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THE BUvL LE T INOF THE CENTER FOR CHILDREN'S BOOKS November 2004

Vol. 58 No. 3

A LOOK INSIDE

111 THE BIG PICTURE

Madam President by Catherine Thimmesh; illus. by Douglas B. Jones

112 NEW BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE

Reviewed titles include:

116 * Call Me Maria by Judith Ortiz Cofer

117 * Fair Monaco written and illus. by Brock Cole

119 * The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer

127 * Pagan's Vows by Catherine Jinks

143 * Science Verse by Jon Scieszka; illus. by Lane Smith

144 * The Train ofStates written and illus. by Peter Sfs

155 PROFESSIONAL CONNECTIONS

156 SUBJECT AND USE INDEX

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EXPLANATION OF CODE SYMBOLS USED WITH REVIEWS* Asterisks denote books of special distinction.

R Recommended.

Ad Additional book of acceptable quality for collections needing more material in the area.

M Marginal book that is so slight in content or has so many weaknesses in style orformat that it should be given careful consideration before purchase.

NR Not recommended.

SpC Subject matter or treatment will tend to limit the book to specialized collections.

SpR A book that will have appeal for the unusual reader only. Recommended for thespecial few who will read it.

The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (ISSN 0008-9036) is published monthly exceptAugust by the Publications Office of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science(GSLIS) of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and distributed by the University ofIllinois Press, 1325 S. Oak, Champaign, IL 61820-6903.

REVIEWING STAFFDeborah Stevenson, Editor (DS)Betsy Hearne, Consulting Editor and Faculty LiaisonElizabeth Bush, Reviewer (EB)Timnah Card, Reviewer (TC)Karen Coats, Reviewer (KC)Krista Hutley, Reviewer (KH)Hope Morrison, Reviewer (HM)

Reviewers' initials are appended to reviews.

OFFICE STAFFMolly DolanKrista HutleyMaggie Hommel

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Periodicals postage paid at Champaign, Illinois© 2004 by The Board of Trustees of the University of IllinoisDrawings by Debra Bolgla. This publication is printed on acid-free paper.

Cover illustration by Douglas B. Jones from Madam President ©2004. Used by permission ofHoughton Mifflin Company.

NOVEMBER 2004 * 111

THE BIG PICTURE

Madam Presidentby Catherine Thimmesh; illus. by Douglas B. Jones

It's November and it's time to elect the president of the United States. Once againvoters, regardless of party affiliation, will go to the polls and select candidates inimpeccably tailored business suits and conservative, camera-friendly neckties. Again,there's not a kick pleat, a diamond tennis bracelet, or even a pair of comfortablepumps in the running. Thimmesh challenges the seeming inevitability of all thisin a sassily organized and argued rallying cry for girls-soon-to-be-women to stake aclaim for the Executive Office.

In the opening sequence a pigtailed tweenager announces she intends tobecome president. Peers and adults suggest more easily attainable goals, citingexamples of women who flexed considerable political muscle outside the OvalOffice. She could, for instance, marry a president: Edith Wilson appears to havecalled the shots during her husband's period of disability. Or she could vote forthe president: Elizabeth Cady Stanton worked long and hard to secure that rightfor women, despite never enjoying it herself. She could get into Congress: NancyPelosi sets House Democratic party agenda. Why not land a presidential appoint-ment? You can't deny Madeleine Albright's clout. How about settling for vice-president? Geraldine Ferraro almost-made it. If all else fails, move to anothercountry: an entire generation of Iceland's children "thought the president of acountry was always a woman." Sorry, but that's just not good enough. The Con-stitution stipulates two criteria for the presidency and neither one is gender, so ourgirl is bound for the White House with pigtails flying.

If you're looking for an unabashed praisefest, this isn't it. Thimmeshselects female politicos who fare no better or worse than their male counterparts-Jeannette Rankin cripples her political career with her pacifist vote against entryinto World War I, and the Mondale/Ferraro ticket goes up in flames-and sheblazes through the thumbnail entries with a recap of each subject's notable "first"and a pithy quotation in blue font-so many stepping stones paving women'spath to the White House. Indeed, one occasionally wishes she would slow downlong enough to nuance a broad statement (the WPA "is generally credited with thecountry's economic recovery from the Great Depression") or to substantiate aneyebrow-raising claim (Edith Wilson's assertion that she did not make decisionsfor her husband has been disproved by "recent evidence" from his medical records).However, she delights in ironic tidbits and delivers them with a dash of venom.Susan B. Anthony rises in historic stature from a three-cent stamp, to a fifty-centstamp, all the way to a silver dollar. The ratification of the Nineteenth Amend-ment turns on a letter from Mom to her Tennessee representative son. Senatechambers are notably tardy in adding "Wo-" to the Men's Room doors.

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Jones is adept at interweaving framing scenes that separate "chapters"with focus pieces that advance Thimmesh's argument. Fictional characters, withtheir freckles, ruddy cheeks, and slouchy socks, could sit for Norman Rockwell,but although a palette muted in gray tones suggests historical pedigree, the crispangularity of the figures and their startled, patronizing, or contentious expressionsare grounded in the present moment. Caricatures of the featured women seize thewitty metaphor: Nancy Pelosi drags her chair to the presidential table; a broom-wielding Frances Perkins makes sweeping changes in labor policy; MargaretThatcher is clad in armor.

Thimmesh's messages are clear: women have the political wherewithalto hold executive office, and the U.S. is looking mighty shabby in the equal oppor-tunity department: "[WJhile the closest the United States has come to electing awoman to the highest office was to have Geraldine Ferraro a vice presidential can-didate two decades ago, at least twenty-eight other nations ... have elected femaleheads of state." Come on, gals, the door's been kicked wide open. Who wants tobe first to step on through? (Imprint information appears on p. 148.)

Elizabeth Bush, Reviewer

NEW BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE

ADLER, DAVID A. Bones and the Big Yellow Mystery; illus. by Barbara JohansenNewman. Viking, 2004 32p (Viking Easy-To-Read)ISBN 0-670-05947-1 $13.99 R Gr. 1-3

Newly independent reader Jeffrey Bones is a self-styled detective: while at the mallwith his grandfather, Jeffrey collects clues from store signs and from his school busdriver, Mr. Green, and helps find a mislaid bus. In the process, Jeffrey meets afriendly dog with curly hair and a curly tail in a pet-store window, and whileJeffrey is saddened when his parents say he's too young to have a pet, he's thrilledthat Grandpa takes Detective Dog Curly home with him. Illustrations packedwith shine and motion bring Jeffrey's mall mystery to life, the characters caughtwith bright eyes and mobile expressions as they work through the clues to thesolution. Emergent readers will feel secure with the simplicity of the text and themystery, both of which are gauged for an audience just beginning to learn the finepoints of decoding. Main character Jeffrey is clever in a way that other kids his agewill appreciate-it is entirely believable that neither Grandpa nor Mr. Green thinksof backtracking through the suits and shoes to find Mr. Green's original entranceand therefore the parked bus, but the hints given in dialogue and illustration aresufficient to lead Bones and the reader to the correct conclusion. Warm relation-ships between Jeffrey, Grandpa, and Detective Dog Curly meld with the punchlineclout of a last-page pun to make the story satisfying on multiple levels, a qualitythat will win this new series many friends among easy reader enthusiasts. TC

NOVEMBER 2004 * 113

ASHMAN, LINDA How to Make a Night; illus. by Tricia Tusa. HarperCollins,2004 4 0pLibrary ed. ISBN 0-06-029014-5 $16.89Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-029032-3 $15.99 R* 4-7 yrs

After a particularly raucous day that leaves Papa's hair "haywire" and Mama's face"pale," one girl rises above the rabble of her uncountable siblings and proceeds, ina manner resembling the work of a domestic fairy, to make the night. Climbing atree, she mops up the clouds and lassoes the sun, tucking it into her pocket. Sherolls up the blue sky and dyes it black, splattering it with gold paint for a starryeffect. She makes the moon from a bit of rock and assembles a nighttime choir ofcrickets and owls. Then she goes home and tends to more familiar evening chores,cleaning herself and her room before supper and bed. The rhyming text shiftsfrom a businesslike briskness, as the little girl swings into action, to gentler, moretactile evocations of night's drowsy fall as her efforts bear fruit. The illustrationshave a ramped-up Quentin Blake feel to them; that is, Blakelike character shapesget treated to thick black outlines that wiggle and break on their figures, makingthem seem frenetically in motion. As the little girl begins to create the night, Tusaintroduces collage effects, using photographs of leaves, fabric, and bugs to high-light the eccentricity of the project. Lemons, golfballs, artichokes, and marblesbecome planets, an homage to "Hey, Diddle, Diddle" takes shape, and scientificline drawings punctuate the delightfully weird fantasy. Back at home, the collagefeatures disappear and the cartoonlike family members return, bringing closure tothe story. Youngsters who relish an active role in making their days and nightswork will have a lot of fun with this quirky tale. KC

Avi The End ofthe Beginning: Being the Adventures ofa Small Snail (and an EvenSmaller Ant); illus. by Tricia Tusa. Harcourt, 2004 144 pISBN 0-15-204968-1 $14.95 R Gr. 3-5

The adventures of Avon the snail and Edward the ant extend from Avon's frontdoor to the end of his branch and back again. This book (based on an earlier workby the author) is therefore more about the adventure of going than actually gettinganywhere, since placid Avon and eager Edward's contemplation of the small hap-penings they encounter (the birth of a butterfly, a cricket in need-they think--oftheir assistance) is more interesting than the actual events. Their chronicle com-prises not a story so much as a collection of narrative tangents rife with the word-play and hypercourtesy typical of genial British classics such as Winnie the Pooh(to which Avi's chapter titles, with their "In Which . . " format, allude). Eachshort chapter reads as a complete fable by itself, while the book en toto celebratesnew experiences, especially if these come as a result of the change in oneself ratherthan a change in one's surroundings. Softly shaded black-and-white drawingsportray this gently optimistic world in small sketches distributed liberally through-out the book, the creatures' expressive and often homely faces adding warmth andpersonality to the sprightly text. TC

BARRY, DAVE Peter and the Starcatchers; by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson; illus.by Greg Call. Disney/Hyperion, 2004 4 52pISBN 0-7868-5445-6 $17.99 M Gr. 7 up

The Peter of the title is a pre-Pan version of the legendary boy in green, and Barryand Pearson are proffering an explanation of his origins in this prequel. Here

114 a THE BULLETIN

Peter is being transported by ship (the Never Land), along with his fellow orphans,to a faraway kingdom that will appreciate their cheap and disposable labor, wherehe meets and befriends first-class passenger Molly Aster. Unbeknownst to Peter,Molly is a young Starcatcher, a tribe that tries to collect fallen star matter that hasmade it to Earth before its power can be used for ill by the wrong people; unbe-knownst to both Peter and Molly, the trunk ofstarstuff that was ostensibly travel-ing on another ship with Molly's father is actually traveling in the hold of Peterand Molly's ship. The fearsome pirate Black Stache is better informed, however,and he's ruthlessly pursuing both ships, and then Peter and Molly, in his determi-nation to acquire the trunk that he's sure will bring him unimaginable power.This starts off as an entertaining pastiche of period pirate adventure, with sassyrepartee and kitschy comedy detail (Black Stache's secret sailing gimmick is a sailshaped like a huge brassiere), and the book has diligently accounted for all the keyelements of Peter Pan, ranging from Peter's eternal youth and ability to fly toCaptain Hook and his crocodile follower. Unfortunately, its buccaneering energyis squandered over the course of the long and often slow narrative, and the starstuffplotline is talkily expounded and poorly mated with the piratical tale. The straight-forward writing, especially about more serious emotions (such as Peter and Molly'smutual attraction), is awkward and pedestrian, and characters are sometimes inef-fectively differentiated (it's easy to confuse the nasty pirate captain with the nastyskipper of the Never Land) or evolved (there's no obvious reason why a formerlylazy and dissolute seaman becomes the orphans' champion). Occasional full-pageillustrations lose their edge in their smudgy gray tones, but they help lighten thedensity of the text. Aside from those fans determined to see their authorial idolsembrace the pirate life, readers will likely fare better with McCaughrean's ThePirate's Son (BCCB 9/98) or Meyer's BloodyJack (BCCB 12/02). DS

BLUMENTHAL, DEBORAH Don't Let the Peas Touch!: and Other Stories; illus. byTimothy Basil Ering. Levine/Scholastic, 2004 [48p]ISBN 0-439-29732-X $15.95Reviewed from galleys R* 6-9 yrs

Three personable stories chronicle the authentically thorny relationship betweenSophie and her older sister, Annie. In the first story, Annie's culinary display fallsafoul of Sophie's determined pickiness; in the second, Sophie's good intentionsaren't enough to achieve the quiet time Annie requests; finally, Annie makes up fora mean big-sister remark with a surprise pet that she and Sophie can share. Thesegently shaped slice-of-life stories fairly vibrate with personality, and that personal-ity is usually that of forceful little Sophie, whether she's holding her meat up to thelight in wary search of fat and gristle or helpfully leading her toy animals in a veryquiet circus while her sister studies. Sprightly natural dialogue captures the true,not always fond, tone of sisterly exchanges, and careful word choice makes thesimple sentences a quiet triumph of rhythmic exposition. Mixed-media illustra-tions rely mostly on strong acrylic pigments, often textured with scrawls of greasepencil; Sophie's redder-than-red curls draw the eye in most illustrations, but they'rewell balanced with a delicious buffet of spicy touches and cool colors, standing outagainst softly muted backgrounds. The vivid colors and changing layouts, rangingfrom spot art to vignettes to spreads, provide a rollicking visual cadence, while thesharp lines of faces add emotional punctuation to the scenes. The three-chapterformat allows the readaloud pleasure to be drawn out over several sittings, and

NOVEMBER 2004 * 115

beginning readers brave enough to tackle occasionally creative font will also enjoythis sisterly literary outing. DS

BRACKETT, VIRGINIA Restless Genius: The Story of Virginia Woolf. MorganReynolds, 2004 14 4 p illus. with photographsLibrary ed. ISBN 1-931798-37-0 $21.95 R Gr. 9-12

This highly readable literary biography of Virginia Woolf moves dexterously amongthe many relationships and ideas that influenced the troubled writer. Brackettemploys a straightforward journalistic style, but Woolfs life was so rich and com-plicated that little embellishment is needed to make for fascinating reading. Brackettis forthright about the more controversial aspects of Woolf s life and the lives ofthose around her, including their complicated sexualities and marital structures,their personal and professional passions and jealousies, and Woolfs recurrent prob-lems with depression, hallucinations, and suicidal impulses. That said, the booktends to give Woolfs relationship with Vita Sackville-West short shrift; she men-tions that it was influential in her writing and continued until Woolfs death, butshe doesn't tell us anything about the nature of a love affair that was obviouslyquite important in her subject's life. Instead, she focuses on the strong but oftenfractious relationship Woolf enjoyed with her sister Vanessa, and the literally life-sustaining love and support of Leonard, Woolfs husband and business partner.Throughout, the work offers interpretive readings of Woolf s novels, showing howand why her experimental prose continues to be influential. Brackett traces outthematic continuities that occasionally disrupt the chronology of events, but it's aforgivable sin in light of Woolfs formidably active intellectual life that kept herjuggling multiple projects at any given time. Pictures and portraits of importantfigures in the Woolfs' lives appear throughout the text; the layout is unfortunatelysomewhat stodgy, and the photographs reproduced in subdued pale grays. A chro-nology is included, as is a bibliography and an index. The work relies on endnoteswithout in-text citations, making this an accessible read for students new to theconventions of scholarly writing; advanced students who have read Woolfs fictionand nonfiction prose will welcome this intimate portrait of a very important artist.KC

BRENNAN, HERBIE The Purple Emperor. Bloomsbury, 2004 4 31pISBN 1-58234-880-4 $17.95 R Gr. 7-10

This sequel to Faerie Wars (BCCB 5/03), beginning just weeks after the assassina-tion of faerie Emperor Apatura Iris, continues the adventures of Iris' children Pyrgus,Holly Blue, and Comma and their human friends Henry and Mr. Fogarty as theybattle the machinations of the Faeries of the Night and the demons of Hael. Theevil faerie Lord Hairstreak, Prince of Darkness Beleth, master spy and pedophileChalkhill, and ever-practical murderous scoundrel Brimstone have recovered fromthe losses suffered in the first book and now engage in ever more dastardly tacticsto take control of the faerie empire-the most attention-grabbing of which is thekidnapping of the newly (and illegally) resurrected Emperor Iris (okay, he's a zom-bie) for use as a pawn in a political coup. Swiftly paced and narratively compli-cated, the novel is a significantly stronger offering than its predecessor, crammedwith the gruesome details and reprehensible characters that make it, like the earliervolume, attractive to fantasy buffs and gamers, while developing those characterssufficiently to give readers the happy sense that they truly are living in 3-D. Comma's

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still-inscrutable personality (is he preternaturally crafty, or just insane?), the con-tinuing liberty of the whole cadre of archvillains, and Holly Blue's growing ro-mance with Henry promise more kingdom-rocking escapades to come. An extensiveglossary is included. TC

BRUCHAC, JOSEPH, ad. Raccoon's Last Race: A Traditional Abenaki Story; ad. byJoseph and James Bruchac; illus. by Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey. Dial,2004 32pISBN 0-8037-2977-4 $15.99 R 4-6 yrs

Azban the Raccoon has long, long legs. He is faster than Bear, faster than Fox,faster than Rabbit. He is even faster than Big Rock, who goes tumbling down themountain, "Ka-boom!Ka-boom! Ka-boom!" Thinking this is a race, Azban zigzagsin front of Big Rock as it rolls, but as he turns to sneer at his supposed competitor,he trips... and Big Rock keeps on rolling: "Ka-boom!Ka-boom!SPLA T!Ka-boom!Ka-boom!Ka-boom!" The humble ants agree to help tug poor flattened Azban backinto shape, but his impatience and rudeness keep them from finishing the job,leaving the raccoon in the squatty, not-at-all swift shape we recognize. Beginningwith a startling face-on double-page spread of the long-limbed, crafty Azban, Aruegoand Dewey's distinctive comical, texture-rich illustrations give this roadkill folk-tale a pulsing visual rhythm, the dark-furred characters (and storm-cloud-blue BigRock) romping and racing all over the pages on clear-toned backgrounds of blue,green, and yellow. Concise, dryly humorous sentences describe Azban's vanityand downfall in succinct paragraphs, their content developed by the illustratedaction and their brevity facilitating reading aloud or alone. Notes from the adapt-ers give the history of the Azban stories among the Abenaki (and one print source)and correlate these legends with other American Indian trickster tales. TC

