Book Review: Something to Hold, by Katherine Schlick Noe (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011)

Recommended for ages 8-12.


In this new novel, debut author Katherine Schlick Noe tells a fresh and compelling story, based on her own childhood experiences of growing up on an Indian reservation as one of the only white families in the community.

When our eleven-year old heroine, Kitty, arrives at the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon in 1962, she's used to being the new kid--her dad works for the government as a forest manager and they're always moving around.  But it's hard to fit in at the reservation school where she's one of the only non-Indians.  She doesn't feel comfortable with the white girls dressed in their fancy dresses and stiff petticoats whom she meets at church on Sundays either.  They dismiss all Indians as drunks, and their prejudice bothers Kitty deeply.  Even her teacher tells her that none of the Indian students are going anywhere, and that "they will drag you down if you let them."

The story, narrated by Kitty herself, takes Kitty through her first year living on the reservation, a year of growth and change for this sympathetic character.  As Kitty gets to know her classmates, she begins to appreciate them and their culture, as well as striving to understand the "dark shadows" in their lives, which are so much more complicated than her own happy two-parent family.  She even becomes friends with Jewel, the powerful and angry girl who once intimidated her, and is faced with the difficulties of keeping Jewel's secrets.  Should she speak out to help Jewel and her brother? 

Something to Hold was recognized by Amazon as one of its best books for December for children.  Although the book discusses sensitive subjects, particularly prejudice and an abusive father, these difficult topics are always handled in an age-appropriate way, and in the end the novel is an uplifting coming-of-age story with appealing characters and an unusual setting. 

Tomorrow, I am pleased to feature a guest post from author Katherine Schlick Noe about her new book!

Disclosure:  Review copy provided by publisher.

Book Review: Sylvia & Aki, by Winifred Conkling (Tricycle Press, 2011)

Recommended for ages 8-12.

In her first work for young people, author Winifred Conkling brings to light an important but little known story in our nation’s civil rights history. Several years before Brown v. Board of Education, third-grader Sylvia Mendez wanted nothing extraordinary--just the right to attend her neighborhood school rather than a “Mexican” school near her family’s farm in Westminster.  Her family challenged the policy in court, leading the way to a landmark school desegregation case that would pave the way to the abolition of school segregation nationwide.  

Conkling weaves Sylvia’s story with that of Aki Munemitsu; Sylvia is living in Aki’s house and farm, since Aki’s family was sent away to an internment camp in Arizona becaue of the war.  Sylvia discovers that Aki has left behind her beautiful Japanese doll, whom Sylvia names Keiko, and Keiko becomes the friend of Sylvia’s Mexican doll Carmencita.  Sylvia wonders if she will ever meet the girl who owns Keiko, and whether they might be friends some day.

The book’s chapters alternate between telling the story of the two girls.  We discover how Aki’s world changes overnight with the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the beginning of whispers and prejudices from their neighbors.  Aki has to hide her Japanese doll, hoping it will still be there when the war is over.  Aki and her family are sent to Poston, 250 miles away in the Arizona desert where the flimsy barracks didn’t keep out the summer heat or the winter chill.  

Sylvia is forced to go to a second-rate “Mexican” school, rather than the beautiful school in her neighborhood.  Her father was ignored when he complained and sent letters; but when he decided in 1945 to sue the school system, it was about more than just Sylvia and her family.  Something bigger was underway, not just for Sylvia but for children she would never meet.  “Her father said, ‘Sylvia, there cannot be justice for one unless there is justice for all.’”  

The author takes us inside the courtroom for the trial, as Sylvia’s father’s attorney questions one of the Orange County school superintendants.  This section is drawn almost entirely from court records.  His responses seem shocking to us now, but of course were indicative of the attitudes of many people at that time (i.e. he considered the Mexican children to be inferior to whites in regard to everything from personal hygiene to scholastic ability).    

In the epilogue, Sylvia graduates from high school, proud of what her father had done not only for her but for Mexican students across California.  An afterword provides additional notes about both the Mendez family and the Munemitsu family, Japanese internment camps, as well as on the end of school segregation in America and the nationwide impact of the Mendez case, particularly on Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruling in 1955.  The book also includes a bibliography as well as suggestions for further reading.  

