While Eldest Daughter was here for Thanksgiving she read a few of my Cybils nominees for Middle Grade Fiction. She wouldn’t give me a real review, but she did assign grades to the books she read. And she was as surprised as I was to see that Zilpha Keatley Snyder is still writing and publishing books. Eldest Daughter says that The Egypt Game is one of those “test books.”

You ask a new acquaintance, “Have you read The Egypt Game? Did you like it?” If the new acquaintance says “yes”, particularly to the second question, there is a basis for further communication. If he says “no” to the first question, buy him a copy.

The Last Newspaper Boy in America by Sue Corbett.
Grade: B

William S. and the Great Escape by Zilpha Keatley Snyder.
Grade: A+

Petronella Saves Nearly Everyone by Dene Low.
Grade: A

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One or more of these books is also nominated for a Cybil Award, but the views expressed here are strictly my own.

This end-of-the-Civil War story begins with eleven year old Luke stealing a gun from Massa’s rifle case. In chapter three Daylily is left alone in the woods after the death of her Granny and her friend Buttercup. Finally in chapter four Caswell goes to find someone to help his Mamadear who is struggling in the labor of childbirth, and when he returns with no help his house is burned to the ground and Mamadear is nowhere to be found. The three children meet and begin to travel north together in search of the Yankee army or freedom or any safe place.

They finally find a friend and a safe place when they come to the home of a strange woman named Betty Strong Foot. But the war keeps encroaching on their hiding place, and they find that Betty has dangerous secrets of her own.

“Was Betty Strong Foot for colored or White? Luke wanted to ask her but he didn’t dare. She said she was free. She said her Daddy was colored, and she had White folks hair, but that didn’t mean nothin cause so did Pecola back home, and she sure was one of Massa Higsaw’s niggers same as he was. She said her mama was Indian. Betty’s skin was as dark as his almost.”

I like the way this book shakes up racial categories and expectations. Luke and Daylily are escaped slaves; Caswell is the white son of a slave-owner and Confederate soldier. The children are rescued and cared for by a mysterious woman who is part Indian, part African American. Later in the book, the children, including Caswell, live with a family of free blacks. And several times in the course of the story Luke thinks about how hard it is to tell who’s a Yankee and who’s a Confederate, who’s a slave and who’s free, even who’s black and who’s white.

Once Daylily asked, “Are the angels Black?”
“The Great Spirit don’t care if they Black, White, or Red, or they got no color. They still angels. Just like you can call him Great Spirit or God, and He don’t care about that,” Betty said. “Just like these trees and flowers, all of em be angels.”

Black angels. An American heritage of native American wisdom, African customs, and European culture all mixed together and yielding something strong and uniquely American. Some Christian readers may be annoyed by the native American spirituality and reverence for the spirits of animals that is a part of the story, but I thought it could be taken as an accurate picture of the characters and the times and given respect although I don’t adhere to those particular beliefs.

“God,” she said, “this here’s Daylily callin on You. We down here just little chirren,” she said, “cept Luke, who’s a little bigger than us. And we scared to death, Lord, and we callin on You in our time of need.”
“Amen,” said Luke.
“And we just want to ask you, Lord, to bless us and help us find our Betty Strong Foot, cause she sure did save our lives.”
“Amen,” said Luke.
“And she a good woman, Lord, who in trouble, and Lord, we don’ know if You hold with that spy work she doin, Lord, but please don’t take it to heart, and keep us safe. Amen.”
“And Lord,” Luke added, “if you don’t like what she doin, please don’t take it out on us. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.”
Daylily nudged Caswell, “Say amen.”
Caswell said, “Amen.”

Historical fiction at its finest.

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One or more of these books is also nominated for a Cybil Award, but the views expressed here are strictly my own.

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?

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.

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.

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.