COFER, JUDITH ORTIZ CallMe Maria. Orchard, 2004 [144p]ISBN 0-439-38577-6 $16.95Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 7-10

Letters home (and a few back), free-verse poems, and "Instant Histories" of friendsand passersby record fifteen-year-old Maria's struggle with her identity as a PuertoRican immigrant on the mainland, caught in limbo between her Island heritageand her new home in an urban barrio (and between her mother, who stays inPuerto Rico, and her father, a diehard Puerto Rican mainlander). The allure andpossibilities of language have always appealed to her, and now language becomes away to create her own identity and find a way to embrace all her heritages as shebecomes a trilingual poet (fluent in Spanish, English, and barrio Spanglish), readyto make her place in a rich multicultural world. Marfa's characterizations of her-self and others are consistently eloquent yet believably tremulous in their emergentpower, and her various texts reflect her growth as a writer, their erratic powerfinally coalescing toward the end to produce some startlingly thoughtful, image-rich pieces: "My treasure room is full./ My second language/ is a silver cup/ fromwhich I intend to drink/ the best wine./ Each word I make mine/ is a pearl, adiamond,/ a ruby, I will someday string/ into a necklace/ and wear everywhere,/ asif I had been born/ rich in English." The mix of brief pieces in different formatsgives this work the enticing air of literary collage, so even timid readers will find inMaria's self-portrait a quiet power, making this offering a strong addition to theLatino/a collection as well as an eloquent story of identity and coming of age. TC

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COLE, BROCK Fair Monaco. Front Street, 2004 [32p]ISBN 1-932425-07-1 $16.95Reviewed from galleys R 5-8 yrs

Maggie, Katie, and Nora are initially frustrated by their stay with Granny, whoseobsession with safety means she won't let the girls do anything interesting like takea walk, play on the fire escape, or send little Nora down the laundry chute; she'stoo worried even to tell them the glorious story of the night she danced with thePrince in fair Monaco. When the three sisters resignedly go to bed, they get suckedinto the frightening and frightened dreams of the granny-witch about the terriblethreats of the city, but they wisely counteract the bad witchy dreams with gooddreams of their own, thereby transforming not only the dreams they're inhabitingbut also the urban world to which they awake. Cole imbues his fluid prose withechoes of nursery-rhyme structures and rhythms, giving the girls' dreamy peregri-nations a context that makes them particularly plausible. It's the illustrations,however, that expand the text into a story: Granny's apartment (described in thetext as being on Queen Street, but identified in the illustrations, in a nod to the oldexpression, as being literally on Queer Street) initially appears to be a decayingurban wilderness, an understandable cause of the old lady's fear, but the morningafter the girls' transformative journey, the battered streets teem with bustling andaffectionate human life (the proximity to a faded building labeled "Club Monaco"suggests that Granny's Prince may have appeared long ago, but not actually so faraway). Whether the lines are parading in skewed regimentation through thecityscapes or trickling and meandering to create organic figures, they dominate theillustrations, but the slightly muted watercolors soften the visual bite; the gentletones also meld the scenes together, deliciously delaying the discovery of quirkyelements that make the art worth poring over (the nocturnal transformation of thegirls' room, the elements of Granny's grannyish apartment). While some of thechanges wrought do seem to be external (the graffiti is apparently being paintedover), it's clear that Granny's willingness to look with new eyes is really what al-lows the streetscape to cheer up. Even kids unconcerned about the underlyingimplications will revel in this celebration of positive kid power and the good thatlurks right beneath our eyes. DS

DALE, ANNA Whispering to Witches. Bloomsbury, 2004 30 4 pISBN 1-58234-890-1 $16.95 R Gr. 4-6

Joe Binks, off to visit his mother, stepfather, and stepsister for Christmas, runsinto some strange people on the train to Canterbury, and he's so unsettled that hegets off at the wrong stop and has to borrow a bike for the last five miles. The bike,however, turns out to be a bespelled broomstick, and it races off with Joe throughhedges, fences, and traffic to land him among a coven of witches. Though theysend Joe home sans his memory, the young witch Twiggy reverses the spell becauseshe's spotted the symbol of a rival coven drawn on Joe's suitcase. Attempting tosolve this mystery puts Joe and Twiggy on the trail of another: finding a long-lostpage from a famous book of magic before the wrong witches find it first. ThisBritish import will likely suffer from comparison with Harry Potter, as it goesthrough some familiar paces without adding anything terribly new to the alreadysubstantial witch market. Still, this magical mystery strikes the right balance be-tween silliness and suspense, keeping readers hooked with well-timed clues whilethrowing in some good-natured tweaking of witch lore (like the supposedly dan-gerous Spillikins of Doom, a sort of evil pick-up-sticks). The witches in the coven

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are charmingly eccentric, but it's their status as perennial underdogs in "polite"witch society that will make them attractive to children who are already sensitiveto their place in the social hierarchy. Though the ending is unbelievably tidy, thiswill likely satisfy those reading for pure entertainment, especially lovers of easywitchy fantasy. KH

DAVIES, NICOLA Poop: A Natural History of the Unmentionable; illus. by NealLayton. Candlewick, 2004 6 2pISBN 0-7636-2437-3 $12.99 R Gr. 3-5

One might say it's been a crappy year, what with Goodman's The Truth aboutPoop (BCCB 6/04) and now this title from Nicola Davies, stalwart provider ofearly-grades biology works such as Surprising Sharks (BCCB 2/04) and One TinyTurtle (11/01). Davies is more briskly knowledgeable as well as humorous, pro-viding a well-ordered tour de feces from the variety of shapes and sizes of differentanimals' excretions, through the reasons for that variety (and for varieties in color),and to the recycling of poop whether through the animal of its origin or throughother species (an Australian town has a monument to the humble dung beetle).There's also some compact explanation of the other uses of poop, whether it be anaid to navigation or a message-sometimes hostile, sometimes enticing-to othercreatures. The coverage is concise yet thorough, and the details have the appeal oftrivia while effectively presenting the material as part of the larger biological jig-saw. Layton's zany scrawls, touched with muted, grayed pastels but predomi-nantly (of course) brown, add enough silliness to keep readers unselfconsciousabout their own giggles as they read; diagram captions and speech balloons conveyinformation as well as adding interest. This will make a lovely little biologicalpresent for the reluctant readers' shelf. An index and glossary are included. DS

DICKINSON, JOHN The Cup ofthe World. Fickling, 2004 4 32pLibrary ed. ISBN 0-385-75034-X $17.99Trade ed. ISBN 0-385-75025-0 $15.95 R Gr. 8-12

When at seventeen Phaedra is faced with marriage to the kind but ordinary PrinceSeptimus, the ethereal knight who has visited her in dreams since she was elevenanswers her plea for help by stepping abruptly from her reveries into reality, bring-ing with him a ship and soldiers to safeguard their nocturnal elopement. Phaedradiscovers the knight is Ulfin, the March-Lord ofTarceny, a nobleman indepen-dent of the current King and possessing arcane powers. Phaedra sacrifices home,father, and Kingdom to be with her new husband, only to find she has madeherself the bone of contention in a civil war that beggars the land and draws Ulfinfar from her in battle. Left alone in Ulfin's castle, Phaedra receives visits fromunearthly visitors who bring with them a pervading sense of evil. Fearing she hasgone mad from her guilt and shame over the war, she hopes for salvation fromUlfin-only to find that her mate has a darker soul and darker secrets than any shebrought to their marriage bed. In Phaedra's Kingdom, the political balance ofpower constantly shifts as lords, ladies, and knights change landholdings and loy-alties within an intriguing layering of classical, medieval, and ancient pagan influ-ences, the many strata providing fertile ground for the development of a story richin emotional and symbolic power. These strengths, combined with skillful, oftenlyrical wordcraft, are offset by Phaedra's locational and emotional distance fromnearly every other primary character. As a result of this distancing, the ability of

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the story to engage the reader is subdued until the last hundred and fifty pages,where Phaedra confronts the consequences of her actions. Still, fantasy buffs witha proclivity for well-built imaginary worlds will want to join Phaedra on her ex-traordinary if dilatory journey toward autonomy. TC

DOYLE, MALACHY Splash, Joshua, Splash!; illus. by Ken Wilson-Max. Bloomsbury, 2004 32pISBN 1-58234-837-5 $15.95 R 2-5 yrs

Joshua and Granny are having an especially wet day; they feed the ducks in thepond, splash through puddles while walking the dog, play in a fountain, spendtime at a pool, and finally, ride a bus home through the rain. Their adventures aretold with sometimes rhyming, sometimes rhythmic wordplay that splashes off thepage and bounces off the tongue. The illustrations echo the splashy text: thechunky paint splattered on the cover and endpapers assumes more control but noless energy throughout the book, with the bold, paint-stroked figures barely con-tained by their swooshy black outlines. Wilson-Max's perspectives take the readerright down the slide and under the water with Joshua and his granny; between theenergy of the text and the exuberance of the illustrations, it's a breathless andexhilarating ride. KC

FARMER, NANCY The Sea of Trolls. Jackson/Atheneum, 2004 4 59pISBN 0-689-86744-1 $17.95 R* Gr. 5-8

Out of all the boys in their eighth-century Saxon village, eleven-year-old Jack ischosen by the Bard to become his apprentice. Soon Jack is learning how to call upfog and fire and sense the flow of the life force in the world around him-impor-tant skills to possess, it turns out, when he and his six-year-old sister, Lucy, arekidnapped by Viking raiders and swept across the sea to become slaves in theNorthland. Accompanied by Bold Heart, a brave, intelligent crow from his homevillage, Jack seizes his only chance to win freedom for himself and his sister byembarking on a journey to Jotunheim, the land of the trolls, where he may or maynot be able to drink from the Well of Mimir and gain the wisdom necessary toreverse his accidental magical disfigurement of the harpy-tempered, half-troll wifeof King Ivar the Boneless. In this substantial and swiftly moving fantasy, Jack'smedieval world envelops the reader from the first page, and even secondary charac-ters and villains have sufficient faults, virtues, dreams, and disappointments tomake them sympathetic to the reader to some degree. This adroit worldbuildingand dead-on characterization combine with faultless plotting and an irresistiblemixture of historical truth and mythological invention to create a tale of highadventure and exploration that reads with unexpected sensitivity, warmth, andhumor. Maps, a cast of characters, a series of short explanatory appendices, and alist of sources are included. TC

FREDERICKS, MARIAH Head Games. Jackson/Atheneum, 2004 260pISBN 0-689-85532-X $15.95 R Gr. 7-10

"I don't want anyone knowing me," says Judith, who finds that real life, with itssnickering ex-friends, competitive brainy classmates, and faraway father, simplyreinforces her sense of vulnerability. Her preferred realm is her online game, whereinshe relishes taking the role of a cunning and indomitable male thief, but a showdownwith a destructive and mysterious fellow player robs her of even that pleasure.

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When she realizes that the person behind that player is actually Jonathan, the badboy of her apartment complex, she embarks on a wary partnership with him, whereinthey draw on their gaming interest to create a more challenging live-action game oftheir own, developing a surprising friendship along the way. As she did in TheTrue Meaning of Cleavage (BCCB 3/03), Fredericks displays an admirable gift forsignificant perception expressed in accessible and often witty terms ("What happensif you try not to be the doof everyone says you are, but you find out, whoops, youreally are a doofP"), which makes her subtle understanding look easy. The booktackles head-on the notion of the pleasures of gaming and its contrast to theunruliness of real life (Judith is still haunted by an attempted sexual assault from ayear ago, and as a consequence she's particularly drawn to the power she sees inmale game characters), but it's believable in its depiction ofJudith's growing interestin the rewards of reality. While a few inconsistencies remain in the portrayal ofbad-boy-turned-friend-and-possible-boyfriend Jonathan, his prickly relationshipwith Judith effectively conveys his complexity as well as her ambivalence; there'salso a smoothly executed subplot about Judith's grudging friendship with Katie,the ditzy, work-shy rich girl out of step with her overachieving classmates. Thehumor is welcome and the intelligence penetrating, while Judith's growingconnection to her fellow humans may encourage uncertain teens to strengthentheir own relationships. DS

FRIEND, NATASHA Perfect. Milkweed, 2004 [208p]Trade ed. ISBN 1-57131-652-3 $16.95Paper ed. ISBN 1-57131-651-5 $6.95Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-9

When Isabelle fails to meet her younger sister's bribe standards, April tells theirmother Isabelle's secret: she's bulimic. This revelation lands Isabelle in grouptherapy, where she adamantly refuses to discuss her grief over her father's death orher mother's subsequent incapacitating depression. In Isabelle's mind, the realbenefit to Group is her incipient friendship with Ashley, the queen of eighth grade,who behind her polished exterior hides deep insecurity and a major-league eatingdisorder. Eating disorder plots aren't new, even with the intensity of physicaldetail provided here (there's in fact quite a bit of unintentional how-to offered),but Friend tells this more as a family story, bringing a spontaneity and engagementto Isabelle's narration that lifts this above most pointed problem novels. In par-ticular, Isabelle's frustration with her mother's frozen refusal to allow the family togrieve and to acknowledge her own problems (Isabelle says bitterly, "I so much didnot want to hear the words tired orfine anymore") is painful and understandable;the family dynamics, with Isabelle and April alternating between squabbling andanxious solidarity, are nuanced yet legitimate. Readers drawn by the car-crashfascination of eating disorder will stay for the witty and perceptive family drama.DS

GEISERT, ARTHUR Pigaroons; written and illus. by Arthur Geisert. Lorraine/Houghton, 2004 32pISBN 0-618-41058-9 $16.00 R 4 -7yrs

In Nursery Crimes (BCCB 9/01), Ames, Iowa suffered from the larcenous rampageof topiary thieves, and now Geisert exposes yet another nest of piggish crime, thistime on the banks of the Mississippi. The Pigaroons have swiped the huge ice

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block so lovingly cleft from the frozen stream by the peaceful River Patrollers, whoenter-and generally win-the ice carving contest at each year's festival. ThePigaroons sculpt the purloined block into a larger-than-life Hernando de Soto,leaving the River Patrollers with nothing but a thin slab of ice, their plucky spiritof inventiveness, and a powerful thirst for justice. While the Pigaroons hawk pop-corn balls and show off their gleaming creation, River Patrollers devise a hot-airballoon to speed their secret weapon to the Ice Festival. Hovering above the crowd,they train a highly polished ice lens at de Soto and the popcorn balls, reducingthem to water and goo. Take that, Pigaroons! This is vintage Geisert: obsessive inarchitectural and Rube Goldbergian detail, meticulous in precision line hatching,straightfaced in narration, and delightfully overinvested in his porcine universe.Between Geisert's pilfering pigs and Daniel Pinkwater's muffin-nabbing polar bears,kids can rejoice in the current crime spree in the animal kingdom. EB

GIFF, PATRICIA REILLY A House of Tailors. Lamb, 2004 [144p]Library ed. ISBN 0-385-90879-2 $17.99Trade ed. ISBN 0-385-73066-7 $15.95Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 4-7

Roughly based on the author's own grandmother's immigration story, this histori-cal novel chronicles thirteen-year old Dina Kirk's emigration from Germany toBrooklyn in 1870. Though initially overjoyed at the prospect of a new life awayfrom her family's sewing shop with "Mama's rich older brother" in New York,Dina is surprised and dismayed to find that she is expected to do piecework in theGerman tenement district where her uncle (who is in fact not rich) lives with hisyoung bride and their baby. This is a fairly typical immigration narrative, punctu-ated by periods of homesickness, the trials of smallpox and a housefire, and lovingletters sent from her family back home. Dina runs the gamut of highs and lows,from determination to return to Germany as quickly as possible to enchantmentwith the sounds of the English language and the beginnings of a romance with ayoung German locksmith. Her voice is stubbornly obstinate and her abrasiveinteractions with her uncle ("we rubbed each other like emery") a bit offputting;rather than coming across as admirable for her spunk, she seems unappreciativeand anachronistic in her constant talking back and confrontation. Her relation-ship with her uncle's wife is endearing, however, and the gradual building up ofher place in the new family is well developed. The atmospheric details of thecrowded Brooklyn streets paint a visible picture of tenement life in the time pe-riod, making this a useful work of fiction to include in immigration units. Anafterword, identifying those parts of the story taken from Giffs own lineage, isincluded. HM

GODDU, KRYSTYNA PORAY Dollmakers and Their Stories: Women Who Changedthe World ofPlay. Holt, 2004 160p illus. with photographsISBN 0-8050-7257-8 $17.95 Ad Gr. 6-10

This collective biography features a treatment of five women noted for their con-tributions in the design and business of dollmaking, then goes on to a brief over-view of some contemporary women currently doing creative work in the field.The result provides not only a glimpse into the history of the modern doll (thecreators of Madame Alexander dolls, Barbie, and the American Girls dolls all getchronicled here), but also a look at the entrepreneurship these women have dis-

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played as they developed processes, built companies, and found niches in the world-wide marketplace. Unfortunately, the text is dry and slow moving, and the por-traits of the dollmakers are adulatory and unquestioning; the occasional undersizedblack-and-white photographs of the dolls (and sometimes the dollmakers) won'treally give doll-hungry readers the up-close and personal encounter they desire.Still, business-inclined readers and those whose interest in dolls has gone beyondthat of the casual user may welcome this more involved treatment, and they'llappreciate Goddu's implicit statement of ownership: women defined the doll as itstands today, and women have the right to love dolls and design them still, at agenine or ninety. A varied list of resources includes organizations and museums(suitable for participation in and visiting by young people); there are unfortunatelyno notes or index, but a bibliography is included. TC

