Review: The Blackthorn Key ✭✭✭✭✭

The Blackthorn Key by Kevin Sands
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Many glowing reviews have already been written for The Blackthorn Key. Wonderful authors such as Stuart Gibbs and Ingrid Law give high recommendations for this series. With a setting of 1600s London, the author Kevin Sands has created an endearing protagonist in Christopher Rowe, apprentice to Master Apothecary Benedict Blackthorn. The story starts out with Christopher convincing his trusty sidekick Tom, that his experiment concocting explosives will not end badly (it does). Humor continues throughout the story, yet there also moments of genuine sadness, such as when Master Blackthorn lashes out at Christopher in anger, then is suddenly murdered. Christoper, using codes left by his master, works to solve how and why a dangerous cult is murdering apothecaries one by one. The characters, setting, plot, human and attention to detail all come together to make this one of my favorite adventure series. I can't wait to read the next two books! Please recommend this series to your fourth grade and up reader who loves a thrilling, yet nuanced adventure.



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Review: Strongheart: Wonder Dog of the Silver Screen ✭✭✭✭✭

Strongheart: Wonder Dog of the Silver Screen by Candace Fleming
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Before there was Lassie, there was Strongheart. This charming dog story is based on the true story of a police-trained German Shepherd who became a huge silent movie star. Beautiful black and white illustrations by Caldecott award-winning illustrator Eric Rohmann add to the appeal. Young readers third grade-up will love reading about this famous canine. Clever and fun dialogue from the silent movie era ("cat's whiskers!") will also delight readers. Go to this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8rEp... to see the only surviving movie footage of Strongheart in action.

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Whistling in the Dark ✭✭✭✭

Whistling in the Dark by Shirley Hughes is the story of 13-year old Joan and her family living in Liverpool, England during the Blitz. Unsettling nightly Nazi air raids are common, and strict rationing is a part of daily life. As if war with the Germans isn't enough to worry Joan, her mother and three siblings, there are other risky occurrences that hit very close to home. One is a mysterious man who is lurking around their home in the evenings. Another source of stress is the phony, creepy captain who visits frequently to woo Joan's mother. Finally, Joan discovers that locals are selling food and clothing on the black market for profit. Fortunately, Joan has a strong friendship in Doreen, and the two of them are able, at least in the early years, to escape to the cinema.

Shirley Hughes actually lived through the Liverpool Blitz as a young teen, and her remembrances of resilience and the bonding of family and friends comes through in her writing. The illustrations that open each chapter are informative and charming. This meaningful novel will be loved by young fans of historical fiction and World War II. Another book to recommend to young readers about this time and place would be The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley.

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A Season of Gifts ✮✮✮✮✮

A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Grandma Dowdel is a familiar and unforgettable character to readers of A Year Down Yonder, and A Long Way from Chicago. This is the third book in the series, but can certainly be read on its own. When the new pastor and his family move in next door to Mrs. Dowdel, they are in for a season of adventure. The family quickly gets up to speed on what it's like to have a 90-year old gun-toting, bully avenging, yet surprisingly tender-hearted neighbor. 12-year old Bob, the pastor's son,  receives a not-so welcome to town when he is cruelly pranked. Fortunately, Grandma helps him out of an extremely embarrassing, yet funny situation. Meanwhile, Bob's teenage sister, when she is not swooning over Elvis, is sneaking around with the local rebel. Can Grandma help smooth out this situation as well? In her gruff and unassuming way, she ends up helping this sweet family in a variety of ways, and her gifts are greatly appreciated. This book is terrific to read at any time, but like the movie A Christmas Story, this is a story that could be revisited annually as a holiday tradition. Readers will love this funny, warm slice of life.

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Review: Attack of the Turtle

Attack of the Turtle by Drew Carlson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This historical fiction story takes place around the shores of Connecticut and New York and details the invention of the first submarine during the Revolutionary War. Most people would probably guess that the submarine was invented much later in time; but in 1776 a young genius inventor named David Bushnell figured out a way to build a submergable “water machine” with a bomb attached. The submarine, dubbed the American Turtle, had the ability to travel under the British warships docked off Long Island, attach the bomb with a timer, and return.

