Book Notes

I don’t often say this, but every kid should read this book! I’ve been meaning to read Molly Moon for years. I’ve heard so many kids talk about it and how much they liked it. Well, now I have read it and think everyone else should too!

Molly Moon lives in an orphange in England. It’s a horrible orphanage with a mean owner and nasty food. A place where you have to do awful chores like clean the whole bathroom floor with your toothbrush and the food is nasty, rotten fish and yucky, slimy vegetables. The kind of place that you need some kind of escape from.

Molly Moon finds that escape one day in the library. She finds a book on hypnotism. It was written a long time ago by a very famous hypnotist. It turns out that Molly has a knack for it. She is able to hypnotise a way for herself out of the orphanage and over to New York City and then onto Broadway. It’s super fun and full of lots of twists and turns. This is the first of many Molly Moon adventures so get started!

Now that I’ve finally read March, no one is talking about it anymore. They’re conversing about her new one. I’ll have to add that one to my ever growing list of books to read. March was decent though. It takes the father from Little Women, and gives an account of his life at war, and his life before he met and married Marmee, and the back history of how they came to lose their fortune.

It worked really well as a novel. Brooks was at her best chronicling slavery and March’s bystander observation of it. It got a little long for me at the end. I was tired of him, and reading about him. Just in time Brooks brought in Marmee as our new narrator. That helped considerably. Glad to have finally read what everyone was once talking about.

This was another re-read. And a wonderful piece of historic fiction. Set in Scotland in 1306, during the reign of Longshanks of England and Robert de Brus  of Scotland, this book focuses on Robert’s daughter Marjorie and her captivity by Longshanks. She is taken and put in a cage in a town square in England on the Scottish border. This book picks up where the movie, Braveheart, left off, if that helps with setting.

I love the sense of place and time that this book provides. The people are dirty, and they are constantly hungry and cold. Yolen and Harris do a really good job of putting you in the character’s place. And what a great story. A fantastic afterword of what is true and what they had to fill in to make the story is provided.

This was another re-read. And what a fantastic book to re-read. I have so enjoyed this each time that I’ve read it. Hope and her Aunt are on their way to a new town, and a new life in Mulhoney, Wisconsin. Her Aunt Addie is a restaurant manager and is going to be taking over the care of the popular Welcome Diner.

For a small town there sure is a lot happening. There’s a man who is fighting lukemia and corrupt politicians; Braverman who is working as a short order cook and trying to save enough for college; a young mom struggling to make ends meet and care for baby daughter who might have a development problem. And there’s Hope. Who lost a lot of her faith in human beings, but may just be able to find it here at the Welcome Diner in Mulhoney, Wisconsin.

This is the sequel to Spinelli’s wildly popular Stargirl. This book is from Stargirl’s point of view, from her new home in Pennsylvania. She is writing “the world’s longest letter” to Leo, the boyfriend who broke her heart in Arizona.

This book is filled with quirky characters who make Stargirl seem quite average. And I didn’t like that about this one. I want Stargirl to be the sweetest and the most unusual. I also wanted her to not be so broken up about Leo. Sure he broke her heart, but isn’t the essence of Stargirl to be satisfied with who you are? Still, a good read if you miss Stargirl and want to check in on what she is doing now.

I just re-read Frindle for our book club, and I couldn’t believe that it is already 11 years old! This book has been a favorite with so many people. I love Nick, and I really love Mrs. Granger. This is a quick, fun read about a Nicholas Allen who decides to create a new word for pen, and his teacher, who is determined to see the dictionary prevail. A fun, fun story for everyone.

I’m starting to really like Jennifer Holm. This book has become one of my favorites. It’s a novel that is told not by the typical paragraphs and chapters, but through stuff. Her report cards, notes left on the refrigerator by her mother, receipts from her purchases at the drugstore, and the occasional clipped out horoscope. Put it all together and you get a great story.

You’ll just have to trust me and dive in. It’s hilarious and sweet. A perfect book to just curl up with for an afternoon.

Sahara has to repeat the 5th grade. With her father gone, and her being too shy to answer questions at school, the teachers think she needs special attention. Lucky for Sahara this year the 5th grade has a new teacher. Miss Pointy, as she likes to be called. Miss Pointy is a pretty cool teacher who likes everyone for who they are, and thinks each child has the ability to be something great. By the end of the year, Sahara might just show people how special she really is, and maybe make a new friend or two.

