Egg and Spoon

Author:  Gregory Maguire

Rating:  **  (2 stars out of 3, "B")

              Recommended

Audience:  5th Grade and Up

This whimsical youth novel by Wicked Author Gregory Maguire defies categorizing:  Part folk/fairytale, part fantasy, part allegory, but full-on creative entertainment.  I had never read anything quite as charming or challenging before.

The overall story is one of mistaken identity, Prince and Pauper-style.  It is turn-of-the-century (1900) Tsarist Russia, and impoverished villager Elena Rudina finds herself exchanging places with Princess Ekaterina ("Cat") on a train bound for St. Petersburg.  Along the way, the reader encounters the harsh realities of peasant life, along with the delightful Russian folklore of Baba Yaga (the wise-cracking, time-traveling witch whose house walks about on chicken legs), the Fire Bird (a Russian Phoenix), Faberge eggs, nesting dolls, soldiers, and an Ice Dragon.

Chocolate, Chocolate and More Chocolate

Titles Reviewed:

Chocolate Fever by Robert Kimmel Smith

     *  (1 star out of 3 possible, "C")  Recommended with Reservations

     1st-3rd Grades

The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Skene Catling

     *  (1 star out of 3 possible, "C")  Recommended with Reservations

     1st-3rd Grades

The Chocolate War and Beyond the Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

     *  (1 star out of 3 possible, "C")  Recommended with Reservations

     Junior and Senior Boys

The Candy Shop War by Brandon Mull

     *  (1 star out of 3 possible, "C")  Recommended with Reservations

     4th Grade and up

As you can see, i spent a lot of my summer sampling chocolate!  It was important to me to straighten these titles out, because one doesn't want to confuse harmless first grade morality tales (Chocolate Fever and Chocolate Touch) with warnings of bullies and psychological abuse along the lines of Lord of the Flies (Chocolate War and Beyond the Chocolate War).

Chocolate Fever (1972) and The Chocolate Touch (1952) both deal with boys who love chocolate and candy and the consequences of their greedy habits.  The plots are humorous and the lessons clear:

"Although life is grand, and pleasure is everywhere, we can't have everything we want every time we want it!"

"You've been eating so much sweet stuff that there isn't room for eggs and meat and milk and bread and spinach and apple and fish and bananas and all the other things you're supposed to have to make you grow big and strong."

"Don't you think there's such a thing as enough?"

These books are doubly useful if you have a picky eater or a sugar hound in your family!  My own children have benefitted from this type of outsourced nagging.  There's absolutely nothing wrong and everything right with families using literature to instruct!

Far different messages for a far different audience come from Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War (1974) and it's sequel Beyond the Chocolate War (1984).

The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm

Author:  Nancy Farmer

Rating:  *  (1 star out of 3 possible, "C")
                  Recommended with Reservations

Audience:  Middleschoolers

Assigned for my 7th grader's Language Arts class, this 1995 Newbery Honor book is set in Zimbabwe in 2194.  Essentially science fiction, it offers a unique view of the future along with a backward glance to Zimbabwe's tribal culture.

Military General Amadeus Matsika and his wife have 3 children:  Tendai, a 13 year old boy; Rita, his capable 11 year old sister; and little brother Kuda, 4 years old.  When the three children are kidnapped by the evil Mask gang they must employ all their wits to escape several fantastic scenarios.  Meanwhile, Father and Mother hire 3 unusual detectives (the title characters) to search for the children.

With the book's background in Zimbabwean culture, the reader must become familiar with a number of animistic terms:

Mwari-the supreme god of Zimbabwe, valuing the traits of loyalty, bravery and courteousness.
Shona-the dominant tribe, to which the Matsika family belongs
mhondoro-the spirit of Mwari, and the spirit of the Zimbabwe land
vlei people-a ghost-like people that wander the outskirts of Harare, the capital city
Gondwanna-terrorist gang from northern Africa
shave-a wandering spirit who enters a person to teach a special skill
ndoro-talisman with a connection to the spirit world

Considering all this talk of the spirit world and spirit possession, one might ask if the book is even appropriate for young Christians.  That's why my review basically warns families to proceed with caution.  With a view towards animist tribes still in existence today, I believe the story provides an enlightening contrast to Christianity.

