Are You A Claudia Or A Mary Anne?

I was watching my nephews today and had a very weird, yet very pleasant flashback to my early middle school days and my obsession with The Baby-Sitters Club series.  This is one of those series that was pivotal both in my reading growing up, but in my real life as well.  My friends and I (all avid readers of this popular series) actually put together our own abbreviated version of the club.  We all went to this tiny private school, and several of our parents were staff at the school, forcing us to spend many hours together at the school building waiting for them to finish.  Along the same lines, many families in this tiny school had little ones of their own.  As us 10-12 year old's were all obsessed with baby's and small children we were the perfect group to get baby-sitters from, especially when they just needed watching while the parents were actually on site at the school.  Anyways we took our job as kid watchers very seriously and used the Baby-Sitters Club books as manuals and guidebooks in our quest for perfect child care.  When we were not actually baby-sitting, we were busy reading the books, watching the tv show/movie, and trying to decide who was a Claudia and who was a Mary Anne.  Flash forward more years then I care to admit later and even now, when I take care of the shorties, I still think about these books.  Now I kind of want to grab one and read it real quick...Happy Reading Everybody!

The Last Santa

Rambling time!  Yep I have finally finished an actual holiday book and am ready to ramble...only four days before Christmas...oh well.  I found this book When Santa Fell to Earth by Cornelia Funke and illustrated by Paul Howard and was totally stoked to have my Christmas book all set.  It is a short book compared to the behemoths I have been reading and yet it still took me a while to get through (stupid Westworld taking up all my time...lol).  Anyways it is done now and it is time to ramble.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Niklas Goodfellow and his caravan falls to Earth when his flighty reindeer Twinklestar gets frightened an breaks his harness.  He falls into a typical suburban town filled with your typical suburbanites.  Niklas and his two Christmas angels the motherly and bossy Matilda and shy and quiet Emmanuel put the caravan to rights while the tiny, swear prone elves get to work on repairs.  Ben is an athletic middle grade boy who while great at sports is not so good and speaking out loud, his thoughts never come out the way he intends them too.  He is dared by his nemesis Dean to knock on the mysterious caravans door and wait for an answer.  He does this and meets Niklas, a tired looking young man for a brief second.  During this brief interlude, Ben see's the unbelievable sight of a tiny man chillin in Niklas's pocket.  Feeling guilty Ben goes back to visit Niklas.  Ben is invited inside and is astonished to see many of the little men (elves) working on repairs, and the two angels baking gingerbread.  He is also astounded to find the interior of the caravan to be much larger then the visible exterior.  After some conversation, Ben learns that Niklas is one of many "Santa Claus's" that work Christmas.  He tells Ben that a nasty Santa by the name of Goblynch took over and made new rules for the rest of the Santa's to follow.  Now all presents are only made after a parental request and payment.  Goblynch has turned almost all the reindeer into salami and fired all the elves as he finds it cheaper to just buy the presents from Earth.  Niklas and six other Santa's refused to follow the new rules and continued the old ways.  This entailed gathering wishes from children directly from their dreams and sometimes surprising them with something completely different.  Unfortunately Goblynch set his evil nutcrackers after the rouge Santa's, catching all of them but Niklas.  Matilda tells Ben that if the nutcrackers catch Niklas, they will take his boots and if he looses his boots for more then 24 seconds then he will turn into chocolate...which is what happened to the other Santa's.  The next day, a shy quiet girl by the name of Charlotte also gets invited to visit Niklas.  She offers her dog to search for Twinklestar...who is invisible while on Earth.  Ben and Charlotte have a bit of an adventure, but eventually get the rouge reindeer back where he belongs.  Ben gets teased at school about his continual belief in Santa.  To this end he makes a bet with his nemesis on whether it will snow or not, with Ben winning if it snows in the next couple of days.  Ben and Charlotte ask Niklas if this is possible and he says it is, but it is risky.  Niklas agree's to the risk and tells the kids that they need to take a pipe/hose through the White Door to Yule Land and pipe snow to the snow machine.  The risky part is that the White Door is where the nutcrackers will come through if they get a whiff of Niklas.  The kids just manage to get enough snow and through the door before the nutcrackers come through, winning the bet with Dean and making the kiddo's happy.  Unfortunately their little escapade brought Niklas to the notice of Goblynch and his henchmen.  There is a pretty awesome little battle with the tide turning when shy Emmanuel and Twinklestar free the elves and save the day.  Goblynch is turned into chocolate and Niklas is free to be the best Santa he can be.  He personally brings Ben and his parents super awesome presents and promises to see him next year.  Niklas leaves with the hope he can recruit some new Santa's who will bring the true magic back to Christmas.

World Building - The world in this book was three fold, the mundane suburbia that could literally be anywhere, the cozy homey holiday magic of the caravan and the frosty, cold mystery of Yule Land.  The three very different area's all compared and contrasted with each other to create a perfect tiny little world in which to tell our story.  It is not sweeping, their is not a ton of back story, but it is the perfect setting for the narrative that the author was trying to tell.

