Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

ILL I N I S UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

PRODUCTION NOTE

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

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University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science

t Books make great gifts, but picking the perfect books for your favorite youngsters can be daunting. Let the expert staff of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books help you navigate the book- store wilderness full of shiny new children's books. Updated and expanded from last year's edi- tion, the Guide Book to Gift Books contains annotations for over 225 of the best books for giving (and receiving) and is available as a downloadable PDF file that you can print out and use for every holiday, birthday, or other gift-giving occasion on your calendar this year. Listed books have all been recommended in full Bulletin reviews from the last three years and are verified as currently in print. Entries are divided into age groups and include author, title, publisher, and the current list price. To purchase, go to: www.lis.uiuc.edu/giftbooks/ THE BULLETIN

OF THE CENTER FOR CHILDREN'S BOOKS March 2004 Vol. 57 No. 7

A LOOK INSIDE

257 THE BIG PICTURE Bad Bears in the Big City: An Irving and Muktuk Story by Daniel Pinkwater; illus. by Jill Pinkwater 258 NEW BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE Reviewed titles include: 269 * Inside Grandad by Peter Dickinson 277 * Kitten's FirstFull Moon written and illus. by Kevin Henkes 282 * Wonders and Miracles: A Passover Companion comp. by Eric A. Kimmel 283 * The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place by E. L. Konigsburg 298 * Erika's Story by Ruth Vander Zee; illus. by Roberto Innocenti 303 CHILDREN'S BOOK AWARDS 2004 305 SUBJECT AND USE INDEX EXPLANATION OF CODE SYMBOLS USED WITH REVIEWS * Asterisks denote books of special distinction. R Recommended. Ad Additional book of acceptable quality for collections needing more material in the area. M Marginal book that is so slight in content or has so many weaknesses in style or format that it should be given careful consideration before purchase. NR Not recommended. SpC Subject matter or treatment will tend to limit the book to specialized collections. SpR A book that will have appeal for the unusual reader only. Recommended for the special few who will read it.

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

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

Reviewers' initials are appended to reviews. OFFICE STAFF Molly Dolan Krista Hutley Hope Morrison

SUBSCRIPTION RATES 1 year, institutions, $70.00; individuals, $50.00; students, $15.00. In countries other than the United States, add $7.00 per subscription for postage. Japanese subscription agent: Kinokuniya Company Ltd. Single copy rate: $7.00. Volumes available in microfilm from ProQuest, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Complete volumes available in microfiche from Johnson Associates, P.O. Box 1017, Greenwich, CT 06830. Subscription checks should be made payable to the University of Illinois Press. All notices of change of address should provide both the old and new address. Postmaster: Send address changes to The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, University of Illinois Press, 1325 S. Oak, Champaign, IL 61820-6903. All inquiries about subscriptions and advertising should go to University of Illinois Press, 1325 S. Oak, Champaign, IL 61820-6903, 217-333-0950; toll free 866-244-0626. Review copies and all correspondence about reviews should be sent to Deborah Stevenson, The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, 501 E. Daniel St., Champaign, IL 61820-6601. Email: [email protected]; phone: 217-244-0324. Visit our homepage at http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/puboff/bccb

Periodicals postage paid at Champaign, Illinois © 2004 by The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois Drawings by Debra Bolgla. This publication is printed on acid-free paper. Cover illustration by Jill Pinkwater from Bad Bears in the Big City: An Irving and Muktuk Story ©2004. Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. MARCH 2004 * 257

THE BIG PICTURE

Bad Bears in the Big City: An Irving and Muktuk Story by Daniel Pinkwater; illustrated by Jill Pinkwater

