Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Home , Lutin, Tony Auth

ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

PRODUCTION NOTE

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library Large-scale Digitization Project, 2007.

il~c;r~

Sof Illinois School of Library and Information Science

1A I

THE B UL LE T IN

OF THE CENTER FOR CHILDREN'S BOOKS October 2004 Vol. 58 No. 2

A LOOK INSIDE

57 THE BIG PICTURE So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld 58 NEW BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE Reviewed titles include: 67 * Bucking the Sarge by Christopher Paul Curtis 68 * BarfburgerBaby, I Was Here First by Paula Danziger; illus. by G. Brian Karas 76 * The Cats in KrasinskiSquare by Karen Hesse; illus. by Wendy Watson 83 * Margaux with an X by Ron Koertge 86 * Gifts by Ursula Le Guin 105 PROFESSIONAL CONNECTIONS 106 SUBJECT AND USE INDEX 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 or format 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 the special few who will read it.

The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (ISSN 0008-9036) is published monthly except August 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 of Illinois Press, 1325 S. Oak, Champaign, IL 61820-6903.

REVIEWING STAFF Deborah Stevenson, Editor (DS) Betsy Hearne, Consulting Editor and Faculty Liaison Elizabeth Bush, Reviewer (EB) Timnah Card, Reviewer (TC) Karen Coats, Reviewer (KC) Janice M. Del Negro, Reviewer (MD) Krista Hutley, Reviewer (KH) Hope Morrison, Reviewer (HM)

Reviewers' initials are appended to reviews.

OFFICE STAFF Molly Dolan Krista Hutley Hope Morrison

SUBSCRIPTION RATES 1 year, institutions, $75.00; multiple institutional subscriptions, $70 for the first and $50 for each additional; individuals, $50.00; students, $15.00. In countries other than the United States, add $7.00 per subscription for postage. Japanese subscription agent: Kinokuniya Company Ltd. Single copy rate: $7.50. Volumes available in microfilm from ProQuest, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Complete volumes available in microfiche from Johnson Associates, P.O. Box 1017, Greenwich, CT 06830. Subscription checks should be made payable to the University of Illinois Press. All notices of change of address should provide both the old and new address. Postmaster: Send address changes to The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, University of Illinois Press, 1325 S. Oak, Champaign, IL 61820-6903. All inquiries about subscriptions and advertising should go to University of Illinois Press, 1325 S. Oak, Champaign, IL 61820-6903, 217-333-0950; toll free 866-244-0626. Review copies and all correspondence about reviews should be sent to Deborah Stevenson, The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, 501 E. Daniel St., Champaign, IL 61820-6601. Email: [email protected]; phone: 217-244-0324. Visit our homepage at http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/puboff/bccb

Periodicals postage paid at Champaign, Illinois © 2004 by The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois Drawings by Debra Bolgla. This publication is printed on acid-free paper. Cover illustration by Lauren Monchik and John Son from So Yesterday ©2004. Used by permission of Razorbill/Penguin Young Readers Group. OCTOBER 2004 * 57

THE BIG PICTURE

So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld

The gleaming, nocturnal urban world of our cover is the milieu of the aptly named Hunter, who is a teen cool spotter, a consultant paid to advise companies-including one well-known sneaker company with a world-famous "swoosh" logo- on the trendiness of ads and products while always looking for new and exciting directions ("We have to observe carefully and push and prompt you in ways you don't notice. . . . It's not like you can just start making your own decisions, after all"). After he meets up with Jen, a disturbingly original thinker, the two find themselves drawn into a mystery when Mandy, the consultant who's Hunter's contact with the shoe company, goes missing, leaving behind only a pile of the most beautiful, most seductively cool sneakers ever manufactured-which are sporting a challenging anti-logo, the swoosh with a red circle and slash. As Hunter and Jen search for the apparently abducted Mandy, they uncover further signs of a brilliant and disruptive plot to infiltrate the glitzy world of cutting-edge marketing and undermine it with guerrilla action, satire, and parody, to "disrupt the sacred bond between brand and buyer." The tale is lively and quick paced, but it's secondary to the social commentary; Westerfeld tackles the merchantry of cool like no other YA author (except perhaps M. T. Anderson in Feed, BCCB 11/02, and Anderson's is, at least nominally, a futuristic vision), offering a witty and provocative investigation of the surrealistic world of marketing and status. There's food for thought aplenty in Hunter's crisp assessment of the various roles in the trend-marketing pyramid: Hunter is a Trendsetter, while Jen is that dangerous thing, an Innovator; there are also Early Adopters, Consumers, and Laggards ("They bravely tuck in their Kiss T-shirts and soldier on"). His tortuous analysis of the possibilities of the situation ("Or maybe," he says about the irresistible shoes, "these are supposed to look like bootlegs when they're not. And after these get too popular, which they will, the client will absorb the backlash and become cool again. Maybe they're ironic bootlegs") is absurd yet completely justified, a mad inspiration that may well become real life in our time. The book further teases its audience by salting the narration with commercial references but deliberately circumlocuting their instantly identi- fiable brand names, referring to the shoe manufacturer throughout as "the client" (and, therefore, to the subversive bootleggers-shoeleggers?-as the "anti-client"); there's also an array of sharply drawn characters plugged into cool from various directions-or hoping to be. What's particularly interesting is the book's shimmering ambiguity: there's cynicism aplenty here, which will appeal to quite a few readers, but there's also an understanding of the sheer glamour of marketing and the exhilaration of 58 * THE BULLETIN trendspotting. Jen the free spirit is as obsessed with the anti-client's sneakers as any mall rat is with the right brand name (she digs frantically through the ashes of the sneakers' funeral pyre, "looking for lost cool, the hardest thing to find"). The revolt is coolness itself, even surer than most revolutions to spawn eager confor- mity with its principles, more obliged than any to keep ahead of those who em- brace it. Alert readers will also enjoy turning the implied questions on the text itself (is, for instance, the notion of cool as contrived as the notion of marketing it?), and there's plenty of diversion and provocation even at the manifest level, making this an alluring offering for both pursuers and scorners of cool. (Imprint information appears on p. 103.) Deborah Stevenson, Editor

NEW BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE

AHLBERG, ALLAN The Improbable Cat; illus. by Peter Bailey. Delacorte, 2004 110p ISBN 0-385-73186-8 $9.95 R Gr. 5-7 It all starts out harmlessly enough: an adorable stray kitten limps into the life of David Burrell's cheerful, messy family, and the soft-hearted Burrells not only adopt the little gray cat but become completely besotted with it. David is allergic to cats in general and deeply suspicious of this one in particular, since it's growing at an unnatural rate and becoming an obsession with his parents and his little sister; upon his return from a week's camping, he discovers his family in complete thrall to the unrecognizably mutated creature, and he realizes that he (with the help of his friend George) is his family's only hope for release. The book's brevity and small trim size (as well as Ahlberg's history of easygoing titles such as The Woman who Won Things, BCCB 6/02) may suggest a pettable middle-grades read, but this is in fact a dark and intense novella with some genuine menace and rough edges in language and implications. Ahlberg cunningly keeps the threatening feline an amorphous figure, making it all the spookier, and his deft hand at friendly domes- ticity allows for sharp contrast between David's normal boy, best friend, and dog world and the eerie transformation of his family. The ending doesn't quite live up to the suspense of the buildup (the preternatural puss gets turned into roadkill by a passing truck), but the remaining unanswered questions are more enjoyably dis- comfiting than annoying. Bailey's compact line drawings echo the comfortably quotidian tone of David's narration while emphasizing the increasing gloom of the Burrell house with dense hatching and crosshatching, and they'll make this even more attractive to readers looking for something creepy yet compact. DS OCTOBER 2004 * 59

AHLBERG, ALLAN The Little Cat Baby; illus. by Fritz Wegner. Dial, 2004 [32p] ISBN 0-8037-3012-8 $10.99 Reviewed from galleys R 4-7 yrs When a dapper Edwardian couple decides they want a baby, they head to Nurse Doodle's Baby Shop, "which was how it was done in those days." They find quite a selection but settle on a cat baby, who proves precocious and loving. She has a few mild adventures in her life with her new parents, including getting lost and found, and winning second prize in a baby show and first in a cat show, but this is the quieter side of Ahlberg; with no mad chase scenes or cunning capers, the humor is subtle and warm-hearted. Wegner's black-and-white illustrations with their spiderweb delicacy shore up the comedy with Edwardian absurdities: a diminu- tive dog in overalls burying his bone with a shovel, a tree with knothole eyes and a long branchy nose, men in miner's hats with flashlights playing tennis in the dark because that "was how it was done in those... nights." The small format, richly detailed illustrations, and playful text have a fine whimsicality that invites a cuddle- up session of enjoying Ahlberg's and Wegner's deliciously slant view of the world. KC

ANDERSEN, HANS CHRISTIAN ForSure! For Sure!; tr. by Mus White; illus. by Stefan Czernecki. August House, 2004 [32p] ISBN 0-87483-742-1 $16.95 Reviewed from galleys Ad 4-6 yrs Streamlined illustrations in a vivid palette, a new English translation, and an infor- mal font dress up Andersen's fable of a hen whose thoughtless comment instigates a storm of gossip and a "factual" story in the newspaper. Bold, deep primary and secondary colors and inset vignettes create visual interest, while the panel layouts- bracketing the text with illustrations, trailing the text across the page, changing font size for emphasis-play with the text as an obvious and yet invisible part of the listener's experience. The large font size and consequently packed paragraphs may be misleadingly daunting, since they suggest a narrative too lengthy for the pictures, but in reality the page-by-page verbiage is reasonable. The extended introduction of characters and plot (which takes four separate full-page, text-heavy layouts) is, however, a significant obstacle to listener enjoyment, though there's plenty of action once the story gets moving. Readers with a flair for the dramatic will be able to use the vibrant illustrations as a framework for an oral retelling, at first loosely basing it on the translated tale, and using more and more of White's words as the tale progresses. TC

BARTEK, MARY Funerals &Fly Fishing. Holt, 2004 148p ISBN 0-8050-7409-0 $16.95 R Gr. 5-7 When Brad's mom sends him off to visit her heretofore estranged father at his home/funeral parlor in Pennsylvania, Brad expects the worst: mean old man, creepy house, tiny town. At least he'll be far from the hecklers who convert his last name (Stanislawski) into an insult (Stan-is-lousy) at every opportunity. Little does he know that his grandfather will turn out to be a soft-spoken fly fisherman, a connoisseur of local Polish cuisine, and an all-around decent fella who can give Brad the backup he needs to stand up for himself against bullies of various kinds. Brad's characterization as a precociously mature preteen remains consistent as he provides an understated and accessible account of his own emotional growth and 60 * THE BULLETIN that of his grandfather and mother as they reestablish family ties. Though the plot is predictable, Brad's sympathetic voice and the involving action draw the reader in; while emotional growth is the theme, the narrative emphasizes Brad's concrete experiences with his grandfather rather than Brad's internal dialogue about those experiences, thus deftly avoiding an overload of sentimentality. Readers who prefer their fiction without added syrup will find this a satisfyingly savory read. TC

BEARD, DARLEEN BAILEY Operation Clean Sweep. Farrar, 2004 15 1p ISBN 0-374-38034-1 $16.00 R Gr. 4-6 The women of Oregon attained the right to vote in 1912, eight years prior to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. In the small town of Umatilla, the women took their political role a step further, and in 1916, a woman was elected mayor ... over the incumbent, who happened to be her husband. Beard bases her fictional tale on these factual events, telling the story from the point of view of Cornelius ("Corn"), the twelve-year old son of the political rivals. The story opens a week before Election Day, when Corn accidentally overhears his mother and her sister suffragists plotting to sweep the election, and he is torn between telling his father and keeping his mother's secret. While the election is the main event, the homey detailing of Corn's family and of the town fills out the characters and context, and Corn's narration, full of "dandy" and "gee willikers," is extremely good- natured. His own exploration of how he feels about women in public office ("If you have a vision for the future, why don't you just let the men handle it?" he queries his mother) punctuates the tale, making this a useful story for reflecting on contemporary gender issues in American politics, and his candor in evaluating each of his parents as potential mayor shows a developing integrity indicative of his character. The tone of the story suffers a bit for its sense of being ahead of its time, however, and the subplot of an area pickpocket who hits Umarilla at the Election Day parade (and is, of course, caught by Corn and his buddy Otis) is slightly incongruous. Still, this is an entertaining and thoughtful examination of the personal side of politics. An author's note detailing the historical basis for the tale is included. HM

BERNIER-GRAND, CARMEN T. Cesar: iSf, Se Puede! Yes, We Can!; illus. by David Diaz. Cavendish, 2004 [4 8 p] ISBN 0-7614-5172-2 $16.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-7 A sequence of free-verse poems surveys the life and the work of Mexican-American activist Cesar Chivez. The poems, one to two pages in length, offer a wealth of detail about Chavez's day-to-day existence, emphasizing his feelings, disappoint- ments, dreams, and viewpoint even more than the specific achievements of his life. This doesn't have the resonance of Nelson's biographical poetic sequence in Carver (BCCB 9/01): while the line and verse-paragraph breaks do emphasize the specific images carried within each phrase, the poems themselves read with the rhythm and style of straightforward paragraphs conveniently broken up. The real power of the text lies in the accessible way it presents information about the life of this influen- tial figure, who is too often treated in stodgy, hard-to-swallow prose. Stencil-like illustrations of iconic, richly colored figures surrounded by glowing auras enhance the adulatory ambience of the enterprise, but the radiant images help lift the social commentary above the preachy. Source notes, a glossary, a brief biography, a OCTOBER 2004 * 61 detailed chronology, an extensive bibliography with Internet sources, and a page of quotes from Chavez give a solidly factual foundation to the material. TC

BOWEN, ANNE When You Visit Grandma & Grandpa; illus. by Tomek Bogacki. Carolrhoda, 2004 32p Library ed. ISBN 1-57505-610-0 $15.95 R 3-6 yrs An older sister offers her new baby brother tutelage in the important matter of visits to Grandma and Grandpa, explaining the rituals of the trip ("When you visit Grandma and Grandpa, you ask, 'Are we there yet?' 'Are we there yet?' 'Are we there yet?' two times, five times, a HUNDRED times, until Mama says, 'Enough!"') as well as the delights of the visit itself ("When you get to Grandma and Grandpa's you will have the best time ever!"). The season-connected structure (the child describes the visits' delectations season by season) fills out the narrative and provides it with pleasing shape, while the specific details will obligingly evoke audience recognition of the familiar details and contemplation of their grandparents' own individual charms. Bogacki's soft, smudgy paints effectively convey the dreamy limbo that is a long car trip as well as the world of wonders contained by every grandparents' residence; several scenes float across each spread in cozily contigu- ous, biomorphically shaped views that, like memories themselves, loosely connect rather than seamlessly progressing. This gentle and inviting title will be welcomed by grandparents as well as grandchildren, and for some families it may become as key an aspect of the travel-to-grandparents ritual as the events it describes. DS

BROWN, DON Odd Boy Out: Young Albert Einstein; written and illus. by Don Brown. Houghton, 2004 32p ISBN 0-618-49298-4 $16.00 R 5-8 yrs It matters not a whit if young listeners have ever heard of the twentieth century's renowned genius. They will probably feel they've already met this eccentric little guy somewhere-the introverted kid with the bad temper, the one who'd rather unknot a puzzle than kick a soccer ball, the student who pulls decent grades but drives teachers loony with his halting responses. Brown is again at his best as he zeroes in on those telling traits that trim a larger-than-life figure down to size: Albert whacks his little sister in the head with a hoe, he is disturbed by the sight of soldiers on parade, he suffers from homesickness when separated from his family, and he can't get into college on his first try. As scratchy line-and-watercolor scenes tail the melancholy loner amid mundane social settings in which he keeps furtively to himself, the text plumbs the boy's thoughts that go unsuspected by those around him: "What would it be like to ride a light beam? he wonders"; "Albert's ideas make a picture of space and time and energy and matter that no one has ever seen before." As Einstein the father absentmindedly pushes his child's baby carriage along a Zurich street, the scene segues into a fantasy spread in which the pair are surrounded by galaxies, atoms, equations, and a clock whose numerals are warped by ... by what? Brown doesn't demand the audience comprehend the science: "For scientists, Albert's discoveries mean the photoelectric effect, theories of rela- tivity, and E=mc&. For the rest of us, his ideas mean automatic door openers, television, space travel, and atomic energy." An endnote offers more information on Einstein's Nobel Prize and on his arm's-length relationship to the atomic bomb. Hmmm-maybe that withdrawn little kid who doesn't concentrate during storytime is really a genius in the making. EB 62 * THE BULLETIN

BRUCHAC, JOSEPH The DarkPond; illus. by Sally Wern Comport. HarperCollins, 2004 14 2p Library ed. ISBN 0-06-052997-0 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-052995-4 $15.99 Ad Gr. 6-9 Armin Katchatorian, known as Armi, is a lonely teenager with a mixed heritage- Shawnee and Armenian-that strongly influences his view of the world. His parents, high-powered attorneys working for Native American and other displaced peoples' rights, spend little time with him and send him off to a boarding school in the Adirondacks. Despite his self-imposed isolation there, Armi makes a true friend, the generous and comic Devo. Devo is one of the reasons that Armi keeps it to himself when he feels the pull of the supernatural evil that resides in the dark pond in the woods nearby the school. Research of local Abenaki legend leads Armi to believe that the pond is inhabited by some legendary water monster, a belief rein- forced by Mitch Sabattis, the great-great-grandson of a famous Abenaki guide, who has come to destroy the monster in the pond. Bruchac uses supernatural legend to good effect, infusing the atmosphere around the school with an almost palpable sense of doom. Armi's deadly fascination with the monster in the pond will equally fascinate readers, who will easily see why he persists even as they recognize the inherent danger. The pace of the narrative sputters, however, in fits and starts punctuated by intrusive explanations ofArmi's interior life that would be far more effective if shown through action or dialogue. Characterizations are more convenient than developed; while Armi's ability to talk to animals explains his sensitivity to the lure of the pond monster, Sabattis' having the same ability because he is also of Native American heritage is a stretch. Still, Bruchac knows where this story is going, and muddy though the path may be, the adrenaline- inducing climax is worth the wait. JMD

BUCHANAN, JANE Goodbye, Charley. Farrar, 2004 165p ISBN 0-374-35020-5 $16.00 R Gr. 4-6 In the summer of 1943, Celie's dad brings home Charley, a rhesus monkey. No one in their tiny town has ever had a monkey for a pet, but twelve-year-old Celie needs something to hold on to-especially now, when the war has begun to take local boys and men, who return home only when they're damaged or dead. Partial deafness has kept her father home, but her older brother, Ben, plans to join up next year when he turns eighteen. When her mother signs on to work in the factory, filling in for the men gone to fight, Celie needs Charley more than ever. Her mom, on the other hand, thinks Joey Bentley is a better companion for Celie- a gentle, well-read boy, thirteen-year-old Joey is staying with his grandmother while his dad fights in the South Pacific and his mom goes to school to be a me- chanic. Though initially opposed to friendship with a boy who doesn't know how to climb a tree, Celie grows to like Joey and even depend on him for help with the increasingly aggressive Charley. Wartime slogans and billboards-"Hitler smiles when you waste miles"; "Every time you decide NOT to buy something, you help win the war"-combined with the regular air-raid drills and rationing (and the death of Joey's father in battle) help convey the period realities that underpin the fears Celie has for herself and her family, fears that cause her to cling to Charley. The societal push for personal sacrifice for the greater good makes poignant Celie's final decision to give Charley to the local zoo, where he can receive better care than she can provide. Humorous episodes provided by the monkey's antics and Celie's OCTOBER 2004 * 63 sledgehammer-like personality balance the dark themes of wartime danger and sacrifice, and the combination of animal story and historical novel broadens the potential readership, making this book a good choice for middle-schoolers approaching historical fiction for the first time. TC

