Book Review: The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall

Title: The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy
Author: Jeanne Birdsall
Enjoyment Rating: *****
Source: Digital Copy
Content Alert: A clean read

When I was a little girl, I loved novels in series. Little House gave way to Betsy-Tacy and All of a Kind Family, and then I started reading Anne of Green Gables and read all eight books at least once a year until I left for college. I wanted my daughters to have this same kind of series experience, but sometimes I worry that the world has changed so much in the last thirty years that Betsy-Tacy doesn't have the same allure for my daughters that it did for me, and so far, they haven't shown much interest in any of the books series that I adored as a girl (which is fine, I guess, there are a lots of good books out there, right?). Then I came upon The Penderwicks, which my lovely friend Catherine mentioned in her list of top summer reads for kids in a segment on Channel 5. Maren and I started reading this together, but then she wanted to read something else, so I finished on my own. The Penderwicks is the first book in a series of five about four sisters who take a summer vacation with their widowed father to a cottage on an estate in the Berkshires. They have lots of adventures with Jeffrey, who lives in the big house with his imposing mother.

The Penderwicks is the kind of book that could take place in 1950 or 2015. While Birdsall mentions a computer once, the book feels totally timeless. The girls have the kind of unplugged, roaming adventures that parents think don't really happen any more. I loved the characters of each of the four girls, who are nicely differentiated by the author, and with whom most readers will find someone to identify. I'm definitely hooked-- I want to see where The Penderwicks go from here, and I want to take my kids to a cottage in the mountains without wifi and see what happens.

Book Review: Counting by 7s by Molly Goldberg Sloan

Title: Counting by 7s
Author: Molly Goldberg Sloan
Enjoyment Rating: ****
Source: Kindle
Content Alert: A clean read

Willow knows she's not like everyone else in her junior high. She's obsessed with germs and disease (both studying them and not contracting them). She counts by sevens to calm herself down. But she's absolutely embraced and celebrated by her parents, who have never seen her differences as a liability. When they suddenly die in a car crash, and Willow doesn't have a safety net of family to fall back on, she learns her own inner strength by pushing beyond her limitations to create the family she needs (from a highly disparate and unlikely group of people), and they all find themselves the better for it.

Counting by 7s is the story of an unusual kid who isn't defined by a label. In fact, the counselor she's assigned to help her adapt to life in junior high, who has a labeling system for all of his students, seems at a loss to label Willow. I love that about this novel. I have a kid who people have tried to label for most of his life. Some of those labels didn't fit right, some we had to resist using as a crutch, and others he downright refused to accept. In Counting by 7s, the label itself isn't important, Willow as a person, a person with unique talents, is what is important. As the people around her come to know her in this time of great crisis, they learn to celebrate the aspects of her personality that some might be quick to point out fall outside of two standard deviations on a normal bell curve.

Book Review: The Forbidden Flats by Peggy Eddleman

Title: The Forbidden Flats (Sky Jumpers #2)
Author: Peggy Eddleman
Enjoyment Rating: ***
Source: Digital Copy
Content Alert: A clean read

I usually don't have many good things to say about the second book in a dystopian action trilogy, but Peggy Eddleman's Sky Jumpers: The Forbidden Flats is an exception to my (highly prejudiced) rule. In this book, the bomb's breath that threatens White Rock is descending, and Hope, Brock, and Aaren leave their home in Kansas to travel to the Rocky Mountains in an effort to find an antidote to the poison that will soon overtake them. The book has plenty of action and adventure, but my favorite part of the story was Hope's relationship with her birth family, whom she discovered along the way. I think it's common for authors to develop characters in their first novels, but I loved seeing Hope's character change in important ways in The Forbidden Flats.

Book Review: Time of the Fireflies by Kimberley Griffiths Little

Title: The Time of the Fireflies
Author: Kimberley Griffiths Little
Enjoyment Rating: ****
Source: Digital Copy
Content Alert: a little scary for true middle graders

Larissa Renaud isn't afraid of her family's antique shop, in a big old Victorian house in Louisiana, but she is creeped out by the doll case, which houses a doll that seems to follow her with its eyes. Then, antique phones start ringing, and every time Larissa answers, a girl is there to give her directions about something she needs to do. Larissa soon realizes that she needs to right a wrong from deep in her family's past in order to save the life of her mother and infant sister in the present.

