Booklist: American Revolution

Every fifth grader in our school system studies the American Revolution. But what if you could live it? Not through a movie, or re-enactors…but through a book! See what life was like in Massachusetts (and other states) between 1775 and 1783. Would you have been a Loyalist or a Tory? Stood with General Washington, or General Gage?

It’s good that you don’t have to make that kind of decision. But in these books, the kids do. Which side will they choose? Check out one of these books and find out!

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Anna Strong and the Revolutionary War Culper Spy Ring by Enigma Alberti & Laura Terry

Meet the secret Culper Ring, a network of American spies fighting against the army of British redcoats, and historical figures like George Washington and the soon-to-be-infamous Benedict Arnold. And meet Anna Strong, an unsung heroine who found ingenious ways to communicate top-secret messages to her fellow spies, helping to save the American colonies from British rule. It’s a mystery to solve: There are clues embedded in the book’s text and illustrations. Spycraft materials, including a cipher wheel, come in an envelope at the beginning of the book. Use them to decode Anna’s hidden message and discover the secret mission she undertook for the Culper Ring!

The Fighting Ground by Avi

Jonathan may be only thirteen years old, but with the Revolutionary War unfolding around him, he’s more certain than ever that he wants to be a part of it–to fight for independence alongside his brother and cousin to defeat the British. But Jonathan’s father, himself wounded from battle, refuses to let his son join the front lines. When Jonathan hears the tavern bell toll, calling all soldiers to arms, he rushes to enlist without telling his dad. Gun in hand, Jonathan falls in with a militia and marches onward to the fighting ground. It feels like he’s been waiting his whole life for this moment. But no amount of daydreaming could prepare Jonathan for what he encounters. In just twenty-four hours, his life will be forever changed–by his fellow soldiers, unsuspecting enemies, and the frightening and complicated realities of war. 

Loyalty by Avi

When his father is killed by rebel vigilantes, Noah flees with his family to Boston. Intent on avenging his father, Noah becomes a spy for the British and firsthand witness to the power of partisan rumor to distort facts, the hypocrisy of men who demand freedom while enslaving others, and the human connections that bind people together regardless of stated allegiances. Awash in contradictory information and participating in key events leading to the American Revolution, Noah must forge his own understanding of right and wrong and determine for himself where his loyalty truly lies.

Sophia’s War by Avi

In 1776, young Sophia Calderwood witnesses the execution of Nathan Hale in New York City, which is newly occupied by the British army. Sophia is horrified by the event and resolves to do all she can to help the American cause. Recruited as a spy, she becomes a maid in the home of General Clinton, the supreme commander of the British forces in America. Through her work she becomes aware that someone in the American army might be switching sides, and she uncovers a plot that will grievously damage the Americans if it succeeds. But the identity of the would-be traitor is so shocking that no one believes her, and so Sophia decides to stop the treacherous plot herself, at great personal peril: She’s young, she’s a girl, and she’s running out of time. And if she fails, she’s facing an execution of her own.

The Year of the Hangman by Gary Blackwood

It’s 1777-the rebellious American colonies have been soundly defeated by the powerful British redcoats, and the imprisoned General Washington is to hang from the end of a gibbet. That’s the situation that faces Creighton Brown, a seventeen-year-old Britisher who is abducted and arrives in America with nothing but an attitude. Creighton comes to settle in the heart of the rebel stronghold-Benjamin Franklin’s house, where the banned Liberty Tree is secretly published. Creighton is expected to spy for the British, but as he comes to know more patriots, he must consider “turning his coat” and joining the rebels. No boring historical novel, this provocative “alternate history” nearly jumps from the page with nonstop action, including a frigate battle, prison escape, arson, code-cracking, and a bona fide duel.

Toliver’s Secret by Esther Wood Brady

Ellen Toliver is shocked to learn that her grandfather is a patriot spy. Then he’s injured on the day of an important mission–and she’s the only one who can take his place. It’s the last thing shy, timid Ellen wants to do, but her grandfather–and her country–are depending on her. It seems simple: take a boat across new York Harbor and deliver a loaf of bread with a secret message for General Washington baked inside. Disguised as a boy, Ellen finds courage she never dreamed she had. But things don’t go as planned. First Ellen finds herself on a boat full of British soldiers, and then she lands at the wrong town. As she faces each obstacle on her journey, Ellen wonders–will she ever get her message through? And will she ever see her family again?

The Arrow Over the Door by Joseph Bruchac

For Samuel Russell, called “coward” for his peace-loving Quaker beliefs, the summer of 1777 is a time of fear. The British and the Patriots will soon meet in battle near his home in Saratoga, New York. The Quakers are in danger from roaming Indians and raiders — yet to fight back is not the Friends’ way. To Stands Straight, a young Abenaki Indian on a scouting mission for the British, all Americans are enemies, for they killed his mother and brother. But in a Quaker Meetinghouse he will come upon Americans unlike any he has ever seen. What will the encounter bring? Based on a real historical incident, this fast-paced and moving story is a powerful reminder that “the way of peace…can be walked by all human beings”.

My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

The Revolutionary War had no clear-cut loyalties–it divided families, friends, and towns. Young Tim Meeker’s sixteen-year-old brother goes off to fight with the Patriots while his father remains a reluctant British Loyalist in the Tory town of Redding, Connecticut. Tim’s always looked up to his brother, who’s smart and brave. With the war soon raging, Tim knows he’ll have to make a choice–between the Revolutionaries and the Redcoats…and between his brother and his father. Over the course of the war, Tim learns that life teaches some bitter lessons and does not guarantee clear answers.

A True Patriot: The Journal of William Thomas Emerson by Barry Denenberg

On an early summer morning in 1774, William Emerson, on the run from his abusive foster parents, awakens to a dusty-faced stranger who has discovered his roadside bed. After hearing the boy’s story, Mr. John Wilson–a writer for and organizer of the revolutionary cause–invites Will to accompany him into Boston. From that day forward, Will lives and works at the Seven Stars Tavern, gradually earning the trust of the colonial patriots who spend their time there. Through listening to tavern talk and closely observing Mr. Wilson, Will begins to grasp the importance of the colonial cause. But when conflicts between the citizens of colonial Boston and the British lobsterbacks escalate, Will is confronted with an impossible question–how much is he willing to sacrifice for the revolution and the freedom of his fellow citizens? 

Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

Johnny Tremain, an apprentice silversmith with a bright future ahead of him, injures his hand in a tragic work accident, causing his apprenticeship to be cancelled. With one hand barely functioning, he has to find some work while he hopes for the hand to improve enough to go back to his craft. In his new job as a horse-boy, riding for the patriotic newspaper The Boston Observer and as a messenger for the Sons of Liberty, he encounters John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and Dr. Joseph Warren. Soon Johnny is involved in the pivotal events of the American Revolution, from the Boston Tea Party to the first shots fired at Lexington.

Early Thunder by Jean Fritz

Daniel knew he was loyal to England and the King. Until something happened that changed his life forever… Salem, 1774. Daniel West and his widowed doctor father are undeniably Tories, and neither tax on tea nor wild acts by the rowdy Liberty Boys could weaken their loyalty to the king. After a series of further disappointments, from his father and from England, Daniel disappoints himself on a night when all of Salem goes wild. Eventually, Daniel must come to terms with himself and makes a difficult decision. In a major confrontation between the British troops and the townspeople, he proudly supports his chosen side.

Hope’s Crossing by Joan Elizabeth Goodman

They came from across Long Island Sound, Tories in search of plunder and ransom, bringing terror to Hope Wakeman’s Connecticut home. The family is defenseless now that Father is away serving in General Washington’s army. They can only watch as Noah Thomas and his crew strip the house of treasured belongings. And before she realizes what is happening, Hope finds herself a captive and a slave to Thomas’s ill-tempered wife. Hope has one unlikely ally: Thomas’s plucky mother is a different sort of Tory, one who sees beyond partisan divisions. Together the frail old woman and the girl escape, setting off in search of safety, on a journey that takes them from the tiny villages of Long Island to the bustling Tory stronghold of Manhattan.

Friends of Liberty by Beatrice Gormley

It’s 1773, and Boston is in political turmoil. As tension rises between England and the colonies, lines are being drawn between the Loyalists and the Patriots. And Sally Gifford, a shoemaker’s daughter, finds herself on the opposite side from her best friend Kitty Lawton, the daughter of a wealthy merchant. Sally is torn between her cherished friendship and her loyalties to her own family and community in their fight for freedom. As the conflict continues to grow more charged in the weeks leading up to the Boston Tea Party, Sally finds within herself a bravery she didn’t know she had, and ultimately takes a stand for what she comes to find is most important.

Midnight Rider by Joan Hiatt Harlow

It’s 1775 and the American colonies are on the brink of revolution. Boston is swarming with soldiers, spies, and secrets. Tempers are flaring between the Whigs and the Tories. Fourteen-year-old Hannah Andrews is thrown into the middle of it all when she is driven out of her home by her guardian aunt to work as an indentured servant in the Boston household of Thomas Gage, governor of the colonies and general of the British armies.Soon after Hannah’s arrival, the stable boy, Caleb, befriends her and alerts her to the issues faced by Americans under British rule. Hannah dreams of freedom and begins to sympathize with Americans who desire independence from Britain. On the other hand, Hannah has deep respect for the Gage family and affection for her rebellious young mistress, Meg. Hannah soon realizes that Meg is as trapped in her aristocratic life as Hannah is in her own bondage as a servant. Hannah relies on her beloved horse, Promise, to help her through the difficult times. Disguised as a boy on her midnight rides with Promise, Hannah learns on which side her heart belongs. Then, when Hannah overhears a British plot to march on her hometown, she and Promise risk their lives to carry the warning to the town of Salem.