GRAY, MARGARET The Lovesick Salesman; illus. by Randy Cecil. Holt,2004 184 pISBN 0-8050-7558-5 $16.95 R Gr. 4-6

Irwin and Seymour are best friends, at least, they're friends until Seymour's trainingto be a hero swells his head and he scorns the love of the beautiful, intelligentprincess Julia, whom Irwin secretly adores. Over the next three years, the formerfriends see little of each other as Seymour learns to advertise his own heroism, Juliapractices ruling the country and playing hard to get, and Irwin enjoys a contentedlife in the candy business in spite of his unrequited passion. However, when Juliaturns fifteen, she turns all their lives upside down by arranging a tournament forher hand, hoping to discourage the hordes of hopeful young heroes that throng thecastle and to encourage Seymour to put in an appearance. Instead, through a seriesof accidents and the jealous interference ofJulia's older sister, the witch Murgatroyd-Liza, Seymour sponsors Irwin as a contestant, giving true love a chance to win theday (which eventually leads to Irwin's becoming the loving father of the protagonistof The Ugly Princess and the Wise Fool, BCCB 12/02). Packed with twisting butfinally intersecting plot lines, wry characterization, and contemporary caricaturesof traditional fairy-tale elements, the novel gives readers plenty to giggle at, whilethe black-and-white illustrations of dorkily potato-faced, French-fry-fingered folkboth emphasize and soften the satiric bent. The characters become more silly andthe plot more random in the last third of the book, making the tale a frothy parodyrather than a comedic masterpiece, but middle-grade readers awake to thecontradictions inherent in image-driven popular culture will appreciate this wittytakedown, as it manages to retain the frivolous delight of fairy tales and commercialmarketing while poking fun at both traditions. A map of the kingdom is included.TC

HAHN, MARY DOWNING The Old Willis Place: A Ghost Story. Clarion,2004 [2 08p]ISBN 0-618-43018-0 $15.00Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-6

Diana is excited when the new caretaker at the old Willis place turns out to have adaughter, Lissa, who's Diana's age; Diana's existence, which is restricted by a seriesof inflexible rules, largely limits her to staying on the Willis place and playing withher little brother, Georgie, so she's thrilled by the prospect of genuine friendship.Though Lissa is somewhat taken aback by Diana's strange ways and appearance,

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the two girls soon become close companions, but their closeness makes it increas-ingly difficult for Diana to hide her frightening secret (which she withholds fromthe reader as well as from Lissa): she and Georgie are ghosts. Lissa's diary entries,which counterpoint Diana's narration, are relentlessly dutiful in their plot exposi-tion rather than credible as actual preteen journal writing, but otherwise Hahn'ssure hand at haunting is evident. The story offers some genuine horror, since theghost of Miss Lilian Willis, who was responsible for Diana's and Georgie's deaths,still hunts for the two kids, but the malevolence isn't a driving narrative force butrather a carefully measured seasoning in an emotional middle-grades-suitable ghoststory. The twist of secretly giving the ghost herself the narration will be new tomany young readers, and the unfolding of the plot will remain creepy and enjoy-able no matter where along the narrative way they realize the reason for Diana andGeorgie's strangeness. This satisfyingly fills that gap between more light-heartedearly ghost stories and the hard-edged terror of classic older works, so it'll need noghostly assistance to fly off the shelves. DS

HALE, SHANNON Enna Burning. Bloomsbury, 2004 317pISBN 1-58234-889-8 $17.95 R Gr. 8-12

With her best friend, Isi, happily married and ruling the country of Bayern (seeGoose Girl, BCCB 11/03), Enna returns to the Forest to live quietly with herbrother, Leifer, who has found a piece of vellum that explains how to speak thelanguage of fire and so control it. Unfortunately, this knowledge works in the userlike a powerfully addictive drug and usually leads to a rather crispy death, i.e.,burning from the inside out. The power seems the perfect weapon to defendBayern from the attacking forces of neighboring Tira, so Enna commits to memorythe writing on the vellum, in spite of the fact that Leifer burned himself to a shellduring the course of just one battle. Soon Enna's power over fire is discovered,and she is captured by the Tirans and brainwashed into using her talent against herown people. Isi, too, has found that her ability to speak with the winds is more aburden than a gift-the constant flow of information from the living air is begin-ning to drive her mad. In spite of Enna's exploits as a spy and a saboteur, her storyis more an exploration of self than a tale of adventure. However, Hale's lifelikecharacters and down-to-earth dialogue invigorate the story throughout the devel-opment of Enna's supernatural powers and her (and Isi's) subsequent descent intoaddiction and madness. Equally potent is the balance between the despair gener-ated by Enna's mistakes and misfortunes and the hope given to her by the love ofher friends and her own resilience. A poignant exploration of dependency, abuse,and recovery but also a finely crafted fantasy, this novel will be appreciated asmuch for its reflection of the real world as for its development of a complex imagi-nary realm. A map is included. TC

HANNIGAN, KATHERINE Ida B: ... and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disas-ter, and (Possibly) Save the World. Greenwillow, 2004 256pLibrary ed. ISBN 0-06-073025-0 $16.89Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-073024-2 $15.99 R Gr. 4-6

At nine years old, Ida B is happy with her life on her beloved farm and herhomeschooling with her beloved parents; she can fit into her busy, self-imposedschedule all of the most important things-like figuring out how to talk with theapple trees and to hear what the brook is really saying. The idyll is over when

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Mama is diagnosed with cancer, and the resulting treatments leave her too weak toteach Ida B. Still shocked by the physical change in her mother and the resultingloss of security at home, Ida B bitterly resents her return to the rule-bound publicschool that made her miserable in kindergarten. Worse, Daddy confesses that he'shad to sell part of Ida B's beloved orchard to a housing contractor in order to payMama's medical bills, enraging Ida B with what she sees as his broken promise toher and to the land. Though some of the interludes (especially Ida B's collusionwith the trees) border on the precious and the protagonist's contemplations some-times slow the pacing, Ida B is an appealingly strong-willed character, and heremotional honesty, as she determinedly refuses to forgive her parents or enjoy thepossibilities of school, adds depth to the narrative. Her precocity in self-expressionallows her to speak for youngsters less gifted, while her youth limits her under-standing and makes poignant her feelings of loss and her struggle to protect herselfin a world that seems out of control. There's also plenty of laugh-out-loud humorin Ida B's observations and actions, but it's the concrete descriptions of her mael-strom of emotions that will lead readers to embrace her as a friend. TC

HARRINGTON, JANICE N. Going North; illus. by Jerome Lagarrigue. Kroupa/Farrar, 2004 40pISBN 0-374-32681-9 $16.00 R 5-8 yrs

Leaving behind a loving assembly of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, andfriends, Jessie and her family load their banana-yellow station wagon with all theyown and head North toward a better life, away from the segregated South of theearly '60s. Jessie's questions and worries about leaving home are met with "don'tknows," but as she feels the tension of a low gas gauge with only white gas stationsin sight, she begins to think that maybe things will be better for her family upNorth. The thrums of Harrington's language beat out the road rhythms of a longcar trip. Her attention to detail deepens the symbolic resonance of the family'sjourney; for instance, it is as if the land itself offers the family welcome, with thedirt symbolically and actually changing from the red clay of Alabama to the fertileblack earth of Nebraska. Lagarrigue's deeply hued, soul-stirring landscapes escortthe family from that red earth, across the drifted white cotton fields of Mississippi,through the turquoise night sky of Arkansas, to the verdant welcome of Nebraska.His people are warm and wistful, and his grainy, rough-brushed surfaces give theimpression of being hazed over with the memory of the hope that pushed thesepioneers northward. Together, text and illustration offer an almost tangible em-bodiment of the regrets that accompany leaving and the anticipation of betterthings to come. This offers a keen emotional verification to similar accounts ofAfrican-American families leaving the segregated South, but it will have appeal forany family leaving the familiar in search of something better. An author's note isincluded. KC

HARRISON, METTE IVIE Mira, Mirror. Viking, 2004 314pISBN 0-670-05923-4 $16.99 Ad Gr. 6-12

Trapped for over a hundred years in the mirror, Mira has become almost as coldand self-promoting as the traitorous sister witch who sealed her there. She lies toand manipulates innocents and pilfers magic in order to appropriate enough powerto release herself from the confines of the mirror, but before Mira achieves free-dom, a mysterious crone (actually Mira's long-lost sister) steals the Mira-mirror,

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threatening to keep the spellbound witch as a slave forever. Having learned that"magic is born in death... But love is born in life, and death cannot end it," Mirasurprisingly gives up her own quest in order to salve the wounds of her aged sistersorceress, an act which leads (indirectly) to Mira's own release. This version of thewicked-witch story is peopled by multilayered, sympathetic characters, whose dis-tinct voices and personal agendas twist the age-old plot into new shapes. Thesatisfyingly realistic feudal setting is grounded and expanded by the definition ofthe bloody source of the witches' magic; the resulting mixture of fascination andrevulsion will keep readers transfixed through page after page of elegant prose untilMira's quest has ended. Unfortunately for readers so riveted, after the first 150pages the rising action levels off, and while Mira continues to discourse on loveboth sisterly and motherly, her actual experience of any healthy affection is so slimthat her sudden adoption of love as a guiding principle during the ending se-quence simply cannot be believed. Still, some readers will care more about thesecondary characters than about Mira-not an impossible preference, since thesecondary characters are the ones who really learn how to give and receive love-and these will take the sputtering finish in stride. TC

HILL, ELIZABETH STARR Wildfire!; illus. by Rob Shepperson. Farrar, 2004 6 6pISBN 0-374-31712-7 $16.00 R Gr. 2-4

Ben lives with his great-grandmother and his grandparents in the Florida woods,which this year are dangerously dry, making Independence Day fireworks out ofthe question. New boy Elliot tags after Ben, but when he puts down Ben's smalltown and his house and family, Ben wants to show Elliot a thing or two. On adare from a local girl, Ben takes a group of kids into the brush and sets off a rocket,unleashing a shower of sparks and scaring Elliot's new puppy into the forest. Thetwo boys chase the puppy deep into the trees, where they face the threat of acharging wild boar and the burgeoning wildfire. The straightforward prose main-tains a healthy vigor, peppering the narrative with believable dialogue and apt,occasionally fresh descriptions: "Ideas bubbled in him, sweet as soda." Black-and-white illustrations employ some interesting perspectives and compositions, givingthe friendly-lined figures a milieu with a little extra depth. While skeptics maywonder if a ten-year-old boy could outrun a wild boar, or if the boar would fail tosmell him as he hid in a thicket with a squirming puppy, the rapid pace of thisanimal rescue story and the satisfying tie-in of all the plot lines make this book asure sell to readers just beginning to embark on longer literary adventures. TC

HILLENBRAND, WILL Asleep in the Stable; written and illus. by WillHillenbrand. Holiday House, 2004 32pISBN 0-8234-1824-3 $16.95 Ad 3-7 yrs

Baby Owl starts his day in the middle of the night, filled with questions about thefamily he has discovered sharing the barn: "WHOOOO. .. is that baby sleepingin the nest below?" Mama explains, "That is Jesus, the Holy Child." "'WHOOOO,'asked Baby Owl, 'is that man with the beard?' 'He is the baby's earthly father,'answered Mama. 'The Holy Child also has a Heavenly Father."' Baby Owl'squestions concerning the baby's eggless birth and featherless state lead Mama intoa gentle discussion of Divine paternity, the warmth of God's protection, and eventhe origin of the bright star that glows over the barn. This is not the traditionalretelling of the Nativity story-indeed there's no mention of how the family came

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to the barn, much less any hint of the Baby's mission-nor is it a Friendly Beaststale, with animals tenderly nuzzling the Holy Baby. This is more properly Baby'sFirst Catechism, which concludes rather illogically with a mama loves baby/babyloves mama bedtime wrap-up. The mixed-media and collage illustrations focusprimarily on the owls (only three spreads feature the Holy Family, and two ofthem are nearly identical), to whom Hillenbrand imparts an unexpected cuddliness.A variety of mottled, scratched, and layered textures give depth to the simple fig-ures. Hillenbrand initiates the parent/child dialogue on the spiritual aspect ofChristmas, but if your own owlet inquires, "WHOOOO is God?," you're on yourown. EB

HOOSE, PHILLIP The Race to Save the Lord God Bird. Kroupa/Farrar,2004 196p illus. with photographsISBN 0-374-36173-8 $20.00 R* Gr. 6-10

Hunted by artists, naturalists, and even millinery suppliers, and squeezed by di-minishing habitats, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is now found only in collectors'cabinets and museum displays. Hoose traces its flight path to extinction from theearly nineteenth century through the last verified sightings in forest canopies ofthe southeastern United States and Cuba, weaving not only a tale of a single spe-cies' demise, but also of the evolution of ornithology from mere physical descrip-tion, to investigation of behavior and habitat, to commitment to conservation.Hoose is a gifted storyteller, opening with a riveting scene of a wounded wood-pecker trashing a hotel room with all the zeal of a rock band, and then spinning agripping adventure tale that comprises everything from "plume wars" over ladies'hat trim, to murdered game wardens, to the development of bird-call recordingdevices, to the heartbreaking failure of conservator/developer compromise. Anample selection of black-and-white photos, fascinating sidebars on a wide varietyof subjects (e.g., an 1807 squirrel scalp tax; the inverse relationship between bobbedhair and feathered hats), maps of the shrinking Ivory-bill range, a timeline, glos-sary, index, and detailed source notes are included. There is no plangent predic-tion of ecological gloom and doom here, just an engrossing story that leaves readerswith the uncomfortable suspicion that this plot plays out more often than we liketo believe. EB

HUGHES, SHIRLEY Ella's Big Chance: A Jazz-Age Cinderella; written and illus. byShirley Hughes. Simon, 2004 4 8pISBN 0-689-87399-9 $16.95 R 6-8 yrs

Ella's dad owns a successful dressmaking shop, and Ella bids fair to follow in herfather's footsteps as a master clothier. The arrival of a stepmother and stepsisters isfollowed by the conversion of the shop into a couture gallery, forcing Ella to worknonstop in the basement while her stepsisters saunter through the upper floors,modeling her creations for customers. Doorman/delivery boy Buttons stands byElla, cheering her with serenades and impromptu moonlight dances in the store-room. When the Duke of Arc gives a ball and Ella's fairy godmother sends her offto it, resplendent in a limousine (Buttons's newly enchanted delivery bicycle) drivenby an impeccably dressed chauffeur (Ella's cat), the little dressmaker captivates theDuke but eludes captivation herself, preferring to marry Buttons and set up herown shop of "stunning clothes." (The Duke retreats to South America to "recoverfrom his broken heart.") The earnest tone of the text works perfectly with the

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rags-to-rags romantic twist to invest this reworking of the traditional tale withfresh allure. The 1920s fascination with color, line, and texture in clothing pro-vides ample scope for gouache and pen illustrations drenched in shimmering hues,swirling with bold curves, and enriched with riotously striated shading, while mi-nor plot points receive black-and-white treatment in miniature panels below thetext blocks. Viewers, listeners, and readers alike will enjoy the visual and narrativerichness of this period renovation. A note gives credit for inspiration for the ballscenes and dress designs. TC

IRVING, JOHN A Sound Like Someone Trying Not to Make a Sound; illus. by TatjanaHauptmann. Doubleday, 2004 40pLibrary ed. ISBN 0-385-90910-1 $17.99Trade ed. ISBN 0-385-74680-6 $15.95 Ad 4-6 yrs

A bump in the night awakens Tom and prompts him to tell his father of the furrymonster with no arms and legs that has undoubtedly taken over the house. Thoughthe text indicates that he is conversing with his father about the monster (whologically concludes that it is a mouse in the walls), the pictures show Tom and histeddy exploring the night-dark house. Dad gives Tom a strategy for dealing withthe critter-just hit the wall when you hear him scritching and scratching. Tom iscomforted enough to go to sleep, but baby brother, Tim, who has been awakenedby the commotion, gladly heeds his father's advice, since he has no idea that amouse isn't a wet, furry monster with no arms and legs. The book's look vaguelyrecalls Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are; it alternates wordless, crosshatchedspreads with pictures that sometimes do and sometimes don't cross the ditch, allheld tightly in check by tidy white borders that contain the text. The palette isappropriately (if monotonously) deep-night purple and turquoise with moonlitshadows that comically enhance the size of the "monster" the boy and his bear arestalking. The boy seems always to be bathed in the glow of moonlight, however,and his rumpled pjs, spiky bedhead, and wary eyes take the fear right out of thenighttime for the child viewer. Taken from one of Irving's novels, wherein thestory is penned by a rather unpleasant writer for children, this doesn't entirelystand on its own: poor little Tim has been left out of any climactic reassurance,and the ending is stunningly abrupt. The conceit and the descriptions are cer-tainly evocative, though, and youngsters may appreciate this comforting explana-tion of mysterious nocturnal noises. KC

JINKS, CATHERINE Pagan's Vows. Candlewick, 2004 [33 6 p]ISBN 0-7636-2021-1 $15.99Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 7-10

After facing Saladin in the Crusade and surviving a bloodbath at the Roucy deBram estate (Pagan in Exile and Pagan's Crusade, BCCB 2/04), Lord Roland andhis squire Pagan Kidrouk have had their fill of death, and they present themselvesat the Benedictine abbey of Saint Martin and ask to be accepted as novices. Rolandimmediately retreats into maudlin penitence, not only for the blood on his hands,but also for his forbidden love for a heretic woman. Pagan, always ready to followthe knight wherever he leads, finds monastic discipline far more daunting, particu-larly when his smart-mouthed retorts cause the irascible novice-master to load himup with lessons in logic and rhetoric. During one of many punishments, Paganconnects an overheard remark about the number of beggars seeking alms with a

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disparate number of distributed coins, and soon he's hot on the trail of embezzle-ment, blackmail and, ultimately, murder. This is no knockoff of the BrotherCadfael titles, and the mystery, though engrossing, serves more as plot device toexplore Pagan's and Roland's commitment to a life of godliness (and to their en-during friendship) than as the main event. Jinks again displays an amazing knackfor blending utterly convincing period detail, earthy wisecracking, and profoundrespect for courtly and spiritual ideals, regardless of how difficult they may be forher characters to attain. There is at least one more volume to come in the Paganseries, and the final scene that finds the knight helping his squire onto a horse,bound to prepare for a career as a lay canon lawyer, will leave fans of the series(who absolutely know the pair cannot be separated for long) howling for the nexttitle. EB