This is a sensitively written novel that is well suited for elementary school students.  The author covers not only the prejudice toward the Mexican American community in California, but also the prejudice toward Japanese Americans because of the war.  These two themes dovetail very well together, and enrich the narrative as well as providing ample fodder for discussion if this book is used in class or for home schoolers.  I loved the moving cover illustration from award-winning illustrator Raul Colon, whose distinctive style you may recognize from his many picture books (including Pat Mora’s Dona Flor and Frank McCourt’s Angela and the Baby Jesus).  

In 2010, Sylvia Mendez was honored for her work as a civil rights pioneer with the nation’s highest civilian medal, the Presidential Medal of Honor.  At the ceremony in 2011, President Obama remarked, ““She has made it her mission to spread her message of tolerance and opportunity to children of all backgrounds and all walks of life.”  

There are many resources on-line to learn more about this important civil rights case.  An excellent blog, Mendez v. Westminster Case, contains a summary of the case, lesson plans, website links, research references, media recommendations, photographs and an historical analysis.To listen to an interview with Sylvia Mendez conducted by her sister, check out the Storycorps website.  

In addition, those wanting to learn more about this case can consult the recently published book Mendez v. Westchester:  School Desegregation and Mexican American Rights, by Philippa Strum (University Press of Kansas, 2010)

Disclosure:  Review copy provided by publisher.

Book Review: Your Friend in Fashion, Abby Shapiro, by Amy Axelrod (Holiday House, 2011)

Recommended for ages 8 to 12.


It's 1959, and eleven year old Abby Shapiro knows that dolls are not just for babies.  She wants nothing more than one of those brand new Barbie dolls to add to her doll collection and a bra, which her mother insists she doesn't need yet.  In order to earn the money for these purchases, she begins to write to glamorous political wife and fashion plate Jackie Kennedy, sending her hand-drawn paper-doll fashion designs, with the goal of becoming her personal fashion designer.  The fact that she doesn't hear back from Jackie doesn't stop her from continuing to write, filling in the letters with details from her life along with her ongoing fashion tips.

It's no wonder that Abby is interested in fashion; her family owns the best women's shoe store in town, and she's been designing paper doll outfits since third grade.  The novel can be seen as a coming-of-age story in which Abby lives through a challenging year in which her abusive father moves out of the house, her gangster Uncle Max falls in love, and Abby struggles with her relationship with her mother, but the author also weaves in a great deal of humor, some of which may make you laugh out loud.

I was charmed by the heroine of this new novel by debut novelist Amy Axelrod.  Abby narrates her own story with age appropriate humor, interspersed with her lengthy letters to Jackie, which are written in script.  Abby lives in a traditional Jewish family, and the story is enriched by many Yiddish words and expressions (a glossary and pronunciation guide is provided in the back).  The book, appropriately enough, is abundantly illustrated with paper doll fashions which were actually made by the author as a girl.  I felt the character of the father was a bit one-dimensional, but all in all, this is a good pick for tween girls who like humorous realism combined with some family drama.

Book Review: The Dagger Quick, by Brian Eames (Paula Wiseman Books/Simon & Schuster, 2011)

Recommended for ages 10 and up.

Looking for a rip-roaring adventure story for summer fun, reminiscent of classic pirate yarns like Treasure Island (but without the challenging vocabulary)?  Make sure to keep an eye out for The Dagger Quick, a page-turning tale from debut author (and long-time teacher) Brian Eames.  

Eames spins the story of 12-year old Christopher Quick, known as Kitto, who lives in 17th century Cornwall and is apprenticed to his father to be a cooper, or barrel-maker.  Kitto longs for a life of adventure at sea, but with his club foot, thinks he is doomed to a boring life in his village.


However, Kitto’s circumstances change dramatically when his long-lost uncle, the notorious Caribbean pirate captain William Quick, shows up at their home.  When Kitto’s father is cruelly murdered, Kitto feels he has no option but to go to sea with his uncle, whom he’s just met.  And soon he finds out that his step-mother and little brother have been kidnapped by the evil pirate John Morris, who is following Quick in order to find Quick’s long-hidden booty--not gold in this case, but spices that were just as valuable in the 17th century as precious metals.  On top of all this, there’s a traitor on Captain Quick’s crew.  We discover who it is, but not Kitto.  Eames’ colorful characters are not just black and white; he paints a sympathetic portrait of the “Judas,” since we learn why he desperately needs the bag of silver he collects to betray his comrades.  Will the courageous Kitto be able to survive, let alone rescue his family? There’s a cliff-hanger of an ending, and a sequel clearly on the way.  


