nomadreader

  The Birthday Ball is the latest novel by Lois Lowry, but it bears little resemblance to the Lowry novels I've read before. One of Lowry's greatest talents as a writer is to break new ground and somewhat defy categorization.  The Birthday Ball is a delightful fairy tale of sorts. Our heroine, Princess Patricia Priscilla, is a feisty princess who longs for a normal life. She soon devises a plan to swap clothes with her nursemaid and begin attending school. The story is a funny, wacky fairy tale. I was absolutely transported to this land of magic. For Princess Patricia Priscilla, the kingdom and its riches were ordinary, and she was transported to her fairy tale: being a peasant girl in school able to help make dreams come true. For her nursemaid, she was given days of leisure to read Alice in Wonderland , a wacky fairy tale in its own right. Perhaps the best part of The Birthday Ball was it's humor. Some jokes may go right over the heads of the younger readers, b...

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice  is an illuminating piece of nonfiction. Phillip Hoose tells the story without condescending, but he also doesn't assume the reader knows anything about his story. As an adult reader, I appreciated the deep background provided in sidebars. From the first pages, which are largely pictures illuminating life in the South in the era of Jim Crow laws, I was wowed. The book reads almost like a documentary; Hoose uses photos, text boxes, background, newspaper text and interviews to paint a vivid picture not only of Colvin's life, but these years in Montgomery, Alabama. Who is Claudette Colvin? She was a high school girl who refused to give up her seat for a white passenger. She did it nine months before Rosa Parks, and she was arrested. Part of what I love about this book is the honesty, which is at times brutal. Rosa Parks is an American hero, and so many of us growing up being wowed by her bravery. This book takes us back to the way it re...

The barest of beginning plot:   The Magician's Elephant is the story of Peter Augustus Duchene, a ten-year-old orphan who chooses to spend food money to ask a fortune teller if his sister is alive. She tells him his sister is alive and an elephant will lead him to her, which is a message Peter does not understand, as he has never actually seen an elephant. The lovely: This book is mostly lovely. It's a story that starts simply and adds richness, meaning and layers as it goes. It's accessible to young readers, and would make a wonderful read aloud book for younger readers, but it's still enjoyable for adult readers.  The setting is somewhere between reality and magic. The time is modern, old-fashioned and timeless. The details of space and time are vague, and some readers will likely envision different settings; it's a book that uses your imagination without you even realizing it. Yoko Tanaka's occasional drawings are beautiful. Is it a contender for the N...

Summary:   The Graveyard Book  by Neil Gaiman is the story of Bod, a boy who was orphaned as a baby when his parents and older sister were murdered. He escaped to the cemetery, where he lives and is able to see the ghosts who dwell there.  Review: The Graveyard Book  is both dark and funny, which is a difficult combination to achieve, but Gaiman does. Bod is smart, and given his interactions with dead people from hundreds of years, he was a fantastic grasp of history, the history of language and customs. All the ghosts speak and act in the manners of their times. The mystery was compelling, even for me as an adult reader. The story is accessible, but isn't elementary. I adored The Graveyard Book , and I think it has the crossover appeal for teens and adults the Harry Potter books do.  Award:   winner of the 2009 Newbery Medal (I'm ready for the 2010 Newbery Medal announcement now!) Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5 stars) Pages: 320 pages Publication da...

Rescuing Seneca Crane is the second book in the Kari & Lucas mystery series. I adored The Mystery of the Third Lucretia , the first book in the series, and I devoured this one during the read-a- thon . The story picks up only a few months after the first novel ends. It's late summer, and the girls are off to Edinburgh, Scotland with Kari's mom, who is interviewing teenage piano prodigy Seneca Crane for a magazine piece. Kari and Lucas befriend Seneca, who has accomplished a lot professionally, but has had little room for a normal, teenage social life. As the title indicates (it's literal, not figurative), Seneca is soon kidnapped, and Kari and Lucas find themselves in the middle of another caper in a foreign country. Once again, Susan Runholt does a tremendous job of describing locations. Edinburgh and the other towns of Scotland are like characters in this novel. The misunderstanding of the Scottish accent provided several laugh out loud moments for me. I loved this ...

After reading A Reader's Respite's glowing review of The Mystery of the Third Lucretia , I knew I wanted to read it. When it came in for me at the library, I first read the author's biography, which begins "Susan Runholt shares a love of art, travel and feminism with her teenage heroines." I would add reading to the list, but I'm proud to share the other three with Ms. Runholt , Lucas and Kari. The Mystery of the Third Lucretia is the first (of many, I hope) Kari and Lucas mystery. Kari and Lucas are best friends who live in St. Paul, Minnesota (a town I also happen to love). Kari's mom has one of the coolest jobs ever: she covers fashion and international culture for a teen magazine (if such a job exists, I would gladly apply for it.) Kari, who sees her father a few times a year, and Lucas, whose parents are eager to spend money for her to experience culture, often get to go along for the ride. The book takes place in St. Paul, London, Paris, and Amsterd...

I knew very little about this book when I started reading it, and I'm so glad I knew very little. The magic of the book comes from letting it unfold before your eyes. I'm offering a very abbreviated summary for this reason. Summary: Miranda is a delightful, funny and realistically insightful sixth-grader who lives in New York City in 1979. Her mother works as a paralegal and receives word she has been selected to appear on the $20,000 Pyramid. (For a longer summary, please visit the publisher's Web site . Review: I loved this book. Miranda is a wonderful narrator, and the story in many ways is timeless. It's setting is 1979, but Stead does not beat it into readers' heads. The time setting is mentioned when it's relevant, and I found myself thinking of the setting as the year I was Miranda's age. Her situation is timeless. The story unfolds from a realistic fiction novel into a mystery and adventure tale. Miranda's favorite book is Madeline L'Eng...