JOHNSON, D. B. Henry Works; written and illus. by D. B. Johnson. Houghton,2004 32pISBN 0-618-42003-7 $15.00 R 5-8 yrs

This fourth entry in Johnson's continuing homage to Henry David Thoreau islikely to appeal even to children who care neither for Thoreau nor for the previoustitles in the series (Henry Hikes to Fitchburg, BCCB 7/00, etc.) as it treats a subjectmore readily recognizable and kid-friendly than the others-unappreciated work.Henry begins his day by "walking to work," but in reality, the walk is the start ofhis work. He checks the weather and finds a foxhole, and he then uses his observa-tions to warn one neighbor to take in her laundry because it's going to rain andanother to guard her chickens against foxes. He helps with gardening, puts somecrossing stones in the creek, measures the depth of the millstream, and marks theway to a huckleberry bush ripe for picking. All of these important chores go unno-ticed by his by-now familiar neighbors-anthropomorphized bears of Transcen-dentalist fame done up in a cubist style-who assume that he's not doing anything,especially since he ends up where he started, at his cabin. His walk proceeds in acircle around Concord, giving the story a satisfyingly tight narrative trajectory,and Johnson unobtrusively shows the importance of each of Henry's little jobsalong the way. The misty weather warrants the graying over of the landscapes thathas proved visually unsatisfactory in past offerings; here it works to create a dewyatmosphere for an early morning jaunt. This title offers subtle reassurance thatthings that don't read like work can be quite important; kids who have had theirdiligent efforts to keep their worlds in order go unnoticed will feel a kinship withthis observant, tireless bear. KC

JOHNSON, MAUREEN The Bermudez Triangle. Razorbill/Penguin, 2004 370pISBN 1-59514-019-0 $16.99 R Gr. 7-12

When Nina Bermudez spends the summer before senior year away at a pre-collegeprogram, the friendship triangle is reduced to a pair as Nina's best friends, Averyand Mel (short for Melanie), labor away together at a local restaurant; to the sur-prise of both girls, the pairing becomes more than just friendship as their relation-ship blossoms into romance. When Nina returns, now engaged in a passionatelong-distance relationship with a boy from her program, she's caught off-balanceby her friends' new closeness and its effect on the triangle, especially as the ensuingyear sees Avery and Mel's romance turn sour, almost destroying the trio's longfriendship. This is more lengthily ponderous than the author's Key to the Golden

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Firebird (BCCB 7/04), but its slow movement helps capture the sense of time'spassage and provide a credible pace for the girls' growth. Avery and Mel's affair-experimentation for Avery, commitment for Mel-offers not only thoughtful ex-ploration of sexual identity but also intelligent inquiry into relationship meaningand priorities, with Nina feeling shut out of friendship and wondering if there areimplications for her own sexuality and Avery increasingly uncomfortable with herand Mel's romance but concerned about the consequences of ending it ("That wasthe problem with dating your best friend-you needed a really serious reason tostop"). The omniscient narration slips easily from viewpoint to viewpoint, whichhelps keep the girls sympathetic through good behavior and bad (Avery's dumpingof Mel is pretty brutal) and makes credible the final restoration and affirmation offriendship. Readers fond of Brashares' Traveling Pants titles (BCCB 12/01, 5/03)who embrace the different forms in which sisterhood comes will enjoy the com-pany of this trio. DS

KERET, ETGAR Dad Runs Away with the Circus; tr. from the Hebrew by NoahStollman; illus. by Rutu Modan. Candlewick, 2004 4 0pISBN 0-7636-2247-8 $16.99 R 4-7yrs

When Dad takes the family to the circus, he's so enthralled by the show that herefuses to come home again. Instead, he joins the troupe and travels around theworld, sending his bereft family frequent postcards from exotic locales. Eventuallythe circus returns to town, and Dad's wife and children, newly appreciative of thework and risk behind every successful act, receive him back into their lives withopen arms. Notwithstanding their digital layering, the illustrations are deceptivelyold-fashioned, drawn in pencil, colored with textures reminiscent of old barn paint,and harking back in style to 1800s festival posters (a sample of which is given inthe second spread). They exude creativity beyond their influences, however, lark-ing about with perspective and color, redirecting traditional shapes into new pro-portions and drenching the whole in eye-grabbing shades like tangerine, scarlet,and lime, which give even the family's pedestrian activities the feeling of the swiftmovement and aerial exploits associated with the circus. The characters' thick-lipped smiles and wide eyes emphasize the happy-go-lucky weirdness of the tale,which glosses over the pathos and tension of Dad's hasty abandonment of hisfamily and instead celebrates the sparkle and verve brought into all their lives be-cause of Dad's experiences and new friends (for some reason, the entire familysuddenly can do circus tricks now that Dad's home). The text is succinct butsufficient, its humor understated (though occasionally aimed at adults) and inter-dependent with the drama of the illustrations, within which choice details-suchas the antics of the family dog or the circus crowds-supply high-spirited enter-tainment. TC

KIMMEL, ERIC A., ad. Cactus Soup; illus. by Phil Huling. Cavendish,2004 [32p]ISBN 0-7614-5155-2 $16.95Reviewed from galleys R 7-10 yrs

The traditional stone soup story provides the makings for this original tale setduring the Mexican Revolution, wherein the people of a tiny village run to theirmayor for guidance when they spot a band of soldiers approaching. "'Soldiers areall alike, no matter whose side they fight on,' the mayor grumbled. 'They eat like

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wolves. There won't be a tortilla left when they get through!"' To avoid theinevitable raiding of pantries, the mayor instructs the townspeople to hide theirfood and go undercover, dressing in rags and smearing dirt on their faces. Inevita-bly, the captain of the soldiers produces a cactus needle and the promise of cactussoup ... only there are a few ingredients that would make the soup much better.The resulting soup, chock full of onions, tomatoes, chicken, and chiles, is such ahit that the townspeople gladly produce the rest of their stores, and "What a feastthey had!" The entertaining twist in Kimmel's retelling is the humor of the trick-sters getting tricked; young listeners are certain to catch on to the crowd's persis-tent ignorance ("And to think it was made from a cactus thorn!") and gleefullypoint out the error of their ways. Huling's watercolor and ink illustrations some-times tip from stylized into stereotypical, but they offer some intriguing perspec-tives (looking down over the pot of soup or viewing a crowd scene at nose level),and the elongated Goya-esque figures add a certain drama as well as comedy. Thereadaloud potential abounds, as does the opportunity to compare Kimmel's Mexi-can take on this oft-retold tale with similar picture-book projects (such as Muth'sStone Soup, BCCB 3/03). An author's note offering historical information is in-cluded, as is a glossary. HM

KOONS, JON A Confused Hanukkah: An Original Story of Chelm; illus. by S. D.Schindler. Dutton, 2004 4 0pISBN 0-525-46969-9 $16.99 Ad 5-8 yrs

The rabbi has left town, and the dear but dim denizens of Chelm cannot remem-ber how or why they are supposed to celebrate Hanukkah. They send Yossel on afact-finding mission, but he ends up in the Big City, where the prosperous urban-ites are celebrating their own feast of lights, namely, Christmas. Yossel returnshome with plenty of misguided ideas for their festivities, from a tree in the townsquare (to be decorated with menorahs and dreidels), to a fat man in a velvet suit(blue, with a Star of David belt buckle) who bellows "Oy! Oy! Oy!" Fortunatelythe rabbi arrives in time to set them straight, and after a fairly staid explanation ofthe miracle of the lights, "the people of Chelm ate and sang and played games andgave gifts and had the best Hanukkah they'd ever had." Of course, the fun ofnoodlehead stories in general and Chelm tales in particular is chuckling over thecharacters' good-natured, topsy-turvy logic. Too often, though, Koons' jokes fallflatter than a latke as he explains even the most obvious gags. Schindler's watercol-ors do strike the right balance between gentle satire and genuine affection, and theslightly subdued palette of rusty reds, evergreens, and dashes of gold and bluecombine Old World sobriety with holiday cheer. EB

KUNS, J. IRVIN While You Were Out. Dutton, 2004 132 pISBN 0-525-47295-9 $15.99 Ad Gr. 4-6

Penelope's fifth-grade year at her tiny rural school has two big differences from herprevious year: one difference is an addition, the new presence of her father as theschool janitor, and one difference is a lack, the absence of her best friend, Tim,who died over the summer. Her dad's clumsy and well-meant efforts to be herschool chum just make things worse for Penelope, and in her lonely grief for Tim,Penelope begins writing him notes and leaving them in his old desk. Recurrentmotifs such as the poems Penelope and Tim created and the succinct, therapy-taught metaphors ("Today my name is Yellow Hope") in which Penelope expresses

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her feelings are distracting and contrived, and plot elements such as the mistakenidentity of Penelope's secret correspondent are more neat than emotionally satisfy-ing. The more effective story here is that of Penelope's relationship with her fa-ther, as she's legitimately concerned about his job performance (he's quickly gottenbored with every job he has had) and understandably embarrassed by his behavior(he sits with her at lunch and joins in at jumping rope), but she nonetheless recog-nizes his love and concern. While there are more compelling bereavement stories(Bridge to Terabithia remains the high mark), the account of Penelope's changingrelationship with her father may elicit sympathy and even yearning from manyyoungsters who'd like to find such closeness with their own parents. DS

LA FEVERS, R. L. The Forging of the Blade. Dutton, 2004 [144 p]ISBN 0-525-47349-1 $15.99Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 4-6

What can a villain do if, once he slays the rightful king and usurps his throne, theblasted wretch's sword of power disappears, its loss threatening his ability to con-trol the kingdom? Kidnap all the blacksmiths and force them to forge blades untilone of them manages to craft a suitable replacement, of course. Unfortunately forthe despicable usurper, Lord Mordig, one of the blacksmiths he kidnaps leavesbehind a surprisingly resourceful eleven-year-old son who manages, with somesupernatural help, to infiltrate the conquered castle and challenge Mordig's au-thority. Predictability largely permeates the plot (of course the supernatural help-ers have magic relics to give the boy, incidentally fulfilling a prophecy) and thedramatis personae display a certain woodenness. Nonetheless, the heroic style andbrisk pacing make this short chapter book (first in the Lowther's Blade trilogy) atemptingly bite-sized introduction to epic fantasy for young readers. TC

LEE, STAN Stan Lee's Superhero Christmas; illus. by Tim Jessell. Preiss/Tegen/HarperCollins, 2004 32pLibrary ed. ISBN 0-06-056560-8 $16.89Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-056559-4 $15.99 M 4-7 yrs

On the night before Christmas, Santa's old foe the Ice King springs a surpriseattack and traps Santa in a cage of ice. The Protector comes to the rescue, only tobe trapped himself. Luckily, his wife happens to be the Protectress, and with herpowers and their two children's canny planning, both Santa and the Protector aresaved, the Ice King melting away in a morass of rock salt and sunshine. To cap offthe happy event, the children receive their own superpowers for Christmas. Thetext from Spiderman creator Lee seems to have been written for a comic book; it ismostly dialogue with occasional snappy sentences, allowing considerable gaps oftime and logic that should be picked up seamlessly by the corresponding pictures.However, the technique falls flat in a picture-book format that relies on one- ortwo-page spreads showing a single action scene; the illustrations only supply smallpieces of the action, not alleviating the confusions created by having the bulk ofthe story told in bad dialogue and jokes that miss the mark. Jessell's illustrationsare slick and overcrowded for their picture-book setting, but they're more success-ful than the text in connecting with their comic-book origins: drawn with exag-gerated realism, the expertly modeled and costumed figures are larger than life andunambiguously good or evil; the dark palette, sparkling with icy blue-white light,gives the battle heightened drama. While the premise and pictures may suck in

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some children looking for a superhero Christmas, kids with comic-book tastes willbe more satisfied with the real thing. KH

LEE, TANITH Piratica: Being a Daring Tale ofa Singular Girl'sAdventure upon theHigh Seas. Dutton, 2004 288pISBN 0-525-47324-6 $17.99 Ad Gr. 6-9

A tumble down the school stairs unearths a cache of buried memories in sixteen-year-old Art(emesia), and in defiance of her father she leaves the toney academy toreturn to sea, where she was raised by her pirate mother. No matter that herdeceased mother was actually an actress who played a lady buccaneer, and Artmerely a child at her side on stage. Art rounds up the old cast-now hawkingPirate Coffee off an undersized advertising ship-and after taking aboard hand-some Felix Phoenix, who has been misidentified by the police as highwaymanGentleman Jack Cuckoo, Art thieves her way around the globe, pursued by Goldie(vengeful daughter of an all-too-real pirate), dodging the law, discovering a trunkof treasure maps, and succumbing to true love when Felix rescues her from thegallows at the big finish. This never quite fulfills its Fun Potential; Lee patchestogether stock elements of piratical romance so conscientiously that her tale haslittle independent life of its own. The parallel world setting, in which 1802 En-gland is a republic and France groans under monarchy, sometimes seems littlemore than excuse for Lee to toy with British place names, wordplay which is likelyto resonate only with geographically savvy readers. Still, there's action aplenty,and the swordpoint showdown between Art and Goldie is worth the price of pas-sage. EB

LEIBER, FRITZ Gonna Roll the Bones; ad. by Sarah L. Thomson; illus. by DavidWiesner. Milk & Cookies, 2004 32pISBN 0-689-03591-8 $16.95 M Gr. 3-6

One night, a restless Joe Slattermill decides he needs to get out of the house, so heheads to the new gambling joint in town to "roll the bones." A skilled player, Joeis drawn to the craps table where he sees a mysterious, high-rolling Big Gambler.Soon Joe and the Big Gambler are facing off for high stakes, and even as Joe real-izes he's gambling for his life with an opponent who's not just a mere gambler butdeath himself, he begins to lose. There are some interesting elements in the story,with its echoes of folkloric gambles and menacing atmosphere, but the pace issluggish; even more problematic is the ending, wherein Joe simply bashes death topieces and thereby manages to escape even after losing to him, which suggests thatany tension over the game was merely illusory. The real reason for this book isapparently Wiesner's illustrations; a note from Wiesner, which is revealingly titled"Author's Note," explains that he conceived this project years ago in school as awordless adaptation, and this incarnation is an expanded and amended version ofthat long-ago attempt. The pencil-on-vellum illustrations manage a visually in-triguing feel, though the club scenes are more literal and less moody, paradoxicallymaking the skull-headed death less ominous than the winding roads to town; ulti-mately, though, the art never really manages to be effectively narrative or dramatic.Each monochromatic image is seated in a fake frame and placed on carefully faux-aged pages, which would be a nicer design touch if the toasty pigment of the pagesdidn't further subdue the already understated drama of the sepia-toned art. Thisisn't successful as a condensed yet shivery visual delight akin to, say, Gaiman's The

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Wolves in the Walls (BCCB 9/03), and kids up to the sophistication of this canprobably read Leiber's original story, so this will mostly interest young readerswith a taste for comparing variants or looking for impetus to doing their ownillustrations of their favorite spooky stories. DS

LESTER, HELEN Hurty Feelings; illus. by Lynn Munsinger. Lorraine/Houghton,2004 32pISBN 0-618-41082-1 $16.00 Ad 4-6 yrs

Endowed with a solidity prized among hippos, Fragility twists every complimentinto an insult and collapses in a tearful heap, sobbing, "You hurt my feeeeelings!"Eventually, no one wants to talk to her at all. Then, during a game of pickupsoccer (in which Fragility is an outstanding goalkeeper, since no one can get theball past her immobile vastness), a marauding elephant tries to incapacitate herwith insults. However, as Fragility points out, all of the pejoratives hurled by herpersecutor describe his own immensity as well as hers, and soon Rudy the elephantis a soggy mess, collapsed under the weight of his own hurty feelings. Fragility'sdelicious sturdiness dominates the pastel watercolor illustrations, her prominentgray belly and bewhiskered pink snout counterpointing her floppy hair bow andshiny toenails. Spread after spread emphasizes the benefits of Fragility's bulk, andin the standoff with Rudy, mirror images of rotund hippo and hefty elephantpoint up the irony of name-calling between giants. However, the point of the textis less well defined: is this a tale of bully besting or self-appreciation? In Fragility'sbrief confrontation with Rudy, she defends herself and then salves the feelings ofher wounded foe, but this exchange provides no obvious reason for Fragility's last-page acceptance of the social value of her physical graces or the complimentarynature of her peers' comments. Still, the visual humor and the many opportuni-ties for group interaction (imagine a cohort of children pretending to blubber likeFragility) may win the book its own cadre of storytime fans. TC

LEWIS, RICHARD The Flame Tree. Simon, 2004 288pISBN 0-689-86333-0 $16.95 Ad Gr. 9-12

In August, 2001, the fictional Javanese town ofWonobo is gathering support forNahdlatul Umat Islam, a group (also fictional) branded by the U.S. government asa terrorist organization. The local imam is an outspoken advocate of NUI, and asanti-Western sentiment burgeons, twelve-year-old Isaac Williams, son of doctorsat the Union Baptists' Immanuel Hospital, loses his closest friend, Ismail, whoaligns himself with radical Islamists. In the wake of the September 11th attacks,Americans are evacuated from Wonobo, but Isaac's helicopter crashes and the boyis taken into custody by NUI adherents, who school the boy in the Qur'an andthen, in a televised event, "invite" him to profess Islam. Isaac refuses, but ratherthan face any of the possible dire consequences he feared, he is promptly releasedto his parents in a public demonstration of NUI's commitment to Islamic belief infree-will submission to Allah. Lewis clearly intends to explore the boundaries be-tween Islamic faith and Islamist politics, and to suggest that organizations decriedas "terrorist" may have more diverse membership than that damning label implies.However, centrist voices that speak here in quiet, instructive, often preachy ca-dence are swamped by searing images of extremist activity-a booby-trapped corpsethat detonates on the hospital grounds, graphic description of a beheading dis-seminated over the Internet, brutal details of Isaac's forced circumcision. More-