This book would make a terrific read-aloud, although the author doesn’t shirk from a realistic portrayal of the harsh conditions for pirates and sailors in general.  Quick’s ship makes a stop in Cape Verde, an island off the coast of Africa, described as a “depot for human cargo, where people are traded for gold.”  One of Kitto’s mates has worked in a slave ship, and describes in vivid detail the horrible smells, sounds, and sights of a slaver.  The yarn is full of colorful characters, including not a parrot, but a mischievous monkey who lives aboard the ship.  My personal favorite is the hideous Captain Morris, with his horribly disfigured face--two scars which creep up from either side of his mouth “form a leering grin,” and he also sports what’s left of a nose--two symmetrical ovals, “like those of a skull,” a nose that “leaks fluid constantly.”   


This is a great pick for reluctant readers or anyone looking for a page-turning adventure story.  My only beef with the book is the ending, which while it leaves the reader at a logical stopping point, also seems to leave us right in the middle of the story.  


Back matter includes a brief pirate glossary.  


For those looking for another great sea story, check out L. E. Meyer’s Bloody Jack series, featuring one of my favorite heroines in children’s/YA lit, the indomitable Jacky Faber. 

Book Review: Karma: A Verse Novel, by Cathy Ostlere (Razorbill, 2011)

Recommended for ages 12 and up.


I was immediately drawn into Cathy Ostlere's stunning debut novel, Karma, written in free verse and set in India during the turbulent period immediately after the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984.  Her 15-year old heroine, Maya, a Canadian teenager who’s half-Hindu, and half-Sikh, is traveling with her grief-stricken father to India with the ashes of her mother and a new diary to record her thoughts.  On the night they arrive, the prime minister is killed in her own garden by her Sikh guards, and In the turmoil and harrowing violence that erupt immediately after the assassination, Maya and her father are separated.  With no time to think, Maya cuts off her hair and disguises herself as a boy, running to the train station to try to find her father.  When he doesn’t arrive, she gets on a train anyway, not knowing exactly where she is headed in the chaos.  On the train journey, she witnesses unimaginable horrors, and is so traumatized she is unable to speak.  


Taken in by a kind doctor’s family, where no one knows who she is or where she comes from, Maya struggles to come back to life, with the help of Sandeep, an orphan boy who she’s just met.  She has lost everything--but she will find love, open her heart, and recover her voice with Sandeep, who eventually takes her back to Dehli to try to find her father.  While Maya is mute, Sandeep takes over the narration in the second half of the novel, giving the book two distinct voices.  Toward the end of the novel, Maya resumes the narration.  


This is a deeply romantic story of young love, passion, family, and trauma, where the evocative poetry serves to heighten the drama and suspense of the story.  Because of the suspense of the story line, you will want to hurry along to find out what happens, but don’t forget to take the time to admire Ostlere’s elegant poetry, sometimes written in two columns.  Asked often why the novel is written in free verse, she eloquently replies:  “The best answer I have to this question is that Karma’s poetic form suits the emotional lives of Maya and Sandeep. Their feelings are intense, their insights into the world are sharp and critical, and their understanding of what it means to be human is fresh, ragged, not yet smoothed by maturity, not yet smoothed by conventional narrative. Poetry is the perfect medium for their age. The short sentence. The precise image. The outbursts of feeling. Maya and Sandeep invite the reader to look inside their diaries where they reveal an intimate world of secrets, confessions and longings, and where poetry is a fire.”


Although this book looks imposing at over 500 pages, it is actually a relatively quick read because of the free verse format, and like the books of YA authors Ellen Hopkins and Sonya Sones, would be a good recommendation for reluctant readers.  With its exotic setting, it’s also a great fit with this year’s One World, Many Stories summer reading theme.  


Ostlere’s website gives additional background on the genesis of this novel, which took root during her own travels in India in 1984, and the origin of the character of Maya, who is inspired by a young Indian girl she knew growing up in Canada, as well as some stunning photographs evoking the brilliant colors of India.

Book Review: Between shades of gray, by Ruta Sepetys (Philomel Books, 2011)

Recommended for ages 12 and up.

