syntax. “New one must you make.” “Rush in fools do.”

Yes, there were guys (and girls) in my sixth grade like Tommy and Harvey who argued about silly things and became totally involved in investigating ridiculous phenomena. The book is actually Tommy’s “case file” in which he attempts to gather all the evidence to decide whether Origami Yoda is real or just Dwight pretending. When I was in sixth grade, we spent a lot of time trying to figure out whether our sixth grade teacher left in the middle of the year because we drove her insane and sent her to a mental institution.

And yes, sixth grade was full of embarrassing situations, strange obsessions, and awkward situations. In fact, I can admit it here for the first time: I was a little weird when I was in sixth grade. I think, if I remember correctly, I carried a large doll to the sixth grade skating party and dared anyone to laugh or call me a baby.

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand the idea of a bunch of middle school kids putting their faith in the oracles of an origami finger puppet is so ridiculous and superstitious and sort of sad. On the other hand, when I was a kid, a good church kid, my friends and I did many things just as ridiculous. We used “cootie catchers” to answer questions about life and love. We tried out a Ouija board. We sort of, kind of, believed that if you took off the Vietnam POW (prisoner of war) bracelet that you agreed to wear until the POW came home that he never would be released.

It’s kind of like Halloween. As a Christian parent, I don’t think there’s anything harmful or wrong about dressing up in costumes and going trick or treating around the neighborhood. Harmless fun. But I wouldn’t want my urchins to get caught up in the more occult aspects of the Halloween holiday, playing witches and chanting spells and believing that Satan has some kind of extra power on Halloween. Reading about and even playing around with or making your own Origami Yoda is similar. Harmless fun, unless my kids actually started believing that Origami Yoda could give them guidance for their lives. That’s where I’d draw the line.

Bottom line: good book, guy book, funny book with a lighthearted moral: sometimes you’ve got to believe and go for it. Ignore the naysayers.

Just don’t take the whole “believe in Yoda and the Force” thing too seriously. Oh, by the way, there are instructions for making your own Origami Yoda in the back of the book. I think Karate Kid’s going to make me one.

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda has been nominated for the 2010 Cybils Award in the category of Middle Grade Fiction.

The Fences Between Us by Kirby Larson

Oct12

true-blue, in a dither, mind your own beeswax, old battle-ax, can it, the hoosegow, a good egg, bushed, conniption fit, scuttlebutt, shut-eye, cock-eyed, tough cookie, chitchat, discombobulated, peaked, dreamboat, triple whammy, in a funk, hit the jackpot, jazzed, kitty-corner, don’t take any wooden nickels.

Reading Kirby Larson’s entry into the Dear America series, set in 1941-42, was like revisiting my childhood. Not that I was alive during World War II. But the slang terms and the idioms above that I took from The Fences Between Us were words and phrases that I heard my mother and father use as I was growing up. And they were children during World War II. The language Ms. Larson used in her pretend diary of a 13 year old girl growing up in Seattle was perfect, not overdone as I’ve read in some books that attempt to portray a certain time period, but just enough to make it feel real.

Then, too, I grew up in a Southern Baptist church where we read and studied about “home missionaries” who worked with ethnic churches, and I knew that Ms. Larson’s story of a Caucasian pastor of a Japanese Baptist Church and his daughter, Piper the sometimes reluctant PK, was something that really could have happened. In fact, the afterword to the book says that the story is based on the WW2 experiences of Pastor Emory “Andy” Andrews who “moved from Seattle to Twin Falls, Idaho to be near his congregation, all of whom had been incarcerated in Minidoka“, a Japanese internment camp.

Like all of the books in the Dear America series, the story is written in the form of a diary. Piper’s diary is a gift from one of the members of her church, grandmotherly Mrs Harada, who’s trying to make Piper feel a little better about her brother Hank’s enlistment in the U.S. Navy. Hank enlists in what he thinks is a “peacetime Navy” in November 1941, and he’s soon shipped to Hawaii, a seeming plum of an assignment. December 7, a day that will live in infamy, changes everything for Hank, for Piper, for Piper’s sister Margie, for Piper’s pastor dad, and especially for the members of the Seattle Japanese Baptist Church.

