Words with Wings by Nikki Grimes

An entire book about daydreaming? It sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Nikki Grimes’s junior fiction Words With Wings is a 2014 Coretta Scott King Honor book as well as a beautifully written tribute to the importance of the imagination.

          Gabby’s favorite hobby has been daydreaming ever since her parents first began to fight with each other. Words excite her, capture her fancy, and pull her along with them to a thrilling place in her imagination – but sometimes at very inconvenient times. Can she help it if her thoughts are more interesting than setting the table or paying attention in class? Gabby’s mother and her teachers seem to think so. When Gabby moves to a different school, she worries that the other kids will think that her pastime is bizarre, or that her instructor will be angry when her mind slips into space. Trying to stop herself from imagining things seems to help her focus in class and at home, but Gabby is miserable. It takes Mr. Spicer, her caring new teacher, to come up with an inventive solution to show her and her class the true power of daydreaming.

          Grimes’s novel is written entirely in short, graceful, free-verse poems that use simple but evocative phraseology to color Gabby’s flights of fancy. Often the author takes one fairly commonplace word as the subject of an entire poem to show how any object can be a thing of wonder. For instance, Gabby describes a waterfall as “liquid thunder” and thinks about what it would be like to jump into the pool all the way down at the waterfall’s end. In addition to its lovely verse, the book adeptly handles the subjects of divorce, parental expectations, friendship, and role models, making Grimes’s award-winner a truly worthy read.

Handbook for Dragon Slayers by Merrie Haskell

What would it be like to be shunned for a physical quality beyond your control? For answering this question, Merrie Haskell’s junior fiction novel Handbook for Dragon Slayers won a Schneider Family Book award, which is given for excellence in portraying the disability experience.

          Thirteen-year-old Mathilda is determined to be a good princess to her people of Alder Brook. The trouble is that they don’t seem to want her to be their princess. Considered cursed for her crippled foot, Tilda tries to hide her hurt at the townsfolk’s hostility by immersing herself in her work as copier of important documents. When a rouge cousin steals Alder Brook’s sovereignty, she is relieved, gladly going on the run with Parz and Judith, two friends and would-be dragon slayers. But Tilda’s freedom proves to be more perilous than she expected. When dragons attack, supernatural forces threaten vengeance, an evil lord pursues a criminal plan, and Alder Brook is endangered, Tilda must decide whether her liberty or her duty, her hurt feelings or her peoples’ fates, are most important.

          Handbook for Dragon Slayers considers an impressive number of serious topics from a fresh and original perspective, neither straying from its classification as junior fantasy fiction nor turning into fluff. Haskell offers an empathetic look into facing life with a disability, and uses the suspicion that Tilda faces as well as her friends’ loyalty to suggest the importance of acceptance. However, Tilda is never portrayed as perfect; in fact, one of the novel’s greatest charms is the stress placed on the obligations of rulers. The plot traces Tilda’s journey in terms of her realization that the opinions of others are not nearly as important as doing what she knows to be right. This message is backed up by the good example of several acquaintances, including her kindly confessor Father Ripertus, who offers a refreshing change from the current prevailing fictional depiction of the medieval church as hopelessly corrupt. The story’s impressive range, however, does contribute to a kind of confusion about the climax: all the different villains, difficulties, and storylines seem to be about equal in terms of direness, making it difficult for the reader to see events building up to any particularly significant moment. Nevertheless, this is an enjoyable and thought-provoking read that steers clear of deadly stereotypes in its message of acceptance.

The War within These Walls by Aline Sax

In keeping with the World War II theme of the last blog post, this review concerns a book that commemorates a brave and bloody act of defiance that took place in Warsaw, Poland, exactly 71 years ago. A band of Jews resisted an attempt to exterminate them inside an imprisonment ghetto, fighting off the German troops from April 19^th to May 16^th, 1943, despite being appallingly outnumbered. The War within These Walls uses the imagined character of Misha to tell the haunting story of the will to live despite unspeakable brutality. Written by Aline Sax, illustrated by Caryl Strzelecki, and translated by Laura Watkinson, this fictional account of the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto won a Batchelder Honor as an outstanding children’s book originally published in a foreign language.

