Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

ILLINO S UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

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

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PAUL GOBLE

-The Big Picture starred review / The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books 1i'-"Goble's storytelling is superb; his illustrations extraordinary and filled with fascinating detail. From an exceptional talent: a sure classic." - Starred review / Kirkus Reviews "[A] tale of generosity, bravery, and forgiveness." - School Library Journal "Once again, beauty and authority distinguish Goble's presentation of a Native American legend." -The Horn Book All ages. $16.99 Tr (0-06-029813-8) $17.89 Lb (0-06-029814-6) Bn L-I hins 7 IM ren s ooks THE BULLETIN __ OF THE CENTER FOR CHILDREN'S BOOKS October 2003 Vol. 57 No. 2

i LIBRARY OF THE

UNIVERSITY OF ILINOIS URANA CHAMPAIGN

A LOOK INSIDE

47 THE BIG PICTURE Sidekicks by Dan Danko and Tom Mason; illus. by Barry Gott 48 NEW BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE Reviewed titles include: 52 * Colibri by Ann Cameron 53 * Vote! written and illus. by Eileen Christelow 58 * Boxes for Kaje by Candace Fleming; illus. by Stacey Dressen-McQueen 67 * One Witch by Laura Leuck; illus. by S. D. Schindler 78 * Faultine by Janet Tashjian 83 * Minn andJake by Janet S. Wong; illus. by Genevieve C6td 85 PROFESSIONAL CONNECTIONS 86 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) Janice M. Del Negro, Contributing Editor (JMD) Betsy Hearne, Consulting Editor and Faculty Liaison (BH) Elizabeth Bush, Reviewer (EB) Karen Coats, Reviewer (KC)

Reviewers' initials are appended to reviews.

OFFICE STAFF Molly Dolan Krista Hutley Hope Morrison

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Periodicals postage paid at Champaign, Illinois © 2003 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 Barry Gott from Sidekicks ©2003. Used by permission of Little, Brown and Company. OCTOBER 2003 * 47

THE BIG PICTURE

Sidekicks by Dan Danko and Tom Mason; illus. by Barry Gott

Thirteen-year-old Guy Martin wants to be a superhero (as his sidekick name of Speedy suggests, he's now the fastest person alive, beating out the former Fastest Man Alive Man), but right now he's serving his apprenticeship as a sidekick to Pumpkin Pete, hanging out in the Sidekick Clubhouse and waiting for the call to aid the League of Big Justice in the fight against evil. After three weeks, however, he's finding that he's mostly aiding them in the fight against household and personal untidiness as he listens to the complaints of his fellow sidekicks ("That's what I was thinking. Smash evil and be popular. I had no idea I'd be doing laundry and listening to people whine all the time"), and he's getting a bit restless. He's got more than soapsuds on his hands soon enough, though, when the League of Big Justice Headquarters of Big Justice (there's a lot of redundancy in good) is blown up by the Brotherhood of Rottenness, and the League members-from King Justice to Captain Haggis, the Librarian to Ms. Mime-have been captured by the Brotherhood. Sidekicking being something less than a rigorously screened calling (Spelling Beatrice has "been a sidekick for almost three years, but what she really wants to do is act"), it's a rather motley and disunited crew that's left to save the abducted superheroes and foil Rottenness' plan. Fortunately, Guy's stalwart efforts are rewarded (and his noble willingness to sacrifice himself proven superflu- ous), and the world is saved (except for Ohio, whose inhabitants were unfortunately all turned into puppets). Pastiche is nothing new in children's literature these days, but let's face it-it's a hard genre to sustain for the length of a novel. Sidekicks pulls off that difficult task, with lull-free pacing and relentless humor that makes this suitable as a readaloud or an enticement for reluctant readers (an easygoing format, topped by Gott's slickly comic black-and-white chapter headpieces, keeps the look unthreat- ening but sophisticated) as well as kids just looking for an enjoyable literary romp. Danko and Mason evince the unflagging energy of The Naked Gun's Zuckers and Abraham-or, rather, an energy that is funny even when it flags, as when the chapter titles career off into commentary ("Chapter Seven: These Chapter Titles Make No Sense"; "Chapter Nine: The Ninth Chapter"); another obvious fore- runner here is the loving mockery of Get Smart or, more recently, The Tick. Here also is that same blend of genuine intelligence and lovable dorkiness (a mixture likely to be found in this book's readers as well). On the intelligence side, it's got a collection of quips larger than a superhero's tights wardrobe and a viewpoint of the proceedings that's comfortably cynical ("There isn't much science to being a superhero sidekick. You have to have a legal waiver from your parent or guardian 48 * THE BULLETIN unless you're eighteen. Ever since that ugly court battle with UnderAge Albert and the child labor laws, it's just plain impossible to become a sidekick without a bundle of legal paperwork"); what's more, it even keeps touch with the actual, if somewhat peripheral, plot throughout. On the other hand, the authors are smart enough to understand that elevation can be the enemy of enjoyment: the book understands the importance of cheap laughs (there's a villain, Le Poop, whose powers are ferocious bodily odors, so that when he unleashes his particular variety of gas attack "Spice Girl fell before its stinky awesomeness"), and it's also got an endless supply of dumb jokes about various lame superhero/sidekick names (Bar- of-Soap Boy "had to move someplace where it didn't rain so much"). Underneath the scoffing and the goofing, however, is some real, if still humorous, heart. The book nicely plays Guy's daily life at school and home against his other existence (his parents insist on secrecy about his superpowers, saying "We don't want some supervillain blowing up our house because you foiled his plan to rule the world, young man"), and his longing to display his secret brilliance in order to impress the beauteous Prudence Cane will ring true with every kid, sidekick or not, who's yearned for the object of his affection to have her eyes opened to his true worth. Guy's loving mom provides him and another sidekick with a ride to the Brotherhood of Rottenness (after seeing her son and his colleague safely belted into the seats of the family Oldsmobile, she warmly demonstrates herself as an in-touch parent by informing Exact Change Kid that "Guy tells me you throw pennies"), and in fact she's still patiently waiting in the parking lot for her son at the end of the book. Amid all the jokes about the embarrassing aspects of superheroism is genuine appreciation of the phenomenon of bravery, fictional or real: "And maybe that's what really makes them heroes-because they're not perfect or superhuman; because they bleed and break like everyone else; because they might die, but they still rush into danger." And whether they admit it or not, that's what draws a lot of would-be sidekicks, who'll be gratified that the book truly appreciates their pleasures. (Imprint information appears on p. 56.) Deborah Stevenson, Editor

NEW BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE

AGEE, JON Z Goes Home; written and illus. by Jon Agee. di Capua/Hyperion, 2003 30p ISBN 0-7868-1987-1 $16.95 Ad 4-7 yrs A big red Z clambers down from the letters identifying the City Zoo and heads home, but it's got to get through an alphabetical landscape first. A green lien, a span Bridge, a nibbled-on cake, and a sequence of other items appear on route, until finally the Z arrives home to the O, W, I, E, and exclamation point that make up the rest of its zowie! The text is essentially limited to the names of the alphabetical elements (the last page defines them all, which will help with some of the lesser-known words), so there's not really a story beyond spotting the Z on its OCTOBER 2003 * 49 fairly random travels. The alphabetical items appear in the shapes of the relevant letters, an approach reminiscent of Stephen T. Johnson's Alphabet City (BCCB 11/95); the effect here is less sophisticated and more whimsical and accessible, however, especially with entries such as the B-shaped bridge (the Z can be spotted under one of the arches) and the K-shaped individual throwing a karate kick (which boots the Z along its way). Agee's multi-tiered lines give his figures a softly fuzzy edge that gentles the firm solidity of their geometry, and the subdued palette allows the scarlet Z additional prominence. Though this doesn't pull together as one might hope, it'll still reassure many youngsters with its playful and nonthreatening approach to the alphabet. DS

ALPHIN, ELAINE MARIE Picture Perfect. Carolrhoda, 2003 24 4 p ISBN 0-8225-0535-5 $15.95 Ad Gr. 6-9 When Ian Slater's best friend, Teddy, goes missing, the ninth-grader is under- standably unsettled by two undeniable facts: he was the last one to see Teddy, and his memory is now completely blank regarding several hours of the critical day. Teddy's boozy mother enlists the school's help in finding her son, and Ian's father, who is the school principal, complies with public fervor and private reluctance. As Ian struggles to regain memory of his possible role in Teddy's disappearance, all he seems to stir up is confusion over his own dual "faces"-good, responsible kid at school, and worthless son at home. His confusion is augmented by the reemer- gence of "Luke," once an imaginary childhood friend and now Ian's alternate personality, who feeds him clues about Teddy's fate and suggestions for action. It soon becomes obvious that duplicitous Mr. Slater is somehow involved, and Ian/ Luke comes to Teddy's rescue in a harrowing showdown with Dad. Readers may solve most of the "mystery" long before the melodramatic conclusion of the over- drawn (and overwrought) tale, but they'll probably hang in till the bitter end as Alphin reels out deliciously damning evidence against the emotionally abusive Mr. Slater and rushes Ian through a hasty reintegration of his fragmented psyche. Mystery fans may roll their eyes, but devotees of the psychological potboiler will gulp this right down. EB

ALTER, ANNA Francine'sDay; written and illus. by Anna Alter. Greenwillow, 2003 [3 2 p] Library ed. ISBN 0-06-623937-0 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-623936-2 $15.99 Reviewed from galleys R 3-6 yrs Comfort-loving Francine does not want to get out of bed, get dressed, and eat her breakfast, but mostly, she does not want to go to school. The text features gentle repetitions of what Francine does not want to do followed by compelling reasons to do them; the familiar clink of dishes pulls her out of bed, and the chill morning air forces her into her warm clothes. Once at school, the rhythm of the text changes, and she thinks of the things she does want to do-home things, like picnics with her mom and art projects on the porch instead of sitting at the art table. In the end, just as she has taken her thoughts of home with her to school, she brings school home, reciting a poem for her mother and singing her school songs for her stuffed animals. Francine, a reddish-brown fox with a white face and pin-dot eyes, is easily recognizable as a shy, home-loving preschooler who is not quite ready to be forced into new routines. There are no amazing changes in attitude here; Francine 50 * THE BULLETIN doesn't so much change her mind or her behavior as she quietly learns to accept the intrusion of school into her day. The illustrations, like the text, have an unfussy reasonableness to them, with sepia crosshatching to gentle the already subtle colors, and chunky figures that exude mammalian warmth. Though not overly original, the book will go a long way toward damping down back-to-school anxieties. KC

BANKS, KATE Walk Softly, Rachel. Foster/Farrar, 2003 14 9p ISBN 0-374-38230-1 $16.00 Ad Gr. 6-9 Now that Rachel is fourteen and her best friend has just moved away, she's thinking more and more about her older brother, Jake, who died seven years ago. Rachel begins to investigate the brother she never really knew, reading the journal she finds in his carefully preserved room and getting close to Bowman, an older boy who had worshipped Jake. The farther she gets in Jake's journal, the more she realizes that her brother's golden facade hid a frightened and self-doubting boy struggling with the same issues Rachel does, and that her family has hidden the truth about Jake's death. The point of the burden of family expectations is a legitimate one, but the narration is so highly polished and adult-oriented that it's rarely plausible as the voice of a fourteen-year-old, nor, in Jake's journal, as the voice of an older teen; in fact, the elegant turns of phrase and deliberately compact sentences distance feeling instead of reflecting it. The constant and detailed paral- lels between Rachel's thoughts and Jake's every journal entry strain credibility, and the clear advance telegraphing of Jake's real fate (his car accident was actually a suicide) undercuts the revelatory impact of the journal. There's more success in the depiction of Rachel's understated relationship with troubled Bowman and her quiet alliance with her grandmother, who's trying to dodge the disapproval of Rachel's mother. Despite these strengths, this fails to rise to the impact of other sibling-death books, such as Griffin's The Other Shepards (BCCB 11/98), or to the level of Freymann-Weyr's My Heartbeat(5/02), one of the best recent novels about family expectations. DS

BARTON, BOB, ad. The Bear Says North: Tales from Northern Lands; illus. by Jirina Marton. Groundwood/Douglas & McIntyre, 2003 [72p] ISBN 0-88899-533-4 $18.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 3-6 Canadian storyteller Bob Barton retells ten tales from "northern hemisphere countries that border on or contain frozen tundra, snowy mountains, dense wilderness and ice fields," drawing from sources as varied as P. C. Asbjornsen and the Bureau of American Ethnology. Several stories are reminiscent of familiar pieces: "The Honest Penny" recalls "Dick Whittington and His Cat"; "Frostbite" suggests La Fontaine's fable "The North Wind and the Sun." Others give a new vantage point into traditional folktales: "The Reindeer Herder and the Moon" offers a tricksy heroine who foils a besotted lunar lover, "Anders' Hat" is the loving story of a little boy who would rather have a cap knit by his mother than a king's crown, and "Katya and the Goat with the Silver Hoof" is a bittersweet tale of an orphaned girl who almost finds her fortune. Barton's retellings are solidly constructed and sometimes lyrically imagined, and while there is a literary formality to their structure, they still have a solid, effective pace. The art, one full-page oil pastel illustration for each tale, is uneven; the figures are often clumsily rendered, but there are some OCTOBER 2003 * 51 eerie and evocative images. A concluding page of notes gives specific written refer- ences. JMD

BEST, CARI When Catherine the Great and I Were Eight!; illus. by Giselle Potter. Kroupa/Farrar, 2003 32p ISBN 0-374-39954-9 $16.00 R Gr. 2-4 Sara, narrator of Three Cheersfor Catherinethe Great!(BCCB 1/00), relates another tale about her life-loving Russian grandmother. This time around it is summer in the city, so hot that Sara's friend, Monica, "waters her feet instead of the flowers." The neighbors in the apartment building are gathered on front stoop and sidewalk trying to cool off, when a snatch of song ("'I like the beach in June,' sings Mary Caruso") inspires everyone to jump into Mr. Minsky's old car and head for the shore, "three in the radio seat, three in the sandwich seat, and two in the carsick seat in the way, way back." Traffic is terrible, but Grandma Catherine is not to be deterred from having a good time, despite heat and traffic jam: an impromptu highway waltz, ice cream before lunch, even a roadside picnic enliven the long, hot trip. Once at the beach they race into the water, and Sara gets a lesson in floating "like a flower" from her indomitable grandmother. This summer adventure has the cumulative momentum of a folktale, with the winning heroine conquering every obstacle with nothing but determination and a cheerful temperament; the text has the well-honed ring of a beloved family story (the jacket notes say this tale was inspired by the author's grandmother). Potter's retro-flavored palette suits the slightly old-fashioned tone of the text. Compositions have the slapdash irregularities of children's drawings, the most important features and characters in the foreground, the backgrounds more suggestive than specific. Round geometric masses add a comfortable edge to the urban scenes, and the contrast between the rounded bodies and angular facial features, elbows, and knees of the human figures adds a lively visual tension. Young readers will recognize the emotional highs and lows of the tale and delight in the protagonist's good-humored triumphs. JMD