The book isn’t all history. Piper experiences her first romance, and she tries to work out her own feelings about being patriotic while at the same time supporting her friends who are Japanese American and being persecuted and mistreated for no good reason. There are other books for young people about the same time period and about the Japanese “relocation camps”, but I thought this one was a good addition to the category.

Other children’s books about the Japanese American experience during World War II:
Picture Books
Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki.
The Bracelet by Yoshiko Uchida.
So Far From the Sea by Eve Bunting.
Flowers from Mariko by Rick Noguchi and Deneen Jenks.
Fiction
Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata.
Eyes of the Emperor by Graham Salibury.
The Moon Bridge by Marcia Savin.
Journey Home by Yoshiko Uchida.
Nonfiction
Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment by Jean Wakatsuki Houston and James Houston.
The Children of Topaz: The Story of the Japanese-American Internment Camp by Michael Tunnell and George Chilcoat.
The Invisible Thread: An Autobiography by Yoshiko Uchida.

The Fences Between Us has been nominated for the 2010 Cybils Awards in the category of Middle Grade Fiction.

I, Emma Freke by Elizabeth Atkinson

Oct12

I, Emma Freke pushes some of my buttons: homeschooling, family reunions, community. So let’s take them one at a time.

Homeschooling: Emma Freke, age twelve, has a mom, Donatella, who acts about fourteen. When Donatella decides to give Emma the birthday present of being homeschooled, the result is not pretty. Homeschooling is not a choice between child neglect and authoritarian scheduling in a school-like environment. It really is possible to have children who are free to learn at their own pace and even choose many of their own areas of study and who are also required to to be responsible and work at their education. And most people like Donatella don’t last long at homeschooling, which is what happens in the book. I also didn’t like the implication that people tend to homeschool in order to use their children as free labor as Donatella does when she leaves Emma to tend the bead shop. I know lots of homeschooling families, and none of them have their children at home in order to enslave them to the family’s business.

Family reunions: Emma attends a family reunion in Wisconsin in order to get away from her negligent, selfish mother and to meet the extended family of the father she’s never met. The entire Freke family is about as dysfunctional in the direction of controlling and domineering as Emma’s mom is in the opposite direction. In fact, The Freke family is so uptight and scheduled that they’re borderline unbelievable. Again, family is not usually a choice between a mother who’s so permissive that she should be hauled in for child neglect and a father’s family that’s so authoritarian that rebellion is the only option for anyone with a sense of self at all.

Community: The theme of the book is finding home, finding the place where you can fit in and feel accepted and loved for yourself. Emma, with her strange name and her height (six feet tall at age 12) and her advanced intellectual abilities and her odd family, doesn’t fit in anywhere. She’s not only a Freke, but she feels like a freak. And don’t we all sometimes? Especially young teens? This aspect of the story really communicated to me, and I felt as if the target audience, middle school readers, would identify, too.

I’m not sure about the portrayal of homeschooling as an alternate lifestyle for neglectful parents nor about the family reunion that’s too structured to be true, but the story transcends these lapses. The supporting cast in the book, Donatella, Aunt Pat Freke, Nonno, Emma’s grandfather, and others, all tend toward caricature. However, Emma Freke is a great character, and she deserves the happy ending that she gets at the end of the story.

I, Emma Freke is nominated for the 2010 Cybil Awards in the the Middle Grade Fiction category.

Tortilla Sun by Jennifer Cervantes

Oct11

This is a cuento, a story about magic, love, hope, and treasure. If you read this under the glow of the moo or by the light of the summer sun, listen for whispers in any breeze that passes by. Then close your eyes and let the cuento take you to where magic still exists and spells of fear and hope are told through the heart of the storyteller.