The Hollow Tree by Janet Lunn

It is 1777, and Phoebe Olcott is thrown headlong into the turmoil of war when her beloved cousin Gideon is hanged for being a British spy. When she finds a secret message from Gideon, containing the names of Loyalist families to be protected by the King’s soldiers, she decides to deliver it to the British general at Fort Ticonderoga. There’s only one problem: Phoebe has never been away from her small New Hampshire village, and she knows absolutely nothing about survival in the wilderness–much less dealing with warring Patriots and Tories. But she won’t let that stop her! Thus begins an enthralling wilderness journey, where Phoebe is accompanied by a cat, a bear cub, and Jem Morrissay, a young Loyalist heading to British Canada himself.

The Keeping Room by Anna Myers

When Colonel Joseph Kershaw leaves Camden, South Carolina, to lead the American rebels in their struggle against the British, he leaves his son Joey behind as the man of the house. As much as Joey fears the dreaded Redcoats, he is more afraid that he may not be able to fulfill his father’s expectations. But try as he might to protect his family, the horrors of the war reach right up to Joey’s doorsteop when General Cornwallis comes into town and makes the Kershaws’ home his headquarters. Soon after, he begins hanging American prisoners in the family garden. Although his family and teachers counsel against it, Joey is determined to help avenge his countrymen and prove himself–even if he has to risk everything.

The Secret Mission of William Tuck by Eric Pierpoint

William Tuck is set on justice. For his brother killed by British soldiers, for his friend Rebecca’s father held prisoner by the redcoats, and for the countless other rebel Americans struggling beneath the crushing weight of British rule. The whispered words of a dying soldier and a mysterious watch both give William all the ammunition he needs; a secret message for the leader of the rebel army. Rebecca disguises herself as a boy, and she and William join the American troops. They embark on an epic journey that pulls them into a secret network of spies, pits them against dangerous gunmen, and leads them on a quest to find General George Washington himself. Can William and Rebecca determine friend from foe long enough to deliver a message that might just change the tide of the American Revolution?

Liberty’s Son by Paul B. Thompson

Oliver Carter arrives in Boston in 1773 with the simple plan to work for Dr. Benjamin Church. However, the American colonists had grown tired of British tyranny and Boston has turned into a center of rebellious activity. Oliver joins Dr. Church in the Sons of Liberty, a group of colonists fighting for the rebel cause, but soon Oliver discovers that his boss is a traitor, giving secrets to the British. What can Oliver do to warn his friends about the danger they may be facing? Follow Oliver Carter in this spy story as he joins the rebellion, risks his life, and witnesses one of the climactic events beginning the American Revolution, the Boston Tea Party.

The Reb and the Redcoats by Constance Savery

Charlotte Darrington and her brothers and sisters can’t understand Uncle Lawrence’s bad mood. What could be more interesting than having their own American prisoner of war? The children are determined to make friends with the young rebel–but they find themselves thwarted by Uncle Lawrence and the prisoner himself. It is only after a near-disastrous attempt to reach France that the Reb allows himself to be drawn into the life at White Priory in southern England. The children are happy to become is “redcoats”–but they know that as long as the rebellion in the Colonies is going on, the cannot rely on the Reb to stay in their home. After the Reb nearly dies, even Uncle Lawrence, embittered by the unjust death of a friend in America, thaws toward him-but this doesn’t stop the Reb from scheming to escape at the first honorable opportunity.

John Treegate’s Musket by Leonard Wibberley

It is 1769, ten years since America’s colonial militia had joined with the British regular army and defeated the French for dominion of Canada. The current of feeling about what it means to be loyal to the King has changed. While many colonists are angry about England’s unjust taxation, wealthy merchant John Treegate remains fiercely loyal and certain that an agreement can be reached between the colonies and their mother country. Deciding to travel to England to appeal to the government there means leaving his motherless, eleven-year-old son Peter on his own, apprenticed to one of Treegate’s friends, a manufacturer of barrel staves. Peter’s new master is not severe, but the senior apprentice is a vicious bully and worse. A chain of events leads to trouble for Peter involving murder, shipwreck, loss of memory, adoption by a strange and bitter Scotsman, until finally he is reunited with his father on the eve of America’s battle for independence.

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If you’re looking for a local production you can see to visualize what happened during the Revolution in our very own town, you could check out Allegiance: The Legend of Isaac Jones, which was filmed right here in Weston by local high school students back in 2009.

Allegiance: The Legend of Isaac Jones

Isaac Jones is an innkeeper in Weston, Massachusetts at the time of the American Revolution. He is a loyal to England and his tavern becomes a safe haven for British spies as they plan their famous march to Lexington and Concord. When his fellow residents find out that Isaac is serving tea, he comes under their scrutiny. ‘Allegiance: The Legend of Isaac Jones’ is the story of Isaac’s reluctant change of loyalty in the time of war.

A historical dramatization of events that actually happened in 1775 at the Golden Ball Tavern in Weston, Massachusetts.

Check it out at the Weston Public Library!

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So whether you’re studying Colonial Times in school, or are simply interested in history during the American Revolution, these books are sure to satisfy your curiosity!

If you need help finding these–or any other–books at the Library, just ask one of our librarians. We’re always happy to match kids and books!

Happy Reading!
::Kelly::

5 Books Featuring…Military Dogs and their People

Do you have a dog? Do you think they’re well trained? If they’re not well trained…welcome to my world! 🙂 If they are well trained, do you think they could hold down a job? A real job, like bomb-sniffing, or jumping out of planes, or finding people in the rubble of broken buildings? The dogs in these books do all that, and more. They also provide comfort and distraction for their special humans.

These five (well, seven) books feature military dogs saving themselves and rescuing their people from a variety of situations.

Our Five Books feature is a booklist of five books (occasionally with a few extras) on a specific topic, with a short synopsis so you can decide if it sounds like something you would like. Five Books–One Old, One New, One Popular with Kids, One Well-Reviewed, and One Favorite. (But you’ll have to guess which is which)! And if there are more than five…well, sometimes it’s hard to decide which one to leave out…

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Five books Featuring…Military Dogs and Their People

Saving Zasha by Randy Barrow
World War II has just ended when Mikhail finds a dying man and his German shepherd, Zasha, in the woods. It’s dangerous-some say traitorous-to own a German dog after Germany attacked Russia, so Mikhail must keep Zasha a secret to keep her alive.  But Mikhail’s rival, Katia, is determined to find the dog she is sure he’s hiding. At the same time, a soldier named Dimitri is breeding a new Russian dog at a nearby farm. So many dogs were lost to starvation and in combat that the country is in dire need of every kind of dog. Dimitri, too, has suspicions of Zasha’s existence, and would like nothing more than to add her to his breeding program.  Mikhail’s inspiring journey to save his best friend, the last German shepherd in Russia, forces him to face some of life’s hardest lessons about war, hate, forgiveness, hope, love, and man’s best friend.  Also read the sequel: Finding Zasha.

Rip to the Rescue by Miriam Halahmy
It’s 1940 and Nazi bombs are raining down on London.  Jack navigates the smoky, ash-covered streets of London amid air raid sirens and falling bombs, dodging shrapnel and listening for cries for help, as a bike messenger for fire crews. When Jack finds a dog, miraculously still alive after the latest Nazi bombing of London, he realizes there’s something extra special about the shaggy pup–he can smell people who are trapped under debris.  With his new canine companion–named Rip because of the dog’s torn ear-maybe Jack can do more than just relay messages back-and-forth.  Maybe he can actually save lives. And if Jack’s friend Paula is right about the impending Nazi invasion, he and Rip will need to do all they can to help Jewish families like hers. 
There’s just one problem: Jack has to convince his ill-tempered father to let him keep Rip.

Cracker by Cynthia Kadohta
Cracker is one of the U.S. Army’s most valuable weapons;  a German shepherd trained to sniff out bombs, traps, and the enemy. The fate of entire platoons rests on her keen sense of smell. She’s a Big Deal, and she likes it that way. Sometimes Cracker remembers when she was younger, and her previous owner would feed her hot dogs and let her sleep in his bed. That was nice, too.
Rick Hanski is headed to Vietnam. There, he’s going to whip the world and prove to his family and his sergeant — and everyone else who didn’t think he was cut out for war — wrong. But sometimes Rick can’t help but wonder that maybe everyone else is right. Maybe he should have just stayed at home and worked in his dad’s hardware store. 
When Cracker is paired with Rick, she isn’t so sure about this new owner. He’s going to have to prove himself to her before she’s going to prove herself to him. They need to be friends before they can be a team, and they have to be a team if they want to get home alive.

Code Word Courage by Kirby Larson
Billie has lived with her great-aunt ever since her mom passed away and her dad left. Billie’s big brother, Leo, is about to leave, too, for the war front. But first, she gets one more weekend with him at the ranch.  Billie is surprised when Leo brings home Denny, a fellow Marine from boot camp. She has so much to ask Leo — about losing her best friend and trying to find their father; she doesn’t want to share him. But Denny, who is Navajo, or Diné, comes with something special: a gorgeous, but injured, stray dog. As Billie cares for the dog, whom they name Bear, she and Bear grow deeply attached to each other.  Soon enough, it’s time for Leo and Denny, a Navajo Code Talker, to ship out. Billie does her part for the war effort, but she worries whether Leo and Denny will make it home, whether she’ll find a new friend, and if her father will ever come back. Can Bear help Billie — and Denny — find what’s most important?  A powerful tale about unsung heroism on the WWII battlefield and the home front.