Debut novelist Ruta Sepetys has written a heart-wrenching and riveting account of a little-known episode of recent history--the Soviet reign of terror in Lithuania from 1940-1953, when the Soviets arrested and deported more than 300,000 Lithuanians, sending them in cattle cars across Europe and Asia to forced labor camps and finally to nearly certain death in the forests of Siberia.

Our heroine is the 15-year old Lina, whose great excitement is her acceptance into a prestigious art school for the summer.  However, her upper-middle class life along with her hopes and dreams are shattered when the Soviet Secret Police storm into her house one night in 1941, arresting her along with her mother and younger brother.  Her university professor father had already been arrested and sent to a prison camp.  "They took me in my nightgown," her saga begins, told in spare prose that heightens the intrinsic drama of the narrative.  Their harrowing six-week journey in cattle cars, with little food and water, to an unknown destination recalls numerous Holocaust narratives.  Dead bodies, of which there are more daily, are thrown from the trains.  They finally arrive at their destination--a collective farm in Siberia where they all became beet farmers.  "I hated beets," remarks Lina.

Living in a small shack with very little food and plenty of work, Lina and her family fight despair and sickness, yet manage to celebrate Christmas with their countrymen, with everyone providing bits of food they had pilfered from the Russians.  Lina even begins to have a bit of a romance with another young prisoner.  But things are to get much worse for Lina and her family when they are transferred to a camp in the Arctic Circle, where they are forced to build dwellings for the Soviets out of bricks, furnished with good stoves and American canned food, while they must survive in huts built from driftwood and mud and tiny rations of bread.  Can Lina and her family survive the freezing storms and starvation?  Will they ever see their home in Lithuania again?

Like Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken (reviewed last month on this blog) and so many Holocaust memoirs and novels, this book is ultimately about the best and the worst humanity has to offer, a testament to the tremendous power of the human spirit to survive in the face of unimaginable horrors and hardship.  Despite the nightmares she endures, Lina wants desperately to survive, and makes herself and her brother repeat the mantra, "we're going home."

Sepetys' book, which debuted in March, landed on the New York Times bestseller list and has received glowing reviews in major newspapers around the country as well as starred reviews in Booklist, School Library Journal, Publisher's Weekly, and Kirkus.  While the book is being marketed in the U.S. as a young adult book, it is equally compelling for adult readers, and in fact,  in 16 of the 23 countries in which the book was sold, it is being released as an adult title, according to the Wall Street Journal.

A website for the book features a discussion guide for book club or classroom use.  This would be an excellent book to compare with The Diary of Anne Frank, and I hope it will find its way into high school curricula.  While it is certainly not a typical "light" summer read, its international setting makes it well suited for promotion during summer reading this year, for those libraries who are participating in the World Culture/Travel theme.

Related articles

• An Unlikely Story for Teens: 'Between Shades of Gray' (online.wsj.com)

Book Review: The Revenant, by Sonia Gensler (Alfred A. Knopf Books, 2011)

Recommended for ages 12 and up.

With The Revenant, which hits bookstores this week, debut author Sonia Gensler has crafted a historical fiction/paranormal romance page turner perfect for summer reading. Our heroine is seventeen year old Willie--a self-described liar and a cheat. Desperate to avoid having to return home to help her mother take care of her half-brothers, she fakes educational credentials to get hired as an English teacher at the Cherokee Female Seminary in Indian Territory.

It’s 1896, and Willie doesn’t know what to expect from her new position, but she certainly doesn’t expect to find a her pupils are mostly mixed-race, upper-class young Cherokee ladies who are much more sophisticated and privileged than she is. Nor does she expect the school to be shrouded in mystery--one of their students had supposedly drowned and now her classmates believe that the young girl’s spirit haunts Willie’s room. Willie doesn’t believe in ghosts, but she can’t explain the peculiar noises and the strange events happening at school. Could it be a revenant--one who returns from the dead?

She also doesn’t know what to make of her attraction to a handsome, charming young man, Eli Sevenstar, who’s a student at the nearby Cherokee academy for boys. Romance between an instructor and a student is surely prohibited, not to mention a romance with a native. But in the meantime Willie has to figure out how to grade all the English assignments she has given out, organize the students in a Shakespeare play, and solve a murder mystery--a hefty load for any proper young lady. Can she survive long enough to figure out her own destiny?