The True Meaning of Smekday

Author:  Adam Rex

Rating:  ***  (3 stars out of 3 possible, "A")
              Paige (age 12) Highly Recommends this book!

              0 stars out of 3 possible, "D+"
              Her mom (age 45) does not recommend this book!

Audience:  5th grade and up

Sometimes the best part of reading together as a family is coming to completely opposite conclusions about a book!

For instance, Paige has read this book at least five times!  She views it as "hilarious, the best book ever!"  She truly loves it.

I slogged through 425 pages,  hating almost every minute of it!  But then again, I can't really stand Star Trek or Mork & Mindy, either.

It really depends on your personal tastes when it comes to a book like Smekday.  Are you an old, stuck-in-the-mud traditionalist who's lost her sense of humor?  Or a young, creative genius who loves fantasy worlds?

Smekday takes place in a future America, where 12 year-old Gratuity Tucci (nicknamed "Tip") encounters the aliens who have invaded Earth.  Following a quest format (like Huckleberry Finn, or, more likely, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe), she befriends an alien Boov who's chosen to go by the American pseudonym, "J. Lo."

The Search for WondLa

Author: Tony DiTerlizzi (author of the SpiderWick Chronicles)

Rating: * (1 star out of 3 possible, "C")

Recommended with Reservations

Audience: Middle School

My main reservation with this book is that, as the first of 3 volumes, it impossible to conjecture where DiTerlizzi may be headed with his science fiction trilogy. Will it continue as a harmless fantasy, purposefully reminiscent of Oz books, or will it devolve into some sort of post-modern treatise on equal rights for plants, animals and robots with no real moral compass or Higher Power?

Eva Nine, the main and human character, has been raised in an underground protective sanctuary by her robot "Muthr" (Multi-Utility Task Help Robot: points for creativity). They have been preparing for the day when they can return to the planet's surface and/or find other sanctuaries occupied by other humans. Eva Nine and Muthr have never seen the sun, the moon, or the surface of their planet, not to mention another human being.

Eva is very much a typical 12-year old adolescent, chaffing at her robot mother's frequent reminders and syrupy comments and longing for some harmless freedom. She possesses an "Omnipod" (the most amazing, futuristic, encyclopedic Ipod ever) and one very primitive item: a scorched and glued together picture, or tile, or perhaps cover of an old hardback book, showing a human child, a robot and an unidentifiable adult along with the pieced-together word "WondLa."

The Underland Chronicles (5 Book Series)

Titles: Gregor the Overlander; Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane; Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods; Gregor and the Marks of Secret; Gregor and the Code of Claw

Author: Suzanne Collins

Rating: ** (2 stars out of 3 possible, "B")

Recommended

Audience: Middle-schoolers, ages 11 and up

After enjoying Collins' Hunger Games young adult trilogy, reading this middle-schoolers' series was the next natural step.

Gregor the Overlander was Collins' first published book, and a solid accomplishment. Collins creates a unique setting and a compelling plot line, then mixes in some humor and relational characters to explore themes of family, sacrifice, loyalty, just war and civil rights. Quite a statement!

Gregor is an 11-year old boy in New York City babysitting his little sister one summer. They unexpectedly tumble down into The Underland, a vast land of several kingdoms below the earth. Here Gregor meets unique humans who align themselves with giant bats ("flyers") in order to keep giant rats ("gnawers") at bay. Lower caste inhabitants include giant bugs ("crawlers") and mice ("nibblers") while giant spiders ("spinners") tend to manage their own political affairs. Proper allegiances must be formed among all these species in order to prevent the loss of Underland's fragile peace. Gregor and his baby sister are the lynchpins to hold unstable alliances together. Along the way they hope to solve their own family mystery.