The Time of the Fireflies is a well-crafted, engrossing story. It was one of the Whitney books that really captured me this year, and kept me reading for pleasure rather than duty. She does a lovely job capturing the bayou setting of the novel, and of tackling the challenges of writing in multiple time periods. It's interesting to me that this book was considered middle grade. Larissa is twelve, but could just as easily be fourteen, and the book felt more like a YA Speculative novel (and would have been my clear favorite if in that category). This book, with it's dark magic and incredibly scary doll, would scare the freaking pants off of either of my middle grade readers. As an adult reader, I loved the story and Larissa, but still had to fight the urge to look deeply into the eyes of the dolls all around my house.

Book Review: Almost Super by Marion Jensen

Title: Almost Super
Author: Marion Jensen
Enjoyment Rating: **** (if I were a ten-year-old)
Source: Library copy

Rafter and Benny Bailey are sure of two things: 1) on the first leap year after their twelfth birthday, they will get a super power (just like everyone else in the Bailey family), and 2) they will use this superpower to fight the Johnsons, the supervillains who live in town. But when February 29th rolls around, Rafter and Benny are disappointed to receive (ahem) underwhelming powers-- Rafter can light matches on polyester and Benny can change his belly button from an innie to an outie. When they return to school, the find an unusual ally in Juanita Johnson, and together they learn that there are bigger fights, manipulations and subterfuges going on than the skirmishes between the Baileys and the Johnsons.

Almost Super is everything a ten-year-old reader would love. It's funny, with plenty of action. But as an adult reader, I appreciated the deeper themes of the novel. Rafter, Benny and Juanita come to realize that there's more in life to being super, and that the way a story has been framed for them their whole lives might only represent a partial truth. They also discover something I think kids might both embrace and fear-- the idea that adults don't have all of the answers. Almost Super was an entertaining read for me, and one that I'm sure my kids will enjoy as well.

Book Review: The Shadow Throne by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Title: The Shadow Throne (The Ascendance Trilogy #3)
Author: Jennifer A. Nielsen
Enjoyment Rating: ****
Source: Library Copy
Content Alert: Violence

In the first book of Jennifer Nielsen's The Ascendance Triology, Jaron rose from orphan boy to king of Carthya. In the second book, he fell in love. In The Shadow Throne, the final installment of the trilogy, both his kingdom and his love are under attack. Jaron, who always has tricks up his sleeve, works to foil his rivals and deals with some unexpected hurdles along the way as this series drives to a satisfying conclusion.

I find myself looking at The Shadow Throne from two perspectives. I'm the mom of ten- and fourteen-year-old boys, both of whom are reluctant readers of fiction. If they're going to keep reading a book, there needs to be lots of action and fighting. They're not really interested in the development Jaron's character over the three stories, and they're only marginally interested in love. If Nielsen is writing to that audience (and I think she is), then she nails it-- this book is nonstop fighting and action, with epic battles. But, I'm more interested in how a character changes over time, and with so much happening in every page of this novel, there's not a lot of room for character development. So is the book written for preteens or for their mother? If for them, it's definitely a winner. If it's for me, the reaction is a bit more mixed.

Book Review: The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry

Title: The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place
Author: Julie Berry
Enjoyment Rating: ****
Source: Audible
Content Alert: Murder most foul

The seven students at Saint Etheldreda's School for Girls are enjoying their Sunday dinner when suddenly their headmistress and her brother drop dead at the dinner table. The girls see this fortuitous event as their ticket to freedom, and decide to bury the bodies in the vegetable garden rather than inform the authorities, who will surely return them to their parents. However, keeping their headmistress's demise a secret and fending off a murderer becomes more work than they had bargained for.

