Category: Juvenile

Book Review(s): Dead End in Norvelt and Shiloh

On By cherylmahoneyIn Juvenile, Reviews1 Comment

I’m making ever more headway on Newbery Medal reads (great options for audiobooks, which helps a lot!) and thought I’d hit two today.  Both stories about boys in small towns, so they kinda fit each other.  But the quality varied!…

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

In the tiny town of Norvelt, young Jack is looking forward to a summer of baseball, trips to the movies and other fun, until one bad decision and one wild injustice (more on that later) gets him grounded until school starts.  He’s only allowed out to help elderly Miss Volker write obituaries…which comes up surprisingly often as a string of old women start dying.

I wanted to like this more than I did.  An ordinary kid surrounded by slightly kooky characters in a small town sounds great!  Dollops of history as Miss Volker looks to the past to expound on ideals of freedom and community, plus a hint of a murder mystery.  What’s not to like?

Well, a few things.  I never loved Jack; I don’t know why, I just didn’t.  Usually I like kids who get a bad rap from adults, especially if they like to read, but somehow this one didn’t work for me.  Maybe Jack liked to read a little too much about bloody history, harder to relate to than a Star Wars fandom.  I hate (hate) to classify books as boy books or girl books, but this one did seem to be aimed at a certain age of boy, when blood and guts are so cool.  That wasn’t a big part of the story, but it was an element.  Personally, I could have lived without Jack’s perpetual bloody nose, or his love of war movies. Continue reading “Book Review(s): Dead End in Norvelt and Shiloh” →

Book Review: The Door in the Wall

On By cherylmahoneyIn Historical Fiction, Juvenile, Reviews2 Comments

I picked out The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli from the list of Newbery Medal winners because I wasn’t sure if I had read it before or not. It turns out the answer is no, as all I could remember of the book I thought it might be was that it involved canal boats—which don’t appear here at all. But now I have another one to check off my list!

The door of the title is much more symbolic than literal—when life presents a wall, keep looking until you find a door. Ten-year-old Robin is facing a wall with a vengeance. The son of a knight during the reign of Richard II, Robin was always meant to follow his father’s footsteps—until he’s struck by an illness that leaves him unable to use his legs. His father is on campaign, his mother is away with the queen and so Robin is taken in by the nearby religious order.  He’s cared for by Brother Luke who also offers philosophy about doors and walls. Robin eventually goes to a new guardian, a friend of his father’s, but still must find his proper role in his changed life.

This is a rather charming picture of medieval England…which is both the strength and the weakness of the book. Because it’s pleasant to read, and I like charming books. But I strongly suspect that the Middle Ages were not actually a charming time period, especially if you had the misfortune to be crippled! Continue reading “Book Review: The Door in the Wall” →

Book Review: The Grey King by Susan Cooper

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Juvenile, ReviewsLeave a comment

Reading down my list of Newbery Medal winners, I liked the sound of The Grey King by Susan Cooper. If I had realized it was part (Book Four) of her Dark Is Rising series, I might not have. However, by the time I realized that I had the audiobook sitting in my car and nothing else to listen to, so away we went. And it wasn’t terrible. But I wouldn’t have given it any awards either.

I’d read The Dark Is Rising (which, oddly, is Book Two…) and I didn’t like it much. I didn’t hate it, but I found the conflict strangely dull and the climax totally flat. Which is kind of how The Grey King turned out too. I looked up plots of all the books, to make sure I actually could start in on Book Four, and I think I pretty much could…so in a way this was a lucky mistake, since I didn’t waste time on the others.

The book centers around Will Stanton, age 11 but also the youngest of the Old Ones, ancient magical beings locked in a struggle between the Light and the Dark. The Grey King opens with Will recovering from a serious illness, and so sent off to his uncle’s farm in Wales to recover. There, he realizes he is entering the territory of the Grey King, a powerful figure of the Dark. With the help of Bran, a local boy who may have his own mythical connections, Will goes on a quest to wake the Sleepers, fighting the Grey King and his pawn, bad-tempered farmer Caradog Pritchard. Continue reading “Book Review: The Grey King by Susan Cooper” →

Book Review: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

On By cherylmahoneyIn Juvenile, ReviewsLeave a comment

I decided to begin my Newbery Medal Challenge with a favorite author and a book I probably should have read years ago: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.  This is one of those books I seem to have seen around for years–the cover feels extremely familiar–and it probably came up in oral book reports in elementary school.  But somehow I never read it, or even knew much about it.

The story turns out to be set in Copenhagen during World War II.  It follows 10-year-old Annemarie Johansen, whose family helps their friends the Rosens, including Annemarie’s best friend Ellen, to escape from Denmark when the occupying German soldiers begin rounding up the Jews.

I think I may have avoided this book because I had a vague idea it was sad.  Maybe I coupled it in my mind with The Diary of Anne Frank?  Well, if it’s not too much of a spoiler to say so, I was glad to find that this has a happier ending than Anne’s story.  Which is not to say there weren’t tense moments along the way!  There are, plenty, and the German soldiers are threatening and imposing, even without resorting to any atrocities Lowry could have included–in fact, there’s almost no violence (it is a kids book) but that doesn’t reduce the sense of danger any. Continue reading “Book Review: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry” →

Book Review: Tom’s Midnight Garden

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Juvenile, Reviews3 Comments

After reading the time-travel Four Seasons of Lucy McKenzie, it made me want to go back to reread a very similar, classic time-travel story, Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pierce.  And maybe it’s just because I read it when I was a kid, or maybe it’s the style, but I found it to be delightful.

The story begins when Tom is sent away for the summer to his aunt and uncle’s house because his brother has the measles.  Tom misses his brother and hates his exile…until one night he hears the old grandfather clock downstairs striking thirteen.  Venturing downstairs and out the back door, Tom finds a wonderful garden, not at all like the dingy yard and crowded subdivision he knows surrounds his relatives’ house.  He visits the garden every night, where time seems to run differently and it’s always summer.  There he makes friends with a little girl named Hatty, and they explore the garden together.

This is in some ways a quiet book–there’s no big conflict, no huge obstacles to overcome, and no particular plot even.  It’s just a story about a boy who finds–and then fears losing–a magical place, and makes a dear friend along the way.  But the whole book is so whimsical and light and charming that I didn’t mind at all that there was nothing bigger at stake. Continue reading “Book Review: Tom’s Midnight Garden” →