Story - This was a great little Christmas story.  It has everything I love in a holiday tale, kids, magic, Santa, elves, angels, danger, greed, wishes and a very happy ending with the bad guys getting whats coming to them and the good guys triumphing over the darkness.  I liked how this story had many traditional elements, but the story itself was wholly original.  Good story.

Character - So much fun when it came to the characters.  Ever single being with a line had some sort of personality.  My favorites where the elves and angels, but seriously every single character was well done.  Nobody was perfect, nobody was stock, everybody had motivation and stayed true to themselves.  Pretty awesome if you ask me.  But seriously my favorites are the interactions between the bossy Matilda and the lazy swearing elves.

Editing - The book was readable, the flow was good, it was the perfect length...not much more to say.

Accidental Find - So possibly one of my favorite things about this book is how I found it.  I was perusing my local used bookstore in the middle of summer...possibly only so I could be somewhere with AC.  I was stumbling through the kids section when the authors name caught my eye.  Her Inkheart Trilogy is one of my favorites in the world so I am always looking for more by her.   I was kind of surprised to see it was a Christmas book 'cause I did not know that she had ever written one. I then had to make sure I actually remembered that I had it...which I did...so yay me...and yay for random book finds of perfection.

A Little Dark - I love a Middle Grade book that does not shy away from realizing that most kids, especially by the time they hit those middle grades might actually have a clue to what goes on in the real world.  This book is one of those.  The bad guy is not nice and some of the scenes...especially the illustrations are down right scary.  That being said, everything has a reason for being in the book and the way the kids deal with the scary stuff is dealt with really well.  It is not your typical sugary Christmas story where the bad guy gets redeemed...he pretty much gets turned to chocolate...and I for one am very happy about that.

Multi Santa's - The story is not super detailed on whether there was an original Santa that hired help, or if there have always been multiple Santa's, but I think the concept works.  It gives so much plausible explanation to how Santa can be everywhere at once.  It also helps explain some of the physical and story differences that abound when the various stories are told.  I also liked how even the Santa's were not immune from human greed and how that affected Christmas as a whole.  An original concept that was very well executed.

Overall Impression - I enjoyed this little Christmas book.  It had everything I was looking for in a Christmas story and is one I would recommend for anybody old enough not to have nightmares from the demonic looking nutcrackers.  Overall I would give it 7 out of 10 polar glow worms and am now going to start looking at everybody who might possibly be a Santa.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Seaborn Transformation

Woohoo, my first rambling from the new house!  With the triple digit heat I thought I would ramble about a summer book.  The book is The Mermaid's Sister by Carrie Anne Noble.  I got it as an e-book a while ago and totally forgot I had it until my fire station book group were all going through our e-books to see what we wanted to swap.  This book checked off my love of fantasy, mermaids, adventure and family.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

 Clara and Maren are two very special sisters that were left as infants on the doorstep of the mountain healer/hedgewitch whom they call Auntie.  Maren was left in a giant conch shell in the middle of the path and Clara was brought by a stork.  They are raised by Auntie who regularly tells them the story of how they came to live with her.  The little family works, plays and loves together spending 16 happy years.  The whole time Auntie makes it very clear that Maren will eventually turn into a mermaid and need to be returned to the sea.  At the start of the book we see Maren starting her transformation with her fingers and toes starting to webb and spending hours under water.  Clara is both sad and angry at what she feels is the loss of her beloved and vibrant sister.  Clara spends a lot of her time trying to find a way to keep her sister human.  A welcome break comes in the form of a visit from Scarff and his adopted son O'Neill traveling peddlers of wonders.  Maren in her bold and brash ways flirts with O'Neill intimates that they will some day get married.  O'Neill seems to return her affections, sitting with her as her transformation forces her to live almost full time in a giant tub of water.  Clara finds that she is jealous of O'Neill's attention to her sister and at the same time ashamed that she would ever want to deprive her sister of any happiness.  After trying multiple spells and cures it becomes apparent the Maren will turn completely into a mermaid and that she will need to get to the ocean to survive.  O'Neill and Clara pack up the now water bound Maren into the peddlers wagon and off they set.  Along the way Clara and O'Neill become close, with him telling her it was always Clara he loved, but he felt like a protective brother to Maren and wanted to protect and make her happy.  After a couple of adventures, the peddlers wagon catches on fire and the trio are "rescued" by Dr. Phipps and Company Medicine Show, which consists of Dr. Phipps a show man with a temper, his exotic wife Soraya and their brute of a son Jasper.  Dr. Phipps puts Maren, who has pretty much finished her transformation on display and charges for tickets to see her.  Dr. Phipps and his family use fear and intimidation to keep the trio with the show.  Eventually after mass chaos and such most of the Phipps family is killed and Clara and O'Neill are able to get Maren away.  They get to the sea and the mermaids come and welcome Maren home.  Clara is sad to lose her sister, but recognizes how happy Maren and that she truly belongs in the sea.  Clara and O'Neill decide to get married and return to the mountain where the very happy Scarff and Auntie have made their home.  While they all miss Maren, they realize the best thing to do is live their life to the fullest and be glad that Maren is also happy.