The narrator of this exciting adventure is 14-year old Nathan Wade, David Bushnell’s fictitious cousin. Not only does Nathan have to overcome his fear of the water, he also has to determine who he can trust. During the war, your next door neighbors could turn out to be Tory spies! This exciting historical fiction book has interesting author notes, a great diagram of the submarine, and a bibliography for more information. The reader will also learn about the exciting Battle of Brooklyn and ensuing evacuation.

If you have a 9-year old up reader who likes exciting historical fiction, they will love this book. A similar title to recommend would be Iron Thunder by Avi.

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A Night Divided by Jennifer Nielsen

One morning in early 1960s Germany, Greta wakes up to find an impenetrable wall has been erected overnight dividing her city in two. This is devastating news because her father and brother had left a day earlier to look into getting work in West Germany. Now the family is divided.

A volunteer in our school library told me that she had visited the Berlin Wall when she was young. Visitors climbed up to viewing areas on the West German side to peer over at East Germany. She described it as existing in a full color world looking down at a monochromatic world.

This suspenseful story gives you a sense of what it was like to live in East Germany after the wall was erected during the Cold War. Lack of privacy, lack of food,  lack of work and lack of free will made many desperate people attempt a dangerous escape to the other side. Will Greta decide it's worth it to risk her life to try to escape as well?

Clear your calendar because you or your fifth grade and older reader won't be able to put this book down once it's started. A Night Divided is a highly recommended historical fiction novel about a very real part of recent world history.

Jennifer Nielsen is the author of the extremely popular Ascendance trilogy. This is her first historical fiction novel. Check her out on Twitter at @nielsenwriter.

Full of Beans by Jennifer Holm

This book makes me think of two great stories: The Little Rascals, and Bud Not Buddy. The historical fiction adventure takes place in Key West during the Great Depression. Beans Curry (what a great name!) and his gang of scrappy friends are trying to survive through a long, oppressive summer. Beans is tired of collecting cans for the local scoundrel, and he jumps on the chance to make a lot more money by helping a bigger shyster move his illegal Cuban liquor. Beans' job is to set off a local fire alarm to distract town officials while the booze is moved to the dock for distribution.

Your reader will begin to empathize with Bean as his conscience catches up with him when he starts to learn about the ramifications of his actions. Can Beans make restitution by offering to help the New Dealers beautify Key West?

There are so many interesting topics that can be discussed after reading this book including: Key West during the Depression; Roosevelt's New Deal; Cuba; Shirley Temple; Robert Frost; and even marbles. This book would be a great selection for a middle grade school book club.

I just learned that this book is a prequel to Jennifer Holm's Newbery honor book Turtle in Paradise. I can't wait to read that one as well. Fans of Bud Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis will love this book. Your middle grade reader who enjoys humor or historical fiction will appreciate this tale. Don't be surprised if you start hearing some of the popular sayings that are used by the characters in this story such as "don't go having a kitten!" Jennifer Holm also includes an author’s note section at the end of the book that includes photographs, list of 1930s child actors, popular sayings of the time, gang rules, and related websites.

A Bandit's Tale

A Bandit's Tale, by Deborah Hopkinson, is a historical fiction novel that dives into the life of a young immigrant boy who has been sold by his Italian family to a padrone in New York City. Rocco, along with many other boys in his "home," must work hard every day to scrape together a few coins as a street musician, otherwise he will be severely punished. Rocco quickly decides this is not the place for him, and he becomes involved with a a group of young pickpockets. Eventually, Rocco is caught, sent to prison, and subsequently escapes. Read the book to find out whether Rocco will make a clean start after his days in jail.

This book is for fans of Ms. Hopkinson's other historical fiction book The Great Trouble; or The Mostly True Adventures of Homer T. Figg by Roman Philbrick. Real city life photos from New York at that time add a realistic touch. I also really liked the clever chapter titles like "A Little Chapter Containing a Small But Significant Incident."  The back of the book has a great resources and credits section. There's even a map of Manhattan hand-drawn by Rocco. If your 10-13 year old reader likes adventure, and can stick with a story that definitely doesn't scrimp on detail, this book is for him.