Jennifer Cervantes’ Tortilla Sun certainly captures the atmosphere of a small village in New Mexico. The plot didn’t really grab me, but I did like the setting and the many, many vivid descriptions of the Southwest.

“I followed her past the long tables and into the sky-blue kitchen. Dried flowers and plants hung in tied bunches from the ceiling, making the kitchen smell like a freshly lit cranberry candle.”

“Two French doors opened to a walled courtyard with a brightly painted yellow and purple fountain.”

“The whole yard smelled of Mexican spices and roses.”

“We made our way through a small courtyard, where pink geraniums hung over the sides of terracotta pots lining the walkway. Above the bright turquoise door was a small painted tile that read Mi casa es su casa.”

“Beyond the village, the Albuquerque lights flickered like a thousand tiny twinkling stars. A distant howl flew on the edge of an approaching wind; withn seconds it had found us on the mesa. It whipped around, loosening Nana’s bun and then descended into the village below, gliding like a ghost.”

Can’t you just imagine yourself in a New Mexico village with the adobe houses and the flowers and the wind whistling through the trees and the smells of chili powder and comino (cumin) and candles burning?

I grew up in West Texas, and I had Hispanic friends who lived in houses like those in this book and whose mothers and grandmothers made tortillas and empanadas and other comidas muy deliciosas. Reading Tortilla Sun took me back. The story of a girl trying to reconnect with her dead father and New Mexico, Hispanic roots was OK, but somewhat predictable; however, if you have ties to New Mexico or to Hispanic culture or just want to read a story evocative of those ties and that cultural experience, Tortilla Sun is worth finding and reading and savoring.

And there’s a recipe in the back of the book for homemade tortillas that I may try. I won’t give you the long version of the story of the last and and only time I tried to make tortillas, twenty-five years ago, but I called the experience The Great Tortilla Battle. Maybe Ms. Cervantes’ recipe would, like her prose, cause something magical to happen and transform my tortillas into something edible.

More good books for children and young adults set in New Mexico:
The King’s Fifth by Scott O’Dell. Esteban is accused of withholding the fifth of the treasure that by law belongs to the King of Spain in this adventure set during the time of of the Spanish conquistadors and the search for gold and for the city of Cibola. YA

Josefina books by Valerie Tripp. Set in 1824, these six books in the American Girl series tell about Josefina, a Hispanic girl growing up on a ranch in New Mexico.

The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow: The Diary of Sarah Nita, a Navajo Girl, New Mexico, 1864 (Dear America) by Ann Warren Turner

And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold. Miguel is the son of a sheep rancher who longs to join the men as they take the sheep to summer camp in the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Krumgold’s book won a Newbery Medal in 1954, and it is deserving of that recognition. However, you’ll have to slow down and savor the descriptions and the details to enjoy the story.

The Staircase by Ann Rinaldi. 13 year old Methodist Lizzie, left by her father in a convent school in Santa Fe, is confused by the Catholic teachings and the culture of the all-girls school. But she is able to help the nuns and the girls find a carpenter to build a much-needed staircase for the convent’s new chapel. YA

The Last Summer of the Death Warriors by Francisco X. Stork. Semicolon review here. Definitely YA or adult.

More books set in New Mexico at Wrapped in Foil, a website which lists children’s books by state setting.

Tortilla Sun is one of the books nominated for the 2010 Cybil Awards in the category of Middle Grade Fiction.

The Cardturner by Louis Sachar

Oct9

Last week I was reading about the (insane) World of Rock Climbing and the (dangerous) World of Nashville Country Music, and this week it’s the (philosophical) World of Duplicate Bridge. I must warn would-be readers that there is a LOT of bridge in this YA fiction book about a boy and his curmudgeonly, rich uncle. Uncle Lester, or as he’s affectionally known, Trapp, is an expert bridge player. He’s also blind. So Alton, his nephew, becomes Trapp’s “cardturner.” Basically, Alton plays the cards, and Trapp tells him what cards to play.