World Building - The world is a mix of medieval Europe with a bit of magic and fantasy thrown in.  The world itself if fairly generic but provides a good setting for the story.  The best part of the world building is Dr. Phipps show which is in turns interesting and horrific.  Not a whole lot to say about the world other then it was a pretty solid canvas in which to tell the story.

Story - The story was very well done.  I felt it was original, detailed and all flowed together in a layered complexity that gave the story depth without confusing the reader.  I like all the elements that came together in the story, mermaids, adventure, family, love, hate, anger, sadness, heroism, everything that makes a good rollicking tale to tell.  I also like that while it had all the elements of a typical fantasyish book, the story felt wholly original and fresh without straying to far from a comfort read territory...not sure if any of that made any sense...but...yep

Character - The characters in this book I felt were very strong.  While they were mostly written to fit the tropes (dutiful sister/daughter, brazen young woman, heroic boy, enigmatic yet motherly hedgewitch, etc) each character seemed to have personality quirks and sparks that made them come alive past the cut and paste basics.  It is nice to see a writer who can nod to the classics when it comes to characters and yet still make them individual and vibrant.  With the new trend in subverting all known tropes, it is refreshing to see a classic worked in such a well written matter.

Editing - The editing was good.  The story was just the right length.  The book was readable and followed through with all of its promises.  The voices were clear and consistent.  Editing was good, with nothing about it that took me out of the story.

Mermaids - I love mermaids, after dragons they are my favorite supposed mythical creature so I enjoy reading any decently written story that involves them.  For the most part I very much enjoyed how the author dealt with the mermaid aspect of this story.  Pretty much Maren was the only mermaid we really dealt with so we did not get...or need to know the whole history of this worlds mermaids.  I liked watching this feisty girls transformation from a passionate young woman to a happy and free mermaid.  The description of her transformation was interesting and pretty and her love of the sea from the very beginning was very clear.  The only thing I wanted to know was why Maren was human at all in the first place.  Is it something that all mermaids start as humans then transform?  Was there special circumstances in Maren's case?  How did Auntie know that she was always going to turn?  Other then that I loved all the mermaid parts.

Traveling Peddlers/Shows - I have always liked the idea of traveling shows and peddlers.  The idea of people traveling all over the place, collecting stories, artifacts, acts and people.  I like that these

things become a bit of a touchstone of far away places.  In this book we see two extremely different examples of this.  We have Scarff and O'Neills wondrous wagon full of amazing things from far off places all with stories of their own.  On the flip side we have Dr. Phipps traveling show which show cases the darker side of these types of shows.  Enslavement of people and creatures for show, exposing of young ladies for the entertainment of others, tyranny and fear.  I like that this book showed both sides of the coin both how wondrous and potentially horrific these things can be.

Family - I think my favorite thing about this book is the concept of family.  Not a single one of our good guys is related by blood and yet they all consider themselves family.  They love each other as sisters, as mother and daughters, as father and son, as uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces, nephews all sorts of familial ties.  This really drives home the point that you do not have to be related by blood to be family.  I love this sentiment, especially in this world of blended families, surrogate families and people just needing people to count on.  In stark contrast we have the Phipps family, who are a family in the traditional sense and they mostly look out for themselves and terrorize each other.  I like that the author is able to point out that family is family either by blood or choice and that just 'cause your family doesn't make your relationships perfect and that if you are not related by blood it does not make you any less family.

Overall the book was pretty good.  Not spectacular, but still very solid.  It made a great summer reading book and with the acknowledgement of a few raised eyebrow moments in the traveling show I would recommend it to anybody over the age of 12 who wants a good original story to sit down and read.  I give it 7 out of 10 pearl tears and am very glad I found it on my phone just in time for summer.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Oh No Witches

That does it!  I'm taking a quick packing break to do a quick ramble.  Why?  'Cause I desperately need to do something literary related and if I pick up a book I will probably not put it down until moving day.  Let's ramble about Witch Week by Diana Wynne Jones.  Part of the Chronicles of Chrestomanci and the second story in my special volume, it made me as happy as the other ones have.  Lets get on with it shall we?  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

 This story again takes us out of Chrestomanci's home world and let's us explore an entirely new one.  This world is one where magic and especially witches (both male and female) are feared to the point that they are burned any time one of them is discovered.  Our story takes place in a boarding school where a significant portion of the student body are what are called witch orphans.  These are children that have been orphaned after one or more of their parents have been executed for being witches.  The school is thrown into turmoil when a teacher is slipped a note informing him that one of his students is a witch.  We are then introduced to a whole bunch of kids who belong to various social groups with in the school.  Nan Pilgrim is the descendant of a very powerful witch who was known for starting a rebellion. Charles Morgan an unpopular boy who uses his ferocious looks to keep people at bay.  Brian Wentworth, the son of the vice principle who is harassed by the popular group.  Theresa Mullett and Simon Silverson, popular and cruel.  And a whole host of other kids who make up this school.  Weird going ons start to happen all of which points to a witch among the students.  As the story progresses each child becomes suspicious of each other, and then of themselves as they realize that most of them possess some sort of mage.  It get's bad enough that the teachers call in the witch hunters to rid the school of whoever is causing the problem.  All of this eventually catches the attention of Chrestomanci who travels to this world to see what is going on.  He is confused as the profusion of magic should make this world embrace witches not fear them.  He discovers that this particular world experienced a schism at some point trapping all the witches on this side and all the embracing of magic on the other.  He uses the witch children to work some big magic, the worlds merge and it appears that people live happier ever after.