Duke by Kirby Larson
With World War II raging and his father fighting overseas in Europe, Hobie Hanson is determined to do his part to help his family and his country, even if it means giving up his beloved German shepherd, Duke. Hoping to help end the war and bring his dad home faster, Hobie decides to donate Duke to Dogs for Defense, an organization that urges Americans to “loan” their pets to the military to act as sentries, mine sniffers, and patrol dogs. Hobie immediately regrets his decision and tries everything he can to get Duke back, even jeopardizing his friendship with the new boy at school. But when his father is taken prisoner by the Germans, Hobie realizes he must let Duke go and reach deep within himself to be brave. Will Hobie ever see Duke, or his father, again? 
Also read Liberty and Dash by this author for two other tales about different dogs during World War II.

Semper Fido by C. Alexander London
When Gus Dempsey joins the US Marine Corps, he knows without a doubt that he will make a great dog handler. He’s always been good with dogs. In fact, he’s often better with dogs than he is with people.  But Loki is not the dog that Gus was expecting. Fun-loving and playful, Loki acts more like a pet than the well-trained, bomb-sniffing Marine that he’s supposed to be.  When Gus and Loki deploy to Afghanistan, though, they have no choice but to learn to work together. Because in war, getting along is a matter of life and death.
Dog Tags is a series of stand-alone books, each exploring the bond between a soldier and a dog in times of war. Try the other titles in this series: Strays, Prisoners of War, and Divided We Fall.

Shadow by Michael Morpurgo
With the horrors of war bearing down on them, Aman and his mother are barely surviving in an Afghan cave, and staying there any longer will end horribly. The only comfort Aman has is Shadow, the loyal spaniel that shows up from places unknown, it seems, just when Aman needs him most.  Aman, his mother, and Shadow finally leave the destroyed cave in hopes of escaping to England, but are held at a checkpoint, and Shadow runs away after being shot at by the police. Aman and his mother escape–without Shadow. Aman is heart-broken. Just as they are getting settled as free citizens in England, they are imprisoned in a camp with locked doors and a barbed wire fence. Their only hope is Aman’s classmate Matt, his grandpa, and the dream of finding his lost dog. After all, you never lose your shadow.
Try other Michael Morpurgo books about brave companion animals…just not necessarily dogs.

Max: Best Friend. Hero. Marine. By Jennifer Li Shotz
When Justin’s older brother, Kyle, is killed in Afghanistan, Justin can’t believe that his brother is really gone. Except there’s one thing that Kyle left behind…. 
Max is a highly trained military canine who has always protected his fellow soldiers. But when he loses his handler and best friend, Kyle, Max is traumatized and unable to remain in the service.  He is sent home to America, where the only human he connects with is Justin, and he is soon adopted by Kyle’s family, essentially saving his life. At first Justin has no interest in taking care of his late brother’s troubled dog. However, the two learn to trust each other, which helps the four-legged veteran become his heroic self once more.  As the pair start to unravel the mystery of what really happened to Kyle, they find more excitement–and danger–than they bargained for. But they might also find an unlikely new best friend in each other.

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And there you have it…a whole pack of wonderful dogs!

Do you think your dog could be as brave as these dogs? Do you think you could be as brave as their people? Read one of these books–or all of these books!–and see what you think. I know I am inspired to hug my dog (and maybe try to teach him a few new commands) after reading even ONE of these!

Let me know which one you liked best…or tell me if I missed any. You never know; your recommendation could be someone else’s next favorite book! As always, if you need help finding these or any other books, just ask one of our librarians. We’re always happy to help match books and people.

Happy Reading!
::kelly::

Booklist — History and Home

Have you ever wished you lived in some other place, or in some other time? Where things are different from what you’re living…where instead of cold yellow grass, waiting to be covered with snow, there’s green plants, sunshine and the smell of the sea. Instead of 2021, it’s 1944, or 1910, or even 1962. Where the atmosphere is rich, family is present, and history is happening.

This list started off as a 5 Books Featuring… segment, but it got out of control with all the additions! And there are so many that could be added. Enjoy the twentieth century in Cuba, Kenya and (mostly) the warmer parts of the United States.

At any rate, here is a short(ish) booklist of titles with a strong sense of place, of history and of family.

Enjoy!

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I Lived on Butterfly Hill by Marjorie Agosin
Celeste Marconi is a dreamer. She lives peacefully among friends and neighbors and family in the idyllic town of Valparaiso, Chile–until the time comes when even Celeste, with her head in the clouds, can’t deny the political unrest that is sweeping through the country. Warships are spotted in the harbor and schoolmates disappear from class without a word. Celeste doesn’t quite know what is happening, but one thing is clear: no one is safe, not anymore. The country has been taken over by a government that declares artists, protestors, and anyone who helps the needy to be considered “subversive” and dangerous to Chile’s future. So Celeste’s parents–her educated, generous, kind parents–must go into hiding before they, too, “disappear.” To protect their daughter, they send her to America. As Celeste adapts to her new life in Maine, she never stops dreaming of Chile. But even after democracy is restored to her home country, questions remain: Will her parents reemerge from hiding? Will she ever be truly safe again?

Precious Bones by Mika Ashley-Hollinger
Meet Bones, whose playground is the Florida swamps, brimming with black bears, alligators and bobcats. Bones’ father, Nolay, a Miccosukee Indian, is smart and mischievous. Her Mama, practical as corn bread, can see straight into Bones’ soul. It’s summer, and Bones is busy hunting and fishing with her best friend, Little Man. Now that the war is over, things look better for most swamp families. But then two Yankee real estate agents trespass on her family’s land, and Nolay scares them off with his gun. When a storm blows in and Bones and Little Man uncover something horrible at the edge of the Loo-chee swamp, the evidence of foul play points to Nolay. The only person that can help Nolay is Sheriff LeRoy, who’s as slow as pond water. Bones is determined to take matters into her own hands. If it takes a miracle, then a miracle is what she will deliver.

Orange for the Sunsets by Tina Athaid
Asha and her best friend, Yesofu, never cared about the differences between them: Indian. African. Girl. Boy. Short. Tall. But when Idi Amin announces that Indians have ninety days to leave the country, suddenly those differences are the only things that people in Entebbe can see–not the shared after-school samosas or Asha cheering for Yesofu at every cricket game. Determined for her life to stay the same, Asha clings to her world tighter than ever before. But Yesofu is torn, pulled between his friends, his family, and a promise of a better future. Now as neighbors leave and soldiers line the streets, the two friends find that nothing seems sure–not even their friendship. Tensions between Indians and Africans intensify and the deadline to leave is fast approaching. Could the bravest thing of all be to let each other go?

Letters from Cuba by Ruth Behar
Esther is in Cuba…a place where she relishes the sunshine, wearing sandals for the first time, and enjoys the beautiful language and music of the island. But the situation is getting dire for Jews in Poland on the eve of World War II. Esther’s father has fled to Cuba, and she is the first one to join him. It’s heartbreaking to be separated from her beloved sister, so Esther promises to write down everything that happens until they’re reunited. And she does, recording both the good–the kindness of the Cuban people and her discovery of a valuable hidden talent–and the bad: the fact that Nazism has found a foothold even in Cuba. Esther’s evocative letters are full of her appreciation for life and reveal a resourceful, determined girl with a rare ability to bring people together, all the while striving to get the rest of their family out of Poland before it’s too late.

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos
Melding the entirely true and the wildly fictional,Dead End in Norveltis a novel about an incredible two months for a kid named Jack Gantos, whose plans for vacation excitement are shot down when he is “grounded for life” by his feuding parents, and whose nose spews bad blood at every little shock he gets. But plenty of excitement (and shocks) are coming Jack’s way once his mom loans him out to help a feisty old neighbor with a most unusual chore–typewriting obituaries filled with stories about the people who founded his utopian town. As one obituary leads to another, Jack is launched on a strange adventure involving molten wax, Eleanor Roosevelt, twisted promises, a homemade airplane, Girl Scout cookies, a man on a trike, a dancing plague, voices from the past, Hells Angels . . . and possibly murder. Endlessly surprising, this sly, sharp-edged narrative is the author at his very best, making readers laugh out loud at the most unexpected things in a dead-funny depiction of growing up in a slightly off-kilter place where the past is present, the present is confusing, and the future is completely up in the air.

Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
World War II has come to Patty Bergen’s hometown of Jenkinsville, Arkansas, in the form of a German prisoner of war camp. Patty, a twelve-year-old Jewish girl, is curious about these Nazi soldiers, who must be monsters for the killing they have done. She is also lonely and awkward, and looking for a friend. Anton, a German soldier, is not the monster that Patty imagined, but a frightened young man with feelings not unlike her own. He sees Patty in a way no one else does, as “a person of value.” When she decides to help him escape from the camp, the consequences will change Patty’s life forever. This thought-provoking, emotional narrative tackles difficult issues with insight and courage.

The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani
It’s 1947, and India, newly independent of British rule, has been separated into two countries–Pakistan and India. The divide has created much tension between Hindus and Muslims, and hundreds of thousands are killed crossing borders. Half-Muslim and half-Hindu, Nisha doesn’t know where she belongs, or what her country is anymore. When Papa decides it’s too dangerous to stay in what is now Pakistan, Nisha and her family become refugees and embark first by train but later on foot to reach her new home. The journey is long, difficult, and dangerous; after losing her mother as a baby, Nisha can’t imagine losing her homeland, too. But even if her country has been ripped apart, Nisha still believes in the possibility of putting herself back together. Told through Nisha’s letters to her mother, this is a heartfelt story of one girl’s search for home, for her own identity…and for a hopeful future.