BRITTON, SUSAN McGEE The Treekeepers. Dutton, 2003 24 5p ISBN 0-525-46944-3 $16.99 Ad Gr. 4-6 Bird is an orphan ("eleven or twelve years old, she didn't know for sure which, and small for her age") living under the cruel reign of Lord Rendarren. After being taken under the wing of Farwender, a mysterious man with a talent for knitting and healing, Bird is sent to live with Soladin, a sad woman with a mysterious past who harbors three other orphans in her isolated cottage. Bird acclimates quickly to cleanliness and a full belly as well as to the mystery that surrounds Farwender and Soladin. She discovers that Soladin's betrayal of a sacred trust put Rendarren in power and destroyed the Tree That Speaks, which provided spiritual enlightenment and physical health to the people; Bird also discovers that she is the key to the prophecy, the child who can plant the Seed that will restore the Tree. Britton draws from standard and specific fantasy tropes-the religious imagery is undeniable but not overwhelming, and the soul-sucking powers of Rendarren's anointed Searchers strongly echo Rowling's dementors. The solid characterizations of the children offset the iconic archetypes of the primary adults in this fast-paced adventure; unfortunately, the second half of the novel is somewhat shallowly drawn, and the conclusion is a disappointing rush of end-tying. Still, Bird is an appealingly scrappy street urchin with a courageous heart, who takes on the task of restoring 52 * THE BULLETIN the kingdom with the insouciance of a youth that believes itself invincible; her journey to the knowledge that this is not so is both stirring and unsettling. JMD

BRUCHAC, JOSEPH The Warriors. Darby Creek, 2003 117p ISBN 1-58196-002-6 $15.95 Ad Gr. 4-8 Now living with his lawyer mother in a condo in Maryland, Jake Forrest misses the Iroquois reservation he's left behind, along with his friends, his cultural roots, and his lacrosse team, the Junior Warriors. Once at school, Jake discovers that one of the reasons he got into exclusive Weltimore Academy was his high-scoring record in the sport, but easy acceptance onto the team does little to make the boy feel comfortable in this different world: "It was crazy, he thought, how so many of things [sic] they did to show him they liked him and approved of him instead made him feel uncomfortable. Instead of making him feel included, they made him feel like more of an outsider." Complicating matters is the fact that his lacrosse coach/history teacher delights in bloody historic tales of Indian fighting and views the game as warfare. When the coach is shot while shielding a woman and child in a holdup, Jake must reconsider his opinion of the man. This measured novel suffers from some well-intentioned didacticism and a lot of overly convenient plotting and characterization. Despite the purposiveness, this is a useful sports story accessible to older and younger readers, and complex issues of race, perception, and individual purpose are couched in understandable terms. Jake is still a thoughtful and thought-provoking character, and his willingness to reconsider his initial impression of his coach is a development worthy of discussion. Jake's response to the news of his coach's wounding-the organization of a cer- emonial game of lacrosse-is both culturally specific and culturally inclusive, an example of balance that deserves emulation. JMD

CAMERON, ANN Colibri. Foster/Farrar, 2003 227p ISBN 0-374-31519-1 $17.00 R Gr. 6-10 At twelve, the narrator has almost forgotten her real name, Tzuntin, after being called "Rosa" for so long by the man known to her as Uncle. She's been traveling Guatemala with Uncle for years, assisting him as he pretends disability to beg for money ("Uncle was good at being deaf and dumb and lame, but he was an artist at being blind. No one blind ever looked as blind as he did, and no one good ever looked so good") and hopes for a windfall that will make him rich. When Uncle involves Tzunun in a plot to steal a centuries-old statue of the Virgin Mary from a church, she finally turns against him, betraying his plan to the police and fleeing to the shelter of a kindly wise woman, hoping against hope she can return to her own family but fearing Uncle's revenge. Cameron effectively articulates the point of view of a young girl who clings to her sense of self and origins despite a gulf of years, and her unassuming narration remains credible throughout in its perplexity and quiet rebellion. Characters are softly but cearly traced, including various people Tzundn meets on her travels, some of whom surprise her with their kind- ness and assistance; there are also unstrained and occasional allusions to Guatemala's history of political upheaval as well as its sometimes edgily multicultural present in the detailed evocation of the localities through which the girl travels. It's Tzunuin herself who remains the focus, however, with the wise woman's prophesies-that Tzunmn will lead Uncle to treasure, and that he owes her a piece of paper-shap- ing the story much as they shape Uncle's and even Tzundn's actions. This is a richly imagined account of a world far away from many readers, and the classic OCTOBER 2003 * 53 motif of a girl separated from her family and hoping for reunion will draw even young people skittish about tales of other regions. DS

CAMPBELL, BEBE MOORE Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry; illus. by E. B. Lewis. Putnam, 2003 32p ISBN 0-399-23972-3 $16.99 Ad 5-9 yrs Annie wakes to the smell of "hot, golden circles" and spends a warm, happy morning with her mom before going to school. Her school day is ordinary; she gets teased in a mean way by a boy in her class and in a friendly way by her girlfriends as they walk to and from school. After school, however, her mother's mood has changed, and she screams at Annie, not just in garden-variety crankiness but in full-blown pathological rage. Annie retreats to her room and calls her grandmother, who reminds her of her action plan for when her mother's anger gets out of control: she can call her grandmother, go to a neighbor's house if she's scared, eat from a secret stash of snacks so she doesn't have to bother her mom, and finally, she "can think happy thoughts" until the rage passes. By choosing a symptom that is prevalent in many kinds of mental illness, from bipolar disorders to addiction, and by placing it in the context of a child's everyday life of school, friends, neighbors, and family, Campbell tells a story that will resonate with many children, and Annie's viewpoint is believably childlike. Unfortunately, there's a lack of perspective beyond that limited view, and young audiences will have a hard time differen- tiating this "angry" parent from the normal anger most experience. The plot is more effective as a setup for discussion than as an explanation or reassurance in its own right-kids will legitimately inquire why Annie's neighbor and grandmother don't intervene instead of leaving the child responsible for her own safety with an apparently dangerous parent. A detailed author's note articulates Campbell's reasons for writing the book and the problems of mental illness that she wants to foreground; a full page of quotations from mental-health professionals leave no doubt of the book's special topic. Lewis' illustrations depict a full range of emotions for Annie, from the tentative happiness of the morning, to the fear of the afternoon, to the more liberated cheer at the end where Annie's fears have been assuaged. This has too many holes to work as a standalone explanation, but for children living with mentally ill parents and for professionals who work with them, this book may open up discussion in a nonthreatening way. KC

CHRISTELOW, EILEEN Vote!; written and illus. by Eileen Christelow. Clarion, 2003 [48p] ISBN 0-618-24754-8 $16.00 Reviewed from galleys R 5-8 yrs Here's the whole loud and messy business of U.S. politicking and election, trimmed down to size for young viewers. As a young African-American girl supports her mother's bid for mayor (Ms. Smith is running on the tax-raising platform of building new schools), she learns a lot and even teaches a little about the system. She's outraged at Mom's opponent's less than candid debating style (Mr. Brown, who favors building a sports stadium, fails to point out that his agenda also requires a tax increase). She's also troubled by citizens who say they seldom vote, and she wallops them with a lively, pointed little discourse on darker historical times when only propertied white men were permitted at the polls. There's solid information about political parties, secret ballots, political ads, voter registration, recounts, and 54 * THE BULLETIN even the ethics of fund-raising ("If you donate lots of money, maybe the candidate will listen to you more than to other voters. Is that fair?"), all introduced at natural entry points within the fictional story. The cartoon cast is animated and commit- ted; speech bubbles capture the voters' reaction to and participation in the campaign: "Remind me, why am I paying $250 for a hamburger?"; "Smith's campaign needs money. Brown has a lot more for ads." Useful end matter includes a timeline of voting rights, "More about Political Parties," and a list of Internet resources. Running commentary by the adorable but largely extraneous Smith family dogs can be a bit distracting, but this is, nonetheless, an excellent overview of the demo- cratic process, warts and all. EB

COHEN, PETER Boris's Glasses; tr. by Joan Sandin; illus. by OlofLandstrom. R & S,2003 28p ISBN 91-29-65942-6 $15.00 Ad 6-9 yrs When Boris notices that the TV is blurrier than usual, he calls the repairman, only to find that the problem is not with the set, but with him: he needs glasses. After acquiring his new specs, he is at first intoxicated by all there is to see. Why, he had no idea that Gudrun, the bakery owner, was so pretty, or that his own house was so dirty! He even decides that someone who sees as well as he should get a job. Soon he realizes that having a job is rather tedious, and that TV actually looked better before he got his specs. If seeing clearly means taking on the responsibility of a job and maintaining a clean house, then Boris will take blurry, thank you very much, reserving his glasses for more important things like courting Gudrun. Boris's large head, prominent teeth, and tiny legs give him an earnest yet slightly daffy de- meanor; the cartoon illustrations of Boris' environs show detail without clutter and fully realize the comic potential of the text without resorting to slapstick. Despite the appeal of Landstr6m's illustrations, the humor aims a bit high for the target audience. Young readers, especially those who need their glasses, probably won't relate to Boris' preference for fuzzy TV, nor will they likely be able to emu- late his dilettantish attitude toward work that requires decent vision. Nonetheless, Boris makes a case for the value of seeing things your own way, even if that way is a bit out of focus. KC

CoY, JOHN Two Old Potatoes and Me; illus. by Carolyn Fisher. Knopf, 2003 [34 p] Library ed. ISBN 0-375-92180-X $17.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-375-82180-5 $15.95 Reviewed from galleys R 5-8 yrs When a girl prepares to throw out some old potatoes, her father suggests that they plant them instead. With the telephoned guidance of her grandfather, she and her father put them in the ground and tend them throughout the summer ("We weeded. We watered. We waited"), reaping a glorious spud harvest come fall ("I count sixty-seven and our bucket is overflowing"). That's a solidly enjoyable story in its own right, but the real highlight here is the blessedly understated background narrative about the girl's adjustment to her parents' split ("How's your bedroom at your mom's house coming?" Dad asks as they garden). Allusions to that situation are naturally interwoven into the dialogue taking place mid-cultivation, reflecting the real-world tendency for hard topics to be more easily tackled when people are up to their elbows in an enjoyable task; dialogue and actions are quietly believable OCTOBER 2003 * 55

("When we watered, I accidentally sprayed Dad with the hose"), and it's a particularly nice touch that both father and daughter are proceeding in new territory together according to Grandfather's telephoned say-so. The overdesigned visuals unfortunately sometimes overpower the quiet story and the readaloud text tends to sacrifice visibility for artistry, but the focus on the central pair remains strong. Paints on cut paper allow for a play of striated textures while still keeping the softly shaped outlines of father and daughter visually dominant; imaginative use of white line on red or blue for the figures suggests the changing light of sunset and twi- light, while in ordinary daylight their skin has warm brown tones that particularly set off the smiles on both faces. As a father-daughter book, a gardening book, a making-food book (a recipe for mashed potatoes is included), an adjustment-to- changes book, this has all the unpretentious savor of a nice plate of spuds. DS

CREECH, SHARON Granny TorrelliMakesSoup; illus. by Chris Raschka. Cotler/ HarperCollins, 2003 141p Library ed. ISBN 0-06-029291-1 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-029290-3 $15.99 Ad Gr. 3-6 The complex stew of adolescent emotions is just beginning to simmer for Rosie; fortunately for her, she has Granny Torrelli to help her sort things out with soup, pasta, and stories. First, there is the boy, Bailey, who has lived next door all her life. They have been inseparable pals, even through times when their differences have caused their tempers to flare at each other. Bailey is visually impaired; Rosie is a tad jealous of all the fuss over his special school and his special Braille books, but she is also worried that these things might force them apart. Then there is the new girl, Janine, who has moved in down the street and immediately started moving in on Rosie's relationship with Bailey. Why is he so eager to teach Janine how to read Braille, when he was so mad at Rose for learning it? What's more, why is she so irritated about it? Granny's didactic tales of her own childhood are far too convenient, and it's more literarily inevitable than realistic that they effect a rap- prochement between Rosie and Bailey. Despite its sentimentality, though, this story of nascent romance and intergenerational friendship has genuine warmth and affection. The prose is strong and simple, and the composition is enhanced for reluctant readers by spaces between each short paragraph and italics for dialogue, making this a quick and affirming (if obvious) read. Raschka adds a bit of graphic flourish to the package with small chapter headpieces and a couple of squiggly-lined portraits to open the book's sections. KC

CRONIN, DOREEN Diary ofa Worm; illus. by Harry Bliss. Cotler/HarperCol- lins, 2003 34 p Library ed. ISBN 0-06-000151-8 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-000150-X $15.99 R Gr. 2-4 Yes, this is the diary of a worm, a young baseball-capped guy noting his under- and above-ground activities from March to August. Worm Kid studies hard but has a tendency to eat his homework, he enjoys taunting his sister ("I told her that no matter how much time she spends looking in the mirror, her face will always look just like her rear end"), and he plays with his friend Spider, though they have the occasional falling out ("He told me you need legs to be cool"). There's no real story arc, and it would be nice to have a fuller explanation of the environmental importance to which the text often alludes, but the shovelfuls of jokes will squirm 56 * THE BULLETIN directly to kids' funnybones: the limitations on worm hokey pokey, the dangers of hopscotch, and the pleasures of scaring kids on the playground will all make kids wiggle with giggles. Bliss' earthworms are tidy and personable crawlers in trim black lines, sporting small individual identifiers such as eyeglasses and hair rib- bons, with touches of highlighting and shading suggesting wormy segmentation. The poker-faced juxtaposition of underground habitation with the homey details of above-ground life adds additional humor for viewers, who will also get a kick out of the wormy photo album that constitutes the final spread. This will be a snicker-provoking readalone for readers reluctant and otherwise, and it would also make a comic readaloud-ifyou're feeling especially wicked, pair it with a fishing story. DS

DANKO, DAN Sidekicks; by Dan Danko and Tom Mason; illus. by Barry Gott. Little, 2003 97p Trade ed. ISBN 0-316-16845-9 $10.95 Paper ed. ISBN 0-316-16844-0 $4.99 R* Gr. 3-7 See this month's Big Picture, p. 47, for review.