          Misha cannot remember ever feeling as Jewish as when the Nazis invaded Poland and began to single out his people for intensive policing. Facing harassments ranging from a mandated armband identifying them as Jews, to unprovoked murders, he and his family hope to remain unnoticed until the occupying forces leave. Instead, a wall appears to seal off a tiny portion of Warsaw in which all the nearby Jews are forced to live. When food runs out, his sister Janina disappears, and the Nazis begin to ship his neighbors to a special “resettlement village” called Auschwitz, Misha finds relief from his paralyzing desperation by joining young Mordechai Anielewicz’s underground resistance team. Soon, however, the group receives news that the ghetto survivors are in danger from a quicker death than starvation. The Nazis are planning to surround the ghetto and slaughter everyone still living. Misha and his friends begin their offensive during April of 1943, holding off the German troops with homemade bombs and a handful of firearms. But as the weeks limp by and the violence escalates, they begin to realize that the best outcome they can hope for is an honorable death.

          Sax’s prose is both sparse and direct, creating a somber feel that does much to evoke the book’s grim happenings. The text, printed on alternately black or white paper, is accompanied by Strzelecki’s ink drawings that capture the horror of the ghetto in just a few lines. Although the Batchelder award designates a children’s book, this work may be best appreciated by older junior and young adult readers for its powerful depiction of resistance in the face of a great crime against humanity.

Rose under Fire by Elizabeth Wein

One of the best things a book can do is tell you something you didn’t know in a manner that makes you wish you had known it all your life. Critically-acclaimed author Elizabeth Wein achieves this admirably in Rose under Fire, her award-winning novel about an American girl’s experience of the Holocaust.

          Eighteen-year-old Rose Justice works as an Air Traffic Auxiliary Pilot in England, doing non-combat flying and ferrying for the war effort. She and her fellow pilots, all female, share their love of flying as well as their hope that, now that the D-Day invasion has been successful, the pilotless bomb attacks on London will cease. The war’s reality becomes sickeningly close, however, when Rose chases one of these Doodlebugs over enemy territory to deploy it and ends up captured by the Germans. Imprisoned in Ravensbrück, the infamous concentration camp, she is befriended by fellow prisoners, including a group known as the Rabbits who were used as medical guinea pigs by the Germans. Together they endure brutal treatment, clinging to hope when they can and receiving comfort from Rose’s talent for poetry. But as the Allies draw closer and the Germans desperately seek to hide their crimes against their hostages, Rose fears that none of the Ravensbrück prisoners will leave the camp alive.

          In Rose under Fire, Wein delivers a gritty and gripping depiction of one of history’s most brutal massacres; her extensive research on the plight of the Polish Rabbits gained her the Schnieder award for depiction of the disability experience. Rose’s candor creates immediate interest and performs the double role of giving a graphic insider’s view of the concentration camp while engaging readers’ sympathy to make them want to keep reading. In particular, Rose’s love of poetry is shown as a bonding force for the weakened prisoners and delivers a heartening commentary on the power of literature. The result is a book that offers a moving tribute to the human spirit as well as a worthy addition to Holocaust literature.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Belle Epoque by Elizabeth Ross

What is it about the French that makes them so fascinating? Perhaps it’s their language, which guarantees a classy accent. It could be their country’s vivid history. Or maybe it’s just their croissants. Whatever the reason, author Elizabeth Ross capitalizes on the French appeal in her novel Belle Epoque, a finalist for the William C. Morris Debut Award, creating a tale of determination, desperation, imagination, and the Eiffel Tower.

Runaway Maude Pinchon is finding it more difficult to survive in glamorous Paris than she had originally thought. With her savings dwindling and an angry landlady to satisfy, she snatches at Monsieur Durandeau’s unusual job offer despite the ignominious duties it requires. The Durandeau Agency services the cream of Paris society by supplying wealthy ladies with repoussoirs – plain young women meant to make their employers more attractive by comparison. Maude is instantly hired by the calculating Countess Dubern for her prickly daughter Isabelle and assigned the daunting task of befriending the girl while keeping her hired status a secret. Enthralled by the glamor of her life as Isabelle’s companion, Maude is nonetheless faced with the contradictions of her employment, her new friend’s startling opinion on the possibilities of women scholars, and the worker, and the artistic philosophies of her new friend Paul Villette. Caught in a web of deception and betrayal – her own and others’ – Maude is forced to question how much of her dignity she is willing to trade for pay.