While the book takes place in the Victorian Era, these girls (Pocked Louisa, Stout Alice, Dull Martha, Smooth Kitty, Dear Roberta, Disgraceful Mary Jane and Dour Elinor) have spirit to spare. They recognize that the death of Mrs. Plackett might lead to the most freedom they would have in their lives. This is a darkly tongue-in-cheek book that gets all of the details right, and also has a lot more heart than I expected it would when I started reading. I enjoyed it more and more as the story wore on, and was happy to see a satisfying conclusion, with lots of girl power.

Book Review: The Glass Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg

Title: The Glass Magician
Author: Charlie N. Holmberg
Enjoyment Rating: ***
Source: Digital Copy
Content Alert: Some violence

The sequel to The Paper Magician opens three months after the previous book, which had apprentice Ceony Twill walking through the heart of her master teacher Magician Emery Thane. In The Glass Magician, rival magician believes that Ceony has special powers, and he's determined to reveal those powers if he can't take them for himself. Ceony and Emery, and Ceony's bff Delilah face a series of challenges from the baddies, as Ceony comes to a greater understanding of her powers and her ability to love.

I did a little bit of reading about The Paper Magician, because I feel like it took me most of The Glass Magician to understand the world that Ceony inhabits. Some readers felt that Ceony wasn't a rounded character in the first novel, and I didn't get that sense in this book. I have just a few quibbles with the storyline of The Glass Magician. First of all, it felt like a series of small skirmishes instead of leading up to a big climax, and that may be because of my second quibble-- Ceony wasn't there for the pivotal action scene that sets up the third novel. As for the romance, I think my expectations were met. I think this book does a nice job with what second books in a trilogy are supposed to do-- it rounded out the characters and kept the reader's interest enough to make them want to read the third book.

Book Review: Girls Who Choose God by McArthur Krishna and Bethany Brady Spalding

Title: Girls Who Choose God: Stories of Courageous Women from the Bible
Authors: McArthur Krishna and Bethany Brady Spalding
Enjoyment Rating: *****
Source: Hardcover Copy

Daniel and the lions' den. Noah's ark. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and the fiery furnace. Nephi and the broken bow. What do these stories (and hundreds more like them) have in common? Well, for one thing, they all feature men who are faced with a moral dilemma. Children in Primary and Sunday School classes learn to emulate them. But as the mother of three young daughters, I often wish we knew the stories of women in the scriptures as well as we do the stories of their male counterparts.

Girls Who Choose God, a new picture book written by McArthur Krishna and Bethany Brady Spalding, illustrated by Kathleen Peterson, and published by Deseret Book, goes a long way to filling the gap. The picture book, which features a dozen women from the Bible, including Eve, Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, the prophet Deborah, and other, lesser-known women, follows a particularly effective format. On the first page spread, each woman's story is introduced, including the moral dilemma she faces. For example, we learn that "Esther had a choice to make. She could keep her luxurious like as the queen, or she could try to save her people by telling the king she was also a Jew." On the second page spread, Krishna and Spalding recount the choices the women make, then they ask readers to apply the story to their own lives. The Esther story concludes with the question, "When have you made a choice to stand up for others?" This allows readers to see that each woman faced a choice, and that it's possible to make courages choices like they did.

The book is also beautifully illustrated. Peterson's drawings brought me to tears at times-- I particularly loved the Mary Magdalene and Eve drawings. The Miriam story features an Egyptian-style border that's incredibly beautiful. Peterson's work is currently featured in the "Practicing Charity" exhibit at the Church History Museum, and the illustrations are a real asset to the book.

I can envision myself using this book in family scripture study, for Family Home Evening lessons and for Sharing Time lessons. It would have appeal to non-LDS Christians too, since the source material is from the Bible. My third-grade daughter made off with it the night we got our copy, and read the whole thing from cover to cover before bedtime. It's a book our sons and our daughters should read, because all readers, regardless of gender will benefit from the stories of these women.

As an added bonus, all proceeds from the book will benefit Interweave Solutions, a nonprofit dedicated to support educational and employment opportunities for LDS women around the world.

(This review was originally published at Segullah).