World Building - This world is full and slightly unsetteling.  There is the feel of a modernish day England boarding school that most British/Fantasy lovers will recognize.  There is also the feeling that something is slightly off about the whole thing...which considering the ending of the book makes this world feel very carefully built.  It is very different from Chrestomanci's open and pastoral world and really gives us the impression of being in a different place.  It was effective, appropriate and complete.

Story - The story had a beginning, middle and end.  It had layers and depth.  It made sense, we were given all the information we needed with out getting bored by a lecture.  Most off all I kept turning the pages.  I never once got bored with the story and wanted to finish it as fast as possible and at the same time was very sad when it was over.  It is very appropriate for the age group it is written for and as with all stories by this author it is just phenomenal.

Characters - Another strong point to this book, the characters were varied and interesting.  Each character stayed true to how they were written, while still being given the chance to change and grow.  The children and adults all interacted in believable ways.  I liked how the author gave us characters that originally fit into very stereotypical school niches, the popular kids, the bully, the loner, the teachers pet, the stranger, the head of the school, etc...but then gave them all a chance to become something else.  I also liked that not every single character chose the best path, that the author recognized that just 'cause you get the choice to do does not mean everybody does.

Editing - Props to the editor.  This book was readable and made perfect sense.  We get the information we need when we need it and the pacing was wonderful.  The book as a whole fits into the Chrestomanci world.  I feel this type of editing and pacing is perfect for the intended age group, which is the Middle Grade/Young Adult crowd.

The Kids - I loved the children as a whole in this book.  I loved the world with in a world that a bunch of children can create with their own rules, moral, code of conduct and way of thinking.  It is entirely different from the world of adults and I remember as a kid how when a group of us got together we lived a completely different life from the adults.  This book very much sends me back to those days and it is nice to see a children's author who seems to understand children.

The Spells - The various spells the kids used, both intentional and otherwise where very original and refreshing.  The way that a child's mind works to create spells is so different then a "logical and educated" adult and really adds a different dimension to this book about magic.  I also just found the results of the spells amusing...especially when the hundreds of shoes appeared and needed sorting, what a great visual.

The Solution - I very much appreciate that Chrestomanci used the kids to solve this worlds problems.  He recognized that they were the ones with the magic (for the most part) and that they were more open to a solution that involved magic.  Instead of going to the adults to talk or fight the problem, he used his best resources, the children and came up with a complete and elegant solution.

Overall Impression - I really really really wish I had known about this author as a kid.  I feel like these would have been some of my favorite books and this book in particular would have appealed to me.  I give it 8 out of 10 flying carpets and recommend it to any kid who needs a book to read, fans of British fantasy and anybody who just wants a fun read.  Happy Reading Everybody!

Wonka's Whipple-Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight

Usually when I need to give my brain a break I go to my childhood favorites.  This time I picked up Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.  This book has always appealed to me for many reasons, not the least of which is the idea of endless chocolate.  Ready to go on a wild ride?  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Charlie Bucket is a very poor boy who lives with his parents and his four bed bound Grandparents in a tiny drafty house.  They subsist mostly on cabbage soup with the occasional bite of bread.  They are a loving family though and do there best to help each other survive.  Grandpa Joe tells little Charlie the story of Willy Wonka's Chocolate factory that had to shut its doors to the public due to all the spying going on.  Grandpa Joe tells Charlie that one day the factory started up again, with mysterious workers helping Wonka produce sweet wonders...but the gates remained closed and locked.  One night an announcement goes out that in five random Wonka chocolate bars are golden tickets that will allow a person into the Wonka factory.  Obviously the world is vary excited and a run on chocolate bars ensues.  The first person to find a golden ticket is the gluttonous Agustus Gloop, a little boy who won't stop eating.  Next is the very spoiled Veruca Salt who obtained her ticket when her father paid his peanut shellers to open candy bars instead.  Charlies birthday happens and he gets his traditional chocolate bar which sadly contains no golden ticket.  The third ticket goes to the annoying, gum chewing Violet Beauregarde and the fourth to the television and violence obsessed Mike Teavee.  Grandpa Joe figures out a way to get Charlie another chocolate bar, which again holds no ticket.  Mr. Bucket loses his job at the toothpaste factory and the family begins to starve.  Charlie finds a dollar bill on the way home and uses it to buy chocolate (smart boy) he wolfs it down and buys another and lo and behold GOLDEN TICKET!  The long anticipated day arrives and the five winners along with their parents (except Charlie who just brings Grandpa Joe) arrive at the factory to meet the mysterious Willy Wonka.  They are greeted by a funny little man in a green had and purple velvet coat who promptly brings them inside the wondrous factory.   The first stop is my personal favorite, a huge meadow area where EVERYTHING is edible and made of candy! How cool is that ?!?  The best part is the chocolate river running through it.  Here we lose our first winner when Augustus Gloop falls into the river while drinking the chocolate and is sucked up the pipe.  Here we also meet the Oompa Loompa's, small weird colored guys who sing mean, yet insightful songs about our wayward winners.  The remaining people get into a fantastic boat and go hurtling down the chocolate river past many tantalizing doors stopping in an experimental room where our next child leaves us.  The gum chewing Violet grabs an experimental piece of gum and turns into a giant blueberry.  New up the nut sorting squirrles who decide Veruca is a bad nut when she try's to get her greedy little hands on one, bye bye Veruca.  We are now down to Mike TeaVee and Charlie Bucket.  Mike requests something TV related and Wonka takes them to a room where he is transmitting chocolate by radio waves to televisions.  Mike gets himself miniaturized when he jumps in front of the camera to get on TV.  We are now left with just sweet Charlie Bucket and his grandfather.  Willy Wonka then reveals that the whole point of the competition was to find an heir to his factory.  He offers it to Charlie, telling him the whole family can move in.  The book ends with Wonka telling Charlie to press a special button on the glass elevator that hurls them to Charlies home where they pick up his family to start a better life.