CARRYL, CHARLES EDWARD The Camel's Lament; illus. by Charles Santore. Random House, 2004 32p Library ed. ISBN 0-375-91426-9 $18.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-375-81426-4 $16.95 R 4-8 yrs While an obscure turn-of-the-century poem exulting the enormous flexibility of the camel doesn't exactly scream out as a storytime delight, Santore's grand compositions carry the lilting verse to entirely new levels in this illustrated adaptation. The poem's rhythmic and closely patterned end and internal rhyme follows a com- parative format, where certain animal species are identified by their particular habits and tendencies in contrast to the camel who will eat anything/sleep anywhere/ carry anyone, etc. Santore's luminous paintings are richly composed, invoking both tremendous detail and a fair dose of humor. The featured species range from the domestic to the barnyard to the swamp variety, and the composition of each context remains consistently remarkable, with carefully detailed and textured creatures looking out from the clean layout of each spread. The poor underrated camel, with its crooked smile and droopy eyes, is certain to win the affection and respect of browsing and storytime audiences. HM

CECIL, RANDY One Dark and Dreadful Night: A Wayward Orphans Production; written and illus. by Randy Cecil. Holt, 2004 32p ISBN 0-8050-6779-5 $16.95 R 6 -8 yrs The Snidely Whiplash-like character Maestro Von Haughty attempts to narrate the theatrical presentation of several darkly interpreted traditional folktales, only to be foiled by a cast and crew that demands fairy princesses, kittens, and happy endings. Productions of "A Wolf in the Woods of Woe" ("Little Red Riding Hood"), "The Beans of Doom" ("Jack and the Beanstalk"), and "Lost in Foggy Forest" ("Hansel and Gretel") are each disrupted by the confounding approach of a cast member, and every story ends with an imaginative flourish unintended by the producer. The action takes place on the stage of the Wayward Orphans The- atre, with the maestro narrating for the troupe, although the cast has a lot to say about the maestro's production ("I think somebody has gone a little overboard with the briars and brambles"). Cecil (illustrator of Lowell's Little Red Cowboy Hat, BCCB 6/97) provides a text that will work effectively as a theatrical readaloud, and his cast asides are pretty funny. The mono-textured surfaces give the production the flattened look of toy theater, while the palette has enough contrast to make the images pop. Listeners with a dramatic turn of mind (or classes with a habit of twisting the traditional) will enjoy this subversively sunny take on somber stories. JMD

CHENG, ANDREA Honeysuckle House. Front Street, 2004 136 p ISBN 1-886910-99-5 $16.95 R Gr. 4-7 Sarah is devastated by the sudden departure of her best friend, Victoria, from the house next door, and initially she's in no mood to consider friendship with Tina, a new student in Sarah's fourth grade. Tina, a new immigrant from China, isn't 64 * THE BULLETIN sure about Sarah either, since Sarah's Chinese features seem initially to promise closeness and familiarity, but several-generations-Americanized Sarah rebuffs Tina. Their shared longing for absent friends eventually brings them together, however, and as Tina helps Sarah search for the lost Victoria, the girls begin to develop a companionship of their own. The text is quietly eloquent in its restrained expres- sion, and Cheng conveys a considerable amount of nuance through her characters' apparently straightforward observations. Though Tina's story of adaptation is the stronger plotline, the alternation between Sarah's and Tina's point of view effectively transforms this into a book about survival of loss and change rather than one that focuses specifically on immigration, and the gentle exploration of Sarah's initial resentment of Tina will also offer readers food for thought. This will satisfy readers not quite ready for An Na's immigrant drama A Step from Heaven (BCCB 7/01), or those simply looking for a different take on the old story of new friendship. DS

CLARK, CATHERINE TheAlison Rules. HarperTempest, 2004 26 4 p Library ed. ISBN 0-06-055981-0 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-055980-2 $15.99 R Gr. 6-9 Alison is having what looks like a fairly conventional sophomore year in her small town; she's hanging out with her best friend, Laurie, avoiding her annoying ex- boyfriend, and enjoying the platonic friendship of Patrick, a funny new boy whom Laurie likes. It gradually becomes clear that Alison's apparent normality is actually a state of frozen grief as she protects herself from the pain of her mother's recent death by avoiding the subject-and all emotional involvement. Clark manages to add touches of humor to Alison's narration while leaking hints of her fragility, so the everyday-life story is credible in its own right, but there's subtle patterning in her anger at her family and resistance to commitments that underscores the direction of the narrative. Characters, especially loyal, daring Laurie and heedless, likable Patrick, are vividly drawn; there's therefore considerable emotional impact in the startling climax-Laurie's accidental drowning-which gives this story a resonance beyond more predictable treatments of adjustment to loss. Between the genuinely sensitive examination of loss and the four-hankie plot turns, this is sure to move readers even if their experience of tragedy is limited to the literary. DS

COLLIER, JAMES LINCOLN The Empty Mirror. Bloomsbury, 2004 [192p] ISBN 1-58234-949-5 $16.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-8 Nick enjoys a bit of skylarking with his friends, but basically he's a good kid, living quietly with his uncle Jack, who raised him from a baby after his parents died in the influenza epidemic of 1918. That skylarking comes back to haunt Nick- literally-when reports begin to circulate of his various misdeeds, misdeeds that Nick knows he didn't do; Nick's certain that these events are connected to the disappearance of his reflection, and he begins to explore the town's history to find out whose spirit has taken over his image. Collier imbues his ghost story with measured, effective touches of period and small-town atmosphere, from the village's uneasiness at any discussion of the past epidemic to the suspicion of the ne'er-do- well family whose daughter is Nick's only confidante, and Nick's narration is rough- hewn and easygoing ("There's always somebody around who knows what you should be grateful for," he observes wryly). His dilemma is carefully crafted, with OCTOBER 2004 * 65 trust, an issue of concern to many readers, the key element, so there's as much suspense about who will believe Nick as there is about what his doppelganger will do. Readers drawn more to solid storytelling than to special effects will appreciate Collier's seemingly paradoxical achievement-a down-to-earth ghost story. DS

COLLINS, SUZANNE Gregor and the Prophecy ofBane. Scholastic, 2004 [320p] ISBN 0-439-65075-5 $16.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-7 Gregor and Boots (from Gregorthe Overlander, BCCB 1/04) again descend below the streets of New York to answer the call of a prophecy, this time crossing the Waterway to track down a mysterious white rat known as the Bane, around which the formerly vanquished rat forces are beginning to rally. Peace-loving Gregor, who is disturbed to discover his unsuspected capacities as a warrior, sets out with Boots and other questers, battling giant squid and flesh-stripping gnats before the party is split during an attack by vicious rats and carnivorous plesiosaurs. Con- vinced that Boots, Underland princess Luxa, and Luxa's bat Aurora have been drowned and/or eaten, the grief-maddened Gregor and his bat Ares continue the search for the Bane alone, determined to fulfill the prophecy by killing the cursed animal on sight. What they find, however, calls their interpretation of the prophecy into question, and their decision regarding the fate of the Bane changes the balance of power for all the nations of the Underland. Gregor's parents' inability to care for their children after the return of his father in the first book sets the stage for this second journey, in which the counsel of adults is well meant but morally ambiguous and Gregor's own wisdom must carry the day. That continuing realism wraps the mile-a-minute adventure in a satisfyingly complex political and social network and provides the whole with a compelling emotional foundation. Throughout, the motivations and growth of individual characters drive the action-Gregor's unearthing of his warrior tendencies is an unexpected innovation, but his discovery is described in sufficient detail to be acceptable to returning fans-and the reappearance (and disappearance) of old friends, with some plot ends deliberately left loose, will pull readers right through to the end and set them clamoring for the third installment in the series. TC

COMAN, CAROLYN The Big House; illus. by Rob Shepperson. Front Street, 2004 [224p] ISBN 1-932425-09-8 $16.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 3-6 Ivy and Ray don't quite understand the judicial system, but they know that their parents have been sent to the "big house" for twenty-five years for embezzling from charity. They know that they've been sent to a "big house" too, though in their case it's La Grande Maison, home to elderly Marietta and Lionel (who own the charity from which the sibs' parents stole). Ivy and Ray decide that justice has not been served, and they concoct a plan to free their parents by finding evidence to put Marietta on trial-though for what, they don't know. In their search, they discover an ominously covered portrait, an eerily preserved wedding cake, a perpetually weeping maid, and a missing (and, as it turns out, crucial) will. Readers will perceive more than they see through Ivy's limited viewpoint: they will get that the parents are crooks (the unrepentant, joyful kind), that Ivy also exhibits some shifty tendencies, and that only one piece of Ivy's "evidence" has real value. Read- 66 * THE BULLETIN ers will also smirk knowingly at her humorous misunderstandings of formal speech and words of wisdom. Though the resolution is too perfect and the mystery is disappointing because it cannot be solved by readers without information with- held until the very end, Coman's combination of one part comedy to three parts puzzle works well, and the slightly disheveled, wavy lines of the illustrations complement the enthusiasm and energy of the child protagonists. Ivy and Ray are an appealing duo that will bring out the evidence-collector in many middle-grades children and reluctant readers. KH

CORDER, ZIZOU Lionboy: The Chase. Dial, 2004 [27 2 p] ISBN 0-8037-2984-7 $15.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-7 When we last saw Cat-speaking Charlie in Lionboy (BCCB 4/04), he and his lions were safe and sound on a snowed-in train, impromptu guests of Boris, King of Bulgaria. However, once they arrive in Venice, where Charlie believes his parents are imprisoned, Boris leaves on business, taking "safe and sound" along. In Boris' absence, security chief Edward becomes more jailer than friend, and though he claims to be protecting Charlie, he has another motive as well, one that has to do with the "miraculous return" of the winged Lion of St. Mark, Venice's symbolic savior. Though Charlie knows he and the lions must escape, Edward is right- they aren't safe outside, either. News of their flight from the circus has reached all the wrong ears, and ringmaster Major Tib, lion-tamer Maccomo, villainous Rafi, and the police are all on their tail. Meanwhile, Sergei the cat discovers that he sent Charlie to the wrong place-Charlie's parents are in Vence, France, trapped in a Gated Village Community, where endless corporate brainwashing and drug-laced air have rendered them dimwitted. Second in a trilogy, this book continues with the lion's share of the action; the chapters roam between characters, so readers are never left wondering what anybody is doing, a technique that not only helps create suspense, but also keeps the numerous plot threads from feeling cluttered and disorganized. Though told in a conversational, easygoing manner, the story delves deeper into the dark side of human nature as the connections among the various sharply realized plot elements become clear. Secondary stories that give more in- sight into this future world further reinforce Charlie's painful realization that com- passion and generosity are often lacking in the world he thought he knew; this adds a subtle pathos to his growing up without undercutting his enthusiasm or decency. Corder's second book upholds the strong pace, plotting, atmosphere, and characterization of the first, promising a roaring conclusion in the upcoming finale. KH

CUMMINGS, PRISCILLA RedKayak. Dutton, 2004 [22 4 p] ISBN 0-525-47317-3 $15.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-8 When Brady and his friends see the DiAngelos' red kayak heading down the creek toward the river on a bad day for boating, they think about yelling a warning but decide to keep their reservations to themselves. When the kayak later founders in the cold river, it turns out it was carrying not the athletic Mr. DiAngelo but Mrs. DiAngelo, who turns up shaken but unharmed, and her three-year-old son, Ben, who has been Brady's babysitting charge. Though Brady manages to pull Ben from the waters alive, to much heroic acclaim, the little boy soon succumbs to OCTOBER 2004 * 67 hypothermia and pneumonia, leaving Brady racked with guilt and grief. Though this initially looks to be a rather mild moral dilemma (Brady regrets not having shouted a warning), Cummings suddenly raises the stakes considerably when Brady realizes the kayak's sinking was the direct result of the angry sabotage of his two best friends and that he must decide either to keep his knowledge secret or to report his lifelong friends for certain and serious prosecution. The book adds some subtle layers to the central issue: there's a constant undertone of local uneasiness about moneyed new people, such as the DiAngelos, ousting straitened local families from their land; there are considerable additional strains on Brady's friends' families (Digger's father is abusive, J.T.'s father awaits a kidney transplant); Brady's family also lost a child years ago. The book credibly creates Brady's ambivalence about two kids who've been good and loyal friends but who, in a moment of anger, did a destructive deed with terrible consequences, and it also believably sets up Digger's and J.T.'s own variety of responses-from defensiveness to avoidance to unbearable guilt-about the results. The ethical quandary here is bitterer than that in Bauer's classic On My Honor (BCCB 10/86), so this would make a particularly effective discussion starter as well as a compelling readaloud or private read. DS

CURLEE, LYNN Parthenon; written and illus. by Lynn Curlee. Atheneum, 2004 36 p ISBN 0-689-84490-5 $17.95 R Gr. 5-8 Curlee, who has led middle-schoolers on a host of architectural and engineering explorations, turns his eye to Pericles' Greece and the massive building project atop the Acropolis, with particular attention to the famed temple to Athena. Al- though Curlee's signature monumental paintings in icy violets and blues and clean, succinct diagrams invite browsing, this is a text-intensive affair that opens with a considerable amount of historical background before alighting on the building techniques that the author's followers have come to expect. Readers will learn not only about the temple itself, but about the development of Greek Doric and Ionic architectural orders and how the temple designers worked within and outside the rigid system, creatively breaking rules with dual styles in one edifice and brilliantly introducing "refinements," or curvature in the seemingly straight lines. The evo- lution of the building's use and its various phases of deterioration and destruction are discussed, as is controversy over Lord Elgin's problematic usurpation of its statuary and reliefs. Text is a bit more ponderous than in some of Curlee's recent outings (e.g. Brooklyn Bridge, BCCB 6/01), but readers interested in ancient civi- lizations, as well as architecture, should be pleased with the detailed, balanced account. EB

CURTIS, CHRISTOPHER PAUL Bucking the Sarge. Lamb, 2004 2 59p Library ed. ISBN 0-385-90159-3 $17.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-385-32307-7 $15.95 R Gr. 6-9 Luther T. Farrell may be living in the downtrodden town of Flint, Michigan and spending his days caretaking for elderly inhabitants of his mother's nursing home, but he's nonetheless upbeat: he's got a taste for philosophy, a loyal longtime friend, and a burgeoning college fund from his mother's payments for his labors. He's also hoping to win a gold medal at the science fair for the third year in a row, despite the fact that this means beating out Shayla, the girl he secretly loves. Gradu- 68 * THE BULLETIN ally, however, Luther's self-protectively balanced view of the world-and especially of his demanding, ambitious mother, whom he's nicknamed "the Sarge"- gives way to a deeper understanding of his life and family: he realizes that not only has his mother made her entrepreneurial way in the world through masterful fraud and shady practice but also that Luther's own achievements have been engineered, and his college fund never realized but only invented in order to ensure his compliance and labor. Luther's amiable, offhand narration is disarming, giving an essen- tially dark story the tone of a domestic comedy as he struggles to meet the Sarge's demands and to help his friend Sparky in his various plots to get ahead in a town where everybody's behind ("Holding your blindfolded best friend's hand in a cage so he can get bit by a diseased rat isn't as easy to do as it sounds"). Some readers will doubtless realize before Luther does that his mother's relentlessness makes the promised college account just too good to be true, but the Sarge, with her blend of rationalization, brisk pragmatism, and naked self-interest, remains a compelling and original character, a villain seductive in her sheer power-mongering even as she ensnares her own son in her self-centered schemes. Without being superficial or condescending, this manages to be a funny and accessible story about young people making the best that they can of the limited opportunities their lives are offering. DS

DANZIGER, PAULA Barfburger Baby, I Was Here First; illus. by G. Brian Karas. Putnam, 2004 32p ISBN 0-399-23204-4 $16.99 R 4-7 yrs Jonathon is palpably unenthusiastic about his new baby brother, referring to the interloper as "Barfburger Baby," "Gasburger Baby," and other not-so-affectionate epithets. He's further irritated by the arrival of other relatives, especially his ob- streperous cousins, who run riot through his household and taunt him with his family nickname of "Jonathon Pookie Bear." Jonathon's older cousin, Charlie, reshapes Jonathon's viewpoint a bit by inducting him into the "Big Brother Club" and by providing him with a clear ally, and Jonathon makes his own stand by transferring his beloved Pookie Bear-and his hated sobriquet-to young Daniel. While Jonathon's transition is a bit convenient, it's not overly sweet (even at the end, he cheerfully runs a truck over Charlie's foot), and his baby-resentment is one of the most entertainingly phrased in literature for young people-kids will find his continued excoriations irresistible and will undoubtedly export them for their own use. Karas' familiarly styled illustrations, featuring big-headed, stick-legged people in acrylic and gouache textured with pencil, add insult to injury by making little Daniel believably adorable even when earning his nicknames, but the illustrations also offer gratifying scenes of Jonathon's imagined interactions with the new arrival; audiences will especially snicker at the dastardly interpretation of bland possibilities such as "We can play wagon train" and "We can play darts." Kids wisely wary of saccharine assurances about the plenitude of familial love will relish this funny, bracing treatment of becoming a sibling. DS

DAVIES, JACQUELINE The Boy who Drew Birds: A Story ofJohn James Audubon; illus. by Melissa Sweet. Houghton, 2004 32p ISBN 0-618-24343-7 $15.00 Ad Gr. 3-5 The Audubon name may be an institution now, but Davies focuses on the man himself back when he was just an eager young guy new to America and fascinated OCTOBER 2004 * 69 with birds, describing his pioneer experiment of banding birds to ascertain their migratory patterns. Davies relates her story with immediacy, evoking Audubon's keen curiosity and the lure of the outdoors as she describes his gradual discovery of some important facts about bird migration. Sweet takes her art in a new direction here: even her watercolor human figures have a touch of sober introspection, and elements such as paper collage and carefully arrayed ornithological realia add tex- ture and evoke Audubon's studies; she evades the problem of Audubon's considerable artistic shadow by depicting birds only in his preliminary sketches and in the landscapes he traverses, rather than trying to mimic his landmark paintings. Un- fortunately, while the book is elegant in design and prose, it is conceptually less satisfying than one might hope, since there's insufficient information about Audubon's life and contributions in general (there's not even an indication of birth and death dates), and the story of his experiment doesn't pack quite enough punch to stand on its own. Still, the discovery is clearly described, and the portrait of a young man thirsty for knowledge (and the point about a careful amateur's ability to make significant contributions) will appeal to budding naturalists. A brief note explains a bit more about Audubon's life and discoveries; source notes (for the illustrations as well as for the text) and a bibliography are included. DS

DODD, QUENTIN The Princess ofNeptune. Farrar, 2004 [224p] ISBN 0-374-36119-3 $17.00 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-7 Aspiring punk-rock drummer Theora is so busy thinking about her band that she forgets about her science project and ends up assigned to watch the lake for the existence of the local legend, Big Phil. She and her younger brother, Verb, instead meet famous scientist Dr. Obermind, who rises from the depths in a submarine and promises to help Theora with her project if she agrees not to reveal his own (capturing the bat species that is attacking circuses, driven wild by their natural enemy-tarpaulin). Before too long, however, the kids are kidnapped and taken to restaurant Burger Buckaroo, where Theora is made an offer she can't refuse: travel to Neptune to enter an intergalactic beauty pageant so that their kidnapper, a giant cockroach from the moon, can write about it for Thrilling Cockroach Tales magazine. If this isn't lunatic enough for you yet, don't worry-throw in crazed pageantry, strange science, a talking fern, a botched Obermind rescue, a pop diva who mysteriously disappears, a mad plot by Theora's science teacher, and a brawl- ing Battle of the Bands, and the plot shifts from light speed to ludicrous speed in just a few pages. Theora's cool, snarky voice keeps readers from overdosing on the sometimes pained overabundance of silliness, and the geeky science gadgets are inventive in the best mad-scientist tradition. Full of short, high-energy chapters, most ending on rising action, and deliciously quirky characters, this would be appropriate for reluctant readers of either sex or fans of space spoofs by Douglas Adams or Daniel Pinkwater. KH