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over, the disconnect between the level of violence depicted, the complexity of is-sues presented, and the relatively young age of the protagonist makes it difficult topinpoint a target audience. Lewis begs for a sophisticated, open-minded reader-ship, and one can only hope that's what he gets. EB

LUPICA, MIKE Travel Team. Philomel, 2004 2 88pISBN 0-399-24150-7 $16.99 R Gr. 5-8

Danny Walker, who has played on the prestigious local basketball travel team fortwo years running, has been cut from the seventh-grade team because he's just tooshort. Never mind that he's a speed demon and an acute strategist-height is whatcounts. Or at least that's the semi-official reason. More likely it's because CoachRoss has it in for Danny's dad, an absentee father whose own stellar hoops careerwas snuffed out years ago in a car accident. Mr. Walker's a physical wreck and notmuch of a father, but he's not about to let Danny's talent be squandered, so heputs together a travel team of outcasts, wannabes, and a gifted tall-girl ringer, andthe rest, of course, is middle-school sports fantasy come true. All the clich6s arefirmly in place-the ragged practice sessions, the coaches who won't let kids bekids, the alcoholic father who makes good, the best friend who walks out on hisleague-leading team to join the spirited misfits, and, needless to say, the come-from-behind victory. Sure, it's hokey, but it's also effective, and just about any kidwho wishes he could communicate with his parents, catch the eye of the classbeauty, or prove his mettle as a player on the court and as a coach on the sidelinescan tuck this title under his pillow for the sweetest of hoop dreams. EB

MACLACHLAN, PATRICIA More Perfect than the Moon. Cotler/HarperCollins,2004 96pLibrary ed. ISBN 0-06-027559-6 $15.89Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-027558-8 $14.99 R Gr. 3-5

MacLachlan makes her fourth visit to the Witting family of Sarah, Plain and Tallfame, this time to welcome a new baby for Sarah. In the eyes of eight-year-oldCassie, however, the baby is anything but welcome. Unlike her half-siblings Caleband Anna, Cassie is Sarah's child, and she is ill-disposed to share that position,repeatedly asserting that she is not going to like this baby; even worse, she is plaguedwith the fear that, like Anna and Caleb's mother, Sarah will die in childbirth. Theauthor renders Cassie's childish resentment and fear in simple, concrete imagesand dialogue; the spare, elegant prose that characterizes this series provides a ve-hicle for the believably uncomplicated emotions Cassie brings to this change in herlife. She turns to her journal for solace, using her storyteller's gift to write what shewants to be true, and sometimes surprising herself by the way her fears, desires,and jealousy take shape on the page. The book crafts differently nuanced relation-ships for Cassie as each of her rather doting family members helps her work throughher feelings about the baby; even Caleb achieves a new level of sensitivity in deal-ing with pesky little sisters as he sparks a love of his own. This gentle story aboutrelationships that remain steadfastly loving despite change will appeal most to thosewho have already developed their own relationship with this blended family. KC

MARTINI, CLEM The Mob. Kids Can, 2004 239pISBN 1-55337-574-2 $16.95 R Gr. 5-8

For generations, the Kinaar family of crows has convened once yearly in the old

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Gathering Tree for storytelling and celebrating. This year, the clan threatens tosplit over questions of religious practice, leadership authority, and individual re-sponsibility for the death of a juvenile killed by a cat, but such concerns are madeperipheral by the sudden onslaught of a blizzard that imperils old and young alike,a hazard complicated by the attack of a gang of murderous cats. Three youngCrows, Kyp, Kym, and Kuper, provide the daring, brains, and brawn necessary tosave the family from both storm and strike, allowing the clan to reform post-disaster under new leadership and with a gentler perspective. Told in first personby the engagingly benign Crow leader, Kalum, to the resurrected flock as a ritualreworking of the family's oral history and group identity, the well-paced story isinterlaced with intriguing bits of Crow mythology, law, and Kalum's personalobservations, as well as the occasional run-in with those unpredictable, fascinat-ing, ancient enemies of the Crows, the humans. This opening volume of theFeather and Bone: The Crow Chronicles trilogy will soothe readers screeching foranimal adventures rivaling those of Oppel's Silverwing (BCCB 1/98) and its suc-cessors. TC

MERCADO, NANCY E., ed. Tripping Over the Lunch Lady and Other SchoolStories. Dial, 2004 192 pISBN 0-8037-2873-5 $16.99 R Gr. 3-5

The ten stories in this collection explore that time of life from late elementary toearly middle school when your confidence forsakes you at the worst possible mo-ment but your clumsiness never does, when both your love life and your roomresemble nothing so much as a science experiment, and when everything having todo with school seems designed to expose you to maximum embarrassment. Fol-lowing a brief but energetic introduction that extols the virtues of laughing yourway through the pain of these hyberbolic years, notable authors such as Avi, An-gela Johnson, Terry Trueman, and Susan Shreve, among others, provide opportu-nities to do just that. The collection is especially friendly for reluctant readers andless-than-stellar scholars, as it includes a graphic-novel-style story, and one with ahero whose bad spelling gets him and his teacher out of a tight spot. Followingeach story is a photo of the writer as a young person (with the exception of Avi,who is "camera shy," and James Proimos, who prefers a cartoon persona) and a"school report," where the author reminisces about cafeteria food, field trips, pranks,gym, teachers, and those unforgettable school smells. Surprisingly few of the sto-ries are encumbered with annoying uplifting morals, and each author manages tomimic, albeit in a slightly different tonal register, the melodramatic keening ofthose desperately loopy tween years. KC

MYERS, TIM Basho and the River Stones; illus. by Oki S. Han. Cavendish,2004 [3 2 p]ISBN 0-7614-5165-X $16.95Reviewed from galleys Ad 5-8 yrs

Basho and the foxes live in relative harmony in the Fuka River region of Japan; hewillingly shares the fruit of his cherry tree with the foxes, and they leave him inpeace to work on his poetry. That is, until one "impatient and greedy" fox decidesto play a trick on Basho. Transforming himself into a wandering monk, he con-vinces the poet to sign over all rights to the cherry tree in exchange for three coinsthat, in fact, are transformed river stones. When the gold turns back into stones

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the next morning, the kindhearted Basho responds mildly, by writing a haiku,which, he explains, "lasts much longer" than money. The mortified fox, uponhearing the results of his trickery, begs forgiveness of the gentle poet and tries topay him with three real coins. Basho denies the offer of money but willinglyaccepts the fox's second offer of three river stones . . which magically transforminto the same three coins the following day. This original tale is creatively pat-terned to lead the fox through clear levels of greed, then humility, then generosity,and the ending, wherein the fox uses his power for good rather than the satisfac-tion of his own needs, is both imaginative and satisfying. The layout is somewhatcluttered, with text appearing in bordered boxes against busy watercolors, and thetext is inconsistently proportioned, with some pages offering a single line and oth-ers several paragraphs. Han's watercolors, encompassing a rich, dark palette, effec-tively invoke the Japanese setting, full of lush gardens and spare architecture; theanthropomorphization of the foxes (they walk upright and wear patterned silkrobes) is, however, rather discordant. The fox's evolution is the real strength of thestory, and this would work well in juxtaposition with more traditional fox-as-trickster folktales where there is no redemption to be had. An author's note aboutthe historical figure of Basho is included. HM

NEALE, JONATHAN Himalaya. Houghton, 2004 [160p]ISBN 0-618-41200-X $16.00Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-8

You'd think their nearly disastrous sailing journey in Lost at Sea (BCCB 5/02)would have dampened their appetite, but now Jack and Orrie (short for Orchid),alternating narrators, and their younger brother, Andy, are off for a new adven-ture, joining their father and his girlfriend, Libby, for a mountain-climbing trip inNepal. Already resentful of Libby, Orrie is furious when she discovers her father isheeding the head Sherpa's warning about child climbers and leaving her behindwith Libby and Andy at Base Camp while he and Jack climb the mountain. She'seven more incensed to realize that the Sherpa warned against taking Jack up aswell, but her father is so afraid of losing his son's love that he can't refuse him thistrip ("Dad thinks that if he doesn't let Jack climb, Jack won't love him. And thenJack won't go live with Dad. Dad's right, too"). The Sherpa's warning proves tobe well founded, as Jack suffers from altitude sickness during the ascent and theteam's attempt to return in bad weather leads to a terrible accident, leaving Orrie,Libby, and Andy as their only hope. Neale is an accomplished traveler who knowshis terrain and its risks, and that knowledge imbues this novel with physical au-thenticity: here's one adventure story where readers will be genuinely uncertainabout the cast's survival. The portrayals of the protagonists are occasionally lesssure-footed (the narrative voice sometimes roams out of believable reach for twelve-and thirteen-year-old speakers, and the preternaturally spiritual Andy strains cred-ibility), but the emotional drama at the heart of the events ("People are so hard,and mountains are so easy") is tough and compelling. The story is bracingly un-compromising in both its acknowledgment of the ferocity and danger of humanemotions and the ferocity and danger of the elements: Dad survives the conse-quences of his mistaken decision, but at considerable cost physically (he loses aleg), financially (there's a high bill for the rescue flight), and emotionally (his rela-tionship with Libby doesn't survive the event). Adventure-loving readers not yetready to climb the heights of Krakauer's Into Thin Air will find this a chilling anddramatic outing. DS

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NOLAN, Lucy Down Girl and Sit: Smarter than Squirrels; illus. by MikeReed. Cavendish, 2004 [6 4p]ISBN 0-7614-5184-6 $14.95Reviewed from galleys R* Gr. 2-4

Our narrator, Down Girl, is a dog who lives happily with her owner, Rruff, nextdoor to her good friend Sit. In four chapters, she and Sit keep the neighborhoodsafe from menace ("The secret to our success is simple. We are smarter than squir-rels"), even if it means eating above and beyond the call ("When life gives you pie,you should never stop to think"); the two dogs track their masters down afterbeing left at home for lunch, and Down Girl subjects a replacement caretaker toher keen scrutiny ("I loved this boy. He was my new best friend"). This has thesame pokerfaced comedy of limited viewpoint as Finney's I, Jack (BCCB 4/04),with the doggy narration streamlined for much younger readers (or even for listen-ers). Simple vocabulary and brief paragraphs enhance readability without ham-pering style, in fact often increasing it instead, and novice readers will revel inbeing part of a joke that relies on their superior understanding. Reed's spiritedvignettes, which include a helpful (and humorous) opening map of Down Girl'sneighborhood, have a homey scruffiness suitable to their subject. This will makedog lovers sit up and beg, and even reluctant readers, if tempted with a booktalk orchapter readaloud, will go fetch. DS

NOYES, DEBORAH, ed. Gothic!: Ten Original Dark Tales. Candlewick,2004 25 6 pISBN 0-7636-2243-5 $15.99 R Gr. 9-12

The ten stories in this collection support Noyes' introductory assertion that thereis "something gothic about coming of age." Rife with forbidden loves, ancienthomes, ghastly secrets, and tragic pasts, these stories-spanning classic, contem-porary, fantasy, and humor-conjure up the grotesque, desolate, and shadowyside of growing up. Many of the stories thrust unsuspecting characters into dangerwithout a safety net and watch them plummet into darkness, as in Vivian VandeVelde's "Morgan Roehmar's Boys," where a haunted hayride volunteer makes afatal mistake when she assumes the ghost of a young boy is a murder victim andnot the killer. Though not all of the characters meet such a tragic end, few remainuntouched by its possibility, and they approach the brink of adulthood with aheavy loss of innocence. The most resonant stories leave their characters wrestlingwith this transformation: in M. T. Anderson's disturbing "Watch and Wake," adisaffected teenager, hired to guard a corpse for the night, falls asleep and loses hisface, and therefore his identity, to hungry witches, while in both Janni Lee Simner's"Stone Tower" and Gregory Maguire's "The Prank," young women must realizethe effect that their family secrets have had on their stunted upbringing before theycan hope for better. Breaking up the grimness is Neil Gaiman's hilarious parodyof gothic conventions, "Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the NamelessHouse of the Night of Dread Desire," wherein a writer attempting to craft a "slice-of-life" novel cannot escape mockery of his all-too-gothic reality. Young horrorfans will find these tales chilling, thoughtful, and surprising, and the collectionmay pique their interest in such gothic classics as The Castle of Otranto or TheMonk. KH

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NUMEROFF, LAURA Beatrice Doesn't Want To; illus. by LynnMunsinger. Candlewick, 2004 [32p]ISBN 0-7636-1160-3 $15.99Reviewed from galleys R 4-6 yrs

"Beatrice didn't like books. She didn't even like to read. More than that, shehated going to the library." Unfortunately for Beatrice, a long-eared basset hound,that is exactly where she has to go three days in a row while her older brother workson his dinosaur report. The story follows the stubborn Beatrice through severaldays of troublemaking and brother-bothering before he spots a sign for a storyhour with the children's librarian. Poor Beatrice is left in a room full of otherdoggy children where, much to her surprise, she ends up really enjoying the cardi-gan-clad librarian's reading ofAlbert Mouse Has a Brand-New House (which Wanda,the pug seated next to Beatrice, has heard twice). Predictably, when her brothercomes to claim her, Beatrice is as resistant to leaving the library as she had been togoing in the first place. Numeroff, author ofIfYou Give a Mouse a Cookie (BCCB7/85), has effectively captured the dynamic and often creatively executed resis-tance of a stubborn child, the "I don't want to," impossible-to-please kind thatadults are sure to recognize, and while the story is a bit self-serving in its purpose,Beatrice is an entertaining protagonist. Though anthropomorphized, she and theother library patrons remain remarkably doglike throughout, especially in the mostlyrealistic rendering of their faces. This isn't as much fun as Sierra's celebratory Wildabout Books (BCCB 9/04); still, librarians are sure to get a lot of mileage out of therelevant theme of the power of a good book. HM

O'CONNELL, TYNE Pulling Princes. Bloomsbury, 2004 22 4 pISBN 1-58234-957-6 $16.95 R Gr. 7-10

As an American non-aristocrat, fourteen-year-old Calypso Kelly feels terribly outof place at her posh British boarding school, and now she's saddled with Georgina,the school's queen bee and dearest friend of the malevolent Honey ("In a schoolwhere bitchiness was currency, Honey was filthy rich"), as a roommate. She man-ages to goose her status by setting up a fictional affair with an older man fromhome, but her star zooms to its zenith when a fencing match with the nearby boys'school (a thinly veiled Eton) pits her against young Prince Freddie, the hottie ofthe British royal family. Freddie promptly develops an interest in Calypso, but ishis company worth the wrath of the dread Honey, and is he even the one forCalypso? This is every bit the effervescent chick-lit fantasy the plot suggests, andthe details of the hothouse-insular existence at school, ranging from the coolnessof the nuns amid an otherwise fusty staff to the convention of slipping vodka intoBody Shop bottles for secret imbibing, are an additional rich and gossipy treat.The revelation of Georgina's underlying niceness is gradual and believable, andCalypso's intoxication with dreamy Freddie is played with the right mixture ofsusceptibility and skepticism; in fact, that's a blend that characterizes the book ingeneral, so that cynical readers can relish the Nancy Mitford mentions while ro-mantic royal-watchers can revel in Calypso's thorny relationship with the hunkyheir-to-the-heir apparent. The occasional attempts to convey a meaningful mes-sage (usually about confidence in one's self) sink like lead through the froth, andthe ending is so abrupt as to suggest authorial abduction rather than a lead-in to asecond volume, but readers thrilled by the current windfall of glitzy chick-lit (suchas The Princess Diaries, BCCB 12/00, and Burnham's Royally Jacked, 3/04) will

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want to catch this. A map of Calypso's school and a glossary of British slang areincluded. DS

O'CONNOR, BARBARA Taking Care ofMoses. Foster/Farrar, 2004 144 pISBN 0-374-38038-4 $16.00 R Gr. 3-5

Randall Mackey knows exactly who left the baby late at night in front of the Rockof Ages Baptist Church, but if he tells, someone will ask how he happened to bethere. Then he'll be forced to admit he was keeping an eye on Queenie Avery, thedementia-afflicted wife of a local janitor who would be heartbroken if he had tosend his beloved to a nursing home. As Randall keeps mum, the congregationfrets and spats over who should care for the foundling-Miss Frieda, a black womanwho is licensed to take in foster children, or the white preacher and his wife, onwhose doorstep, so to speak, the baby was abandoned. While the adults quarrelover the guardianship issue, Randall manages to identify the baby's mother, whoturns out to be the catalyst for reuniting feuding church members and expandingtheir mission to overburdened mothers in the town. Again O'Connor explores thedynamics of a tight-knit Southern community (Beethoven in Paradise, BCCB 5/97;Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia, BCCB 3/03), wryly jabbing at the gossip andcat-scratching, but ultimately celebrating the bonds of custom and affection thatkeep the town humming. In this outing she gently but insistently probes racialissues as well, offering a child's-eye view of the block on which the Mackeys are theonly remaining white family, and of the church in which Randall's best friend,Jaybird, and his family are the only black members. The racial divide may be hardto cross, but the Rock of Ages believers take their Bible seriously and, in the goofilymisquoted words of Randall's bratty friend Althea, "Let all bitterness and wrath beput away from you with a mallet." EB

OGILV, IAN Measle and the Wrathmonk. HarperCollins, 2004 22 4 pLibrary ed. ISBN 0-06-058686-9 $16.89Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-058685-0 $15.99 Ad Gr. 4-6