This book offers plenty of suspense and entertainment for fans of ghost stories, mysteries and the paranormal, with a good dose of history in the mix as well. My favorite element of the book was definitely the detailed historical setting. While I was familiar with the outlines of the Cherokee Trail of Tears, when the tribe was forced to move from Georgia to what is now Oklahoma, I was unfamiliar with the existence of a small group of wealthy Cherokees who signed a treaty with the Jackson administration and moved voluntarily to what was then Indian territory. An author’s note describes Gensler’s extensive research with primary sources at the Oklahoma Historical Society and Northeastern State University’s archives. This research provided accurate historical background, including depicting the tension on campus between Cherokee students of different economic classes. The main characters are highly appealing, and teens will enjoy the bit of forbidden romance as well.

Gensler’s website provides links to further information on the real Cherokee Female Seminary, which was staffed by graduates of Mount Holyoke and other Eastern colleges.




Disclosure: ARC provided by publisher.

Book Review: Inside Out and Back Again, by Thanhha Lai (Harper, 2011)

Recommended for ages 8-14.


In this story written in a series of free verse poems, debut novelist Thanhha Lai spins a moving and compelling tale of a young Vietnamese girl who moves with her family from war-torn Saigon to Alabama in 1975, at the end of the Vietnam war.  When the book opens, Hà and her family are celebrating Tet, the Vietnamese New Year.  She lives with her three older brothers and her mother; she can't remember her father, a navy officer, who was captured by the enemy years before, and no one knows if he is even still alive.

As the war approaches Saigon, Hà and her family must prepare to leave, packing just a few belongings with them.  A particularly poignant poem itemizes what they must leave behind, including "Brother Quang's/report cards,/each ranking him first in class,/beginning in kindergarten..."  Hà must leave her beloved papaya tree, where the fruit is still not ripe.  Author Lai does a wonderful job of evoking the sights, smells and sounds of Vietnam for the American reader.

Their voyage by ship is dangerous and miserable, with not enough food, water, lights, or bathroom facilities.  When they finally reach the open sea, they are rescued by an American ship, which tows them to a refugee camp in Guam.  Where will they go from there?  They choose America, where Hà 's mother believes there will be opportunities for her children to go to college.  But first they must be sponsored by an American family.  Finally a "cowboy" rescues them, and they go off to Alabama.

It's almost impossible to imagine how foreign Alabama must have been for these Vietnamese immigrants, until we read "American Chicken."  In this poem, Hà explains how their cowboy brings them "a paper bucket of chicken/skin crispy and golden,/smelling of perfection/..."  But when they taste the meat, her mother spits it out, and her brother gags; "Brother Quang forces/a swallow/before explaining/we are used to/fresh-killed chicken/that roamed the yard/snacking on/grains and worms/...I bite down on a thigh;/might as well bite down on/bread soaked in water./ Still,/I force yum-yum sounds."

For Hà , it's a world of "clean, quiet loneliness."  And living on the charity of others isn't easy for Hà and her family, who were used to a nice standard of living in Saigon.  Hà is befuddled by the idiosyncrasies of the English language, remarking that "whoever invented English should be bitten by a snake."  Her classmates make fun of her, and she hates feeling dumb, having to learn ABC's and numbers when in her own country she knew fractions and was the smartest in her class.  It's hard not to wish to be invisible in this strange new place.

However, some Americans are kind to Hà and her family; a neighbor tutors them all in English, their "cowboy" brings them gifts of chips and chocolate, and her teacher lets her eat lunch in her classroom to avoid the misery of the cafeteria and the tyranny of bullies.  Will Hà succeed in building a new life for herself in this new country?

Although she comes from a background foreign to most of us, readers will nonetheless identify with Hà's spunky character, her squabbles with her brothers, and her difficulties fitting into her new life.  This novel is already getting some early Newbery buzz, and it's definitely one to put on your to-read list.  

Some other blog reviews include:

Madigan Reads

Fuse #8

Dog Ear

GreenBeanTeenQueen

Book Review: The Year We Were Famous, by Carole Estby Dagg (Clarion Books, 2011)

Release date:  April 4, 2011


Recommended for ages 12 and up.