DODDS, DAYLE ANN Henry's Amazing Machine; illus. by Kyrsten Brooker. Kroupa/Farrar, 2004 32p ISBN 0-374-32953-2 $16.50 Ad 4-7 yrs Even as a baby, Henry has a knack for mechanics, and by the time he's six years old, he's got an ongoing project: an Amazing Machine. Henry happily enlarges the machine until it takes up his living space ("He moved into the kitchen, and 70 * THE BULLETIN kept on building") and his parents' ("his family had to move out into the backyard and pitch a tent"). Eventually Henry's machine becomes quite the local feature, drawing neighbors to view the hoopla and to join in with music, food sales, and rides. Finally, Henry's parents lay down the law and banish the machine, but fortunately it finds a new home in the local carnival. Young inventors and motorheads will revel in the notion of an ever-expanding machine, and the inclu- sion of a periodic yet varying refrain celebrating the machine's machinations ("Whirling things, twirling things,/ Zipping, zapping, swirling things,/ Clunking things, thunking things,/ Slipping, sliding, dunking things!") provides a suggestion of the amazing machine's own voice. The story never really gets into gear, however: the text doesn't rise to the challenge of making a machine that doesn't do anything an interesting contraption nonetheless, and it's not clear why the crowds respond with such glee to the machine's relocation to the carnival. Brooker's mixed-media art celebrates the machine's conglomerative gimcrackery with its own blithely inclusive nature, drawing on a combination of photographed bits, cloth textures, cut paper, and thick paints to make its images. The result is narratively intriguing, but compositions are sometimes unbalanced by the drama of individual components, and young viewers will probably long for a more complete view of Henry's creation than the tantalizing partials provided. The Rube-Goldbergian saga nonetheless may gratify many industrious youngsters, who will doubtless immediately set about creating their own Amazing Machines. DS

DUNREA, OLIVIER BooBoo; written and illus. by Olivier Dunrea. Houghton, 2004 32p ISBN 0-618-35654-1 $9.95 R 2-4 yrs Peedie; written and illus. by Olivier Dunrea. Houghton, 2004 32p ISBN 0-618-35652-5 $9.95 R 2-4 yrs Two new goslings join the gaggle peopled (goosed?) so far by the popular Gossie, Gertie (from Gossie and Gossie and Gertie, BCCB 12/02), and Ollie (Ollie, 11/03). Forgetful Peedie and ravenous BooBoo enjoy circular adventures (Peedie misplaces his headgear; BooBoo suffers an attack of the burps) replete with the repetitive phrases in which toddlers revel, returning always to a point at which the adventure can begin again (and again, and again). The boldly colored goslings romp across the delicate watercolor and ink illustrations, in which the subtle detailing of the background elements sets off the almost cookie-cutter sameness of the gosling in each frame, emphasizing both the mildness of this imagined world and the endear- ing singlemindedness of the avian characters inhabiting it. Plenty of white space allows small children to zero in on the center-of-the-page action, which they will do in storytime or laptime-as surely as Peedie loses his cap or BooBoo burps bubbles. TC

EGAN, TIM The Trial of Cardigan Jones; written and illus. by Tim Egan. Houghton, 2004 32p ISBN 0-618-40237-3 $16.00 Ad 5-8 yrs Cardigan, the new moose in town, pauses in his walk to smell Mrs. Brown's fresh- baked apple pie cooling on the windowsill; soon after, he is arrested as a pie thief. Though he insists he didn't steal the pie, the crumbs on his shirt and the witnesses who saw him smelling the pie say otherwise. Cardigan is brought to trial by the suspicious townsfolk, but after his awkward antlers repeatedly knock over objects OCTOBER 2004 * 71 in the courtroom, the judge has an idea. With a quick field trip to Mrs. Brown's to check the evidence, the judge solves the case: Cardigan, more clumsy than criminal, accidentally knocked the pie off the windowsill with his antlers. Egan's message is not subtle, as the abashed community learns that a small town does not have to be small-minded, but neither is it overpowering, instead operating as a gentle lesson on overcoming stranger anxiety. The townspeople, dressed in their conservative best (hats and bowties are common), are appropriately intimidating, staring at both Cardigan and readers with disapproving seriousness, while Cardigan's bumbling earnestness and rounded antlers under a creamy yellow hat paint him a clearly sympathetic figure. The mild palette, soft lines, and bulky but balanced compositions create a calmness slightly at odds with the fast-paced trial, while the stiffness of the characters that worked well as part of the joke in Serious Farm (BCCB 12/03) makes the story's lively courtroom scenes a series of posed artificial shots. Egan's understated comedy is barely evident in Cardigan's antler casualties, which may bring only the occasional giggle, but his animal characters still have the offbeat dignity that makes them special and his portrayal of a moose unfairly blamed will hit home with young audiences. KH

EHRENHAFT, DANIEL TellIt to Naomi. Delacorte, 2004 200p Library ed. ISBN 0-385-90155-0 $9.99 Paper ed. ISBN 0-385-73129-9 $7.95 R Gr. 7-10 Dave despairs of ever being able to cross the "unbridgeable chasm" between sophomore guy and senior girl to win Celeste, the girl of his dreams, until his sister, Naomi, comes up with a plan. Using her identity as a cover, Dave begins writing an advice column for his school paper. He figures it will be a great "alternative to stalking": Celeste will write in with all her problems, and he will be able to guide her to himself through his cleverly manipulative advice. Unfortunately, the letters are anonymous, and he discovers that, while Celeste turns out to be a vapid ditz, FONY (short for "Frightened of New York"), a frequent advice-seeker, is much more his type. Meanwhile, his only face-to-face friendship is falling apart, and his sister is getting entirely too caught up in "her" fame as an advice columnist. The narrative voice is the star here; it may bother Dave that he doesn't "talk the way most 'normal' guys do," but his offbeat humor and in-your-face honesty charms readers, both of his bogus column and of his first-person narration of life among his not-completely-sane family. The book is a funny, funky, hipster monologue with witty conversational quips and letters spritzed throughout. Readers will of course guess FONYs identity long before Dave does, but his cluelessness adds to his appeal, and the author avoids a schlocky ending by making Dave the goat with a lot of explaining to do rather than the romantic, sensitive hero who looks and acts like a boy but understands like your best girlfriend. KC

FISHER, CATHERINE Snow-walker. Eos/Greenwillow, 2004 507p Library ed. ISBN 0-06-072475-7 $18.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-072474-9 $17.99 R Gr. 6-10 The witch Gudrun, a snow-walker from the north, uses her icy magic to control the Jarl and terrorize into compliance all who follow him. Her overthrow by her son, Kari, has been foretold, but since Kari is held captive in the mountains and is rumored to be a hideous monster besides, no one thinks he'll be much help--until Jessa and her cousin are sent to Kari's prison as punishment for their fathers' dis- 72 * THE BULLETIN loyalty to the present Jarl. Kari proves to be a sensitive, psychically gifted boy their own age, in appearance the mirror of his mother, in character her complete oppo- site. Kari joins the effort to evict the witch, which succeeds with surprising ease when Gudrun abandons the Jarl's throne (having already murdered the Jarl), leaving behind only a white snakeskin and a curse for her son: that the people he has chosen to serve will never love or trust him, but only fear him and his power. Later, long-distance attacks from the banished queen draw Jessa, Kari, and others on a life-threatening trek to hunt Gudrun down in her northern lair, the travelers affirming their loyalty to their people and to each other repeatedly along the way. Chapter headings gleaned from Norse epic poetry set an exalted tone, nicely balanced by the physicality of the descriptions and the normalcy of the characters' reactions and observations. While the action is rather widely spaced within the lengthy, three-part narrative (this single volume first appeared in Britain as a trilogy), the quality of the writing, with its rhythmic prose, and the realism of the characterization ensures reader satisfaction even in the quieter moments. Although reminiscent of the folktale of the Snow Queen, the story is in no way derivative- its icy artistry brings a breath of fresh (if chilly) air to the epic fantasy lineup. TC

FRANK, JOHN The Toughest Cowboy, or How the Wild West Was Tamed; illus. by Zachary Pullen. Simon, 2004 4 4 p ISBN 0-689-83461-6 $16.95 R Gr. 3-5 Grizz Brickbottom finds that the leather-tough companionship of his fellow cowboys leaves him a-hankering for the finer things in life, such as "Someone with a lovely smell. Someone who would give him lots of sweet kisses. He needed ... a dog." Grizz finds himself a dog, but timid Foofy the French poodle with her daunting requirements (she needs to be sung to sleep at night, she needs to be groomed, and she needs to have ribbons tied behind her ears) isn't quite what he and his compatriots had in mind. Soon, however, Foofy's ability to catch flying tin plates endears her to the men, whose affection for the little pooch eventually leads them to more civilized ways and lifestyles. Frank's rawboned parody goes for a surprisingly broad spectrum of comedy, ranging from the gratifyingly vulgar (Grizz whiles away an evening by scraping gnats out of his nostrils with a spur) to the wittily allusive (Grizz ends up manufacturing flying plates to toss and catch, which are marketed as "Grizz-Bs"), so kids will get to snork and feel smart in the same reading go. Pullen's oils have a crisp and oversized vividness to their head- heavy portraiture that suggests satire on real-life models (even when cleaned up, the cowboys' lumpy and bulbous countenances aren't going to be any threat in a beauty contest); the result parallels the text in its blend of sophistication and un- ashamedly overt humor. Like Timberlake's dog-'n'-cowboy comedy The Dirty Cowboy (BCCB 9/03), this will offer middle-graders a sharp twang on the funnybone. DS

FUNKE, CORNELIA Dragon Rider. Chicken House/Scholastic, 2004 [5 2 8 p] Paper over board ed. ISBN 0-439-45695-9 $12.95 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 4-8 The dragon Firedrake lives with others of his kind in an idyllic mountain valley, until the valley is threatened by humans and he must undertake a dangerous quest to find the dragons' first fabled home, the Rim of Heaven. Accompanied by a mushroom-obsessed brownie named Sorrel and an orphan boy named Ben, and OCTOBER 2004 * 73

guided by a map drawn by a rat cartographer, Firedrake is determined to find this safe haven. Unfortunately, he also awakens an enemy who nearly exterminated all dragons long ago and has been lying in wait for one to reappear ever since- Nettlebrand, the Golden One. The questors face many challenges on the way to the Rim of Heaven, but, unknowingly carrying one of Nettlebrand's spies, they have no idea they are in danger of betraying the very home for which they are searching. Despite the somewhat hackneyed insistence that humans are irrespon- sible and dangerous in their greed and ignorance, Funke still sets them as saviors; Firedrake's self-determination is therefore undercut by a prophecy tacked on near the end of the journey involving Ben as a mythical dragon rider "coming to save his friends the dragons from a terrible enemy." Aside from this conflict of purpose and the overreliance on coincidental meetings to put characters where they are needed to advance the plot, this novel (Funke's first, only now imported into the U.S.) is an attractive combination of tried-and-true fantasy elements and likable Disneyesque characters, and it will appeal to youngsters as a (lengthy) readaloud and to older kids as an uplifting readalone. A foldout map will be included in the bound book. KH

GAY, MARIE-LOUISE Stella, Princess ofthe Sky; written and illus. by Marie-Louise Gay. Groundwood/Douglas & McIntyre, 2004 [3 2 p] ISBN 0-88899-601-2 $15.95 Reviewed from galleys R 3-7 yrs Siblings Stella and Sam (Stella, Queen of the Snow, BCCB 1/01, Stella, Star of the Sea, BCCB 5/99) return in Gay's latest entry to ponder the celestial wonders of sunset ("Stella! Look! The sky is on fire!") and star-filled night sky. Sam's initial questions about the sun and moon lead to Stella's suggestion that the two camp out that evening; the story then follows a pattern of Sam's queries (Can the moon fly? Do raccoons wear masks because they are robbers? Does the sun sleep on a bed?) being met by Stella's imaginative (if not always scientifically accurate) explanations. Gay has once again perfectly captured the distinct wonder of childhood in the siblings' banter about the natural world, and young listeners will eagerly welcome the gently amusing Q and A. Though Stella is clearly the teacher, the sense of shared awe ("Isn't it beautiful, Sam?") lends intimacy to the dialogue and underlines Stella's own wonderment. The clean layout restricts text to the bottom margin with each watercolor illustration spanning the gutter and, as always, Stella's nest of wild red curls is a focal point in every spread. The wet blues and greens of nightfall ooze across each double-page spread with penciled details defining nature's elements in and around the sky. Lashes of tall grass in the foreground offer depth to each illustration and provide a sense of being deep within the natural world. Any child who ponders the wonders of the sky will find good company at Stella and Sam's camp. HM

GILES, GAIL Playingin Traffic. Brodie/Roaring Brook, 2004 176p ISBN 1-59643-005-2 $16.95 R Gr. 9-12 Matt was the "ghost of school corridors," sliding largely unnoticed through his days except for his close relationship with his younger sister. Then he catches the eye of Skye, the school's legendary bad girl famed for provocative appearance, flagrant misbehavior, and rumors of sexual escapade. She trusts Matt with her innermost secrets of familial abandonment and abuse, and he's both sexually en- 74 * THE BULLETIN raptured with her and determined to save her from the demons that beset her inside and out-despite increasing indication that some of those demons are fab- ricated by Skye specifically to snare Matt. The high-school-Hitchcockian premise is an alluring one, and Giles, author of Shattering Glass (BCCB 5/02) makes Matt both a sympathetic low-profile teen and a perfect patsy for the seriously troubled Skye. The contrapuntal story of Matt's turbulent family, which hides from Matt's sister a secret about her parentage, adds tension and deepens Matt's character. The ending unfortunately ramps up too quickly to an ending that seems too abrupt to be dramatically taut or tragic, squandering the dark energy that's been carefully built up, but the edgy setup and unfolding intrigue will draw in fans of psychologi- cal chillers. DS

GOLDING, THERESA MARTIN The Truth about Twelve. Boyds Mills, 2004 171p ISBN 1-59078-291-7 $16.95 R Gr. 4-7 Lindy's family is starting a new life in a posh Philadelphia suburb, and Lindy's having a very hard time maintaining what she considers to be the necessary facade at school by keeping secret her tumbledown house, her troubled father's identity as the local trashpicker, and her family's history ofhomelessness and tragedy. There's more than a touch of The Great Gilly Hopkins in this story of a girl who uses anger and aggression to stave off the pain of her past; there are some awkwardnesses (the hinted-at fate of Lindy's younger sister is too much a dramatic device) and unanswered questions (how did the family end up homeless, and what then led them to this otherwise wealthy town?), but Lindy's fierce and defensive voice rings true and credible. Golding doesn't overplay her protagonist's character, wisely leaving Lindy capable of humor and friendship as well as grief and rage, and there's a refreshing believability in the mixture of responses in other characters, from those who genuinely do look down on Lindy for her cheap clothes and straitened family circumstances to those who appreciate her strength and loyalty. Lots of kids feel that if their peers knew the family secret, they'd be immediately cast out of the crowd; this title will assure them that they're not alone. DS

GREENE, STEPHANIE Owen Foote, Mighty Scientist; illus. by Cat Bowman Smith. Clarion, 2004 [96p] ISBN 0-618-43016-4 $14.00 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 2-4 It's time for the annual science fair, and Owen's whole future is riding on the success of his entry. If he and his friend Joseph win, they're sure to be picked for Mr. Waszak's fourth-grade class, a wonderland of scientific endeavor wherein citi- zens bask in the glory of a research project on the class's reptilian and amphibian pets. Never mind that Joseph would rather be in Ms. Holt's class and put on a play, or that he's repulsed by all of Owen's critter-centered ideas for a project. Single-minded as ever, Owen (first seen in Owen Foote, Second Grade Strongman, BCCB 3/96) cajoles his friend into setting up an experiment with tadpoles and fertilizer, prevaricating slightly about the fertilizer's potential effect on the growing frogs. The constant jostling for position within Owen's social group provides ample motivation for his finagling and rationalization, and it infuses the climax (in which his "healthy" tadpoles die while the "doomed" ones live to swim another day) with real urgency. The resolution is not only consistent with the plotting and characterization but also highly imaginative in its own right-a triumph of inno- OCTOBER 2004 * 75 vation in the domain of science fairs as well as a welcome addition to the stable of short chapter books. Final illustrations not seen. TC

GRINDLEY, SALLY Spilled Water. Bloomsbury, 2004 224p ISBN 1-58234-937-1 $15.95 Ad Gr. 4-6 When eleven-year old Lu Si-yan's father is killed in a traffic accident in their rural Chinese village, her family is faced with the tremendous challenge of keeping their small plot of farmland going, a challenge made all the more difficult by her mother's poor health and her uncle's harsh treatment of the family. Deciding that two children is one too many, Uncle Ba sells Lu Si-yan into the service of the Chen family in a distant urban center. Lu Si-yan's tenure with the Chens becomes all the more complicated when it is revealed that the family's intent is to train her as housemaid and then quietly marry her to their mentally retarded son. Lu Si-yan runs away from the Chens and, left without money or direction, ends up working in an overcrowded toy factory run by the abusive Mr. Hong. The horrific condi- tions of the factory eventually send Lu Si-yan to the hospital; there she is reunited with her deeply regretful uncle, who informs her of her mother's death and takes her home to their village. Through the course of her adventures, Lu Si-yan meets a rather typical assortment of the compassionate-Xiong Fei, the Chen's cook, Li Mei, her fellow factory worker-and the horrible-Mrs. Chen, the evil head of the Chen household, Zheng Yi, the factory bully-and these supporting characters add little to what is already a predictable plot (Whelan's ChuJu's House, BCCB 5/04, is a more gracefully composed story on a similar theme). The narrative comes across as explanatory rather than literary, and the occasional reflective moments are overly mature for an eleven-year-old voice. Lu Si-yan is an agreeable protagonist, however, and readers may be intrigued by the well-crafted narration, which alternates between describing Lu Si-yan's present struggle and her memories of the past, and the details of her seemingly inescapable fate. HM

HADDIX, MARGARET PETERSON The House on the Gulf Simon, 2004 2 01p ISBN 0-689-85422-6 $15.95 Ad Gr. 4-7 Twelve-year-old Britt and her sixteen-year-old brother, Bran, have been keeping secrets from their mom for as long as Britt can remember; since Mom is working two jobs, studying in the hope of becoming a doctor, and raising two kids on her own, no one wants to give her any bad news. This time, though, Bran is keeping a secret from Britt and Mom-and it has something to do with the housesitting job which allows the family to live rent-free for the summer in Florida. Britt finds herself spying on her "perfect" brother, trying to figure out if his secret is something illegal, and if so, what to do about it. Though the secondary players demon-. strate little dimensionality and Britt's narration evinces a far greater familiarity with the dictionary than either her age or her personality supports, readers hooked on solving the mystery will be unlikely to complain about the characterization or the vocabulary. Themes of repentance and forgiveness play counterpoint to those of guilt and condemnation while Britt takes her time learning about her new neighbors and her own family. At first glance, Bran's secret doesn't seem hard to guess, and Britt's continuing struggle to discover the truth wears the reader's nerves a bit, but a double plot twist carries the day and spices up the sweetness of the ending. TC 76 * THE BULLETIN