Book Review: The End or Something Like It by Ann Dee Ellis

Title: The End or Something Like It
Author: Ann Dee Ellis
Enjoyment Rating: ***
Source: Kindle
Content Alert: Nothing objectionable that I remember

Kim knew she was dying, and she made her best friend Emmy promise to watch out for her. Emmy was reluctant and creeped out by everything, but eventually she promised. In the year since she died, Emmy has seen plenty of other dead people, like her creepy teacher, but she hasn't seen Kim. Even though the idea of seeing Kim repels her almost as much as it fascinates her, she also feels a responsibility to Kim, and sees it as a chance to get outside of her crappy teenage existence.

The End or Something Like It is emblematic of Ellis's signature style. She uses short sentences, paragraphs, and chapters and features characters whose teenage lives are complicated. Emmy is overweight and unpopular. She resents the way Kim ditches her for other friends even as she's dying. Ellis does a great job capturing Las Vegas in the story, and in showing Emmy's angst, but sometimes I want a little more lushness in the language of her stories.

Book Review: Wednesdays in the Tower by Jessica Day George (Whitney Finalist 2013)

Title: Wednesdays in the Tower (Castle Glower #2)
Author: Jessica Day George
Enjoyment Rating: ***
Source: Library Copy
This book would be rated: G or PG

Jessica Day George's Tuesdays at the Castle was a YA finalist two years ago, and I adored it. The story takes place in an enchanted castle, and Princess Celie and her siblings live in a home that is constantly changing, adapting, and possibly even working toward its own purposes. In Wednesdays in the Tower, Celie becomes the guardian of a gryphon egg, and the eventual hatching of that gryphon causes all kinds of changes to take place in the castle, which seems intent on confronting its history.

While the first novel seemed satisfying in and of itself,  Wednesdays in the Tower suffers from the "second in a trilogy" syndrome. It lacks the character (and castle) development that was so delightful in the first story, and it leaves off in the middle of the action, not coming to a satisfying conclusion for readers of this particular book. The writing is still great and Celie is just as engaging in this story as in the last, but the book seemed geared toward readers who want to read the third book as well as the second. 

Book Review: Sky Jumpers by Peggy Eddleman (Whitney Finalist 2013)

Title: Sky Jumpers (Sky Jumpers #1)
Author: Peggy Eddleman
Enjoyment Rating: ****
Source: Library Copy
This book would be rated: PG

World War III has come and gone, and the world is forever changed. The chemical warfare used has changed the properties of metal, and the residents of the town of White Rock have to be careful to avoid the pockets of Bomb's Breath that kill anyone who breathes air infused with it. Twelve-year-old Hope is a failure at inventing things (a skill prized among the residents of White Rock), but she can do something no one else even dares try-- she can use the extra density bomb's breath to break her falls as she jumps from the sky. This skill comes to the aid of the entire town when they are ambushed by bandits, and Hope and two friends travel to a nearby town to get help.

This books is a nice balance between internal and external conflict. Hope's character is well-developed, but there's also plenty of action. I felt like I wanted a more complicated narrative, but I later learned that the book is the first of a series. It doesn't necessarily feel like the first book of a series, and the conclusion is satisfying in and of itself. Eddleman read from her book at my kids' school a few weeks ago, and both of my elementary-age kids couldn't wait to get their hands on this one. My son kept asking me how I liked it. It's one I think he would like too, even though the protagonist is a girl.

Book Review: The Inventor's Secret by Chad Morris (Whitney Finalist 2013)

Title: The Inventor's Secret (Cragbridge Hall #1)
Author: Chad Morris
Enjoyment Rating: ***
Source: Digital Copy
This book would be rated: PG

The year is 2074 and it's time for Abby and Derick Cragbridge to start their time at Cragbridge Hall, the boarding school that only takes the best, brightest and most distinguished middle schoolers on the planet. The problem is that Abby, at least, hasn't done much to distinguish herself. She happens to be the granddaughter of the school's founder, a world-famous inventor, and therefore feels a great impulse to prove herself worthy of being at the school. She's able to do this when her parents and grandfather turn up missing. Her parents are being held aboard the Titanic, and unless Abby and Derick can figure out how to go back in time and reach them, their whole world might come crashing down on them.