A Thrilling Adventure on a Train

The Boundless by Kenneth Oppel

This story of the world's longest train (miles long!) winding through the Canadian Rockies has history, action, suspense and folklore all rolled into one great kid's book. I honestly don't think I've come across another book that feature Sasquatches and avalanches! I was aware of Mr. Oppel's Airborn series, but I never felt quite ready to tackle them. This story however, seemed a bit more manageable and the beautiful cover design had me hooked. As I'm writing this, I can't stop thinking about what a great word "boundless" is, as in "boundless energy" or "knows no bounds". Both phrases are well suited to this story.

Will Everett is an artistic young man whose father is a railroad manager. On the inaugural trip of the Boundless, Will inadvertently becomes the possessor of the key to the railway owner's funeral car. That makes him a target for some evil villains who will stop at nothing to get that key. 

Also on the train are the magnificent Maren, a beautiful tightrope walker; and Mr. Dorian, the ringmaster of the traveling Zircus Dante. Just to give you an idea of the size of this train, the circus has its own 80 cars including one elephant. Maren and Mr. Dorian help Will hide from the bad guys, but do they have their own secret agenda? Thrilling top-of-the-train chases and rescues are a big part of the traveling adventure. The action scenes make me think of the old silent movies where the heroine is tied to the train tracks and rescued just in time.

Kenneth Oppel makes the best use of social media. He has a blog that details The Boundless as well as the Zircus Dante. There are even photographs! On top of that, Will Everett has his own Pinterest page which offers an account of his travels.

High on my "want to read" list is Kenneth Oppel's latest book, The Nest. I've heard it's really creepy-scary good! Find out more about it on his blog.

Two books about growing up in the segregated South

The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had by Kristin Levine

With a three day Easter weekend ahead of me, it was nice to have a chance to finish The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had this morning. I have passed by this book several times in our school library, and I think the cover design may have had something to do with it. We have the copy with the bottom cover design...something about the super-large type kind of bugged me. I much prefer the other design. But, I picked it up last week because I'm collecting social action titles for our sixth graders, and I'm really glad I did.

In the story, Dit is a white boy who is one of 10 children living in Alabama in the 1910s. His life becomes interesting when the new postmaster arrives with his family from Boston. The townspeople are shocked to learn that the Walkers are black. Emma is about Dit's age, and very well educated. and after a rough start, they become very good friends. They spend the summer together playing baseball and skipping stones. Once school starts, their relationship becomes complicated as they each attend their segregated schools. Dit is teased and bullied for being friends with a colored girl. And brainy Emma is not being challenged enough in her own school.

I won't reveal too much more about the story and the frightening violence that ensues, but this book is really thought-provoking. The short chapters and action-packed plot will make it really hard for your reader to put this book down. By the end of this book, I was seriously choked up. I challenge young readers not to feel the same.

Kristin Levine also wrote The Lions of Little Rock, another great book about living in the segregated South. I just took a peek at her website, and learned she has another book out called The Paper Cowboy. This book sounds just as amazing as her first two.

Stella by Starlight by Sharon Draper

This book is equally powerful. Our school did it as a book club book last year, and we had a really thoughtful discussion about the story. Sharon Draper based the book on the life of her grandmother Estelle, who used to write by starlight. I just learned there's also a well-known jazz song titled Stella by Starlight, but it is not related to this story. In the book, Stella lives in depression-era segregated south in Bumblebee, North Carolina. There are nice people in town and others that are not so nice, and Stella lives a fairly peaceful existence until the Ku Klux Klan shows up and turns her community upside-down. Learn what Stella does to fight small minded prejudice. Sharon Draper also wrote the terrific book, Out of My Mind.

A Timely Memoir of Life in Cuba

In Enchanted Air, Margarita Engle has crafted a beautiful memoir in verse of her life as a young girl traveling between her mother's homeland of Cuba, and her home in Los Angeles. On Ms. Engle's first plane trip back to Cuba, she falls in love with the lush countryside and "dancing plants." The shifting relationship status between the United States and Cuba makes this title all the more compelling. In "Hope", the author writes:
   
          All I know about the future
          is that it will be beautiful.

It will be intriguing to see what new verses Ms. Engle will compose once she has a chance to return to her beloved Cuba.