HARRIS, ROBIE H. Sweet Jasmine, Nice Jackson: What It's Like to Be 2-And to Be Twins!; illus. by Michael Emberley. McElderry, 2004 32p (Growing Up Stories) ISBN 0-689-83259-1 $16.95 R 4-7 yrs They've unraveled the mysteries of baby- and toddlerhood (Hello Benny!, BCCB 11/02; Go! Go! Maria!, 10/03), and now Harris and Emberley tackle the twos- twins at age two. Jasmine and Jackson are African-American tots in a state of perpetual motion from foot to mouth, following and mimicking their elders, squab- bling and making up, saying "No!" more often than "Yes," and establishing their own unfathomable standards of grammar. Again a loosely constructed storyline follows the children through the year, while generous boxed inserts supply running commentary on the whys and wherefores of two-year-olds' behavior. In this entry listeners enjoy the added bonus of twin behavior as well, with Harris emphasizing each sibling's uniqueness. Emberley has a field day with the antics ofJ & J, and the reaction of adults and older children (in thickly outlined, group-sharing sized paintings) to Jasmine's diaper rebellion, shoe-store tantrum, bedroom-wall painting, and cribside rappelling is a delight. Amid the chuckles lies solid information on the little tykes' word mastery, toilet training, sudden fears, play habits, and powerful drive to accomplish tasks unassisted. Jasmine and Jackson are so dang cute that maybe the "terrible twos" have gotten a bad rap. EB

HESSE, KAREN The Cats in KrasinskiSquare; illus. by Wendy Watson. Scholastic, 2004 [3 2 p] ISBN 0-439-43540-4 $16.95 Reviewed from galleys R 7-10 yrs Basing her story on an historical account, Hesse has created a fictional explanation of an event involving "cats outfoxing the Gestapo at the train station in Warsaw during World War II." The opening illustrations depict the narrator, a young Jewish girl who has escaped the Warsaw Ghetto to live secretly ("I wear my Polish look, I walk my Polish walk") with her sister Mira, surrounded by the many cats left homeless when the Jews were forced to move out of their private homes and into the Ghetto. The opposition movement, including Mira, concocts a plan to transport food by train and sneak it to the hungry Jews living behind the walls, a plan endangered by the Gestapo's intent to await the train with police dogs. The young narrator comes up with a counterstrategy: to bring the street cats to the train station and, as the train pulls up, release the felines. When the distracted dogs lunge after the cats, the food is successfully carried past the Gestapo and into the Ghetto. This is a poignant and carefully crafted tale, demonstrating the significance of even a single individual in a time of crisis and deftly extracting and developing a specific moment in a much larger picture. Watson's watercolor, pencil, and ink illustrations capture the smoke and shadows of the urban setting while maintaining a delicate balance of energy and quiet reverence. The figures are outlined in thick black ink, and while the faces occasionally take on an air of caricature, the technique of layering the boldly defined figures against the more fluid lines of the city is ultimately successful. The opportunity to discuss history in the context of local and oft-forgotten events is a remarkable one, and Hesse has created a tale worthy of discussion with young listeners. A detailed historical note, absolutely mandatory for understanding the context of the tale, is included. HM OCTOBER 2004 * 77

HICKS, BETTY Busted! Brodie/Roaring Brook, 2004 168p ISBN 1-59643-004-4 $15.95 R Gr. 4-7 Stuart Ellis is convinced he's the most closely policed and frequently grounded kid in seventh grade, and it's certainly not due to any particular proclivity toward misbehavior on his part. No, it's because his widowed mother takes parenting far too seriously and needs a love life to get her priorities straight. His close friend Mack heartily agrees and sets up a casual meeting at Stuart's soccer game between Mrs. Ellis and Mack's uncle Joe, a kind-hearted bald guy whose attentions Mom seems to enjoy. That's not quite what Stuart had in mind-he'd prefer someone cooler, like his soccer coach, Chris James. He does his own match-making, and, lo and behold, the romance actually takes off. Even better, Coach James gradually gets Mom to loosen up with the punishments, freeing his strong player from house arrest. Of course, life can't be quite that easy, and soon teammates turn against Stuart as they suspect that Coach is now playing favorites with his sweetheart's son, and Mom gets the idea that Coach and Stuart have conspired against her to keep her kid on the team. Stuart hits just the right tone of beleaguered adoles- cence, and most readers who review his missteps will readily agree that Mom's gone over the edge. Hicks spins the plot as tightly as a half-hour sitcom, with a limited cast and a well-defined problem, and the dangling ending-Stuart's ground- ing problems are under control but Mom now contends with a surfeit of suitors- should earn a round of audience applause. EB

HIGHTMAN, JASON The Saint ofDragons. Eos/HarperCollins, 2004 291p Library ed. ISBN 0-06-054012-5 $17.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-054011-7 $16.99 Ad Gr. 5-8 Thirteen-year-old Simon St. George is about to enter the family business: hunting dragons, or rather, dragonmen-the humanoid, intelligent, despicably evil rep- tiles who by their dark magic cause destruction and suffering throughout the world. Clues lead Simon, his father, and his father's love interest across the world in a creaky sailboat for a last-ditch attempt to stop the formation of a draconian alliance powerful enough to set the whole world aflame. By turns melodramatic and farcical, the story is a quick and superficial read, and stock characters (described in unnecessary depth at chapter beginnings) roam the pages. Nevertheless, there's plenty here to engage and entertain, between the St. Georges' quest to uncover the dragonmen's devious conspiracy, Simon's down-to-earth comments and cynical attitude toward his father's profession, and the plot's constant reversals; this may therefore capture fans of the Akiko series and other offerings in the comic-book vein. TC

HIRSCH, ODO Yoss. Delacorte, 2004 34 1p Library ed. ISBN 0-385-90224-7 $18.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-385-73187-6 $16.95 R Gr. 7-12 Young teenager Yoss has reached the age at which boys of his village depart on a traditional journey toward manhood. For most boys, this journey lasts no longer than one night spent shivering on the mountain slopes, at the end of which they return to take up apprenticeships. Determined that his journey will be more than a symbol, Yoss takes a different approach: rather than returning immediately to the village, he sets off toward the town in the valley below, eager to find wisdom or 78 * THE BULLETIN treasure to bring home when he returns as a man. Instead of his hoped-for riches, however, Yoss instead encounters deceit, lust, avarice, political machinations, and murder that awaken in him an awareness of the depravity of the world, which later fits him to become the next wise man in his home village. While this is a darker story than the similarly imaginative bildungsromans penned by Lloyd Alexander, the wordcraft here is elegant, the descriptions deft, and the action both arresting and character driven, making Yoss' exploits a sure hit with readers more attuned to the story's quality of construction than insistent on an unmitigatedly happy ending. TC

HOBBS, VALERIE Letting Go of Bobby James, or How I Found My Self of Steam. Foster/Farrar, 2004 136p ISBN 0-374-34384-5 $16.00 Ad Gr. 6-10 Maybe it was her mother's history of abuse at the hands of her husband, or maybe it was the words of the Willie Nelson song rattling in her head, but sixteen-year old newlywed Jody Walker knows enough to put some distance between herself and husband Bobby James, who has just blackened her eye, even if it means being abandoned at the gas-station ladies' room. Jody grabs a bus to the first Florida town that feels right, crashes at night in a cineplex, and lands a job as a dishwasher at a cafe, fully aware that a better life will have to be one of her own making. Her youth and self-reliance (and her tiny but growing fund of ready cash) attract preg- nant fifteen-year-old Effaline like a flame lures a moth, and soon the younger girl is sleeping in Jody's seedy apartment and avoiding the sleazy manager, Kirby, who may or may not be the baby's father. Jody quickly appreciates that this is a young woman with worse troubles than her own, and by the time Bobby James reappears to cajole and/or threaten her back, Jody musters the chutzpah to send him pack- ing. Hobbs burdens her teen-pleasing plot with stereotypes (Bobby James and Kirby are woman-punchin' crackers straight from central casting), melodramatic effects (Jody delivers Effaline's baby in the middle of a hurricane), and a limp premise in which Jody narrates her adventures in letters to a grocery-chain owner and coleslaw looms large, but illogically, throughout. This is a far cry from the gripping dynamics of the author's Tender (BCCB 10/01), but the rags-to-subsis- tence rise of two resilient teens has enough momentum to sweep readers past the improbabilities and onto the promise of better times ahead. EB

HOPKINSON, DEBORAH Apples to Oregon; illus. by Nancy Carpenter. Schwartz/ Atheneum, 2004 36p ISBN 0-689-84769-6 $15.95 R 5-8 yrs Part tall tale, part fact, this latest illustrated historical tale from Hopkinson and Carpenter (creators of Fannie in the Kitchen, BCCB 6/01) is based on the real-life Luelling family, who traveled from Iowa to Oregon with seven hundred fruit trees planted in the box of their wagon in 1847. The narrator, Delicious, offers a matter-of-fact recounting of the family's trials, delivered directly to the reader in a folksy dialect that suggests campfire storytelling. En route the family encounters all kinds of challenges, from getting the heavy planters over the Platte River on a raft ("everyone knows young 'uns raised on apples are strong, mighty strong. Be- fore you could say 'Johnny Appleseed,' we'd kicked ourselves clear to the other shore"), to hailstorms, desert travel, and cold nights on the plain. Fortunately, the eight children (depicted more often than not as sixteen gangly legs) are as resource- OCTOBER 2004 * 79

ful as their parents, and the fruit trees make it to Portland, where Daddy and Delicious "planted them in that sweet Oregon dirt at last." Daddy is an exuberant character, skinny as a lamppost and clear leader of the escapade, and Delicious' warm devotion to her pa is evident throughout the telling. The folksy oil paintings, rendered in rich shades of gold, blues, and reds, match Delicious' narration, and the playfulness of Carpenter's brushstrokes adds a zestful energy to the family's adventure. Hopkinson identifies a 1937 pamphlet about the apple industry in Oregon and the Luelling-Campbell genealogy as sources of background information, and an author's note further describes the historical basis of the tale. HM

HOROWITZ, ANTHONY The Falcon's Malteser: A Diamond Brothers Mystery. Philomel, 2004 [22 4p] Trade ed. ISBN 0-399-24153-1 $16.99 Paper ed. ISBN 0-14-240219-2 $5.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-8 Nick is the thirteen-year-old brother of famous private detective Tim Diamond, a.k.a. Herbert Timothy Staple, but it's really Nick, not the clueless Herbert, who delivers the smart solutions and smart remarks that are the private eye's calling card. When dwarf Naples hires Herbert to look after a package, Nick senses trouble, and when they unwrap the package to find a box of Maltesers (malted-milk balls), Nick knows trouble is on its way. Then they find Naples lodged in a motel with a bullet lodged in his chest. The Maltesers are the key to finding the diamonds hidden by the international criminal known as the Falcon, now deceased, and unless Nick can find the connection, he and Tim face a messy death by chocolate. In this clever spoof, trademark elements of hardboiled fiction and noir film (The Maltese Falcon is just the beginning) are presented seriously and then forced into clownish costumes or circumstances: the dames are disreputable, the villains men- acing, the buildings dilapidated, and the circumstances dire, but never so much that laughter is in danger. The dynamic between Nick and the adult characters, who attempt to portray a darker atmosphere but fail without his cooperation, creates much of the humor. Nick's wry take on matters (on trying to sleep on the uncomfortable top bunk in jail: "I dropped off around midnight. Then I climbed back on and tried to get some sleep") and his character descriptions ("They were both approaching fifty and had spent a lot of money trying to back away again. Their slightly plastic faces had to be the work of a slight plastic surgeon") are priceless examples of deadpan, punny wordplay. The intriguing plot, surprise twists, and high body count are worthwhile investments, but streetwise Nick is the real treasure here. KH

HORVATH, POLLY The Pepins and Their Problems; illus. by Marylin Hafner. Farrar, 2004 179p ISBN 0-374-35817-6 $16.00 R Gr. 4-6 The Pepins-Mr. and Mrs. Pepin, their two children, Petunia and Irving, and their pets, dog Roy and cat Miranda-are a happy family, but they're prone to peculiar happenings and they're largely bereft of the ability to solve them. Fortunately, the activist author steps in, seeking reader advice for the solution to Pepin problems such as a surfeit of toads in the family shoes, the identity of the strange man who settles down in the Pepin home, and the unsatisfying coldness of the household hot chocolate. There are echoes of Allan Ahlberg's silly Gaskitt 80 * THE BULLETIN family here (from The Cat Who Got CarriedAway, BCCB 6/03, etc.), as well as a distinct descendance from Lucretia Hale's easily perplexed Peterkins; to this tradition Horvath adds a bossy, interventionist author who delights in obtrusive interference and a collection of fictional readers (all identified by their source town, as with letters to the editor) who provide the author with further material for commentary. The authorial intrusion becomes the story as much as the Pepins do; while the trope is sometimes played out a bit archly and it occasionally unbalances the plotting (the Pepins seem rather faded next to the narrator), it's an old-fashioned tendency made cleverly into a conscious joke, and readerly kids in particular will find it diverting. Hafner's black-and-white illustrations, which recall the work ofN. M. Bodecker, have a touch of old-fashioned flair all their own. In addition to being a diverting readalone, this offers an amiably accepting tone and pleasant noodleheadedness that render it highly suitable for a chapter-by-chapter readaloud; indeed, it might be tempting to extract the material into a performed drama ? la Our Town and give the narrator's directorial impulses center stage. DS

HOVEY, KATE Voices of the Trojan War; illus. by Leonid Gore. McElderry, 2004 117p ISBN 0-689-85768-3 $17.95 Ad Gr. 6-9 Having previously taken poetic journeys into Greek mythology (Arachne Speaks, BCCB 3/01; Ancient Voices, 5/04), Hovey now gives various participants (gods, men, muses, etc.) in the legendary tale of the fall of Troy a chance to speak their poetic pieces, providing their points of view in a variety of verse forms. The poems themselves vary in effectiveness (some have a fresh phrasing that stands alone, while others require the support of the whole), and the voices are traditional ones, adding few emotional subtleties to this oft-interpreted tale. The volume also suffers from a pedestrian design that does little to showcase Gore's full-page black- and-white illustrations, and as a result any compositional drama is lost. Still, Hovey's distillation of this tragic tale has an inherent fascination that will draw readers to her ambitious effort. Quotations from Homer, Aeschylus, and other classical writers introduce some of the poems; an appendix explaining character and place names and a bibliography are included. JMD

HUGHES, PAT The Breaker Boys. Farrar, 2004 2 4 7p ISBN 0-374-30956-6 $18.00 R Gr. 7-10 In the spring of 1897, hot-tempered Nate Tanner, son of a wealthy mine-owning Pennsylvania family, is expelled from boarding school and sent home for what proves to be a life-changing summer. Friendless and full of anger, Nate sets to taking long bike rides away from the family estate and meets Johnny, a Polish- American "breaker boy," who spends his days picking slate and wood from carts full of coal in one of the Tanner family's properties. Assuming a false identity, Nate starts playing baseball with Johnny and the other breaker boys, and he soon discovers the comfort of friendship he had never known. This friendship is, natu- rally, complicated by the secrecy and class issues underlying Nate's true background, and when talk of collective action and strike begins to surface among the boys, Nate is left wondering which side of the story is the more accurate one. His experience in the Polish slums where his friends live leads to a growing fury at his own family's treatment of the mine workers, a fury that surfaces in a confrontation with his grandpa. Basing her story upon the true events of the 1897 Lattimer Massacre, OCTOBER 2004 * 81 where nineteen coal miners were killed at the hands of the police, Hughes has created a compelling fictional narrative that illustrates the degree to which fact belongs to the perspective of the teller. Nate is a well-developed character and the waves of doubt, defensiveness, and self-knowing he experiences over the course of the summer are well-rooted in the events going on around him. Although the story is a bit slow going at first (Nate's anger-management issues make him a rather unlikable protagonist), those readers willing to stick it out will find this a complex novel, full of personal and class conflict and, ultimately, the violence of misunderstanding. A note and glossary of Polish terms are included. HM

JACKSON, DONNA M. In Your Face: The FACTS about Your Features. Viking, 2004 4 2p illus. with photographs ISBN 0-670-03657-9 $17.99 R Gr. 4-7 "Fish faces. That's pretty much how we began," explains this examination of one of our most important pieces of anatomy. Jackson discusses the various elements of the human face, how we read, recognize, and make faces (and what happens to people who can't), conventions of facial beauty, and facial prosthetics, often focusing her investigations on specific people to make them more vivid. Though there are some missed opportunities (why not compare an age-projected image with an actual image of the same child of that age?) and misleading phraseology (the evolu- tionary selection for lighter skin in more northerly climates is described Lamarckianly as "skin turn[ing] lighter to drink in more of the sun's rays"), this is more genuinely scientific than popular-magazine approaches, touching on matters of physi- ology, neurology, and culture in accessible yet provocative ways. Photographs are strategically if not generously placed throughout; extensive end matter includes a list of books and reading for further exploration, a glossary, source notes, and an index. DS

JEYAVEERAN, RUTH The Road to Mumbai; written and illus. by Ruth Jeyaveeran. Houghton, 2004 32p ISBN 0-618-43419-4 $16.00 R 5-8 yrs Shoba's monkey Fuzzy Patel wakes her in the middle of the night with an unexpected declaration: they must leave immediately for Mumbai for a "top-secret" monkey wedding. Opting to "take the bed" magically in lieu of an airplane ("Air- planes are so stuffy"), the two soon arrive in the desert far from Mumbai. As they hastily journey towards the feast, they meet an assortment of characters-a camel named Ismael, a line of elephants, and a snake charmer, among others-who offer directions. They do not, however, extend the wedding invitation to those they meet, for, as the snobby Fuzzy Patel insists, "it would be most improper if the common riffraff showed up, expecting to be invited." In the end, the poor atten- dance at the wedding results in a last-minute need for guests, and Shoba and Fuzzy Patel's helpers (who have been following them throughout) are included in the festivities. The plotline is predictable and silly; Fuzzy Patel's superiority streak adds a dose of humor and his creative efforts to exclude others are quite entertaining ("'In case you were wondering,' he called to the elephant, 'this wedding will be quite dull-no singing, no dancing, and the portions of food will be far too small for an elephant to enjoy"'). The explosively vibrant illustrations, featuring thickly applied gouache in fruity citrus, raspberry, and melon shades, are both funky and fanciful, and the absence of white space lends a boldness to the landscapes. While 82 * THE BULLETIN the story overall is notable for enjoyability rather than cultural information, an illustrated glossary of "Everyday Indian Things" and map of India provide clarifi- cation on textual references. HM

JOOSSE, BARBARA M. Bad Dog School; illus. by Jennifer Plecas. Clarion, 2004 [32 p] ISBN 0-618-13331-3 $15.00 Reviewed from galleys R 6 -9 yrs Zippy the dog is indeed zippy, "like a shook-up pop bottle ... ready to explode," and that suits his owner, Harris, just fine, since boy and pup share in muddy and rambunctious pastimes. The rest of Harris' family isn't so thrilled with Zippy's tendency to swipe food, dig up the garden, and leave muddy footprints on the white sofa, so they convince Harris to take Zippy to obedience school. Zippy graduates a star pupil, but his family finds the newly restrained pooch a definite disappointment; fortunately, a short trip to "bad dog school" restores some of Zippy's zip and allows him to strike a congenial balance ("He was obedient, but still fun"). The happy-medium ending is somewhat flat and programmatic, but it works better when considered as a veiled reassurance about kid manners and the flexible views thereof. More enjoyable, of course, is the description of Zippy's (and Harris') troublemaking shenanigans, and Joosse piles on gleeful sound effects ("Harris made waves in the water, blop, blop, while Zippy blasted their enemies. Kabloosht'), making the problems-and rewards-of Zippy's habits immediately clear while keeping them completely credible. Plecas' line-and-watercolor illustrations give Zippy fizzy outlines that suit his personality as well as his terrieresque ancestry; narrow, slightly wavery lines provide the scenes with a precision that makes Zippy's transgressions (especially those involving exuberant patterns of muddy pawprints) stand out. This could add some lively interest to a discussion of good manners or just make a pleasing kennelmate to Alice Provensen's A Day in the Life ofMurphy (BCCB 6/03). DS

