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Living in New York City, Danny Crane, 11, and his best friend Finn were always in trouble.  Danny's father had skipped out before he was born, so his mother worked as a nurse by day and cleaned offices at night to support them and was often not home.  There are just too many kids in Finn's family for anyone to keep an eye on him  The two boys skip school, sneak into the movies, and pretty soon, they were hanging out with gangster Earl Gasky.

So, in late1941, Danny's mother takes a nursing job at the hospital at Hickam Air Force base on Oahu, Hawaii.  Danny hasn't been living in Hawaii for very long before he hatches a plan to stowaway on a ship bound for San Francisco on December 7th, and from there, he plans to cross the country riding the rails back to Finn and the life he loves and wants.

On the morning of December 6th, Danny meets his new neighbors when toddler Aki Sudo wanders into the Cranes backyard.  The Sudos are a family of Japanese descent that had been born in Hawaii.  And Aki Sudo may only have been 3 years old, but he knew every plane the Americans had in their Air Force, thanks to the detailed drawings his fisherman father drew for him.

Danny likes the Sudos, but he is still determined to get back to Finn and NYC.  Yet, on the morning of December 7th, Danny is having a hard time getting out of bed and setting his plan in motion.  Thinking about his mother and how she will feel when she discovers him gone, Danny is jolted out of bed by little Aki's cries.  Planes, swarms of them, are coming and they aren't American.  Suddenly, as the two boys are heading to the Sudo home, they hear loud explosions followed by fire and smoke.  Pearl Harbor is under attack.

Returning Aki to his mother, Danny decides he needs to get the Hickam, to find his own mother.  But along the way, there is another round of bombing, and shooting.  Then, Danny meets Mack, a  lieutenant and pilot of a B-17.  Mack likes Mrs. Crane, but Danny was resentful of that.  Now, though, with a bullet wound to his arm, he and Danny try to make their way to Hickam together.

But, will the two be able to survive the rain of bullets and bombs the Japanese pilots are unleashing on all of Pearl Harbor?

I Survived the Bombing of Pearl Harbor is the 4th book in this popular, action packed I Survived series for boys about boys living in different time periods and facing different historical disasters and making them real coming of age stories.  And, like the others, it won't let the reader down.  There is plenty of real historical information couched in the fictional story of Danny and since Danny more or less sees the attack on Pearl Harbor from a distance, the descriptions of it are realistic, but not so graphic they will upset the age appropriate reader.

One of the side issues that Lauren Tarshis addresses in this particular story is how easy it was for boys like Danny to fall into the wrong kind of life.  Danny is at an age when friends can be all important, so the reader sees how he is torn between staying with his mother and his loyalty to his friend and partner in crime Finn.  These two friends were on their way to being in real trouble when Mrs. Crane moved Danny to Hawaii.  Juvenile delinquency was a problem back then because so many parents, like Mrs. Crane, had to work long hours, often at two jobs.  Doing little things for someone like Earl Gasky was just the beginning.  Both boys are at an age when they could have gone either way and I wondered what happened to Finn, left in NYC.  

Since I Survived the Bombing of Pearl Harbor is a work of historical fiction, the author has included lots of back matter for further exploration.  There is a lengthy Q&A about the actual attack, a Pearl Harbor Time Line, Pearl Harbor facts and resources for reading other books about kids caught in the bombing of December 7, 1941.

In addition, the publisher of the I Survived series, Scholastic, has put a Teacher's Guide online that is compatible with Common Core State Standards and it can be downloaded HERE

This book is recommended for readers age 7+
This book was purchased for my personal library

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It's 1943 and Robert Tourand, 15, misses and worries about his three older brothers who are off fighting in Europe with the Canadian armed forces.   So when he finds a small piece of a meteorite, it becomes a kind of magical charm for him.  Thanks to it, Robert soon, he begins to see and believe a cosmic connection between what his brother write about from the front line in their letters, and the heroes in the comic books he obsessed with.

And so, he pairs brother to comic according the their parallel experiences: favorite brother Patrick is assigned The Maple Leaf Kid, brother James and Sedna of the Sea go together because James could use her wisdom, brother George, a pilot, is paired with flying ace Captain Ice.  Their assignment: to keep his brother's safe.

It all works nicely until his mother finds a pair of torn pants and decides Robert need to be taught a lesson.  Now, she decides, his weekly allowance, his only means of buying the newest editions of the comic book that contain secret messages about his brothers, would be better spent on war stamps.  Now, Robert needs to figure out a new way to make sure he can buy his three favorite comics every month.

And it seems that ever since his found his magical piece of the universe, luck has been with him.  When his teacher announces that the student who collects the most fat for the war effort will win four completely filled books of war stamps, valued at $4.00, Robert thinks he's found the answer to funding his comic addiction.  But despite his best efforts, he didn't expect such stiff competition from Crazy Charlie (Charlene) Donnelly, a girl as much on a mission as Robert.

So, when fat collection doesn't yield the needed money, Robert decides to take a job as a telegram delivery boy.  Trouble is, Crazy Charlie has the same idea.  They are both hired, and as more and more telegrams need to be delivered, Charlie seems to be able to get around Calgary some much faster than Robert on her dilipated second hand bike compared to his sleek newish Raleigh.  Robert is so busy thinking about his comic books, he never bothers to ask Charlie about herself.  Nor does he think about what is in the telegrams he is delivering, until one arrives at his house in Charlie's hands.

At first, I didn't much care for The Comic Book War.  I found Robert to be a very unappealing character, too focused on himself and completely lacking in empathy for anyone else.  Ironically, Robert and Charlie are both loners, outsiders that could have been friends from the start, if Robert had been able to see beyond himself.  But as I continued to read, I began to see Robert in a different light, as a person who could actually have some compassion for the recipients of the telegrams he was delivering.

