Cat Girl In The Basement

Who's ready for a rambling?  Yay, me too!  Today I will ramble about a book that has been on my radar and on my bookshelf for a while.  It has been part of my backpack of bookness  for and I was in the mood for a random book, so I put my hand into the backpack, pulled out this book and read it in two days.  The book is Serafina and the Black Cloak, a young adult novel by Robert Beatty.  Was it as awesome as the best seller list said it was?  I'll let you know, but first as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

 Serafina is a pre-teen girl who has spent her whole life hidden with her father in the basement of the famous Biltmore Estate in the 1890's.  Serafina spends most of her time napping during the day and using her unusual talents to catch rats in the extensive house.  She is no sure why her father hides hers away so carefully, but figures it has something to do with her strange coloring and the way her bones seemed to be just a bit malformed.  She has spent her whole life skulking around and observing the life that she can never have.  Her father has also warned her away from the forests that surround the estate, telling her that they are very dangerous.  One night while catching rats, Serafina runs into a horrible, rotting apparition that is clothed in a mysterious black cloak.  The worst part however is that he has kidnapped a young girl and when Serafina tries to help, the cloak envelopes the girl and she disappears with a scream.  The man in the black cloaks see's Serafina and chases her, but she manages to hid using her ability to fit into tiny spaces.  She goes up and spies on the house the next morning and learns one of the guests little girls is missing.  She tries to explain to her father, but he tells her she has read to many books and must have imagined it.  Sera goes exploring on her own and meets up with Braeden, the orphaned nephew of the Vanderbilts, the  owners/builders of the Biltmore Estate.  The two of them become friends and start to investigate the missing children, as they have come to find out that there were other's missing.  Sera tries again to talk to her father and finally learns the truth of her birth.  Years ago he had been out in the woods and came across some sort of wild animal.  He heard what sounded like cries and when he followed the sound, he came upon a small creature that resembled a human girl.  He took her home and eventually got a job at the Biltmore Estate, first as a construction worker, then as a maintenance man, all the while living and hiding himself and his adopted daughter in the house.  Much investigation and adventures follow with Sera and Braeden becoming tight friends.  Sera starts to suspect a Mr. Thorn, a guest of the Biltmore Estate who seems to mysteriously obtain a new talant every time a child disappears. Sera is chased into the woods and she after running through a mysterious, body less cemetery in an abandoned village she ends up in a green area with a mysterious angel holding a sharp sword.  There is also a mountain lion den, which holds a pair of lion cubs that Sera bonds with.  She is almost killed when the cubs lion mamma comes back and finds her.  More stuff and Sera lures Mr. Thorn away into the glade and gets the lioness to shred him.  She takes the cloak and learns it's evil history and how it was responsible for the town being abandon.  It tempts her to take it for her self, but she uses the sword to destroy it.  Once the cloak is destroyed, all the spirits that were taken are released, including the missing children.  Turns out the cloak would absorb the spirits and bestow the life and talent upon the wearer of the cloak.  One of the released people is Serafina's mother...actually it's the human half of a being known as a catamount, which is essentially a human/ mountain lion shape shifter.  This is where Sera get's her interesting oddness from.  The kid's are taken back to their grateful parents with a story of being lost in the woods, as nobody would really believe that they were trapped in a cloak.  The Vanderbilts have finally learned of Sera's existence and allow her and her father to continue to live in the basement.  Sera and Braeden remain fast friends and the next adventure starts in the next book.

World Building - The book is set in a historical location, but with a fantasy twist.  I don't know, the world was really well built...but I had a very hard time reconciling the fake fantasy world with it's non existent elements aka the abandon village and such, with what is a well known and well documented local historical landmark, but more on that later.  That being said, the world was well wrought and easy to navigate, especially the nooks and crannies of the big house and some of the cemetery aspects added to the overall story.

Story - This felt like a middle grade story, if that makes sense.  This is not a bad thing, sometimes I feel that authors try and get to clever, or to adult when it comes to this age group and this story really feels like it is written for the 9-12 club and in that sense it makes me very happy.  I however am not a 9-12 year old and felt that the book over all read a little young.  Again not a bad thing for the target group.  For the most part the story was complete and engaging.  The biggest complaint I had about the story (besides the historical aspect, which will get it's own area) was that I felt like it was trying to do a little to much.  We had so many elements to the story, and not all of them were tied together as well as I thought they could be.  So I guess overall the story was ok, but needed some work.

Character - This book had an interesting mix of historical figures and fictional characters which for me personally worked with mixed results.  As far as individuals go, I found Serafina to be a pretty good character, especially for the target age group.  She is feisty, self-sufficient, and not overly confident.  She has a lot of angst over her unknown past and reacts as most  9-12 year olds would to the event's that transpire.  Everybody else is fairly stock or background so yeah.

Editing - The flow of the book was pretty well done, I was able to follow everything with out too much trouble so that was good.  Again, as I mentioned, I felt like there were just too many elements.  We had the mysterious girl with all the weird physical stuff, we have the historic estate, we have a mystery involving missing children and a soul eating cloak, we have a mysterious origin story, we have an abandon village, we have a sword wielding stone angel, we have shape shifting cats...we have SO MUCH GOING ON!  I feel like I would have preferred if the author just focused on a couple of these elements at a time, especially since it is going to be a series.  Also a few things got tossed in with no explanation which always drives me nuts.

History/Fantasy - Ok, so here is where personal opinion comes in...so just remember that...this is just my bloggy opinion.  I find that the mixing of history and fantasy is hit or miss.  When it is done well, it can be awesome.  However more often then not, it just bugs the heck out of me.  This book is one of those that bugs me and here is why.  We know the entire history of the Biltmore Estate.  We know how and when it was built and by who and their whole personal history.  Nowhere ever is their an orphaned nephew, nowhere ever is their an abandoned village....in fact the forest around the estate was planted by the builders.  There are no local legends of catamounts so pretty much the author just appropriated the setting and a couple of real life people then totally went his own merry way with the rest.  I would have much preferred if the author, inspired by the Biltmore Estates, had come up with his own setting and characters...even if they were a homage to the originals.  I found it very distracting the liberties the author took with the history of this place and it's builders.