KELLY, JOHN The Mystery ofEatum Hall; written and illus. by John Kelly and Cathy Tincknell. Candlewick, 2004 [32p] ISBN 0-7636-2594-9 $15.99 Reviewed from galleys R 6-9 yrs A gloomy mansion, a cryptic invitation, a naive couple anxious to sample the promised gracious hospitality, evil intentions, and lurking perils . . . sound familiar? The classic gothic setup is comically realized in this stylish romp that casts Horace and Glenda Pork-Fowler, devoted pig and goose spouses, as the would-be victim guests of Dr. A. Hunter, in reality-egad!-a wolf. Clues to Hunter's evil designs abound, and the audience can spend multiple viewings ferreting them out-the gallery of hunting scenes along the staircase, a shifty-eyed portrait of Hunter that spies on the couple from above the dinner table as they fatten for the kill, a poster advertising an upcoming pie feast, bookshelves stocked with The Book ofBacon, Let's Talk Pork, and Get Crackling. But justice waits in the wings for the murder- ous host, and as the soon-to-be entrees creep closer to their fate under video sur- veillance by Hunter, his plans unravel. The corpulent pair climb onto a gaily umbrella'd "bandstand"-actually a pie-making machine-but it sways under their weight. The wolf crawls in to make repairs, the crust descends, and the villain is cooked. A busload of wolf Goodfellas gathers in the penultimate spread for the OCTOBER 2004 * 83 advertised pie feast, carving the pie and toasting their absent host, and the nary- the-wiser Pork-Fowlers drive off into the sunset in a closing silhouette. Too often picture-book noir sendups rely on overly sly references that elude the child audience, but here the visual clues stand sturdily on their own, while the Pork-Fowlers' innocent narration counterpoints the dastardly and very, very funny scheme. Tincknell has a heyday with slick airbrushing, eerie chiaroscuro, and goofily ne- farious gadgetry that suggests committee work between Berkeley Breathed, Nick Park (especially in Chicken Run), and Rube Goldberg. Kids who are just inching past picture books will be delighted to stick around for one more title. EB

KELLY, KATY Lucy Rose: Here's the Thing about Me; illus. by Adam Rex. Delacorte, 2004 137p Library ed. ISBN 0-385-90234-4 $14.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-385-73203-1 $12.95 Ad Gr. 2-4 Third-grader Lucy Rose isn't happy about her parents' separation and her resulting move with Mom to Washington, D.C., but even though she's lonely and misses her dad, she throws herself into making friends, strategizing against enemies, and enjoying the time she now has to spend with her maternal grandparents (known as Madame and Pop), who live nearby. Lucy Rose's letters and phone calls to her dad, who lives back in Ann Arbor, offer some indication of the anxieties and feelings of loss concomitant with a family breakup, but it is the loneliness and insecu- rity evident in her occasional anonymous (and amusing) emails to Madame, who is a columnist specializing in child-rearing questions, that give Lucy Rose's character a level of believable complexity. The glossing-over of the repercussions of her parents' separation leaves a decided gap in Lucy Rose's character, and the email queries are more a plot device than a genuine exploration of her grief. Neverthe- less, as a hell-for-leather youngster styled after Eloise and Junie B., Lucy Rose is an engaging protagonist, and readers will enjoy watching her face down the world. Rex's pencil drawings sport a quiet tendency towards popeyed exaggeration that adds to the book's friendly accessibility. TC

KNUTSON, BARBARA, ad. Love and Roast Chicken: A Trickster Talefrom theAndes Mountains; ad. and illus. by Barbara Knutson. Carolrhoda, 2004 32p ISBN 1-57505-657-7 $16.95 R 4-7yrs High in the green hills under the snow-capped peaks of the Andes, Cuy the Guinea Pig repeatedly outsmarts Tfo Antonio the Fox, leaving the poor predator tired, hungry, and humiliated. Moss green, earth brown, jewel blue, and sunset gold invigorate the heavily textured, woodblock-style spreads, through which Cuy and his compadres romp along the sweeping lines of mountain slope and valley bowl. Lean nuggets of rollicking text read equally well before a group or by oneself, and Cuy's sassy rejoinders make this Brer Rabbit analogue an engaging standout. A Spanish-vocabulary pronunciation guide and glossary aid monolingual readers, and an author's note cites print and human sources from Bolivia and Peru for this traditional folktale and explains the use of a guinea pig as protagonist. TC

KOERTGE, RON Margaux with an X Candlewick, 2004 165p ISBN 0-7636-2401-2 $15.99 R Gr. 7-12 Margaux is accustomed to sliding through life with elegant and queenly perfec- tion, quietly despising her amoral gambler father and shallow acquiescent mother 84 * THE BULLETIN while openly despising, along with her friend Sara, the lesser beings who fill the halls at high school. One night she encounters Danny, a nobody from the year behind her, who's out checking on dogs adopted through his animal shelter; she aimlessly falls in with his noble espionage and then realizes that she genuinely likes the company of this smart, good-hearted, unimpressed young man. Soon the unusual pair are regular companions, with Margaux finding in this relationship a chance to invent herself according to her desires and not just her defenses. Koertge has created a compelling character in the outwardly icy Margaux, who's keenly aware of her persona (when Danny instructs her to act natural, she coolly responds, "So I should be a haughty bitch?") and her high value in the social marketplace, but whose penetrating intelligence has made it impossible for her to avoid questioning the merits of that value. The book's style and tone take their cue from their protagonist: the third-person, present-tense narration is cool and polished, shimmering with eloquent vocabulary and creative, condensed imagery; Margaux's self-conversion from commodity to human is a measured reification rather than a joyous breakthrough, but it's clear nonetheless that it's a badly needed new start. Though the honed, watchful edginess here is a change of pace from Koertge's more witty and plainspoken works, his fans will applaud him all the more for his flexibility, and they'll be intrigued by this exploration of a kind of character most people never really get to know. DS

KRULL, KATHLEEN A Woman for President: The Story of Victoria Woodhull; illus. by Jane Dyer. Walker, 2004 32p Library ed. ISBN 0-8027-8909-9 $17.85 Trade ed. ISBN 0-8027-8908-0 $16.95 Ad 7-9 yrs Nineteenth-century reformer Woodhull makes a timely appearance during this election season, reminding listeners that it is indeed possible for a woman to run for the Presidency. Her rags-to-riches story, which would play nicely at a contemporary convention, may not have propelled her into the White House, but it has all the makings of a gripping tale for a twenty-first-century audience-an abusive father; a kindly patroness; careers as child preacher, spiritualist, stockbroker, newspaper editor, suffragist; multiple marriages; a gutsy run for the highest office in the land. Unfortunately it doesn't pack very neatly into the text-intensive picture- book format, as Krull tosses out juicy family tidbits, then maddeningly leaves them unexplained. With whom did Victoria travel on the preacher circuit? Was her first husband responsible for their children's medical problems? How did she "rescue" her sister Tennessee? How did they meet Cornelius Vanderbilt? Why and how did her family plot against her? Dyer's watercolors portray Woodhull with a delicate porcelain face, a backbone of cast iron, and expressive blue eyes that flash between piercing and pensive, and the meticulously detailed settings, from Delmonico's to lecture halls, convey the range of milieus in which Woodhull mingled. As might be expected for a subject rarely featured in children's literature, Krull's bibliography lists only adult sources; listeners may very well want to know more, so be prepared to do some supplemental reading. EB

LASKY, KATHRYN Blood Secret. HarperCollins, 2004 24 9p Library ed. ISBN 0-06-000065-1 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-000066-X $15.99 Ad Gr. 8-12 After her mother's disappearance, eight-year-old Jerry de Luna decides to stop speaking. Six years later, Jerry is sent to live with her great-great aunt Constanza, OCTOBER 2004 * 85 a baker in New Mexico. Upon finding an old trunk in the basement ofConstanza's Albuquerque home, Jerry discovers that she is able to transcend the present and experience the lives of individuals during the Spanish Inquisition, individuals who she comes to realize are her own ancestors. Lasky's latest novel is thus part contemporary realism, part historical fiction, and part fantasy, with the story unfolding as Jerry visits the cellar and discovers artifacts from the past tucked into the trunk that had journeyed from Spain to the New World hundreds of years ago. The historical voices change, moving rapidly through generations, all sharing the common experience of being Jewish during the Inquisition, of secretly practicing their faith, of forced baptisms and burnings at the stake. The historical thread is strong, and the present-day account of Jerry's experiences, as she overcomes her mutism and tells her aunt about the trunk, is well developed. Attempts to inte- grate the past and the present in a meaningful way fall short, however, and they'll likely leave readers flipping rapidly back, looking for the part they missed. Constanza's total unawareness of her history and her family's Judaism, despite her possession of the family trunk, isn't credibly explained, and her personal struggle with the details Jerry relates lacks development, never really substantiating the self- discovery it implies. Ultimately, the contemporary angle contributes little to an otherwise absorbing historical tale of the Inquisition, but readers willing to sort through the voices and shifts in time may find this an enjoyably complex novel. A family tree is included, along with an author's note providing an overview of the history and a brief bibliography. HM

LAWRENCE, MICHAEL A Crack in the Line. Greenwillow, 2004 323p Library ed. ISBN 0-06-072478-1 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-072477-3 $15.99 R Gr. 8-12 Sixteen-year-old Alaric and Naia are the same person-almost. Because the chances of their embryo's being male or female were equal, the universe has split into parallel realities-one containing the sullen, disagreeable Alaric, the other holding instead the cheerful, thoughtful Naia. Brought together by a mysterious connection through a generations-old tree in their backyard, the two teenagers trace the original crack in the family line that resulted in their distinct worlds. Frequent visits back and forth reveal that there are countless parallel universes from which countless more split off daily (including one in which Alaric sees his father as a thief and a murderer). In just over a week, family mysteries are detected and resolved piece by piece, while Alaric, whose mother was killed in a train wreck two years before, must deal with seeing Naia's mother alive and his own life as it might have been. The various worlds are cleverly written to be recognizable as alternates, and the 50/50 chances pointed up by the differences between worlds gives the reader cause to cogitate further on the motivations behind each choice. Though there are a few glitches in setup and plotting (is the protagonists' final exchange really permanent, since its mechanism remains accessible?), the superior wordcraft, thorough world-building, and compassionate characterization make this novel an attractive choice for teens trying out SF for the first time. TC

LEAVITT, MARTINE Heck Superhero. Front Street, 2004 14 4 p ISBN 1-886910-94-4 $16.95 R Gr. 5-8 Heck is a heroic caretaker to his beloved and easily overwhelmed mother, who periodically sinks into depressions that he categorizes as "hypertime"; he's therefore reluctant to seek external help when eviction from their apartment not only 86 * THE BULLETIN leaves him with no place to stay but also means he has no idea where his mother actually is ("Going to the police would be the end of their secret that Everything Wasn't Necessarily Okay"). At heart a superhero, prone to drawing comics when his art teacher would rather he devoted time to serious practice of his considerable artistic talent, Heck is convinced that the way to right this situation is to perform the ultimate Good Deed, since the "Good Deed was the only way to change the reality you were in right now, the only way to make everything okay." Leavitt paints with painful clarity the dilemma of a boy trying not to slide into oblivion while trying to do the best he can for the parent he adores. The narrative is quietly eloquent about the sudden evaporation of structure in Heck's life and his brave but doomed attempts to muster sufficient power to restore it. There's also rich- ness in the cast of characters he caroms off of, ranging from concerned authorities to suspicious adults to kids even more troubled than he, as he wanders the streets in search of his mother; his own character is defined not only by his determination and creative fantasy but also the loyal affection he's earned from those who know him, such as his best friend, Spence, and his supportive art teacher. Imaginative yet sympathetic, this is a telling portrait of a kid whom readers will be glad to see find his way back into the mainstream. DS

LE GUIN, URSUL Gifts. Harcourt, 2004 [288p] ISBN 0-15-205123-6 $17.00 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 7-12 Brantors, or chiefs, of the various clans of the Uplands have powers passed down through generations, powers to call animals to the hunt, start fires, cast a wasting disease, or undo the very essence of a life or thing. The clans live isolated from the inhabitants of the Lowland cities in an uneasy truce, where each people's ambi- tions are kept at bay by fear of the other's vengeance. Two Upland teenagers, Gry and Orrec, have grown from childhood friendship into romance and also into a repudiation of their hereditary powers: Gry refuses to call animals to their deaths, and Orrec blindfolds himself to harness his wild power to "undo." Rejecting traditions that bind them to roles unwanted and undesired, Gry and Orrec decide to leave their homes and seek a freer if less privileged life in the Lowlands. Le Guin's gentle storytelling subtly provides the family and feudal histories related to the gifts and their transformation from boon to bondage, and her work has an underlying mythic quality that speaks to the land's ecology while it supports the continuing action. Orrec narrates the story of his people and his family with the confused, passionate voice of a youngster struggling with powers and emotions he does not understand and cannot control. The couple's choice to leave their families' tradition-bound futures behind is a moral and emotional decision that has a sincere if quiet resonance, and readers will relate to the rite of separation even as they're absorbed in the notion of a powerful yet burdensome heritage. JMD

LIMB, SUE Girl, 15, Charming but Insane. Delacorte, 2004 214p Library ed. ISBN 0-385-90244-1 $17.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-385-73214-7 $15.95 R Gr. 7-10 Jess is a cheerful and creative girl, though she's working below her potential in school ("There had never been underachievement like it, apparently. It was almost an achievement in itself") and, as far as she's concerned, in the romantic stakes: she longs for handsome Ben Jones, despite the fact that he seems more in OCTOBER 2004 * 87 the league of her perfect friend Flora. It doesn't help that her family life is in upheaval, with her grandmother moving in with Jess and her mother, and that Jess has been unintentionally neglecting her longtime buddy, Fred. Limb's ebullient style and witty lines will delight fans of Rennison's Angus, Thongs, andFull-Frontal Snogging (BCCB 5/00) who have grown ready for something a little more sophis- ticated, while events such as Jess' tragic mishap with an emergency pair of pros- thetic breasts (made from minestrone soup in plastic bags) ensure that sophistication still takes a backseat to solid comedy. The relationship drama goes through some familiar dynamics (before Fred and Jess can discover and avow their mutual romantic interest, they undergo several misunderstandings about who really likes whom), but the easy banter of the old friends is witty and plausible; the book also adds a fresh touch to the paradigm by making Ben a really good guy-and smarter than Jess had thought-who genuinely likes Jess as a friend and who wishes to stay uncoupled. Readers will relish the heady blend of rueful humor and tantalizingly uncertain romance. DS

LION, MELISSA Swollen. Lamb, 2004 18 3p Library ed. ISBN 0-385-90876-8 $17.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-385-74642-3 $15.95 Ad Gr. 9-12 Mediocrity has always provided a hedge of protection for Samantha; it allows her to remain invisible at school, to pursue (or rather, allow) anonymous sexual liaisons with faceless boys on the beach, and to avoid entanglement in the complicated adult relationships that surround her. When Farouk arrives at her school and shows an interest in her, she wishes to be something more, someone who is fascinating enough to win his love, but this relationship, like all the others, doesn't last beyond sex. Lion provides enough detail for the reader to realize the pressures placed on Farouk to succeed and pursue relationships within the Persian community, but Sam reduces his distancing himself from her to the fact that he's a boy, and all boys necessarily grow into men like her father-faithless, thoughtless, and irresistible. Sam's narrative voice is misty and dissolute, annoyingly peppered with conjunctions that don't join anything, leaving the reader with the persistent feeling of having missed something. Her philosophy of love is clear enough, however: being a boy's first love is as good as it gets, and even that isn't very good. She flirts with the idea that a baby might give you something to hold on to-after all, it worked for her father's girlfriend, who is the only trustworthy adult in Sam's life, and it worked for Linda, the girlfriend of the most popular boy in school, whose death by mysterious circumstances floods Sam with existential quandaries. It's all fairly gloomy, but readers weary and wary of Dessen- and Cabot-style happily-ever-afters might feel more at home with Sam's grim acceptance that all relationships are inherently dysfunctional so that, in the end, the only thing left to do is cope. KC

LUNGE-LARSEN, LISE, ad. The Hidden Folk: Stories of Fairies, Dwarves, Selkies, and Other Secret Beings; illus. by Beth Krommes. Houghton, 2004 72 p ISBN 0-618-17495-8 $18.00 R Gr. 3-6 As the source note explains, traditional tales often lack the narrative thrust modern readers crave, so these bits of folklore have been expanded by the author into short, highly readable stories introducing the "hidden folk" of northern Europe. Con- cise descriptions of each class of folk set the stage for the illustrative tales, and snippets of intriguing trivia dot the pages. The intimate and chatty tone of the 88 * THE BULLETIN text, which offers highly desirable secret information on how to interact with the denizens of Faerie, encourages confidence in the teller's veracity and repeated reading of the collection. A wide range of clear colors, shaded via ink detailing rather than through tonal variance, light the illustrations of rounded and stocky people, fairies, and dragons, whose robust linocut lines impress the viewer with their sturdy physicality. An introduction to the collection provides a cozy overview; a list of references and a general comment about origins, but no specific sources, are provided. TC

MACKLER, CAROLYN Vegan Virgin Valentine. Candlewick, 2004 228p ISBN 0-7636-2155-2 $16.99 R Gr. 7-12 Mara Valentine is heading surefootedly into the future, planning to graduate high school as the valedictorian of her class (beating out her ex-boyfriend) and, courtesy of additional studies, start college as a sophomore in the fall, much to the pleasure of her fond parents. Into this orderly arrangement comes Mara's rebellious year- younger niece, Vivienne Vail Valentine, known as V; Mara's parents leap gleefully into rescuing their errant other daughter's errant daughter, lavishing encourage- ment and attention on her every move while Mara grits her teeth and tries to adjust to V's invasion of every aspect of her life. Mackler demonstrates the same sharp perception as she did in The Earth, My Butt, and Other Round Things (BCCB 10/03) but applies it to a more complicated problem: a girl who's so goal-oriented that she's lost sight of the journey. Though trusty Mara and wild V learn from each other and gradually develop a relationship, the book keeps the theme of V's and Mara's mutual education underplayed, focusing more on Mara's gradual self- questioning and making her reconsideration of her priorities quietly convincing. The slowly evolving love story between Mara and her young boss at the coffee house where she works isn't so much a subplot as a complementary plot, showing Mara what she's missing and giving her an incentive to loosen the bond with her overly supervisory parents, to whom she's tethered by a cell phone. The sensitive and mature romance makes this additionally appealing, but Mara will be a sympathetic heroine to young adults seeking to define their own paths. DS

MARCHETTA, MELINA Saving Francesca. Knopf, 2004 [24 0p] Library ed. ISBN 0-375-98982-7 $17.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-375-82982-2 $15.95 Reviewed from galleys R* Gr. 7-12 Francesca is already discomfited by a school change-she's spending her last two years of high school at a mostly male, previously all-male institution, while her best friends from her old school are all finishing up together at a much more wel- coming place-when her mother suffers a debilitating depression. Lively, opin- ionated Mia has always been the mainstay of her family, so Francesca's gentle father is overwhelmed by the incapacity of the woman he adores, while Francesca and her brother, Luca, struggle along as best as they can with this huge hole in the part of life that defines them ("My mother won't get out of bed and it's not that I don't know who she is any more. It's that I don't know who I am"). Francesca's lonely struggle is eased as she begins to find not just random companionship but genuine, meaningful friendship of a kind she'd sacrificed for popularity at her old school, and it's those friendships that give her strength to face, survive, and address the situation at home. Australian author Marchetta, author of LookingforAlibrandi (BCCB 4/99), takes what could be a predictable problem novel and turns it into a OCTOBER 2004 * 89 rich exploration of maturation, identity, family, and friendship. There's a deft contrast and also connection between Francesca's ordinary anxieties about her mother's influence and her helpless distress about the breakdown that's dissolving her family, but it's also clear that it's the adversity that has driven Francesca to find friendships of real value, and even the beginnings of romance. Readers will appreciate Francesca's delicate, gradual appreciation of her mother-and herself-as a magnetic yet fallible human being. DS