DEMI Muhammad; written and illus. by Demi. McElderry, 2003 4 2p ISBN 0-689-85264-9 $19.95 R Gr. 4-8 Extending her works on Eastern spiritual leaders (Buddha, BCCB 6/96; Dalai Lama 4/98), Demi recounts the life of Muhammad, messenger ofAllah and founder of Islam. Readers follow the Prophet through his orphaned childhood, his career as trustworthy merchant in his merchant uncle's employ, and his marriage to widow Khadijah. The bulk of the text, however, covers the founding and spread of Islam up to Muhammad's death in 632 C.E.. Demi integrates legend and miracles asso- ciated with the Prophet (an early prediction that Muhammad would become a prophet; his journey to Seventh Heaven on "a divine creature called Buraq") into the historical struggles against Meccan tribal persecution and the mission to preach "the existence of only one God, the importance of equality for all people, and the necessity of freedom of thought and speech." Although the picture-book format may be initially attractive to younger children, the dense, stately text calls for a focused and more sophisticated audience; despite the foreword's encomium to the biographical aspect, the personal chronicle here is surprisingly incomplete (none of Muhammad's other wives are even alluded to). This is, however, a smoothly written and a respectfully admiring account of the birth of one of the world's major religions. In deference to Islamic structures against portraying the Prophet and his family, Demi renders Muhammad as a golden silhouette; unfortunately, readers who regularly skip forewords may not catch on to the significance of this convention. Delicate but largely unindividuated figures are deployed in richly hued, stylized scenes, liberally embellished with metallic gold and framed against parchment-like backgrounds. A note on the Islamic creed, a map, and a bibliography are included. EB

EMERSON, SCOrr The Case ofthe Cat with the MissingEar: From the Notebooks of Edward R. Smithfield, D.V.M.; illus. by Viv Mullet. Simon, 2003 [240p] ISBN 0-689-85861-2 $15.95 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 4-7 Walt Disney Studios imagined Sherlock Holmes as a mouse; for Scott Emerson, OCTOBER 2003 * 57 he's a dog-a Yorkshire terrier, to be exact, by the name of Samuel Blackthorne. He and his faithful assistant, Dr. Edward R. Smithfield, meet in a bar on the waterfront where Blackthorne astounds Smithfield with his powers of deductive reasoning. From this beginning, Smithfield and Blackthorne take up residence together, and the peace-seeking Smithfield gets reluctantly drawn into the nefari- ous underworld of nineteenth-century San Francisco. When a lovely greyhound persuades Blackthorne to investigate the disappearance of her brother, the detective quickly learns that the mild-mannered accountant has been shanghaied. Ap- parently, he has been working on a counting machine that will be of considerable use to the gaming industry. As it turns out, the man responsible for the kidnapping is a corrupt politician, and the detective temporarily strikes a most unsatisfac- tory bargain-his silence for the safety of his friends. Dissatisfied with this arrangement, the good guys and all of their friends and associates put out to sea on casino owner Big Bill Powell's yacht, while sending their story in installments to the newspaper, effectively putting the politician out of business. The good characters may not be the only ones dissatisfied with this resolution to the case; readers may find that it's decidedly anticlimactic and a tad dull, and the eponymous character plays only a bit part, hardly deserving top billing for his involvement. There's still a colorful cast of gamblers and gangsters, however, and the atmospheric detail and effective parody may be sufficient to please readers biding their time till Stewart's next Sam the Cat mystery (The Big Catnap, BCCB 11/00). KC

FAILING, BARBARA LARMON Lasso Lou and Cowboy McCoy; illus. by Tedd Arnold. Dial, 2003 40p ISBN 0-8037-2578-7 $16.99 R Gr. 2-4 Since a cowboy hat fits McCoy in the hat shop, he becomes Cowboy McCoy, ready for ranch action; after he runs into Lasso Lou, the two start at the Bo-Dee- Oh Ranch together. That's mighty fortunate for McCoy, since he's not quite a natural at this cowboy thing: he at first wants to name his horse SundayMondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFridaySaturday (until with Lou's help he settles on "Payday"); he has a little difficulty getting the hang of riding ("Payday's head is missing," complains a distressed-and tail-facing-McCoy); he's alarmed by the scary bumpy things in his bed (which prove to be his boots). Cheerfully clueless McCoy is a reliably risible protagonist, and Lou's matter-of-fact yet tactful assistance ("You're still a real cowboy," he soothingly tells McCoy when bedtime requires the removal of cowboy hats) adds an affectionate touch without prevent- ing readers from laughing at McCoy's blunders. Chapteresque sections (unobtru- sively heralded by an oversized initial letter) provide useful stages for readers or for readers aloud, and there's a subtle tightening up of the picture-book format into a more text-emphatic layout that will keep readers from feeling they've strayed into baby territory. Arnold's comic vision has an inviting roundness but also a certain subtle up-to-date sophistication in its polished humor. In a genre where protuber- ant eyes predominate, his characters' peepers are the ne plus ultra of bulgy, perhaps because their humongous hats are jammed down behind them (the phrase "all hat and no cattle" has seldom been so aptly visually expressed), and in fact they inhabit a rather bulgy western landscape, with amiably sausagy horses and puffy little dust clouds. Like Betsy Byars' Golly Sisters, McCoy is endearing in his obliviousness to his own folly; also like them, he makes an eminently satisfying early-reader protagonist. DS 58 * THE BULLETIN

FINE, ANNE The True Story of Christmas. Delacorte, 2003 133p Library ed. ISBN 0-385-90156-9 $17.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-385-73130-2 $15.95 R Gr. 4-7 Well, it's the true story of Ralph Mountfield's Christmas, anyway, and the family strains that make it a panorama of holiday horror. It's bad enough to have the sheer numbers (Christmas dinner eventually totals sixteen, including little Albert from next door who "just sort of dribbled over"), but those numbers include such luminaries as nasty Great-Granny (motto: "If I had my own teeth, I'd bite you"), spoiled little cousin Titania (who has to be cunningly prevented from inflicting odiously saccharine song-and-dance fairy princess performances on anything that stands still), and mischievous Uncle Tristram (who enjoys setting relations at one another). No matter what Ralph does to try to stay out of trouble, it seems like there's always somebody who thinks he's doing the wrong thing, which is how he ends up sent to his room on Christmas day. This runs more towards sitcom contrivance than Fine usually does, and there's ultimately not much plot behind the holiday battling. The uproar is gratifyingly comedic, however, and kids will particularly enjoy the merciless pillorying of the attended, especially when the targets are adult-indulged children and less than stellar adults (evil Great-Granny will be some youngsters' secret hero). The liveliness and quick patter makes this an easy- to-digest holiday read-or a daring change of pace for a holiday readaloud. DS

FLEISCHMAN, PAUL Breakout. Marcato/Cricket, 2003 124 p ISBN 0-8126-2696-6 $15.95 R Gr. 7-10 As he did in Whirligig (BCCB 6/98) and Mind's Eye (10/99), Fleischman explores the theme of redemption through art, here the artistic genre of stand-up comedy. Tired of being bounced from one foster home to another, Del takes the drastic step of faking her death, only to have her escape from L. A. thwarted by a traffic jam. In the midst of the jam, she finds herself moving from cynical critique of human failings, to dispassionate observation, to a desire to connect. Realistically, she doesn't process her epiphany as she is having it but rather simply performs a spontaneous stand-up comedy routine that is well received and offers her a sense of connection with her fellow travelers. Years later, Del transforms the episode into a one-woman play, where she reveals what she has learned over time. This later performance is interwoven with segments of real-time narration of Del in the jam, and the back- and-forth contextualization of present experience with future insight lends cre- dence to her eventual epiphany. In other words, she doesn't get it, all at once, at seventeen, in the middle of a traffic jam, but has to wait for it all to make some kind of sense, which it eventually does. This realistic processing-over-time may prove helpful to the teen struggling with difficult circumstances; there is potential here for creative-writing assignments that mirror Del's imaginative activity of trans- forming suffering into comedic narrative. The text is undeniably didactic, but there is enough humor and pathos in the stories of the stuck motorists to sweeten the lesson. KC

FLEMING, CANDACE Boxes forKatje; illus. by Stacey Dressen-McQueen. Kroupa/ Farrar, 2003 35p ISBN 0-374-30922-1 $16.00 R 6-9 yrs The title page of this story features a freckle-faced Rosie on her way to the mailbox with a package addressed to Katje Van Stegeran in Olst, Holland. The story proper OCTOBER 2003 * 59 then begins in post-World War II Olst, which, like the rest of Europe, is facing serious shortages of everyday items. Katje shares the contents of her package with her mother and the postman-well, she keeps the soap and the socks, but she shares the chocolate-and writes a letter of thanks to Rosie, explaining that sugar is not available in Holland. Rosie responds by sending four bags of sugar, and their correspondence continues. Rosie enlists the help of her townsfolk, and through food and clothing drives, the people of Mayfield, Indiana help the people of Olst survive the worst winter of the century. The grateful people of Olst respond by sending what they do have-tulip bulbs-in return, leading to a flowering of grati- tude in the Midwest. The endpapers show Mayfield before and after the tulips. According to an author's note, this touching tale is based on the true experiences of the author's mother in 1945, and there's also a sweetly folkloric overtone to the simple exchange. The busy, energetic illustrations reflect the styles and textiles popular during the period, conveying an exuberant spirit of hope and generosity despite the privations. Careful atmospheric detail marks both people and objects; for instance, the authentic ethnic similarity of the folk of Olst is counterpoised against the diversity of the folk in Mayfield. It will take a storyteller of stern stuff to maintain dry eyes during a readaloud of this one, but exploring the joys and satisfactions of grass-roots war relief couldn't be more timely. KC

FLEMING, DENISE Buster; written and illus. by Denise Fleming. Holt, 2003 34p ISBN 0-8050-6279-3 $15.95 R 5-8 yrs Buster is a happy dog until his household expands to include a fluffy white kitten with a pink nose and green eyes: "Buster was not happy. Buster was afraid of cats." Betty, the kitten, does her best to endear herself to Buster, purring and winding around his legs, but all Buster can think is "If I ignore her... maybe she'll go away." Betty doesn't go away, and poor Buster finally reaches his breaking point, slips under the fence, and runs off to a park. There the dog enjoys himself until, ready to go home, he realizes he's lost. When he looks up, "in the top of a tall tree several streets over, Buster saw a waving ball of white fur. The tree looked very familiar. The waving ball of fur looked very familiar. It was Betty!" Using the kitten as a beacon, Buster finds his way home, where "he had everything he could ever want-and more." Fleming's tale of the lovable if kitten-cowed Buster has a steadily rising momentum that will capture listeners from the opening lines. The loose division of the text into titled sections suggests a beginning chapter book without the formality of a traditional format. The fiber illustrations have a textural solidity emphasized by the richly saturated colors, with the warmth of the sunny yellow walls balanced by the cool, leafy greens of garden and park. Varied compositions-full-page, double-page spread, and vignettes-keep the eye busy, and the changing expressions of the put-upon Buster offer an emotional anchor to the art. While this title will make a very effective group readaloud it also might serve as a readalone for those brave just-reading youngsters ready to venture out onto a slightly challenging literary sea. JMD

FREEDMAN, RUSSELL In Defense of Liberty: The Story of America's Bill of Rights. Holiday House, 2003 196p illus. with photographs ISBN 0-8234-1585-6 $24.95 R* Gr. 6-10 Opening with requisite attention to the Founders' misgivings about central government, against which the Bill of Rights would serve as first line of defense, Freed- 60 * THE BULLETIN man quickly shifts emphasis to current interpretation of those rights and the pivotal Supreme Court decisions that articulated them. The famous citations are, of course, examined--Tinker and Brown and Island Trees-and particular attention is paid to how high-court decisions have limited rights of minors or put them on par with those of adults. The amendments are covered in orderly fashion, but Freedman is flexible enough to allow more space for multifaceted amendments such as the first (freedoms of speech, expression, religion, and assembly) and to trim discussion of the more elusive tenth (powers reserved to the States). Coverage is generally up to date, including discussion of the unresolved post 9/11 debate on "mass arrests and secret detentions" of suspected terrorists, and even the thorny issue of rights of noncitizens is introduced. Ample illustrations include black-and- white pictures of famed litigants and Supreme Court justices who have written seminal decisions and dissents; useful end matter includes a general index, index of Supreme Court cases, notes, bibliography, and the Bill of Rights itself. Readers eager to join in debate on the day's hot-button legal issues can bring themselves up to speed, and kids simply cramming for required U.S. Constitution tests will find Freedman to be a concise and lively tutor. EB

FUQUA, JONATHON SCOTT Catie &Josephine;illus. by Steven Parke. Houghton, 2003 [72p] ISBN 0-618-39403-6 $16.00 Reviewed from galleys M Gr. 3-5 Catie is lonely in her new home, finding it difficult to make friends in the last week of school, but she's seen an appealing girl her age around her house and she's determined to befriend her. She's delighted when she finally manages to meet Josephine (who shares Catie's interest in Barbies), but it soon becomes clear that their friendship will have to surmount some unusual challenges, since Josephine is a ghost. This is a promising setup, and young readers will revel in the notion of having a secret ghostly friend all their own. Unfortunately, the execution isn't up to the concept: the writing is flat, and both the realism and the ghostly interac- tions are strained and unconvincing, with the latter emphasizing special effects more than atmosphere or plausibility. Color photographs add an interesting di- mension to the narrative, but they're a mixed bag: some, like the one of a shad- owed Josephine peering through a doorframe at a pensive Catie, offer texture lacking in the prose, but others suffer from obtrusive assembly and predictable visual effects; the pictured girls also look somewhat younger than the readership age the somewhat dense text suggests. Kids may enjoy flicking through the photos even if they find themselves skimming over the words; for more successful ghostly prose, they can turn to one of Betty Ren Wright's junior offerings, or Neil Gaiman's Coraline (BCCB 11/02). DS

GANTOS, JACK Jack Adrift: Fourth Grade without a Clue. Farrar, 2003 197p ISBN 0-374-39987-5 $16.00 R Gr. 4-7 We've seen Jack Henry in four volumes following him from fifth through eighth grade (Heads or Tails: Storiesfrom the Sixth Grade, BCCB 7/94, etc.), and again Gantos extends the saga on the front end by taking Jack back to his fourth-grade year. That year starts with the family move to North Carolina for Jack's father's work with the Navy, ensconcing the family in a swamp-situated trailer and land- ing Jack, as usual, in a series of situations that provoke serious, if not always effec- OCTOBER 2003 * 61 tive, thought: he's head over heels in love with his teacher, Miss Noelle; he's learning about manly ways of dealing with distress from his father; he finds a surprising amount of satisfaction in caring for a duck who had a bad life start. This doesn't muster quite the impact of the other Jack entries, since the episodes vary in effect and never really cohere, but Gantos still retains his humorous and bracing honesty about Jack's exploration of the world. Jack's struggle with his father's version of manhood is the strongest theme here, including some authentic depiction of his flirtation with bullyhood; astute readers will notice that Jack's father's rather questionable success in the manhood area (he receives an Other Than Honorable discharge from the Army) adds a troubling shadow to Jack's explorations. Readers will probably have a better experience starting with another Jack book and working their way down, but there's plenty here to reward them when they arrive. DS

GREENBERG, JAN Romare Bearden: Collage of Memories. Abrams, 2003 48p illus. with photographs ISBN 0-8109-4589-4 $17.95 R Gr. 4-7 Greenberg, half of the writing team of Greenberg and Jordan (ActionJackson, BCCB 11/02, etc.), here offers a concise overview of the life and work of prominent twentieth-century artist Bearden. The text offers a rich account of the artist's youth in North Carolina and later in New York, as well as providing a description of his burgeoning artistic career and his artistic style. The last is even more vividly con- veyed by the book's strongest merit: crystal-clear, elegantly displayed reproduc- tions of Bearden's own works serving as illustration for the relevant bits of biography. Though the prose is thoughtful and informative, this doesn't have quite the tex- tual energy of Greenberg's other works, since sentences are sometimes choppy and the focus jumps around somewhat, presumably to better accommodate the relevant artworks. The art itself is quite breathtaking, however, providing impact that's likely to be apparent to kids from a wide range of ages and viewpoints; the layout treats page and text as part of the art's frame, using carefully chosen strong background colors and bold black text to balance out the vivid hues in the works. The articulation of the art's everyday-life subject matter may encourage readers to look at their own surroundings with fresh eyes, and the emphasis on biographical connection may well give young collagistes ideas for their own art. A brief adden- dum describes Bearden's collage methodology; a timeline, bibliography, endnotes, glossary, and list of museums containing Bearden's work are included. DS

HALLS, KELLY MILNER DinosaurMummies: Beyond Bare-Bone Fossils; illus. by Rick Spears and with photographs. Darby Creek, 2003 48p ISBN 1-58196-000-X $17.95 R Gr. 4-8 Readers hoping for linen-shrouded behemoths, or at least a cache of desiccated but intact remains, may be momentarily disappointed to find that paleontologists' definition of a mummy differs from archaeologists'. Here the deceased dino has been thoroughly permeated by minerals that retain the animal's structure after its organic matter has decomposed. Any disappointment should soon dissipate, though, as readers learn just how much fascinating evidence can be gleaned from the mineralized forms. A thescelosaurus discovered in South Dakota has its fossilized four-chambered heart still nestled among its ribs; a Chinese sinosauropteryx retains unhatched eggs within its pelvis and intriguing traces of feathers on its body. 62 * THE BULLETIN

