I really wanted to love this book.....

I really did want to love this book.  It has everything that should make it so......magic, a curse, the beauty of words, all the elements.  But, I can't say that I loved A Snicker of Magic, by Natalie Lloyd.  

Felicity Pickle, her mom, and sister have spent most of her life moving from place to place.  A turn of events sends them to their mom's hometown of Midnight Gulch, a town that used to be home to magic, until a family curse banished it.  All that remains is just a "snicker."  Felicity has her own gift, she sees words dancing everywhere....whimsy, fierce, kaleidoscope.  Amazing, revealing words.  At the same time, she seems cursed with a inability to articulate them outside her family.  In Midnight Gulch, she finally makes a real friend, and wants, more than anything, to stay.   She suspects, however, that her mom is cursed to wander.  With the help of music, friends, ice cream with a snicker of magic, and her own courage, she hopes to end the curse for good.

This book had wonderful, insightful, moments, that made me love it a bit.  But, it also seemed to move a bit out of rhythm.  Sections would drag that could have moved along.  Then, sections that were exciting and compelling seemed too abrupt.  That is the real reason I can't say I loved this book, because it just couldn't keep me engrossed.

New favorite author for kids

I happened to accidently read two books in a row by the same author, and after reading the first, Fish In a Tree, I didn't think the second, One for the Murphys, could possibly be as great as the first.  Well, I was so wrong.  Both books by Lynda Mullaly Hunt have been added to my go-to list of books to suggest when students, or adults, for that matter, are looking for something good to read.  

Fish in a Tree is about a smart girl that has made it to fifth grade while hiding a terrible secret from everyone.  She hides behind disruptive behavior and joking.  Her exasperated teacher has given up on her, often just sending her to the principal's office.  She suffers through the unwanted attention of bullies as well.  Then, she gets a new teacher, a kind man, who recognizes what she is doing and why.  Turns out, she can't read.  He draws her out, finds her gifts, and helps her begin to overcome her problem.  In One for the Murphys, the main character finds herself in foster care after her new step-father beats her and her mother, landing them both in the hospital.  She has had a rough life and finds the loving home she joined alien to her.  She honestly doesn't trust love and kindness when it is offered.  She is angry and resentful at first, then begins to hope for her own future.  It is about unconditional love.  If you think, however, you can guess how these books end, guess again.  They both end hopefully, but not with a fairytale happy ending.  This it what makes them so satisfying.

She has an amazing way of writing about complex feelings in a very relatable way.  Also, as a teacher, she really made me understand why children sometimes act out.  Why they act anti-social, aloof, or crack jokes at inappropriate times.  Both books make me want to be a better person.

Messy, much like life

I just read my first book by Hannah Moskowitz and it is so dense I am still thinking about it.  I believe it is a book that should be read, and yet, I can't say I love it.  Much like the main characters in Marco Impossible, and much like life, there are the high points, the low points, and the things that get in the way.

Marco and Stephen have been best friends since they were little, and now they are poised to graduate 8th grade.  Their favorite pastime is solving "cases" for which Stephen is the keeper of the notebook.  Their friendship has survived many trials: Marco being a bit of a jerk sometimes, Stephen always playing sidekick, and even Marco coming out as gay.  Their friendship is put to the test in every possible way when Marco decides to declare his crush on fellow classmate Benji at all places, senior prom.  Marco plans to go to attend a different high school, and Benji is leaving the next day to spend the summer in England.  What has Marco got to lose? Their crime-solving becomes planning a "heist" that allows them to sneak into prom where Benji and his bothers are in the band.  Marco doesn't even know if Benji likes boys or girls!  All they need to do is sneak out, forge permission letters to gain entry, come up with money, transportation, and tuxes.... all in one day.  What could go wrong!?!

Themes of family, bullying, taking advantage of friends, and standing up for yourself and for others are handled in a very honest way.  The book also handles the "guys can be friends with gay guys and not be gay" question quite well.  I can truly say that nothing ever turned out the way I thought.  This should be a good thing, but, it also felt very disjointed.  This "disjointed" feeling was underscored by the writing style, which seemed very run-on and did not work well with the way I read.  I found I had to stop and re-read often.  This is why I have a hard time loving this book, but, have no trouble recommending it.  It's messy, much like life

Bizarre little book

I seem to be on a Neil Gaiman, bizarre book trend.  I just finished Fortunately, the Milk, a tale that begins innocuously enough, with a morning trip to the store for milk.  Take a look at the cover, and you can see that it goes seriously off-track

Our intrepid hero manages to save the milk through some fantastic events, as related to his children, demanding to know what took so long.  It begins with alien abduction.  Fortunately, he, and the milk, escape, and while plummeting to certain death lands in the sea, only to be captured by pirates.  He (and the milk) talks his way off the pirate ship, where he is rescued by a time-traveling stegosaurus, flying in a "floaty-ball-person-carrier."  His fantastic tale is met with scepticism by his kids as the tale grows wilder.  There are piranhas, volcanoes, pink ponies, and, fortunately, the milk.  The illustrations of Skottie Young only add to the joy of the journey.  It's a wild ride!

Swashbuckling action

What is a swashbuckling adventure starts in the most unlikely of places...a pet shop.  There, a very small mouse named Hopper, his sister, and their frail little brother break out to avoid becoming food for a snake.  This is where things get really exciting in Mouseheart by Lisa Fiedler.