Family - One thing I did very much enjoy about this book was the portrayal of family.  We get to see every single type of family imaginable.  We see mom, dad and kid, we see family adopting on of their own, we see single parents, we see a gruff guy becoming an amazing dad by happenstance.  A shape shifting mountain lion being a mother from afar.  To me it just reaffirms the fact that anybody can be family if they are willing to put the effort in.  I always love it when a book shows us that a family can be more then just the traditional nuclear family and that as long as you try to love each other, all family is good family.

Bucket List - For all of my whining about the mix of history and fantasy, the Biltmore Estate has now gone on my Literary Bucket List.  I only live about 6-8 hours away from this place and it looks amazing.  I would love to do my best to fanagle my way into seeing some of the awesome places described in the book.  This one is very doable so keep an eye out for a post about it.

Overall Impression - I did not find this book to be my personal cup of tea...that being said, I totally get the appeal of this book, especially in the middle grade crowd that it is targeted for.  I will probably grab the second book at some point, but am not chomping at the bit for it.  I recommend it to anybody who wants to get their kid to read more and needs a good page turner.  I give it 6 out of 10 frayed rope belts.  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!

A Troll, A Fetch, A Gramophone, And A Wombat Walk Into A Painting

It's FALL!!!! I may have mentioned that before, but I don't care, it makes me very very very happy...now if only the weather would cooperate.  As a sort of fall tradition and needing a special book to break in my new house,  I picked up the second to last book in the Fairyland series, The Boy Who Lost Fairyland by Cathrynne M. Valente.  This one was different because it focused on a not September character and took place mostly in the human world.  Did this at all change my love of this series?  Let's find out shall we?  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

In this installation of the series we focus not on our plucky and amazing September, but on a troll named Hawthorn.  Hawthorn is taken/conned by the Red Wind to become a changeling and replace a baby boy in the human world.  Hawthorne is taken to the Fairy Post Office and shipped of to Chicago where he takes the place of one Thomas Rood.  Hawthorne has only vague memories of his trollness and Fairyland, but they are enough to make him seem odd to his utterly normal parents.  Hawthorne starts school, and after a bit of a rough start makes friends by convincing them to talk to their desks...because in Hawthorne's memories every thing talks back to him.  This type of "imagination" and the way he gets the other children to follow him disturbs his teachers, prompting them to contact his parents to try and get him to act Normal.  Obviously our poor little troll changeling can never be completely Normal, no matter how hard he tries and his parents, while loving him, have a difficult time with it.  Hawthorne's human mother knits him a wombat who becomes his best companion

through out his strange life.  Hawthorne befriends a girl by the name of Tamburlaine who turns out to be another changeling.  Tam is not a troll however, she is what is known as a Fetch, a girl made of wood.  Her parents kind of know what she is and love her anyways and do their best to protect her.  Tam has the talent of painting and shows Hawthorne a fantastical forest that she has painted on her walls.  One day while visiting Hawthorne, Tam shows him how to work magic.  She shows him Scratch, a gramophone she brought to life using the same magic.  Hawthorne uses his magic to bring to life pretty much everything in his apartment, including the wombat named Blunderbuss that his mother made him.  After bringing to life his baseball...which turns into a tattooed monster, it grabs the foursome and dashes into the piece of forest Tam painted on Hawthorne's wall.  The foursome (Hawthorne, Tamburlaine, Scratch and Blunderbuss) wake up in an incredible forest that resembles the one that Tam painted.  Turns out they are in Fairyland and have reverted back to their troll and Fetch forms.  They are overtaken by the traveling capital of Fairyland, the fabric made Pandemonium.  The current King, King Crunchcrab enlists the foursome to help him quit being king.  They meet up with the human changelings of Fairyland who have been reduced to servitude to prevent them from bringing about the changes that changelings are known for.  They are sent to find a person known as the Spinster who can free Crunchcrab from his Kingship.  The foursome, along with Penny Farthing, who has been removed from her beloved fairy mother and no longer runs with the velocipedes end up serving at the party of a powerful Fairy.  They run into the real Thomas Rood and after a few meta moments gives them the key to the Spinster.  They find the Spinster...who turns out to be our girl September...who was aged by events in the previous book.  The dodo Aubergine gives them an egg that brings lost things back.  As you probably guessed, chaos ensues and all of the previous Kings and Queens of fairy come back.  The crown leaves Crunchcrab and falls to...September...who is know queen.  Hawthorne and Tam get to stay in Fairyland and Thomas returns home to ecstatic parents.   We end with Septembers mother being told by her sister that she knows where her daughter is and how to get there.

I'm gonna revert back to my old school of rambling for this book 'cause I think that I will be able to convey my feeling best in this format.  First of all, the authors trademark ability to make everything wondrous and fantastical was front and center.  The coolest part about this particular installment of the series was how amazing the writer made our mundane human world.  By showing us everyday things through the eyes of a young Fairylander, a dreary apartment in Chicago was made into a vertibal wonderland.  The rules that Hawthorne divined from his experiences in the human world and how he applied them to his life are a great reminder of what it is to be young in unfamiliar circumstances and how an imaginative brain adapts to these scary new things.  The author uses

Hawthorne to not only show us the human world through different eyes, but also a very young person learning and growing.  I did however very much miss September.  I understand what the writer was doing, and the story was very well done...I just really really love September and not having her play a main role in this book made me a little sad.  On that note, Blunderbuss may be my favorite wombat of all time.  Seriously this crazy patchwork marsupial in all it's incarnations made me smile every time she was on the page.  I was not the biggest fan of Scratch...I did not really see what this character contributed to the story other then being proof that Tam could work magic.  The story itself was pretty well done until they came back to fairyland, then I had to work really hard to remember everything that had happened in the last books to try and sort out all of the politics and keep everything straight in my head.  Overall it was a decent installment into a beloved series.  It does not compare to the first two, but definitely holds it's own overall.  I give it 8 out of 10 chain covered coats and recommend it to anybody who is as addicted to this series as I am.  Happy Reading Everybody!

