This has been a steadily popular book in my middle school library with 4th and 5th grade girls for the past 2 or 3 years and it has good reasons to be so. The ingredients are delicious: an old family feud, an enchantment placed on the two friends, the re-living of the same day with variations depending on one’s choices (which include some REALLY poor but thrilling ones,) and the reforge of a lost friendship. What not to love? I am also grateful that the narrator has a pleasant voice. A delightful ride, for sure.

A cast of talking mice whose actions and living conditions are completely believable and are in tune with children’s fantasy play; a twisting, surprising, and humorous upstairs/downstairs comedy that involves Royalty and seafaring; the perennial favorite plot progression allowing the lower class main characters go up the social ladder due to good luck and hard work; and clean grown-up romances.

Peck’s deft hand also created a great protagonist in the no-nonsense Helena and made her think and speak properly like one would have from the late 1800s. I was completely charmed!

(And the full-page incidental illustrations add to its charm even more!)

Quick – go and get a copy and treat yourself and your young readers!!

Pages: 318
Publisher: Harcourt
Edition: Hardcover, 2008

This is an allegory that works on many levels, made rich with well-portrayed and multi-faceted characters. Which, I guess, renders it not a true allegory since the characters are not all confined to single traits or symbolic equivalents. At the very beginning, I was dubious: thinking that the symbolism and “names” are all too transparent and too easy to predict. And yet, with the blusterous arrival of the Goatman and then all the tangential but significant side trails and events, the story drew me in and kept me highly interested and entertained. I bated my breath, hoping for a satisfying and well paced ending, and was not let down.

I very much appreciate the rich imagery, the successful world-building, and the economy of the text — also its gentle humor in the friendly way these simple folks behave. I’m also so pleased that the Unnameable acts (what one might easily interpret as “art” or “craft”) are given a made-up name of “runyuin” (which has the word “ruin” embedded — I wonder if this is even intentional) so that the interpretations can be surprising from minds not as set as mine. I can see how this book might be of great use in a 4th-6th grade classroom since it is both well-crafted and can generate good conversations!

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Author: Lynne Jonell
Rating:
Reading Level: 4th – 6th grade

Pages: 352
Publisher: Henry Holt
Edition: Hardcover, 2007

It’s impressive how Jonell manages to inform the readers of all characters’ personalities, feelings, and actions without ever straying away from Emmy’s perspective: readers only know what she sees, hears, and thinks. The outlandish circumstances with all the super(magical?)-powers of the rodents are accompanied by a gentle tale of friendship, longing for parental love, and the essence of stable families. I mentally applauded the several jabs at the absurdity of the over-scheduling of our children.

The illustration with the flip-book margin of Rat falling and Emmy catching him ceases being a gimmick when it visually sums up the spirit of the story: “Don’t worry. We’re friends. I will catch you if you fall.”

Publisher: Philomel
Edition: Hardcover, 2007 (ARC)

It is definitely Quirky, with that capital Q! The tall-tale tone and the magical and outlandish plotline are consistent and coherent in their own way. Very strong opening scene and concluding passages.

Author: Lois Lowry
Rating:
Reading Level: 4th – 6th

Pages: 140
Publisher: Hougton Mifflin/Walter Lorraine
Edition: Hardcover, 2006

Since so many people love this book, I was unwilling to read it, afraid that I’d find it undeserving in some way. But, I, too, fell in love with it right away. My admiration of the author’s skill in telling a simple and yet complex story sustains until the very last word on the very last page. What a refreshing experience.

The characters, major or minor alike, have such depth. Many things are unsaid about them, but the reader senses a strong “knowing” of their souls from the few key moments in life Lowry chooses to present. The elegant text, deceptively simple, reminds me of my favorite Dickinson poems: a few words, arranged just right, describing the most common personal experiences, can encompass the immensity of the collective human minds — conscious or subconscious.

Author/Illustrator: Anne Sibley O’Brien
Rating:
Reading Level: 2nd – 5th grade

Pages: unpaged
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Edition: Hardcover, 2006

This picture book in comic book style is near perfect in every way. The narrative is fluid, the story is exciting, the cultural details are accurately portrayed both in text and illustraion, and the pictures are expertly rendered. I am impressed at how O’Brien effectively conveys varied moods by simple changes of each facial feature.

Author: Ellen Potter
Rating:
Reading Level: 4th grade and up

Pages: 166
Publisher: Philomel Books
Edition: Hardcover 2006

Ellen Potter really knows how to build upon the utterly unbelievable scenarios and make them seem oh-so-plausible. Her New York City apartment buildings (as in the Olivia Kidney books)expand into wonderlands that even the lovers for Carrollian twists and turns will find tantalizing. The mystery, the unique characters, (11-year-old Clara Francofile who owns nothing but simple black dresses and a keen sense of the social standings of each celebrity coming through her parents’ restaurant and her co-star Annabelle Arbutnot, pre-teen master burglar, for example) and the satisfying resolution all just WORK! A truly fun read.

Pages: 99
Publisher: FSG
Edition: Hardcover, 2004

Author: Gene Luen Yang
Rating:
Reading Level: 7th and up

Pages: 240
Publisher: First Second, Roaring Brooks
Edition: Paperback original, 2006

I cannot pin down my own reaction to this graphic novel. It is beautifully produced: glossy paper, clean layout, the comic illustrations are quite skillfully done, and the storytelling is at moments quite intelligent. But, that what I felt most reading the book was how all parts of it are “adequate” and how I was aware of all these components at the same time finding myself not terribly moved in any way. I was not offended, either — even by the buck-teethed, slant-eyed, Engrish-speaking caricature of a Chinese cousin (I knew that he served some form of purpose other than ridiculing the Chinese as a whole.) I felt little revelation — even when the three story lines finally get twisted together, the surprise factor only lasted a short moment and then the bigger lingering question remains: “Are these three stories organically entwined due to an unyielding internal creative force or are they forced together because it seems like a cool idea to connect a current day ABC’s destiny to an old Chinese Legend?” For me, the resolution definitely lacks the power to convince me that this tale cannot be told better.

The best part of the book actually is the very short, very straightforward, very truthful retelling of the Monkey King story — I wanted more of that!