Full of Beans by Jennifer L. Holm
Grown-ups lie. That’s one truth Beans knows for sure. He and his gang know how to spot a whopper a mile away, because they are the savviest bunch of barefoot conchs (that means “locals”) in all of Key West. Not that Beans really minds; it’s 1934, the middle of the Great Depression. With no jobs on the island, and no money anywhere, who can really blame the grown-ups for telling a few tales? Besides, Beans isn’t anyone’s fool. In fact, he has plans. Big plans. And the consequences might surprise even Beans himself. The companion book to Turtle in Paradise, this book will leave you wanting both a cousin like Beans and a visit to Key West. Try all of Jennifer Holm’s books! They’re set all over the US, and they all have a very strong sense of place and characters.

Turtle In Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm
Turtle is smart and tough and has seen enough of the world not to expect a Hollywood ending. After all, it’s 1935 and jobs and money and sometimes even dreams are scarce. So when Turtle’s mama gets a job housekeeping for a lady who doesn’t like kids, Turtle says goodbye without a tear and heads off to Key West, Florida to live with relatives she’s never met. Florida’s like nothing Turtle’s ever seen before though. It’s hot and strange, full of rag tag boy cousins, family secrets, scams, and even buried pirate treasure! Before she knows what’s happened, Turtle finds herself coming out of the shell she’s spent her life building, and as she does, her world opens up in the most unexpected ways. Full of a sense of Florida in the depression, this will make you long for heat and sunshine.

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
Calpurnia Virginia Tate is eleven years old when she wonders why the yellow grasshoppers in her Texas backyard are so much bigger than the green ones.With a little help from her notoriously cantankerous grandfather, an avid naturalist, she figures out that the green grasshoppers are easier to see against the yellow grass, so they are eaten before they can get any larger. As Callie explores the natural world around her, she develops a close relationship with her grandfather, navigates the dangers of living with six brothers, and comes up against just what it means to be a girl at the turn of the century. Dusty Texas comes to life in this story set in a small town inhabited by people full of character.

The Turtle of Oman by Naomi Shihab Nye
Aref Al-Amri does not want to leave Oman. He does not want to leave his elementary school, his friends, or his beloved grandfather, Siddi. He does not want to live in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where his parents will go to graduate school. His mother is desperate for him to pack his suitcase, but he refuses. Finally, she calls Siddi for help. But rather than pack, Aref and Siddi go on a series of adventures. They visit the camp of a thousand stars deep in the desert, they sleep on Siddi’s roof, they fish in the Gulf of Oman and dream about going to India, and they travel to the nature reserve to watch the sea turtles. At each stop, Siddi finds a small stone that he later slips into Aref’s suitcase–mementos of home.

Auma’s Long Run by Eucabeth Odhiambo
Auma loves to run. In her small Kenyan village, she’s a track star with big dreams. A track scholarship could allow her to attend high school and maybe even become a doctor. But a strange new sickness called AIDS is ravaging the village, and when her father becomes ill, Auma’s family needs her help at home. Soon more people are getting sick–even dying–and no one knows why. Now Auma faces a difficult choice. Should she stay to support her struggling family or leave to pursue her own future? Auma knows her family is depending on her, but leaving might be the only way to find the answers to questions about this new disease. Set in the 1990s in Kenya, this is a gripping story about a girl with a deep sense of purpose.

How High the Moon by Karyn Parsons
In the small town of Alcolu, South Carolina in 1944, Ella spends her days fishing and running around with her best friend Henry and cousin Myrna. But life is not always so sunny for Ella, who gets bullied for her light skin tone and whose mother is away pursuing a jazz singer dream in Boston. So Ella is ecstatic when her mother invites her to visit for Christmas. Little does she expect the truths she will discover about her mother, the father she never knew and her family’s most unlikely history. And after a life-changing month, she returns South and is shocked by the news that her schoolmate George has been arrested for the murder of two local white girls. Bittersweet and eye-opening, Ella is a girl finding herself in a world all but determined to hold her down.

A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck
What happens when Joey and his sister, Mary Alice–two city slickers from Chicago–make their annual summer visits to Grandma Dowdel’s seemingly sleepy Illinois town?
August 1929: They see their first corpse, and he isn’t resting easy.
August 1930: The Cowgill boys terrorize the town, and Grandma fights back.
August 1931: Joey and Mary Alice help Grandma trespass, poach, catch the sheriff in his underwear, and feed the hungry—all in one day.
Together, Joey and Mary Alice have nine summers they’ll never forget in a small town that really isn’t as sleepy as it first seems.

Night of the Howling Dogs by Graham Salisbury
Dylan’s scout troop goes camping in Halape, a remote spot below the volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii. The only thing wrong with the weekend on a beautiful, peaceful beach is Louie, a tough older boy. Louie and Dylan just can’t get along. But an earthquake rocks the camp halfway through the trip, and then a wave rushes in, sweeping everyone and everything before it. Dylan and Louie must team up on a dangerous rescue mission. The next hours are an amazing story of survival and the true meaning of leadership and family. Hawaii beauty and danger come to life in this tale, complete with a volcanic eruption, and earthquake and a tidal wave.

Under the Blood-Red Sun by Graham Salisbury
Tomi was born in Hawaii. His grandfather and parents were born in Japan, and came to America to escape poverty. World War II seems far away from Tomi and his friends, who are too busy playing ball on their eighth-grade team, the Rats. But then Pearl Harbor is attacked by the Japanese, and the United States declares war on Japan. Japanese men are rounded up, and Tomi’s father and grandfather are arrested. As WWII intensifies and Pearl Harbor is bombed, Tomi’s family faces racism, violence and hardship at every turn. Tomi’s father and grandfather are taken away, leaving Tomi to worry if he can perform honorably as man of the house.It’s a terrifying time to be Japanese in America. But one thing doesn’t change: the loyalty of Tomi’s buddies, the Rats.

Terrible, Horrible Edie by E. C. Spykman
EVEN IF she has lived ten terrible years, terrible, horrible Edie really isn’t terrible and horrible at all, but rather charming and engaging and gutsy. It’s true of course that Edie does get into–and not always without it being at least a little bit her fault–some pretty terrible and horrible scrapes, and that sometimes she will sulk, but these are the kinds of things that happen to the kid sister of two snooty boys and one fancy-pants girl, not to mention having to deal with the distraction of two half sisters who are no better than babies. It’s 1910, and Edie’s father and stepmother have headed to Europe for the summer, and though the rest of the family can look forward to good times at a beloved summer house on the sea, Edie still has to fight to hold her own. Adventures on a sailboat and on an island, and the advent of a major hurricane and what Edie takes to be a military coup, all come to a climax when Edie solves the mystery of who stole the neighbor’s jewels and saves, at least for one day, the day.

Listening for Lions by Gloria Whelan
Left an orphan after the influenza epidemic in British East Africa in 1918, Rachel is tricked into assuming a deceased neighbor’s identity to travel to England, where she’s forced into posing as the deceased daughter of a nefarious couple in an effort to gain them an enormous inheritance. Her irrepressible spirit and extraordinary wit turn her from victim to heroine in a surprising and empowering tale of a remarkable young woman. Even through she faces tragedy and deception, her only dream is to return to Africa and rebuild her parents’ mission hospital. Will she and triumph against everything she faces?

Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk
After losing almost everything in the Great Depression, Ellie’s family is forced to leave their home in town and start over in the untamed wilderness of nearby Echo Mountain. Ellie has found a welcome freedom, and a love of the natural world, in her new life on the mountain. But there is little joy after a terrible accident leaves her father in a coma. An accident unfairly blamed on Ellie. Ellie is a girl who takes matters into her own hands, and determined to help her father she will make her way to the top of the mountain in search of the healing secrets of a woman known only as “the hag.” But the hag, and the mountain, still have many untold stories left to reveal. Read all of Lauren Wolk’s books…they all fit this list!

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So there you have it…almost twenty books with a rich (and mostly warm) setting and a kid (or two) with history happening all around them. How many of these places would you like to visit? What kind of person would you be in these times? How many of these books will you read? If you can think of other books you would include, let us know in the comments below!

Immerse yourself in one of these books this winter and see what life is like in another (warm!) place and time. (Can you tell that I’m tired of the temperature in January?)

As always, if you would like help finding these or any other books, ask one of our librarians. We’re here to help! And if you would like other suggestions, we do that too!

Happy Reading!
::kelly::

Five Books Featuring…Elephants on Adventures!

Elephants!  What’s not to love?  One of my favorite books growing up was Little Burma, by Robert McClung.  It was about a boy in Revolutionary America, who rescued a baby elephant and tried to help him, after they both escaped from a traveling side show.  It’s not available in Minuteman, but my old, beat up copy is still somewhere in my mom’s attic.  Elephant adventures have always been appealing since then, the more adventurous, the better!

So this week, when two brand new adventures featuring elephants and kids came in for the kids collection, it seemed like a great time to feature an animal everyone loves.  And so, for our first entry back after way too long, we present…Five Books Featuring…Elephant Adventures!

Our Five Books Featuring are five books related by topic–One Old, One New, One Popular with Kids, One Well-Reviewed, and One Favorite of library staff–but you’ll have to guess which is which! Each book has a short synopsis and link to the book in the catalog, so you can easily find and request it.

Read on!

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Carrick, Carol.  The Elephant in the Dark
With a sick mother and nowhere else to go, Will Sleeper is taken in by the Sandersons, the village storekeeper and his wife.  His duties will be to help feed and care for Toong, an elephant they are boarding for the winter. Even though at first Will is afraid of Toong, after he loses his mother some of Will’s grief and loneliness are eased by the friendship that develops between the boy and the elephant.
As they spend more time together, Toong learns to accept Will’s directions and even lets him rides on her back. But just when Will becomes comfortable with the Sandersons and with Toong, the elephant is sold. This time, Will isn’t willing to be left behind, and he determinedly follows Toong and her new owners on foot, sure that his destiny and Toong’s are intertwined and that they belong together.
Although Will is fictional, this story is based on a real elephant, Old Bet, who toured Massachusetts and New England in the early 1800s.