4 MARK, JAN Useful Idiots. Fickling, 2004 09p Library ed. ISBN 0-385-75032-3 $17.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-385-75023-4 $15.95 Ad Gr. 9-12 Merrick Korda's field of archaeology has fallen into disrepute since the apocalypse, but he remains committed to it. He uncovers more than he expects, however, when he assists in the recovery of Parizo Man, an "Aboriginal" (the term for those English who remain in traditional towns, their traditional ways protected by the state) buried in a plundered grave uncovered by a storm on a strip of protected coast. Parizo Man becomes the center of a political maelstrom, and Merrick finds himself deeply involved with the Aboriginals, who possess unusual bone growths known as "pearls," which are harvested by the unscrupulous and sold for a great deal of money to collectors of illegal precious gems. Merrick discovers that the sting of a particular horsefly is actually the cause of the valuable growths; after he arranges for the insect to bite him and grows his own pearl, he too becomes a player in this dangerous intrigue. On the surface the author creates a believable futuristic world with credible politics: corporations run the world, history has been rewritten, and ethnic loyalties are passe due to the past wars caused by na- tionalistic fervor. The archaeologist's intellectual passion is authentically fervent, and the bureaucratic morass of idealism run amuck is chillingly portrayed. Unfor- tunately, the contrivances of character and plot, as well as the uneven pacing, im- pede the storytelling, and Merrick's age (twenty-seven) and absence of personality mean that he's less than a magnetic protagonist for teen readers. While this isn't up to the standards of futurist adventures such as Farmer's The House of the Scor- pion (BCCB 11/02), mature young adult readers with a penchant for scientific espionage may nonetheless be intrigued by this future shock. JMD

MATTHEWS, L. S. Fish. Delacorte, 2004 183p Library ed. ISBN 0-385-90217-4 $16.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-385-73180-9 $14.95 Ad Gr. 4-8 They stayed through years of drought and a deluge of flood, but when war threatens to get too close to their village, relief workers Mum and Dad tell Tiger that they have to go to the border where they can get word to their embassy and fly home. Tiger insists on bringing along a fish that has appeared in a muddy pool left behind by the heavy rains. Assisted by a native guide, the family encounters several life-threatening moments on their journey, including being nearly kidnapped by rogue soldiers. The fish, heavily freighted with symbolic resonance, gets smaller and smaller as their hope and water supply dwindle. In fact, the metaphoric grav- ity rather sours the more concrete appeals of the story. Deliberately hazy details seem designed to make the story mythic and universal, but any reader with a mo- dicum of curiosity regarding Tiger's gender or age (never hinted at), the country they are fleeing (probably somewhere in Africa), and their country of origin (probably England) will doubtless be frustrated by the author's omission of these things. 90 * THE BULLETIN

The solid facts of the escape adventure, the taut suspense, and the atmospheric descriptions make this sufficiently absorbing on the manifest level, though, so readers may find the storytelling bait worth the allegorical hook. KC

McMULLAN, KATE My Travels with Capts. Lewis and Clark, by George Shannon; illus. by Adrienne Yorinks. Cotler/HarperCollins, 2004 260p Library ed. ISBN 0-06-008100-7 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-008099-X $15.99 Ad Gr. 5-8 George Shannon, the youngest member of the Corps of Discovery, is an attractive focus for a kids'-eye-view of the famed expedition, and McMullan joins the bicen- tennial hoopla with another fictionalized journal "penned" by the teenage explorer. In this iteration Shannon is chosen to accompany the party largely because Lewis' Newfoundland dog Seaman takes a liking to him. Shannon, of course, does pull his weight on the crew and, as one would expect, his journal not only details the sights and travails of the westward journey but also his own maturation in the company of world-wise men. The journal ends abruptly with the Corps' arrival at the Pacific coast, and were it not for an appended "letter" from George to his mother hinting at another journal (very likely a McMullan sequel) to come, readers might feel that the explorers have completed their task and will catch the red- eye back East. In her concluding note McMullan claims bragging rights to a family relationship with Shannon and mentions that he actually presented his mother with journals, but she stops short of saying she used them for her research. Since Shannon's character is, then, pretty much left up to authorial imagination, readers may find that Ambrose's grittier version ofShannon (This Vast Land, BCCB 1/04), who occasionally joins in with his comrades' drinking and romancing, is considerably livelier than McMullan's somewhat primmer recreation. EB

METZ, MELINDA Raven's Point. HarperCollins, 2004 244p Library ed. ISBN 0-06-052372-7 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-052371-9 $15.99 R Gr. 7-12 Everyone is so elated when Elijah emerges from his year-and-a-half-long coma that they can't bring themselves to admit the odd changes they note in his personality. Besides, other strange occurrences are absorbing his friends' attention: Seth is seeing ghosts, Tavia has acquired power over both domestic and wild animals, and Jane is having peculiarly real flashbacks. Around their island of Raven's Point, even more sinister and gruesome things are happening-a mother is testing surgical implements on her own flesh in order to find the perfect weapon to kill her daughter, a father is taking bizarre steps to keep "sax and violins" from infecting his family, and a boy treats half of his father's beer with drain cleaner in a deadly game of Russian Roulette. It turns out that Elijah has become a living host for an ancient, disembodied evil that feeds on and accelerates people's deepest and most repressed hatreds and fears, and it's up to Seth, Tavia, and Jane to use their newly acquired "gifts" to stop it taking over the town. Both the romance and the gore in this fast-paced thriller are tinged with suspense; readers will be as interested in who hooks up as in who kills whom and how. The particular angers and resentments that fester out-of-control are eerily credible in their motivations, and the climax is cinematically weird enough to satisfy seasoned phantasmagoria fans. There's even a plug for doing research in the local library's special collections room, as Tavia, Seth, and Jane try to figure out how the island's past is linked to their present. OCTOBER 2004 * 91

Read this in broad daylight, and expect a few prickles and "eeeuuws" even then. KC

MILDE, JEANETTE Once upon a Wedding; written and illus. by Jeanette Milde. R&S, 2004 32p ISBN 91-29-66048-3 $15.00 R 5-8 yrs In this portrait of connubial chaos, the happy couple wants cherubic children, much like those they will no doubt have some day, to be in their wedding. What they get are Agnes, John, and Paul, who delay the ceremony by running off, steal the bride's shoes at the reception, open the presents, lose a tooth, and, finally, fall asleep under a table, causing panic among the grownups who can't find the little darlings. The bride and groom are good sports, however, as is evidenced by their dazzlingly goofy grins, and all ends happily ever after. Milde's depiction of the two nonintersecting worlds at the wedding is both frank and funny. While the bride and groom tear up over their vows, for instance, Agnes and John discuss the necessity of fresh blood on a tooth for the tooth fairy. Then, while the guests toast the happy couple, the children play a game of "you show me your underwear, I'll show you mine" under the table. The even width of the marker outlines make the cleanly drawn figures, with their round white eyes and prominent noses, seem perpetually good-natured and slightly daffy. Witty details pepper the already comic illustrations, including thought balloons in the shape of "for sale or trade" ads over the moms' heads as they try to ready the errant children for their task, sweat drops popping off the vicar as she worries about the lateness of the bride and groom, and an audience full of guests not knowing quite which way to look as they too wonder about the delay. Whimsical endpapers feature a wedding invitation in the front and a thank-you-for-the-toaster note at the end. Though she may wink at the adults here, Milde manages to keep a child-centered perspective as she turns wedding hoopla into a site for child's play. KC

MONTANARI, EVA Tiff, Taff, and Lulu; written and illus. by Eva Montanari. Houghton, 2004 32p ISBN 0-618-40238-1 $16.00 R 4-6 yrs Tiff, Taff, and Lulu are a sibling trio undergoing the tender ministrations of their beloved mother, who treats her offspring with scrupulous fairness, rotating the order of attention. That practice means that each kid has to take a turn at being last, however, resulting each time in the predictable whine of "Why am I always last?" Rivalrous sibling bickering swells until it finally leads to a scooter mishap that hurts their mother's leg; they're sufficiently chastened by this outcome to work together, bandaging Mummy's leg and tucking her up in bed. The saccharine tone of the resolution is undercut by one last unflagging whine (a still-wakeful Tiff looks at her sleeping family and, of course, wonders why she's always last), and the rhythmic iteration of the various sibling sequences, punctuated by the repeated plaintive query, gives the text an effective cadence and tight structure. The sibling-rivalry drama places itself in a vivid fantasyland by making the family into a chipper collection of little monstrosities with trollish hair and goblinesque teeth and ears, served by huge, old-fashioned utensils. Deep twilight colors shift palette from spread to spread, so the little trolls are sometimes a rich pink, sometimes a mossy green; rumpled or corrugated papers add further textures to mottled con- federations of color in acrylic and colored pencil, while the trolls themselves stand out against the backgrounds with near-sculptural relief. While nothing's going to 92 * THE BULLETIN put an end to sibling rivalry, the goblin family's quirky demonstration of its occasional absurdity may at least grant anxious siblings a little perspective and harried parents a little breathing room. DS

MORGAN, NICOLA Fleshmarket. Delacorte, 2004 2 10p Library ed. ISBN 0-385-90192-5 $17.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-385-73154-X $15.95 R Gr. 6-9 Robbie Anderson lives with his younger sister, Essie, in the worst of Edinburgh's early nineteenth-century slums, and he lays his once-prosperous family's downfall squarely on the shoulders of Dr. Robert Knox, the surgeon who, six years earlier, had removed a tumor from his mother in an operation from which she never recovered. Determined to avenge their misfortunes (which readers clearly understand are not of Knox's making), Robbie trails Knox to his home, where he is apprehended as a thief, and later to his laboratory, where he discovers that the doctor dissects human cadavers. Robbie becomes entangled with the "resurrection men" who supply the bodies, and soon the young teen is not only making money from the grisly trade but also neglecting his sister and heading down the same path to drunken indigence his absent father has traversed. With some fic- tionally fortuitous inspiration from a medical student who acts as Essie's protector, Robbie decides to reform. Getting out of the resurrection trade is harder than getting in, though, and a life-threatening injury lands Robbie in Dr. Knox's surgical theater and leads him to a new understanding of the ethical complexities of medical research and practice in the years before the conquest of pain. Although the character of the real-life Knox is obviously fictionalized here, Morgan effectively tucks him into the shadowy background of her atmospheric tale; when he does emerge in direct confrontation with Robbie, the elitist arrogance and single- minded dedication to advancing anatomical knowledge which reputedly charac- terized him are neatly realized. A brief concluding note comments on historical characters who appear in the novel. Readers who like their dank, dark-alley chillers with a touch of historicity should be chillingly pleased. EB

MORRIS, JACKIE The Seal Children; written and illus. by Jackie Morris. Lincoln, 2004 24p ISBN 1-84507-040-2 $16.95 Ad 5-7yrs Here the traditional story of the fisherman who captures a selkie bride by stealing her skin is given a diplomatic spin and a historical tie-in. The selkie comes to land on the Welsh coast of her own accord, having fallen in love "with the fair-faced, soft-voiced Huw who sang as he fished." Huw in his turn accepts the transitory nature of their alliance, and he keeps her sealskin as a freely given "sign of her love." After presenting Huw with two more signs of her love-children Ffion and Morlo--the selkie woman returns to her home in the waves. Later, when the local villagers try to gather funds to emigrate to the New World but cannot raise the money, Ffion and Morlo enlist their mother's help to dredge up a box of pearls from beneath the sea, which pay for everyone to sail to the Americas, though Morlo elects to remain behind as a seal with their mother. The text, loaded with imagery, reads well aloud, and many of the seascape illustrations, awash with the colors of the ocean, entice the eye to linger. The figures are less successful-the poses seem forced, and characters' eyes often stare blankly into space, distancing the viewer from the emotional import of the scenes. Audiences familiar with the usual version of the selkie-wife story, in which the fisherman steals her skin and keeps her OCTOBER 2004 * 93

captive for decades, may see this reworking as a too-obvious patch in the fabric of the tale. However, this rendering still resounds with the theme of personal transformation, and the addition of the motif of family unity may gain the story new converts. TC

O'MALLEY, KEVIN Lucky Leafi written and illus. by Kevin O'Malley. Walker, 2004 32p Library ed. ISBN 0-8027-8925-0 $16.85 Trade ed. ISBN 0-8027-8924-2 $15.95 R 4-7 yrs Glazed eyes greet the audience from the droopy-socked armchair potato wielding his videogame controls on the title page. The next scene pictures him springing to life as he works his way through level 20, only to be harried outside by the offstage voice of his mother: "Okay, mister, turn it off. Get outside and play." His retort of"I am playing!" gets him nowhere but to the door, and he and his frisky pooch are banished to the glory of a picture-perfect autumn day ("Stupid outside"). His buddies have been similarly marooned, and as they shuffle through the fallen foliage, they focus on a single leaf that dangles from a branch: "I heard that last leaf is lucky." They wait awhile for it to fall, but his pals can't go the distance and the boy and his dog are left to their lonely vigil. The boy outsmarts his quarry by hiding in a pile of leaves; the last leaf floats onto his hat and leads him on a chase. An abrupt segue returns the action to the armchair setting, where the boy gloats, "Level 20, you're going down, baby!", sporting the russet lucky leaf in his hair. O'Malley underscores the autumnal crispness with knife-edged borders and a matte palette that is tawny yet vivid, contrasting the broad swath of blue-green sky with the deep greens and glowing auburns of the landscape. Fans who are just finding their feet with the printed word will again appreciate O'Malley's simple, kid-world dialogue in speech bubbles: "What are you guys doing?" "We got kicked outside." "Aww nuts, I stepped in a pile." O'Malley comes dangerously close here to deliv- ering a message-there's fun to be had outdoors as well as in-but since video never becomes the enemy, the lesson goes down easily. EB

OSWALD, NANCY Nothing Here but Stones. Holt, 2004 2 1 5p ISBN 0-8050-7465-1 $16.95 R Gr. 4-7 Refugees from late-nineteenth-century Russia, Emma's family has traveled to Cotopaxi, Colorado, to form a new Jewish colony on the arid soil. Unscrupulous loan sharks, prejudiced neighbors, foraging bears, and quixotic Native American horse thieves (because Emma once gave them food, they generously give back her horse-once she's tracked it down) complicate a year already loaded with anxiety and grief: a family already trying to deal with the loss of Emma's mother then undergoes another tragedy when Emma's little brother dies, and Emma's older sister longs for a local man who doesn't return her affection and always takes out her frustrations on Emma. However, the innocent optimism of eleven-year-old Emma's narration tempers even the dreary prospect of the family's wintertime starvation-after all, things can't be too bad if she still has her beloved horse. Emma's perspective remains true to her age and experience throughout the novel, her eager eyes noticing everything and everyone in the community (to the reader's entertainment and elucidation), from speculative gossips to devout Sabbath-day worshippers. The struggles of the settlers are believably drawn against the historical backdrop of religious prejudice and physical hardship, but their small successes 94 * THE BULLETIN and dogged determination to continue their way of life endow the tale with hope. An author's note gives the historical basis for the novel. TC

PATERSON, JOHN Blueberriesfor the Queen; written by John and Katherine Pater- son; illus. by Susan Jeffers. HarperCollins, 2004 32p Library ed. ISBN 0-06-623943-5 $18.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-623942-7 $17.99 R 6-9 yrs Though William has rich fantasies of being a wizard who could "turn Hitler into a loathsome toad" and stop the war, he is frustrated at being too young to do real war work like his parents and his older brother, Roger. When Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands rents a nearby farm, he and Roger are enchanted by the idea of having a real live queen living so close, but neither is able to catch a glimpse of her. As William and his father pick blueberries, they discuss the difference between war work and peace work-the kind of work you do to help others cope with difficult circumstances-and William hatches a plan to visit the queen (whom he finds is "disguised like a grandma") with a gift of fresh-picked berries. An author's note reveals that the story is based on John Paterson's real-life experience when he was a boy, and the Patersons vividly capture the frustration and romantic idealism of a small boy's attempt to make sense of the world in terms that he understands from his storybook notions of war and service to his sovereign. Jeffers' art effectively mingles nostalgic, homey images of rural New England farm life and wartime work with the high flights of William's heraldic fantasies of queens, knights, and courtiers. The movements between the two are deftly handled, not so much an- nounced as signaled, offering sufficient context for even the youngest viewers to understand that William is reshaping reality through his imagination. Text and illustration work together to create a moving testament to the all-but-lost qualities of chivalry and grace in turbulent times. KC

PATNEAUDE, DAVID Thin Wood Walls. Houghton, 2004 [2 4 0p] ISBN 0-618-34290-7 $16.00 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 4-8 With the bombing of Pearl Harbor, eleven-year-old Joseph Hanada's life goes into freefall-from an accepted, even well-liked neighbor and schoolmate, to a social pariah or object of pity and charity, depending on the biases of his Washington townsfolk. His father, a leader in the Japanese-American community, is dragged off for interrogation by the FBI in the middle of the night, leaving his wife, mother, and two sons to fend without him throughout the coming years of the war. The Hanadas are moved to an assembly center in California, then on to a permanent camp at Tule Lake, where they reunite with former acquaintances and mark time in their flimsy quarters with mindless rounds of kitchen work, school and ball games, makeshift handicrafts, and scraping for any reliable information concerning the progress of the war and their own chance to return to their homes. Joseph's older brother, Mike, celebrates his eighteenth birthday by enlisting with the Japa- nese-American 442nd Regimental Combat Team, determined to prove his patrio- tism, and the young man loses his life saving an all-white battalion in Italy. This is a little short on nuance: Patneaude presents the Hanadas as committed American flag-wavers who never glance back to their homeland, and a tad more internal conflict on this issue would have gone a long way to enhance credibility. Dialogue is often unnaturally bookish: "'You need to start hanging around your own kind,' OCTOBER 2004 * 95

Mueller said to Ray. 'Joe is my kind,' Ray said." Myriad small humiliations, erupting prejudices, and gross violations of justice are clearly portrayed, though, and readers who've paid any attention to nightly news can draw their own parallels to the imperilment of civil rights in times of national crisis. EB

PEREZ, MARLENE UnexpectedDevelopment. Brodie/Roaring Brook, 2004 16 3p ISBN 1-59643-006-0 $16.95 Ad Gr. 7-12 While some girls may long for bigger breasts, Megan is sick of her generous en- dowment, which brings her physical discomfort and constant harassment, and she's hoping to undergo surgical breast reduction once she's eighteen. When Jake Darrow, the boy ofMegan's dreams, starts displaying an interest in her, she's thrilled, but even as their relationship progresses she can't help wondering if he really sees her as more than a pair of big boobs. Megan's narration effectively captures the viewpoint of a young woman who feels her body is controlling her destiny, and the depiction of the casual teen-and adult-harassment she undergoes rings true. The book's treatment of the issue is somewhat muddy, however: a character who resents being cruelly nicknamed for her big butt doesn't get any sympathy, there's little authorial indication that Megan is wrong in her feeling that she alone is so victimized, and nobody seems to realize that the boss' harassing actions are actually illegal as well as offensive. Jake is also more an ideal than a real character, but there's a sweetness to Megan's blossoming that will make readers happy to join the fantasy, regardless of their own development. DS