I also thought that Robert was a little too old to be so obsessed with comic books, even for the WWII time frame.  But this is, after all, a coming of age novel.  I began to think about how kids will use all kinds of ways to cope with fear, loss and trauma.  Robert keeps his fear about his brothers (and about growing up) from overwhelming him using magical thinking (always a good defense mechanism) that his comic book heroes will keep his brothers (and him) safe.

Charlie, who was much more in touch with reality, was a good contrast to Robert, despite her own problems in life.  I would have actually liked to have read more about Charlie, who is a story in her own right.

It is always interesting to find a Canadian story about kids in WWII because they have such a distinct perspective.  Canada was still part of the British Commonwealth in 1939, and even though it declared war on the Axis powers independently of Britain, it sent troops overseas to fight with the British Expeditionary Forces and the RAF.

Two nit-picky things did bother me.  Kids did not carry their school books to school in backpacks back them.  They used school bags or carried them in their arms.  And I did wonder about why lights were left on so freely at night.  I thought all of Canada had blackout precautions during the war.  But I could be wrong on these.

This book is recommended for readers age 11+
This book was received from the publisher

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It's 1755 and life is difficult enough living on a farm, but for Josh Bedford, 13, life is made even more difficult with an older brother, Matt, who tortures him and a father he never seems to be able to please.  But then, Matt lets him take the blame for forgetting to lock the barn door and letting the cow get loose.  The cow ends up butchered and Josh ends up getting lashes from his father.

Still in the throes of anger, it's not surprisingly that when his adventuresome hero, Uncle Harry, shows up shortly afterwards, Josh decides to run away.  Josh stows away on the wagon his uncle is driving and eventually ends of at Fort Cumberland, where British Redcoats, rag-tag colonists and Native Americans have gathered as they prepare for war against French and other Native Americans.

Sneaking away from his uncle who is still unaware that he has run away, Josh changes his name to Jed and ends up finding work with Daniel Boone after almost getting them both killed by a bear.  But Josh/Jed also makes a friend in Oliver Cunningham, a 15 year old from Cork, Ireland who's a fifer for the British.

After Daniel Boone is sent to Winchester, VA to get supplies, Josh/Jed finds himself working as a groom for Captain George Washington until Boone returns.  All the while he must watch out for his uncle, knowing Harry would be forced to take him back home.

Hanging around camp is good, but eventually they must pull out and while on the move, war catches up with them when they are attacked by the French and Native American soldiers.  From his vantage point, Josh/Jed witnesses the massacre that follows.  Suddenly Uncle Harry's adventurous life doesn't look so appealing to this young boy.

Josh learns some valuable lessons in the 2 1/2 months he lives with the men involved in what came to be known as the first French and Indian War.  His father had always accused Josh of being unreliable at a time when it was often of life and death importance, but from Boone and Washington, he learns the valuable of being reliable and the satisfaction of a job well done.  From Oliver, Josh learns the true meaning of friendship and the importance of forgiveness.

But the war, the slaughter of people he knew and walked among, leaves Josh a very different young man than the child who ran away.

Teresa Irvin's Seed of Rebellion has its roots in a letter written by her 4X great grandmother describing some of the hardships she was facing on the family farm while her husband was away at Fort Cumberland with Captain Washington.  As a result, she  has written an historical coming of age novel that for all its quiet narrative style really packs a wallop.  She pulls no punches in her detailed descriptions, so be prepared.  

But that authenticity makes this a very interesting book to read because, let's face it, the French and Indian Wars a/k/a the Seven Years War, is a unit that is really brushed over in social studies classes and most of us don't remember much more than the name.  Given that, Seeds of Rebellion makes a wonderful supplement for any history class that is studying this period of American history.

Josh is a great coming of age protagonist.  Full of anger and self-pity that he isn't the favored son, he has lots to learn when he ventures out into a wartime world.  Yet despite the time and setting of the story, what Josh learns about the world is not so different than what all kids hopefully learn.

This book is recommended for readers age 12+
This book was an E-Book bought for my personal library

This is my French and Indian War book for my 2014 War Challenge with a Twist hosted by War Through the Generations

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• ·          “I’m an athlete and in GT (Gifted and Talented – advanced level) classes. People think I suck at sports since they assume I’m a nerd.”
• ·         “Just because I’m white, people automatically assume I’m wealthy.”
• ·         “Some people think that all Muslims are terrorists. It upsets me because I wear the hijab, and some people judge us from that one thing.”
• ·         “My personal experience with discrimination has to do with my race. I am Mexican, but have light skin, freckles, and I don’t speak Spanish. Many of the Hispanic students (and adults, too) say that I’m not a ‘true Mexican.’”
• ·         “Some students think I’m the smartest person in class because I’m Asian, but I’m really not that smart.”
• ·          “I have been discriminated against based on my sexual identity, musical choices, intelligence level, and favorite hobbies.”
• ·         “I have been discriminated against when I went through a voice change in 6^th grade. People made fun of my high voice. Now I’m the choir manager for my Advanced Choir group.”

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I’m going to tell you a story about a piano player.

I told it recently on The Artist’s Road in support of a discussion about “perseverance.” The blog’s author, Patrick Ross, replied to my comment:

 “PJ, that was a fantastic story you shared there about the piano player. I hope you’ve written that somewhere before, as an essay or a chapter in a craft book? It’s worthy of wider distribution.”

Thank you, Patrick, but, no, I’ve never shared the story. Which is strange, because that event changed my life (or so goes my personal myth).

Here’s part of what I posted on The Artist’s Road:

“I was ten and playing tag around a friend’s house, and stopping in my tracks as I passed the open bedroom door of my friend’s older brother. There was this teenager working at a piano, composing like a maniac, tinkling the keys, then making notations, oblivious of distraction, of football, of the sun shining outside. I saw in that moment what an artist was.”