If this sounds dark or bizarre, don't worry. Baby sister provides plenty of light-hearted moments of humor and innocent play. Language is clean and while Gregor speaks like a casual 11-year old boy, the ancient human race uses a more formal dialect with some vocabulary challenges for the reader. There are a few fights or battles, but peace and diplomacy are highly valued commodities. Wisdom and maturity win out over youthful impulse.

Naturally, as you progress through the series, Collins ups the ante. In book four, Gregor and the Marks of Secret, she explores a Holocaust theme when poisonous volcanic gas kills nibblers deceived and trapped by an unstable and evil gnawer. Thus, these books are appropriate for middle-schoolers who are ready for discussions about serious topics such as the Holocaust, just war philosophy, civil rights.

My other caveat concerns the tendency in "animal" books for animal characters to embody souls or spirits of their own. It's valuable to talk with children about what's real in such books (ideas of equality, kindness, justice) vs. what's fiction (giant cockroaches saving our lives). One can almost sense a Buddhist philosophy in such writings. For instance, Gregor appreciates the giant cockroaches so much he promises himself never to kill another roach in the Overland (New York City)! I think a simple reality check with your child is reasonable compromise.

It's encouraging to find a contemporary author dealing with intelligent themes and historical references. Suzanne Collins has given older kids a smart read with this series.

The Hunger Games

Titles: The Hunger Games; Catching Fire; Mockingjay

Author: Suzanne Collins

Rating: ** (2 stars out of 3 possible, "B")

Recommended

Audience: Ages 16 and up

I'm naturally skeptical about glowing reviews, best-seller lists, and celebrity endorsements. When I hear a book is addictive and a reader can't put it down, or it was a cliff-hanger and a reader couldn't wait for the sequel I tend to think the reader is weak-willed, more than thinking the author is uber-amazing. So I approach books like The Hunger Games with more neutral, but not necessarily lower, expectations.

I'm pleased to say this is one series that delivers as promised. The Hunger Games is the sort of book where you don't really care what the kids do all day--just as long as they let you read!

Reminiscent of both The Lottery (short story by Shirley Jackson) and Fahrenheit 451, The Hunger Games takes us through a young woman's agonizing choices in a post-apocalyptic America. Katniss Everdeen sacrificially takes her sister's place in the country's annual Hunger Games, an over-the-top reality show watched by an entire nation. In this reality game, real lives are lost as there can be only one surviver.

The plot sounds violent and futuristic, but Collins handles the storyline with tact and the reader with care. Graphic details are rarely provided, particularly in the first 2 books. The story is advanced more by relationship and psychology than by violence or gore.

The series is full of covert and overt references to Roman Coliseum days, as well as our own current voyeuristic age. Readers are left to grapple with several themes: loyalty, the limits of just war, the role of government, superficial appearances, even their relationships with food, entertainment, and other excesses.

The concluding title, Mockingjay, becomes more graphic as the reader encounters a world where nothing is as it appears, and almost nothing makes sense. Except for love (or, a Christian would say, God) suicide would be a reasonable, logical choice. Collins is a master at creating impossible circumstances for her protagonists, and then writing them a way out of it. The reader never has to fear a completely bleak conclusion.

Collins has remade a fascinating America. Eventually some of the science fiction inventions feel a little unbelievable, but the reader is willing to suspend disbelief because Collins has also weaved relationship into the story. These are characters we relate to and believe in and we care to see what happens to them, even in the most difficult of circumstances.

Scholastic markets these books for as young as middle-school, but young adults are a more accurate audience. If your teens are reading 1984 or Fahrenheit 451, The Hunger Games is also a reasonable choice. Younger kids can enjoy Collins' Gregor the Overlander series. Read that review here.