This wasn’t my favorite book ever. But maybe it will be one of yours?

This is a sweet and very quick read. It is a novel in poems about Josie, a girl with Celebral Palsey. It takes place during one summer in which Josie makes a friend, her grandmother has a stroke, and Josie’s relationship with her mother reaches a nice, new level.

Watch the bottom right hand corner of the  pages. What starts off as a little bud grows into a beautiful flower at the end. A nice read, especially if you enjoy poems.

This was our 6th-8th grade book club pick for November. One of my perennial favorites, I enjoy ever opportunity to re-read this. It’s the story of 11 going on 12-year-old Hattie Owen who discovers one summer that she has an uncle she has never heard of. Adam has been in an institution for mentally disabled adults, and with the advent of that school’s closing, he is returning to live with his parents. The characters and the situation are so beautifully drawn. Adam’s parents have always prided themselves on living a perfect, socially approved existence. Hattie is often at odds with how to treat Adam, he is an adult, and her uncle, but he often seems and acts more like a child.

The book is so beautifully written, and the personalities of the characters are so perfectly drawn. I recommend this to anyone who wants a quiet, sweet, and thoughtful story. Have tissues near by at the end.

Attention fans of Bras and Broomsticks! This new book by Lily Archer is similar to Bras, and tons of fun.

Three girls from three separate backgrounds are all attending a boarding school in Massachusetts for the first time. And all because they have something new and unwanted at home: a new stepmother. After a few false starts, the girls discover their commonality and form a tight friendship, calling themselves “the Poison Apples”. A group dedicated to the eradication of their stepmothers. What better time to make that happen than Thanksgiving break. Think Penguin stealing, itching powder and sibling affection redistribution and you begin to get the idea.

It’s an easy read, each chapter being told from one girls viewpoint. And the ending left it open to a sequel….

This is our second pick for 4th and 5th grade book club. I love Cynthia Rylant’s books, and this one in particular.

Ob and Summer are grieving from the loss of May, Ob’s wife and Summer’s foster mother. They neither one want to get out of bed in the  morning or go on and live their happy lives without her. Enter Cletus Underwood, the Bat Woman, and an owl flying through on silent wings. Life just may go on after all. Different, but just as precious as it was before.

It’s a small book, but has such a big story in it with lovely writing with a folksy narrative. A great book for sharing.

Fabulous. Where do I even begin? It’s been awhile since I have read an adult book that I really loved. The writing is lovely and evenly paced. The story is just sweet and complex enough to give it substance, but not to

make it too saccharine.

The story is set in Boston and takes place over a 24 hour period. The lives of two mixed families are irrevocably changed during the course of events around a snowstorm. Ann Patchett doesn’t tell a story so much as she lets us briefly into the lives of these characters. Characters that she knows so well, and that we get to know a little too. A beautiful book, one of her best.

This is book one of the Percy Jackson and the Olympian series. I wish I had read it months ago. I was reluctant, but once I started I found a great fantasy.

Percy has been shuffled from school to school. He can’t seem to stay out of trouble. He’s dyslexic, so his grades aren’t so hot, and he has ADHD, so none of his teachers ever give him much of a chance. It turns out that there is a reason for this. He’s a demigod.

In this fantasy the myths of the Greek Gods are not just myths. They are real and very much alive today. And one of them is Percy’s dad. His Greek god roots are what make him dyslexic–he’s hard wired to read ancient Greek–and the ADHD is because his body is hard wired for battle.

After finding out that he is a demigod, Percy has to undertake a quest. Zeus’s master bolt has been stolen and if it is not returned by the summer solstice world war three will begin. It’s up to Percy and his friends to travel to the underworld, get it, and get back to Mount Olympus (located on the 600th floor of the Empire State Building). This is non-stop adventure chock full of ancient monsters and ancient curses. A fun, fun book.

I really enjoyed this fantasy once I got past the initial eerie feelings. Corrina has disguised herself as a boy in order to hold the postion of Folk Keeper in large houses and estates. This job keeps the folk appeased so that they will not be tempted to turn the milk or spoil the hay.

Things change for Corrina when she goes to Cliffsend to be a folk keeper. Here she is near the sea and she begins to notice changes in herself. It turns out Corrina’s mother was a seal maiden, so Corrina is too. Now she has to decide whether she wants a life at sea, or one on land with her new love Finian.

This is a lovely, gentle read that requires some effort on the part of the reader. But I have read it twice now and have not been disappointed.