The Memories Of Teeth

I love it when I discover a book that I bought, put on the shelf and forgot to read, it's kind of like discovering a secret treasure stash.  The other day as I was going through my shelves to pack a book caught my eye and I realized I had forgot to read it so YAY!  The book is Toothiana Queen of the Tooth Fairy Armies by William Joyce and is the third book in The Guardians series.  It was the perfect length and tone for my mindset at that moment so here we go.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

We last left our friends Katherine (the orphan girl with a fierce yet gentle heart), the wizard Ombric who has protected and enriched the hidden village of Santoff Claussen, North the valiant protector of Katherine and her friends, Nightlight the mysterious human like manifestation of pure light, and Bunnymund the rabbit like alien who is both a fighter and a lover of all things eggs, rejoicing at their defeat of their enemy Pitch.  Pitch and his nightmares have not been seen in some time and the group dares to hope he has been defeated for good.  The whole group, along with the villiage decide to go visit the Lamadary in the Himalayas.  Once there they learn the long lost story of Toothiana and how she became the queen of her strange little tooth fairy army.  She is the daughter of a Sister of Flight ( a race of winged women who lived in an ancient and fantastic city guarded by flying elephants) and the servant of a vain and cruel maharaja.  The maharaja wanted to hunt the flying elephants but was defeated by the Sisters of Flight.  His life was spared only by the intervention of his servant and the maharaja was turned into a sort of man monkey.  Fast forward several years later and Toothiana is born.  Once the small minded humans discover her wings, she and her family are hunted. Turns out it is actually a being called the Monkey King (the maharaja in monkey form) who is perusing the little family  and her parents give their lives to protect her.  Before dying they give Toothiana a ruby box to protect.  We also learn that Toothiana collects childrens teeth because they contain the memories that the children eventually forget.  Katherine, after her previous encounter with Pitch decides to use her last baby tooth (which she loses while at the Lamadary) to try and get some sort of memory of her parents of whom she remembers nothing.  Toothiana and her little mini me's (these are what constitute her army) arrive, but before Katherine can bargain with her they are all accosted by the Monkey King and his soldiers.  They carry off Katherine to the lost city of the Sisters of Flight and there she finds Pitch, not quite as defeated as she would wish.  The Guardians after much discussion form a plan and march on Pitch.  Unfortunately our faithful Guardians instead of just going to rescue Katherine, start to feel hate and anger and the need to not just incapacitate but kill Pitch and his army.  Katherine however protects Pitch from the killing blow saving the goodness that is what makes the Guardians themselves.  A wild and mysterious woman appears and spirits Pitch and Katherine away.  The book ends with the Guardians realizing that they erred when they let hate take over and vow to do better.  With that thought they all go to find Katherine.

World Building - This book, like the rest of the series does a great job in creating a fantastical yet understandable world.  This book in particular draws from Indian like settings and has a bit of Middle Eastern flair that fits into the global mythic world that the series is creating.  This installment continues the flow that was started in the first two books and it is very very easy to immerse oneself in this world created to escape to.

Story - I liked that this was both a continuation of the story in the series and added a new bit with the story of Toothiana.  I felt that this particular origin story of the tooth fairy was fresh and original and just all around very cool.  Being mostly a middle grade book I felt the story was simple enough for a younger person to follow, but not dumbed down in any way.

Character - The characters continue to be developed and diverse.  They come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, races (some mythological in origin) beliefs, just all kind of goodness.  I also like that most of the main characters have personal conflicts, strengths, weaknesses and so forth.  Especially in books for younger people I think it is important that characters are not perfect, or stereotypes, but that everybody has good and bad sides and needs to learn to work with them.

Editing - I feel that the book is well edited with the story flowing quit well.  The continuity through out the series has been excellent and the book was very readable and age appropriate.

Illustrations - One of my favorite things about this series and this book is no exception is the amazing illustrations peppered through out the book.  They are line drawings with the cover being beautifully rendered in color.  Even if the story sucked I would still pick up these books just on the sheer beauty of them.   In addition to being gorgeous, the illustrations actually help move the story along so they are practical as well.

The Village - So in the story the village that most of our hero's are from decided that they ALL wanted to go visit the Lamadary...so they do.  I just love the combination of the sheer impracticality of transporting a whole village...even if it is by magical means, and the idea that the book acknowledges that everybody has the right to go adventuring, not just the main characters.  I also love how it was a given that if the whole village wanted to go, then they would go, no arguments.

Origin Story - Toothiana's origin story was pretty awesome.  I love how the series in general, and this book in specific take something as familiar as our childhood legends and twist them around so they mean so much more.  Along with Toothiana, we also get more of North's future story and more hints into Bunnymund.  It is cool to see these overly familiar characters get a diverse and rich origin story.

Overall Impression - This was another beautiful and wonderful installment to this series and I give it 7 out of 10 molars and now need to go see if I can find the next one.  I recommend it to anybody who loves retellings, myths or needs a book to read with their wee ones.

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?