Audiences may recall that polar bears Irving and Muktuk (from IrvingandMuktuk: Two Bad Bears, BCCB 11/01) had been expelled from Yellowtooth for stealing muffins, with a variety of clever ruses, and had been sentenced to be sent to a zoo in Bayonne, New Jersey. After confounding the Head Zookeeper's expectations by traveling with the passengers (they emerge from the cabin sporting handcuffs, bad attitudes, and a note from Yellowtooth's Officer Bunny saying, "Remember, they are not to be trusted!"), they're taken to the zoo and introduced to their new workmate, fellow polar bear Roy. Since Roy's a trusty, allowed to return every night to his luxurious apartment ("I have a freezer. I have four air conditioners. I have two electric fans"), the outlaw ursine pair are on their own after work, which leaves them with plenty of time to hatch plans to raid the muffin factory next door. They pull off a successful muffin larceny by infiltrating a class touring the factory: "At the end of the tour the children and their teacher and Irving and Muktuk are invited to eat all the muffins they want. It is at this point that Irving and Muktuk are discovered to be bears." Upon their apprehension, the weeping bruins are devastated to find they're in trouble; fortunately, Roy intercedes for the pitiful pair, negotiating a bit more license for them ("After a while, if they have not eaten any people, the zoo can give them more freedom"). Short of a slightly anticlimactic ending, this is Pinkwater at his best: the grave ridiculousness of the present-tense narrative and the completely childlike responses of the "bad bears" recall the mid-century modernism of writers such as Margaret Wise Brown. The studied formality of the prose ("That building is a muffin factory, is it not?" Muktuk cunningly inquires about the zoo's neighbor) heightens its absurdity, especially in contrast with the deliberately mundane specifics ("We became warm and tired," Irving and Muktuk say when Roy finds them in the supermarket after their muffin caper. "We are lying on frozen peas. Is your apartment nearby?") and in consort with the deliberate and silly repetitions (those frozen peas recur, as does the touchy question of eating people). Jill Pinkwater's illustrations give the bear boys a satisfying playspace: soft- edged sweeps of vibrant color make Bayonne the liveliest habitat a bear could imagine, while her spikily hatched lines crisply set off the vast white expanses of her main characters. Witty strategic details enliven the visual scenes as they do the text, with Roy's apartment a combination of frat-boy bare and ice-cube-laden polar bear's dream. It's the bears' mien and comportment that really put the bite in the comedy, though. The bad boys shamble and loll about with an adolescent's 258 * THE BULLETIN studied indifference, and audiences will particularly giggle at Irving and Muktuk's narrow-eyed expressions of transparent villainy and pathetic droopy-headed pos- tures of shame. The bears' brushes with clothing are deliciously preposterous, whether it be Roy's pretentious cape and floppy hat or Irving and Muktuk's dia- bolical and dorky disguise of pillows over their heads and blankets over their shoulders, which of course makes them perfectly plausible among a tour group of schoolkids. Subtle similarities to kids' misdemeanors at camp and elsewhere may add particular resonance for some viewers, but the gleeful folly of the bears' adventures doesn't need relevance to be supremely entertaining. The sophisticated flair of the kid-appealing wryness will please the most jaded reading youngsters, while the kidlike troublemaking and sheer silliness will suit readaloud audiences to the last muffin crumb. (Imprint information appears on p. 291.) Deborah Stevenson, Editor

NEW BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE

BAKER, KEITH More Mr. and Mrs. Green; written and illus. by Keith Baker. Harcourt, 2004 68p ISBN 0-15-216494-4 $16.00 R Gr. 1-3 Who wants to spend the day with a couple of grownup, married alligators? An- swer: Every kid you know. In this sequel to the newly re-released Meet Mr. and Mrs. Green, readers join the couple in fishing (with jelly beans as bait), painting a portrait of Mr. Green (in the Cubist style), and enjoying the many pleasures of the park (like racing for chocolate-covered Bucko Bammo ice-cream bars). No gender-stereotyped Mom and Pop alligators here-each adventure is equally shared by Mr. and Mrs. Green, who embrace different tastes and styles, but most of all enjoy being together. Baker uses only the necessary words to describe each plot beat, and the text sparkles with humor. Energetic acrylics in attention-grabbing primary and secondary colors flash on every page, perfectly balancing the spare text. Each chapter begins with a few sentences and a single painting over a two- page spread, a combination which immerses the reader in the setting, introduces the characters, and gives the reader scenic details with which to flesh out the seg- mented sequences of illustrations that accompany the rest of the story. The result: never a boring moment for the eye or the ear, and much to tantalize the imagination. Readers of these short chapter stories come away with all the delighted ful- fillment of a full-sensory story experience. TC

BANG, MOLLY My Light; written and illus. by Molly Bang. Blue Sky/Scholas- tic, 2004 [3 4 p] ISBN 0-439-48961-X $16.95 Reviewed from galleys R 4-8 yrs If the city lights seem to twinkle like stars spread over the land, it's no accident. MARCH 2004 * 259

It's because so many of the energy forms we employ derive their power from our own star, as the Sun itself is quite happy to explain: "Each day I warm your land and water. Tiny drops of water rise and form clouds . . and clouds cool. My energy falls in rain." The rain runs to the river, which turns the turbine, which transfers energy to the generators, which make the electricity that flows through the wires to light up the town. A similar chain of events connects the sun's heat to the air-circulation system that generates wind-driven turbine power, as well as heat that sustains organic life, which in turn becomes fossil fuel. Although Bang con- cedes in her appended notes that some steps are missing in this description, the point here is clearly the cause-and-effect chain that makes the sun's radiance critical to Earth's survival. Large, group-friendly spreads are bold and sweeping, a worthy match for the Sun's proud claims. Boxed insets and framed details within the scenes direct attention to the operative bit of technology or aspect of nature discussed within a particular passage of text. Extensive notes (not yet in final form in the examined copy) directed to the child audience fill in some information omitted by the garrulous Sun and extend the interest level of this title to children advancing out of the picture book format. Primary-grades science teachers will welcome this introduction to the mysteries behind the switchplate. EB