Now, I’m curious—what exactly did I see through that doorway?

I should add that my friend’s brother was always at that piano, so that’s where “perseverance” comes in. He spent his youth in his bedroom with that piano and working so hard and with such focus it was frightening. Even still, what was it about a teenager at a piano that could so impress a ten-year-old that fifty years later the memory still serves to inspire me?

The music?—no—the jazzy phrases likely irritated my young ears. I remember the way he leaned forward to jab his pencil at sheets of paper propped on the piano. I recall an urgency. To get somewhere? No, he was already there! You see, he was somewhere else. He lived beyond the everyday world in which the rest of us ran in circles.

I wanted what he had.

His name was Tommy Banks. He went on to own the music scene in Edmonton, Alberta. His TV talk show went nation-wide.  Eventually they honoured him with an appointment to the federal Senate in Ottawa. I owe Mr. Banks a huge debt of gratitude, as you can imagine.

Or perhaps I haven’t made that clear.

You see, that mental image of Tommy working at his piano has served as a beacon for me throughout my life. Guiding me toward what, exactly? Art of some kind? Yes, but certainly not music, no, I’m remarkably unmusical. So, what then? I don’t know. A way of being?

Standing at that open bedroom doorway, the ten-year-old is arrested by a possibility.

Imagine that—a pre-pubescent kid understands he has a choice of how to be.  Among life’s possibilities, here is one that soars above the rest.

If I had ever wondered about the meaning of life, and I had, well, here is an answer. The teenager at the piano is the answer to my earliest existential quandaries. Here is someone who lives in this world but who ignores much of it. And look how alive he is!

The answer infects my entire life.

From then on I’m alert to artists and poets and mystics who make it their business to frame up that same answer. Leonard Cohen for example, musing on his own escape from the person the world expects him to be:

 “Even though he was built to see the world this way, he was also built to disregard, to be free of the way he was built to see the world.” 

 That ten-year-old playing tag was stopped in his tracks by a glimpse through a doorway—a glimpse of a way to move beyond.

To be free of the way he was built to see the world.

 

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With the fall of France and the war becoming worse for Britain, it was time for the Lockwood children, 12 year old Cecily and Jeremy, 14, to leave London.  So it was off to Heron Hall, to their Uncle Peregrine Lockwood's estate, with their mother, Heloise.

Traveling on the train to the same village were groups of school children also being evacuated from London by the government.  These school children are taken to the town hall and as Cecily watches them leaving one by one with women who were to care for them for the duration, she asks her mother if they couldn't also have a child.  May Bright, 10, seems to fit the bill, despite her indifference towards Cecily.

Feeling powerless and picked on by her brother, Cecily wants someone that she can control and have power over.   But May is an independent child with a mind of her own.  And though she isn't impressed that her new luxurious surroundings at Heron Hall are more than she is accustomed to, it is the vast fields and woods that attract her.  And in among it all are the remains of Snow Castle, a once beautiful castle made of white marble, where she meets two young oddly dressed boys.  At first, believing they are evacuees running away from an unpleasant placement, it soon becomes apparent that something else is going on with these two boys.

When May and Cecily ask Uncle Peregrine about the castle, he begins to tell them, little by little each evening, the haunting story of Richard III, of his brother King Edward IV's death, of his two sons, the eldest of whom is next in line for the throne and how Richard had hidden the two boys in the Tower of London in order to make himself King.

Meanwhile, Jeremy, frustrated that he can't do anything to help the war effort but hid out in the country,   he wants so very much to make his mark on the world.  Each day, Jeremy reads the newspaper accounts of the war, becoming more and more exasperated that he is not there help.  And so one night, he runs away to London. There, he discovers a burning, war torn London that he could never have imagined.  Stunned by what he sees, feeling smaller than ever, Jeremy manages to do the very thing he sets out to do - help the war effort.  It is his coming of age moment and Jeremy returns to Heron Hall a very different boy.

No one can turn a phrase, creating a hauntingly brilliant story quite like Sonya Hartnett can. Gracefully creating lyrical phrases, and characters that are hard to forget as you begin to recognize parts of yourself in each of them.  There is spoiled, selfish Cecily, who, the reader thinks, will grow up to be just like her shallow, socialite mother, Heloise, but who surprises us so often; May, quiet and thoughtful, careful but unafraid, she becomes a favorite of Uncle Peregrine (kindred souls? maybe); Jeremy, on the cusp of becoming a young man and wanting to get there way too soon - all so realistically and captivatingly drawn.

The Children of the King is the story of the powerlessness of children and the people who want to control them - of the two princes at the hands of Richard III who craves power and control, of England's children at the hands of German bombs, sent by a dictator who also craves power and control.  But it is on a smaller scale that we see how little power and control others really have over us unless we let them.  Despite all Cecily's attempt at controlling May, she is the one who remains an independent spirit.  And it is by running away, that Jeremy discovers the power each of us has to change another person's life.

Just as she did in The Midnight Garden, Hartnett once again uses the device of magical realism and of a story within a story.  Here, they is used as a means of connecting past and present, reminding us that the past is never past, it lives in the present or as May tells the two boys in the castle "Everything is connected…We are here because you are here."And the dialectic that Hartnett creates in The Children of the King is just wonderful.

I should tell readers that there are a few graphic descriptions when Jeremy goes back to London, giving a sense of realism, but not graphic enough to scare away middle grade readers.  And one does not need to already know the story of Richard III to understand Uncle Peregrine's story, he weaves in enough of it for readers to understand it perfectly well.

I put off reading this novel because I was afraid that I would be disappointed.  The Midnight Garden was such a brilliant book, had Hartnett set her own bar too high?  No, the bar is high but The Children of the King is right up there.   But, in the end, all I can says is fans of Sonya Hartnett, rejoice!  To those who will be reading her for the first time with this novel, you are lucky ducks.