A Couple Nights At The Museum

Letting my brain have a little break from the holidays, I picked up a book I have had on my shelf FOREVER.  The book is From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg a Middle Grade book that has been on my radar for a really really long time.  I am very glad I finally got the opportunity to read it and I will tell all about it, as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Claudia Kincade is feeling under appreciated and stuck so she decides to run away...well not run away so much as run to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.  Knowing that it will take a lot of money to live in a museum in NYC,  Claudia recruits her little brother Jamie, who is famous for his ability to save money.  The two take their time planning their trip and when they think they have thought of everything, hop on a train.  As soon as they get there, Jamie starts fretting about money and Claudia appoints him treasurer with the final say so about all their purchases.  The two kids go to the museum (when this book was written it was still free to go in) and plan on how to stay after closing.  Their plan works and the two kids end up spending the night a bed that had been carved in the 16th century.  The children spend a couple days and nights in the museum, skulking around, reading everything and carefully eating to conserve their funds.  One day they come across a statue only called Angel and Claudia is instantly enamored.  They read an article about the popularity of the statue and the mystery that surrounds it.  It seems that the statue was bought at an auction for the unheard of low price of 225 from the eccentric Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.  The mystery concerns the artist of the sculpture, it is rumored to be the great Michelangelo, but there is no hard proof.  Claudia decides that they cannot go home until they have uncovered the mystery.  After much studying, library time and frustration the children finally decide that only Mrs. Frankweiler will have the answers and go to visit her.  She gets the children to tell her their story in return for letting them find the proof of Michelangelo's artistry of the Angel.  Claudia, though forbidden from sharing the secret, finally feels as if she is ready to go home.  The children head home, and all is well.

This was a fun, quick little read that hit most of my sweet spots.  The biggest issue with it...well really the only real issue with it, is that it comes across as a bit dated as the events in the book could never ever happen now...but that aside it was pretty awesome.  Right of the bat I identified with Claudia and her yearning to be more, to experience something different, to be extraordinary...but still being to good of a girl to act out to, or be weird to get it.  I also understand her enjoyment of planning things, almost more then the actual experience she is planning.  Both of these sensations were ones I had a lot when I was her age, and it was nice to connect with her so quickly.  Since I am a bit obsessed with NYC lately, and having just visited many of the places in the book, a few months ago, I was pretty happy to read about them.  I want to meet Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and go through her files and read all about what seem to be her numerous adventures.  I want to live in a museum and have all the time in the world to read up on EVERYTHING in the museum and not worry about moving out of peoples way.  Mostly this book was awesome because it made me want to go do things.  It got me excited about a lot of stuff and that is always a good thing in a book.   Like I said it was a pretty quick, straight forward book.  I would recommend it to anybody who has every wanted to run away, live in a museum, or just looking for a nice quick read.  I give it 8 out of ten old paintings of dogs.  Happy Reading Everybody!

How did I not read this book growing up?  If you could "live" anywhere for a week or two where would it be? Who would you choose to come with you (I would pick my Mamma...which completely void the whole point of running away)?

364 Presents

I found it!!!!!!  I have been searching for this particular book for YEARS!!!!!  I remember reading it one year when I was about 10 years old, but never saw it again.  I couldn't remember the name of it, and the only description I could think of was so vague that about a zillion Christmas books came up when I searched for it.   Eventually success was mine and this year I am the proud owner of a library copy of The Thirteen Days of Christmas by Jenny Overton.  Did it live up to my childhood nostalgia?  Let's find out, but first as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Most of us have heard the Christmas Song The Twelve Days of Christmas, but to refresh your memory and for reference, here it is.

On the Twelfth day of Christmas

my true love sent to me:

12 Drummers Drumming

11 Pipers Piping

10 Lords a Leaping

9 Ladies Dancing

8 Maids a Milking

7 Swans a Swimming

6 Geese a Laying

5 Golden Rings

4 Calling Birds

3 French Hens

2 Turtle Doves

and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

In this book we get a potential back story for this song.  Annaple (who was christened Anne, but changes her name with frequency depending on her mood.) is a romantic town girl who in the course of taking care of her father, sister and two brothers, tends to become highly distracted and moody.  She dreams of being a goose girl, or waking up to a piped serenade, and all other manner of silly things.  To this end she vows to only marry if her future fiancee can come up to her romantic standards.  Enter Francis, a rich tradesman who wants to marry Annaple, and is well liked by her and the family, the only problem being he is not "romantic enough for her.  The siblings help Francis out by giving him idea's that Annaple has mentioned as romantic, e.g. love birds, swans, pipers and such.  Francis takes this advice to heart and starts off with a bang by presenting the romantic Annaple with a partridge in a pear tree.  Annaple loves the gift and all seems well.  Francis however, being the business man that he is, is not ever content with buying just one of anything and turns out to have bought a dozen partridge's and their pear trees.  Thus starts a daily parade that is added to every morning.  Annaple becomes very embarrassed and inconvenienced (honestly, where does one keep over a dozen French Hens who refuse to lay eggs), even though Francis thoughtfully supplies coops, food and other necessities.  This continues all the way through the twelve days of Christmas, until Annaple finally relents and marries the now suitably romantic Francis.  She is happy, Francis is happy, their family is happy and they all live noisily ever after.

This is a quick read and I still love it.  It has a story and characters, but more then that it also has history and customs that have long since faded away.  I enjoyed learning about celebrating an English Christmas back in the pre-colonial days, and the addition of many ancient carols made it even better.  There was a true sense of joy and celebration in this book that I miss in a lot of the more modern books that insist on adding some element of angst or bittersweetnes to their story.  For such a short book the characters were very well done, all unique and all with their own sense of self.  There really is not a whole lot to say about this book.  It is a very straight forward story, with songs, humor, and history.  The feel of the holiday season comes through very strongly and it will sit on my shelf to be read with yearly frequency.  I recommend it for anybody who loves the holidays, likes to see how other people celebrate Christmas or just enjoy a bit of humor.  You can read this book at any age, and it would be a fun one to read out loud to the younger ones.  I give this book an 8 out of 10 maids a milking.  Just for fun, here is what Annaple and her family ended up with by the end of the 12 days of Christmas.

12 -Partridge in a Pear Tree's

22- Turtle Doves

30 - French Hens

36 - Calling Birds

40 - Gold Rings

42 - Geese a Laying

42 - Swans a Swimming

40 - Maids a Milking

36 - Ladies Dancing

30 - Lords a Leaping

22 - Drummers Drumming

12 - Pipers Piping

For a total of 346 Gifts...

What is your favorite carol/song orgin story?  What is your favorite Christmas nostalgia story?  How excited am I to finally find this book?!?  