As long as he can remember, Measle Stubbs has been the ward of Basil Tramplebone,a pale, vindictive man with cold, fishy eyes and pointed teeth. When Basil catchesMeasle playing with Basil's model train set, the man reveals his true nature as aWrathmonk (definition: an insane wizard) and shrinks Measle to half an inch tall,fating him to wander the landscape of the train set until the steady diet of dough-nut crumbs and pink lemonade drops (litter from Basil's snacks) turns him intoplastic, like the other six miniaturized people Measle finds in the set and rescuesfrom petrification by judicious treatment with moldy carrots. As Basil searches invain for his revived plastic people, his ire mounting against the heroic Measle, andBasil's pet mutant bat lurks in the rafters to eat any tiny thing that moves, theseven victims combine their talents for a last-ditch effort to overthrow the craftyWrathmonk and win their freedom. This eccentric tale of insurrection and sur-vival relies for its comedic energy almost completely on coincidental twists, givencredibility with brief passages describing the characters' emotional and mental pro-cesses before, during, and after each providential event. That narrative strategymakes the book a pleasurable but not brilliant read, and the paragraphs dedicatedto characters other than Measle, while entertaining, serve primarily to further theplot and not to fully develop anyone's personality. However, Basil's increasingcreepiness and (it must be admitted) charismatic enthusiasm for evil will evoke

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readerly trills of mirth as well as thrills of apprehension, and Measle affords readersa likable hero with which to identify, centering this offering squarely in the currentmiddle-grade marketing sweet spot. TC

PAULSEN, GARY Molly McGinty Has a Really Good Day. Lamb, 2004 105pLibrary ed. ISBN 0-385-90911-X $14.99Trade ed. ISBN 0-385-32588-6 $12.95 Ad Gr. 4-6

Molly McGinty's notebook, with lists and files and phone numbers, schedules andnotes and quotes, is the memory bank and organizing system around which sheplans her life. The day she loses her notebook is also the day her free-spiritedgrandmother, Irene, joins her at middle school for Senior Citizens' Day, saddlingMolly with carting around Irene's gigantic black purse. It is the day Molly gets ablack eye, tears the skirt of her school uniform, escapes being set on fire by juveniledelinquents, catches a plate of spaghetti in the chest, and suffers the theft of herclothes from her gym locker, among other misadventures. When Irene reveals thatshe is the mastermind behind the disappearance of Molly's notebook and much ofthe ensuing drama, Molly humbly recognizes that her hyperorganized lifestyle pre-vents her from interacting normally with the students and teachers at her Catholicschool-especially with "cutest boy" Jake Dempsey, who likes Molly's grandmotherbecause she's "interesting to talk to." Molly isn't entirely successful as a narrator,since her voice is stiff and her girlishness counterfeit; though the day's events havegreat comic potential, most are referred to in dialogue rather than seen in action,considerably dampening their humorous effect. That said, the complete unlikeli-hood of the whole train of events (driven forward by the over-the-top yet com-pletely calm personality of Irene) suffuses the book with an attractive level of manicglee. The additional draw of watching the central character attain an exhilaratingcloseness to the object of her affection may suffice to lure readers looking for someundemanding yet diverting academic mayhem. TC

PECK, RICHARD The Teacher's Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts. Dial,2004 190pISBN 0-8037-2736-4 $16.99 R Gr. 5-8

News that the superannuated mistress of their rural Indiana school house has, atlast, passed away sends fifteen-year-old Russell Culver into a fit of premature re-joicing. Now he can shuffle off the remainder of his academic career and get onwith farming-preferably in the Dakotas with his best buddy Charlie. However,he didn't count on the locals actually hiring a new teacher for the tiny band ofreluctant scholars at Hominy Ridge School, let alone his own older sister, Tansy,who's just the bargain the tight-pursed citizens are looking for. Tansy's no genius,but she certainly knows every trick in the farm kids' book and, mustering awagonload of common sense, she fashions a somewhat eccentric curriculum andactually manages to haul Russell and Charlie through their eighth-grade exams,win the approval of the school superintendent, and meet her future husband amongher classroom charges. Although there is a clearer trajectory to the Culvers' talethan in Peck's more anecdotal offerings A Year Down Yonder and A Long WayfromChicago (BCCB 1/01, 10/98), the author's deft hand at setting and milking come-dic scenes is again strongly in evidence, from the practical jokes surrounding theghost of the unlamented Miss Myrt Arbuckle, to the strenuous retrieval of an

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overweight neighbor from a schoolyard ditch. Kids with reservations concerningtheir own teachers better not look to Russell for sympathy. EB

RABIN, STATON Betsy and the Emperor. McElderry, 2004 294pISBN 0-689-85880-9 $16.95 M Gr. 5-9

Until permanent accommodation on Saint Helena can be arranged for exiled Na-poleon, he and his retinue are lodged at the Briars, where agent Balcombe of theEast India Company is resident. Balcombe's daughter, Betsy, has just returnedfrom her English boarding school and finds that life has gotten much more inter-esting now that royalty has arrived. She rapidly overcomes her horror of having apublic enemy on the grounds, and she takes pleasure in teasing the august guest.Napoleon, in turn, welcomes the diversion of entertaining a pert teenager whorefuses to be cowed by his arrogance and yet respects him nonetheless. Huff, tutorto Betsy's little brothers, openly admires the emperor and involves Betsy in anabortive plan to spirit Napoleon off the island in a hot-air balloon. Although itbecomes clear that the emperor is trapped on the island for good, Betsy contrivesto score a victory for him by racing his horse, Hope, and beating that of SaintHelena's hated governor. Rabin loosely bases her tale on the real Betsy Balcombe,who did in fact make Napoleon's acquaintance during his exile. "Loosely" is theoperative word, though. Rabin's concluding notes shed insufficient light on theline between fact and fiction ("Any quotes in this book attributed to Betsy, Napo-leon, or members of his suite were either invented by me or taken directly fromhistorical accounts"), and her insouciant approach to research is troubling ("I havegone to enormous lengths to avoid reading [Betsy's autobiography] as I feared... it might discourage me from having the temerity to attempt to tell Betsy's

story in my own way"). Perhaps that critical bit of reading would have helpedRabin fashion a Betsy who sounds less like a sassy After School Special heroine andimparted the credibility that historical-fiction fans have a right to expect. EB

REEVE, PHILIP Predator's Gold. HarperCollins, 2004 325pLibrary ed. ISBN 0-06-072194-4 $17.89Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-072193-6 $16.99 R Gr. 7-12

More than two years after the annihilation of the great Traction City of London,Tom and Hester (Mortal Engines, BCCB 3/04) still fly the skies in the airshipJenny Haniver, formerly the possession of the now-deceased Anti-Traction Leagueagent Anna Fang. New enemies stalk their ship, however-the feared radical en-vironmentalist group the Green Storm-and the couple's evasive maneuvers leavethem stranded in the icy wastes of the far north, on the seldom-seen Traction Cityof Anchorage, which is itself beating a hasty retreat from the hunting grounds ofanother massive predator city. Tom and Hester swiftly find themselves embroiledin a power struggle and a flight for freedom upon which the fate of the world mayrest. The highly original future described in the first novel is here presented withmore gore and less idealism than before-even the mutually supportive partner-ship of Hester and Tom shrivels as Hester converts into a hardened mercenary. Infact, no kind deed goes unpunished, as every generous-hearted character, eventhose in minor roles, suffers at the hands of the ambitious and the vicious. Newcharacters who choose to sacrifice for others' welfare do provide wellsprings ofhope, and the addition to the political mix of a newly built Stalker cyborg of AnnaFang, created to lead the Green Storm to victory, and a master thief known only as

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Uncle, commander of an unnumbered army of burglar boys, extends the dramaticpotential of the tale. This second volume ups the stakes of the saga while prepar-ing readers for a globe-sweeping confrontation in future episodes. TC

RUNYON, BRENT The Burn Journals. Knopf, 2004 374pLibrary ed. ISBN 0-375-92621-6 $19.99Trade ed. ISBN 0-375-82621-1 $17.95 Ad Gr. 6-9

Suicidal inclinations and fear of punishment for vandalism drive fourteen-year-oldBrent to douse himself with gasoline and set himself on fire. Instead of the hastyend to his trouble he sought, however, he instead finds himself the agonized victimof terrible burns, airlifted to the hospital and struggling to face his altered future,his devastated family, and his arduous recovery. Runyon's autobiographical narra-tion follows the form of a journal that traces the events as they happened fromFebruary of 1991 to January of 1992 of his life, starting with a brief chronicle ofleadup events and then following from his first fragmented thoughts upon wakingin the hospital to his return to regular school a year later. The hard details arefaithfully depicted, and the journal is earnest and truthful in its as-it-happens veri-similitude (Runyon is touchingly candid abut the trials and temptations of experi-encing active puberty while undergoing the constant physical attention of attractivenurses). The narrative is largely uninflected and unshaped, however, with eventsappearing episodically rather than contributing to any overall arc (it's startling atone point to hear a therapist refer to Brent's psychological progress, since littleadvancement of overall insight has appeared), and the concentration on mundaneelements (especially on popular-culture details from the period) sometimes buriesthe more significant elements of the story. Nonetheless, the truth of the storygives it an impact even when its telling doesn't, and kids troubled by their owndarknesses may find this a compelling argument for hanging in there. DS

SANCHEZ, ALEX So Hard to Say. Simon, 2004 230pISBN 0-689-86564-3 $14.95 R Gr. 6-9

Xio is an effervescent eighth-grader and Frederick is the sweet new boy in class, onwhom she has a major crush. The two kids take turns narrating the events as Xioand Frederick grow closer, making Xio giddy with romantic excitement andFrederick increasingly anxious about his lack of physical attraction to Xio. In fact,Frederick is disturbed to find himself more excited about his growing friendshipwith the handsome Victor ("Please God," Frederick thinks frantically, "don't letme be gay. I'm weird enough as it is"), and he's thrown unwillingly into seriousexamination of his sexuality. Sanchez effectively differentiates Xio's bubbly, gar-rulous narration and Frederick's tentative and uncertain voice, and the clear depic-tions help make the characters the driving force of this novel. There's someoversimplification (the book implies that nothing other than homosexuality couldaccount for Frederick's failure to be attracted to Xio and for his contemplation ofmale sexuality) and idealization (after initial reactions, there's little negative re-sponse to Frederick's coming out, while another gay eighth-grader bears the tauntsof classmates and family with philosopher's wisdom), but the emotional core ofthe story remains solid and authentic. The inclusion of Xio's viewpoint meansthat readers identifying with Frederick encounter a model of survivable reactionfrom a friend, and they also get to see the kind of confusion and disappointmentself-misrepresentation can cause in those whose lives they touch. Subplots such as

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Xio's disappointment with her own absent father (who may in fact be gay himself)and the atmosphere of the multi-ethnic, Latino-rich California community adddimension to the narrative. A lot of kids question their identity before the tradi-tional YA bracket, and this accessible read will give them reassurance and food forthought. DS

SCIESZKA, JON Science Verse; illus. by Lane Smith. Viking, 2004 4 0pISBN 0-670-91057-0 $16.99 R Gr. 3-6

Scieszka and Smith are evidently working their way around the curriculum, fol-lowing up their Math Curse (BCCB 10/95) with this exploration of the wonders-or not-of science. There's a slender frame of a youngster panicked into elidingscience and poetry, but mostly this is a collection of poetic pastiche, scientificsubjects treated or lampooned to the rhythm of classic songs or verses. Approxi-mately a score of verses treat subjects such as evolution ("Evolution," to the tune of"The Battle Hymn of the Republic"), the excessive study of dinosaurs ("Dino-Sore," modeled after Poe's "The Raven"), and the Big Bang ("'Twas the Night,"echoing Moore's "A Visit from Saint Nicholas") in verses of various sizes and shapesbut a constantly collusively goofy tone. This isn't one of the dorkily dynamicduo's breakthrough volumes, and some of the poetic parodies are more crisplyexecuted than others, but there's good humor enough to get kids guffawing whetherthey know the poetic originals or not (the final page helpfully, if not entirelystraightfacedly, provides source notes). Smith's darkly comic visuals have alwayshad a Victorian touch of scientific oddity, which is put to particularly good usehere; the edgy exaggeration and grayed-out palette add a sophisticated spin to thecorny joys of the rhymes. Possible uses are myriad, from science class to poetryunit, readaloud to choral reading project to inspiration for kids to write their ownverse. For additional amusement, a CD of the author's and illustrator's perfor-mance of the entries is included. DS

SHANNON, DAVID Alice the Fairy; written and illus. by David Shannon. BlueSky/Scholastic, 2004 [4 0p]ISBN 0-439-49025-1 $15.95Reviewed from galleys R 4 -7 yrs

She may look like an ordinary goldy-locked, gap-toothed urchin with strapped-onwings and a sequin-studded wand, but she's a "Temporary fairy" with the creds toprove it. After all, she can turn her oatmeal into cake with a sprinkling of fairydust (well, sugar), turn her dad's chocolate-chip cookies into her own (through anact of bold preemption), and make herself disappear with a wave of her wand(swatting the light switch). Admittedly, making the dog levitate and her clothesmagically dance onto the closet rod is going to take a bit more practice, and shedoes have a touch of trouble with the duchess, who serves her broccoli and con-fines her to her chambers for turning her white dress red. Shannon's heroine lookssuspiciously like a relative of his rollicking David (No, David!, BCCB 9/98 etc.)and inhabits the same domestic turf where impishness, properly viewed from achild perspective, is the normal course of events. Hasty shwooshes of heavily ap-plied paint that spill untidily from scrappy black outlining underscore therambunctiousness of the Temporary fairy herself. While this romp doesn't havethe David books' bonus of limited vocabulary, it will appeal to little gals whocomprise equal measures of sugar and pepper. EB

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SHAW, SUSAN The Boyfrom the Basement. Dutton, 2004 198pISBN 0-525-47223-1 $16.99 R Gr. 5-8

Abused, deprived, and isolated, Charlie has been consigned to life in the basementby his punitive father, and his ineffectual mother is too afraid to intervene. Afterhe accidentally locks himself out of the basement, the sick and malnourished boyis found and taken to the hospital, where the authorities intervene in his situation;all Charlie knows is that he's thrust suddenly out into a world of unfamiliar con-cepts, such as school and pleasurable pastimes, and that he's sure his father is goingto punish him for going outside and telling his family's business. Even when hestarts to settle in at the home of his new foster mother, Mrs. Harrigan, and hisyounger foster brother, Ambrose, he remains convinced that his father will re-turn-and perhaps he's right. While the story is still touched with sentimentalityand unlikelihood (especially in the climactic scene of Charlie's father's reappear-ance), this is a more cohesive and successful rescue drama than Shaw's previoustitle (Black-EyedSuzie, BCCB 9/02). Shaw lifts the darkness of her central premiseby peopling the story with strongly sympathetic secondary characters, from Charlie'seasygoing hospital roomie to his admiring foster brother, making Charlie's incre-mental recovery and blossoming a narratively justifiable response. She also effec-tively underplays the effects of his deprivation, giving as much time to his ignorance,which will make considerable impact on young readers, as to his fear. This is lessa credible psychological exploration than a dramatically drawn fantasy of despairand recovery, but that's a popular and compelling theme; fans of Pelzer's A ChildCalled It will applaud Charlie's discovery of his own worth. DS

Sfs, PETER The Train of States; written and illus. by Peter Sfs. Greenwillow,2004 6 4 pLibrary ed. ISBN 0-06-057839-4 $18.89Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-057838-6 $17.99 R* Gr. 1-4

It's inevitable: countless school children will attack the perennial states assign-ment, wherein they consult the Fast Facts section of a states series and dutifullycopy their designated flower, motto, capital, etc. Now Sfs provides some visualfireworks to spark up the task-and even to engross browsers with a taste for na-tional trivia. All the requisite report data is loaded onto bright, ornately embel-lished circus wagons that boast the state flag, flora and fauna, motto, nickname,and some well-known citizens and/or prominent sites. Each wagon rides a flatbedrail car emblazoned with the state name, the name's derivation, and the date ofentry into the Union. Finally, the track is laid atop a yellow band that offersbarebones report information, right-sized for the youngest researchers: capital,flower, tree, bird, and "fun fact." The circus cars roll by in order of admission, andthe entire parade is framed by horizontal panels that depict the approaching trainthrough the windows of a one-room schoolhouse, the passing train followed bythe school children, a glorious double-page spread of American icons performingunder a big top, and a closing page of suggestions for further research on eachstate. Each circus car wittily incorporates elements that reinforce a state feature(Mt. Rushmore tops the South Dakota car; a pair of spuds crown Idaho) or teasekids to check the addendum for explanations (Nevada's prominent camel; the tinyaviator waving from the Kansas wagon). Page-flippers will marvel at the ever-changing intensity of Sfs' delicately textured line and watercolor paintings, andvisual learners will delight in this spiffy approach to research. EB

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SNOW, ALAN How Santa Really Works; written and illus. by AlanSnow. Atheneum, 2004 48pISBN 0-689-85817-5 $15.95 R Gr. 3-5

If you still believe those Christmas card pictures of the quaint cottage industry atthe North Pole, you have been sadly misled. Snow is here with the real scoop onSanta's state-of-the-art operation that encompasses "factories, warehouses, trans-port facilities, a communications center, and many other vital and necessary de-partments." Serious business, this. Elves are recruited, trained (reindeermaintenance, weather forecasting, surveillance), and placed through an annual jobfair. Wish letters are processed ("This little girl asked for a china doll. Didn't sheget one last year?" "Yes, but her grandmother sat on it"). Children are investi-gated by the CIA (Christmas Intelligence Agency) for behavior patterns. Toysemerge from a two-step process of research and development, and production.Then of course there is the sleigh packing, as toys are offloaded from cleverlyconcealed tenders. There's even a plausible explanation of how Santa makes hisgetaway if a child wakes up in the middle of a delivery. Double-page spreads arecrammed chock-a-block with enough zany visual details, teeny dialogue bubbles,document excerpts, hard-working elf borders, and industrial diagrams to keep kidsbusy 'til, well, Christmas. Snow's thorough, plainspoken explanations have thering of truth for believers and teetering skeptics, and confirmed humbuggers willsimply revel in his over-the-top inventiveness. Everyone should pay particularattention, though, to what's in store for those who fall from Santa's favor. There'sstill time to repent. EB

SPOHN, KATE By WordofMouse; written and illus. by Kate Spohn. Bloomsbury,2004 32pISBN 1-58234-867-7 $16.95 Ad 2-4 yrs