The Inventor's Secret, published by Shadow Mountain, is the first book in the Cragbridge Hall series. The second book, The Avatar Battle, was recently released. The books are action-packed, and Morris seems to rely on constant motion and on really cool inventions and technological advances to keep the plot moving in The Inventor's Secret. The book seems to rely much more on external conflict than internal conflict, but many young readers may be so entranced by all the bells and whistles of time travel and technology that they might not care.

Book Review: RUMP by Liesl Shurtliff (Whitney Finalist 2013)

Title: RUMP: The True Story of Rumplestiltskin
Author: Liesl Shurtliff
Enjoyment Rating: ****
Source: Library Copy
This book would be rated: PG

In Wicked, Gregory Maguire turns the Wicked Witch of the West into a sympathetic character, and in the upcoming movie Maleficent, I expect that Angelina Jolie will do the same thing for Sleeping Beauty's nemesis. In Liesl Shurtliff's debut novel, Rump, she turns the tables so readers sympathize with Rumpelstiltskin instead of the evil miller's daughter who forces him to turn straw into gold. 

This novel is delightful. When I'm reading 40 books in a couple of months, I often find myself trudging through them. But Rump was one that I would have read quickly regardless. The story is adorable and Rump shows a lot of growth over the course of the novel. There was plenty of action in the story, but it was Rump's ability to grow as a character that kept me entertained and satisfied as I read.

Book Review: The Runaway King by Jennifer A. Nielsen (Whitney Finalist 2013)

Title: The Runaway King (Ascendance Trilogy #2)
Author: Jennifer A. Nielsen
Enjoyment Rating: ****
Source: Kindle
This book would be rated: PG

The Runaway King begins where The False Prince leaves off, with Jaron burying his parents and taking over as king of Carthya. He's made so many enemies (not to mention all of the enemies his father had who have now transferred their hatred to Jaron) that he soon recognizes that his experience as king will be untenable unless he fixes a few things. The problem is that he can't fix these things and serve as king. So he has a friend impersonate him (seems to be a recurring theme), and runs away to join the pirates, hoping to challenge (and prevail against) the pirate king.

The Runaway King is just as well written, and Jaron is just as cunning as he was in The False Prince. Furthermore, the book doesn't have middle book syndrome. Nielsen manages to give us a decent backstory on from the first novel without weighing down this narrative, and although the book is part of a trilogy, it has its own satisfying conclusion. What it lacks is the plot twist that made The False Prince so great. I think it's a solid story, but lacks the sparkle of its predecessor. 

Book Review: Epic Tales of a Misfit Hero by Matt Peterson

Title: Epic Tales of a Misfit Hero
Author: Matt Peterson
Enjoyment Rating: **
Whitney Finalist
This book would be rated: G

If we were playing the game "One of these things is not like the others" with the Whitney Middle Grade novels, then it would be pretty easy to pick out Epic Tales of a Misfit Hero as the odd man out. The other books are all published by mainstream presses, and none has LDS characters.

I wish I could say that Epic Tales of a Misfit Hero was the sleeper hit of the category. I wish I could say that despite the cheesy cover art, the book moved me and stayed with me. I can't. Maybe it's because I'm a mom to two scouts, and one of my biggest fears is sending them away to scout camp, where anything can happen. In Epic Tales of a Misfit Hero, Andrew and the boys from his ward head out on a scout hike. Andrew doesn't feel like he fits in with the other boys, and doesn't feel particularly strong or brave. But when tragedy strikes (no! Please-- no tragedies at scout camp!), Andrew finds himself leading this very unlikely band of brothers to safety.

It's evident that Peterson draws on experience, scary stories from the Deseret News about scout camps, urban legend, and parental nightmares as he created his tale. I think it's one that my boys may enjoy, but it played a little too fast and loose with my fears to make it a book I could enjoy.

Book Review: Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale (Whitney Finalist)

Title: Palace of Stone (Princess Academy #2)
Author: Shannon Hale
Enjoyment Rating: ***
Whitney Finalist
This book would be rated: PG

I never read Shannon Hale's first Princess Academy book, so I was a little bit worried that I would find Palace of Stone a little bit difficult to follow. But I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Palace of Stone is a stand-alone book. It's true that many of the characters were also present in Princess Academy, but Hale knows how to make characters feel real and memorable even to new readers of the series.