BANKS, KATE The Cat Who Walked across France; illus. by Georg Hallensleben. Foster/Farrar, 2004 [40p] ISBN 0-374-39968-9 $16.00 Reviewed from galleys R 5-8 yrs When a little gray cat's fond old mistress passes on, he's shipped up north with the rest of her belongings. Soon he is forgotten, and he slips out to survive on his own; drawn by his memories of his sunny southern home, he makes his way across France to "the stone house by the edge of the sea," en route traveling through cityscape and countryside. While the low-key narration of the cat's peregrination rambles on a little too lengthily for more impatient young listeners, audiences will certainly sympathize with the homesick and unwanted feline and breathe a sigh of relief at his final adoption into his newly reoccupied old home. Hallensleben's luscious landscapes offer sweeping romantic views of France in strong Fauve colors and in brushstrokes with Cezanne-like textures; the picturesque French scenery includes a number of famous landmarks (Rouen Cathedral, the Eiffel Tower, the old Roman Pont du Gard, to name just a few), so this would be an engaging accessory to early units on France (the back cover offers a rough map of the cat's travels). Youngsters not quite ready for Burnford's IncredibleJourney (BCCB 3/62) will find this a satisfying excursion. DS

BATTLE-LAVERT, GWENDOLYN Papa'sMark; illus. by Colin Bootman. Holiday House, 2003 32p ISBN 0-8234-1650-X $16.95 R 6-9 yrs Simms is excited and proud that his father will be among the first black men to vote in the upcoming elections in Lamar County. While Simms copies out voting posters to place around the county, his father works late into the night to learn how to write his name so that he can sign his ballot. Simms helps by providing a model and plenty of encouragement. When election day finally arrives, many of their neighbors fear reprisals, but Simms' willingness to stand with his father shames the older men, and they travel together to town, where they are joined by the white 260 * THE BULLETIN shopkeeper, to cast the first black votes in their county: "Simms grinned. Papa voted. Lamar County changed." Simms' pride in his father is palpable in the oil paintings that lend the story emotional resonance and even some humor, as the cows sport voting posters. Mostly, though, the illustrations develop the various relationships in the book; gesture, facial expression, and composition render love, hesitation, challenge, and determination with luminous intensity. An author's note briefly charts the successive moves and setbacks of black citizenship from the end of the Civil War to the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Capturing the hope and hardship of the not-so-distant past without becoming maudlin or preachy, this book offers a timely reminder of the importance and privilege of participatory democracy, as well as giving an engaging and likable human face to the history of the black struggle for voting rights. KC

BELTON, SANDRA Beauty, Her Basket; illus. by Cozbi A. Cabrera. Greenwillow, 2004 [3 2 p] Library ed. ISBN 0-688-17822-7 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-688-17821-9 $15.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad 6-9 yrs Every morning Nana gathers flowers from around her island home to fill "Beauty, Her Basket," a basket made from palm leaf, longleaf pine needles, and sea grass. This day, Nana takes her visiting grandchildren, the narrator and her cousin Vic- tor, to a neighbor's house to learn how the baskets are made, and they stop on the way home to hear Nana tell the story of why the baskets are important: they are a reminder of the knowledge and beauty the slaves brought with them from Africa. Flap copy places the story in the Sea Islands, and touches of Gullah infuse Nana's speech. The language of the text is misty and lyrical, and the lush, paradisiacal view of island life inviting. This isn't quite up to the standard of Raven's Circle Unbroken, reviewed below, though; the storyteller will have a lot of work to do to fill in contextual and historical gaps left by the text, and the layout of the book is unfortunate: text-heavy pages alternating with wordless spreads make for a difficult and squirmy readaloud. Still, it is a story that honors storytelling and inter- generational listening and learning, and it will be a useful addition to a collection of literature about the living artistic legacy of a slave past. KC

BENEDUCE, ANN KEAY, ad. Moses: The Long Road to Freedom; illus. by Gennady Spirin. Orchard, 2004 32p ISBN 0-439-35225-8 $16.95 Ad Gr. 3-6 Beneduce frames the story of Moses, the prophet "drawn from the water," between legendary scenes of his first appearance in a basket among the reeds in the Nile and his parting of the Red Sea. Many readers are likely to be familiar with episodes herein: Moses' flight to Midian, where he marries and raises a family, the mission entrusted to him by God within the burning bush, his persistent harassment of Pharaoh and the plagues that finally crack the hardened monarch's resolve, the flight from Egypt. Apart from the possible attraction of abridgment, there's little to be gained by Beneduce's somewhat tepid narrative: "to punish them for ever having asked for freedom, he [Pharaoh] had the poor Hebrews work harder than ever. Of course, they were disappointed and angry with Moses." Spirin's lavish pencil and watercolor illustrations compensate considerably for the lackluster text. Although the drafting of individual figures is often inconsistent and the green- MARCH 2004 * 261

tinged Egyptians occasionally recall images of an equally implacable Wicked Witch of the West, there's a lively visual dialogue between medieval religious painting, Egyptian motif, and Klimt-like jeweled detail. Fluid energy drives the scenes as snakes writhe, locusts swarm, charioteers tumble amid frothing waves, and sinu- ous Hebrew women dance their triumphant Song of the Sea. An epilogue, "in- scribed" on ornate columns, refers briefly to Moses' forty-year journey and death in Moab and offers commonly proposed dates for the Exodus and information on pharaohs who may have been the biblical monarch. EB