The only reason I got through all the technical jargon and card-game-play-by-play in this book was that I have a secret history that I’ve never told anyone, at least not lately and not on this blog. Nope, I’ve never played bridge. However, back in the day, when I was in college, I used to hang out at the Baptist Student Union. And at the BSU there were almost always two games going: a game of spades and a game of 42. Spades is a card game, and 42 is sort of like spades, but with dominoes. well, it turns out that Spades is a much-simplified version of bridge. According to Wikipedia, “Spades is a descendant of the Whist family of card games, which also includes Bridge, Hearts, and Oh, Hell.” I played a lot of spades and 42 in between classes, while skipping classes, and before and after classes. So, since I used to know how to play both spades and 42 about thirty years ago, I could sorta, kinda, follow the very long, involved, complicated explanations about specific hands of bridge and how they were played, won, and lost.

And I thought the whole book was fascinating. I’m funny like that. I like being introduced to worlds I never knew existed. I’ve heard of bridge, but I thought it was just something blue-haired little old ladies and retired army colonels played in Agatha Christie murder mysteries. I had no idea there were bridge clubs, and national championships, and master points to be gained, and mastery levels to be attained. Did you know that you can become a Grand Life Master bridge player if you rack up enough points? And did you know that people who play competitive duplicate bridge scorn the casual living room players who discuss other things while playing bridge? If you’re going to play bridge with the big boys (and women) apparently you have to behave and concentrate on the game. Did you know that the sides of the table in bridge are named for the cardinal directions: East, West, North and South?

Louis Sachar is the author of the Newbery Award-winning book, Holes, which means he’s got a good readable style and kind of quirky characters. But don’t expect a story like Holes if you decide to give The Cardturner a try. As I said, I liked The Cardturner a lot, but I can see that it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. There’s a plot, about Alton and the uncle developing a relationship and bonding over bridge, and there’s a theme, about life being a lot like bridge and about synchronicity. But this book really is about the bridge. It was worth all the bridge (I admit to skimming through some of the play by play) to get to chapter 76 (short chapters) which encapsulates the moral of the story. I was going to quote it, but I think I’ll let you work a little to get there. And I’m not sure how meaningful the lesson would be in isolation anyway. Suffice it to say by the end of the book I think Alton’s on to something in relation to faith, coincidence, synchronicity, and the meaning of life.

The Cardturner by Louis Sachar has been nominated for a Cybil Award in the 2010 Young Adult Fiction category.

Other reviews:
Presenting Lenore: “After reading this novel, I’m convinced Sachar can make any subject fascinating. I went in knowing next to nothing about bridge, and I put the novel down at the end not only with a rudimentary understanding of the game, but a healthy appreciation for it.”

Melissa at Book Nut: “It works, primarily, because of the narration. For starters, because Alton’s about as clueless at bridge as we are (I’m assuming you’re as clueless as I am), it helps that he stops and explains it as we go. Amazingly, it doesn’t halt the plot, but it’s woven into it almost pretty seamlessly.”

TheHappyNappyBookseller: “By the time the game of bridge was introduced, Sachar already had me with Alton. His parents were very interesting, at times inappropriate and always funny. Alton’s, 11 yr old sister, Leslie was smart, sweet and a natural at bridge. I really liked the brother sister dynamic in this story.”

So you see, even if you don’t think you’d like to read a book that’s mostly about bridge, a game that’s mostly played by old people and people in books, you might want to give The Cardturner a try. Oh, the subtitle is pretty good, too: A Novel About a King, a Queen, and a Joker.

Shooting Kabul by N.H. Senzai

Oct8

Isn’t it interesting how much attention a country gets when we (the U.S.) go to war with or invade them? How many children’s books can you name set in Sri Lanka, Armenia, or even modern Italy? But there are several set in in Vietnam and now in modern Afghanistan. That’s not a criticism, just an observation, perfectly understandable.