Hopper is washed into the subway system below where he is rescued and bright to Atlantia.  Atlantia is a seemingly peaceful rat city, that even enjoys the protection of cats!  He finds that all in the "perfect" rat city is not as it seems.  There are rebels trying to overthrow the ruler, cats with a nefarious deal that keeps the peace, and a prophecy the Hopper just might be the mouse to fulfill.  He must find his place in this battle.

This story is great fun!  Battles, intrigue, evil kings, courageous fighters...and unexpected twists.  Read this if you enjoyed The Tale of Despereaux.

Relive the Cold War

The cover of Countdown by Deborah Wiles shows a 45 record in all its glory.  One might believe it was a study in pop music.  However, the first 16 pages give a clue that this book may have a slightly different take. These pages show photographs of President Kennedy and Nikta Khrushchev, a mushroom cloud, and of students practicing ducking under their school desks.  Thiis story is set at the height of the Cuban Missle Crisis.

The story revolves around eleven-year-old Franny Chapman, whose dad happens to fly Air Force One. She has a younger brother that can do no wrong, an older sister at college who seems to have a secret, and a crazy uncle that lives with her family.  On top of all this, she feels completely insignificant.  Her teacher overlooks her, and her best friend is not speaking to her.  She is dealing with normal anxieties, with the fear of nuclear annihilation hanging over her head.  It takes a near tragedy for her to discover her true friends and her own strength.

What makes this book more than just a coming-of-age story is there are real artifacts peppered throughout.  Photos, newspaper articles, and advertisements of the era bring the age to life.  My one problem is that the pages of pictures brought me out of the story, at times it interrupted, rather than enhanced, the narrative.

Another page in America's struggle for civil rights

Rarely have I accidentally picked up a book that so completely dovetails with events on my mind.  In the wake of the violence in Ferguson, with this being the eve of Martin Luther King, Jr. day, and having just seen the movie Selma, civil rights is on my mind.  Into that comes Sylvia & Aki by Winfred Conkling.  This story tells the story of  two different civil rights struggles set during World War II.  One, the internment of Japanese-Americans in camps, the other, the struggle for desegregation of schools in California by Mexican Americans.  One I knew of, one was new to me.

Sylvia and Aki's stories intersect on a farm in Orange County.  Aki's family, who owns the farm, is forced into a camp because they are Japanese.  We learn of their distress over leaving their hard-earned life, the outrage of undeserved mistrust, and of life in the camps.  Before Aki's family leaves, they lease the farm to Sylvia's family, who are of "Mexican" descent.  They, too, work hard to keep the farm.  Sylvia is looking forward to third grade in her new community.  But when they try to register, they are told they can't, and must, instead, go across town to the Mexican school.  Her father's outrage at the inequality begins his battle to end segregation, which leads to the historic legal battle Gonzalo Mendez v. Westminster School District of Orange County.  This court case became the benchmark for the later battle for black students, Brown v Board of Education. Big events are told through the eyes of young girls, in a way that makes them very real.

The young girls in this story are real people, and the events really happened.  The chapter on the court case uses actual words from the transcript, highlighting the injustice of segregation.  It is also a testament to how to respond with grace and with courage.  For those who want to dig deeper ther is a list of grade-school age resources about civil rights.

Wimpy Kid for science geeks

This book happened to by the second along the Wimpy Kid wanna-be line, and I didn't particularly care for the first, so I didn't have high hopes.   I'm happy to say Frank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor by Jon Scieszka pleasantly surprised me. I should have guessed, Scieszka is one of my favorite picture book authors.

The story is a tale of young Frank Einstein, his best friend, Watson, and their plan to win the Midville Science Prize.  Frank, our intrepid genius, fails in creating a learning robot, but a stray spark solves the problem.  The results...Klink and Klank....robots made from scraps, create themselves.  The four of them work together to create a new project.  But, his arch-nemesis, T. Edison, and Edison's sidekick, Mr Chimp, will stop at nothing to win the prize for themselves.  There are flying bicycles, robots that love hugs and knock knock jokes, and more than a little real science.

I love that this book checks all the boxes.  It's silly, with funny illustrations.  There is a chimp that uses sign language, an evil genius, and an absent-minded professor.  But, at the very same time, sometimes on the same page, their is serious science, complete with explanations at the end.  Laughing and learning, what more could you want?

Mistakes were made....

I must say, the jury is still out on Timmy Failure Mistakes Were Made by Stephan Pastis.  There are so many things that annoy me, but, at the same time, it made me laugh, and has real-life problems with real-world outcomes.

The story centers around Timmy Failure (yes, that is his real name....which annoys me).  He is that odd kid, but he doesn't see it that way.  He is the head of a future Fortune 500 detective agency, with his sidekick, Total, who happens to be a polar bear.  Together they must get to the bottom of such mysteries as the disappearing Halloween candy, the TP'd yard, and the mysterious hamster death.  All while trying to stay ahead of his arch-nemesis, Corrina Corrina, whom he KNOWS stole his mom's Segway.

This book will appeal to those who love Diary of a Wimpy Kid, with its humor and many drawings.  The bits that annoy me....ridiculous names, pet polar bears, complete cluelessness, undoubtedly will be hilarious to the target audience.  So, while not my favorite, I will recommend it fully to kids.