BERRY, JAMES A Nest Full of Stars; illus. by Ashley Bryan. Amistad/Greenwil- low, 2004 [10 4 p] Library ed. ISBN 0-06-052748-X $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-052747-1 $15.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-6 The sixty poems here are-as the author describes them in his introduction- "based on forms and influences drawn from everyday Caribbean language and culture." They are divided into six sections: Everyday Feelings, Together, A Par- ticular Time at Our House, From My Sister's Secret Notebook, Echoes of a Car- ibbean School Playground, and Mysteries. Some reflect a heavier dialect than others, but all thrive on reading aloud: "Say, Good mornin, Granny Maama./ Good mornin, Granpa Taata./ Good mornin when it rainin./ Good mornin when sun shinin./ Good mornin." Many, like "Duppy Dance," tell or imply stories: "You walk too-too late at night,/ duppies make your wrong road the right./ Around you they rattle strings of bones./ And duppies dance. Duppies Dance." A few of the poems suffer from forced rhymes and awkward meter ("Sometimes/ I help with classroom clear-ups./ Other times/ I'm not blameless over a trip-up"), or banal diction ("A special time can happen/ so sudden/ like unexpected win/ of the hardest race"). On the whole, however, the imagery is eerily unexpected and the tone both informal and intimate. Children unfamiliar with Caribbean experiences such as those reflected in "Estate Cowman" or "West Indian Boys Play Vil- lage Cricket" will relate easily to familiar sounds and scenes like the snoring in "Dad's Night Voice" or the narrator's envy of his sister's bicycle in "Not Sharing." Bryan's lyrical black-and-white illustrations flow with the poems, enriching but never overdefining them. This collection allows for deeper exploration of the poetic culture readers have encountered in Agard and Nichols' Under the Moon and over the Sea (BCCB 2/03) andA Caribbean Dozen (12/94). BH

BLUMBERG, RHODA York'sAdventures with Lewis and Clark: An African-American's Partinthe GreatExpedition. HarperCollins, 2004 88p illus. with photographs Library ed. ISBN 0-06-009112-6 $18.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-009111-8 $17.99 Ad Gr. 4-8 Blumberg re-ups for a second trek with Lewis and Clark (an undertaking that many of the Corps' original members would probably decline), but here the focus is on William Clark's slave, York. A packet of Clark's correspondence, discovered after publication of The IncredibleJourney ofLewis and Clark (BCCB 1/87), allows Blumberg to address York's life after the expedition and his deteriorating relationship with his master, as well as to question the optimistic legend that Clark freed his slave shortly after their return. Lots of carefully labeled speculation as to York's specific duties with the Corps pepper the text--an honest approach, but a labored 262 * THE BULLETIN one. Even when documentary evidence gives readers a glimpse of York's activities, incidents are often padded with commentary on their importance, e.g., the awe and adulation of York among several indigenous groups, which may have inclined them favorably toward the expedition. Blumberg's customary concern for source citation and comprehensive end materials is evident here, and a generous helping of historical illustrations is included. This is surely not a thorough account of York's true contribution to the Corps of Discovery, but it may be the best one current evidence allows, making it a useful addition to the Lewis and Clark children's canon. EB

BORTOLOTTI, DAN Panda Rescue: Changing the Future for Endangered Wildlife. Firefly, 2003 [6 4p] illus. with photographs Library ed. ISBN 1-55297-598-3 $19.95 Papered. ISBN 1-55297-557-6 $9.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-8 Tiger Rescue: Changing the Future for Endangered Wildlife. Firefly, 2003 [64p] illus. with photographs Library ed. ISBN 1-55297-599-1 $19.95 Paper ed. ISBN 1-55297-558-4 $9.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-8 Primary research, lively writing, and dramatic use of color photographs lift these titles in the publisher's Animal Rescue series above the usual level of stock nonfiction on ecological subjects. A map sequence and a timeline set up the background, and a series of brief chapters (two pages at the longest) offer browsable examina- tions of the habits and needs of their subject animals, as well as the nature of the threats they face and the challenges of preserving them. The name of the game seems to be "habitat, habitat, habitat," and Bortolotti acknowledges the difficulty of preserving that habitat without further burdening already impoverished human populations, concisely summarizing many ongoing relevant political and economic issues. He also avoids sentimental romanticism about his subjects ("Wild pandas are unimpressive in size and speed. They're unsociable and spend almost all their time eating, sleeping and defecating") while also addressing the benefits and problems such views can bring an environmental cause. Brief bios of various profes- sionals, often with their own commentary, add further immediacy, and despite the small type, the widely spaced paragraphs and easygoing layout will attract reluctant readers while the intelligent approach will keep them reading. Each book concludes with a spread of "Fast Facts," postal and web addresses for supporting the preservation effort and learning more about the animals, and an index. DS