Debut novelist Carole Estby Dagg was inspired by her own family history to write the delightful new young adult historical novel, The Year We Were Famous.  Based on the true story of the author's great-aunt and great-grandmother, this adventure-filled novel set at the time of the suffragist movement tells the tale of 17-year old Clara Estby and her mother, Helga, who decide to walk clear across the United States from the small Norwegian-American farming community of Mica Creek, Washington to New York City--some 4,000 miles--to save their family farm from foreclosure.  Helga, a dedicated suffragist, also wanted to prove that women deserved the vote, because a woman was resourceful enough to make it across the country on her own, without a man's help.  All this, in an era when most women never went more than a few miles from their home.

The story, told in the first person by Clara, opens with Clara, the eldest of eight children, having returned from high school in Spokane to her family's farm in Mica Creek.  While brainstorming about ways to raise money to save their farm, her mother comes up with her idea of walking across the country, and begins seeking sponsors. At her pa's suggestion, Clara agrees to go along on an adventure that she can't begin to imagine: "This would be my year abroad, my year to turn the old Clara into someone bold, someone with newfound talents, strengths, and purpose in life."  And when a New York publisher offers them $10,000 if they complete the trip by November 30, 1896, they are on their way, equipped with calling cards, a letter from the mayor of Spokane attesting to their moral character, work boots, canteens, oil-skin ponchos, tooth powder and toothbrushes, two journals and six pencils, a second-hand satchel, and a compass given to Clara by Erick, the boy who's sweet on her--but no change of clothes!

Needless to say, Clara and her mother have no shortage of adventures on the way, as they follow the train tracks East, including encounters with Native Americans, outlaws, handsome journalists, and even the President-Elect and First Lady of the United States, not to mention blizzards, flash flood, lava fields, heat, thirst, and a sprained ankle.  Will they make it to New York on time to collect their prize and save the farm?  You'll have to read this to find out.  I, for one, had a hard time putting this book down. 

Author Dagg does an outstanding job bringing the voices of her intrepid ancestors to life; she extensively researched the lives of Victorian women in order to "get inside Great-Aunt Clara's head."  Teens are likely to identify with Clara's personality clashes with her mother, as well as her dreams of a life more exciting than being a farmer's wife in rural Mica Creek and her struggle between family obligations and becoming independent.

An excellent website for the book  offers more information on historical context and discussion themes; this would be a particularly appropriate title for a mother-daughter book club, and although the protagonist is seventeen, the book would be perfectly appropriate for readers as young as ten. 

And for those interested in reading more about this adventure, you can check out
Linda Lawrence Hunt's 2005 release for adult readers, Bold Spirit:  Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America.  

In addition, a novel aimed at adult readers about Helga and Clara has also been released this spring:  The Daughter's Walk, by Jane Kirkpatrick (WaterBrook Press, 2011).






Here is the book trailer for The Year We Were Famous:



Other blog reviews:
The Ninja Librarian
Unshelved

Disclosure:  Review copy provided by publisher.

Check in tomorrow for a special guest post from author Carole Estby Dagg!

Book Review and Giveaway: Timeless, by Alexandra Monir (Delacorte, 2011)

Recommended for ages 12 and up.

Teens still seem to be devouring paranormal romances, and here's one without any vampires or werewolves but chock full of romantic star-crossed lovers that seems sure to be a hit with teen girls who enjoy books of this genre.  Alexandra Monir, a 25-year old debut novelist who is a professional singer-songwriter, has made use of her songwriting talents as well by weaving original music into the story, which can be purchased as an album (also called Timeless).

Michele Windsor is a happy, popular teenager living with her mother in Los Angeles--except that, since she was a little girl, she has recurring dreams about a mysterious handsome stranger "with eyes the color of sapphires...dressed like none of the other boys she knew." When a tragic accident forces her to move to New York to live with her wealthy, upper-crust society grandparents whom she has never met, she is dazzled at first by their enormous historic mansion, which she has a strange feeling she has seen before.  While the servants are kind, her grandparents are formal and reserved.

She is trying to cope with her mother's death and her new life when she finds a mysterious antique key left by her father to her mother, a key that allows her to travel back in time--to 1910 New York.  Somehow we are not too surprised to find that, while in 1910, she meets at a masquerade ball the handsome stranger of her dreams--Philip, the love of her life.  But as Michele goes back and forth from the present to the past, trying to juggle both her lives, she realizes that although she and Philip belong together, they can never actually be together, since neither can fully exist in the other's time.  Their love seems doomed--can she alter the past and save him before it's too late?