World Building - The book is a semi-fantastical novel mostly set in this awesome chocolate factory.  The world is fairly contained and more hinted at then shown.  There is a huge scope for people to fill in details and use their imagination to make the factory anything they want it to be.  My favorite spot is the meadow and chocolate river as it makes my imagination explode.

Story - The main story was pretty straight forward, a cautionary tale for children.  This is the type of story that tells you if you behave you can inherit a chocolate factory :-)  It also had a good punch of humor and straight up crazy which is always a plus for me.  Keeping in mind that this is an old school MG book I think the story kept a good balance between cheeky and a morality tale.

Character - The main characters were all pretty stock style characters, but this was done on purpose to illustrate a point, so I will give the kids a pass on this one.  I do however love Veruca Salt not for any real reason, I just do.  I also really enjoy Grandpa Joe's spunkyness and his ability to take quiet Charlie on this great adventure.  Of course my absolute favorite character is Willy Wonka. Just his name makes me smile, but what I really love is his sheer eccentricness.  He is the perfect mix of creative, dreamy, responsible, compassionate, logical and bat sh*t crazy.  I love everything about him.

Editing - This was a pretty simple and straight forward book told in a simple and straight forward way.  Not a lot to say about the editing other then it was fine.  Also there a bunch of really weird, scary yet fitting illustrations by Quentin Blake that add the perfect touch to this book.

Parents - The children in this book all had very obvious flaws that caused their downfall, but what I thought was interesting and very cool was that the book was very clear that the reason the children had gotten as bad as they were was the fault of the parents.  We see multiple times where the parents could have brought their precious darlings to heel, but instead indulged and defended them.  It's good to know that the author at least knew where bad kids come from...bad parents.  In contrast Charlie's family was responsible and loving and had trained Charlie so well he didn't even need his parents at factory, instead he go his spunky Grandpa Joe.

Imagination - I like how this book inspires imagination.  There are a couple well explained rooms and candies, but most are just hinted at.  I like this because it gives the reader a chance to imagine what all the different things could be, or look like, or taste like.  The lay out of the book also hints at almost endless possibilities, making this a great book to read with your kids or nephews and nieces or whoever because it leaves a ton of open ended conversations.  Even the "punishments" that the naughty kids get are creative, and in the end not permanent.

Movies - I can't mention this book without talking about the movies.  There is Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with Gene Wilder as the title character, and the later Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Johnny Depp at Willy Wonka.  Now I adore Johnny Depp and I know that to some degree Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is more faithful to the book, but I mostly find it a tad too creepy for my taste.  The Gene Wilder version on the other hand is one of my favorite movies ever!  While it definitely does not follow the book word for word it most definitely keeps the spirit of the book to the fullest extant.  It will probably come as no surprise to anybody that my favorite scene is the World of Pure Imagination song/scene.  Also I feel that Gene Wilder captures the person of Willy Wonka perfectly.

Overall Impression - I very much enjoy this book, I feel it is entirley age appropriate, not overly complicated or angsty and is perfect for reading with a younger person.  I feel it encourages conversation and imagination and pretty much recommend it to everybody.  I give it 8 out of 10 everlasting gobstoppers and am now going to go watch the movie and eat some chocolate.  Happy Reading Everybody!!!

My Grade School Series

Mmmm fall is my favorite.  I spent the day putting up all my fall stuff, making cider and blasting the AC to pretend that the weather is less the 95 degrees.  This time of year all makes me want to pull out the old books I used to read in my grade school days.

Ramona Collection

This quirky girl series makes me happy to this day.  Everything from Ramona's imaginative pre-school day's to her becoming a young lady hit home with me as a young reader.