BRUCHAC, JOSEPH Hidden Roots. Scholastic, 2004 [14 4 p] ISBN 0-439-35358-0 $16.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-8 It's 1954, and Howard's home life is full of things that can't be talked about, so he learns to keep quiet at school as well-to walk away from playground fights and generally keep his head down. His only real joy comes from the time he spends with his uncle Louis, who knows the ways of animals and spirits, and who is pretty insightful where people are concerned as well. The day finally comes when Uncle Louis decides it's time to talk about the secrets of Howard's family-that they are MARCH 2004 * 263

Abenaki, hiding their identity in the aftermath of the Vermont Eugenics Project that enforced the sterilization of the Abenaki people, among others. Uncle Louis is really Howard's grandfather, protecting the family by denying his connection to them. Bruchac's spare and elegant storytelling offers enough foreshadowing to keep the reader one step ahead of Howard in guessing the family secret, but there are still surprises of horror in the tale of Uncle Louis' past, and of grace in the reform of Howard's father. The arms that were once raised in anger now encircle his father-in-law and son, figuratively and literally, as Howard's father's honor is restored. An informative author's note both describes and contextualizes the eugenics projects of the '30s in this country and abroad. Bruchac also talks about his process of taking bits and pieces of various people's histories and crafting them into a story and relates the Abenaki belief system that allows for the reform and forgiveness of an abusive man like Howard's father. This story of a different kind of "passing" will make a provocative addition to a unit that looks at Native Ameri- cans in the twentieth century. KC

BUEHNER, CARALYN Superdog: The Heart of a Hero; illus. by Mark Buehner. HarperCollins, 2004 [32p] Library ed. ISBN 0-06-623621-5 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-623620-7 $15.99 Reviewed from galleys R 3-6 yrs Lost your wallet? Neighborhood a mess? Cat up a tree? Call Dexter, the "little dog [with] the heart of a hero," an aspiring super-Dachshund resplendent in emer- ald cape and red spandex suit. Though Dex trains for action by building up his muscles, it is his service-seeking heart that makes him a hero and wins him the respect of his peers. Witty text and lively illustrations in Mark Buehner's trade- mark puffy style transform the standard comic-book plot into a satisfyingly hu- manized (caninized?) tale of the self-realization of the dog next door. With bonus animal shapes hidden throughout to delight the young viewers, this lighthearted take on the hero's quest sweeps a caped canine bow to each child's desire for em- powerment and respect. TC

BURNHAM, NIKI Royally Jacked. Simon Pulse, 2004 229p Paper ed. ISBN 0-689-86668-2 $5.99 R Gr. 6-10 Valerie's sophomore year dissolves before her when her mother leaves her father for her lesbian lover, and her father, chief of protocol at a conservative White House, decides his resignation would be politically expedient. He then accepts a position with the Liechtensteinesque country of Schwerinborg, and Valerie accompanies him, trying to adjust to living in an apartment in the palace, attending school with diplomat's kids, and losing her chance with handsome David Ander- son back home. On the other hand, there's a compensation in the form of Georg, a courtly and attractive boy she meets in the palace and with whom she develops an immediate rapport; this relationship becomes considerably more complicated, however, when she realizes that Georg is Prince Georg, the heir to the throne of Schwerinborg. If a smart, well-informed American fourteen-year-old could write a lively and detailed account of her dream romance with a European prince, it would read almost exactly like this; Burnham clearly knows exactly what's important to yearning young royal-watchers and what kind of credible obstacles have to 264 * THE BULLETIN be available for surmounting. Even Prince Georg's interest in Valerie is couched in deliciously obliging terms, since it's dependent on her charming American aver- age-girlness: "I hate that everyone is fake with me all the time. You're the only person I've ever met who's not." There's enough reality in the spirited voice, lively relationships, and Valerie's parental issues (when her distant mother sends her a self-help book telling her not to sweat the small stuff, she snaps, "She thinks my problems constitute small stuff?? On what freakin' planet, exactly, was she spawned?") to keep this from being pure fairy-tale stuff-and, of course, to make it all the more seductive as a vision. Readers desperate for gilt-edged romance between Princess Diaries installments will find this a palatial literary pleasure and look forward eagerly to the planned followup. DS