Dorothy and Gertrude, two artist sisters who live together, are noted for theirkindness and their love of animals, but that love doesn't quite extend to a desire formice to infest their home. Lucy (a mouse) decides to move in anyway. She'sgrateful that the sisters take her to visit her family in the woods, not understandingthat they have just caught her in a safe trap and are trying to get rid of her. Lucyreturns, this time with friends, and the sisters resign themselves to having mice forhouseguests, until an unfortunate incident with some cooling cookies forces themto get the safe traps out again. Undaunted, the mice tell their friends of the mar-velous cookies, and the sisters accept their fate, even making little beds for theirnew roomies and featuring them in their books, which become famous. (Indeed,Dorothy Lathrop was the first recipient of the Caldecott medal in 1938, as theauthor notes.) A bit more explanation of the Lathrops might have provided someenergy for the story, since it's rather limited in its own right; the gentle rodentialevictions that look like they're going to be a structural element peter out, leavinginstead a sweet but unremarkable plot about happy mice. The kindly critter-friendly home is a cozy setting, however, and Lucy's persistence and eventual re-ward may strike a chord with very young listeners. In the oil-paint illustrations,the pert mice seem always to be simultaneously dancing and smelling somethingwonderful. Other figures-the sisters, their sculptures, the landscapes-have anelemental simplicity that, though warm, lacks depth. It's too bad a little morewasn't made of this enticing Beatrix Potteresque situation, but young listenerswith a soft spot for anything with fur will find this a snug, nondemanding story.KC

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STANLEY, DIANE The Giant and the Beanstalk; written and illus. by DianeStanley. HarperCollins, 2004 [32p]Library ed. ISBN 0-06-000011-2 $16.89Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-000010-4 $15.99Reviewed from galleys R 4 -7 yrs

Otto is a giant misfit. When other giants curse, he coos; when they stamp, hesighs. For a pet, he chooses a drab little hen instead of "a werewolf or a babydragon." Then redheaded Jack steals poor Clara the hen right out from underOtto's nose. When Otto shinnies down the beanstalk to reclaim his beloved pet,he finds Jack after Jack after Jack, all engaged in some nursery-rhyme activity, buthe finally runs redheaded Jack to ground in the market square and retrieves hishen. Homely pictorial details, such as a reverent portrait of Clara the hen over hernest, play for viewer sympathy, and the lush greens and warm browns of the col-ored pencil illustrations evince a blithe calm even as the characters dash, leap, andtumble over the countryside. The giant's discovery that "scaring humans" is "kindof exciting" adds depth to his kindly nature and establishes him as a rounded hero,while the rapid jumps in and out of familiar nursery rhyme scenarios keep thisfolktale revision lively despite the somewhat protracted text. Though the endingrings slightly false-Otto's daring act unaccountably reverses his plummeting sta-tus in the giant kingdom by sparking a new fashion for poetry, flower crowns, andtrimmed toenails-the final image of redheaded Jack warbling with his vocallytalented bovine darlings assures a concluding grin. Two pages of Jack-centerednursery rhymes with accompanying vignette portraits from the main story are in-cluded. TC

STEWART, PAUL Lake ofSkulls; illus. by Chris Riddell. Atheneum, 2004 14 4 pISBN 0-689-87239-9 $9.95 Ad Gr. 4-6

In this addition to the pun-slinging, skull-cracking tradition familiar from comicbooks and gumshoe fiction, a nameless "sir knight" (a "free lance," unbonded toany master) accepts a charge from the local Lord Big Nose to overcome namelessdangers and liberate an enchanted crown from a heap of skulls across the lake. Thedangers turn out to be three brawny, voracious hags, two of whom the knightvanquishes, while the third fulfills the ancient curse on the crown by beheadingLord Big Nose and reforming the gruesome heap of skulls with his dripping nog-gin at the top. There's not much tension in this breezy entry, and its stock sup-porting characters and plot give readers the same impression they give the knight:that this is a tangential episode, to be enjoyed for what it's worth but not to betaken seriously. However, the knight is a reluctant hero readers will relish; hissardonic internal dialogue, macho remarks, and self-preserving mindset establishhim as a medieval Bruce Willis, less irresistible than he'd like to be, but nonethe-less entertaining. The untidy line drawings, caricaturish yet energetically charis-matic, surround the hero with large-bosomed women and rodent-faced villainsand portray the hero as the typical ruggedly handsome fantasy champion, a stylethat promises the undemanding action the book delivers. TC

STEWART, SARAH The Friend; illus. by David Small. Farrar, 2004 4 8pISBN 0-374-32463-8 $16.00 R 5-8 yrs

Annabelle Bernadette Clementine Dodd's posh parents entrust their little darlingto the care of Beatrice Smith, their black housekeeper and nanny. Every day is

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devoted to a different household chore, with Bea patiently tolerating (and cleaningup after) Belle's attempts to help. Then it's off to the beach, where Belle scampersabout while Bea sits or stands, quietly erect and poised, in full-page wordless im-ages that evoke the calm, eternal presence of sand and sea, childhood efferves-cence, and the steady protective companionship of a loving adult. One day, though,Belle takes off on her own, and Bea, sensing danger, must rescue the little girl fromthe pounding surf. The rhyming text sometimes renders dialogue a bit stiff; incontrast, Small's dexterity with the fluid line and delicate watercolor wash allowshim to effectively capture the gangly, unstudied grace of Belle. He complementsthis flighty wisp of a girl with the upright and stately solidity of Bea, making Bea'sfinal image of post-traumatic exhaustion especially powerful. The ending of thestory is abrupt, with an obeisant Belle proffering cocoa to an emotionally wrung-out Bea; the story seems to require not only the nostalgic timeshift where an eld-erly Belle reflects on Bea's memory, but also Stewart's dedication ("To all thepeople across the world who have saved the lives of children by paying attentionwhen others did not") to achieve narrative resolution. This complex thematicinterplay creates a manifold implied audience-children who experience the stead-fast love and heroism of their nonrelated caregivers, caregivers whose ministrationsto small children often go uncelebrated, and overly busy parents who are out oftouch with their children's daily lives. The result is an homage with the bite of anindictment-warm, touching, and bravely unsettling. KC

STOLZ, JOELLE The Shadows of Ghadames; tr. from the French by CatherineTemerson. Delacorte, 2004 [128p]Library ed. ISBN 0-385-90131-3 $17.99Trade ed. ISBN 0-385-73104-3 $15.95Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 5-7

In the Libyan city of Ghadames in the late nineteenth century, the women exist ina world of rooftops, a world where conversations, daily chores, and planning forthe future all take place several stories above street level. In this coming-of-agetale, twelve-year-old Malika, on the brink of permanent restriction to this rooftopworld, has mixed feelings about the strict gender roles enforced by local Muslimtradition. While Mahmoud, Malika's father, is away on a trade journey, Malika,her mother, and Mahmoud's second wife secretly take in an injured man,Abdelkarim, and nurse him back to health. There is little in the way of plot devel-opment; the secrecy surrounding their care ofAbdelkarim, who was in fact injuredwhile running from the town's authorities, offers some semblance of tension, butit is a thread that never comes to its full potential. A friendship between Malikaand Abdelkarim, and their mutual confusion about the role of men and women inthe present day, is similarly connoted without being developed. This remains,however, a beautifully written story about a seldom-described world, and the lyri-cal descriptions of the town and its traditions offer perspective of a culture un-known by many. The mystical world of the women, the role of the revered healerAishatou, and the secrets that are just beginning to be revealed to Malika are simi-larly beguiling if insubstantial. Young readers themselves approaching adulthoodmay appreciate this window into another girl's experience in a faraway time andplace. HM

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STROUD, JONATHAN The Golem's Eye. Miramax/Hyperion, 2004 56 2pISBN 0-7868-1860-3 $17.95 R Gr. 7-10

The sarcastic djinni Bartimaeus and his ambitious master Nathaniel (from TheAmulet ofSamarkand, BCCB 3/04), in spite of mutual vows to leave each other inpeace, are reunited "two years, eight months" later in another race to save Londonfrom the terrorist acts of political conspirators and Resistance fighters. OnlyNathaniel realizes that certain of the attacks on the city (mysterious, large-scaledestructions of valuable property) come from a source other than the grassrootsResistance, a deduction which leads him on an undercover mission to the formerlygreat magical city of Prague, which was, not coincidentally, the site of the creationof the first golem, centuries before. Mortal danger, international intrigue, andtreacherous allies keep the temperature high throughout this supersized sequel,while Bartimaeus' acid commentary and wry footnotes add pepper to the pot.Resistance fighter Kitty, introduced in the first volume and now forced into actionas a major player in the struggle for power, infuses the tale with moral complexityas she consistently chooses idealistic heroism over practical self-preservation, win-ning Bartimaeus' admiration and providing the more easily corruptible Nathanielwith both a foil and a reason to doubt the wisdom of his own choices. With a fast-paced, open-ended d6nouement assuring readers further high adventure in thenext installment, this second book of the trilogy fulfills the potential of the firstand promises a satisfying conclusion to come. A list of main characters is pro-vided. TC

THIMMESH, CATHERINE Madam President; illus. by Douglas B. Jones. Houghton,2004 80pISBN 0-618-39666-7 $17.00 R Gr. 4-8

See this month's Big Picture, p. 111, for review.

TRUEMAN, TERRY Cruise Control. HarperTempest, 2004 [16 0p]Library ed. ISBN 0-06-623961-3 $16.89Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-623960-5 $15.99Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 7-12

In Stuck in Neutral (BCCB 6/00), severely cerebral palsied Shawn gained a voicein print that his life had denied him, while his devoted but exhausted family be-lieved him to be uncomprehending as well as uncommunicating (and his fathertherefore contemplated a mercy killing); in this followup, Shawn's brother, Paul,describes his progress through senior year in a family shaped by Shawn's constantneeds. Paul actually seems to be faring quite well, with high grades and an impres-sive athletic career that will surely bring him scholarship offers for college, but he'sactually seething with easily aroused anger, especially at his writer father ("That'sthe meat and potatoes of Dad's career, being a tragic, famous retard-dad"), who'sleft his family, but also at himself for not being the brother to Shawn that he thinkshe ought to be. This isn't a sequel so much as a different story based on the samesituation; while Paul's narrative doesn't outright contradict Shawn's, its impact isits own, and it may even be more effective read independently. Trueman is hu-mane yet honest in his depiction of the price Paul's family pays ("There's no wayI'll ever believe that the problems a brother like Shawn brings to a family are 'giftsfrom God,"' says his devoted sister, rejecting a talk-show host's syrupy platitudes)

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and the protocols a family can tacitly develop ("We never talk about Shawn thisway. We never tell the truth"), as well as the misunderstandings that can result(Paul's father actually left at the request of Paul's mother). Paul's tormenting guiltat his resentment of Shawn and his Shawn-centered life is compellingly depicted,but it's also clear that Paul's actual behavior toward Shawn has been nonethelesspretty commendable (he has a touchingly brotherly habit of secretly slipping Shawnbites of junk food his mother would never provide). Many young people knowwhat it's like to feel trapped by family, and they'll empathize with Paul's dilemmawhile gaining an understanding of his-and perhaps their own-strength. DS

TURNBULL, ANN No Shame, No Fear. Candlewick, 2004 30 4 pISBN 0-7636-2505-1 $15.99 R Gr. 6-10

Will Heywood, son of a prosperous merchant, has a more serious outlook thanmost of his seventeen-year-old peers, and he privately admires the Quakers, whomhis father considers to be dangerous radicals. Meeting Susanna Thorn, who worksfor a local printer, strengthens his resolve to investigate the sect more seriously,and finally to join Susanna's group of worshippers. The two fall deeply in love,and although their Quaker friends quietly approve their proper courtship, Willhides the relationship from his family and tries to defer his father's plans to ap-prentice him to a London businessman. Parliament threatens to be an even morefearsome obstacle than Mr. Heywood, however, as the 1662 laws severely restrict-ing Quaker meetings unleash a wave of assaults, fines, and imprisonment on theircommunity. Turnbull accomplishes an all-too-rare feat in historical fiction, craft-ing an honest-to-goodness love story that resonates across nearly four centuries.The Quaker persecution that forms the backdrop for the lovers' tale unfolds with-out pedantic explanation or stuffy expository dialogue, and although Will andSusanna undergo their share of suffering at the hands of overzealous constables, itis ultimately the universal problems of youth, unemployment, and parental resis-tance that stand in the way of romance. Turnbull doesn't bring them all the wayto the altar (or, more precisely, to the meeting house), but she does leave the doorwide open for a contented future, and readers will be hard pressed to discover twomore truly likable and better matched characters, more deserving of a happy end-ing. EB

WARD, HELEN, ad. Unwitting Wisdom: An Anthology ofAesop's Fables; ad. andillus. by Helen Ward. Chronicle, 2004 6 4 pISBN 0-8118-4450-1 $18.95 R Gr. 4-7

Ward, who has adapted individual Aesop tales in picture-book form (The Hareand the Tortoise, BCCB 6/99, etc.) here offers a polished gallery of a dozen fables,all of them featuring animal protagonists. The lushly descriptive, sometimes loftylanguage brings resonance to popular tales such as those featuring the fox and thegrapes ("Sour Grapes"), the wolf in sheep's clothing ("Pot Luck"), and the mouseand the lion ("Size Isn't Everything"); wry and witty turns of phrase ("The mousein turn tried to look heroic and brave and as unlike a tasty snack as he could") liftthese above grave didacticism and add some punch for readalouds. Visually, this isa coolly elegant volume, with its snowy white pages, artistic and varied typefaces(with story titles appearing in a soft gray that's also the color of the page decora-tions), and austere line-and-watercolor art; there's an astonishingly delicate preci-sion to Ward's threadlike outlines and feathery hatching, resulting in animal figures

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who seem like reality magnified beyond the everyday. The book's sophisticationsometimes works against it, however: few young audiences will have the slightestidea what "passing the port" is in "The Trappings of Power," and some of thegraceful tale-opening spreads lose impact to the gutter. Unlike Pinkney's illus-trated version (BCCB 12/00) or Ward's own single-volume adaptations, this isn'tlikely to work as baby's first Aesop, but older kids who've been away from thefables for awhile may find this artistic and allusive presentation a lure to reexami-nation. An introductory note provides some background on Aesop and his tales.DS

WEATHERLY, LEE MissingAbby. Fickling, 2004 [208p]Library ed. ISBN 0-385-75053-6 $17.99Trade ed. ISBN 0-385-75052-8 $15.95Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 6-9

Thirteen-year-old Emma is shocked to discover that Abby, her best friend fromher old school, has been reported as missing; she's even more stunned when sherealizes that her uneasy conversation with Abby on the bus was the last sightinganybody had of the missing girl. Emma's worry over Abby sends her into wincingrecollection of the demise of their friendship, when their shared pleasure in fantasyliterature and speculation led to merciless pillorying and constant humiliation fromthe popular girls; unable to weather the abuse, Emma changed schools and remadeherself as a mainstream teen, petrified that the old social stigma would bring herworld crashing down, while Abby staunchly stuck to her Goth and role-playing-games tastes. Now Emma's trying to negotiate a prickly detente with Abby's cur-rent friends and to put together old and new knowledge of Abby to unravel themystery of her disappearance. The story trips sometimes into contrivance, espe-cially in Emma's certainty that her new friends are preparing to dump her nowthat they know her history and in the slightly Scooby-Doo-esque investigationthat discovers Abby's tragic fate (she is eventually found dead, having suffered anaccident while setting up a live-action game), but the original premise taps effec-tively into one of the great guilts of growing up: leaving other people behind.Even readers whose reasons for drifting away from old friends aren't as self-protec-tive as Emma's will recognize the attendant sorrow, discomfort, and relief, as wellas the awkwardness of later encounters with the former friend's parents or newfriends. Emma's gradual reacknowledgment of the Emma she's been fearfullysuppressing is laudable as well as credible, allowing her reintegration to serve asAbby's legacy. Readers will enjoy puzzling out the mystery, and they may takehome the quiet point that old friends are worth keeping in the face of change. DS

WELLS, ROSEMARY My Kindergarten; written and illus. by RosemaryWells. Hyperion, 2004 96pISBN 0-7868-0833-0 $16.99 R 4-6yrs

Unlike most back-to-school books that focus on overcoming first-day jitters andmaking new friends, this title takes the reader through an entire year of kindergar-ten curriculum. Wells embeds the first-person narration of one of her signaturetrapezoidal bunnies in this school tour, taking her from first-day fears throughBack to School night, multicultural winter holidays, classroom activities, troubleswith math, all the way to cleanup day and the last day of school. Along the way,Wells demonstrates co-curricular activities, such as collecting weeds and seeds,making maps for geography, and measuring everything from caterpillars to blood

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pressure that parents can do at home to extend student learning. Kid-friendlyexplanations are offered to explain some of the adult values that school introduces;for instance, in a segment on voting, Grandpa explains, "We vote ... in order totry and make more good things than bad things happen in the world." Later, Papaexplains the importance of using proper grammar by comparing a blast on a trom-bone with a song played on the same instrument. The teacher encourages learn-ing-style diversity throughout, offering alternative assignments for students whoaren't clicking with the rest of the kids. Each concept Wells introduces is demon-strated by her cheerfully chunky menagerie of woodland youngsters; she reinforcesthe new words and ideas in border illustrations and captioned inset drawings.Though she doesn't offer prescriptive advice on how to use the book, parents caneasily replicate and expand on the ideas to connect with their kindergartners' learningthroughout the year. KC

WILKINS, ROSE So Super Starry. Dial, 2004 230pISBN 0-8037-3049-7 $16.99 Ad Gr. 7-12

Octavia loathes her school, a London academy for the display if not education ofkids with rich, famous, and/or aristocratic parents, wishing instead that she couldlead a nice normal life like her down-to-earth friend Viv. When her status-madclassmate India invites Octavia to a party (in the hope of getting access to Octavia'sdirector father and the hunky superstar appearing in his current film), Octavia issurprised to find herself not only making a bit of a splash but also meeting a com-pelling young man, Alex. Although he proves to be the older brother of the loath-some India, and, even worse, Octavia's mother is thrilled at her daughter's newinvolvement with high society, Octavia begins dating Alex, enjoying his attentionsand hoping that together they can find a relationship based on something moremeaningful than a high propensity for magazine appearance. The elements here(even down to several characters' names) resemble those in O'Connell's PullingPrinces, reviewed above, so this will also draw readers looking for a window intounder-eighteen high life among the moneyed British. That audience will enjoythe loving details of high-fashion clothes and ritzy parties, but they're likely to findOctavia's relentless denunciation of the very things that appeal to them ratheroffputting; nor does the book generally seem to realize that Octavia's condemna-tions of the chic life are as facile and groundless as she considers India et al. to be(there's nothing inherently superior, after all, about casual clothing), which resultsin Octavia's being rather unsympathetically smug and self-righteous rather thanthoughtfully critical. Consequently, there's actually more effective questioning aswell as sheer fun in the O'Connell, but status-intrigued readers may well appreci-ate the chance to have one's high-status cake and reject it, too. DS