Hadrosaur "Leonardo" in North Dakota has a whopping seventy percent of its soft tissue in a fossilized state, with its scaly skin patterns "as easy to see as the nose on your face." Each brief chapter focuses on a particular fossil and includes information on its discovery, clear but often undersized color photographs of the remains, a color drawing that reconstructs the dinosaur as it may have appeared, and sidebars on the scientists now engaged in studying the finds. A final "Bits and Pieces" chapter highlights other significant discoveries from 1990 to 2002; besides the customary bibliography, glossary, and index, addenda include listings of kid- accessible books, videos, websites, and dig-site destinations, all helpfully annotated. Dig in. EB

HARRIS, ROBIE H. Go! Go! Maria!: What It's Like to Be 1; illus. by Michael Emberley. McElderry, 2003 32p (Growing Up Stories) ISBN 0-689-83258-3 $16.95 R 4 -7 yrs Harris and Emberley, who covered a baby's first year in Hello Benny!(BCCB 11/02), now explore the realm of toddlerdom, where energetic little Latina moppet Maria reigns as fictional queen. The fun starts soon after her first birthday, when she pulls herself up to standing position, turns on the TV, and shrieks "Hola!" As soon as she's mobile, look out. She can open big brother Percy's drawer and put his underwear on her head, she can stand up in bed and howl at night, she can throw off her clothes and unroll the toilet paper, she can lurk behind the sofa for hide-and-seek. And then speech kicks in: Maria accurately mimics Percy's indeli- cate vocabulary, she freely mixes Spanish and English words in short sentences, and she loves to say "No!" Harris is, of course, addressing concerned siblings who might wonder if it's really normal for a younger brother or sister to be so maniacal; yes, Harris assures them, it's normal and it's temporary and, although she never prescribes specific defensive behavior, her text strongly suggests that it's pointless to yell at or even reason with toddlers (advice that, along with the rest of the book, may be helpful to prospective babysitters as well as siblings). Again, as in Benny, substantial sidebars comment on the range of normal behaviors within this age bracket, and the cartoonish cast of effervescent tykes demonstrate that, from one to two years, perpetual motion is the name of the game. Since many toddler milestones involve emergent social skills, the text here seems a bit more scattershot than that of Benny, with its more linear trajectory of physical development in the first year. "Scattershot" isn't a bad descriptor for toddlers, and this raucous account should leave the audience justifiably nervous about the Terrible Twos just around the corner. EB

HERMAN, JOHN One Winter's Night; illus. by Leo and Diane Dillon. Philomel, 2003 32p ISBN 0-399-23418-7 $16.99 Ad 4-7 yrs Martha, a solitary cow about to give birth to her first calf, trudges through a snowy winter night in search of shelter. "She walked to the barn but the door was closed. She pushed against it with her nose. But no one was there to help." At last she's taken in at a small shed, where a human couple has also taken shelter while await- ing the birth of their first child. The man prepares a bed of hay for Martha, then turns his attention to his wife and the coming of their own baby. He's reminded of their animal companion when Martha suddenly lows: "And beside her, just beginning to stand on spindly legs-a beautiful calf." Martha, sweet-faced and almost dainty considering her substantial girth, claims the full-page color illustra- OCTOBER 2003 * 63 tion on the right of each double-page spread, while a narrower monochrome rect- angle atop the left facing page of text depicts the progress of Mary and Joseph as they make their way to crude accommodations in American farm country. The night is appropriately luminous, with moonlight reflected on snow-softened hills and lantern light casting a gentle glow in the shadowy shed. The Dillons' Mary and Joseph are an especially handsome and appealing pair, with smoky skin, deli- cately sculpted features, and obvious compassion for a creature who shares their current hardship. Unfortunately, the simple coincidence of Martha's arrival at Jesus' birth contributes little to the Nativity story, and but for Joseph's offhand remark, "Well, now, two glorious babies on one winter's night," the event offers no obvious significance. After admiring the Dillons' artwork, children might prefer joining the Christmas animals in Michael Foreman's The Cat in the Manger (BCCB 11/01). EB

HIRSCH, ODO Hazel Green. Bloomsbury, 2003 190p ISBN 1-58234-820-0 $15.95 Ad Gr. 3-5 Hazel Green is an enthusiastic child with an enthusiastic following among the local children, at least when they're not following her rival, Leon Davis. Hazel knows that if she is going to get the kids behind her to create a float for the Frogg Day parade she needs Leon, so she initiates an alliance, agreeing to Leon's terms: "All right, here's the deal: we'll organise it together. You won't do anything I don't agree with, and I won't do anything you don't agree with. When we march, we'll both march together at the front. Neither one ahead of the other." The two reluctant allies negotiate with the adults organizing the parade, agree on a concept for the float, and start construction, but when Hazel discovers (informed by gifted kid mathematician Yakov Plonsk) that the float is too high for its base, Leon refuses to change the design and gets Hazel kicked out of the parade as a trouble maker. Subplots involving Yakov and the origin of his despised nickname ("the Yak" ), a secret pastry recipe, and the rivalry between neighborhood bakeries fill in the gaps between uneasy alliance and celebratory parade; ultimately all ends well, although the float is a little shorter than originally anticipated. This novel has the mannered restraint of an earlier age that will please those ready to relax into the novel's wholesome nostalgia. The characterizations are unfortunately sketchy- the adults especially are just collections of quirky characteristics-and the understatedness of the action means that the conflict is never tense enough to result in any real suspense. Still, there is a Disneyesque, old-fashioned tone to this novel that will appeal to many adults seeking gentle readalouds for younger children. JMD

HOOPER, MARY At the Sign of the Sugared Plum. Bloomsbury, 2003 169p ISBN 1-58234-849-9 $16.95 R Gr. 5-9 Hannah is delighted to escape the narrow scope of her family's farming life to join her entrepreneurial older sister in London, where she will assist Sarah in her confectioner's shop. Hannah couldn't have picked a worse time to arrive, though, as the city succumbs to the bubonic plague of 1665. At first the two young women seem relatively safe-the worst of the epidemic skirts their neighborhood, business remains brisk, and there's even time for Hannah to launch a romance with the chemist's apprentice and visit with her old friend Abby, who is now a maid to the wealthy Beauchurch family. All too soon, though, the gentry flee the city, business 64 * THE BULLETIN drops off, and the dreaded quarantine locks appear on doors up and down their own street. The sisters keep trade alive by concocting herbal comfits to ward off disease, admitting to themselves that although the sweets are probably worthless, they are certainly no worse than other remedies hawked to desperate citizens. Abby and her employers are stricken, but their deaths offer Hannah and Sarah an unexpected chance to leave the city illegally if they agree to take the Beauchurch in- fant-whose health is obviously questionable---with them. Hooper builds suspense steadily, contrasting the sisters' successful enterprise with the threat of the advanc- ing plague, and even as Hannah and Sarah try to reassure themselves that infection is not inevitable, the reader knows as well as they do that odds are not in their favor. An abrupt ending, which hints at but does not guarantee happier days ahead, strikes a sour note, but fans of historical disaster fiction will accept that uncertainty is a hallmark of the genre. EB

JACKSON, DONNA M. Hero Dogs: Courageous Canines inAction. Tingley/Little, 2003 4 8p illus. with photographs ISBN 0-316-82681-2 $16.95 Ad Gr. 3-7 Most people who followed the events of September 11th heard about the search and rescue dogs who, under the guidance of their handlers, combed the sites for survivors and for bodies of the victims. Jackson (author of The Bone Detectives, BCCB 4/96) gives more information on the hard-working search dogs and expands her treatment to cover other canines who helped in the process, such as therapy dogs, who comforted the rescue workers and the bereaved at the World Trade Center. She also discusses the veterinary support provided for the animals on location and then branches out into discussion of various canine workers, both trained and untrained. The stories are often compelling ones, especially with the September 11 focus; some of these canine careers may also be new ones to young readers who are likely already familiar with guide dogs and bomb sniffers. Unfor- tunately, the overbroad focus results in distractingly scattered organization, since the book skips from general career canines to September 11 work and back again (and then digresses to untrained dog heroes and returns to trained canine workers), when either subject would have made a fine topic that could have been more thoroughly examined on its own. Many basic pieces of information are missing from the accounts. How many dogs were involved in the various efforts post September 11? How long were they there? Did the search dogs make any live finds? How many victims did they discover? Even the back cover is confusing, since some of the dogs in its gallery are profiled within the book while others are not (one even has a job not mentioned in the text). Some of the photos are a bit unclear (often because the situation likely complicated the effort), but there are plenty of attractive dogs romping through the pages for viewers to enjoy. A list of resources and a glossary are included. DS

JENKINS, A. M. Out of Order. HarperCollins, 2003 247p Library ed. ISBN 0-06-623969-9 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-623968-0 $15.99 R Gr. 7-12 Sophomore Colt Trammel loathes the school part of school, since he's terrible at academics and he has spent years lying and cheating his way out of the conse- quences. He loves baseball, however, where his talent brings him satisfaction and a sense of control; he also loves Grace, his girlfriend of several years, but beautiful, OCTOBER 2003 * 65 intellectual, conflicted Grace brings him helpless frustration more than satisfaction. When his terrible English grades jeopardize his baseball participation, he figures he can convince new girl Corinne (whom he calls "Chlo," short for "chlo- rophyll," on account of her green hair) to steer him through English, but instead of a free academic ride he finds some genuine education and a strange and prickly friendship from his free-spirited classmate. He's going to need that friendship, because Colt's relationship with Grace is slipping away from him, leading him to grief and desperation. Jenkins, author of Damage (BCCB 7/01), deftly allows Colt to reveal himself in his own narration; he's a guy whose tendency to push himself up by stepping on others makes him the antagonist in many of his classmates' personal dramas, but there's enough insight gleaned from his own words to elicit sympathy for his anguish (though readers will still likely feel it's his due when he finally gets a stapler to the forehead from one of his regular victims). The book is particularly articulate about limitations of different kinds, especially Colt's difficulty in using his limited self-knowledge to change his behavior (as well as his continued self-deception about some of his behavior) and Grace's starry-eyed naivete (she leaves Colt for an upperclassman with baser intentions than Colt but a nice line in poetry). Chlo is slightly less successful as a character, since she's preternatu- rally wise and balanced, but there's a platonically romantic aspect to her role as Colt's matter-of-fact and unwilling redeemer that adds a different kind of appeal. Ultimately, this is a compelling story of a kid who's both worse and better than he thinks, and whose growth is realistically moderate but hard-won all the same: "All I can say," says Colt, with a ruefulness that will strike a chord with teens, "is that I picked a really stupid time to grow up." DS

JENKINS, MARTIN Grandma Elephant's in Charge; illus. by Ivan Bates. Candlewick, 2003 32p ISBN 0-7636-2074-2 $15.99 Ad 5-8 yrs The family life of elephants is the subject of this nonfiction picture book, which follows the format of successful Candlewick titles such as Wallace's Think ofan Eel (BCCB 5/93) and Davies' Big Blue Whale (10/97). Large-print text explains behavior and family structure in simple terms ("Most elephant families are big") while smaller text offers slightly more sophisticated tidbits of relevant information that help fill in the picture. Though there's a touch of personification in the narrative, it's mostly just cheerfully informal, discussing elephant actions in terms youngsters will easily understand, and the combination of the digestible factual details and the engaging familial examination makes this a rich introduction to pachyderm biology. The watercolor and colored-pencil art is lighthearted and affectionate, but the pale tones are bland and the elephant expressions grossly an- thropomorphized into cutesy smiles, undercutting the genuine natural fascination of the animals. This is still a gently informative introduction to a very popular creature, though, and youngsters will appreciate its cozy approach. DS

JOHNSON, ANGELA A CoolMoonlight. Dial, 2003 133p ISBN 0-8037-2846-8 $14.99 Ad Gr. 4-7 Eight-year-old Lila has xeroderma pigmentosum, a rare allergy to the sun and certain other kinds of light. She also has a mother who home-schools her year- round, a father who races shopping carts with her in the grocery store after dark, and a remarkably attentive older sister who takes Lila and her friend David to hip 66 * THE BULLETIN coffee shops in the city late at night. She plays outside in the moonlight, sometimes sleeping in the clubhouse her family has made for her in the backyard. De- spite her fully accommodated lifestyle, she decides that she wants to feel the sun on her face. With the help of two mysterious friends, Alyssa and Elizabeth, who visit her only at night, she assembles a collection of random treasures into a "sun bag" that she thinks will somehow protect her as she ventures into the light. Although Johnson's icy-cool ethereal prose styling and her avoidance of capital letters may have found its ideal subject in Lila's subdued and dimly lit existence, not enough happens in this story to keep the narrative light glowing. Once the reader figures out the scant mystery that Alyssa and Elizabeth are imaginary, all that's left is a girl with an unusual condition who contemplates doing something dangerous, and then doesn't do it. Everyone's calm embrace of the inverted lifestyle necessitated by her condition may seem a bit idyllic, but Johnson is convincing in her portrayal of the way disability becomes business as usual in the families it affects; readers may even find themselves a bit envious of Lila's cool nocturnal world. KC

KOSCIELNIAK, BRUCE Johann Gutenberg and the Amazing PrintingPress; written and illus. by Bruce Koscielniak. Houghton, 2003 32p. ISBN 0-618-26351-9 $16.00 R Gr. 3-6 Ask a child about Gutenberg, and they'll probably identify him (if at all) as the guy who made the first book .. , invented the printing press ... or even made the first Bible. Without trivializing Gutenberg's accomplishments, Koscielniak sets the record straight on just what the fifteenth-century German printer did do-de- velop in the West a system of cast-metal movable type and a hand press to make the printing process easier and the product more consistent. As this title makes clear, parallel systems had already arisen in Asia: "Europeans may have heard of metal type-making techniques in use in Korea, but they had to devise their own working methods independently." Koscielniak also fits Gutenberg's achievement into the larger history of European bookmaking, reviewing the steps involved in producing hand-lettered, illuminated parchment tomes and showing how Gutenberg's page design, with familiar Gothic script and space for embellishment, eased the transition from hand crafting to mass production. The colorfully tunicked, square-jawed printers are rendered in a spidery line-and-watercolor style reminiscent of a somewhat more stolid Robert Andrew Parker. This neatly balanced account earns its shelf space anywhere books are important ... in most libraries, for instance. EB

KRULL, KATHLEEN The Night the Martians Landed: Just the Facts (Plus the Ru- mors) aboutInvaders from Mars; illus. by Christopher Santoro. HarperTrophy, 2003 [8 0p] Library ed. ISBN 0-688-17247-4 $15.89 Paper ed. ISBN 0-688-17246-6 $4.25 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-7 Orson Welles' Halloween broadcast of H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds may seem like a piece of ancient history to young readers, but it's had its effect on much contemporary sci-fi and it still makes for a fascinating tale. Krull gives a capable overview, evoking the broadcast itself with sufficient drama to make the ensuing listener response plausible while providing background information on Welles, Wells, and radio (concise sidebars offer compact details), then going on to discuss OCTOBER 2003 * 67 subsequent advances in knowledge about Mars as well as hoaxes in general. The author's real achievement here (and in the companion volume, What Really Happened in Roswell?) lies in her reasonable and readable exploration of the phenomenon; she's managed to tackle the complicated issue of people's beliefs clearly and logically, but without making debunkage less appealing than the original story. Though she's more accepting of the standard account of the panic than some current views would justify, she doesn't take it at face value, either, noting that reports on the response are significantly variable and sometimes interestingly contradictory (especially Welles' own statements). There's a subtle message here about people's tendency to believe based on fears and desires rather than evidence, and the matter-of-fact exploration helps offer some modeling of a more reliable approach, making this a useful counteractant to the more credulous works on various subjects. Santoro's black-and-white drawings have a campy and amusing flavor that suits the subject; source notes point readers to some generally thought- provoking material about hoaxes and belief as well as including material on the broadcast itself. DS