CALHOUN, DIA White Midnight. Farrar, 2003 289p ISBN 0-374-38389-8 $18.00 Ad Gr. 8-12 Rose Chandler is a fifteen-year-old bondgirl who lives on Greengarden Orchard. Brae is the Master of Greengarden, a hard man unloved by both freemen and bonded. He keeps Raymont, the so-called bastard of his deceased only daughter, Amberly, locked in the attic of his house, and all of Greengarden fears the Thing in the attic. When Brae offers Rose's family wealth and freedom if she will marry his imprisoned grandson and provide him with an heir, Rose agrees. Calhoun sets this fantasy tale in the land of Firegold (BCCB 9/99), a place where two cultures, the Valley folk and the Dalriada, have been at war for generations. Rose discovers that Brae has imprisoned Raymont, his grandson, not because he is a violent mon- ster but because Amberly married a Dalriada, and Raymont has the distinctive coloring of his father's race. Brae actually intends to acquire Rose for himself; it is only when Rose refuses him that Brae gambles that Valley coloring will win out in his great-grandchild, and Rose becomes pregnant with Raymont's child. Visions and visits from the spirit of the long-dead Amberly haunt Rose, until she is forced by circumstances and her husband to seek out the Dalriada; her effort to secure Raymont's freedom reveals that he is the lost king of the Dalriada, and the Dalriada ride to his rescue. The action here is painfully gnarled, and the tone is irredeem- ably grim. While characterizations overall are uneven, Rose herself is admirable: a victim who refuses to remain one, she stubbornly hangs on to her sense of self and her love of the land in fierce defiance of all efforts to subjugate her. Despite the convoluted plot, this will attract those readers with a love for desperate deeds and dark consequences. JMD

CANN, KATE Shacked Up. Simon Pulse, 2004 34 5p Paper ed. ISBN 0-689-85906-6 $5.99 Ad Gr. 9-12 Picking up where HardCash (BCCB 12/03) left off, this British import sees eigh- teen-year-old Rich despondent after he's lost his chance to make it big in advertising art, but he's still living free of charge in a cool loft in the advertising company's building after moving out from his family home. He's pulled himself together sufficiently to catch up at school and complete his work there, but he's also falling back under the spell of the sexually arresting Portia. This is a problem not only because Rich is aware that Portia is a grandstanding drama queen with little affection for anyone but herself, but also because Rich is increasingly attracted to his flatmate, Bonny, who's blossoming now that she's out from under the thumb of her spotlight-grabbing mother. This doesn't have quite the fast-paced desirability MARCH 2004 * 265 of the first installment, and Bonny's trials with her mother are particularly talky, repetitive, and narratively convenient. There's still appeal in the notion of a young man leaving home (if being incredibly lucky in the process) and sorting out adult matters of housing and income. Also absorbing is his compulsive relationship with Portia, who obsesses him while simultaneously annoying him immensely ("I seem to be realizing a lot about Portia these days. It's sort of tiring"); while he's ostensibly finished with her here, she'll doubtless make an appearance in the next and final volume of the series, if only to provide some interesting obstacles in Rich's nascent relationship with Bonny now that he's finished up in her arms in this volume. Readers should start with the first installment rather than here, but it's still hard to resist a saga of new independence seasoned with beautiful girls, a stunning flat, and the ever-looming possibility of serious money. DS

CHOLDENKO, GENNIFER Al Capone Does My Shirts. Putnam, 2004 225p ISBN 0-399-23861-1 $15.99 R Gr. 6-9 "You get to Alcatraz by being the worst of the worst. Unless you're me," says twelve-year-old Moose. "I came here because my mother said I had to." Moose's mother's dictate is a result of her determination to get Moose's sister, Natalie, into a special school in San Francisco, in the hope that it can help Natalie shed her compulsive, detached behaviors and become able to interact with the world. To that end, Dad's taken a job on Alcatraz, so that the family can afford to live in the area, and Moose is now entrusted with the care of his sister and limited to play- mates on the island. One of them is troublemaker Piper, the warden's daughter, who ropes Moose into her plan to charge their classmates for sharing in the island- ers' convict-handled laundry service; though the plan founders when Piper's father uncovers this serious breach of the rules, the connection between Al Capone and the laundry suggests to Moose a way to pressure the reluctant school to let Natalie in. Choldenko (author of Notes from a Liar and Her Dog, BCCB 7/01) capably evokes the setting of Alcatraz in the 1930s; a detailed note attests to diligent and thoughtful research on the topic, and she's effectively in touch with the uneasy glamour Moose's living situation confers on him. The Natalie-centered family dynamics (the note explains Natalie's behaviors are based on those of the author's autistic sister) are also credible, with Moose's mother hanging her heart on each new promising cure and denying her daughter's blossoming into womanhood, while Moose is both resentful and protective of his challenging sister. The final plot twist-Moose's private request to Al Capone may have gotten Natalie ac- cepted into school-is superfluous and less convincing than the rest of the story, but the unusual setting and the authentic portrayal of a kid torn between family loyalty and a desire for independence make this a satisfying and compelling read. DS