Harris, R.P.  Tua and the Elephant
Tua–Thai for “peanut”–has everything she needs at home in Chiang Mai, Thailand, except for one thing she’s always wanted: a sister. In the market one day, Tua makes an accidental acquaintance–one with wise, loving eyes, remarkable strength, and a very curious trunk. And when Tua meets Pohn-Pohn, it’s clear this elephant needs her help. Together, the unusual team sets off on a remarkable journey to escape from Pohn-Pohn’s vile captors. From the bustling night market to the hallowed halls of a Buddhist temple and finally, to the sanctuary of an elephant refuge, this clever girl and her beloved companion find that right under their noses is exactly what each has been searching for: a friend.

High, Linda Oatman.  One Amazing Elephant
Lily Pruitt loves her grandparents, but she doesn’t love the circus–and the circus is their life. If your mother were a trapeze artist and your grandparents traveled with a circus, you might imagine that you’d get such perks as free cotton candy, the chance to befriend sideshow performers, and behind-the-scenes tours. While this lifestyle might excite most tweens, Lily Pruitt views the circus as dangerous. She’s perfectly happy to stay with her father, away from her neglectful mother and her grandfather’s beloved elephant, Queenie Grace.
Then Grandpa Bill dies, and both Lily and Queenie Grace are devastated. When Lily travels to Florida for the funeral, she keeps her distance from the elephant. But the two are mourning the same man–and form a bond born of loss. And when Queenie Grace faces danger, Lily must come up with a plan to help save her friend.

Kehret, Peg.  Saving Lilly
Erin Wrenn and her friend David are in big trouble when they refuse to go on a field trip to the Glitter Tent Circus. They wrote a report on the sad lives of circus animals and discovered that the Glitter Tent Circus is one of the worst animal abusers of all. However, their teacher Mrs. Dawson is determined to give her students the happy circus experience she remembers from her childhood; she won’t let Erin and David share their report or pass around a petition asking for a different field trip. Erin is determined to force Mrs. Dawson to change her plans…or she’ll stage a sit-in at school.
Then Erin sees an even bigger problem: Lilly, a mistreated elephant, is about to be sold to a hunting park. How can she save Lilly before it’s too late? It seems impossible.
Can one girl — and an entire class of sixth graders – really make a difference?

Kelly, Lynne.  Chained
After Hastin’s family borrows money to pay for his sister’s hospital bill, he leaves his village in northern India to take a job as an elephant keeper and work off the debt. He thinks it will be an adventure, but he isn’t prepared for the cruel circus owner. The crowds that come to the circus see a lively animal who plays soccer and balances on milk bottles, but Hastin sees Nandita, a sweet elephant and his best friend, who is chained when she’s not performing and hurt with a hook until she learns tricks perfectly. Hastin protects Nandita as best as he can, but he knows that the only way they will both survive is if he can find a way for them to escape.

Kerr, Jane.  The Elephant Thief
When young pickpocket Danny accidentally buys an elephant at an auction, he finds himself swept up on an unforgettable adventure. Offered a job by a zookeeper, all he has to do is ride Maharajah from Edinburgh to Manchester in one week.  Everyone in the country is watching, even the Queen, but the journey soon proves to be filled with drama and danger. A rival zookeeper will stop at nothing to make sure they fail, and soon Danny’s shady connections from his past threaten to overturn the mission.  Can Danny win the trust and friendship of the elephant and guide him home? Can the two of them stick together through the odds and win the day?

Morpurgo, Michael.  An Elephant in the Garden
Frail and in a nursing home, Lizzie recalls when she was a teen and her family, including an elephant named Marlene, escaped the devastating 1945 bombing of Dresden, Germany…
Lizzie and Karl’s mother is a zoo keeper; the family has become attached to an orphaned elephant named Marlene.  Because of the war, Marlene is supposed to be destroyed as a precautionary measure so she and the other animals don’t run wild should the zoo be hit by bombs. The family persuades the zoo director to let Marlene stay in their garden instead.
Marlene takes to her new family, particularly to Lizzie’s little brother, Karli, and when the bombers actually do arrive, Marlene accompanies them on their flight across Germany, away from the invading Russians and toward the advancing American army. Along the way, they meet a wounded Canadian soldier, who himself becomes an integral part of this makeshift family.
Inspired by a true story about an elephant rescued from a Belfast zoo during WWII.

Walters, Eric.  Elephant Secret
Samantha Gray is known as the “elephant girl.” She lives with her Dad and helps care for all the elephants in her family’s sanctuary. Raised close with the herd, Sam’s ability to connect with the elephants transcends human understanding. In fact, she bonds and interacts with the elephants much better than she does with people; especially with her dad’s new girlfriend, Joyce.
When a beloved elephant dies giving birth, Sam develops a connection with baby Woolly–who isn’t actually an elephant but was cloned from woolly mammoth DNA. The family is horrified to discover that the billionaire genius behind the cloning experiment will stop at nothing to protect his investment.
Smart, determined, and loving, Sam stands up to this powerful adversary to protect the sanctuary and her family…her herd.

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(Shhh…we’ll just pretend there were just five books, not eight.  I couldn’t decide which book to pick for the “new” choice!)   So many elephants, so many good reading choices!  Some of them we even have as audio books, so they would be good family choices as well.

Most of these books are middle grade, which means they would be good for third through sixth grade readers.  If you’re an elephant fan, you can’t go wrong with one of these choices.  So try one and see what you think.  And because I found so MANY elephant adventures, this would be a good place to put the rest of the elephant books.  No blurbs to entice you as a reader, but every single one of these is a great book to read.

Applegate, Katherine.  The One and Only Ivan
Burchett, J.  Safari Survival
DiCamillo, Kate.  The Magician’s Elephant
Dinerstein, Eric. What Elephants Know
Jacobson, Jennifer.  Small as an Elephant
Kadohata, Cynthia.  A Million Shades of Gray
McCall Smith, Alexander.  Akimbo and the Elephants
St. John, Lauren.  The Elephant’s Tale
Smith, Roland.  Thunder Cave

 

Happy Reading!
::Kelly::

Another Audio Review: Full of Beans!

Full of Beans
By Jennifer L. Holm, Read by Kirby Heyborne
3 CDs, 3.5 hours

Beans Curry has plans.  It’s 1934, and the country is in the Great Depression.  There’s no money anywhere for fun things; Beans’ family is just managing to squeak by.  His mother is taking in mending, and his father has left Key West to find work in New Jersey, so he can send money back to the family. Beans’ plan is to find a way to  make a whole lot of money so he can get his father back home, give his mother time to relax, and get some funds so he can go to the movies every week.

His first venture leads to him being cheated by Winky; the restaurant owner had promised Beans a dime for finding and cleaning cans for his business, but when Beans and his brother Kermit show up with the cans, Winky says it was fifty cans for a dime.  Hot, sweaty and angry, Beans casts out his net wider.  Several schemes with  his friends Pork Chop and Too Bad don’t go as  planned.  But when Beans hooks up with rum-runner Johnny Cakes, he suddenly has a lucrative job!

Too bad that it’s illegal.

Is the promise of money more important than honesty and friendship?  Can a kid from Key West find a way to survive?  Beans finds himself caught in the middle of some big lies and some small ones.  But he also discovers that keeping your eyes open and seeing what’s around you can lead to some pretty important discoveries…and some surprising sources of income.

Full of Beans is a sort of prequel to the Newbery-Award Winning Turtle in Paradise.  (Beans is Turtle’s cousin, and although Turtle is the main character, Beans has a major part to play.)  Beans is a character with a lot of character and an authentic voice…and Kirby Heyborne does a great job of translating that voice on CD.  In Full of Beans, Beans and his friends come to life, and you can practically feel the heat of Key West around you as you listen to the narration.

This is a relatively short book, and would be great to listen to on a short car trip.  If you’re going to Key West, you should definitely read or listen to this book…there’s a lot of history about how Key West developed, and what the residents did to help that happen.   Kids in grades three through six would enjoy reading this book, and it would be a good listen for kids as young as six through adults.

And if you listen to the audio, look at the book as well.  The afterword, with pictures from Key West in the 1930s, is well worth checking out, and so is the list of internet resources, with links to finding more information.

::Kelly::

Booklist: Living in America! Books about Immigrants

Stories about Immigrants Living in America

Applegate, Katherine.   Home of the Brave
Kek comes from Africa. In America he sees snow for the first time, and feels its sting. He’s never walked on ice, and he falls. He wonders if the people in this new place will be like the winter – cold and unkind. In Africa, Kek lived with his mother, father, and brother. But only he and his mother have survived, and now she’s missing. Kek is on his own. Slowly, he makes friends: a girl who is in foster care; an old woman who owns a rundown farm, and a cow whose name means “family” in Kek’s native language. As Kek awaits word of his mother’s fate, he weathers the tough Minnesota winter by finding warmth in his new friendships, strength in his memories, and belief in his new country.

Arato, Rona.  Mrs. Kaputnik’s Pool Hall and Matzo Ball Emporium
Treat yourself to a visit to the wackiest restaurant ever! Ten-year-old Shoshi and her eight-year-old brother, Moshe, arrive in New York in 1898 from Russia with their mother and Snigger, the baby dragon that saved them from an attack by Cossack soldiers. Five years earlier, their father had also come to New York to make his fortune, but no one has heard from him since. With the help of Snigger, they set out to solve the mystery behind their father’s disappearance, helping to free the Lower East Side from the tyrannical rule of gangster Nick the Stick along the way. A tale that blends history and fantasy with a journey of discovery, adventure, and fun!