LESTER, HELEN Something Might Happen; illus. by Lynn Munsinger. Lorraine/ Houghton, 2003 32p ISBN 0-618-25406-4 $15.00 R Gr. 1-3 Joining the widening cast of eccentric and comical animals created by Lester and Munsinger is lemur Twitchly Fidget, a master at imagining worst-case scenarios: he can't eat cereal because the loud crunching might scare him into bumping his head on a lamp, he can't wear shoes because he might put them on the wrong feet and have to walk cross-legged, etc. When his friends invite him to a Fourth of February celebration, he can't go, of course, because of any number of mishaps that might befall a lemur at a parade. Fortunately for Twitchly, his no-nonsense Aunt Bridget appears on the scene to shape him up. She gives him a bath, feeds him cereal, and makes him put on his sneakers, which he does in fact put on the wrong feet. To his surprise, nothing happens. This unexpected reprieve from disaster gives Twitchly new confidence, and a reformed Twitchly goes forth to greet the world. Twitchly's hyperbolic sense of doom is sure to bring some giggles, especially as his imaginary fears are brought to life by Munsinger's energetic illustrations. Let's face it, lemurs are funny-looking on their own, and Munsinger craftily exploits their googly eyes and ringed tails to great comic effect. Twitchly may not be as fully developed nor heroic a character as Tacky the Penguin, but fans of Lester and Munsinger will welcome this personable animal antihero. KC

LEUCK, LAURA One Witch; illus. by S. D. Schindler. Walker, 2003 [34p] Library ed. ISBN 0-8027-8861-0 $16.85 Trade ed. ISBN 0-8027-8860-2 $15.95 Reviewed from galleys R 4-6 yrs A lone witch puzzles over an empty cauldron ("One witch/ on a hill/ had an empty pot/ to fill"), but not for long, because her friends are happy to help: "Two cats/ inside a pail/ gave the witch/ a fish's tail.// Three scarecrows/stuffed with straw/ gave the witch/ a blackbird's claw," all the way up to "Ten werewolves in a group/ / [who] gave the witch some spider soup." While her mix is properly brewing, the witch sends her "trusty bats" out with invitations, and all who contributed come to sample the potluck soup: "What did all/ her good friends do?/ They came and 68 * THE BULLETIN ate/ that gruesome brew.// (Everybody/ loved it too!)/ They saved the last bowl/ just for ... // YOU!" Leuck's cadenced counting rhyme is a winning readaloud, and the unappetizing donations of the scary creatures to the witch's brew are just enough to get the groans going among young listeners. The line-and-watercolor illustrations are crisply drafted, with enough tiny details (slugs and spiders with personality, for example) in their monstrously whimsical envisionings to keep even close observers busy. (The bat endpapers alone will inspire both perusal and imi- tation.) This is one Halloween readaloud that puts the trick right into the treat. JMD

LITTLE, JEAN Emma's Strange Pet; illus. by Jennifer Plecas. HarperCollins, 2003 64 p (I Can Read Books) Library ed. ISBN 0-06-028351-3 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-028350-5 $15.99 R Gr. 1-2 Though clearly happy in his new family (see Emma's Yucky Brother, BCCB 5/01), Max is displeased to discover that Emma's allergies prevent the family from getting a furry pet; since Emma too longs for an animal, she decides that "a strange pet will be just fine," and she selects a cute little anole, a lizard, for the new addition to the family. Stranger, as Max dubs him, proves to be quite a hit, eliciting affection and care from Max as well as Emma (as Max points out, "You adopted me... and you sort of adopted him"), so much so that Emma wisely arranges for Max to receive his very own "strange pet." The pet topic is a natural, and even in restricted text Little manages both easygoing charm and conveyance of authentic sibling irrita- tion. There's a pleasingly natural treatment of Max's adopted status, even including Emma's jokes ("I'm glad you are not an anole. I would not want a green brother"), but that issue never threatens to overpower the pet dilemma that's center stage. Plecas' characters are minimally drafted (two dots and a pen-stroke for eyes and nose), but no less vivid for that, and the anole is cute in a lizardesque way without being depicted as a more dramatic creature than reality allows. Readers drawn by the pet theme won't feel lost because they missed the previous Emma books, but the warm and authentically prickly relationship between Max and Emma may nonetheless lure them into reading more of their story. DS

LUBAR, DAVID Flip. TOR/Tom Doherty Associates, 2003 [25 6 p] ISBN 0-765-30149-0 $17.95 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 6-8 Eighth-grader Ryan McKenzie is as unproductive as his twin sister, Taylor, is pro- ductive: a poor student, an unwilling athlete, and a thorn in the side of his perfec- tionist father, Ryan seeks only survival, not achievement. A collection of entertainment disks featuring great moments from the lives of Earthly heroes falls off an alien spaceship and offers Ryan a chance to experience something of which he has little knowledge: success. Ryan steps into the virtual shoes of Babe Ruth, Albert Einstein, Elvis Presley, and Queen Victoria, but it's when he takes on the persona of legendary gladiator Spartacus that he really gets into trouble. The discovery of the disks and their properties is set amongst plot threads involving the relationship between Ryan and Taylor, and their dysfunctional relationships with their overbearing father and passive mother. Ryan is so troubled that he seeks solace in the disks the way other kids seek solace in drugs and alcohol; he is on the verge of academic failure and his father is on the verge of having him medicated OCTOBER 2003 * 69 just to get some peace and quiet. An additional subplot involving a bullying bor- derline psychotic at school adds the real risk of physical as well as emotional damage. There are too many threads here to make a cohesive novel, and the disks' personae are overly convenient and underexplored; the pace is quick, however, and changing points of view keep the pages turning. The humor doesn't always balance the truly troubled home life of the twins, but the premise is a lively one, and readers may well close this book considering possible responses to the grafting of heroic characteristics onto their own personalities. JMD

LUBKA, S. RUTH Pupniks: The Story of Two Space Dogs; written and illus. by S. Ruth Lubka. Cavendish, 2003 32p ISBN 0-7614-5137-4 $16.95 M 4-7 yrs Dogs in space-real dogs in space. So alluring a topic should send kids scurrying, book in hand, to a parental lap, but get ready for a disappointment. Information children will not learn about Belka and Strelka, the first living creatures to return safely from an Earth orbit, includes the dogs' breeds; how two trash-sniffing, rabbit-chasing strays were selected for the prestigious Soviet Sputnik program; how Belka and Strelka "did their usual dog business in space"; what happened to Belka after her return; where the offspring of the "pupniks" (Strelka's grand-puppies, born to daughter Pushinka, a gift to President Kennedy and family) are today. Children will almost certainly, however, be confused by awkwardly cartoonish colored-pencil pictures of tangled dogs, rabbits, mice, bugs, and plants spilling out from the window of Sputnik 5; the mythical firebird, who literally accompanies the Vostok rocket into space and greets it on reentry; the underexplained space suit whose emerging rear tube could arguably supply air or confine a waggly tail; the fuzzy purple-spiral aura that surrounds dozing Strelka. Lubka never explains how the creatures survived blast-off: "Their eyeballs jammed against their skulls ... Heat from the rocket sizzled their paws. . .. It roasted the rabbit's whiskers and wilted the plants." After viewing vignettes of the flame-engulfed, traumatized crew, kids will hardly be reassured by the ludicrously understated denouement, "After so much excitement, Belka and Strelka fell into a deep sleep." Addenda include further information about Strelka's Pushinka in the U.S., other animals in space, photos of Belka and Strelka, and of the Kennedys with their pets, and a glossary/pronunciation guide of Russian words. Abort this mission. EB

MACKLER, CAROLYN The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things. Candlewick, 2003 [256p] ISBN 0-7636-1958-2 $15.99 R Gr. 7-10 Virginia is lonely and uncertain; her best friend has moved across the country, her talented brother has gone off to college, and her gifted sister has gone off to the Peace Corps, leaving overweight, unaccomplished Virginia with her hard-driving parents. She's so convinced that her weight makes her unworthy that she's got a list, "The Fat Girl Code of Conduct," which bitterly sets out her limited expectations and firmly decrees that her exciting sexual grapplings with one Froggy Welsh III ("Go further than skinny girls. Find ways to alert him to this") can never translate into any public relationship ("Any sexual activity is a secret"). When her brother gets kicked out of college for date-rape and her family struggles to adjust, however, Virginia realizes that her perfect family is itself deeply flawed, that she's not the sole fallible member, and that she has a right to find her own persona even 70 * THE BULLETIN if it conflicts with her parents' expectations. This isn't exactly untrodden ground, plot- and character-wise, and some of the proceedings are a trifle cliched, but Mackler writes with a clarity and impact that lifts her material above the ordinary ("Some- times my parents are so sure of what's best for me that I don't stop to think about what I really want"). The book is knowing about the relationship between image and self-image, and there's genuine understanding and a welcome absence of con- descension in Virginia's exhilarating change of style as she moves from being her formerly fat mother's frumpy plus-size proxy to a cool chick at her current size, complete with piercings, purple hair, and thrift-store wardrobe. It's no particular surprise that Virginia has underestimated Froggy and his genuine affection, but Virginia's gone through so much to become her own kind of princess that readers will be pleased to see her find her frog. DS

MARTIN, JACQUELINE BRIGGS On Sand Island; illus. by David Johnson. Houghton, 2003 32p ISBN 0-618-23151-X $16.00 Ad Gr. 3-5 Carl is a young boy on Sand Island in Lake Superior, growing up in a small fishing community in the early twentieth century. It's understandable that in such a place "Carl wanted a boat of his own more than a new bicycle," not just to take his place as a fisherman but also to give him some peace and healing he can't always find at home since his mother's death. He's thrilled when he finds boards enough to make a boat, but the sawing task is a bit beyond him, so he swaps his labor for one neighbor's sawing assistance; he trades work with another neighbor for nails and with a third for paint, while his father provides him with a pair of oars. Finally Carl hits the water and catches "three fish as long as his arm," and the island celebrates "the newest boat on the island" and the newest boatman. Martin's quiet, confiding tone matches the quiet island life, and Carl's bartering of one task for another adds a nicely folkloric touch. The slow pace rather lessens the story's impact, however, and the structure of Carl's barters inform only a few pages, leaving the rest of the book more dependent on atmosphere than plot. Johnson's watercolors rely on pale, mottled tones punctuated with fine yet crisp black lines; this technique results in an interestingly translucent, Japanese aura in the scenes of nature. The human scenes are unfortunately less successful: the faces, especially Carl's, are diminished to doll-like cutesiness, and the dark lines tend to fade the muted pastels almost into invisibility. This doesn't make the splash it might, but readers who enjoy quieter literary backwaters may appreciate this affectionate tale of island life. DS

MATTHEWS, ANDREW The Flip Side. Delacorte, 2003 147p Library ed. ISBN 0-385-90126-7 $17.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-385-73096-9 $15.95 Ad Gr. 7-12 Blame it on Shakespeare-fifteen-year-old Rob had never thought much about gender presentation until his class began to study As You Like It. He's thrilled to be chosen to act a scene with Milena, the girl of his dreams; when his inventive teacher decides to explore the play's gender-bending by making the two swap roles, Rob is startled to discover how exciting and liberating he finds posing and dressing as a girl. Things become more intense when he discovers that Milena is not only interested in him, she's also a partner in exploration, drawn by the idea of appear- ing as a male; Rob's best friend, Kev, also confesses his secret about sexual identity OCTOBER 2003 * 71 and orientation: he's gay. The transvestitism side of gender issues doesn't turn up much in literature for young people, and at its best this British import treats the subject with an irreverent and reassuring humor (Rob decides not to answer his dad's polite query about his day with "I asked this girl out and she said yes. Oh, and by the way, I found out that wearing women's clothes really gets me off."). The honest acknowledgment both of Rob's private questions about his impulses and his lack of skill in following through (his initial attempt at makeup is horrible indeed) is believable as well as unsensational. Unfortunately, there's a wardrobe full of contrivance in the convergence of everybody's gender issues, and the book becomes heavy-handed when Rob turns from uncertain exploration to lofty wisdom, helping his frightened gay friend with self-esteem homework and comment- ing sagely that a jeering classmate "had a lot of issues he hadn't confronted yet." The resolution is also yanked out of nowhere, ignoring the complicated and interesting questions raised. Despite the drawbacks, however, this is an often percep- tive treatment of a largely undiscussed subject. DS

MCCAUGHREAN, GERALDINE Casting the Gods Adrift: A Tale of Ancient Egypt; illus. by Patricia D. Ludlow. Cricket, 2003 103p ISBN 0-8126-2684-2 $15.95 Ad Gr. 3-5 When their boat founders in the Nile, narrator Tutmose, his father Harkhuf, and brother Ibrim abruptly come to the attention of pharaoh Amenhotep IV, whose pleasure craft comes along just in time to pluck them out of the crocodile-infested water. The family finds favor with their gracious ruler and all are assigned roles at court-Tutmose and Ibrim as apprentice craftsman and musician, and Harkhuf as supplier of exotic fauna for the pharaoh's private menagerie. While the boys flourish, the father seethes over Amenhotep's religious revolution; taking the name Akhenaten (Spirit of Aten), the pharaoh suppresses worship of all gods but the sun god. Harkhuf's resentment, even terror, over this deposing of the gods impels him to an attempt on Akhenaten's life, and only Tutmose's bravery and quick thinking save the pharaoh and mask his father's crime. Although the assassination attempt and Tutmose's intervention are dramatically drawn, it takes a long time to get there, and readers who aren't enthralled by palaver about religious reform may wonder when the action will get going. Moreover, McCaughrean's romanticized and unnuanced portrayal of Akhenaten as monogamous family man (unless alert kids pick up on the reference to his daughter marrying her stepbrother) and mono- theist is somewhat misleading, and Tutmose's referral to the new capital, Akhetaten, by its current name (El-Amarna) is unnecessarily imprecise. However, readers who only envision pharaohs wrapped in linen might want to cast a glance at a living, and still highly controversial, member of their ranks. Black-and-white pictures featuring a doe-eyed, overemotive Tutmose appear throughout, and a glossary of terms closes the title. EB

MCPHAIL, DAVID Big Brown Bear's Up and Down Day; written and illus. by David McPhail. Harcourt, 2003 4 8p ISBN 0-15-216407-3 $16.00 R Gr. 2-3 Early one morning, a bleary-eyed Big Brown Bear notices one of his slippers wandering away, a result of Rat's determination that one of Big Brown Bear's slippers would make a dandy bed. Big Brown Bear will have none of that, so Rat has to abandon his larcenous activity-at least temporarily. In Chapter Two, Rat attempts to trick Big Brown Bear into giving up his slipper by promising him a free 72 * THE BULLETIN trip wherever he wants to go, just so long as he doesn't wear or take his slippers. Big Brown Bear sees through this ploy, but he begins to warm toward the little schemer and invites him to breakfast. In the final brief chapter, Big Brown Bear drops his baseball in a box full of discarded things. While looking for it, he finds, among other things, a small wind-up car, just the right size for a rat, and a lonely old slipper, which he is glad to share with his new friend. McPhail's debt to Sendak is happily evident in the illustrations, which feature subtly hued watercolors fuzzed over with pen and ink crosshatching to provide texture and soften edges. Uncluttered compositions with just the right amount of detail to support the text are set on white backgrounds that allow the characters to take center stage, which is fortunate since both Rat and Big Brown Bear are, visually speaking, fully developed characters with predictable postures and characteristic expressions that track through the episodes. However, it is Big Brown Bear's open-hearted generosity that generates the real warmth in this text as he practices the age-old wisdom of returning a bad deed with a good one, winning over both Rat and the reader in the process. KC