CLINE-RANSOME, LESA Major Taylor: Champion Cyclist; illus. by James E. Ransome. Schwartz/Atheneum, 2004 40p ISBN 0-689-83159-5 $16.95 R 6-10 yrs Thirteen-year-old Marshall Taylor landed his dream job; the young man's riding stunts so thoroughly impressed the owners of an Indianapolis bicycle shop that they offered him a new bike and a full dollar more than his paper route paid, in exchange for some shop cleaning and promotional demonstrations of his skill. Dressed in a bright red, quasi-military jacket, Marshall wowed the crowd and earned 266 * THE BULLETIN

the nickname "Major." At his employer's urging, he entered and won his first local cycling race and, more importantly, he caught the attention of professional racers and launched a professional cycling career, bagging even the World Cham- pionship title-a triumphant coup for an African-American kid in turn-of-the- century Jim Crow America. Cline-Ransome combines nail-biting race scenes with evenly handled social history, explaining in both text and concluding notes how it took more than skill alone to propel Taylor to the top of his sport. The young man had a head start by even owning a bicycle (a gift from a previous employer, when Taylor served as companion to his son) and having gained membership in the League of American Wheelmen just before that organization shut its door against black competitors. James Ransome's sturdy oil scenes highlight the serious intensity of the sportsman, who manages to look dignified whether showing off for the public in a crimson costume or overtaking his French rival in the final stretch. Endnotes comment on the sadder events of Taylor's later life, but it's his flag-draped victory lap that will stick with the audience long past the finish line. EB

COOLEY, BETH Ostrich Eye. Delacorte, 2004 [192p] Library ed. ISBN 0-385-90132-1 $17.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-385-73106-X $15.95 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 7-10 Ginger's not particularly a troublemaker, but her freshman year finds her and her mother at odds about almost everything-her assistance with her half-sister's scout troop, her nascent relationship with a nice boy in her class, and her interest in her long-gone father, about whom her mother prefers not to speak. When a familiar- looking man begins to appear around town, showing a keen interest in Ginger, she realizes he must be her father, and the two gradually become closer. After he takes off with Ginger's young half-sister and fails to return, however, it becomes clear that he wasn't Ginger's father at all, but somebody who cleverly reflected Ginger's projected wishes in order to gain access to young girls. The story of the strains between Ginger and her mother is depicted with sympathy and authenticity, and the evolution of Ginger's relationship with Nicholas, who starts as a duty-date and gradually becomes a genuine boyfriend, is similarly believable. The book goes awry, however, when it abandons its realistic domestic plot for a sensationalist Stranger Danger drama, complete with a midnight rescue (by Ginger and her boyfriend, of course, rather than the police) and child pornography (though, the book hastens to make clear, no actual sexual molestation of the young girl). The result is an unfortunate squandering of the human dynamics for some made-for-TV histrionics, without the chilling depth of Holm's The Creek (BCCB 7/03). Up until then, however, it's an understanding story about a girl straining at family limitations and trying to carve out her own way. DS

COVILLE, BRUCE Moongobble and Me: The Dragon ofDoom; illus. by Katherine Coville. Simon, 2003 6 9p ISBN 0-689-85754-3 $14.95 R Gr. 2-4 Coville debuts a new transitional reading series with this novel about young Ed- ward, his boring life in the small town of Pigbone, and the arrival a new neighbor, would-be magician Moongobble. Moongobble has need of an assistant (besides his talking toad, Urk) to aid him in retrieving items needed for practicing spells. A thrilled Edward signs on to accompany Moongobble when he sets out on the first MARCH 2004 * 267 of three "Mighty Tasks": to retrieve the Golden Acorns of Alcoona from the Dragon of Doom. Despite the somewhat unimaginative vocabulary, there is a wholesome silliness here to both plot and jokes. The wiseacre humor, while predictable, has heart, the characters are a largely good-natured lot, and the pacing is brisk. Katherine Coville's expressive pencil illustrations (full-page, spot-art, and chapter headings) help break up the framed text blocks while providing an enriching subtext through their visual characterizations. Altogether, it's an inviting package for emergent readers with a taste for humorous magic. JMD

CREECH, SHARON Heartbeat. Cotler/HarperCollins, 2004 [192p] Library ed. ISBN 0-06-054023-0 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-054022-2 $15.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 4-8 Every day, Annie runs barefoot with her best friend, Max. The "thump-thump, thump-thump" of their feet over "gritty dirt/ smooth leaves/ crunchy twigs/ pol- ished pebbles" is the heartbeat of this free-verse novel, which spans nine months of Annie's changing friendship with Max, her mother's new pregnancy, a long-term drawing assignment, and her grandpa's mental decline. Max urges Annie to join him on the track team, but she prefers to follow her grandpa's example and "run for the pleasure of running." Her reluctance to join Max's race for outward valida- tion bruises their friendship, and Annie wonders what she must sacrifice to heal the injury. Annie's own acceptance of her unborn sibling grows as she progresses from calling the child "alien baby" to "pumpkin baby" to "human baby." Concur- rently, Annie's art teacher instructs her to draw the same apple once a day for one hundred days. As she draws, Annie begins to cherish the time spent daily with her aging apple and her failing grandpa. Each plot thread teaches Annie to value the rhythm of relationships that provides her life's heartbeat. Introduced halfway through the book, Annie's use of footnotes and thesaurus enlivens a story that's otherwise light on narrative tension and stylistic genius: "Thump-thump, thump- thump" works for a heartbeat but (unless Annie limps) not for a running stride, and the verse tends towards the prosy. The book is tender, however, about some important emotional aspects of life, and the thread about Annie's grandpa and her apple-drawing assignment achieves a multileveled symbolism that makes effective use of the verse form. Despite its flaws, Heartbeatruns satisfyingly to its open ending, making it suitable for an upbeat read. TC