Walk Like An Egyptian

After my unending praise of Middle Grade books yesterday, I thought I would do a rambling on the book that set off my current adoration of the genre.  The book is The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder who besides having one of the coolest names ever, wrote a book that could have come straight from my childhood.  First as always SPOILERS AHEAD!

April has just moved from Hollywood, living with her glamorous...if featherheaded mother to living with her more run of the mill grandmother.  She now lives in an apartment building and soon meets another girl by the name of Melanie.  At first Melanie thinks April, with her false eyelashes and odd updo is a bit strange, but soon the girls, along with Melanie's little brother Marshall find a shared love of Egypt.  Chance is in their favor and they discover a bit of fenced off yard that they turn into a type of temple/shrine/play place for their game.  The three come up with elaborate story lines, rituals, ceremonies, costumes, getting so into the game that on occasion it seems real.  Soon a new girl Elizabeth moves into the neighborhood and joins the game, adding her own pieces of imagination.  Unfortunately the fun is almost ruined when the body of a local child is found.  To make matters worse, this is the second murdered child in the area in two years.   Along with being stuck inside where the adults can keep an eye on them, April is also upset over the fact that her mother, in one of her infrequent communications has told her daughter that she has gotten married, but their is still no place for her.  Halloween finally sees the adults letting up a bit and allowing the children to go trick or treating in supervised groups.  April convinces the kids to sneak off and play the game for a few minutes.  While there, two boys from April and Melanie's class, Ken and Toby crash the game and exchange for letting them play, agree to keep quiet.  The four original players are nervous about the new additions, but it turns out the boys, especially Toby have some great idea's to add to the game.  One night, while she is baby-sitting Marshall, April realizes she left a school book in the yard and takes Marshall to go get it.  On the out of the yard, April is grabbed by a man, and is saved when the Professor, the man who owns the yard the children were playing in, breaks a window and calls for help.  Marshall is able to identify the attacker and the murders are solved.  The Professor allows the children to continue to play in the yard and they all play until they get too old for playing to be cool.

So this is going to be a bit of a different ramble.  I will tell you right now that I loved loved loved this book.  The reason I loved it so much can be directly attributed to my own childhood.  Growing up my parents were pretty strict on the amount of time we spent in front of screens, not just TV, but any consoles, computers or handheld devices.  We were encouraged to play together, and with our friends.  To this end my three siblings and I, along with various friends, came up with the most elaborate games.  Most of the time these games took much longer to set up then they did to actually play.  Looking back the most amazing part was the ability of up to 14 kids (our parent's had a regular get together with a couple other families) ages 3-14 could actually communicate, coordinate and agree on a plan of action.  We had a diverse group, with TONS of idea's, lots of skill sets and and varied interests.  We used to set up whole towns, hold elections, build road signs.  We would write, cast, design, and produce our own plays.  We created whole worlds with their own magics, rules and ecosystems.  Sometimes our games would go on for days.  One of the things that struck me in the

book is that four of the six players were in sixth grade.  I cannot think of ANY sixth graders now who would be caught dead playing imagination games that did not involve a MMORPG game.  It makes me sad that even our younger kids, who are still willing to play, probably spend more time in front of a screen then in their playroom, and by the time they hit Middle School, they have turned into gadget toting pre-teens.  I hate that we now have an environment where we encourage our kids to grow up way to fast in certain area's, while teaching them to rely on social media and other people's opinions, rather then their own sense of self to judge their worth.  I am sure every generation feels like this, but when I read books like this, and realize how many social skills I learned by playing these types of games, and how most kids I know, even if they are in a room with other kids, don't do a whole lot of interaction.  I myself am a technology lover, and I don't want to "go back" to the way things were...I just hope we can find a way to spark that same elaborate sense of play and cooperation that I grew up with.  Ok so this was less of a ramble and more of a personal speculation, but one of the best things about a good book is it makes you think, and this book made me think...and remember.  I give this book an 8 out of 10 Crocodile gods and would suggest it to anybody who remembers a playroom without a screen.  Happy Reading Everybody!
What kind of games did you play growing up?  Do you think kids play differently today?  Do I have a valid point, or am I just old?

Middle Grade Not Just For The Kids

This last week of reading has been a tough one for me.  I have had weird days where I have no reading time, then insomniac nights where all I have is time.  Usually on my nights of insomnia I at least can read to my hearts content.  For some reason this week all of my books suck...even books I have read before and loved.  I'm really really not sure what the deal was, but I would get through a couple pages and then realized that I had not really comprehended what was on the page and would have to reread it again.  Eventually I gave up on my current books and randomly chose a Middle Grade book on my ereader that I have had on their for a while.  Lo and behold this was the answer to all of my problems.  I ripped through it, loved it mmore on that in a later post) and felt so much better.  I then promptley picked up my other books and amazingly I was able to concentrate and enjoy them again.  As I have the unfortunate tendancy to analyze everything, including my own reading habits, I looked back over my reading history and have found that every time I get stuck I tend to go to a Middle Grade book to get recentered.  Upon further probing...I'm still not 100% sure of the

reason it works so well, but I have a few theories.  I think one of the best things about Middle Grade books is that they tend to be more to the point and simple (in a good way) then some of the overly complicated adult books, or the angsty teen books.  Usually the problems the kids in these books face are a more realistic and direct issue that makes sense.  These books are usually able to provide pure magic, or love, or play, or fun or whatever it is a good Middle Grade author is trying to get across because they don't have to worry about all the extra stupid stuff the older crowd does.  This is not to say the stories are dumb, or that the plots or the kids in the books don't deal with life...it's just that if written well, their outlook is so much...it's more...argh...I don't know, it's just different.  I think another reason I enjoy Middle Grade books is that I had a great childhood.  I have some fabulous memories of growing up, and as much as I truley love my life now, sometimes it is nice to go back to those days and relive it through my books.  Ok meandering post that probably applies only to me over :-)  Hopefully I can get my reading groove back, but if not I have plenty more Middle Grade books to fill the gaps.  Happy Reading Everybody!