This book is recommended for readers age 10+
This book was and eARC from Net Galley

The Children of the King will be available on March 25, 2014

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The Children’s Book Review is delighted to welcome Susannah Terrell French to our tree house today. She is an environmental lawyer and the award-winning author of Operation Redwood, a high adventure novel about four determined children who take on big business to save a redwood forest.

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Rilla of Ingleside. L.M. Montgomery. 1921. 280 pages.

IT was a warm, golden-cloudy, lovable afternoon. In the big living-room at Ingleside Susan Baker sat down with a certain grim satisfaction hovering about her like an aura; it was four o'clock and Susan, who had been working incessantly since six that morning, felt that she had fairly earned an hour of repose and gossip. 

 I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Rilla of Ingleside. It is beautiful, heartbreaking, wonderful, memorable, and compelling. It is everything it should be. It closely follows World War I--from the Canadian home front; and at times it shows just how ugly and frightening war can be. It's a patriotic novel, however. Rilla of Ingleside is also an unforgettable coming of age story. Readers watch Rilla mature from a laughter-loving fourteen year old girl into a strong, resilient young woman ready for life and love. This is Rilla's story from cover to cover. Rilla is forced to say goodbye to three brothers (Jem, Walter, Shirley), two childhood friends (Jerry, Carl), and her young love (Kenneth Ford) as they go off to war and uncertain futures. And she has to do with a smile on her face and no tears. Will she ever see any of them again? Will they return whole? Will life ever be the same for any of them again?

But Rilla is ever-busy. Not only is she doing work for the Red-Cross, she's adopted a war orphan! Though she's just fourteen, this young baby boy will be HER responsibility. For Rilla who has never really "liked" babies or found them cute and adorable, this is a challenge...at least at first. But as he starts to grow and change...her heart melts.  

My favorite characters were Rilla, Susan Baker, Walter, Miss Oliver, and Dog Monday. If you've read this one, don't you agree that the Dog Monday parts are incredibly moving?

From chapter one:

There was a big, black headline on the front page of the Enterprise, stating that some Archduke Ferdinand or other had been assassinated at a place bearing the weird name of Sarajevo, but Susan tarried not over uninteresting, immaterial stuff like that; she was in quest of something really vital.

Well, that is all the notes and there is not much else in the paper of any importance. I never take much interest in foreign parts. Who is this Archduke man who has been murdered?" "What does it matter to us?" asked Miss Cornelia, unaware of the hideous answer to her question which destiny was even then preparing. "Somebody is always murdering or being murdered in those Balkan States. It's their normal condition and I don't really think that our papers ought to print such shocking things. 

Wherever Rilla Blythe was, there was laughter.  

There was another occupant of the living-room, curled up on a couch, who must not be overlooked, since he was a creature of marked individuality, and, moreover, had the distinction of being the only living thing whom Susan really hated. All cats are mysterious but Dr. Jekyll-and-Mr. Hyde–"Doc" for short–were trebly so. He was a cat of double personality–or else, as Susan vowed, he was possessed by the devil. To begin with, there had been something uncanny about the very dawn of his existence. Four years previously Rilla Blythe had had a treasured darling of a kitten, white as snow, with a saucy black tip to its tail, which she called Jack Frost. Susan disliked Jack Frost, though she could not or would not give any valid reason therefor.
"Take my word for it, Mrs. Dr. dear," she was wont to say ominously, "that cat will come to no good."
"But why do you think so?" Mrs. Blythe would ask.
"I do not think–I know," was all the answer Susan would vouchsafe.

"The only thing I envy a cat is its purr," remarked Dr. Blythe once, listening to Doc's resonant melody. "It is the most contented sound in the world."

Rilla is the only one of my flock who isn't ambitious. I really wish she had a little more ambition. She has no serious ideals at all–her sole aspiration seems to be to have a good time.

 From chapter two,

Rilla was the "baby" of the Blythe family and was in a chronic state of secret indignation because nobody believed she was grown up. She was so nearly fifteen that she called herself that, and she was quite as tall as Di and Nan; also, she was nearly as pretty as Susan believed her to be. She had great, dreamy, hazel eyes, a milky skin dappled with little golden freckles, and delicately arched eyebrows, giving her a demure, questioning look which made people, especially lads in their teens, want to answer it. Her hair was ripely, ruddily brown and a little dent in her upper lip looked as if some good fairy had pressed it in with her finger at Rilla's christening. Rilla, whose best friends could not deny her share of vanity, thought her face would do very well, but worried over her figure, and wished her mother could be prevailed upon to let her wear longer dresses. She, who had been so plump and roly-poly in the old Rainbow Valley days, was incredibly slim now, in the arms-and-legs period. Jem and Shirley harrowed her soul by calling her "Spider." Yet she somehow escaped awkwardness. There was something in her movements that made you think she never walked but always danced. She had been much petted and was a wee bit spoiled, but still the general opinion was that Rilla Blythe was a very sweet girl, even if she were not so clever as Nan and Di.

Rilla loved Walter with all her heart. He never teased her as Jem and Shirley did. He never called her "Spider." His pet name for her was "Rilla-my-Rilla"�a little pun on her real name, Marilla...

 Dog Monday was the Ingleside dog, so called because he had come into the family on a Monday when Walter had been reading Robinson Crusoe. He really belonged to Jem but was much attached to Walter also. He was lying beside Walter now with nose snuggled against his arm, thumping his tail rapturously whenever Walter gave him a pat. Monday was not a collie or a setter or a hound or a Newfoundland. He was just, as Jem said, "plain dog"�very plain dog, uncharitable people added. Certainly, Monday's looks were not his strong point. Black spots were scattered at random over his yellow carcass, one of them blotting out an eye. His ears were in tatters, for Monday was never successful in affairs of honour. But he possessed one talisman. He knew that not all dogs could be handsome or eloquent or victorious, but that every dog could love. Inside his homely hide beat the most affectionate, loyal, faithful heart of any dog since dogs were; and something looked out of his brown eyes that was nearer akin to a soul than any theologian would allow. Everybody at Ingleside was fond of him, even Susan.