MILLS, CLAUDIA Gus and Grandpa Go Fishing;illus. by Catherine Stock. Farrar, 2003 4 8p ISBN 0-374-32815-3 $15.00 R Gr. 1-3 In the latest entry in Mills' popular chapter-book series, piscatorial ability seems to have skipped a generation, originating with Grandpa, bypassing Mommy (who screams at the sight of a wriggly fish) and Daddy ("He was still trying to figure out all the fancy features of his new fishing rod"), and settling on Gus. At first the family fishing trip doesn't look too promising for Gus; his casting is problematic, patience is a hard taskmaster, and Gus' first bite escapes from the hook. After a picnic lunch that "would have tasted better ifGus's fish hadn't gotten away," Gus is ready to try again; this time it's the big one, and Gus and Grandpa are the uncontested sultans of the shoreline. Mills has the family dynamic down pat: Daddy's infatuation with gadgetry, Mommy's whirlwind management of the day's activities ("Gus and Grandpa and Skipper knew it was best to stay out of Gus's mother's way when she was getting ready to go somewhere"), and the stubborn hopefulness of the two real fishermen of the crew. Stock's line-and-watercolor scenes, in woodsy greens and river blues, capture the warmth of a close-knit family without betraying a hint of schmaltz. Young fisherkids are an underserved readership, and they'll be glad to find an author who shares their appreciation of the graceful arc of a perfect cast, the silken movement of a trusty reel, and, although artificial lures seem to be in play here, the bittersweet demise of a sacrificial worm. EB

NAPOLI, DONNA Jo Breath. Atheneum, 2003 [272p] ISBN 0-689-86174-5 $16.95 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 7-10 Salz has trouble breathing, and he is alive only because his grandmother is a healer wise in the ways of herbs and tinctures. The boy does not drink the beer that is the staple of his family's diet because Grossmutter forbids it; he's therefore spared the sickness that befalls cattle, farmers, and townsfolk when a fungus taints the grain used for feed and beer. When his brother, Bertram, goes into a hallucinogenic rage and attempts to murder Salz as the source of the illness, Grossmutter inter- OCTOBER 2003 * 73 venes and dies instead. At Bertram's trial, he insists that Saint Michael told him to kill Salz, who is the source of the illness that plagues the town. Suddenly Salz is on trial instead, and it is only through the intervention of the town priest that he is released. The townsfolk believe that the rats are the source of the sickness, and when Salz tells them of meeting a piper with mysterious musical powers, they send for the musician, promising a fortune in gold for a rat-free town. The piper comes, the rats go, but the townsfolk refuse to pay the amount promised, and the piper pipes the children out of town and into K6ppen Hill. Napoli sets her tale in the legendary town of Hameln in the thirteenth century, but the setting and the legend are peripheral to the action. The real story is about Salz, the way he copes with his illness, and his struggle to overcome the superstitions of his day and replace them with the logic of ecclesiastical enlightenment. Napoli does an exemplary job of depicting the mindset of the period and the superstitious beliefs that hampered progress-Salz is particularly moving in his struggle to see more than a glimmer of what might lie beyond the world his family knows and accepts. The pace is very slow, however, and a fair amount of historical context is necessary for readers to appreciate how firmly the author places her main character within his time; the legend of the Pied Piper is also awkwardly tacked onto the main frame of the story. A concluding note explains the ergot-induced sickness of livestock and folk and gives the nature of Salz's illness. JMD

O'CONNELL, REBECCA The Baby Goes Beep; illus. by Ken Wilson-Max. Brodie/ Roaring Brook, 2003 [28p] Library ed. ISBN 0-7613-2867-X $21.90 Trade ed. ISBN 0-7613-1789-9 $14.95 Reviewed from galleys R 1-3 yrs A lively toddler interacts with every conceivable noisemaker in its day-to-day world: the horn on its car seat ("The baby goes Beep"), a wooden spoon ("The baby goes Boom"), his own voice ("The baby goes La"), food ("The baby goes Yum"), etc. This is a dandy lap book or even lapsit storytime item for those tiny ones just delighting in their own audible creativity, and little listeners will find lots to do along with O'Connell's effectively repetitive ("The baby goes Smooch The baby goes Smooch Smooch The baby goes Smooch Smooch Smooch Smooch") text. Wilson-Max's vigorous paintings offer a dashingly exuberant baby happily exploring his world. The foreground-focused compositions, with figures strongly out- lined in black, lead the viewer into the scene. Those grownups ready and able to endure a rousingly raucous toddler storytime should put this title on their programming shelf. JMD

PATTOU, EDITH East. Harcourt, 2003 4 96p ISBN 0-15-204563-5 $18.00 R Gr. 7-12 "East of the Sun and West of the Moon" offers just as rich a source for transformation into fiction as its related tale "Beauty and the Beast," which Robin McKinley and others have already mined in several novels. Pattou uses five voices to tell the story of the heroic girl who journeys away with a magical bear in return for his promise to provide for her destitute family. Rose, her brother Neddy, her father, the White Bear, and the Troll Queen lend different perspectives to this drama set in the far north. Extending the original motifs, the plot is cleverly elaborated to support the action without distracting from it. Rose's father is a mapmaker who names her for 74 * THE BULLETIN

"the symbol that lies at the center of the wind rose." Her mother believes in the old superstition that children's temperaments and destinies are determined by the direction in which they are born-north, south, east, or west. Despite her mother's pretense that Rose is born facing east, she is actually a north-born baby, restless and stormy. The only quiet activities at which she excels are sewing and weaving, skills that save her life several times. After she betrays her enchanted bear-host by lighting a lamp that reveals him to be a man lying beside her every night, she undertakes the dangerous quest of finding and freeing him from the Troll Queen's enchantment. Pattou has kept faith with the story's antiquity and taken it seriously enough to ground the fantasy in patient detail, never indulging in a portentous style or coy contemporary self-consciousness. Instead, the writing is as steady in its perseverance through complexities as the heroine is. Interpretatively, Pattou emphasizes the heroine's choices and decisions (including mistakes) rather than obedience to a magical force of destiny. The characters are a credible cross between archetypes and idiosyncratic individuals, while the cliffhangers function effectively to lure readers from one scene to the next faster than a great white bear can traverse the landscape. Erstwhile fairy-tale readers will find themselves enchanted. BH

PINKWATER, DANIEL The Picture of Morty &r Ray; illus. by Jack E. Davis. HarperCollins, 2003 32p Library ed. ISBN 0-06-623786-6 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-623785-8 $15.99 R 7-10 yrs A scary movie (The Picture ofDorian Gray) inspires Morty and Ray to some dia- bolical activities of their own: they paint each other's portrait ("We tried to paint each other as handsome as we could") and then they play mean tricks on their friends to see if the painting gets uglier. Sure enough, a day of nasty pranks results in the painting getting "maybe just a little uglier," but it's only when they stuff pickles down the front of their friend Oscar's pants that the painting gets so dis- gusting that even Morty and Ray are sick of it. Not so their friend, however: "'Neat!' Oscar said. 'Neat, neat, neat! This is the coolest thing I have ever seen!'" The friendship is patched up when Morty and Ray give Oscar the painting ("He likes the picture," says Morty. "Go figure," says Ray) and the three walk into the sunset. If listeners don't know Wilde, will they get the joke? Well, they may not get the reference, but they'll definitely get the idea-between the painting and the pranks (sticking their butts out the window of the school bus, calling people names like "Lard Head" and "Bubble Butt," etc.), Pinkwater reduces Wilde to the parts that matter to grade-school boys. This literary license is given laugh-inducing support by Davis' over-the-top illustrations. Images from the movie are depicted (almost entirely) in black and white, with the big-headed (but suave) Dorian all toothy smile and slicked-back hair. Davis' drafting is meticulous, and there is humor in the details: trails of cheese puffs, the bat light pull in the basement, the bored cat in the litter box, etc. Readers who snorted over O'Malley's Velcome (BCCB 11/97) may just give up a guffaw over this literary send-up. JMD

ROBERTS, LYNN, ad. Rapunzel: A Groovy Fairy Tale; illus. by David Roberts. Abrams, 2003 34 p ISBN 0-8109-4242-9 $16.95 R 6-9 yrs Rapunzel lives with her Aunt Esme in an abandoned apartment building in the middle of an unnamed city: "The elevator was always broken, and there were OCTOBER 2003 * 75 hundreds of stairs to the ground." Esme therefore uses Rapunzel's long red braid to go in and out, but since Rapunzel can't climb down her own hair, she is a prisoner. Inevitably, Aunt Esme is observed making her usual exit and entrance by Roger, "the singer in the local school band, Roger and the Rascals," who deter- mines to get to the bottom of the braid, so to speak. Roger and Rapunzel hit it off as fairy-tale lovers are wont to do, but Esme finds out, cuts Rapunzel's braid, and sends her off to fend for herself in the city. Roger subsequently climbs the de- tached braid and is sent tumbling to the ground, cushioned by abandoned mat- tresses on the sidewalk. He loses all memory of Rapunzel but regains it when he sees her in his band's concert audience: "Rapunzel and Roger were best friends from that moment on and as happy as could be." Lynn Roberts' retelling of this traditional tale has a dash of humor and a dose of sweetness that turns this into an airy tale of teen romance, divorced from traditional shadows and sexual overtones. David Roberts sets the story in the urban seventies, complete with furniture, music, and fashions of the day: geometric designs, paper lanterns, Saturday Night Fever and Kate Bush posters adorn the apartment; platform shoes, bell-bottom jeans, and miniskirts adorn the characters. This doesn't have quite the decorative elan of the Robertses' previous collaboration, Cinderella: An Art Deco Love Story (BCCB 1/02), but it does have a buoyant, seventies nostalgia that suits this somewhat fractured (but definitely not broken) tale. JMD

RODOWSKY, COLBY Not Quite a Stranger. Farrar, 2003 [192p] ISBN 0-374-35548-7 $16.00 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-8 Tottie's main annoyance in her relentlessly normal life is her mother's tendency to put her children's private life in her newspaper column-until seventeen-year-old Zachary appears at their home. Four years older than Tottie, Zachary is the result of a brief fling Tottie's father had before marriage; though his parents had agreed to put him up for adoption, Zachary's mother instead raised him until her recent death from cancer. Tottie's mother takes him in immediately, Tottie's little brother is thrilled to have a brother, Tottie's father pulls strings to get Zachary into a good school, and even Tottie's grandparents on her mother's side welcome him as a new member of the family, leaving only Tottie furious at her father's betrayal and wish- ing desperately that Zachary would disappear forever. There's a touch of melo- drama in the plot (especially in the culminating event of a suspected theft), but Rodowsky, a good, solid writer on human dynamics, doesn't milk the drama but instead uses it as an occasion to examine family workings under stress. The alter- nation of the narration between Tottie and Zachary is an effective device, giving readers a fuller view of the situation as well as making clear that both of them are only seeing small parts of each other's lives. The setup practically booktalks itself, and there's a well-turned family story behind it that should satisfy many readers. DS

ROSE, DEBORAH LEE One Nighttime Sea: An Ocean Counting Rhyme; illus. by Steve Jenkins. Scholastic, 2003 40p ISBN 0-439-33906-5 $16.95 R 4-7 yrs Rose and Jenkins team up for another deep sea exploration that youngsters will want to dive into. Like Into theA, B, Sea: An OceanAlphabet (BCCB 12/00), this book features some of the more strange and wonderful creatures of the ocean in 76 * THE BULLETIN textured cut-paper collages that are as evocatively beautiful as they are recogniz- ably realistic. Whereas the first book was a bit vague and encompassing in its categories, however, this book is much more specific. Belugas, parrotfish, coral polyps, nudibranchs, spider crabs, firefly squid, and sea-turtle hatchlings are among the featured creatures busy in their nocturnal occupations. Though structured as a counting-rhyme book that goes from one to ten and back down to one, the book defies fixed categorization. The rhyming text and deep ocean colors make this a gentle readaloud for bedtime, while the notes included on each animal at the end of the book invite the budding oceanographer to pursue further research. The notes also explain and contextualize in more detail what each animal is doing in the illustrations, thus enriching the experience for older readers and providing more information for those sharing the story with younger listeners. KC

SCHREIBER, ELLEN Vampire Kisses. Tegen/HarperCollins, 2003 197p Library ed. ISBN 0-06-009335-8 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-009334-X $15.99 Ad Gr. 6-9 Sixteen-year-old Raven Madison is a Goth Girl in a Tommy Hilfiger world, and she battles conformity with reckless abandon. Her running feud with snobby golden boy Trevor Mitchell takes second place to her fascination with the mysterious Sterling family, recently moved into the town's old (and presumed haunted) Mansion on Benson Hill and rumored to be vampires. Her fascination with the Mansion and seventeen-year-old Alexander Sterling ("Gothic Guy") leads her to true love with her "Knight of the Night" and to a showdown with Trevor at her high school's Snow Ball. Raven is styled as a wiseacre with a mordant wit, but the dialogue never quite rises to the promising occasions, and convenience drives a shallow outsider-insider, pop-romance plot. Be that as it may, Raven is a fluid narrator with a fast line of patter whose fascination with the dark side will attract like-minded readers. Horror hooks such as a haunted mansion, a romantic teenage vampire, and a dark heroine who wins against the golden guys make this a title that readers will bite into with Goth gusto. JMD

SINGER, MARILYN How to Cross a Pond: Poems about Water; illus. by Meilo So. Knopf, 2003 4 1p Library ed. ISBN 0-375-92376-4 $16.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-375-82376-X $14.95 R Gr. 5-9 In this followup to Footprints on the Roof. Poems about the Earth (BCCB 7/02), Singer presents nineteen playful, poetic musings about the doings of water. Verses (some free, some rhymed) examine water in large quantities ("Ocean Checklist"), water in human hands ("Water Guns"), water in solid state ("How to Cross a Pond"), water long gone ("The Moon's Gravity"), and other driblets and sprays. The entries display a genuine and eloquently articulated appreciation of the ele- ment ("To appreciate water/ you must work for it,/ Pump, hoist, and haul"- "Wells") and also an obvious appreciation of the poetic medium ("Something in water loves/ the curve," begins "Meandering," in a gentle echo of the frozen-water poet, Frost), while remaining accessible to youthful readers. Like the first title, this is elegantly designed, with both type and illustrations a monochromatic blue on creamy, vertically oriented pages; So's watercolors employ splashes, washes, liquid flourishes, and feathery scribbles, displaying a remarkable variety of textures and effects within the constraints of color and medium. This would be an intrigu- OCTOBER 2003 * 77 ing addition to earth science or ecological explorations, and thirsty poetry readers will gulp it down. DS