WILLNER-PARDO, GINA My Mom and Other Mysteries of the Universe. Clarion,2004 [17 6p]ISBN 0-618-43020-2 $15.00Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-6

Arlie's mom loves six-year-old Michael more than she does eleven-year-old Arlie.That's just a fact, Arlie thinks, and she tries not to resent her brother or hate hermom because of it, even as her dad and her aunt (her mom's sister, Isabelle) try toconvince Arlie that her nitpicking, strong-minded mother truly does love her. Whenher parents are hospitalized after a car crash and her mother goes into a coma onthe same day that Casey, a strange new girl with her mother's looks, personality,

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and history, appears in Arlie's class at school, Arlie is convinced that the new girl,Casey Lane, is really a manifestation of her mother, Lacey Caine. Arlie's associa-tion with Casey is just as problematic as her relationship with her mother has been,and for many of the same reasons, but it also affords Arlie the opportunity to mendthat relationship in ways that seem to carry over once Casey moves away and Arlie'smother awakens from her coma. A realistic novel that uses a potentially super-natural occurrence to catalyze a character's personal change is a hard trick to pulloff, but Willner-Pardo provides coincidences too numerous to deny and gives Arliejust enough psychic presentiments to bear out her admittedly bizarre beliefs. Thecharacters' relationships throughout are normal and authentic, built on the smallchoices and interactions of everyday, so that Arlie's credibly modest reconciliationwith her mother is equally believable as the result of a devastating accident and asthe outcome of an otherworldly encounter-both of which options are presentedto the reader, though Arlie chooses to see Casey's friendship as "an incredible gift"she "should just unwrap" instead of analyzing. Those comfortable and uncom-fortable with this open-ended resolution will enjoy the concrete details, smoothprose, and sympathetic characterization of this unusually normal paranormal mys-tery. TC

WITTLINGER, ELLEN Heart on My Sleeve. Simon, 2004 220pISBN 0-689-84997-4 $15.95 R Gr. 7-10

At the center of this ensemble drama are two high-school seniors, Julian and Chloe,who turn a lip-locking campus preview weekend into a fantasy love through thesubsequent exchange of openhearted email. As the story unfolds through emails,instant messages, and old-fashioned longhand letters, relationships are made andbroken, deepened and destroyed. Chloe, for instance, has a longtime boyfriend,Eli, but she insists to Julian (and to herself) that Eli is only a platonic friend.Julian's passion is reserved for his music; his infatuation with Chloe's voice con-vinces him that they can be a duet. Both Chloe and Julian have older sisters who,while not overly wise in the ways of love themselves, nonetheless provide the per-spective the two need when their "love" turns out to be as thin as the wires thatcarried it. The format requires some acclimatization, but once the reader has mas-tered whose font is whose, characterization and situation unfold smoothly. ToWittlinger's credit, the rather contrived setup doesn't read like a contrivance; thevoices of the teens, the twentysomethings, and the aging hipster parents all ringtrue if a bit hackneyed. Their written reactions to Chloe's sister's coming out, forinstance, are as cliched as they would be in real life, and Chloe, in typical teen-girlfashion, is constantly in danger of drowning in a sea of introspection an inch deep.However, Wittlinger uses the contemporary epistolary genre effectively to explorethe vagaries of different kinds of relationships: those online, those carried out ona day-to-day basis, and those born of short bursts of intense proximity (Chloedevelops yet another crush on a fellow camp counselor-she is so ready to move onfrom poor Eli), making this a good choice for book groups who will undoubtedlyhave experience with each of these types of relationships. KC

WONG, JANET S. Alex and the Wednesday Chess Club; illus. by StaceySchuett. McElderry, 2004 4 0pISBN 0-689-85890-6 $16.95 R* Gr. 2-4

Eight mini-chapters in ragged-right text that suggests free verse chronicle Alex's

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passage from rookie chess player at age four to seasoned tournament contestant atage nine. An early enthusiast, Alex loses all interest in the game for three years afterbeing whupped by his next-door neighbor's heartless Uncle Hooya, and he onlyreturns to play when it seems joining the chess club might be more fun than get-ting trounced in football. Then a surprise confrontation at the city tournamentwith his "next-door neighbor's Little Cousin Hooya" (accompanied by the hatedUncle Hooya) gives Alex the chance to cement his reclamation of the game. Shortlines of text and apt metaphors emphasize shifts in the action and make the storyeasy and satisfying to read alone, while Alex's unaffected internal dialogue andrefreshingly normal reaction to the perks and perils of competition chess makehim immediately likable. The dewy sheen and mottled texture of the gouache andink illustrations lend movement and continuity to the narrative, and the variedperspectives and humorous touches (such as the horrified facial expressions of chesspieces about to be taken) provide the text with vivacious embellishment. A list of"Alex's Top 10 Chess Tips" gives valuable advice to budding chess masters andcertifies Alex as an experienced player, bringing the story to a triumphant end.Checkmate! TC

WREDE, PATRICIA C. The Grand Tour, or The Purloined Coronation Regalia; byPatricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. Harcourt, 2004 4 80pISBN 0-15-204616-X $17.00 R Gr. 6-10

Wrede and Stevermer revisit the magic infested drawing rooms of Regency En-gland (Sorcery and Cecelia, BCCB 7/03) as cousins Cecy and Kate, married off-stage to their respective beaux James and Thomas from the previous novel, embarktogether on their honeymoons on the Continent. Trouble, in the guise of analabaster flask with an odd, oily residue, finds them in Paris, and the quartet arecompelled to foil a dastardly plot to crown a new emperor of all Europe, whosereign will be cut short by a megalomaniac contessa with goddess aspirations. Natu-rally, Thomas' and Cecy's wizardly prowess is called upon to save the day, andKate proves to be a surprisingly deft hand herself. The authors again have a grandold time making magic feel as comfortable and ordinary among the upper crust askid gloves and crumpets. In this tale, though, following the trail of moth-eatencoronation regalia and inscrutable rituals (oh, yes, and a couple of murders) is atleast as compelling as the arcane arts, and the lovers' adjustments to marriage onthe road will delight the romantically inclined. Wrede and Stevermer have hittheir stride, and readers will no doubt hope that Kate and Cecy's tour doesn't endhere. EB

ZALBEN, JANE BRESKIN Baby Babka, the Gorgeous Genius; illus. by VictoriaChess. Clarion, 2004 [40p]ISBN 0-618-23489-6 $15.00Reviewed from galleys R 6-9 yrs

Beryl has been eagerly anticipating the arrival of a new baby sister, whom she'salready named "Babka" after her mother's best dessert, and she's crushed when thearrival proves to be a boy, who's been named Zachary without any input fromBeryl and who, according to the jealous Beryl, is "a big, fat, dumb lump." Fivebrief chapters allow for a bit more thorough exploration than usual of this classicnew-sibling drama; Zalben takes a fresh approach in making Zachary not in factBeryl's first younger brother but no less disturbing for that, and there are appeal-

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ing touches in Beryl's relationship with Sam, the younger brother already annoy-ing Beryl. The intervention of Uncle Morty, who tells Beryl and Sam stories of hisown childhood, is handled lightly; his anecdotes are thick with character and re-peatable refrains that will make a hit whether listeners believe his message aboutsibling fondness or not. Chess, more often associated with delicious wickedness(as in Heide's Tales for the Perfect Child, BCCB 11/85), brings her figures' usualbeady-eyed intensity to this familiar domestic story; while the result robs her pink-cheeked characters of their usual enjoyable irony, the focused precision of her vi-gnettes and their humorous exaggeration makes them an appetizing balance of tartand sweet. As a chapter-by-chapter readaloud or readalone, this offers a cozy andpersonable story that will invite audiences to lessen the sting of their sibling bur-dens by spinning their own family yarns. DS

ZHANG, ANGE RedLand Yellow River: A Storyfrom the Cultural Revolution; writ-ten and illus. byAnge Zhang and with photographs. Groundwood, 2004 [56 p]ISBN 0-88899-489-3 $16.95Reviewed from galleys R* Gr. 5-8

Author Zhang had just reached his teen years in 1966, and the uniforms, armbands,rallies, and noisy camaraderie of Mao's Cultural Revolution were nothing short ofalluring. As the son of a respected writer and prominent member of the Commu-nist Party, Zhang believed he would be welcomed as a member of the Red Guard.However, as the movement began to target intellectuals, Zhang's father was sub-ject to public humiliation and the boy himself labeled "a 'black kid,' the enemy ofthe revolution." Neither discrimination nor the ransacking of the family's homedeterred him from trying to insinuate himself among the elect, and only when hesuffered a beating did he begin to reevaluate his position on the merits of therevolution. Forced relocation to a peasant farming community gave him ampletime to rethink his aspirations, and a chance encounter with a box of paints di-rected him to his chosen-and current-career as an artist. Although presented inpicture-book format, this is a sophisticated personal reflection on the CulturalRevolution, and even though the formal, clipped narration is not, in itself, particu-larly daunting, the social turmoil and profound soul-searching herein demand somematurity of its readership. Zhang's digitally produced illustrations are dramati-cally front lit, often positioning the viewer slightly below the level of the action, aprobable reflection of Zhang's work in theater design. A substantial concludingchapter, "China's Cultural Revolution," supplies the background needed to con-textualize Zhang's memoir and can even stand alone as an engrossing mini historylesson on a movement not often discussed in children's literature. EB

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PROFESSIONAL CONNECTIONS: RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS AND LIBRARIANS

BARNHOUSE, REBECCA The Middle Ages in Literature for Youth: A Guide and Re-source Book. Scarecrow Press, 2004 208p (Literature for Youth)Paper ed. ISBN 0-8108-4916-X $30.00

This fourth entry in Scarecrow's Literature for Youth Series offers an in-depthbibliography of books about the years 500-1500. There are more than 500 bookcitations, each including publication information and a brief annotation; becausemany of the titles referenced are out of print, it is probably more useful as anorganizing tool than as a guide for collection development. The division of theentries is a bit haphazard, with sections sometimes governed by geography (Conti-nental Europe, the British Isles), sometimes focusing on a particular group (theVikings), at other times centering on popular figures (Joan of Arc, Robin Hood);while books of all age ranges are considered, the definite emphasis here is on middleand high school. The book includes nonfiction and realistic fiction but doesn'textend its reach to include fantasy novels set in a context that recalls the MiddleAges. Not all titles are strongly recommended; in the instances where the authorhas reservations, they are clearly stated in the annotations and are most often dueto stereotypical representations. The latter part of the book provides professionalresources for educators, including books, articles, and ERIC documents, as well assuggested classroom activities. Although a brief chapter considers non-Westerncultures, the definite emphasis here is on Western Europe. Barnhouse, herself amedievalist and teacher, has compiled a valuable resource for any school or publiclibrary that provides materials for unit studies on the middle ages. HM

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SUBJECT AND USE INDEX

Keyed to The Bulletin's alphabetical arrangement by author, this index, whichappears in each issue, can be used in three ways. Entries in regular type refer tosubjects; entries in bold type refer to curricular or other uses; entries in ALL-CAPSrefer to genres and appeals. In the case of subject headings, the subhead "stories"refers to books for the readaloud audience; "fiction," to those books intended forindependent reading.

Abuse-fiction: ShawAccidents-fiction: NealeADVENTURE: Barry; Brennan;

Farmer; Hale; Hill; Jinks; Reeve;Stroud

Africa-fiction: StolzAfrican Americans-fiction:

O'ConnorAfrican Americans-stories:

Harrington; Stewart, S.Animals-fiction: AviAnimals-folklore: BruchacAnimals-stories: LesterANTHOLOGIES: Mercado; NoyesBabies-fiction: MacLachlan;

O'ConnorBabies-stories: ZalbenBasketball-fiction: LupicaBears-stories: Johnson, D.BEDTIME STORIES: Ashman;

Hillenbrand; IrvingBIOGRAPHIES: Brackett; Runyon;

ZhangBiology: DaviesBirds: HooseBirds-fiction: MartiniBirds-stories: HillenbrandBoarding school-fiction: O'ConnellBooks and reading-stories:

NumeroffBrothers-fiction: TruemanBrothers and sisters-fiction: PeckBullies-stories: LesterChess-fiction: WongChild care-stories: Stewart, S.China: ZhangChristmas-fiction: Snow

Christmas-stories: Hillenbrand; LeeCircuses-stories: KeretClothing-stories: HughesComputers-fiction: FredericksCrime and criminals-fiction:

BrennanCrime and criminals-stories: GeisertCurrent events: LewisDeath and dying-fiction: Friend;

LeiberDemons-fiction: StroudDisabilities: RunyonDisabilities-fiction: TruemanDisasters-fiction: HillDogs-fiction: Adler; Hill; NolanDolls: GodduEthics and values: Lewis; Myers;

Trueman; Weatherly; Wilkins;Zhang

Eating disorders-fiction: FriendEcology: Davies; HooseEmotions-stories: LesterEnvironmental studies: HooseEPISTOLARY FICTION:

WittlingerFABLES: WardFamilies-fiction: Friend; TruemanFANTASY: Barry; Brennan; Cole;

Dale; Dickinson; Farmer; Gray;Hale; Harrison; La Fevers; Leiber;Martini; Ogilvy; Reeve; Willner-Pardo; Wrede

Fathers-fiction: Kuns; Lupica;Neale; Shaw

Fathers-stories: KeretFire-fiction: Hill

NOVEMBER2004 * 157

FOLKTALES AND FAIRY TALES:Bruchac; Hughes; Kimmel;Stanley

Food and eating-stories: KimmelFoxes-stories: MyersFriends-fiction: Avi; Fredericks;

Gray; Hahn; Johnson, M.; Kuns;Sanchez; Weatherly

Future-fiction: ReeveGames-fiction: FredericksGames-stories: WongGays and lesbians-fiction: Johnson,

M.; SanchezGHOST STORIES: HahnGiants-stories: StanleyGovernment: ThimmeshGrandfathers-fiction: AdlerGrandmothers-fiction: PaulsenGrandmothers-stories: ColeGrief-fiction: Friend; KunsHanukkah-stories: KoonsHISTORICAL FICTION: Giff;

MacLachlan; Peck; Rabin; Stolz;Turnbull

History, U.S.: Sfs; ThimmeshHistory, world: Jinks; ZhangHuman rights: ZhangHUMOR: Blumenthal; Bruchac;

Gray; Keret; Koons; Nolan;Ogilvy; Paulsen; Scieszka;Shannon; Snow; Wrede

Identity-fiction: CoferIllness-fiction: HanniganImmigrants-fiction: Cofer; GiffJapan-stories: MyersJealousy-fiction: Willner-PardoJealousy-stories: ZalbenJournals-fiction: MacLachlanJOURNALS: RunyonKidnapping-fiction: Farmer; La

FeversKindergarten-stories: WellsKnights and chivalry-fiction: Gray;

Jinks; Stewart, P.Latinos-fiction: Cofer; SanchezLibraries-stories: NumeroffLiterature, children's: BarryLiterature, English: BrackettLOVE STORIES: Turnbull

Magic-fiction: Hale; Ogilvy;Stroud; Wrede

Medieval life-fiction: JinksMexico-stories: KimmelMice-stories: Irving; SpohnMischief-stories: ShannonMonsters-stories: IrvingMothers-fiction: Willner-PardoMountain climbing-fiction: NealeMuslims-fiction: Lewis; StolzMYSTERIES: Adler; Dale;

WeatherlyNight-stories: AshmanPigs-stories: GeisertPirates-fiction: Barry; LeePOETRY: ScieszkaPolitics-fiction: DickinsonPrinces-fiction: O'ConnellProphecies-fiction: La FeversReading aloud: Avi; Nolan; ScieszkaReading, beginning: BlumenthalReading, easy: Adler; Hill; La

Fevers; Nolan; Wong; ZalbenReading, reluctant: Davies;

Mercado; Nolan; Sis; Snow;Stewart, P.

Relationships-fiction: Fredericks;Johnson, M.; Wilkins; Wittlinger

RHYMING STORIES: Ashman;Stewart, S.

ROMANCE: Lee; O'Connell;Turnbull; Wittlinger; Wrede

Royalty-fiction: O'Connell; RabinSCARY STORIES: Irving; Leiber;

NoyesSchool-fiction: Hannigan; Kuns;

Mercado; O'Connell; Paulsen;Peck; Wilkins

School-stories: WellsScience-poetry: ScieszkaSCIENCE FICTION: ReeveSexuality-fiction: SanchezSHORT STORIES: Mercado;

NoyesSisters-fiction: HarrisonSisters-stories: BlumenthalSocial studies: SfsSouth, the-fiction: O'ConnorSPORTS STORIES: Lupica

158 * THE BULLETIN

States: SisStorytelling-fiction: MartiniStorytime: Bruchac; Cole; Doyle;

Hughes; Koons; Numeroff;Shannon; Spohn; Stanley

Suicide: RunyonSuperheroes-stories: LeeSUSPENSE: HahnTeachers-fiction: PeckTerrorism-fiction: LewisToys: GodduUncles-stories: ZalbenUrban life-stories: ColeViolence-fiction: TruemanVoyages and travel-fiction: Barry;

Farmer; Lee; WredeVoyages and travel-stories:

HarringtonWar-fiction: Dickinson; StroudWater-stories: DoyleWitches-fiction: Dale; HarrisonWomen's studies: Brackett; Goddu;

ThimmeshWork-fiction: GiffWork-stories: Johnson, D.Writers and writing-stories: Myers

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