And Everybody Dies

I love a good scary story.  I love the chill that goes up your spine, the jumpiness when a door creaks, the urge to turn on a light after you have read a particularly spooky story.  This year I have been searching for a good collection of scary stories and one of the books I read in the never ending quest for a good scary story was Uncle Montegue's Tales of Terror by Chris Priestley.  It is a book of short stories, tied together by the over all story of Uncle Montegue and the stories he tells his nephew.  Here are some of my favorites in the collection.

Climb Not - A boy finds a strange tree on his new estate, and against all warning climbs it.  He is chased by an unknown presence and is ultimately killed.  This is the kind of story that I find scary, one where force is never seen, leaving me to imagine the worst.

The Un-Door - This story features the classic twist of the con-woman becoming the victim when a face seance team discovers that ghosts are real.  Our fake assistant/thief becomes trapped in a doll-house when a supposed fake seance becomes very real.

Offerings - Every parents worst nightmare comes true in this story of a sweet little boy who befriends a deamon.  When a preacher and his family move to a new town, their little boy turns from an innocent lad into a demon influenced killer.

The Gilt Frame- A story about a girl who finds her wishes are coming true in the most horrible of fashions.  This realization becomes even more horrific when she realizes that it is she, and not the girl in the mirror who is bringing this awful events about.

The Path - A boy who is becoming a man decides to leave his small village.  As he is walking up the hidden path, he realizes he is being followed.  He tries to out run this apparition, only to realize it is a bloody, injured, ruin of himself...which turns out to be a terrible foreshadowing of his own fate.

I read a couple of these stories to my Hubbin as we drove through the back roads in the middle of the night and the atmosphere was fantastic.  I found these tales to be moderately spooky, but at the same time a bit predictable.  I found it a bit crazy that in every story somebody died a horrible death...or became a monstrous killer...or both.  Over all the atmosphere, illustrations, and the writers tendency to kill people made this a decent Halloween read.  I give it 7 out of 10 demon bench ends.

What makes a story scary for you?  How do you feel about everybody always dying?  How dangerous is it to scare the person driving you around?

Bitter Blue Wind

My computer has finally decided to behave...sort of, but it is working well enough to hopefully get this blog back on track.  To kick of my birthday week I thought I would start with a rambling about a book that I've had on my list all fall.  The book is The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two by Catherynne M. Valente.  This is the third book in my beloved Fairyland series and with the other two I had to wait for the perfect weather to read this.  Before we get to my thoughts on the book, here is my attempt to summarize the plot, such as it is.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD!

Our girl September turn 14 in this book, and has grown much since we first met her.  She has survived her father gone to war, his return as an injured veteran, her mother working on planes, school and of course overthrowing not one, but two despotic rulers in Fairyland.  September is longing to go back to Fairyland and counting the days until the year is up and she can return.  This of course makes her "real" life seem dull and unbearable by comparison.  To keep herself from going crazy, she works hard to save up money so that she can have some resources of her own when she finally gets back to Fairyland.  She learns to drive an old car, and makes money doing delivery's,

mending fences, taking care of animals and so forth, all very grown up.  September is finally taken back to Fairyland by the Blue Wind, a Wind unlike her Green Kin, is a wild, bitter, cold wind who has none of the kindness September had from her friend the Green Wind.  September ends up as an Official Revolutionary and Criminal and is given clothing to mark her as such.  She is given a task to deliver a box to the Whelk of the Moon.  She travels up to the moon in her little car that also got transported to Fairyland and meets all sorts of creatures.  She eventually ends up in front of the Whelk of the Moon and learns that the giant city of Almanack, which is contained in a shell is how the Whelk keeps all of her people safe.  She can't open the box and sends September to a library to open it and lo and behold, she finds her beloved friend A-L (known as Ell) her Wyverary.  They open the box and find the Sapphire Stethoscope and we learn the story of the Yeti's Paw.  September is reunited with her Marid Saturday, and discovers she has some new feelings about this friend of hers.  A whole ton of stuff happens, as it does in these books and in the end we discover the moon is having a baby moon and this is the reason behind a lot of the goings ons.  September feels the sensation that happens when she has to leave Fairyland and begs to stay.  The Blue Wind, shows just how devious she is when she lets September stay in Fairyland.  Meanwhile back in our world Septembers parents frantically search for their girl.

As long as that synopsis was it really does not do the book justice.  As with the first two, trying to summarize all the little bits and pieces and story lines and characters and vignettes is pretty impossible.  That being said, one of the reasons this one was harder to summarize was because it seemed to be less of a story and more of a portrait of emotions.  There are a lot of concepts in this book that seemed to be a bit old for the middle grade reader that this book is supposed to be targeted towards.  I know the author stated that she wanted September to grow up through out the books, and in that regard she has succeeded, but this book felt more like it was focusing on what the author felt were growing up teenage feelings and less on the adventure of Fairyland.  All of the really amazing pieces were there, the author still has a fantastic imagination and knows how to utilize it, but for me it felt like every little vignette came with either some moralizing, or long drawn out emotional struggle or some other esoteric bit that seemed to slow the book down.  Of all the locations we've seen I found the Moon to be the most bleak and barren, I almost felt like I needed to read it in winter instead of the vibrant fall of the first two.  This is not a bad thing, as the contrast of the Moon to Fairyland and

Fairyland Under was pretty cool and added some great dimension to the overall world building.  As always the sheer originality of the characters, places, and objects leaves me wanting to just curl up and see how crazy I can let my imagination go.  I love how the author does not constrain herself by the laws of physics or probability or convention at all, it adds to the sheer fantasy of the book.  The word usage was fabulous as always, making me so glad that I am a logophile (somebody who loves words).  There seemed to be a bit of an obsession with currency, and having babies.  September has a hard time with the fact that she and Saturday will have a daughter together, part of her issue is the inevetableness of it (which is understandable), but childbirth is brought up alot.  The whole the moon giving actual birth to a baby moon, complete with labor, blood, and an umbilical cord was kind of weird.  I also found that you had to have read the first two books for this one to make any sense at all. Overall I liked the book, but did not feel the same kind of overwhelming love that I did for the first two.  There was a feeling of melancholy, which while I do remember from being a new teenager, made this book a bit of a slow read. I give this book 7 out of 10 fizzy orange drinks and recommend it to anybody who has started the series.
Can you keep up the crazy expectations through out a whole series?  How do you feel about characters growing up through out a series?  Where did you want to run away to when you were growing up?  Is it strange that I still want to run away to a fantasy land?