SOTO, GARY TheAfterlife. Harcourt, 2003 161p ISBN 0-15-204774-3 $16.00 R Gr. 6-10 Chuy's a normal seventeen-year-old with an ordinary life ("I ran cross-country, ate my lunch with friends, and with those same friends, all average looking like me, crowded around the fountain eyeing girls"), a life that comes abruptly to an end when he's stabbed in the men's room at a dance. Now he's a ghost soaring through Fresno, visiting family and friends responding to his murder, and encountering other new spirits. Soto's gift for easygoing everyday-life depictions extends to, well, everyday death as he convincingly portrays Chuy's wanderings as a blend of existential exploration and teenage glee at the possibilities afforded by his new situation (he finally gets to see a Raiders game at the Coliseum, for instance). There's some genuine poignancy in the pointlessness of Chuy's fate (he's knifed for sincerely admiring the shoes of the guy next to him), in his awareness of what he's lost ("I ain't a part of a family, either, just a word on my parents' lips-Chuy, Chuy, Chuy. I was a sad chant one day after I got killed"), and in his following of his family's responses, especially his mother's surprising attempt to incite Chuy's cousin to pay back her son's loss with another murder. It's a bit disappointing that the book doesn't make more of that plot thread, since it ultimately falls short on shape (in contrast to Shearer's similarly themed Great Blue Yonder, BCCB 6/02); Chuy's pairing up with a newly passed-on girl doesn't quite satisfy as a resolution. This is, however, more of an Our Town treatment of the dead's realization of the vitality of life (in fact, the two works would make a usefully complementary curricular pairing) than a story about events in that life, and as such, it's an easily readable, gently thoughtful imagining. DS

SPIEGELMAN, ART, ed. Little Lit: It Was a Dark and Silly Night...; ed. by Art Spiegelman and Franroise Mouly; illus. by Martin Handford, William Joyce, KAZ, et al. Cotler/HarperCollins, 2003 4 8p ISBN 0-06-028628-8 $19.99 Ad Gr. 3-6 Following the path forged by the two previous entries in this series (Little Lit: StrangeStories for Strange Children, BCCB 1/02, etc.), this is a collection of comic- book-style tales built around a theme. Lemony Snicket, Neil Gaiman, and eleven others all take a crack at creating stories that begin with the fateful words, "It was a dark and silly night." The sophisticated graphics boggle the eye: from Richard Sala's wandering Yeti to William Joyce's boy crimefighter to Gahan Wilson's ghouls in the graveyard, this is a variegated visual feast, each artistic interpretation stylis- tically unique from the others. Comic-book frames keep the action under compositional control while saturated colors add a rich depth to each entry. Though the tales by Neil Gaiman, Lemony Snicket, and Patrick McDonnell have both narrative thrust and emotional payoff, overall the stories are merely vehicles for the art, the events fragmented and inconclusive and the narrative lacking sufficient cohe- sion to carry even their brief plots. Browsers who open Spiegelman's dramatic cover to reveal Martin Handford's Where's Waldo-style endpapers will nonetheless be catapulted into this comic-book creation, and the madly energetic graphics may be enough to keep them there. JMD 78 * THE BULLETIN

TAMAR, ERIKA Venus and the Comets. Darby Creek, 2003 93p ISBN 1-58196-007-7 $14.95 Ad Gr. 3-5 Venus Macguire's mother once won the Miss Texas Oil Well pageant, and Venus has subsequently been saddled with the responsibility of living out her mother's dream of becoming a supermodel, spending her days on stage or in front of a camera-until now. Tired of smiling with glycerin on her teeth and pretending to be younger than her nine years, Venus signs up for soccer. When her first game conflicts with a modeling gig, she makes the drastic decision to chop off her camera-ready curls. Her mother, realizing the depth of her daughter's discontent, capitulates, and Venus begins her new life as a normal girl among some remarkably kind and patient teammates (with two nasty ones thrown in for credibility). Considering the depth of Mrs. Macguire's commitment to her vision of Venus' future, her quick and relatively calm acquiescence to Venus' life-changing decision strains belief. The happy ending comes with too few residuals, especially as we learn that Venus is as good at soccer as she was at modeling. Her competitive spirit remains intact, however, and she has some believable struggles learning to be competitive on behalf of the team rather than for her own glory. The format is inviting and accessible for reluctant or just new readers; short chapters, large print, and generous spacing reduce intimidation. Disgruntled mama's darlings will take heart in her rebellion and in the realization that when you come down off your pedestal, you just might land in the midst of some really nice people. KC

TASHJIAN, JANET Faultline. Holt, 2003 24 8p ISBN 0-8050-7200-4 $16.95 R Gr. 7-12 Becky is a senior, trying to figure out her college plans and, more importantly to her, trying to get a career in comedy going, when she meets Kip. Usually the girl standing next to the girl who gets noticed, Becky is thrilled when funny and interesting Kip falls for her, and soon the two are engaged in a happily mutually ab- sorbed love affair. It's not that long, though, until Becky starts encountering more and more situations where she's disappointed Kip, where her devotion has fallen short of his-and of his standards, where he's upset when she has independent pleasures and achievements. Finally Kip injures Becky in a way that can't be ex- cused as clumsiness or accident, and she refuses to see him any more-but will she reconsider after Kip has undergone treatment, and is that a mistake? Tashjian has refreshingly stayed pretty clear of the traditional problem-novel cliches about abusive relationships, instead drawing a situation in which many readers would be able to see themselves. There are initially tremendous rewards to this relationship for Becky, and her uncertainty about her own culpability in the emotional friction and about the implications of Kip's gray-area behavior isn't implausible, nor even particularly naive; this isn't a girl who's ended up with a troubled guy because of her own self-esteem issues. While Kip's ongoing journal entries are a bit too con- veniently explanatory, they also make him a three-dimensional character in his own right, who knows better than he behaves and who may one day, with help, control his impulses as he wishes to. The book is also insightful about Becky's humiliation at feeling like she was supposed to have known better ("I felt full of shame for letting myself get sucked into something like this") as it quietly suggests -that hindsight is always clearer than foresight; it also keeps Becky's comedy career a focus, refusing to define her solely by her experiences with Kip. This is a thoughtful OCTOBER 2003 * 79 and involving work on a complicated subject, and it'll set a lot of readers talking. DS

TESTA, MARIA Almost Forever. Candlewick, 2003 69p ISBN 0-7637-1996-5 $14.99 R Gr. 3-6 An unnamed narrator remembers 1967 as the year her father was called to serve in Vietnam. Although he promises his six-year-old daughter it will only be for one turn of the school calendar, she intuitively senses the true span of a year: "that second grade/ was half a hallway/ and a whole world/ away from first,/ that seven/ was everything/ six was not." The milestones of that pivotal year are sharply observed with realistic child acuity. Mail, once ignored, now includes regular mes- sages from Daddy. Trips to the post office are marked by safety suckers and Mama's anxiety. Mama's rapt attention to the evening newscasts seems to indicate she's in love with Mr. Roger Mudd. Older brother offers his bedtime prayers for Mickey Mantle's home run and Daddy's safe return, but the narrator can only beg to hold onto her fast fading memories. The mail suddenly stops, newscasts talk about the missing and the prisoners, demonstrations escalate, but the epic tragedy of 1968 registers with the narrator only in confusion and quiet heartache: "My father/ was missing in Vietnam,/ and I had heard/ my mother/ cry/ for the first time/ in my life,/ and I/ didn't know/ what/ to do." This particular war story, thankfully, has a happy ending, not only in Daddy's safe return, but just as important, in the family's fidelity. Incorporate this accessible, easily excerpted readaloud in a Veter- ans' Day program as testament to spouses and children left stateside, but don't expect to make it through with dry eyes. EB

WALLACE, RICH Losing Is Not an Option. Knopf, 2003 127p Library ed. ISBN 0-375-91351-3 $17.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-375-81351-9 $15.95 R Gr. 8-12

Restless: A Ghost's Story. Viking, 2003 16 7p ISBN 0-670-03605-6 $15.99 Ad Gr. 8-12 Wallace returns to the fictional small town of Sturbridge, Pennsylvania with two new novels of sports-obsessed teens. Losing is the stronger of the two entries, comprising nine short stories that mark milestones in the teen years of gifted runner, Ron. Readers meet him as a sixth grader, sneaking into a football game with his best friend and realizing that he's soon to take second place to Gene's new interest in girls. When Ron's hormones kick in, nearly all of his non-sporting energy seems to be taken up by his own pursuit of girls, from his painfully embarrassing come-on at artists' camp, to an eye-opening evening at a gay party, to a promising connection with a girl on his track team. It's his all-out dedication to running, which culminates in triumph at state finals in the concluding story, that drives Ron and ultimately sustains reader interest. Restless focuses on another athlete, Herbie, whose training runs through a cemetery lead him to a series of encounters with the ghost of a nineteenth-century Irish laborer, who fell to his death from a nearby cliff. Narration is provided by Herbie's deceased brother, Frank, who has unresolved issues of his own-from his concern for his grieving family, to his frustration at dying a virgin, to his complex afterlife relationship with the ghost who haunts his brother. Although the ghost premise is a powerful draw, Wallace seems to make up metaphysical rules as he goes along, and the 80 * THE BULLETIN

power of the brothers' enduring bond dissipates in a mishmash of Western ghost lore, Eastern spiritual philosophy, and amateur chat-room physics. Wallace's characters swap insults and gross-outs with the casual informality of trading brown bag lunches, and readers who stereotype teen guys as having little on their minds but sex and sports won't find much evidence here to the contrary. Still, Wallace works magic on track, court, and gridiron, and many YAs will appreciate his efforts. EB

WATTS, LEANDER Wild Ride to Heaven. Houghton, 2003 [176p] ISBN 0-618-26805-7 $16.00 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-9 Hannah's father, a charcoal-maker who dreams and schemes over mythical treasure that will lead them to luxury's lap, has bartered away much of his land and all of his adolescent daughter, signing her over as house drudge to the brutish Barrow brothers in exchange for ready cash to purchase a magical amulet. Her arrival amplifies the discord between the brothers, and while Noel tries awkwardly to win her as a wife, Leon is convinced that Hannah, with her mismatched eyes, is a witch who has cursed their household. Only the nocturnal appearances of Brother Boy, the youngest Barrow, who has been disowned by his elder brothers because he cannot physically tolerate sunlight, offer Hannah solace. When Noel and Leon confront Hannah with a pitiless choice-her freedom or her life-Brother Boy buys her time until her father comes through with enough cash, sweet dealing, and glib reasoning to redeem his daughter from her tormentors. Again, as in The Stonecutter (BCCB 11/02), Watts sets her Gothic tale in sparsely settled back- woods New York state, which serves as both a literal wilderness fraught with natural hazards and as a metaphor for the dark tangle of societal entrapments that confine legally powerless young women during the nation's earliest days. Unlike myriad feisty fictional gals of the 1800s who manage to flee the farm to join an avant-garde of professional women, Hannah is realistically limned-a teen who daydreams of running off to the city or into the woods but who knows her best bet lies in entrusting herself to the kindest man available, be it husband, father, or friend. Readers who look beyond the relief of Hannah's "happy ending" may recognize her chilling paucity of choice. EB

WESTON, TAMSON Hey, Pancakes!; illus. by Stephen Gammell. Silver Whistle/ Harcourt, 2003 32p ISBN 0-15-216502-9 $16.00 R 4-6 yrs The strident "Rrrrrrriiiiinnnnnggggg .. " of an alarm clock wakes sleeping children who ask the logical question, "Why get up,/ for goodness' sake?" The answer comes on the morning air: "Wait... that smell... / could it be ... ? Pancakes!" Sure enough, a cheerful bathrobed girl in fuzzy slippers stands precariously on a four-legged stool and pours batter into a hot skillet, flipping pancakes from pan to plates: "A pancake flip,/ a pancake flop,// pancake bottom/ over pancake top." Blueberries, butter, and syrup complete the sticky but satisfying breakfast, after which all the children clean up, and "with a little dab of maple/ behind each ear,// go out into the world and/ give a pancake cheer!" Weston's paean to pancakes has a bouncy breakfast beat that lends itself to reading aloud. While the scansion is .sometimes bumpy and the train of thought sometimes jumps the culinary track, eating is one of preschoolers' favorite topics, so this title ought to work well in a food-themed storytime. GammellU's pastel, pencil, and watercolor illustrations swirl OCTOBER 2003 * 81 around like food coloring in an enthusiastic blend, with colors splashing around the compositions like flecks of batter flying out of the bowl. Weston even includes a closing recipe for "Grandma's Pancakes," with the admonition "And remember to wash your hands before mixing, and leave the cooking to the big kids, please. Love, Grandma." They may wash their hands, but be ready to oversee the pancake pouring and flipping inspired by this enthusiastic morning mix. JMD

WILHELM, DOUG The Revealers. Farrar, 2003 [224p] ISBN 0-374-36255-6 $16.00 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-9 Seventh-grader Russell Trainor is a blip on the radar of an eighth-grade bully, and he teams up with Elliot, long-suffering schoolyard prey, and Catalina, a Filipina transfer student who's being harassed by a clique of popular girls, to study their predicaments scientifically and devise a defense. Catalina's plan actually works. She issues a statement of fact about her past to all seventh-grade students through the school LAN, and her simple, dignified approach quickly catches the attention and respect of many classmates. Elliot follows with an impassioned, if inaccurate and vitriolic, counterattack on the guys who bully him and, again, students take notice and begin to respond with their own horror stories. Thus is born The Revealer, an electronic airing of the school's dirty laundry that rockets the three friends to near respectability. Catalina's nemesis, however, counts on the kids' publishing nalvete and sets up a sting that lands them on the brink of a libel suit and results in the revocation of LAN privileges for the whole school. With the help of a sympathetic English teacher (whose dewy-eyed idealism and classroom cluelessness is a total hoot) and a technophilic LAN administrator (whose bum- bling, guffawing kid camaraderie is nearly as funny), the trio sets the Parkland Middle School world back to rights. Although Wilhelm stretches events out a bit longer than necessary and squeezes some discussion into programmatically constructed assignments on Anne Frank, he shines a harsh light on many facets of bullying and never, even at the novel's rosiest moments, implies that every bully is a good kid just waiting to be redeemed. Middle-schoolers will appreciate the honesty. EB

WINKLER, DAVID The Return of Calico Bright. Farrar, 2003 344p ISBN 0-374-38048-1 $19.00 R Gr. 7-10 Things appear to be looking up for Callie Weston: she's losing weight, capturing the attention of the school's most popular heartthrob, and developing a devoted audience for her website version of her great-great-great-great-grandmother's journal. The legendary Calico Bright, for whom she was named, was a fascinating character who single-handedly fought off a Cheyenne war party, killed her snivel- ing husband, had an affair with a preacher, fought a grizzly bear, and rescued a town from a cholera epidemic by delivering, at the cost of her own life, a lifesaving serum. Callie's mother wants Calico to take her great-gran as a role model; when Callie's life falls apart, that desire is realized with a vengeance. Upon finding out that the journal is a fraud, her mother is having an affair, and her boyfriend was using her, Callie is desperate to get away. Embarking on a "hands-on geography" trip into the Madras Mountains with an unlikely companion, a biracial boy named Trotter, she stumbles upon a neo-Nazi hate group that has taken up residence in the mountains. In a climactic scene, she manages, with the help of the mysterious 82 * THE BULLETIN character McStew, to uncover their criminal activities, hold off their murderous intentions against Trotter, and bring the group to justice. Like Holes, this blurs the lines between fiction and history and lends itself to cross-curricular projects, but it more self-consciously develops adolescent themes of racism, body image, predatory relationships, the power of language, and intergenerational connections. Winkler's prose is textured and full-bodied, with a keen ear for nuances of dialect, and his Callie is a decidedly likeable heroine-naive and hopeful enough to be duped, but wise and brave enough to confront injustice when it really matters. KC