Mrs. Piggle-WIggle Series

I love the various means both magical and practical that our eccentric widow uses to help parents with their problem children...also I want to live in an upside down house.

Nancy Drew Mystery Stories

Mysteries, smart girls, and some decent fashion made this my go to series for many of my grade school years.

The Boxcar Children

A series about four inventive children...kind of like my family.  This series never failed to provide many adventure ideas for me to inflict upon my siblings

Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective

This was essentially a child version of Sherlock Holmes.  A boy who is very observant and able to put the pieces together in an ingenious fashion.  I always loved trying to solve the mystery before the end of the story.

So that is my list of my favorite series when I was in grade school.  These are the series I read and reread over and over again far into the night.  With school starting again, I think I will pull a couple of these out to read again.  Happy Reading Everybody!

If Wonka Owned A Library

I was at the bookstore the other day getting a birthday present for a friend when I randomly found a book called Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein.  The cover is awesome and colorful and the premise (a bunch of kids stuck in a fantastic library) sounded right up my ally.  How did it turn out?  As always SPOILERS AHEAD.

Kyle Keeley is in constant competition with his older brothers, and their favorite games are the ones by the eccentric Mr. Lemoncello.  Turns out that Mr. Lemoncello has donated the money to build a new public library and it is going to spectacular.  The local school holds an essay contest open to all 12 year olds that will be judged by the one and only Mr. Lemoncello.  Kyle decides to do a last minute essay, saying only "Balloons.  There might be balloons." as his reason for wanting to go to the grand opening.  Oddly enough Kyle, along with his friends Akimi, Miguel, the school suckup Charles, the dreamy bookworm Sierra, the underperforming Andrew, the popular Haley and five others all win a night in the library.  The kids all arrive at the library and are given library cards, all with two different books on them and are told that these are the "keys" to the library.  The kids are awed at what they see in the library.  There are 10 dewey decimal rooms, based on the dewey decimal system , various rooms dedicated to reading, genre's, high tech simulations, education and other various things.  The children play some games and win some prizes.  The next morning they are informed that if they choose, they may stay and play an epic game of escape the library.  5 kids decide to leave, leaving the seven remaining children to play the game.  The kids team up in various ways and find clues and puzzles to try and figure out the solution.  After either breaking rules, or losing Extreme Challanges it comes down to the final team of Kyle, Akimi, Miguel, Sierra and Haley.  The kids work together and find the solution, winning the grand prize of appearing in commercials for Mr. Lemoncello.  The kids learn that reading, kindness and teamwork are what it takes and they all live happily ever after for at least the year.

This was a pretty typical MG book.  It had all the various types of kids, the leader, the suck-up, the hanger on, the bookworm, the smarty, the popular girl, and the best friend.  We had choices to make of a moral nature, with good decisions being rewarded and bad behavior being punished.  Like I said pretty typical.  I'm not really sure what to say about the book.  It was a good idea, and was successful in some ways with the cool modern library combining the classic books with newer technology.  The puzzles were ok, though I wanted more of them and for them to be more concise.  I thought the characters were a little one note, and Mr. Lemoncello was a bit over the top for me.  The comparisons to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory were inevitable and over all I think I like the chocolate factory a bit more for it's sheer craziness.  It was a good book, not a great book and I think I would enjoy it a lot more if I were a 12 year old.  The author did manage to stuff the story full of great book references both classic and modern and rally tried to show the merits of reading, while still acknowledging technology and it's appeal.  I give this book 6 out of 10 trivia cards and recommend it to middle grades everywhere.  Happy Reading Everybody?
What is your favorite game/puzzle based book?  What crazy Mr. Lemoncello game do you want to play?  How cool would it be to be able to sleep in a library?

It's Ok To Be A Girl

One of the few good things about the holiday's being over is that I can get back to my normal reading pattern.  I always feel a bit nostalgic right after the holidays and since for once I didn't have a deadline looming over me, I picked up one of my favorite series by one of my favorite authors.  I read Alanna: The First Adventure, the first book in the Song of the Lioness Quartet by Tamora Pierce.  How did it hold up over the years?  I'll tell you, but first, as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Alanna and Thom are pre-teen twins with a crappy father (as all good MG/YA books start).  They both have the Gift, a form of magic certain people posses in the realm of Tortall.  To this end, Thom wants to become a mage, and Alanna wants to become a night, the problem being that females can't become knights, and their father insists that Thom go become a knight instead of a mage.  They decide to switch places and Thom goes on to the City of the Gods to become a mage ('cause both guys and gals can practice magic) and Alanna becomes Alan and signs up to be a Page at the court in Corus, the capital of Tortall.  Only Corum, Alanna's trusted friend and guardian knows her secret and helps her when he can.  Alanna works extremely hard to overcome her smallness and the beatings of a much larger bully.  In town one day Alanna (in the guise of Alan) meets George Cooper, the King of Thieves who takes her under his wing and teaches her how to fight.  Between this and all her extra work at her Page lessons, Alanna earns her place among her fellow Pages and Squires.  She