PIERCE, TAMORA Trickster's Queen. Random House, 2004 [432p] Library ed. ISBN 0-375-91467-6 $19.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-375-81467-1 $17.95 Reviewed from galleys R* Gr. 6-9 In this sequel to Trickster's Choice (BCCB 11/03), Aly accompanies the Balitang family back to the capital, Rajmuat, where the stakes are higher, the danger greater, and the politics more intricate. Chosen by the god, Kyprioth, to ensure that the raka rebels overthrow the ruling Rittevon line to install a raka queen, Aly is now the revolution's official spymaster, and she has her work cut out for her. Not only does she have to remove the boy-king and his power-mad regents, she has to do so while tiptoeing under the nose of the Crown's spymaster and the captain of the King's Guard. As the rebellion moves from covert gossip and symbolic attacks to visible assassination and fighting in the streets, Aly becomes increasingly aware of the immense personal costs, for all involved, of achieving a revolution. Jumping back into the thick of this complicated story may be disorienting for some readers, even with the explanatory prologue, but Pierce continues the momentum from the first book so well that they will be entertained no matter how long it takes them to catch up. The shockingly unpredictable plot developments and realistically nu- anced characters keep the story true to its volatile environment, while Pierce is careful to keep Aly likable by tempering her calculating ruthlessness with emotion and empathy (and a continuing romance). Still, Pierce does not pull back from the hard consequences of political maneuvering, and some of the events orches- trated by rulers, rebels, and Kyprioth are rightly horrifying. Though the revolution is ultimately successful, the end leaves events open enough for Aly's return, and fans will undoubtedly hope for more. KH 96 * THE BULLETIN

POLACCO, PATRICIA John Philip Duck; written and illus. by Patricia Polacco. Philomel, 2004 4 0p ISBN 0-399-24262-7 $16.99 Ad 7-10 yrs Charmed by the ducks at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis and intrigued by the story of Edward Pembroke, the first Peabody Duckmaster, Polacco floats an imaginative story of young Edward and his rise to fame. She includes the major players of the public-relations stunt in her tale, but she fictionalizes the account to make it a story of a young boy who finds an abandoned wild duck on his farm and takes it to raise. Since he works at the Peabody during the week, he enlists the entire staff in a conspiracy to keep John Philip Duck (named for Edward's idol, John Philip Sousa) a secret from the gruff but fair manager, Mr. Schutt. When John Philip gets mixed up with some live duck decoys who belong to Mr. Schutt's hunting buddies, Edward has to come clean, and Mr. Schutt decides to give him a month to train the ducks. He comes in under his deadline, training the ducks to march from the elevator to the lobby fountain to a Sousa march, stay in the fountain all day, and march back in the evening. The rest, they say, is history. Or, actually, not history, as the real story behind the ducks is quite different. In making this into a children's story, Polacco introduces the formulaic elements of a boy hiding a beloved pet, working hard to achieve a goal, and becoming world famous in the process. The events are contrived and somewhat syrupy to boot, but the tale nonetheless works fairly well-it's a strong, inspiring story with a satisfying ending, even if it isn't true. Polacco's signature illustrations of highly emotive figures in exaggerated poses (and this includes the ducks) provide the right tone for this celebratory tale of a quirky, determined kid; while the text goes on too long, there's enough suspense and genuine interest in the fate of Edward and his ducks to keep the fidgets at a minimum. KC

PROVOOST, ANNE In the Shadow oftheArk; tr. by John Nieuwenhuizen. Levine/ Scholastic, 2004 368p ISBN 0-439-44234-6 $17.95 R Gr. 9-12 Flooded marshes threaten the livelihood of Re Jana's fishing family, and they head east with a guide in search of the enigmatic Builder who is rumored to be con- structing a huge vessel in the middle of arid land. Re Jana's father cares little at first for the purpose behind the mysterious vessel; he's happy, like the rest of the laborers, to have the work, and he even respects the Builder himself: "He was passionate, he had a plan, it was not surprising he had won a special place in the heart of his god." As Re Jana catches the eye and secures the love of the Builder's son, Ham, information begins to spread concerning the prophecy of coming anni- hilation by flood; nonetheless the workers continue, certain that they will be shel- tered on the commodious ark. Of course, they are wrong. Ham sneaks Re Jana on board as his concubine, her father is left to float in the stormy waters in a reed funeral boat he had built for his wife, and Re Jana is torn between her desire to flee with her unborn child from this family of zealots or to secure her future on promised dry land. Provoost's Builder is a cannily crafted amalgam of Scriptural Noah, with his messy family concerns and his penchant for wine, and Mesopotamian Ut- napishtim, a master at dissembling to keep the work underway. Although extra- Biblical episodes aboard the ark are melodramatic-Re Jana's sexual encounters with all the Builder's sons and Ham's wife, a shipboard fire, the survival of three persons outside the Builder's family, the suicide of the Builder's wife (clearly not OCTOBER 2004 * 97

destined to be the seed sower of legend)-teleological issues at the heart of the flood story are challenging indeed, and readers will long ponder whether salvation has been justly awarded to the righteous. EB

REES, DOUGLAS Grandy Thaxter's Helper; illus. by S. D. Schindler. Atheneum, 2004 32p ISBN 0-689-83020-3 $15.95 R Gr. 2-4 Death has come to carry Grandy Thaxter away, but she's not ready. "I can't go until I finish my work," she says, and she invites Death to help her with the chores so that she "can leave sooner." Unaware that he's about to be had, Death agrees... and so begins a losing contest against Grandy's effervescent good humor and unstoppable drive. After a bone-tiring day of sweeping, dusting, and washing windows, his hands are too sore to carry off the bright-eyed, bustling old lady, so he offers to come back for her tomorrow. Another day of hard labor (making soap, grinding corn, making mush, washing clothes, and scouring dishes) and the promise of many more such chores convince "Mister Death" that Grandy is indeed far too busy to be carried away-and too busy she remains, "right to this very day." Salient details of this original yet folkloric tale are amply supplied in the concise, content-rich text; those who attempt a readaloud should be aware that ad libbing through the step-by-step descriptions of Mister Death's tasks will mean the loss of half the fun. Delicately ornamented gouache, watercolor, and ink illustrations, some presented as double-page spreads or full-page images and others dispensed in tasteful, wry vignettes, bring the nineteenth-century prairie to life around bandy-legged, crab-mouthed Death, himself dressed in an Abe Lincoln suit and sporting flyaway hair wisps under his stovepipe hat. Historically accurate dress, interior decoration, and tools complete the atmosphere of a prim and proper world in which people do what is expected of them, thus underlining the irony of watching a virtuous old woman pull a successful con on the Grim Reaper. While perfectly suited for Halloween reading, this trickster tale will pull its weight year 'round. TC

RYAN, PAM MUrOZ Becoming Naomi Ledn. Scholastic, 2004 [2 56 p] ISBN 0-439-26969-5 $16.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-6 As moms go, Naomi's is the pits: seven years ago, Skyla (nee Terri Lynn) dumped Naomi and Owen, aged four and one, in Gram's lap and bolted. Now Skyla is on Gram's doorstep, expecting to be welcomed back into her children's lives. A manipulative, abusive alcoholic, Naomi's mother plots to take Naomi with her to Las Vegas (she doesn't want Owen) in order to qualify for the government support money for poverty-stricken single parents, and when she's thwarted by Gram and the neighbors, she threatens to take legal action to get custody. In panic, Gram and the neighbors take the kids to Mexico to find Naomi and Owen's father, who sends money a couple of times a year without disclosing his address; they're hoping he will show up to the Christmastime radish-carving contest in Oaxaca City, at which members of his family have competed for the past century. Naomi's interest in soap-carving translates effortlessly into her award-winning idea for an entry in the annual contest, drawing Naomi and Owen's carver father close symbolically and literally. Realistic danger from the monstrous Skyla, quick strategizing by Naomi and Gram, and the incomparable thrill of international travel on the lam 98 * THE BULLETIN provide a peppery vitality to this carefully crafted story, in which Naomi's expedition to find her father gives her a chance to grow into her name of Naomi the Lion-Naomi Le6n. TC

SALLEY, COLEEN Why Epossumondas Has No Hair on His Tail; illus. by Janet Stevens. Harcourt, 2004 32p ISBN 0-15-204935-5 $16.00 R 4-6 yrs Some days it seems like everybody's got a better tail than you do. Skunks, foxes, and hares all have nifty, fluffy ones, but Epossumondas' tail isn't nifty or fluffy: it's "just pink and naked and funny looking." Luckily, Mama knows how opossum tails got that way, and she's ready with the story and a warm, comforting lap for Epossumondas to curl up in while he listens to a tale (apparently original, though folkloric in structure) told with the same Southern flair and homestyle wit that define the opossum's first literary adventure in Epossumondas (BCCB 10/02). The illustrations perfectly complement the dry humor of the text, providing visual comedy in intensely colored panels packed with exaggerated action and laced with convincing textures and sheens that invoke viewer credulity even as the images exult in the impossible. This charismatic pourquoi tale can be told aloud, sans livre, with great success; however, each illustrated spread is such an eye-pleaser that to omit use of the book completely would be a crying shame. TC

SAN Souci, ROBERT D., ad. The Well at the End of the World; illus. by Rebecca Walsh. Chronicle, 2004 4 0p ISBN 1-58717-212-7 $16.95 R 4-7 yrs In this well-documented folktale adaptation, Princess Rosamond journeys to the end of the world to retrieve the water that will cure her father's illness. Along the way, she responds willingly to various creatures' pleas for help, thus ensuring that she will be gifted with healing, riches, and love. Her selfish stepsister gives no such aid and in her turn is, as audiences will predict, afflicted with trollish ugliness, swampy scalp, and blimplike buoyancy. Vibrant watercolor and acrylic paintings in clear hues and jostling patterns fill Rosamond's world with pageantry, while in the corners of rooms and pockets of gowns wacky cameo performances by frogs, toads, and chickens provide narrative layering; viewers may, however, be puzzled by the art's occasional tendency to take off on its own mission (for instance, the illustrations also suggest that Rosamond receives the gift of beauty along with her stated rewards). The information-dense text supplies multiple layers of story as well-besides the traditional theme of goodness triumphant, the tale confirms the virtues of thriftiness, practicality, and friendship. These multiple themes and the occasional text-heavy page argue for an audience old enough to maintain focus, but the interest-loaded illustrations (which draw the eye even from a distance) give younger listeners plenty to discover during a readaloud. An author's note cites multiple published sources. TC

SCHWARTZ, AMY A Glorious Day; written and illus. by Amy Schwartz. Jackson/ Atheneum, 2004 32p ISBN 0-689-84802-1 $16.95 Ad 2-4 yrs Schwartz celebrates the quotidian pleasures of the very young in this portrayal of one day in the life of the four families who live in a small apartment building in the OCTOBER 2004 * 99

midst of a city. Each of the families has either a stay-at-home mom or a work-in babysitter and a variety of small children-one only child, one set of twin boys, one set of triplets with a school-age brother, and one baby girl with two school-age brothers. Round-headed figures of various skin tones with Joan Walsh Anglundish profiles and pin-dot eyes move in and out of the activities of the day as the kids get up, get dressed, play, have lunch, nap, go to the playground, have supper around their family tables, play on their stoop, and go to bed. It's all rather tidy and idyllic as the moms and sitters focus their full attention on their brood throughout the day, and nothing more exciting happens than the halfhearted escape of a pet bird. The white backgrounds that separate the vignettes keep the very busy scenes from appearing overcrowded, and no detail important to a kid's perspective is over- looked in either text or illustration. Parents may wince at the disconnect between the relative serenity of the worlds these orderly people inhabit and their own situ- ations, but kids will no doubt feel comforted by this utterly non-ironic celebration of the ordinary. KC

SINGER, MARILYN, ed. Face Relations: 11 Stories about Seeing beyond Color. Simon, 2004 2 2 4 p ISBN 0-689-85637-7 $17.95 R Gr. 7-10 These eleven stories take an unflinchingly honest look at relationships between teens of different ethnicities. The subtitle is rather unfortunate, as it may connote to some readers a fantasy of colorblindness, but this is emphatically not the position of the writers. Race matters in various ways to the characters as they bravely position themselves as people who live and love within culturally valued and deval- ued bodies and seek to build relationships that honor their differences rather than ignore them. They carry their elders' scars, fears, and hopes close to their hearts, trying not to, as Asako's Japanese mother tells her in Kyoko Mori's story, "stick out like an unruly nail waiting to be hammered down" because of their race. In- stead, they try to believe in the wisdom ofJoseph Bruchac's character Uncle Tommy, who says that "Whoever you are is real enough. Underneath our skins, everyone's blood is red." Yet they know that it is never that simple, and that though their elders might share their skin color, they do not share their world; hence they must find their own ways to live lives that can no longer be as insular as the worlds their parents inhabited. In these stories, friendships that were easy in elementary school become difficult to sustain, parental race and class prejudices interfere with ro- mances, and September 11th makes the most ordinary interactions between neighbors difficult. Characters "pass" or not, and they try to hold on to heritages even when they are unsure of what they mean. Though the stories are tinged with melancholy, none is without soundly realizable hope, grounded in the courage of the teens themselves. This book will set the stage for many a difficult and necessary conversation about the diverse ways race has come to matter in contemporary teen life. KC

SKURZYNSKI, GLORIA Are WeAlone?: Scientists SearchforLife in Space. National Geographic, 2004 92p illus. with photographs ISBN 0-7922-6567-X $18.95 R Gr. 5-8 There's no shortage of material describing Roswell and its seductive ilk, but there aren't many books for young people that explore the genuine science surrounding the issue of life outside of the planet Earth. Fortunately, Skurzynski is here to help 100 * THE BULLETIN plug that gap, with a title that examines the notion from a variety of angles. After gently debunking popular notions of alien visitation, the book goes on to discuss projects trying to find evidence of life, such as SETI and other astronomical efforts to peer into or listen to the depths of space, and research that explores signs of and kinds of life, even here on Earth, that may lead to an understanding of what kind of extraterrestrial existence we might encounter. The prose is sometimes a bit dry, and better use might have been made of images (the often unhelpful captions don't even distinguish actual photographs from created art), but there's still plenty of life energy pulsating through the text. Extensive primary research means that the scientists get to explain their own goals, motivations, and rationales (sidebars provide brief biographies, with emphasis on the scientists' youth), and this is an articulate and enthusiastic group of people, deft at explaining the connections between undersea studies, volcanic examination, dolphin language, etc., and the possibilities of extraterrestrial life. Even readers familiar with SETI may not have thought about the ramifications of the other kinds of research covered in the book, so there's a quiet point made about the breadth of science applicable to the problem; there's also a tacit invitation to youngsters to jump into science themselves and contribute to the effort. This will make an easy booktalk and an absorbing antidote to Close Encounters et al. End matter includes a glossary, source notes, an index, and a bibliography of books and websites. DS

STEVENSON, JAMES No Laughing, No Smiling, No Giggling; written and illus. by James Stevenson. Foster/Farrar, 2004 3 2 p ISBN 0-374-31829-8 $16.00 R 4 -7 yrs Mr. Frimdimpny the large reptile (crocogator?) invites youngsters into this book on the condition that they do not "laugh or smile or giggle" or "do anything you are told NOT to do." If these rules are broken, the readers must "go all the way back to the front of the book!" Several opportunities follow for readers and listeners to laugh, smile, giggle, and otherwise disobey these regulations, in collabora- tion with resistance fighters Freddy Fafnaffer the pig and Wiggly-Worm. Stevenson's signature watercolored scribbles encourage this rule-breaking attitude, as colors spread casually into the forbidden territory of white space and lines cross and disconnect with beguiling abandon. Mercurial changes in visual perspective and storyline and the final overthrow of the dictatorial Mr. Frimdimpny heighten a chaotic atmosphere designed to appeal to mulishly independent young listeners. The irregular structure of the story and the frequent trips back to the front of the book (as ordered by Mr. Frimdimpny) may backfire on audiences accustomed to more straightforward tales; nonetheless, exuberant storytime leaders will infuse the performance with the necessary energy to display this book's charms in full. TC

STRATTON, ALLAN Chanda's Secrets. Annick, 2004 [193p] Paper ed. ISBN 1-55037-834-1 $8.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-9 Just because "everyone is either infected or affected" by HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa does not mean that the disease is not enshrouded with shame and stigma. When sixteen-year-old Chanda loses her baby sister to the disease, and her mother's man, Jonah, shows up writhing in agony, Mrs. Tafa, the local busybody and Chanda's mother's best friend, calls in a local spirit doctor, who diagnoses witch- craft plaguing Chanda's house. Her mother must therefore leave to confront her OCTOBER 2004 * 101 sister, who has laid a curse on her. Chanda slowly begins to realize that her mother has gone away to hide her disease, which means that she is dying far away from her loved ones. Meanwhile, Chanda's friend Esther has become a prostitute in order to make enough money to bring her own family back together after their parents' death. Despite Mrs. Tafa's attempts to keep the stigma of AIDS far from her neighbors' door, Chanda knows that people matter more than reputation; she allows the infected Esther to come live with them, and she brings her mother home to die. This is a searing book on an important subject, but Stratton avoids didacticism and strain in his storytelling; instead, he creates believable characters whose circumstances threaten to overwhelm their judgment and their values. Chanda is as outspoken and honest as she needs to be, and even though she is sometimes mortified by her own boldness, her bravery (and her cowardice) is always tinged with the necessity of her horrific situation. Mrs. Tafa, whom Chanda wants to hate, turns out to be a complex, caring, but flawed human being; she is chastened by Chanda's unflinching loyalty to her loved ones, and the reader, like Chanda, is forced to forgive her. Stratton neither overplays nor underplays the tragedy or the hope here, and there is not a maudlin moment in the novel, just genuine grief and understanding as the epidemic assumes some of its many human faces. KC

WAIT, LEA Wintering Well. McElderry, 2004 [192p] ISBN 0-689-85646-6 $16.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-6 Twelve-year old Will Ames always knew that he would grow up to be a farmer on his family's Maine farm, but when a tragic accident results in the amputation of his leg, an angry Will is forced to reassess his future plans. Set in 1819, the year Maine joined the United States, this historically based novel is told mostly from the perspective of Cassie, Will's eleven-year-old sister, whose journal entries open each chapter. As Will is no longer able to help out on the farm, it is decided that he will spend the summer season with his married sister and her husband in Wiscasset, the nearby town, with Cassie accompanying as caretaker. The timely involvement of the compassionate Dr. Theobold opens up vast new opportunities both for Will, who gets a wooden leg and starts taking his penchant for wood- working more seriously, and for Cassie, who nurses Dr. Theobold's sick wife and discovers her own gift for helping the ill. Run-ins with local bullies, Will's attitude about his condition, and the looming question of whether the two Ames children will be able to remain in Wiscasset add narrative tension to the tale; the result is a solidly constructed story that inspires readers to reflect on coping with change and dreams revised. Cassie's particular struggle with Will's growing independence (and subsequently lessening dependence on her) is thoughtfully portrayed, and the growing up the two characters do over the course of the season is well demonstrated in the plot and dialogue. Historical notes provide background information on Wiscasset and the state of the medical field at the time of the novel. HM

WARREN, ANDREA Escape from Saigon: How a Vietnam War Orphan Became an American Boy. Kroupa/Farrar, 2004 110p illus. with photographs ISBN 0-374-32224-4 $17.00 R Gr. 4-8 More than one million South Vietnamese children were orphaned as a result of the Vietnam War; woven into this statistic is the story of Operation Babylift, the U.S. 102 * THE BULLETIN government's 1975 effort to evacuate orphans that had American families waiting for them in the States before the fall of Saigon. Warren (author of Orphan Train Rider, BCCB 9/96), herself an adoptive parent of a Vietnamese child through Operation Babylift, focuses her exploration on Matt Steiner, who was eight years old at the time of his arrival in the United States. The single life serves as an effective lens for viewing the bigger story, as the text offers a compelling and moving description of one boy's experience in losing his own family, living in a Saigon orphanage, and, eventually, departing from his homeland to meet his adoptive family, the Steiners, in Ohio. Matt's memories are effectively reconstructed to portray his child's-eye perspective, with recollections of playing marbles and learning to tie his shoes as deep as memories of soldiers and distant gunfire. The extensive minute-by-minute description of the day he leaves Saigon is made all the more gripping by the shadow of the first Operation Babylift flight, which departed the previous day and crashed just outside of Saigon. While the story generally main- tains a political distance from opinions about the war, the text often suggests (without making entirely clear if this viewpoint is Steiner's, Warren's, or both) that the United States abandoned the South Vietnamese when help was most needed. Ultimately, though, this is a story not about war itself but those innocent lives caught in its grip; Warren's text provides ample opportunity for discussion as the thirty-year anniversary of Operation Babylift approaches. Archived photographs, both from Steiner's personal collection and public sources, are used throughout the text; photo credits and an index are included. HM

WEIL, SYLVIE My Guardian Angel; tr. by Gillian Rosner. Levine/Scholastic, 2004 [2 2 4 p] ISBN 0-439-57681-4 $16.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-6 The Jews of Troyes, France, are frightened by the Crusaders who are camping in the fields around their community on their way to the Holy Land and who pose an enormous threat to people of their faith. Twelve-year old Elvina is particularly aware of their presence, as her grandfather is an important rabbi and teacher in the town. When she discovers Gauthier, a young Christian boy, hiding from the Crusaders in an alley in her part of town, a forbidden friendship develops, one that she must keep hidden from her family. Elvina is certain her sin will lead to destruction for her family, but in the end, it is her friendship with Gauthier that saves her father from persecution by the Crusaders. Elvina is a resourceful character with a spirited voice and an often amusing take on events. The narration, which alternates between first and third person, is punctuated by dialogues with her Mazal, or guardian angel, to whom Elvina turns whenever there is a crisis to avert. Sup- porting characters offer similarly well-developed personae, from the overeager twin cousins of Elvira's best friend, to Obadiah, the teacher for whom Elvina secretly pines. The plot is less successfully developed, especially Elvina's friendship with Gauthier, which, although key to the story's conclusion, is more often referenced than demonstrated. Elvina nonetheless provides a candid and often humorous perspective on everyday life of the period as well as an intriguing take on the experience of being Jewish in Europe in 1096. An afterword provides factual tie-ins, and a glossary offers extensive interpretations of Jewish and Hebrew terminology used throughout the tale. HM OCTOBER 2004 * 103

WESTERFELD, SCOTT So Yesterday. Razorbill/Penguin, 2004 [2 5 6 p] ISBN 1-59514-000-X $16.99 Reviewed from galleys R* Gr. 7-12 See this month's Big Picture, p. 57, for review.