Georgia's Greatness is the third in the Sisters 8 series. This book takes place in March (seeing a trend here?), and it's Georgia's month to discover her gift and talent. For some reason, this book incorporates fantasy, and I love it, while I took a little fault with the second one. I won't spoil the surprise of Georgia's talent, although I will tell you it's even cooler than Durinda's . The highlight of this book is seeing the eights truly come together to figure things out and get themselves out of a jam. They seem to be getting smarter, more sensible and more self-confident, and it makes them that much more enjoyable to read. I realize I'm not the target audience, but the there is a two-page soliloquy (if you will) about The Waltons that had me laughing for hours (even nomadreaderboy loved it). Georgia's Greatness is at least as good, if not better than Annie's Adventures . This series is a true delight to read. Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

The Night Tourist is a mesmerizing tale of Jack Perdu , a fourteen-year-old Classics prodigy (seriously, he's helping a Yale professor translate Ovid's Metamorphosis ) who takes a mysterious trip into New York City's underworld. Jack isn't initially sure if he's live or dead, but he meets Yuri, a definitely dead young girl who becomes his tour guide. Jack's goal is to find his mother, who died years ago. The novel is part adventure, part ode to New York (perhaps my favorite city in the entire world), and part reinvention of a classical myth. It is a beautiful, engaging tale of friendship and the level of magic Marsh creates rivals the Harry Potter universe. While it is not rare for me to delight and enjoy a children's book, it is rare for me to forget I'm reading a children's book. The Night Tourist is so thoroughly engaging, any adult reader (especially sci- fi and fantasy fans) would love it. Despite being filled with intrigue, humor and fun, it...

After I raved about The Giver to people smart enough to have read it years ago, I was thrilled when they told me it was actually the first in a loosely-connected trilogy that includes Gathering Blue and The Messenger . Gathering Blue is the story of Kira, a lame (as in she was born with a bad leg) girl newly orphaned. As in The Giver , the reader discovers the world and community Kira lives in through her eyes. As an orphan, Kira may soon be kicked out of the village. The first few chapters treat the reader to a court hearing of sorts determining if and how she should stay. This world is quite different from the world of The Giver , and dare I say, it's not quite as interesting. Granted, it had a lot to live up to. Ultimately, Gathering Blue , is good, but it's not great. The novel seemed to divide itself into three parts in my mind: the beginning, where the reader learns the setting; the middle, where the action is rather subdued; and the end, which is once again intrigui...

Annie's Adventures is the first in the new series The Sisters 8 by Laruren Baratz-Logsted. It's the story of octuplets (far more lovable than the infamous real-life octuplets). Our heroines were born on August 8th, 2000. They each have a cat. Their last name is Huit (French for 8). It's a numerology bonanza. They were born one minute apart, and the total difference in their height is one inch (meaning the oldest, Annie, is eight inches taller than her eight minutes younger sister). Our story begins on New Year's Eve, when our beloved octuplets notice their father went out to get more wood for the fire quite a while ago, and their mother went to get eggnog quite a while ago. The girls soon discover a note, telling them they each have a gift, and they each much find a present to uncover the secret to where their parents are. The story is a mix of reality (how the not-yet-eight-year-olds must learn to function as adults so as not alarm neighbors, teachers, etc. that there...

I've waited a few weeks before reviewing Lois Lowry's Newbery Award-winning book, The Giver , because my first inclination is to say: read it. It's awesome. The end. I am not a big reader of science fiction, although on the off chances I do read the genre, I usually find myself enjoying it. One reason I fear I don't venture into science fiction too often is that it's hard to read reviews about the books without learning too much about them, and I like to know as little as possible going into books. With that in mind, I'll try to review this brilliant book giving away as few details as possible. The Giver is told from the point-of-view of Jonas, an almost-twelve-year-old boy. As the story unfolds, it becomes more and clear Jonas lives in a very different world than we do. Details of when and where are scarce, as it is all Jonas knows. The reader is along for the ride as Jonas learns more and more about the community he lives in. One of the things I've loved ...

I absolutely loved The Higher Power of Lucky and found it remarkably engaging. Patron did an incredible job of seeing the world through the eyes of a ten-year-old, being true to Lucky's view of the world as our narrator, but still allows readers to have a sense of Lucky's world of which she is not yet aware. The Higher Power of Lucky has gotten a lot of controversy and press regarding its use of the word scrotum, and I read it for my children's literature class as one of the banned books. I'm sure it comes as no surprise to those who know me that I think banning this book is ludicrous. The scrotum is a basic part of human, and in this case, animal, anatomy. I strongly believe in teaching children proper terms for anatomy and ensuring a free flow of information. It is incredibly ironic that Lucky's confusion over the word caused an uproar. By the book's end, she asks Brigitte what the word actually means. To me, this detail provides a beautiful metaphor for how ...

The W ednesday Wars is set in Long Island in 1967. Holling Hoodhood narrates the tales of his seventh grade years, with each chapter covering a different month of school. The crux of the story includes the Wednesday afternoons he spends alone with his homeroom teacher, Mrs. Baker. Holling is convinced Mrs. Baker hates him. Holling is the only Presbyterian boy in his class; the rest of the class is split evenly between Catholics and Jews. All of the other students leave school early on Wednesdays to attend church. Mrs. Baker must find activities to occupy Holling's time. The first few weeks, Holling does cleaning projects, but soon Mrs. Baker has the idea for them to start reading Shakespeare together. This book manages to include an incredible amount of Shakespeare, and Schmidt does an excellent job of making Shakespeare relevant, even to the readers who have not yet read his plays. Holling's relationship with his parents and sister is tumultuous at times, but there is a sense...