eventually befriends the Prince Jonathan, and her ability with the Gift is revealed when she uses it to heal him after an awful illness called the Sweating Sickness sweeps through the city, killing many.  It is thought that the illness was sent by a sorcerer, who may have targeted the royal family.  After saving the prince, he and Alanna, along with a few other guys get to be good enough friends that she introduces them to George, who in turn helps them by keeping an eye on the city.  Eventually Alanna gets older, and as it goes, hits puberty.  Since she has no mother, and not female to talk to, Alanna is understandably freaked out by her first period and goes to George's mother, a healer to find out what is what.  Mrs. Cooper explains the birds and the bees to her and gives her a charm against pregnancy and encourages her to be a girl when she can. She also let's George in on the fact that she is a girl.  The prince's cousin, Roger the Duke of Conte arrives to teach the pages/squire's with the Gift how to use it. A bunch of stuff happens (don't you love how I skip over all this stuff in every rambling :-) )   The bunch of them head off to hang out at Persopolis, an oasis city in the middle of the desert.  In site of the encampment is the Black City, an evil place that compels people to come and they are never seen again.  Roger, goad/tricks Jonathan into going to the city and Alanna follows him.  They confront an ancient evil called the Ysandir and defeat them using Alanna and the princes combined Gifts.  In the process, Prince Jonathan discovers that Alanna is really a girl.  He decides he is ok with this, agrees to keep it a secret and the book ends with him choosing her as his squire once he is knighted.

This is one of those books where a lot of stuff happens very quickly.  If I remember correctly just this book spans the course of at least 5 years and each page if packed full of stuff.  Most of the events are pretty simply described, with out a whole lot of detail or angst, and while this makes things a bit quick, it keeps the pace up.  This book, and series in general is pretty cool in that the main message is that it is ok to be yourself.  Alanna is hellbent on being a knight, even at the tender age of 11 and she thinks this means she pretty much has to turn herself into a boy.  While this is true to some degree, she learns that it does not have to be her whole life.  Through out the book, she is lucky enough to have several people encourage her to be who she wants to be, if that's a knight, great go for it, but don't let that completely squash your femininity if you don't want it to.  I really like the idea that it is ok to be whatever, a girl who likes to swing swords and wear a pretty pair of earrings.  A boy who wants a quieter life of study, but is still able to ride a horse like a pro.  Just because you like one thing, or are good at something, does not automatically mean the rest of your life has to follow suite.

 I also really like how hard Alanna has to work to achieve her goal.  Besides her Gift (which she is afraid of AND many other people also have), she is not all that special.  She is small so she has to work extra hard just to be as good as the other guys.  Through out the book (and the series) she makes no secret of the fact that there are some things she will probably never be good at.  The only real "convenient" part that bugs me a bit, is her ability to have people fall head over heels to help her out of most situations.  George Cooper, while a great character, for some reason decides to take the scrawny little Page under his wing even before he knows she is a girl, same with the Prince (though I guess saving his life helped with that).  It is a bit convenient for her to have a lot of support in a time and place where she should have very little.  As this is a reread, I always like to compare the first time I read it to subsequent rereads.  In this case, I still love the book, but found it to be a bit simpler then I remember.  The time frame in which it is written makes it go fast, and certain things go unexamined and stuff gets glossed over. I think it is a great first book in this series and is a great pace for a younger reader to really get into.  I love it for anybody who struggles with reconciling who they are with what they do, or what they like.  It has adventure, intrigue, swords and magic and it will always have a spot on my shelf.  I give it 7 out of 10 crystal swords.
What books do you feel like rereading this year?  Do you have changing feelings about books you reread?  What would a sword fighting tutu look like?

Horrifically Normal

I just finished reading The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls the debut novel of Claire Legrand (who has some of the coolest Pinterest boards). It is a MG book that is equal parts, creepy, disgusting and unfortunately frustrating.  I already know that I am in the minority for my lack of complete and utter love for this book, which is good, I like it when people read and love stories, even if I don't so if you read and loved this book please, please, please take note of my post No Apologies.  That being said I did not hate, or even dislike the book, I just had some issues with it, but more on that in a little bit, first the synopsis.  As always Spoilers Ahead!