Shooting Kabul takes place in 2001 when Fadi and his family flee Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. In the confusion of their escape, Fadi’s six year old sister, Mariam, is left behind. And each person in the family feels guilty for having let it happen. Fadi’s father, Habib, feels th loss of honor for not having taken care of his daughter. Fadi’s mother, Zafoona, knows that it was her responsibility as a mother to make sure Mariam was on the truck that took the family across the border into Pakistan. And Fadi’s older sister Noor says that it was her job to look after the younger chldren, so it’s her fault that Mariam was left behind. However, Fadi knows that it was his refusal to help Mariam with her beloved doll, Gulmina, that really caused Mariam be left, and now it is twelve year old Fadi who must get Mariam back. Can he win the photography contest and the airplane tickets to India and find Mariam?

Fadi is a great character, a kid who worries about his family and his responsibilities and his honor. Kids do worry, and adults sometimes don’t realize how complicated and difficult a young person’s decisions and dilemmas can be. I liked the photography angle in the story and the details about what makes a good photograph and how to deal with lighting and other technical difficulties. I also liked the glimpses of a modern Afghan family integrating religious beliefs, cultural practices, and family crises in a new and somewhat trying environment, San Francisco, CA.

The story is partly about adapting to a new culture, but the overriding theme is that of blame and shared responsibility and a family caring for one another. Fadi’s family share the guilt that comes from having left Mariam behind, and they share the sense of obligation to do everything possible to find Mariam and bring her home. It’s an exciting, yet realistic, story that kids can connect with and grow from reading.

More kids or YA books set in Afghanistan or about Afghans:
Wanting Mor by Rukhsana Khan. Semicolon review here.
The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis.
Parvana’s Journey by Deborah Ellis.
Mud City by Deborah Ellis.
Camel Bells by Janne Carlsson.
Under the Persimmon Tree by Suzanne Fisher Staples.
Thunder Over Kandahar by Sharon McKay.
Count Your Way Through Afghanistan by Kathleen Benson, James Haskins, and Megan Moore.
Afghan Dreams: Young Voices of Afghanistan by Mike Sullivan and Tony O’Brien. Reviewed at The Well Read Child.
Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan by Jeanette Winter.

Shooting Kabul has been nominated for the 2010 Cybil Awards in the Middle Grade Fiction category.

Emily’s Fortune by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Oct6

Emily was an orphan. A very quiet orphan without much experience in navigating the great, wide world.

Rufus was Emily’s pet turtle.

Emily’s Aunt Hilda lived in Redbud, and she had a kind face, a warm lap, and big arms that hugged Emily tight. Aunt Hilda also sent cookies at Christmas.

Emily’s Uncle Victor is the villain of the piece. He had “the silver-black of a wolf, the eyes of a weasel, the growl of a bear, and tiger tattoo on his arm.” He also had “a gold tooth that gleamed when he opened his mouth, and he could crack two walnuts in the palm of one hand just by squeezing his fist. He never came to see Emily’s mother unless he wanted money.”

Which of those two relatives would you go to live with if your parents were dead?

Of course, so Emily sets out for Redbud on the stage coach, escaping from the Catchum Child-Catching Services (Orphans, Strays, and Roustabouts Rounded Up Quickly). She soon makes a friend, Jackson, who’s also on the run from the Catchum Child Catching Services.

This story, set in the Old West, is a rip-snortin’, shootin’ shivers, hunky munky, ding-dong dickens tall tale. Each chapter ends in a cliff-hanger and with a question, for example:

And what in blinkin’ bloomers do you think she saw?

What in pickin’ poppies could possibly happen next?

Now what in a devil’s doughnut should Emily do?

I loved this story, just exciting and suspenseful enough for nine, ten, and eleven year olds, but not too scary and horrible. I hope to read this book aloud to Z-baby, and I predict that she’s going to be a fan. For one thing, Z-baby will like the chapter endings/transition questions because she likes to make up her own words and ask lots of crazy questions.