Burg, Ann.   All the Broken Pieces : a novel in verse
Two years after being airlifted out of war-torn Vietnam, Matt Pin is haunted: by bombs that fell like dead crows, by the family — and the terrible secret — he left behind. Now, inside a caring adoptive home in the United States, a series of profound events force him to choose between silence and candor, blame and forgiveness, fear and freedom.

Crossan, Sarah.  The Weight of Water
Carrying just a suitcase and an old laundry bag filled with clothes, Kasienka and her mother are immigrating to England from Poland. Kasienka isn’t the happiest girl in the world. At home, her mother is suffering from a broken heart as she searches for Kasienka’s father. And at school, Kasienka is having trouble being the new girl and making friends. The only time she feels comforted is when she’s swimming at the pool. But she can’t quite shake the feeling that she’s sinking. Until a new boy swims into her life, and she learns that there might be more than one way to stay afloat!

Engle, Margarita.  Enchanted Air
Margarita is a girl from two worlds. Her heart lies in Cuba, her mother’s tropical island country, a place so lush with vibrant life that it seems like a fairy tale kingdom. But most of the time she lives in Los Angeles, lonely in the noisy city and dreaming of the summers when she can take a plane through the enchanted air to her beloved island. Then a revolution breaks out in Cuba. Margarita fears for her far-away family. When the hostility between Cuba and the United States erupts at the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Margarita’s worlds collide in the worst way possible. How can the two countries she loves hate each other so much? And will she ever get to visit her beautiful island again?

Estes, Eleanor.  The Hundred Dresses
Eleanor Estes’s The Hundred Dresses won a Newbery Honor in 1945 and has never been out of print since. At the heart of the story is Wanda Petronski, a Polish girl in a Connecticut school who is ridiculed by her classmates for wearing the same faded blue dress every day. Wanda claims she has one hundred dresses at home, but everyone knows she doesn’t and bullies her mercilessly. The class feels terrible when Wanda is pulled out of the school, but by that time it’s too late for apologies. Maddie, one of Wanda’s classmates, ultimately decides that she is “never going to stand by and say nothing again.”

Giff , Patricia.  Wild Girl
Lidie lives in Jales, Brazil, where she’s free to ride, to be a wild girl, and to dream of going to live with her father and older brother, Rafael, in New York City. Finally Lidie is 12—time to leave Brazil for New York. Meanwhile, a filly is born and begins her journey to a new home. Lidie’s father runs a stable at a famous race track, and Rafael is training to be a jockey. As much as they want to make Lidie feel welcome, they still think of her as the little girl they left behind. They don’t even know what a strong rider she is, and that she’s determined to befriend and ride the wild filly her father has just bought: Wild Girl.

Hilton, Marilyn.   Full Cicada Moon
It’s 1969, and the Apollo 11 mission is getting ready to go to the moon. But for half-black, half-Japanese Mimi, moving to a predominantly white Vermont town is enough to make her feel alien. Suddenly, Mimi’s appearance is all anyone notices. She struggles to fit in with her classmates, even as she fights for her right to stand out by entering science competitions and joining Shop Class instead of Home Ec. And even though teachers and neighbors balk at her mixed-race family and her refusals to conform, Mimi’s dreams of becoming an astronaut never fade–no matter how many times she’s told no.

Karwoski, Gail.   Quake! : Disaster in San Francisco, 1906
It is before daybreak on April 18, 1906. Jacob Kaufman slips out of the wooden boarding house where he lives with his immigrant father and little sister Rosie, his father’s harsh words still ringing in his ears. Suddenly the ground beneath his feet begins to rumble, buildings collapse and the street splits wide open as Jacob runs to find safety from a devastating earthquake. Fires engulf the city. He returns to find his father and sister… but there is nothing left of the building but a pile of sticks. Jacob and his dog join the throng of other people searching for shelter, food, fresh water…and loved ones who are missing. An Author’s Note at the end carefully separates fact from fiction, giving young readers a glimpse into one of the worst earthquakes in modern history.

Kelly, Erin.   The Land of Forgotten Girls
Erin Entrada Kelly, the author of the acclaimed Blackbird Fly, writes with grace, imagination, and deepest heart about family, sisters, and friendship, and about finding and holding on to hope in difficult times. Two sisters from the Philippines, abandoned by their father and living with their stepmother in Louisiana, fight to make their lives better in this remarkable story for readers of Cynthia Kadohata and Rita Williams-Garcia, and for anyone searching for the true meaning of family.

Lai, Thanhha.   Inside Out & Back Again
When the Vietnam War has reaches her home at Saigon falls. Ha and her family are forced to flee and they board a ship headed toward America. Ha discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food . . . and the strength of her very own family.  A wonderful debut novel, winner of several awards.

Marsden, Carolyn. The Gold-Threaded Dress
In Thailand she was named Oy, but here in America the teachers call her Olivia. Other things are not so easy to change, however. When Oy draws a self-portrait that has brown hair and eyes round as coins, her classmate Frankie makes fun and calls her Chinese. And the popular girl, Liliandra, barely speaks to her, until she learns that Oy has something very special: a Thai dancing dress from her grandmother, shimmering with pink silk and golden threads that make her look like a princess. Will Oy risk shaming her family to win Liliandra’s approval – and be part of the club she has envied from afar? With compassion and rare insight, Carolyn Marsden tells a simple tale about a young girl who searches for acceptance in a complex culture, while learning to treasure all that she is.

 Meyer, Susan.   Skating with the Statue of Liberty
After escaping the Germans in Nazi-occupied France, Gustave and his family have made it to America at last. But life is not easy in New York. Gustave’s clothes are all wrong, he can barely speak English, and he is worried about his best friend, Marcel, who is in danger back in France. Then there is September Rose, the most interesting girl in school, who doesn’t seem to want to be friends with him. Gustave is starting to notice that not everyone in America is treated equally, and his new country isn’t everything he’d expected. But he isn’t giving up.

Mobley, Jeannie.   Katerina’s Wish
Katerina has a dream. It’s her papa’s dream, too. Her family came to America to buy their own farm. But a year later, Papa is still working in the dangerous coal mine. Each day, the farm seems farther away. Then Katerina is reminded of the carp that granted three wishes in an old folktale. When her younger sisters hear the story, they immediately make wishes. Trina doesn’t believe in such silliness—but what is she to think when her sisters’ wishes come true? A farm is still too big to wish for. But, with the help of the neighbor’s handsome son, Trina starts building her dream with hard work and good sense. Then tragedy strikes, and it seems that nothing Trina wishes for will ever come true again.

Sharenow, Robert.  The Girl in the Torch
After her father is killed in a pogrom, twelve-year-old Sarah and her mother immigrate to America–but when her mother dies before they get through Ellis Island, and the authorities want to send her back to the old country, Sarah hides in the torch of the Statue of Liberty.

 

Booklist prepared by Hope K.

Book and Audio Review: The War That Saved My Life

Whoo-hoo!  Another audio book review!  One to go on our “top ten” list, too.

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The War That Saved My Life
By Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, read by Jayne Entwistle
6 CDs, 7 1/2 Hours

Ada and her little brother Jamie live in a one-room flat in London with their Mam.  It’s 1939, and a war with Germany is looming.  Ada doesn’t know much about the war; because she has a ‘bad foot’, Mam doesn’t allow her to ever leave their room, even for school.  She has grown up staying in the flat all day, sitting for hours in the chair by the window, watching Jamie play with his friends and waving at neighbors she’s never met.  Unless it’s a day that Mam is angry with her, then she’s stuffed into the cupboard under the sink or not given any food.

One day, Jamie comes home with the news that the children from their neighborhood are being evacuated to the country because the government is expecting London to be bombed.  Mam scoffs, but decides that one less mouth to feed might be a good thing.  She’s not letting Ada go though. No, Mam says Ada has to stay and get bombed, if it comes to that. Both children protest, but Mam locks them in and leaves for the pub.

No one at school knows Ada even exists, but she’s determined to go away with Jamie. Her practice standing on her bad foot comes in handy for their escape. When the morning comes to evacuate on the train, she steals her mother’s shoes and limps, then crawls, then gets a lift from one of Jamie’s friends.  Ada and Jamie make it to the country…only to be left out when everyone else is chosen.  Not one villager seems to want two dirty children with no belongings.

Then Lady Thornton, the woman in charge of the evacuated children, takes them in hand and leaves them to stay with Susan Smith, in a big old empty house.  Even though Miss Smith claims she is unkind and unfit to care for children, living with her is better than living with Mam.  As Ada and Jamie start exploring the world around them, fall in love with horses (Ada) and planes (Jamie), they start to trust Susan.  But will Susan want to keep them?  Will the war reach them, even in the country?  Will their Mam come to take them away, as the other refuge children are taken back?  And what about spies?

A little bit adventure, a little bit coming-of age, a little bit historical fiction, this is an amazing story about strength and courage and family.  The War That Saved My Life was a 2016 Newbery Award Honor Book Winner.

The sound recording of The War That Saved My Life is simply wonderful.  I loved the narrator, Jayne Entwistle.  She did a terrific job finding each character’s voice, and I was truly impressed at how she could infuse her voice with emotions.  You could hear the laughter and the tears in her voice as Ada spoke.  This audio book is right up there in my top ten recordings of children’s books.  It also won the 2016 Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audio Production, so I’m not the only one to think that way!

The War That Saved My Life is for kids in grades 5 – 8, although I think adults would enjoy it just as much as their kids do.  The sound recording would be great to share on a family car trip, although it might be difficult for a child younger than nine or ten, because of some tough subject matter.  (In addition to the consequences of being at war and the loss of loved ones, Ada and Jamie’s Mam is a thoroughly horrible person, and her treatment of the children might be difficult to hear.)  Listening to it as a family though, would provide some great groundwork for discussion about war, and families, and strength of spirit.