"There's plenty of time for you to be grown up, Rilla. Don't wish your youth away. It goes too quickly. You'll begin to taste life soon enough."
"Taste life! I want to eat it," cried Rilla, laughing. "I want everything–everything a girl can have. I'll be fifteen in another month, and then nobody can say I'm a child any longer. I heard someone say once that the years from fifteen to nineteen are the best years in a girl's life. I'm going to make them perfectly splendid–just fill them with fun."
"There's no use thinking about what you're going to do–you are tolerably sure not to do it."
"Oh, but you do get a lot of fun out of the thinking," cried Rilla.
"You think of nothing but fun, you monkey," said Miss Oliver indulgently, reflecting that Rilla's chin was really the last word in chins. "Well, what else is fifteen for?"

From chapter three,

"The new day is knocking at the window. What will it bring us, I wonder.... "I think the nicest thing about days is their unexpectedness," went on Rilla. "It's jolly to wake up like this on a golden-fine morning and day-dream for ten minutes before I get up, imagining the heaps of splendid things that may happen before night."

© 2013 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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The Wall. William Sutcliffe. 2013. Walker.  304 pages.

The Wall is a thought-provoking coming of age novel. What is missing from Joshua's life is peace. He HATES his step-father, and readers learn there is good reason for this. But it isn't just family turmoil leading to his uneasiness. Perhaps it all starts when Joshua discovers a tunnel that goes under the wall, a tunnel that he explores. He visits the other side of the wall, he walks the streets, sees the "enemy" up, close, for the first time perhaps, and realizes that there aren't really any discernible differences. The way Joshua's father RANTS about them, he expected the "them" to be obvious threats, but that isn't the case. In fact, one of "them," a pretty young girl, risks her life to help him get back to his own side (he becomes lost). He can't forget the girl he met, can't forget her kindness and her needs. He feels he can help her, but is it the kind of help she'd welcome? That her family would welcome? The Wall gives readers an opportunity to see a boy's social awareness awaken. Joshua begins to think, deeply think about the world around him, to test what he's been taught, to make his own decisions about what is right and what is wrong.

Read The Wall

• If you enjoy thought-provoking coming-of-age stories

© 2013 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Imagine surviving 1 ghetto, 10 concentration camps and 2 death marches.  Well, here is the story of a boy who did just that.

At 10 years old, Yanek Gruener's life means friends, school and most importantly, being surrounded by loving relatives all living in the center of Krakow, Poland.   But his relatives know that soon something is going to happen - after all, they are Jews in a Europe that Hitler wants to make "Jew free."  Sure enough, only six days after the German invasion of Poland, Nazi soldiers march into Krakow, and not long after that, one after another rights, privileges, pleasures, food and freedom are denied its Jewish citizens, until, in 1942, when Yanek is 12, the Nazis begin building the wall that will become the Krakow Ghetto and Yanek soon finds himself living there along with thousands of other displaced Jews.

In the ghetto, Yanek and his father prove to be very resourceful in order to survive.  When roundups start, to avoid be sent "to the east" and an unknown future, Yanek finds an abandoned pigeon coop on the roof of their building where the family takes up residence.  To feed his family, Yanek's father manages to get bread under very dangerous circumstances.  And, most telling of all, despite the danger after the Nazis forbide Jews to practice their religion, his father gets together a minyan (a quorum of 10 bar mitvahed men) late one night for Yanek's very unusual secret bar mitvah.

The ghetto proves to be only the beginning of Yanek's journey through a system of concentration camps, where survival sometimes depends of cunning, sometimes on luck, always knowing that your life is in the hands of sadistic Nazis, some of whom like to kill Jews for sport.

By the time Yanek is sent from the ghetto to the first of ten concentration camps, he has lost his family in a roundup and deportation heading "east" but finds his Uncle Moshe at Plaszów Concentration Camp.  You may remember Plaszów from Schindler's List, the camp run by the very, very cruel SS Commander Amon Goeth.  It is here that Yanek's Uncle Moshe teaches him survival skills that will  serve him well at each camp he is sent to.  As a result, Yanek's resolve to survive almost never falters, even when he comes very close to dying.

Prisoner B-3087 (B for Birkenau) is based on the life of the real Yanek/Jack Gruener.  It is told in a simple, straightforward manner, narrated in the first person by the fictional Yanek, but the voice of the actual Gruener comes through clearly, giving it a sense of authenticity.  Yanek never, no matter how badly he is treated, gives into feeling victimized, which is amazing, but may also account for his strong will to survive.  Yanek's descriptions of certain things that he either witnesses or that were done to him are sometimes a bit hard to read, but never gratuitous and not including them would sanitize Nazi cruelty to every degree.

The narration skillfully balances these cruel, sadistic acts against the Jews with some real heartwarming moments, like the night of Yanek's secret bar mitvah, a kindness Yanek was to repay in Birkenau two years later when he is the first to volunteer to be part of a minyan for another 13 year old boy's forbidden bar mitvah, even though getting caught would mean certain death.

After I read Prisoner B-3087, I felt compelled to do two things.  First, I had to make an outline of the places and events in Yanek Gruener's life as he was sent from camp to camp, sometimes in cattle cars, sometimes on foot in freezing weather.  Second, I would have liked a map to get a real sense not just of where Yanek was at each part of his life under the Nazis, but also the distances he traveled.  I think these would give a real appreciation of his survival.  But since they didn't include map, and others might  fell as I do, I found this one at the Jewish Virtual Library and modified it a bit to reflect Yanek's experience:

Click to enlarge

Prisoner B-3087 is a book that really must be read to be fully appreciated.  Yanek/Jack Gruener's story is incredible, haunting, compelling, heart wrenching, rewarding and not to be missed (and you will find out how Yanek became Jack).