What Is Good And Evil?

Just finished a book that I picked up on a whim.  The cover was cool, the description sounded fun and the hardcover book would look great on my bookshelf so I decided to give it a go.  The book is called The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani and my feelings on the final outcome are mixed.  I'm gonna mix it up a bit and do less detailed synopsis so there will be less rambling to slog through, let me know if you like this better, or if you prefer a more in depth synopsis.  As always SPOILERS AHEAD.

Sophie is everything a princess should be, in fact she has been preparing all of her young life for the rare opportunity to become one. Agatha is the complete opposite, dreary, dark, and not into princes at all.  Both girls are spirited away to the either the School for Good or the School for Evil.  To everybody's amazement Sophie gets put in Evil and Agatha into Good.  This of course causes all kinds of problems as Sophie wants nothing more then to be pretty and be rescued by a prince, while Agatha just wants to go home. The girls find a way to talk to the mysterious School Master, who controls the school, and the magical pen that writes the children into the fairytales after they graduate from the school.  They are given some obscure riddle,

giving Agatha hope she can return home with her friend Sophie.  Through out the story Sophie tries to get Tedros, the most desired prince to fall in love with her to prove that she is Good, not Evil. Agatha thinking she is really Sophie's friend does her best to help her.  Sophie however does nothing but prove over and over how selfish she is, while Agatha continually tries to help and protect whenever she can.  Eventually Sophie's true inner Evil is revealed and all her beauty melts away to reveal her ugly Evil inner self, intent on destroying the school.  Agatha meanwhile has learned to love her inner beauty and won the heart of the fickle Tedros. It is also discovered that most of the students do not become Royalty, but many of them become loyal companions, or steadfast animals, or even props (think the the beanstalk, the pumpkin carriage and the birds that come when Cinderella calls).  It is also revealed that Evil never wins and all the Evil students have to look foward to is a hopefully glorious death.  After a full on student against student fight it revealed that the School Master has set all of this up to find his pure Evil mate, and that person is Sophie.  Sophie decides that she does not want this and in some sort of twist takes an arrow meant for Agatha, finally proving her friendship and Goodness.  The story ends with the students...well something and then Agatha and Sophie dissolve into birds and fly away.

This book had a lot of promise, and in certain area's lived up to it, but over all I was left feeling a bit confused and meh.  The good.  I liked the idea of a fairy tale school, with various classes and rules. I liked the continual reference to various fairytales and the various students that ended up in them in various capacities.  I also liked at the end the idea that it was rarely fair to label a person as Good or Evil as most people are both. The book has some pretty sweet illustrations.  What didn't really do it for me was the over all mushiness of the plot, it was a bit hard to follow and took a long time to get anywhere.  When we finally get were we are going it didn't make any sense.  The ending was abrupt and just kind of happened, like the author had an idea in mind, but did not know how to make the transition from the story to the next idea.  I had a hard time trying to decide if Sophie was truly Evil, or had just grown up on fairy tales telling her what a
princess should be like and she was just doing what she thought she had to, to become one.  Agatha's transformation was much more believable, but pretty predictable. I hated how much being Good or Evil was based on looks, especially Sophie, who became more and more physically unattractive as she got Eviler, unlike Agatha who was precieved as prettier the Gooder she got.  I hate this because a) we have enough issues now a days without beauty and goodness being linked and b) some of the best villians out there are some of the best looking people out there.  The middle 2/3 of the book seemed repetitive, going over the same ground over and over again without a clear point, which made it drag a bit.  The world building could have been really cool, and the bit that was in there was done well, but I still feel like I know nothing about the world in this book.  Overall the book had a willy-nilly, mushed up feel to it, there was a lot of action that did not go anywhere, a lot of supposedly important questions that got posed that either did not get answered, or were brushed aside, and an ending that was not only random but made no sense at all.  There is a second book in this series and to be honest I am not sure if I'm gonna pick it up or not. I give this book 5 out of 10 magic glowing pinkies.
Is there such thing as pure good or pure evil in humans?  Do you think physical appearance is a good indicator of good and evil? What fairy tale object would you like to live your life as?

12...No Wait 15...Wait Nope 17 Children (Soon To Be 18)

So…technology…it kinda sucks sometimes.  My computer is actually down right now so I am writing this offline on a different computer and hoping I can copy and paste it over shortly…of course if you are reading this that means it worked, if you’re not then I am just another crazy lady typing to herself.  All of these stupid tech issues make me nostalgic for the simple days when all I needed was a library card and a good book to make me happy.  In this vein I decided to hunt down some of the old books I enjoyed as a child.  One such book was/is called Mrs. Purdy’s Children by Ruth Loomis.  I had a hard time remembering the name of this book and then I had an even harder time tracking down a copy to buy.  I eventually found a copy to buy from the Ulysses Township Library in Ulysses NE.  I am now doubly thrilled, one to finally find a book from my beloved childhood and two to have the added bonus of it looking and smelling just like the one from the library I used to read as a child, that’s right total sensory experience here folks.  Mrs. Purdy’s Children is an older book, first published in 1970 which makes it about 20 years old the first time I read it.   Despite its slight datedness I still love this quirky little story.  As always Spoilers Ahead!