Some read-alike suggestions:  Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer Holm, Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage, Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt.

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Remember, if you would like recommendations for book or books on CD, ask one of our librarians.  Or check out some of our earlier recommendations here at BellaOnBooks!

::Kelly::

 

 

Booklist: History in Boston!

Everyone thinks about Pilgrims at Thanksgiving, but there are many other time periods where Massachusetts history came into play!  Celebrate the history of Boston and greater Massachusetts with this booklist of Boston favorites.

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Historic Boston Books

 

Alter, Stephen.
The Phantom Isles

Three friends and the librarian in a Massachusetts town must help each other to free the ghosts that have been imprisoned in books by a professor on a fantastical island many years ago.

Aiken, Joan.
Nightbirds on Nantucket

Having had enough of life on board the ship that saved her from a watery grave, Dido Twite wants nothing more than to sail home to England. Instead, Captain Casket’s ship lands in Nantucket, where Dido and the captain’s daughter, Dutiful Penitence, are left in the care of Dutiful’s sinister Aunt Tribulation.

 Carrick, Carol.
Elephant in the Dark

Through training an elephant, the first ever seen in early 1800’s Massachusetts, orphan Will begins to feel important for the first time in his life.

Collins, Pat Lowery.
Daughter of Winter

In the mid-nineteenth-century shipbuilding town of Essex, Massachusetts, twelve-year-old Addie learns a startling secret about her past when she escapes servitude by running away to live in the snowy woods and meets an elderly Wampanoag woman.

Corriveau, Art.
13 Hangmen

Tony and his friends, five 13-year-old boys, all live in the same house in the same attic bedroom but at different times in history! None are ghosts, all are flesh and blood, and somehow all have come together in the attic room, visible only to one another. And all are somehow linked to a murder, a mystery, and a treasure.

Corbett, Scott.
Dead Man’s Light

Tommy accompanies his Uncle Cyrus to Dead Man’s Light and is plunged at once into the unsolved mystery of the Light. Full of suspense and mystery, Young Tommy Brackett is in for a real adventure on the New England seacoasts.

Dorris, Michael.
Guests

Moss and Trouble, an Algonquin boy and girl, struggle with the problems of growing up in the Massachusetts area during the time of the first Thanksgiving.

Duble, Kathleen Benner.
The Sacrifice

Two sisters, aged ten and twelve, are accused of witchcraft in Andover, Massachusetts, in 1692 and await trial in a miserable prison while their mother desperately searches for some way to obtain their freedom.

Forbes, Esther.
Johnny Tremain

After injuring his hand, a silversmith’s apprentice in Boston becomes a messenger for the Sons of Liberty in the days before the American Revolution.

Fusco, Kimberly Newton.
The Wonder of Charlie Anne

In a 1930s Massachusetts farm town torn by the Depression, racial tension, and other hardships, Charlie Anne and her black next-door neighbor Phoebe form a friendship that begins to transform their community.

Giff, Patricia.
Oh Boy, Boston!

The Polk Street Kids are coming–on their class trip to Boston. They’re going to fly kites on Boston Common, walk the Freedom Trail, and put on a play–with Richard “Beast” Best as Paul Revere.

Hapka, Cathy.
Midnight Ride

John Raleigh Gates’ job as a post rider on the eve of the Revolutionary War puts him in contact with Paul Revere and a search for a hidden treasure.

Harlow, Joan.
Joshua’s Song

Needing to earn money after his father’s death during the influenza epidemic of 1918, thirteen-year-old Joshua works as a newspaper boy in Boston, one day finding himself in the vicinity of an explosion that sends tons of molasses coursing through the streets.

Hermann, Spring.
Seeing Lessons

When ten-year-old Abby Carter attends the newly established school for the blind in Boston in 1832, she proves that blind people can learn and be independent.

Hermes, Patricia.
Salem Witch

Salem, 1692. Elizabeth Putnam and her parents are different from many of the other village folk, and they doubt the superstitions that terrify the town. When Elizabeth herself is accused of witchcraft, her best friend George must make a difficult choice between what his community believes and what he knows to be true.

Hobbs, Valerie.
Maggie & Oliver or A Bone of One’s Own

A dog whose beloved owner has died and an orphaned ten-year-old girl find each other while enduring poverty and homelessness in early-twentieth-century Boston.

Holm, Jennifer.
Boston Jane

Schooled in the lessons of etiquette for young ladies of 1854, Miss Jane Peck of Philadelphia finds little use for manners during her long sea voyage to the Pacific Northwest and while living among the American traders and Chinook Indians of Washington Territory.

Jacobs, Paul.
James Printer: A Novel of Rebellion

Although he has lived and worked as a printer’s apprentice with the Green family in Cambridge Massachusetts, for many years, James, a Nipmuck Indian, finds himself caught up in the events that lead to a horrible war.

Langton, Jane.
The Mysterious Circus

With the help of a mysterious stranger and the magical gift he brought them from India, the Halls foil a new enemy’s plan to build a Henry Thoreau theme park across from their home in Concord, MA.

Lasky, Katherine.
Daughters of the Sea: Hannah

In 1899, a fifteen-year-old orphan named Hannah obtains employment as a servant in the home of one of Boston’s wealthiest families, where she meets a noted portrait painter who seems to know things about her that even she is not aware of, and when she accompanies the family to their summer home in Maine, she feels an undeniable pull to the sea.

Lawlor, Laurie.
Horseback on the Boston Post Road

As war with the French and Indians begins in 1704, Madame Sarah Kemble Knight is instructed to bring twin servant girls Hester and Philena on a perilous journey by horse from Boston to New Haven, Connecticut. When Madame Knight decides to take only one of the sisters, the other risks her life to follow, and the group of travelers must make their way through the menacing and hazardous wilderness.

Lord, Athena.
A Spirit to Ride the Whirlwind

Twelve-year-old Binnie, whose mother runs a company boarding house in Lowell, Massachusetts, begins working in a textile mill and is caught up in the 1836 strike of women workers.

Lowry, Lois.
Taking Care of Terrific

Taking her overprotected young charge to the public park to broaden his horizons, fourteen-year-old baby sitter Enid enjoys unexpected friendships with a black saxophonist and a bag lady until she is charged with kidnapping.

Massie, Elizabeth.
1776: Son of Liberty: a Novel of the American Revolution

African-American Caleb Jacobson, a sixteen-year-old free man living on a Maryland farm in the 1700s, is torn between loyalty to his fellow colonials and his race when rumors of war begin arriving from Boston.

McCoy, Chris.
Scurvy Goonda

At age fourteen, Ted Merritt is eager to replace his imaginary friend, a bacon-loving pirate, with real friends but soon he is led from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, into a world of discarded “abstract companions” who are intent on wreaking vengeance on the human race.

Meltzer, Milton.
Tough Times

In 1931 Worcester, Massachusetts, Joey Singer, the teenage son of Jewish immigrants, suffers with his family through the early part of the Great Depression, trying to finish high school, working a milk delivery route, marching on Washington, and eventually even becoming a hobo, all the while trying to figure out how to go to college and realize his dream of becoming a writer.

Paterson, Katherine.
Bread and Roses Too

Jake and Rosa, two children, form an unlikely friendship as they try to survive and understand the 1912 Bread and Roses strike of mill workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts.

Reit, Simon.
Guns for General Washington

In the bitter winter of 1775-76, Colonel Henry Knox and his younger brother Will, both of the Continental Army, become frustrated with the British blockade of Boston and decide to attempt to move 183 cannons from Fort Ticonderoga, over 300 miles of mountainous wilderness, to defend the besieged city.

Russell, Krista.
Chasing the Nightbird

In 1851 New Bedford, Massachusetts, fourteen-year-old Cape Verdean sailor Lucky Valera is kidnapped by his estranged half-brother and forced to work in a mill, but while Lucky is plotting his escape he meets a former slave and a young Quaker girl who influence his plans.

Schmidt, Gary.
What Came From the Stars

In a desperate attempt for survival, a peaceful civilization on a faraway planet besieged by a dark lord sends its most precious gift across the cosmos into the lunchbox of Tommy Pepper, sixth grader, of Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Steinmetz, Karen.
The Mourning Wars

In 1704, Mohawk Indians attack the frontier village of Deerfield, Massachusetts, kidnapping over 100 residents, including seven-year-old Eunice Williams. Based on a true story.

Stone, Phoebe.
The Boy on Cinnamon Street

Since a tragedy she cannot remember, thirteen-year-old Louise has changed her name, given up gymnastics, moved in with her grandparents, and locked her feelings inside but through her friends Reni and Hen and notes from a secret admirer she begins to find herself again.

Whelan, Gloria.
Fruitlands

Fictional diary entries recount the true-life efforts of Louisa May Alcott’s family to establish a utopian community known as Fruitlands in Massachusetts in 1843.

Booklist by Julie G.

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There are plenty of other books about Massachusetts, in the past and in the present!  So if you would like to read about the area where you live, just ask one of our librarians for suggestions!  And Happy Reading!

::Kelly::

Old Favorite: Flaming Arrows

When I was a kid, historical fiction was my favorite genre for quite a few years.  The more danger the characters were in, the more I liked the book.  My favorites were books on frontier and pioneer life…the kids in those books seemed to be more self-sufficient and danger-prone than they were at any other time in history!  Plus there was the whole survival thing added on to the danger.  As I read,  shivering in anticipation, I thought how I would manage to deal with being in the same situation…  Of course, being in the safety of my own house, it was easy to second-guess or plan better.