This book is recommended for readers age 11+
This book was received as an E-ARC from Net Galley

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Bliss. Kathryn Littlewood. 2012. HarperCollins. 374 pages.

I enjoyed reading Kathryn Littlewood's Bliss. This middle grade fantasy was quite fun. Bliss is set in a small town where the Bliss family has a bakery. The parents have named their children: Thyme (Ty), Rosemary (our heroine), Sage, and Parsley (Leigh). The Bliss family has a secret, a secret that Rosemary hasn't always known. The family is magical, their is a bit of magic in each recipe. These magical spells help the town run smoothly. Soon after the novel begins, the parents are called away to another town to handle an emergency. The parents leave their children and Chip in charge of the bakery. Though Rosemary has recently been trusted with a key, she's also warned by her parents NOT to look into the family's secret cookbook. "Aunt" Lily has been waiting for such an opportunity. Rose's parents haven't been gone very long at all when this new relative appears ready to help them all. Is she trustworthy? Well, Rosemary doesn't really think so. But. She sure does know how to flatter every single member of the family. NO one has ever made Rose feel so special...

Most of the book is the misadventures resulting when the children are disobedient and try to do magic on their own. Things get quite messy!

Read Bliss

• If you enjoy children's books with a cooking theme
• If you enjoy children's fantasy novels 

© 2013 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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That is quite a title, isn't it.  I know I did a double take when I first saw it.  So, what kind of a kid would say she hates the Holocaust?  Meet Lauren Yanofsky.  Lauren is entering her junior year of high school, has a big crush on Jesse, a boy she has known most of her life, and is finding her best friend drifting away.

Oh, yes, and Lauren has also decided not to be Jewish anymore.  Lauren had always felt that her religion was full of persecution in the Bible and history.  Then, three years ago, she found out that her grandmother had eleven relatives who all perished in the Holocaust.  "Who needed all that misery?  Why would anyone want to belong to a religion that was all about loss, grief, and persecution?" she asked herself.  (pg13)

Lauren even managed to convince her parents, with the help of a hunger strike, to let her leave the Hebrew School she was attending in favor of public school.  But try as she might, Lauren just can't get away from Judaism and the Holocaust.  Her father is a Holocaust scholar at the University and he and her mother continually try to tempt Lauren back to her faith by joining a Jewish youth group, going a Taglit birth right trip to Israel and/or other religion-based  activities.  Lauren wants none of it, however.

As school begins, Lauren finds herself sitting beside her crush, Jesse, and her best friend, Brooke.  Things go well and it looks like Jesse may be more attracted to Lauren that just as a friend, and it also seems that Brooke is really supportive of this.  But Brooke has more than one surprise in store Lauren. where Jesse is concerned.  As the days pass, and their other two friends Chloe and Em become involved with the school production of Grease, and Brooke begins to drift off at lunchtime to hang outside with the Smokers, particularly with one named Chantel, Lauren finds herself alone in the lunchroom with her own thoughts.

One night, after getting together with Brooke, Chole and Em for pizza (just like the old days, Lauren thinks), they end the evening at the park, watching the boys from school, including Jesse, playing Nazi war games with water guns and paper armbands with Swastikas drawn on them.  The worse part is that everyone seems to think this is OK, except for Lauren.

When Lauren finds a lost Nazi armband after the boys finish playing their Nazi war game again, she finds herself in a dilemma: she knows the game is a form of anti-Semitism and that's unacceptable.  And she knows the right thing to do would be to turn them in at school, but Jesse is one of the players.  Now, Lauren must confront herself, her beliefs and her own ideas about the Holocaust and Judaism, again.

Narrated in the first person by Lauren, Lauren Yanofsky Hates the Holocaust is a realistic look at a teenager coming to grips with who she is as a person.  It is a coming of age novel that catches Lauren right in the transitional moment of time when she must make the choice about which way her moral compass is going to go.  And at the center of that choice is the Holocaust.  Reporting the boys, including Jesse, would mean taking a big risk, possibly losing friends, embracing her religion and accepting responsibility for her actions.  Not reporting them would make Lauren as guilty of anti-Semitism as her friends, of betraying her religion, its culture and most importantly, the 11 relatives and all the other people who perished in the Holocaust.  Lauren has a true moral dilemma to grapple with, but does get some surprising help along the way.

Lieberman has peopled her novel with all kinds of realistic characters, just the kind you would find in any high school, like the Perfects and the Smokers.  Lauren and her friends drink a little, curse a little, make out some and in general behave just like most teens do when adults are not around.  Besides moral choices, Lauren also deals with ordinary things like taming her very frizzy hair each morning even though her straightener is usually defeated by the damp weather.  She also has a younger brother Zach, who is studying to make his Bar Mitzvah, but whose sensory integration issues are making that difficult for him.  Without sinking into the stereotypical, the characters are all familiar to us but have their own individual quirks.

Though sometimes predictable, Lauren Yanofsky Hates the Holocaust is also written with lots of humor, at times a bit on the snarky side, some sentiment, and teen drama.   And if I say anymore about Lauren Yanofsky Hates the Holocaust, I will have to include a spoiler warning.  I would suggest reading it for yourself, after all Lauren Yanofsky Hates the Holocaust will be available on April 1, 2013.

This book is recommended for readers age 12+
This book was sent to me by the publisher

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Treasure Island. Robert Louis Stevenson. 1883. 311 pages.

I was surprised by how much I liked Treasure Island. I didn't really expect it to be my kind of book. And, in a way, it still isn't. (I'm not going to feel the same devotion to Jim Hawkins that I feel for Anne Shirley.) But it is a GOOD adventure story. Plenty of drama, action, adventure, surprise, and danger. It is a life-or-death adventure book abounding with good guys and bad guys.