WOLF, ALLAN The Blood-Hungry Spleen and Other Poems about Our Parts; illus. by Greg Clarke. Candlewick, 2003 50p ISBN 0-7636-1565-X $17.99 R Gr. 4-7 Thirty-five poems treat the wonders of anatomy from head to toe with a multitude of stops between. Entries are grouped into relevant sections, such as "On the Face of It," "The Circulation Department," "The Control Center," and "The Ins and Outs of Eating." Scansion glitches mar some poems, but Wolf has a sprightly voice and a divertingly pell-mell approach to his lines, packing a lot into each verse; there are plenty of comedic turns, as with the anus which "loves its job/ (though most of us poo-poo it)," and also creative acknowledgment of the important roles various physiological components play. The illustrations offer some lively personified body bits, with the streaky acrylics giving their subjects an over- stuffed solidity, tamed by the subdued palette of slate blues and flat creams. This still offers some meaty opportunity for poetic expansion in a biology class (a choral reading of "Kidney Trouble," a poem for two voices, will wake 'em right up), and the up-close and very personal nature of the verse will intrigue some otherwise poetry-shy readers. Notes explain a bit more of the biology (and a few examples of poetic license), and a list of titles for further reading is included. DS

WOLF, BERNARD Coming to America: A Muslim Family's Story; written and illus. with photographs by Bernard Wolf. Lee & Low, 2003 4 8p ISBN 1-58430-086-8 $17.95 R Gr. 3-7 Eight-year-old Rowan Mahmoud didn't get to know her father, Hassan, until she and her mother (Soad) and siblings (Amr and Dina) left Egypt and joined him in New York four years ago. Hassan, like many immigrants, had traveled ahead of his family to secure a toehold in his adopted country, and now the family is adjust- ing steadily to American life, while preserving their Muslim faith and practices. In crisp, informal color photographs, readers observe activities in their modest apartment, public schools, neighborhood shops, Queens streets, and local mosque. A particular strength of Wolfs consistent approach (e.g., Homeless, BCCB 3/95) is examining the impact of a family situation on all its members, not just the photo- genic kids. Hassan's long hours of night work clearly take a physical and emotional toll, as he is often absent or too tired to spend much times with his children; Soad's anxiety over her husband's exhaustion and her own minimal English language skills are also poignantly portrayed. Wolf tends, at times, to substitute adu- lation for information ("Soad is a patient, warmhearted woman who binds the family together with her love and constant care"), and such shadowy corners as the family's reunion after four years apart are left unexplored. Only a brief look at Rowan's homesickness implies that their homeland, indicted in the text for strict OCTOBER 2003 * 83 school discipline and low wages, could have anything going for it. Still, this is a sensitive look at a family that struggles and largely succeeds, and the very ordinari- ness of their daily job of getting by will make them comfortable new acquaintances for middle-grade readers. An afterword on the basic beliefs of Islam is included. EB

WONG, JANET S. Minn and Jake; illus. by Genevieve C6td. Foster/Farrar, 2003 14 6p ISBN 0-374-34987-8 $16.00 R Gr. 4-6 Minn begins this free-verse story "feeling very empty,/ and very tall,/ and very odd,/ and very pigtailed,/ and very lizardy,/ and very much alone." So tall that her head is missing in the fifth-grade class picture, Minn is unexpectedly forced into the company of a new boy, Jake, who is so short he could be a kindergartner. This is the story of their developing a relationship despite deep differences of taste and background, not to mention teasing by some mean-spirited classmates who trick them-at the end-into a dangerous situation. The nonstop action and child- tuned humor will lure even readers who claim not to like poetry. In fact, Wong's carefully patterned repetition of words and phrases is especially suited to reluctant readers. Each of the thirty-six poetic "chapters" is only a few pages long, and cleverly exaggerated full-page illustrations complement plentiful white space for an unintimidating format. Characterizations are swift and sure: "I dare you is Lola's favorite line." Gender dynamics resonate with accurately awkward preado- lescent expressions of affection: " . .. everyone knows/ that the only reason/ for eating a worm/ is to prove you don't love/ someone you really do." Lizard-hunt- ing is a big motif here, and Minn is clearly on her way to becoming a world-class biologist, while Jake's capacity to make money by selling secondhand goods may qualify him to support her scientific habit. To booktalk this one, just read the scene where Minn accidentally breaks an aquarium, and Jake frantically gathers up his fish-Angelghost, Flick, Disposal, Plunderface, Ick, Uck, and the $2.99 Blue Kind "which are so hard to grab/ without squishing"-from the fuzzy carpet and runs them to watery shelter in the toilet. In fact, maybe the best plan is to read the whole thing out loud. BH

YATES, PHILIP Ten Little Mummies: An Egyptian CountingBook; illus. by G. Brian Karas. Viking, 2003 32p ISBN 0-670-03641-2 $15.99 R 3-7 yrs There's just not much fun to be had "deep underground in a dreary old tomb," so ten tightly wrapped denizens of the dark make a break for the daylight. Their ranks steadily thin as one by one the mummies meet misadventure. Most of their exploits take a decidedly Gorey-esque turn-heat stroke, crocodile attack, even arrest for graffiti-ing the Sphinx. The mood is, overall, more goofy than macabre, as each mummified miscreant plays the scene for laughs-hanging upside down from the Sphinx's nose, modestly running (well, reaching) for cover when he comes unwrapped on a pyramid slide, or ropin' and ridin' a hippo down the Nile. When the last, lonely mummy makes her way back to the tomb, she's greeted by her buddies: "10 little mummies' adventures are done./ Let's hope tomorrow is twice as much fun!" The rhythm isn't always smooth, and the happy reunion is a little unlikely given the mummified individuals' fates, but the storytime set is bound to applaud the mischief afoot. Karas' earthtoned desert scenes are the real stars here; 84 * THE BULLETIN streamlined compositions make the art bold enough for group viewing, and the hilariously hapless mummies will induce audience giggles. Though not all of the facts are correct (the old "visible from the moon" canard rears its head), endpaper tidbits about pyramids and mummies add further interest. For a duo of funny/ spooky countdowns, pair this with Leuck's One Witch (reviewed above). EB

ZEMACH, KAETHE The Question Song; written and illus. by Kaethe Zemach. Tingley/Little, 2003 32p ISBN 0-316-66601-7 $16.95 Ad 4-6 yrs A family (brother, sister, father, mother) has a unique way of dealing with everyday problems: whenever anything goes wrong, they sing "The Question Song." Each problem brother or sister has is repeated in a question on the verso ("It's mine, it's mine! I had it first! What are we going to do?/ It's mine, it's mine! I had it first! What are we going to do?") and answered on the recto ("Look at this, here is another!/ One for the sister, and one/ for the brother./ That's what we will do!") with just the right solution to defuse the situation. The difficulties are small (feeling cold, running out of games to play, being caught in the rain) and the rhyming answers are simple (put on a sweater, read a book with dad, get an umbrella), and everything works out to everyone's satisfaction every time. The repeated problems and questions and their predictable answers get somewhat wearing and go on for an awfully long and repetitive time; since everything follows the same formula and always turns out just fine, there is no real tension or momentum to keep the pages turning. Still, this is an upbeat book with a deliberately cheerful outlook on everyday conflict, and the simple lesson-that a little effort and a little compromise can make the day go smoother--is one worth repeating. The optimism of the text is reflected in Zemach's sunny illustrations in stenciled oils on velveteen, featuring a perky mixed-race family. The surface nap gives the images an unobtrusive depth that helps offset the blandness of the images, and the white space between the stencil planes adds a lightness that contributes to the clarity of color and the strate- gically balanced compositional arrangements. Trying to find a way to painlessly communicate the need to share and share alike? This upbeat approach will provide role-playing opportunities that may just do the behavioral trick. JMD

Scholastic Press wishes to announce that the title of Minfong Ho's new book, reviewed in the 4/03 Bulletin under the title Gatheringthe Dew, has been changed to The Stone Goddess. OCTOBER 2003 * 85

PROFESSIONAL CONNECTIONS: RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS AND LIBRARIANS

BROMANN, JENNIFER StorytimeAction!: 2,000+Ideas forMaking500 PictureBooks Interactive. Neal-Schuman, 2003 295p Paper ed. ISBN 1-55570-459-X $45.00 While experienced librarians and program providers might take issue with Bromann's assertion that traditional storytimes discourage interactivity, the prac- tical intent here is to give librarians some tools to help enliven their storytime programming. The book does just that with an alphabetical-by-author list of 500 picture books (with minimal summaries) followed by suggestions for activities to promote listener involvement. The author explains the inclusion of not-so-stellar titles, but librarians may question the value of using a mediocre book when so many fine ones are available. The stated audience for these books is 3-5 year olds, but that range is fairly flexible, and some titles could go as high as first grade. Suggested enrichment activities include creative dramatics, props, puppets, cut- outs, props, music, dance, props, modified call and response, video-viewing, and props. Experienced programmers may not find Bromann's approach unique, but they will surely find a suggestion (or two or three) to refresh their enthusiasm for programming; new librarians and novice programmers will find here a plethora of suggestions for expanding their storytime activities. Alphabetical theme and title indexes are included. JMD

ODEAN, KATHLEEN Great Books for Babies and Toddlers: More Than 500 Recom- mended Books for Your Child's First Three Years. Ballantine, 2003 337p Paper ed. ISBN 0-345-45254-2 $14.95 The subtitle indicates that the primary audience for this book is parents and caregiv- ers of young children, but librarians seeking collection-development advice and programming hints will find the information contained in the extensive introduction and the annotations for the suggested titles most helpful as well. From the benefits of reading aloud to the acquisition of language to the importance of a print-rich environment, Odean offers a well-defined context for reading aloud as a literacy-nurturing activity. The author identifies elements of successful books for young children, gives ideas for introducing new books and rereading old favorites, and provides pointers on what to do when reading aloud isn't working. The annotations are succinct and informative, balanced between the descriptive and the critical. Complete bibliographic information is included for each book, as well as a note as to whether or not the book is recommended for group readalouds. Over- all, the compilation reveals a broad knowledge of the available literature and an understanding of how to successfully introduce that literature to children. A concluding section, "Resources and Tips for Parents," includes Tips on Reading Aloud, Books in Spanish, Organizations and Web Sites Concerned with Babies, Tod- dlers, and Books, and more. Author-illustrator, title, and subject indexes are included. Buy two of this useful title: one for professional reference and one for the parenting shelf. JMD 86 * 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: Soto Crime and criminals-fiction: Adoption-fiction: Little Alphii; Cameron; Winkler ADVENTURE: Britton Dating-fiction: Jenkins, A. African Americans: Greenberg Death and dying-fiction: Banks; African Americans-fiction: Johnson Soto African Americans-stories: Dinosaurs: Halls Campbell Disabilities-fiction: Johnson ALPHABET BOOKS: Agee Disasters: Jackson Animals-fiction: Cronin Dogs: Jackson; Lubka Animals-stories: Lester Dogs-stories: Fleming, D. Archaeology: Halls Ethics and values: Hooper; Jenkins, Art: Spiegelman A.; Soto; Watts; Wilhelm; Art and artists: Greenberg Winkler Art and artists-stories: Pinkwater Egypt, ancient-fiction: Babies-stories: Herman; O'Connell McCaughrean Beaches-stories: Best Elephants: Jenkins, M. Bears-fiction: McPhail Enemies-fiction: Schreiber BEDTIME BOOKS: Rose Families-fiction: Alphin; Fine; BIOGRAPHIES: Demi; Greenberg Johnson; Rodowsky Biology: Harris FANTASY: Britton; Pattou; Soto Biology-poetry: Wolf, A. Fathers-fiction: Alphin; Gantos; Boats-fiction: Martin Testa Books and reading: Koscielniak Fathers-stories: Coy Brothers and sisters-fiction: Banks; Fears-stories: Lester Little; Mackler; Rodowsky Fishing-fiction: Mills Brothers and sisters-stories: Zemach FOLKTALES AND FAIRY TALES: Bullies-fiction: Wilhelm Barton; Napoli; Pattou; Roberts Cats-fiction: Emerson Food and eating-fiction: Creech Cats-stories: Fleming, D. Food and eating-stories: Coy; Christmas-fiction: Fine Leuck; Weston Christmas-stories: Herman Foster care-fiction: Fleischman Civics: Christelow; Freedman; Friends and friendship-fiction: Jackson Creech; Fuqua; Jenkins, A.; Computers-fiction: Lubar; Wilhelm Johnson; McPhail; Wong COUNTING BOOKS: Rose; Yates Friends and friendship-stories: Cowboys-fiction: Failing Pinkwater Cows-stories: Herman Gardening-stories: Coy Gays and lesbians-fiction: Matthew OCTOBER 2003 * 87

Gender roles-fiction: Matthews Reading aloud: Cronin; Danko; GHOST STORIES: Fuqua; Wallace Failing; Fine; Hirsch; McPhail; Restless Mills; Singer; Testa; Wolf, A.; Gifts-stories: Fleming, C. Wong Glasses-stories: Cohen Reading, beginning: Fleming, D. Government: Christelow; Freedman Reading, easy: Cronin; Failing; Grandfathers-fiction: Mills Lester; Little; McPhail; Mills Grandmothers-fiction: Creech Reading, reluctant: Cronin; Danko; Grandmothers-stories: Best Jackson; Spiegelman; Tamar Growing up-fiction: Gantos; Religion-fiction: McCaughrean Jenkins, A. Religious education: Demi; Wolf, Guatemala-fiction: Cameron B. Halloween: Leuck RHYMING STORIES: Leuck; Health: Wolf, A. Weston; Yates; Zemach HISTORICAL FICTION: Hooper; Romance-fiction: Mackler; Martin; McCaughrean; Napoli; Schreiber Testa; Watts Royalty-fiction: McCaughrean History, European: Koscielniak Relationships-fiction: Soto History, U.S.: Freedman; Krull School-fiction: Bruchac; Jenkins, History, world: Demi A.; Schreiber; Wong HUMOR: Cronin; Danko; Failing; School-stories: Alter Fine; Fleischman; Gantos; SCIENCE FICTION: Danko; Pinkwater; Roberts; Spiegelman Lubar Identity-fiction: Lubar Science: Halls Illness-fiction: Hooper; Johnson; Self-image-fiction: Mackler Napoli SHORT STORIES: Wallace Losing Immigrants: Wolf, B. Social studies: Christelow; Freed- Inventors and inventing: Koscielniak man; Jackson; Krull Islands-fiction: Martin Sounds-stories: O'Connell Journals-fiction: Banks Space travel: Lubka Kidnapping-fiction: Cameron SPORTS STORIES: Bruchac; Latinos-fiction: Soto Tamar; Wallace Losing; Wallace Lemurs-stories: Lester Restless LOVE STORIES: Roberts Storytelling: Barton Magic-fiction: Pattou Storytime: Alter; Cohen; Fleming, Media: Krull C.; Fleming, D.; Jenkins, M.; Medieval life-fiction: Napoli O'Connell; Weston; Zemach Mental illness-stories: Campbell Summer-stories: Best Mothers-fiction: Tamar SUSPENSE: Alphin Mothers-stories: Campbell Teachers-fiction: Gantos Mummies-stories: Yates TODDLER BOOKS: O'Connell Muslims: Demi; Wolf, B. Toddlers: Harris MYSTERIES: Alphin; Emerson Transvestism-fiction: Matthews Native Americans-fiction: Bruchac Vampires-fiction: Schreiber Nature study: Jenkins, M.; Rose; Voyages and travel-fiction: Singer Cameron; Fleischman; Winkler Orphans-fiction: Britton Voyages and travel-stories: Agee Parades-fiction: Hirsch Vietnam War-fiction: Testa Pets-fiction: Little Water-poetry: Singer Physical education: Tamar Women's studies: Watts POETRY: Singer; Wolf, A.; Wong World War II-stories: Fleming, C. S "Bravissima." -The Horn Book A~hR& :y

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