Mrs. Purdy has 12 no wait 15 no wait 17 children, yep that sounds about right 17 children.  Lucky for Mrs. Purdy her children are all capable responsible people who have worked out their own way of running the house hold.  We have the older children Henry Jr., May, April, Willy, Ernest, Connie, Lancelot, Galahad, Emily, June, Sue, and another boy whose name I could never figure out.  They help take care of the little ones, Sweden, Jimmy, Erica, Heathcliff and again another one I never quite got the name of.  All of these children live in a house that has many improvements invented by their father before he went on a prospecting trip to Alaska.  Mrs. Purdy works at the local Sweete Shoppe to help provide some extra income and is much beloved by most of the townsfolk as well as her family.  Parental supervision is at a minimum, with Mr. Purdy being in Alaska for the last couple years and Mrs. Purdy working, it falls to the children to maintain their own order.  Surprisingly they have come up with a pretty good system using General Meetings and a rotational chore chart things get done in a pretty efficiently.  Oh yeah, they also get a lot of help from a

mysterious plant they call a roanoke, named after Roanoke VA where it originated from.   This plant, which has grown to epic proportions is the basis for all of the Purdy's food, they can make roasts from the roots, stews from the leaves and the most wonderful cakes, cookies and pies from the flowers.  Every once in a while the roanoke will pop out a special pod that blooms into an honest to goodness baby...yep kind of like Cabbage Patch Kids.  This is where the confusion of just how many Purdy kids there are comes in.  Mrs. Purdy is elected Mother of the Year by the local committee and the family receives all sorts of goodies. Mrs. Purdy takes it all in stride and continues with her life as normal, including welcoming another roanoke baby into the family.  The children all vote on a name for the baby (which ends up being Ceres) and try and explain her to the committee when they come to the house.  After a disastrous interview with the oblivious Mrs. Purdy, the committee decides not only to take away her title as Mother of the Year, but to investigate her as well.  This results in the children putting on a demonstration involving all of the towns children to reinstate their mother as Mother of the Year.  In the midst of this chaos Mr. Purdy comes home and helps calm the sea of disorder.  Eventually Mrs. Purdy is reinstated as Mother of the Year and all is well.  Mr. Purdy insists on destroying the roanoke, claiming he cannot even keep track of the 17...now 18 kids that he has.  The family agrees, but Sue and Willy find a cutting planted in a secret spot in the back of the garden and agree to keep it secret.  The children all live wildly and happily ever after.

I don't really have a whole lot to say about this book.  The biggest factor for me is its nostalgia value which is huge.  Growing up I loved stories about big chaotic families...'cause I lived in a big chaotic family. Also I may or may not have checked every seed pod I saw for babies :-)  I still love all of the little time saving devices that Mr. Purdy put in the house.  I love that he feels the need to get away from his giant family on occasion.  I love that Mrs. Purdy is willing to let her kids run the house and each other and I love that the kids have come up with a democratic,  surprisingly fair and effective way to keep the chaos under control.  I love that each of the kids has their own personality and I love how this book just lets the kids be kids.  It is an old book, it is a bit dated and a bit simplistic, but I still love it.  If you are looking for a quick, fun read this is a great pick...if you can find it.  I give it 8 out of 10 roanoke babies.
What book holds a huge nostalgia factor for you?  What would you name your 18 kids?  What would you do if you left with 12 kids and came home to 18?

Then VS Now

As I continue my nostalgia kick, I have noticed an interesting change in how I read these cherished nuggets from my past.  As I read them I have started picking up on things that went completely over my head when I was younger (the hazards of having a reading comprehension level apx 8 years more then my actual age) or I notice subtleties that probably never occurred to me at age 7.  It makes for a very interesting reread experience.  I am not talking about my beloved classics that I read once a year, as much as I love and adore them my Chronicles of Narnia, Little House on the Prairie, and Lord of the Rings, they get read so often that I have grown up with them and my opinion and what I get from them is pretty much set in stone.  No I am talking about the books and series that I devoured and loved as a kid, forgot or put aside as I grew older
and am just now picking them back up.  Some stand the test of time like Peppermints in the Parlor which while a bit simpler then I remember is still a solid story that I would recommend to any young reader.  Others like the SVH series are just so atrocious on what it teaches impressionable young girls that I could not in good conscious recommend it to anybody under the age of 21.  I find it interesting to see what bugs me now that never bugged me before, certain attitudes and especially relationships drive me bananas.  I was never an overly romantic teen, I was fairly pragmatic about boys (and girls) and knew full well that fairy tale loves were just that, fairy tales.  That being said, I still did not see a problem with most of the relationships I read about, especially in YA books, now when I go back and read them I see the same problem I still see today, a controlling boy who is just doing "what is best" for his girl, and the girl, who even if she is supposed to be strong, falls for this overprotective oaf, thank God my Daddy taught me better then that.  I also see a lot of social, racial, and just moral issues that seemed to have been glossed over or accepted in some of these older books, that while I may not have agreed with them as a youngster, I accepted them in the course of the story.  Now of course I take to my blog in outrage over these things.  Of course it is really hard to get over the nostalgia factor, as much as I kind of hated rereading Double Love SVH or rolled my eyes over my recent skimming of one of the BSC books, I can't help but be transported back to when and where I was when I was reading these books.  They also had the added bonus of being written at the pace of about a dozen a year, and at the rate I was reading, this helped keep my voracious appetite for books under control.  I also have to consider that the source of most of my books was my local library which did not get in books at the rate of your friendly neighborhood bookstore.  Growing up with very little money, the library was my source for most things literary (with a healthy injection from my parents whenever they could).  I blazed through their supply of books in a heartbeat and started rereading at an early age, just to have something in my hands.  The librarians were great at setting aside any new book that came through the door for me.  This is why as awful, or simple, or "not my current taste" some of these old books are, I will always have a soft spot for them, and hey as I am rediscovering some of these oldies are actually long forgotten gems just waiting to be rediscovered.  So I am off to read, reread, and discover new and old loves. Happy Reading Everybody!

What books have you rediscovered recently?  What books are you appalled to have loved so much?  Are books just way too much a part of my thoughts?