In Palace of Stone, Miri and the girls have gathered in the lowland capital to help Britta prepare for her wedding to the prince. Peder follows along to apprentice as a stone mason, and when the group arrives, they find the city at the beginning of a revolution. Miri has to balance her desire for fairness with her loyalty to her friends. The book feels very much like a girl power book, and I think my 11yo daughter would enjoy both the story and the message.

Book Review: The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen (Whitney Finalist)

Title: The False Prince
Author: Jennifer A. Nielsen
Enjoyment Rating: *****
Whitney Finalist
This book would be rated: PG

With the bodies of the king, queen and crown prince all hidden in basement of the palace and the other prince missing at sea for the last four years, Conner, a nobleman, has an idea. He will buy several boys from orphanages and train them to impersonate the young prince. Then he will install himself as the puppetmaster. One of the boys is a weakling, another is a bully, another a kiss-up. And then there's Sage, who is defiant and angry and would rather do just about anything (including running away) rather than vie for the role of becoming the prince.

I've read four of the five books in the middle grade category so far, and three of them are all pretty good. But The False Prince is fantastic. I found myself struggling with reading quickly (because the story was engrossing) but also wanting to read slowly enough that I didn't miss any of Nielsen's details. Sage is an engaging character, and Nielsen throws in twists and turns in the plot that actually made me gasp. So far, I think this is not just the best middle grade book I've read for the Whitneys, but really the best book I've read for the Whitneys. My only quibble is that I think the book feels more like a YA than a middle grade, especially since the protagonist is a young teen.

Book Review: Freakling by Lana Krumwiede (Whitney Finalist_

Title: Freakling
Author: Lana Krumwiede
Enjoyment Rating: ***
Whitney Finalist
This book would be rated: G or PG

In Taemon's world, people don't use their hands. Instead, they channel their  powers to do things like open doors, make meals, and feed themselves. And at the beginning of Freakling, Taemon seems to be at home in his world, except for the small fact that he seems to have extra powers-- the ability to see into the future, to understand the inner workings of objects. In Taemon's world-- these extra powers are dangerous.

But Taemon also has a more immediate threat-- his older brother. Within the first fifty pages of the novel, Taemon loses his traditional powers, which renders him even more vulnerable and gets him exiled from his home. Greater dangers are looming on a larger scale as well.

I loved the first few chapters of Freakling. The descriptions of the way Taemon's world works were so interesting, and I loved learning about the tensions within his community and his family. But after the accident which took Taemon's powers took place, I felt like the story went in a different direction than I had expected-- it started out with a lot of internal conflict but gradually shifted to where the external conflict seemed more important. So the second half of the book didn't match the promise of the first half, but the concept of the book was interesting, and Krumwiede sowed many seeds that can be resolved in future installments of Taemon's story.

Book Review: Case File 13: Zombie Kid by Scott Savage (Whitney Finalist)

Title: Case File 13: Zombie Kid
Author: Scott Savage
Enjoyment Rating: ****
Whitney Finalist
This book would be rated: PG

Nick is looking forward to spending Halloween with his best friends, Carter and Angelo, when his parents break the bad news-- they have to go to Louisiana for his great aunt's funeral. When they get there, decidedly weird things start to happen-- Nick finds a basement full of voodoo potions, he almost gets eaten by an alligator, and he gets led to a cemetery on Halloween night by a cat, where he gets turned into-- a zombie. At first, being a zombie is pretty cool (literally), but when he starts losing body parts and the ability to form coherent sentences, Nick enlists the aid of Carter and Angelo to try to turn him back into a human.

I have two boys, ages 8 and 12, and I have seen both of them reading Case File 13: Zombie Kid over the last few weeks. My younger one in particular thinks it's really cool. And I thought it was light, well-written, and fun. I can definitely see that it would appeal to boys in this age group, and it seems to be tapping into the monster zeitgeist.