The star-crossed lovers theme of this novel is perennially popular, and the aching romanticism of the story should appeal greatly to teen readers and keep them turning the pages.  Teens will also appreciate the integral role that music as well as romance plays in this novel; our hero, Philip, is a gifted musician, but being a musician as a profession does not fit into his upper-crust family's career plans for him.  Michele, our heroine, writes music as well, and the two are soon collaborating on songs across the century, as she writes lyrics to his music. And you can purchase these songs on-line so the reader doesn't just have to imagine them in her head.

Alexandra Monir spent a year in New York researching and writing this novel, and does a credible job recreating the high society world of the Gilded Age.  Brief portions of the novel also take place in the Roaring Twenties and during World War II.  In an afterword, she cites some of the books used in her research, as well as sights of New York to visit for readers interested in these periods.  She also recommends visiting Newport, where many mansions from this period survive and are open to tours.

Timeless was named an Amazon Best Book of the Month for January 2011, and Monir is already at work on a sequel.

Alexandra's Timeless album cover art

You can find an interview with Alexandra about her book at Ramblings of a Teenage Bookworm.

Giveaway:  To win a copy of this book for yourself or your library, please leave a comment with your e-mail and let me know what time period you'd like to travel to if you could travel back in time!  Winner will be selected at random on April 13, 2011.


Disclosure:  Review copy provided by publisher.

Time Travel Book Review: Warped, by Maurissa Guibord (Delacorte, 2011)

Debut author Maurissa Guibord's time travel novel has lots of elements likely to appeal to her target teen readers:  a gorgeous cover, plenty of romance, adventure, danger, humor, suspense, an evil witch, a handsome nobleman, a unicorn, dragon, giant snake, a quaint bookshop setting--and oh yes, time travel!  Well, I never said "realism" was one of the elements!

The story centers on Tessa, a "normal" teenage girl who discovers there's something weird about an old unicorn tapestry her bookseller father bought at an auction, mixed up in a box of old books.  The unicorn looks fierce, not like the cuddly rainbow ones of her girlhood, and when she's near it, she begins to have strange dreams of a hunt in a long-ago forest in a distant land.  But when she accidentally pulls a thread on the tapestry, a handsome young man appears--William de Chaucy--who's been under the enchantment of an evil witch for more than five centuries.  Their destinies are somehow linked together--and mixed up with the Fates, the three sisters who control the life threads of all humans.  Tessa must somehow return some missing threads--but can she do it and keep the irresistible William alive in the 21st century?

Teens who enjoy historical fantasy are likely to devour this juicy and fun read, which will answer many important questions, such as the following:  do charmingly arrogant 15th century noblemen like pizza?  You'll have to read this to get the answer, and to discover the many twists and turns in the book's plot.


Other blog reviews include:
A Backwards Story
Dreaming in Books
Life after Twilight
Teen Book Fanatics
The Allure of Books
Frenzy of Noise
Muggleborn.net
Young Adults Book Central

Disclosure:   Review copy provided by publisher

Book Review and Giveaway: Saving Zasha, by Randi Barrow (Scholastic, 2011)

Recommended for ages 10 and up.


I love a good dog story, and was delighted to find a terrific dog heroine (and no, she doesn't die at the end!) in this new historical fiction perfect for middle schoolers by debut children's novelist Randi Barrow.  Don't forget to check The Fourth Musketeer tomorrow for a fascinating interview with Randi!

Set in Russia at the end of World War II, this page-turner opens as thirteen-year old Mikhail finds a dying soldier and his beautiful German shepherd in the forest near his house.  When the soldier doesn't make it, the family is faced with a dilemma--what to do with his dog, Zasha?  The Germans were so hated by the Russians at the end of the war that German dogs were shot in the street out of vengeance, and Mikhail and his family decide to hide Zasha to save her life.

Dogs of any kind or breed were a rarity in the Soviet Union right after the war--many had starved to death or been killed in combat after being trained to blow up German tanks.  The Russian army has realized that it needs dogs after all, and Zasha is in constant danger from armed dog thieves looking for dogs to sell on the black market, a nosy neighbor girl who secretly craves a dog for herself, and a Russian soldier who is charged with breeding a new Russian superdog at a nearby farm.  Mikhail and his family fall desperately in love with the loving, smart, and loyal Zasha.  They've lost so much in the cruel war, including Mikhail's papa, who's still missing--will they lose Zasha too?