My own frontier survival skills were honed by reading William O. Steele’s books–The Buffalo Knife, Winter Danger,  The Lone Hunt, Trail Though Danger.  My real favorites were Tomahawks and Trouble and The Year of the Bloody Sevens, but Minuteman Library Network doesn’t own a copy of either.  So this week’s Old Favorite is my third favorite of Mr. Steele’s titles: Flaming Arrows.

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It’s 1785, and Chad Radburn and his family live in one of the Tennessee Cumberland wilderness settlements.  Pappy is a fine hunter and farmer, and Mammy an excellent homemaker. The family’s little cabin is secure and homey for Chad, his sister Sarah and his brother Amos.  All the kids help with chores, but as the oldest, Chad has extra responsibilities.  He even has a musket now, to hunt with and to help his father protect his mother and the younger ones from the Chickamauga raiding parties that sometimes attack the settlements.

Chad’s family learns that all the settlers are in danger when one of their neighbors comes to tell them the Chickamaugas are raiding. Mr. and Mrs. Radburn and Chad load up everything they can carry, and take themselves, the younger children and their livestock to the fort. The fort is small and crowded, but it’s safe and welcoming. Or is it?

When the Logan family tries to enter, most of the men in the fort want to turn away the mother and her three young sons.  Her husband is Traitor Logan, who sometimes trades with the Indian tribes and is known to have lived with them.  Though the family is skinny and weary-looking and they’re sure to be killed if they’re left outside, the frightened settlers don’t want anything to do with a traitor, even if he’s not with them. But Chad’s father convinces the rest of the families in the fort to bring the Logan family inside.  He promises to take responsibility for them.

When the siege continues for days with no signs of stopping, Chad starts to feel the weight of his father’s responsibility on his own shoulders.  It seems like the Indians know right where to go, and rumblings start about the Logan family.  Is all the danger outside the fort, or is someone from inside helping the enemy?  If peace is to be kept and the settlers are to survive, Chad has to take action.

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William O. Steele was born in 1917.  When he died in 1979, he had written 39 books for children and young adults.  He won several awards for his titles, including a Newbery Honor  for The Perilous Road.  Almost all his books take place along the frontier and feature young pioneers (real and fictional) dealing with the conflicts of making their way in the wilderness.

Flaming Arrows was originally published 1n 1957, when awareness of cultural differences between the native tribes and the settlers wasn’t often acknowledged, let alone recognized.  Indians are portrayed as the “bad guys” with no explanation about why they might be unhappy about being invaded by strangers taking over their land. We know now that there are better explanations for the violence that erupted on the frontier, but people living in those times didn’t have the benefit of our current knowledge and sensitivity.

There is a very good foreword by Jean Fritz  in the modern editions, republished in the 1990s.  She mentions that the history reflects the feelings, the worries and the dangers of the time.  Jean Fritz is a well-known author of historical fiction and non-fiction who was also a contemporary of William Steele.  Anyone reading these titles should definitely read the foreword.  It would be a good jumping-off point for a discussion on historical fiction and the way points of view and “known” history change over the years.

Flaming Arrows, like most of Mr. Steele’s books, is most appropriate for fourth and fifth graders, or for readers interested in or studying frontier life.  They are adventures and survival stories, and can be a little violent, like the times which they reflect.  They’re definitely good for historical fiction book reports!

So pick up any one of William O. Steele’s books if you’re interested in a good adventure story.  And let us know what you think!

::Kelly::

Old Favorite: The Sherwood Ring

Part mystery, part ghost story, part historical fiction, part romance.  This is a book that will give you insight into the American Revolution and laugh at the same time.  The Sherwood Ring, by Elizabeth Marie Pope, will  also make you want to run out and find out if your family has an ancestral home, family jewelry or family ghosts!

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Poor Peggy Grahame has spent all her life following her father around the world.  Her mother had died when she was born, and since she was a tiny infant, her father has either dumped her on nannies, at various schools, left her with friends, and once she got old enough or when his money ran out, dragged her around the world with him.  He’s never been affectionate, and scarcely seemed to notice that she was alive. Until the afternoon before he died.

On his deathbed, he apologizes for the years of neglect, and tells Peggy that he’s sending her to live with his older brother Enos at the ancestral family mansion, Rest-and-be-thankful, in New Jerusalem, New York.  He tells her a little about her family and more about the history of the house, including the fact (in a quite matter of fact tone) that it’s haunted. He also tells her that she’d be better off not telling Uncle Enos if she does see one of the ghosts, since Enos has spent his entire life surrounded by antiques, longing to meet the family ghosts.  Peggy’s father also tells her that he wrote to Enos that he was sending her there, and that she wouldn’t be any trouble. He gives her sketchy directions on how to get there, and just a few days later, she’s on her way.

When Peggy arranges for her train to stop at the New Jerusalem station, she discovers that Rest-and-be-Thankful is seven miles away.  Since no one is expecting her and there’s no taxi service, no clerks or workers at the tiny station, she’ll have to walk, toting her luggage, down wet and muddy dirt roads.  Luckily, the train conductor takes pity on her, and manages to have the train stop at a spot where Peggy will only have to walk about two miles instead of seven.  Still, it’s down a rough track, not a real road, and when she comes to a abrupt stop in the track with paths dividing to either side, Peggy is lost.

She’s about to give up in despair when a beautiful girl in a red cloak mounted on a black horse appears behind her and stops to ask if she needs help. Truly grateful, Peggy explains that she’s trying to get to Rest-and-be-thankful, and asks which path to take. The other girl considers, then tells her to take the left-side path, where a few feet down the road, she’ll find a young man repairing a small car that will be able to help her. Peggy turns to look down the road, and when she turns back to thank the girl, she and her horse have vanished into the shadows of the right-side path.

Following the directions, Peggy does indeed find a young man giving a lecture to the car he’s attempting to repair. Peggy can’t miss the British accent, and the young man introduces himself as Pat Thorne, explaining that he’s a student on a grant, studying the history of guerrilla warfare during the  Revolutionary War.  By a strange stroke of fate, before his car broke down, he was on his way to meet her uncle, Enos Grahame.   He offers to take her there, once he’s fixed the car.  As they chat over the engine, Peggy realizes that she likes Pat; he’s very personable and has a fun outlook on life.  He gives her some details on his research grant–though it, he’s trying to solve the mystery of an ancestor, who was involved in the Revolution in the New York area, and he thinks that her Uncle Enos, a noted scholar in the area, might be able to help him.

Arriving together at Rest-and-be-thankful, both are impressed at the sight of Uncle Enos. But what had been a very formal introduction and greeting from the elderly man suddenly turns into something very different when Enos learns who Pat is.  He throws the young man out of the house, forbidding him to come back or to see Peggy ever again. Both Peggy and Pat are confused, but Pat reluctantly leaves, vowing to see Peggy, with or without permission from Enos. Peggy is then relegated, in Uncle Enos’ mind, at least, to the role of a child. He sends her to her room, doing everything but patting her on the head and telling her to play nicely and not bother the grown-ups.

Still confused, but tired from her travels, Peggy heads up to her room.  On the way upstairs to unpack and see what her room is like, she stops in front of a painting on the landing.  It’s a life-sized portrait of the girl in the red cloak and her horse, looking just the way Peggy saw her that afternoon.  But the plaque under the painting reads “Barbara Grahame at the age of sixteen, painted by John Singleton Copley, 1773.”  Peggy has met her first ghost.

Soon, Peggy is trying to please Uncle Enos, get out of the house to see Pat and meeting with Barbara, her older brother Richard, and Peaceable, the dashing spy.  In the process of talking to two of her ancestors and their…friend? acquaintance? prisoner?…she finds out quite a lot about her family history, the American Revolution, the English soldiers stationed in the area, Revolutionary spies, and even (or maybe especially) true love.  Will Peggy manage to put everything together and see what the stories she’s being told really mean?  Will her relationship with Uncle Enos ever get better?  Will he learn to see her as something more than a child?  Will she ever manage to see Pat again? And then there’s the mystery of the Grahame fortune and Pat’s ancestor…are the ghosts trying to tell her something not just about the past, but about the present as well?

* * *

I love this book, from the characters to the dialogue to the historical background.  There are many sly hints about coming events and humorous stories that point out the true sacrifices made during a war…on both sides.  Who knew that tory spies could be just as dashing and bold as patriotic soldiers…and funny besides?  I love the situations that Barbara,  Richard and Peaceable relate to Peggy, each time giving her a clue to something that will help her in the present. Their stories breathe life into history, and make it real.  They also make you want to know them, to join them in their adventures.  (And, as a teenage reader, I have to admit I had a total crush on Peaceable.)

Peggy’s situation is not quite as hopeless as it appears. She has her work cut out for her, taming the crotchety Uncle Enos, but with the help of her ancestors, she has more than luck on her side.

Elizabeth Marie Pope was a professor of English for thirty-eight years. She wrote The Sherwood Ring in 1958, and her second book, the Newbery-Award winning The Perilous Gard (a previous Old Favorite), in 1974.  Although I’m sure she published many academic papers, these were her only two novels.  That’s a shame, because both are probably on my top twenty list of books every girl should read.

Since the fifth grade is currently studying spies in the American Revolution, I would recommend The Sherwood Ring to the entire class.  However, even if you’re not a Weston fifth grader, you would enjoy this book. It is a bit of a romance, as well as a spy story, and a  humorous historical fiction, so it should appeal to a wide range of readers.  This would be best for fifth through eighth grade readers though, and would probably be preferred by girls, although if boys can get past the girly covers, I think they would enjoy it as well.

So give The Sherwood Ring a try, and let me know what you think.  I think you’ll like it!

::Kelly::