Jim Hawkins is our hero. Though he isn't always confident in his abilities to be A HERO, Hawkins is the hero that he needs to be when it counts, the hero he needs to be in order to save the day. Jim Hawkins' father owned an inn. One day a former pirate (Billy Bones) comes for an extended stay at the inn. He hires the young boy (Jim) to be on the lookout for a one-legged pirate (Long John Silver). He does NOT want to meet up with this pirate--or really any other pirate for that matter. But he is found by a few pirates before long. Jim's life is messy in that his own father is dying and this pirate is dying; the same doctor sees after both men. The pirate brought with him a sea chest (with a treasure map). Having this chest at the inn brings danger and excitement. Eventually it takes Hawkins to sea with others--some good guys, some bad guys--all in search for this treasure on an island. Of course, the good guys aren't aware that the others are "bad" and have murderous intentions. But readers learn this information right along with Hawkins...

While the novel is interesting before they reach the island, the book REALLY becomes interesting once they reach the island.

Read Treasure Island

• If you like watching pirate movies or reading pirate stories
• If you like adventure stories
• If you like coming-of-age stories

© 2013 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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The Center of Everything. Linda Urban. 2013. Harcourt. 208 pages.

I was not disappointed with Linda Urban's newest novel, The Center of Everything. While I didn't love, love, love it to the same degree as I loved A Crooked Kind of Perfect (a book I read twice in one week because it was just that good), I still found myself loving The Center of Everything.

Ruby Pepperdine is the heroine of The Center of Everything. We meet her on a big day, the day she's part of the town's parade. She'll be reading her winning essay to the waiting crowd. Winning is something that she definitely didn't expect. Then again, a lot of unexpected things have been happening: her grandmother dying, a growing distance between herself and her best friend, her newly developed friendship with a boy, and that's not to mention the wish...

Readers get flashes from the past bringing the story to life. We learn chapter by chapter what is going right and what is going wrong in this young girl's life.

The Center of Everything is a great coming of age story; it captures some of the emotions of being eleven-going-on-twelve.

Read the Center of Everything

• If you are a fan of Linda Urban
• If you enjoy middle grade fiction with a focus on friendship and family
• If you enjoy coming of age stories
• If you are looking for a MG title about grief
• If you are looking for a 'summer' book

© 2013 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Spinelli, Jerry. 2013. Hokey Pokey. New York: Knopf.
Advance reader copy provided by NetGalley

In the world of Hokey Pokey, populated by Snotsnipppers, Newbies, and Gappergums, and others, The Kid is king. In fact, kids are its only human inhabitants.

For Big Kid, Jack, days pass in a comfortable rhythm of regularity - hanging out with his Amigos, LaJo and Dusty, and riding his bike Scramjet, the envy of every kid in Hokey Pokey.  The rules are simple.  Just remember the Four Nevers:

Never pass a puddle without stomping in it. Never go to sleep until the last minute. Never go near Forbidden Hut. Never kiss a girl.

It's a simple life, a good life.  Until one morning, when things are not the same.  His bike is gone, and

Jubilee

Rides!

Hokey Pokey is unusual fare for Jerry Spinelli.  It's an allegorical story of childhood delivered by a narrator following the escapades of several different children, and focusing primarily on Jack and his rival and antagonist - the girl, Jubilee.  It's recommended for ages 10 and up, but the beauty of  Hokey Pokey is that it may be read on several levels.  Though the symbolism may be somewhat obvious for older readers, younger readers may simply enjoy Hokey Pokey as a fantasy adventure in an alternate universe. Older readers will see beyond the obvious symbolism of the approaching train and will ponder the relationships between older kids and younger, boys and girls.  Short and thought-provoking. Recommended reading.

Hokey Pokey received starred reviews in School Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews.

 Preview the book here:


Interesting note: This is the second book that I've read that features living bicycles. Anyone know the other one?

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Three Times Lucky. Sheila Turnage. 2012. Penguin. 256 pages.

Trouble cruised into Tupelo Landing at exactly seven minutes past noon on Wednesday, the third of June, flashing a gold badge and driving a Chevy Impala the color of dirt. Almost before the dust had settled, Mr. Jesse turned up dead and life in Tupelo Landing turned upside down. 

I really LOVED, LOVED, LOVED Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage. I just loved the narrator, Miss Moses LoBeau. I loved her voice, found it unique and authentic. I loved her from page one. I found her coming of age story--a true murder mystery--compelling and wonderful. I loved the small town setting. I loved getting to know the people of the community. I loved seeing their quirks--their strengths and weaknesses. I liked seeing Mo's pieced together family. She was discovered floating in a river after a hurricane; she doesn't have a clue who her biological mother and father are. But she does have a family, a flawed family to be sure, but a very loving family. There are a couple of mysteries to solve in this one, and it has plenty of action. So it isn't all focused on characters, but, the characters were probably my favorite part of this one!!!

Read Three Times Lucky

• If you like great children's books
• If you enjoy mysteries AND coming-of-age stories
• If you like strong narratives and flawed characters
• If you like Southern stories

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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The Eye of the World (Wheel of Time #1) Robert Jordan. 1990. Tor. 814 pages. 

Perhaps I was just in the perfect mood for The Eye of The World, or maybe it's just that good. I do know that it was an experience. I read this one in just three days!!! I knew within a chapter or two that this one was just right for me, one that I'd really enjoy through and through. I enjoyed the world-building, the characterization, the storytelling, and, of course, the quest and adventure. If you don't like quests or journeys, or heroes-in-the-making setting out for long, uncertain journeys then perhaps this one wouldn't thrill you.