This is a fast-moving adventure story that will have a broad appeal to both boys and girls; we can't help but fall in love with Zasha, and empathize with her new family.  Nothing is simple in wartime, including innocent dogs, who were trained as vicious guard dogs and made to sacrifice themselves in battle.  But we also see how Zasha has an incredible healing effect on this family, whose members have suffered during the war.

Black Russian Terrier

Although this story is fiction, the author includes an afterword on the breeding of the Black Russian Terrier, a hardy Russian dog which was bred after the war, mostly with dogs imported from East Germany because there were indeed hardly any dogs remaining in the Soviet Union.

A great read-along for this book would be Cynthia Kadohata's Cracker!  The Best Dog in Vietnam (Atheneum, 2007), the story of a young soldier's bond with his bomb-sniffing dog in the Vietnam war.

Giveaway information:  Scholastic has generously donated a copy of Saving Zasha for one of my lucky readers--to enter to win, please leave a comment below with your e-mail and the title of your favorite dog book (for kids or adults!)  The winner will be chosen by random number generator on March 20, 2011.  

Book Review and Giveaway: Anya's War, by Andrea Alban (Feiwel and Friends, 2011)

Recommended for ages 12 and up.  


In her debut novel for young adults, San Francisco writer Andrea Alban mines her own family history to weave a compelling coming-of-age story of a fourteen-year old Russian-Jewish girl and her family in 1937 Shanghai.  Anya and her family had left their comfortable life in Odessa, where Mama was an opera singer and Papa was a journalist, because Papa wouldn't join the Communist Party, and sought safety from the Russian Secret Police in far-off Shanghai, then a safe-haven for many Jews.

The story opens with Anya writing a list of wishes in her diary. Their servant, Li Mei, has told her that planting wishes under a full moon gives them the best chance of coming true.  What does a 14-year old girl in 1937 Shanghai wish for?

She wishes Amelia Earhart, her idol, will be found safe somewhere in the Pacific.  She also struggles with telling her mother the truth about her hopes for the future--going to university in the United States, not becoming an opera singer like her mother.  "I am absolutely, one hundred percent certain that I don't want to sing opera.  I think."  And she's trying to think of something witty to say to a boy she likes at the bowling club, hoping her right bosom will grow extra fast to catch up without her left side, and last but not least, wishing "the Japanese would stop killing Chinese children by accident."

But Anya's life changes when she discovers, on her way home from purchasing the family's food for Sabbath dinner, an abandoned basket with an unwanted newborn girl baby inside.  What should she do?  The baby was thrown away by her family, but Jews don't throw out baby girls, Anya tells herself.  "All girls are precious.  We're all the same." She impulsively decides to take the baby home with her, where she is helped by her best friend, Giselle, and Li Mei.  Will her mother allow her to keep the baby safe?  But Anya soon learns that no place is safe, especially for her new friend Gabriel and his father, who fled anti-semitism in Italy, or even in Shanghai, where unexpected danger lurks.

Alban paints a detailed picture of the exotic Jewish life in Shanghai, from the trip to the kosher butcher to the synagogue to celebrating the Sabbath rituals in their home, with a meal cooked by their Chinese servant.  She writes with great affection for her characters and their hopes and fears, and young readers will readily identify with Anya and her companions.  The author incorporates some romance as well, as Anya dreams about boys and even gets her first (very innocent) kiss.

An author's note explains how Alban grew up hearing stories of her father's Jewish childhood in the French Quarter of Shanghai, China, and how the small community of 4,000 Jews swelled to 20,000 with the influx of Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler.  The Jews that arrived after 1937 were herded by the Japanese invaders into the Hongkew Ghetto, a little-known chapter of Holocaust history.

This book is the first in a trilogy that will go through the end of World War II, and subsequent volumes will tell more about Anya's family and this fascinating chapter in history.

To learn more about Andrea and Anya's War, please make sure to read an interview with the author that will be featured on my blog tomorrow, February 15.


Giveaway:  Macmillan has kindly donated a copy of the book to a lucky reader!  If you'd like to enter, please leave a comment below with your e-mail address.  The winner will be chosen by random number generator on February 20.