Other stories in verse that will entice the reader to learn history and the world around them include: Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai, The Aleutian Sparrow by Karen Hesse, and May B by Caroline Starr Rose.

The Dangerous, Yet Remote Life of a Lighthouse Keeper

Gifts from the Sea, by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock, is a captivating story about a girl named Aquila who lives with her father on a remote island off the coast of Maine in the mid 1800s. The life of a lighthouse keeper is not an easy one, and after the death of the mother, Aquila is forced to grow up quickly and help her father with the never-ending chores necessary for lighthouse keeping. One day, Aquila and her father's lives change dramatically as she discovers a surprising "gift from the sea" after a severe storm. Middle grade readers who enjoy this book can also try Escaping the Giant Wave by Peg Kehret, or Nory Ryan's Song by Patricia Giff. To learn more about the history and preservation of lighthouses, visit the website of the U.S. Lighthouse Society. There is a terrific "kid's corner" on the site featuring games and activities about lighthouses.

Prepare Your Heartstrings

The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley,  is a story that grabs emotional hold of the reader and doesn't let go until the last page. In the story, it is the beginning of World War II and Ada and her little brother Jamie live with an abusive mother who has no patience for Ada's disability. Ada, who doesn't even know when her birthday is, has never left her one room apartment. When the city becomes more dangerous, children in London including Jamie, are shipped out to live in the country, and Ada escapes to be with him. They end up in a farmhouse with Susan, a loner who is not accustomed to children, let alone a girl who is both physically and emotionally crippled. Will the three of them be able to survive the war and establish a lasting relationship? Like Wonder, or Number the Stars, this book will appeal to a wide range of mature middle grade readers.

A Sister Lost. A Body Found. The Truth Buried. ✩✩✩✩✩

The book cover of One Came Home, with its beautiful graphics, Newbury honor sticker and compelling subtitle, drew me right in. Although darker in tone than the mystery I reviewed in the previous post, this multiple-award winning book is just as terrific. Amy Timberlake is an amateur birder, and when she heard about the largest recording of passenger pigeon nesting in 1870 Wisconsin, she decided to weave a historical fiction mystery around the event. Readers will love Georgie, the intrepid main character who sets out on a quest to discover what happened to her missing sister, Agatha. The suspense builds as Georgie and Billy, the sister's boyfriend, search for clues among sinister characters and remote locations.

To learn more about the book, the author, or the now-extinct passenger pigeon, go to Amy Timberlake's comprehensive website. This book is a must-recommend to any mature fifth grade reader and up.

Don't Be "Left Behind" From This Great New Series ✩✩✩✩✩

This promising new historical fiction series offers such titles as "The iPhone that Saved George Washington", and "Abe Lincoln and the Selfie that Saved the Union." With their technology-based time travel theme, these books by David Potter may not withstand the test of time, but who cares? Kids will love following Mel, Brandon and Bev as they time travel back in history to make sure our history remains unchanged. The author got the idea for the first book when he took his own kids to a reenactment of Washington crossing the Delaware. This is a fun series that will really resonate with middle grade readers!

Remembering A Tragic Circus Fire ✩✩✩✩

One day I was browsing our school library shelves, and pulled out this slim volume titled Worlds Afire by Paul B. Janeczko. The intriguing cover, which I didn't realize at first is a graphic depiction of a circus tent, invited me to open the book.

The historical fiction story is about a horrific circus fire that happened on a sunny summer afternoon in Hartford, Connecticut in the 1940s. People expecting a pleasant outing under the big top were lucky if they made it out alive. Carefully selected words written in prose thoughtfully tell the story of what happened on that tragic day. If your reader likes reading books written in prose, have them also check out Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai, and The Crossover by Kwame Alexander.

Compelling Historical Fiction

Goodbye Vietnam
by Gloria Whalen

This historical fiction story takes you back to the 1970s and the dangerous times of the Vietnamese "boat people." Families were forced to flee their homes overnight and if they were lucky, they would get on an overcrowded boat headed for Hong Kong. Mai's family makes it on a boat, but will they survive the dangerous and difficult journey? This is a great book for middle grade readers who have read Inside Out and Back Again. Also, try some of Gloria Whalen's other historical fiction novels including Homeless Bird.