WILLEMS, Mo Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale; written and illus. by Mo Willems. Hyperion, 2004 32p ISBN 0-7868-1870-0 $15.99 R* 2-6 yrs An ordinary trip to the laundromat with Daddy turns catastrophic when young Trixie notices that Knuffle Bunny, her necessary stuffed rabbit, isn't with them on the trip home. Unable to speak words that her father understands, Trixie wails and goes "boneless," but to no avail, since her father just gets irritated. Mom to the rescue-she immediately grasps the source of Trixie's discontent, and the family rushes to the laundromat to retrieve the beloved toy. As with his pigeon books (BCCB 5/03, BCCB 7/04), Willems' keen sense of illustration and design once again take center stage in this hilarious microdrama. He juxtaposes cartoon characters reminiscent of old Sunday comics against black-and-white photographic studies of an urban neighborhood, setting the whole thing on a creamy sage green background that occasionally breaks the frame to augment the mood of an illustration. The design is visually original and flawlessly executed, full of deliriously funny "turn-back-I-wanna-see-that-page-again" moments. Willems is a master minimalist, evoking emotion with the tilt of a mouth or the set of an eyebrow. The various neighborhood witnesses to Trixie's meltdown provide wry though mute commentary with their sidelong glances, Dad is especially heroic in his search for Knuffle Bunny, and Trixie is truly a toddler scorned when her charades fail to produce results. Willems definitely scores another home run with this one; bonus points go to readers/viewers who find the pigeon. KC

WILLEY, MARGARET Clever Beatrice and the Best Little Pony; illus. by Heather M. Solomon. Atheneum, 2004 32p ISBN 0-689-85339-4 $16.95 R 4-8 yrs Beatrice is troubled to find her beloved pony, Treffle, muddy and exhausted in the morning, as if somebody had ridden him all night. When this phenomenon re- curs, Beatrice's mother suggests Beatrice seek an explanation from "the village expert on things not easily explained," the new bread maker. The bread maker suggests that this may be the work of a lutin, a little man "from the old country," and he assures Beatrice that he can help her deal with the invasion; it turns out, however, that it's really clever Beatrice whose ideas result in the apprehension and routing of the lutin. Experienced listeners will enjoy recognizing some of the motifs in this folklore-based tale, and Willey's flavorful and gently rhythmic prose retains the flow she demonstrated in Beatrice's previous outing, Clever Beatrice (BCCB 10/01). Audiences will particularly relish not only Beatrice's cleverness but the story's slyness in demonstrating that wisdom, as Beatrice politely consults the expert each time only to provide her own solutions in the face of the overhyped bread maker's continued bafflement. Solomon's illustrations give heft to their fluid watercolor elements with thicker pigments in acrylic and oils as well as the occasional touch of collage; the result is a robust and inventively picturesque style with a concretely imagined world of exaggerated beings and homely countryscapes. 104 * THE BULLETIN

Give an already appealing heroine a beloved pony and a magical antagonist, and you've got a well-nigh irresistible picture-book cocktail. A brief note gives no specific sources but explains the background and behavior of the folkloric lutin. DS

WOLF, ALLAN New Found Land: Lewis and Clark's Voyage of Discovery. Candlewick, 2004 500p ISBN 0-7636-2113-7 $18.99 R Gr. 6-10 Lewis and Clark hit the literary trail one more time, and now thirteen members of the considerably fictionalized Corps (dog included) and President Jefferson take a poetical turn, relating their experiences in free verse. Although some description of the flora, fauna, and landforms they were mandated to observe is included, the emphasis is on relationships among the crew and with the indigenous peoples they encounter. Wolf ascribes to each a sharply distinctive voice: Lewis is hawk-eyed and morose; George Shannon is acutely aware of his status as the youngster; the Field brothers surmount every hardship with teasing and kibitzing; Hugh Hall is forced to abandon his tippling habit; Clark's slave, York, gradually embraces unac- customed freedom; Seaman, Lewis' Newfoundland, is a long-winded, pedantic commentator; and Clark cannot leave his gentrified ways back East. The bulk of the verse is more workmanlike than inspiring, but passages that coordinate thought and speech with the rhythm of oars or saw blades are startlingly fresh, and multiple viewpoints of the same events are neatly plaited. Extensive end matter offers fact- oids about real-life Corps members, glossaries of Indian, French, and nautical terms, a complete personnel list, and suggestions for further (adult) reading. Approach- ing the five-hundred-page text is in itself an act of undaunted courage, but in- trepid readers can be justly proud and satisfied if they complete the journey. EB

YOURGRAU, BARRY My Curious Uncle Dudley; illus. by Tony Auth. Candlewick, 2004 211p ISBN 0-7636-1935-3 $15.99 Ad Gr. 4-6 Eleven-year-old Duncan is delighted to be left in the care of his eccentric uncle Dudley, world traveler, explorer, and all-around fascinating fellow, while his parents go on an extended road trip. A series of incidents related to mail-order po- tions and powders (Uncle Dudley partially disappears, goblins appear in the kitchen, a love potion results in amorous confusion) enliven Duncan's and Uncle Dudley's summer, although nothing ever turns out quite the way uncle or nephew plan. The incident-strewn plot is peppered with self-conscious prose with little to tie it all together, and the attempt to make this a learning experience for Uncle Dudley (who "grows up" when he puts the safety of his nephew before his magical experi- mentation) puts a little too much freight on what is intended to be light froth. Still, Auth's black-and-white illustrations have a cartoonily expressive humor, and Duncan is an enthusiastic narrator. Uncle Dudley's absentminded sorcery has an offbeat charm, which may be enough to get wizard-happy youngsters reading. JMD a OCTOBER 2004 * 105

PROFESSIONAL CONNECTIONS: RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS AND LIBRARIANS

LESTER, JULIUS On Writingfor Children & Other People. Dial, 2004 [160p] ISBN 0-8037-2867-0 $16.99 Reviewed from galleys At age sixty-five, Lester writes, "As I come to what may be the end of my writing life, I need to know how and why I became a writer." Fortunately for those into whose hands this book may fall, he chose to share his exploration with the reading public. This largely autobiographical volume resounds on multiple levels; Lester considers the meaning of writing, of storytelling, of imagination, of language, and, ultimately, of spirit as he travels with ease between conceptual exploration and intimate reflection on his own life and those of his ancestors. This is not about writing in the sense of putting pen to paper but a more abstract and deeply personal examination of how story and soul manifest in a life of writing. Those who teach or study storytelling, folklore, or literature will find extensive food for thought within its pages and especially in his recounting of the experience of adapting folklore; those simply interested in the spiritual side of the writing process will similarly find plenty upon which to reflect. Told with a fluid, bantering style, this is a provocative, direct, and remarkably honest self-revelation that deserves extensive readership. HM

SMITH, HENRIETTA, ed. The Coretta Scott King Awards: 1970-2004. 3rd edition. American Library Association, 2004 163p illus. with photographs Paper ed. ISBN 0-8389-3540-0 $35.00 Now in its third edition, this title provides extensive coverage of thirty-five years of African-American contributions to children's literature. Once again edited by Henrietta Smith, the text opens with information on the history of the award (including the 1995 addition of the New Talent Award) and its significance in the field of children's literature. The body of the text, sectioned into "Author Awards" and "Illustrator Awards," includes reviews of every winner and honor title as well as offset excerpts from the books, and sixteen leaves of full-color illustrations feature some of the artistic highlights from the history of the award. Following the reviews are more than sixty pages of biographies, including black-and-white pho- tos of the featured authors and illustrators. Although the book differs little in format or layout from previous editions, it has been updated to include honorees through 2004 and promises to continue as a valuable resource for the library's reference collection. HM 106 * THE BULLETIN

SUBJECT AND USE INDEX

Keyed to The Bulletin's alphabetical arrangement by author, this index, which appears in each issue, can be used in three ways. Entries in regular type refer to subjects; entries in bold type refer to curricular or other uses; entries in ALL-CAPS refer 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 for independent reading.

Abuse-fiction: Grindley; Hobbs; Cats-fiction: Ahlberg Improbable; Koertge Corder Accidents-fiction: Cummings Cats-stories: Ahlberg Little; Hesse Actors and acting-stories: Cecil Chickens-stories: Andersen Adoption: Warren Child development: Harris ADVENTURE: Collins; Dodd; China-fiction: Grindley Fisher; Morgan; Pierce Consumer education: Westerfeld Africa-fiction: Stratton Cowboys-fiction: Frank African Americans-fiction: Curtis Crime and criminals-fiction: AIDS-fiction: Stratton Coman; Corder; Giles; Mark; Anger-fiction: Metz Morgan; Westerfeld Animals-poetry: Carryl Crime and criminals-stories: Egan Animals-stories: Egan; Salley; Crusades-fiction: Weil Stevenson DANGER: Metz Architecture: Curlee Death-fiction: Clark; Cummings; Art and artists: Davies Rees Art and artists-fiction: Leavitt Depression-fiction: Marchetta Asian Americans-fiction: Cheng; Disabilities-fiction: Wait Patneaude Disasters-fiction: Provoost Aunts-fiction: Lasky; Mackler Divorce-fiction: Kelly, K. Autumn-stories: O'Malley Dogs-fiction: Frank Babies-stories: Ahlberg Little; Dogs-stories: Joosse Danziger Dragons-fiction: Funke; Hightman Behavior-stories: Joosse Ducks-stories: Polacco BIBLE STORIES: Provoost Elections-fiction: Beard BIOGRAPHIES: Bernier-Grand; Elves-stories: Willey Brown Epidemics-fiction: Stratton Biology: Jackson; Skurzynski EPISTOLARY FICTION: Hobbs Birds: Davies Ethics and values: Beard; Bernier- Birds-stories: Dunrea; Polacco Grand; Cummings; Curtis; Brothers-stories: Danziger Hirsch; Hughes; Lion; Mackler; Brothers and sisters-fiction: Mark; Pierce; Provoost; San Ehrenhaft; Haddix; Lawrence; Souci; Singer; Stratton; Wait Westerfeld Brothers and sisters-stories: Gay; Explorers and exploring-fiction: Montanari McMullan; Wolf Bullies-fiction: Bartek Families-fiction: Horvath Camels-poetry: Carryl Families-stories: Schwartz OCTOBER 2004 * 107

FANTASY: Collins; Corder; Fisher; Latinos-fiction: Lasky; Ryan Funke; Hightman; Lawrence; Le Latinos-poetry: Bernier-Grand Guin; Metz; Pierce; Yourgrau Laughter-stories: Stevenson Fathers-fiction: Hightman; Ryan Machines-stories: Dodds Fish-fiction: Matthews Manners-stories: Joosse Fishing-fiction: Bartek Marketing-fiction: Westerfeld Fishing-stories: Morris Medicine-fiction: Morgan FOLKTALES AND FAIRY TALES: Medieval life-fiction: Weil Andersen; Cecil; Knutson; Lunge- Mental illness-fiction: Leavitt; Larsen; Morris; Rees; Salley; San Marchetta Souci; Willey Monkeys-fiction: Buchanan Food and eating-stories: Monkeys-stories: Jeyaveeran Hopkinson; Kelly, J. Mothers-fiction: Clark; Curtis; Foxes-stories: Knutson Hicks; Leavitt; Marchetta; Ryan Friends-fiction: Cheng; Clark; Moving-fiction: Golding Cummings; Greene; Marchetta MYSTERIES: Coman; Haddix; GHOST STORIES: Collier Horowitz; Lawrence Grandfathers-fiction: Bartek Mythology, classical: Hovey Grandmothers-fiction: Rees Native Americans-fiction: Bruchac Grandparents-fiction: Kelly, K. Orphans: Warren Grandparents-stories: Bowen Orphans-fiction: Funke Grief-fiction: Golding PARODY: Horowitz Growing up-fiction: Hirsch; Limb; Pets-stories: Polacco Mackler POETRY: Bernier-Grand; Hovey HISTORICAL FICTION: Beard; Political science: Beard Buchanan; Collier; Hesse; Poverty-fiction: Golding Hughes; Lasky; McMullan; Prejudice-fiction: Grindley; Singer Morgan; Oswald; Patneaude; Prejudice-stories: Egan Wait; Weil; Wolf Princesses-stories: San Souci History, U.S.: Krull; McMullan; Prophecies-fiction: Collins Warren; Wolf Racism-fiction: Patneaude; Singer History, world: Curlee Reading aloud: Funke; Horowitz; Holocaust-stories: Hesse Horvath; Limb; Lunge-Larsen Homelessness-fiction: Leavitt Reading, advanced: Horvath HUMOR: Ahlberg Little; Carryl; Reading, easy: Greene; Kelly, K. Cecil; Coman; Dodd; Dunrea; Reading, reluctant: Coman; Dodd Ehrenhaft; Frank; Horowitz; Refugees-fiction: Matthews Horvath; Jeyaveeran; Kelly, J.; Relationships-fiction: Ehrenhaft; Limb; Mackler; Milde; Giles; Koertge; Le Guin; Limb; Montanari; Rees; Stevenson; Lion; Perez; Provoost Willems ROMANCE: Mackler; Metz; Perez Identity-fiction: Singer Royalty-stories: Paterson Illness-fiction: Stratton School-fiction: Bruchac; Greene Immigrants-fiction: Cheng; Oswald Science: Brown; Davies; Greene; Immigration: Warren Jackson; Skurzynski Jealousy-stories: Danziger SCIENCE FICTION: Dodd; Jews-fiction: Lasky; Oswald; Well Lawrence; Mark Jews-stories: Hesse Seals-stories: Morris Kidnapping-fiction: Corder; Mark Seasons-stories: Bowen Labor-fiction: Hughes Secrets-fiction: Haddix Self-image-fiction: Perez; Singer 108 * THE BULLETIN

Ships and sailing-fiction: Provoost Voyages and travel-stories: Bowen; SHORT STORIES: Singer Hopkinson Space: Skurzynski War: Warren Spies and spying-fiction: Pierce War-stories: Paterson SPORTS STORIES: Hicks Weddings-stories: Jeyaveeran; Stories-stories: Andersen Milde Storytelling: Lunge-Larsen; Salley Witches-fiction: Fisher Storytime: Carryl; Danziger; Gay; Wolves-stories: Kelly, J. Hopkinson; Kelly, J.; Knutson; Women's studies: Beard; Krull Montanari; O'Malley; Salley; Work-fiction: Grindley Stevenson; Willey World War II-fiction: Buchanan; SUPERNATURAL STORIES: Paterson; Patneaude Ahlberg Improbable; Bruchac; World War II-stories: Paterson Collier; Le Guin; Morris Writers and writing-fiction: SUSPENSE: Giles; Metz Ehrenhaft TODDLER BOOKS: Dunrea; Schwartz; Willems Toddlers: Harris Toys-stories: Willems Twins: Harris Uncles-fiction: Collier; Yourgrau Urban life-stories: Schwartz Vietnam War: Warren Voyages and travel-fiction: Collins; Hirsch; Hobbs; Le Guin; Matthews; McMullan; Provoost; t on190 dD Ryan; Wolf New Storytelling Books FROM A U G U S T HOUSE PICY HOT COLORS Sherry Shahan Illustrated by Paula Barragdn September SBN0-87483-741-3 16.95 wn hardback binding i"x 11" pages; allfull color rs explode off the page inthis energetic, jazzy picture that introduces children to colors inEnglish and sh. Shahan's rhythmic text echoes Chicka Chicka Boom and Ecuadoran artist Paula Barrog6n's mixed- llustrations expand the rhythm of the text and the of Latino culture. ^--V %r ' THREE- MINUTE TALES rnnii anniikii 31=U6M FRKUMAKUUNI FOR SURE! FOR SURE! THE WORLD TO SHAF Hans Christian Andersen Translated by Mus White WHEN TIME ISSHO Illustrated by Stefan Czemecki Margaret Read MacDon August * ISBN0-87483-742-1 $16.95 * Sewn hardback binding ISBN0-87483- 32 pages, allfull color Sewn hardback VIEW &DOWNLOAD THE 7' x 10" Staff Resource Title ENTIRE FOLKTALE AND MacDonald includes stories from Mexico, China, Indonesia, Japan, STORYTELLING CATALOG AT Cuba, Turkey, Syria, Native America, Jewish culture, and other www.augusthouse.com nations and traditions ina useful volume for parents, U U August House Publishers, Inc. teachers, librarians, church iS August House is the school leaders, and others. Storytelling Source. www.augusthouse.com AUGUSTHOUSE / P.O. BOX 3223 / UTTLEROCK, AR72203 / 201 EASTMARKHAM 72201 / 1-800-284-8784 / FAX501-372-5579 THE FREE TRIAL ISSUE of an award-winning publication! Visit www.TeachinqK-8.com Click on FREE TRIAL ISSUE

m Teaching K-8 isfilled with hundreds of unique ideas and activities that help teachers present new challenges to their students, learn new concepts and develop new skills.

WuoN To receive your FREE TRIAL ISSUE visit www.TeachingK-8.com

* Teaching K-8 Magazine 40 Richards Avenue * Norwalk, CT 06854

~$3~~

Unifvityof Wlinois Pres PERIODICLSUS 13251~25So SSouth Oak SteerSarmt LIS ChampaignChamp ILI61820 61820PAID U.SA.HAMPAGN,U.SA.U.S~A. ru4,~riUL ILIL

ADMsAwDEAM~ SEtnVCESSxvwE REQUES•EDREIunv

111111111111111111111 0008-9036(200410)58:2;1-10008-9036(20041 C

41014,