          Ross’s novel provides a unique discussion of the snowball effect of compromising one’s values. Maude is brought to see the stark difference that a lack of self-respect creates between the role she plays and the person whom she wants to be; in this regard, her shortcomings as well as her internal dilemmas make her a relatable character. However, much of the book’s characters and action have a highly manipulated feel, which often detracts from its interesting central theme. Maude and several other main characters often come across as one-dimensional, performing predictable actions and speaking words that sound highly scripted or downright implausible. A striking example of this can particularly be seen in Isabelle’s large-scale scientific hobby, which she has somehow managed to keep hidden from her domineering mother in her family’s fashionable town house. Fortunately, the glamorous plot and historical setting do help to compensate for these problems. Readers willing to devote extra effort to suspending disbelief will find Belle Epoque to be an enjoyable read.

The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Henkes

          Admit it – you still have a soft spot for the fuzzy, somewhat loudmouthed heroine of Lily’s Purple Plastic Purse with her sunglasses, spunk, and several thousand ideas about what she wants to be when she grows up. Author Kevin Henkes, creator of Lily, offers a slightly older but still happily inventive protagonist in his 2014 Newbery Honor book The Year of Billy Miller.

          Billy Miller is worried. This fall he will be starting second grade, but after an unexpected fall during a summer vacation gains him a goose egg on his head, he wonders if he will be smart enough for this year of school. And that’s just the start. Second grade brings him lots to think about and more questions than he ever thought possible, including: what should he do when he accidentally gets off on the wrong foot with his nice teacher? Will that obnoxious girl sitting next to him EVER be quiet? And can he work a reference to vampire bats into an assigned poem about his mother? Despite his worries, Billy finds that many of these questions develop into great experiences – so great, in fact, that this might just be the Year of Billy Miller.

          Billy’s story is split into four sections, each of which focuses on a specific relationship in his life: Teacher, Father, Sister, and Mother. This narrative style highlights what Billy learns from each of these people, quietly teaching the important lesson that anyone, even your sometimes annoying baby sister, can teach you to look at the world in a new and exciting way – for instance, Billy learns about the necessity of creative thinking from his father, and from three-year-old Sally he discovers that glitter in a boy’s school project is not always a bad thing. Henkes’s story is a quick, lighthearted read, and is good choice for younger readers, read-aloud story time, or anyone wishing to remember their middle-school experience.

Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo

What happens when a cynic meets a furry superhero? Minnesota author Kate DiCamillo answers this burning question using donuts, creepy shepherdess lamps, comic books, and exclamations such as “Holy bagumba!” in her Newbery Award-winning book Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures.

          Flora Belle Buckman is a self-professed skeptic whose favorite pastime is reading The Illuminated Adventures of the Amazing Incandesto!, a comic book about an unassuming superhero. Therefore, when she observes a squirrel getting sucked into a vacuum, she instantly recognizes its extraordinary new powers. The squirrel, which she names Ulysses, can fly and write poetry due to his encounter with the vacuum, but this superhero clearly needs his own champion against Flora’s mother, who is determined to keep her daughter from keeping such an odd companion. As Ulysses’s adventures encompass everyone with whom he comes in contact – including Flora’s father; neighbor-lady Tootie Tickham; Tootie’s temporarily blind great-nephew; and Dr. Meecham, a philosopher with a slippery couch – he also begins to draw them together. As for Flora, she begins to realize having hope is better than being a cynic.

          DiCamillo’s novel uses both quirky narration and comic-book-style illustrations to cover an astounding range of topics, including divorce, friendship, imagination, poetry, and forgiveness. Its originality is captivating and the humor keeps the characters alive. However, the eccentricity also occasionally lends a disjointed feel to the plot, making the story seem like separate episodes about unusual events, rather than a connected narrative. Bizarre happenings often appear to substitute for character development as well. Although definitely enjoyable for its novelty and its adorable squirrel illustrations, readers may wish that its pithy sayings and sage life wisdom were accompanied by a more organized storyline.