Victoria Wright (which is seriously the most perfect name for this character) likes order, her room is neat as a pin and organized to the point even Martha Stewart would be proud. Victoria has the need to be perfect in all things, appearance, grades, tone, voice, everything.  Victoria only has one friend, well actually she considers him more of a project then a friend.  His name is Lawrence Prewitt and he is something of a musical genius, he is also sloppy, loud and much more relaxed then his friend "Vicky" (He is the only one
who can get away with calling her that).  One day Victoria goes to Lawrence's house as usual so that they can walk to school together.  She is informed by his parents (who are acting odd) that he has gone to visit his grandmother.  Victoria goes to school where she notices most of the teachers and some of the students are also acting oddly, kind of super smiley and stiff.  Victoria also starts to notice that certain kids are missing, Donovan who purposely downs bags of treats in flagrant violation of the school rules, and Jacqueline who is a bit of an odd duck, creative, dreamy and not at all "normal" (lot's of air quotes in this post folks).  Some feeling leads Victoria to go visit the Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls where she is greeted by a creepy gardener by the name of Mr. Alice who appears to be puffy with moving skin.  Victoria is taken to see Mrs. Cavendish who gives her some chewy butterscotch candy and assures her that her children are all very happy.  Although she can not see the children, Victoria hears talking and laughter and gets a warm fuzzy feeling that all is well.  As she leaves a paper airplane if flown to her and she takes it with her.  When she gets home she opens it and finds the words HELP US written on the inside. She decides to investigate and goes to the library where all the adults are acting weird. She goes to the archive room and tries to find out anything about the Home and does not have a whole lot of luck.  Her favorite teacher Professor Alban comes in looking frightened and tells Victoria that he is being watched, they find an old picture that looks just like Mr. Alice and Mrs. Cavendish but that is impossible because it is over 100 years old.  As soon as they find this her teacher freaks out and tells her to hide.  The room starts oozing and a ton of shiny black pincer bugs come out of the walls and take Prof. Alban away.  Victoria heads home and realizes that her parents are starting to act strange, just like the rest of the town.  She goes to a Mr. Tibbalts house who informs her that Mrs. Cavendish takes all the children who do not fit the strict standard of normal and "fixes" them...or if she can't fix them they disappear. The townsfolk are all partly bewitched or something and partly allow it to happen because of there need for normalcy.  Victoria heads to the Home where she is promptly captured and placed in a pitch black room full of the pincer bugs.  She is eventually let out and see's that all the missing children are there.  Mrs. Cavendish and Mr. Alice then proceed to do some pretty horrible things to try and make the children "normal", like
forcing Donovan to eat sweets until he is sick and then starving him, or whipping Jacqueline every time she tries to get creative with her art work.  They also punish Victoria's friends every time she stands up to them.  This all gets pretty sick and twisted for a while.  Victoria eventually figures out that the structure of the Home itself is alive and is trying to help her.  The children are served a weird mix of eggs and stinky meat for every meal and they are served by weird deformed little creatures called gofers.  She notes that they have the exact same shape and color eyes and the chewy candies she ate before...gross.  She also discovers that the children that can't be "normalized" are cut down to the hideous gofers  and the extra parts are fed to the kids.  Victoria convinces the others that they have to escape.  She goes to the garden and discovers that the adults that defied her have been turned into trees and they are the ones who have been helping her.  She goes to a hut where Mrs. Cavendish has made puppets out of the adults (I guess this is how she is controlling them) and cuts all there strings.  Mrs Cavendish turns into a giant spider and chases Victoria until she, the Home and the gardens are all swallowed up into the earth.  The epilogue shows Lawrence going to music school and Victoria heading off to college. The End.

Let's jump right into this shall we, lets start with what worked for me.  I did like the character of Victoria a lot, she was a good girl who saw the sense in following rules (which is a nice refresher from the firebrand rule breakers that have been big in heroines lately), she was a good student and wanted things to be orderly...she also found out that she had a core of steel and could use her stubbornness and sheer determination to the benefit of her new found friends.  I also liked the potential commentary on how we overlook bad things, things that just are not quit right as a community as long as we can keep our illusion of "normalcy", we have seen examples of this in the real world, and this was a creative way to comment on that.  The book was
creepy for sure, and the imagery was beautifully written.  Now on to what did not work so much for me.  I did not feel that this was a complete story, there was absolutely no explaining who, what or why Mrs. Cavendish was.  The only real thing we got was she set up shop in this particular town because of the peoples need for order.  There was no explanation given to what she got out of transforming boys and girls into shining examples of good behavior, therefor to me the villain had no real motivation which put a huge damper on it for me.  There were also parts of the book that felt like it skipped around and I found myself flipping back and forth wondering if I missed something.  I also felt (and this is a completely personal thing here) that to much of the potential creepiness turned into out and out disgusting horror.  I don't mind when certain things are put in to illustrate just how evil the situation is, but when I get inundated with them, the horror level goes down and the ew that's just gross factor sets in. The unknown noises that go bump in the night with the occasional confirmation of grotesque horror is much more effective at maintaining the the tension. The ending was abrupt with a bit of hurried resolution that did not show hardly any of the aftermath of such a huge event, most importantly what happened to all the little gofers and trees?  Overall I got a very strong Coraline vibe, all the way down to the sweet motherly figure that goes all spidery on the heroine and the ghost children voices.  I have to admit I liked Coraline much better.  Like I said earlier, I did not hate the book, it's just that all of the aforementioned issues kept taking me out of the story which made it a not so happy read.  I do think the author has potential and I will be looking at her next books because I think she is just going to keep improving with time.  I am glad to see so many people liked it, and hope it encourages her to keep writing.  I give this book 5 out of 10 butterscotch eye candies.

What did you think of this book?  Am I way to nit picky about a children's book?  Who are some of your favorite authors that got off to a rocky start?  Does this book give a whole new meaning to the term eye candy?