Three young men (Rand, Mat, and Perrin) are escaping danger and setting forth on a very dangerous journey with a couple of strangers (Moraine and Lan) whom they have reason both to trust and mistrust. On the one hand, Moraine has proven herself by helping to heal the wounded in Two Rivers after a devastating Trolloc attack. She saved Rand's father, Tam, when no one else would even try. So Rand, at least, owes her something. And she is trying to save all their lives--she knows all three are in great danger. On the other hand, Moraine is Aes Sedai, and Lan is her Warder. There has never been a story or tale told where Aes Sedai are good and trustworthy and safe. Also along for the journey are Egwene, a young woman who cares for Rand deeply, and Thom Merrilin, a gleeman--entertainer, storyteller, musician, etc. They are also joined by Nynaeve, a young woman, the local Wisdom, intent on one thing getting all three men back where they belong: Two Rivers.

There is definitely a good amount of uncertainty, mystery, and danger in The Eye of the World. Danger comes in many, many shapes and sizes. And there's plenty of action along the way leading up to some intense chapters at the end. I enjoyed it for the journey just as much as the end. I enjoyed the narrative style, for the most part.

I definitely LOVED it.

Read The Eye of the World

• If you enjoy fantasy
• If you really enjoy fantasy
• If you like coming-of-age, going-on-a-quest fantasy
• If you like world-building and storytelling

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.

Holly Thompson’s Orchards was one of my favorite reads in 2011.  I loved the book, and it got me hooked on novels in free verse; previously, I wouldn’t touch them with a 10 foot pole.  Her latest release, The Language Inside, will be in stores 2013.  I can hardly wait!

 

 

What are you waiting on?

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The Age of Miracles. Karen Thompson Walker. 2012. Random House. 288 pages. 

We didn't notice right away. We couldn't feel it. We did not sense at first the extra time, bulging from the smooth edge of each day like a tumor blooming beneath skin.

The Age of Miracles is a thoughtful coming-of-age story narrated by Julia, age 11. When the "big event" happens, or the big announcement about the big event is made, Julia is entering sixth grade. What's the big announcement? Well, the earth has changed its rotation, the days (and subsequently) the nights are getting longer and longer. The earth no longer revolves around the sun in twenty-four hours. Within a week or two (or maybe three?), days are closer to forty hours than twenty. And the days (and nights) are just going to keep getting longer and longer and longer.

The terror of the situation is felt almost immediately by some, but for others it takes a while. Julia's mother was already prone to anxiety even before the announcement, but since the news came she's more hysterical than ever. And she's not alone.

The Age of Miracles captures what it is like for "life as we know it" to fall apart gradually, piece by piece, layer by layer. Specifically it captures what it is like to be eleven in a strange new world. Julia's world is just as much impacted by her new school year, her school worries about friendships and crushes, as it is the global catastrophe. Julia's home life mirrors the greater falling-apart of the world. As her mother is weighed down with sickness and anxiety, as her father escapes his burdens by taking comfort in a neighbor woman, as the three continue to live disconnected from one another.

Perhaps it is only natural for Julia's concerns to be about whether or not she'll ever see her best friend again (her best friend is moving away), or if the boy she likes will ever talk to her or like her back, to wonder if she'll ever get breasts, or to wonder if her parents will get a divorce, to wonder if her mom knows about the affair, to be worried about her grandfather's mysterious disappearance, than to be concerned about food and water supply, to be concerned about if the planet is still capable of supporting life. If the complete cycle of a day becomes several months long, for example, that means weeks of direct sunlight--too much sun, too much radiation, too much heat; but it also means months of complete darkness--not enough sun, too dark, too cold. What kind of crops can grow in conditions like this? Can greenhouses even begin to support enough food for an entire planet? No, there are enough people worrying about the tomorrows, let Julia remain in the worries of today.

Personally, I found the novel compelling. It was an easy, quick read. Is the absolute best post-apocalyptic book? Probably not. It's not Alas, Babylon or The Earth Abides. But it was a good read. I liked its thoughtfulness, its reflective nature. The narrator is reflecting back on the early days of the crisis, she's remembering what it was like at the beginning. I'm not sure if readers ever learn how many years have passed since the novel began, but, we do know that "the end" wasn't imminent or immediate. That people have had plenty of time to accept the slow passage into the end of times--at least the end of times as they know it, as they can imagine it.

The Age of Miracles reminded me, in a way, of "The Inner Light." (For those unfamiliar with that title, well, it's only the BEST, BEST, BEST Star Trek episode ever, Star Trek Next Generation to be precise.) It also reminded me--not in its exact details, but in its feel--of the Twilight Zone episode, "The Midnight Sun."

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 Under the Mesquite. Guadalupe Garcia McCall. 2011. Lee & Low. 225 pages.

I am standing just inside
the doorway, watching Mami talk
to the television screen.
As the latest episode
of her favorite telenovela unfolds,
the soap opera drawing her in,
the skins from the potatoes
she is peeling
drop into her apron
like old maple leaves...

Lupita is the heroine of Guadalupe Garcia McCall's verse novel Under the Mesquite. It's an emotional coming of age story. Lupita struggles with the ordinary things of growing up, it's true, but she does it all the while watching her mother die of cancer. She does it while trying to be both mother and father to her younger sisters and brothers. She becomes an adult all too soon as she tries to cope with the devastating news--the diagnosis, the treatment, and the cure that just didn't last long enough. Where does she find the strength to face the day? How does she hold it all together? How does she keep things together enough with her family? Well, it's a mystery to her too. But taking those drama classes sure does seem to be helping. And her coach wonders why she can cry on demand...

If you're looking for an emotional 'cancer' book that is more than just a cancer book, then Under the Mesquite may be just what you're looking for.

Read Under the Mesquite

• If you're looking for a good multicultural read
• If you're looking for an emotional book with very human characters
• If you're looking for a good verse novel

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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