CREWS, NINA, comp. The Neighborhood Mother Goose; comp. and illus. with photographs by Nina Crews. Amistad/Greenwillow, 2004 [4 8 p] Library ed. ISBN 0-06-051574-0 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-051573-2 $15.99 Reviewed from galleys R 2-7 yrs Nina Crews' urban photographs and photo montages bring a fresh vision to over forty familiar verses and chants from Mother Goose. Some of the pictures illus- trate their rhymes with ordinary compositions of multiracial groups of children and their grownups-kids playing ring-around-the-rosy in the park, a little boy staring mournfully out a window wishing the rain would go away, a mom playing "this little pig" with her toddler. Others are more witty-the horrid little girl with the little curl in the middle of her forehead looks sidelong at the camera as she is cutting the hair off her Barbie, the fine lady's white horse on the road to Banbury 268 * THE BULLETIN

Cross is on a merry-go-round-while still others employ montage. A diminutive Jack Be Nimble jumps over a candle on a cupcake; a tiny old lady and her tiny children cavort around a regular man's work shoe on a carpeted stair. The resolu- tion is uneven, with the photographs tending to be grainy or blurred; the Photoshopping of the images is often technically unskilled, and the compositions sometimes unfocused. The ideas are inventive, however, and the energetic and whimsical illustrations successfully wrest Mother Goose out of her nostalgic, ro- manticized nest into present-day children's life and lore. This is sure to become a perennial favorite among parents, teachers, and children. KC

DELACRE, LULU Rafi andRosi; written and illus. by Lulu Delacre. HarperCollins, 2004 [64 p] (I Can Read Books) Library ed. ISBN 0-06-009896-1 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-009895-3 $15.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 1-2 Puerto Rican tree frogs Rafi and Rosi team up for some informative hijinks in this beginning reader. Older brother Rafi tricks his sister Rosi in two out of three chapters: with help from a strong magnet and some iron filings he convinces Rosi he has "magic fingers," and he pretends to shoot stars out of the sky with his bow and arrow on the shore of Parguera Bay, "the bay of glittering water." Rosi gets her own back, however-she pushes Rafi into the lake in Chapter Two and helps her know-it-all big brother find his missing hermit crab in Chapter Three. An opening glossary defines Spanish words and phrases used in the text, and a closing section ("Did You Know About ... ") gives more information about tree frogs, magnets, bioluminescence, mangroves, and hermit crabs. Delacre illustrates this title in sunny beach shades of sand and sky, making the most of the expressively big-eyed tree frogs and their spindly but graceful limbs. Rafi and Rosi are a likable pair of siblings, and their science-oriented activities, while not intrusive, provide an underlying solidity to their interactions. JMD

DE PAOLA, TOMIE, ad. Pascualand the Kitchen Angels; ad. and illus. by Tomie de Paola. Putnam, 2004 32p ISBN 0-399-24214-7 $16.99 R 4 -8 yrs When angels fill the trees to welcome newborn Pascual, his parents realize they have one special baby. Within a few years the shepherd child is singing to his sheep, giving his food to the poor, and making peace among the local roughnecks. As a young man, Pascual knows his future lies in religious life, and he arrives at the Franciscan monastery with love of God, a basket of produce, and absolutely no cooking skill. He's immediately assigned to kitchen duty, but "all the pots and pans, bowls and dishes made his head spin." What can he do but pray? And while Pascual turns his attention to the Divine, angels take over the kitchen and scramble up the dinner. Brother friars are so happy with the meals streaming out of their kitchen that they won't let Pascual out to serve the poor. Only when they spy on his heavenly helpers do they truly appreciate the gift that lives among them. de Paola's signature toylike figures show to better advantage in this whimsical legend than in, for example, his more solemn entry The Holy Twins (BCCB 7/01). A line of tonsured friars with forks poised at the ready and angelic toes hovering over a well-laden sideboard add a welcome dash of humor and a pinch of awe. While this account, very loosely based on the life of sixteenth-century St. Pascal Baylon (ac- MARCH 2004 * 269 cording to a note), may seem more at home in a fairy-tale collection than in a standard Lives ofthe Saints, little listeners who recognize and accept a miracle when they see one should be charmed by this very practical blessing on a good-hearted, deserving bumbler. EB

DICKINSON, PETER Inside Grandad. Lamb, 2004 [128p] Library ed. ISBN 0-385-90873-3 $17.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-385-74641-5 $15.95 Reviewed from galleys R* Gr. 5-7 Just short of Gavin's eleventh birthday, his beloved seventy-four-year-old grandfather has a stroke in the midst of finishing a model trawler. This gift for Gavin is a miniature of the boat Grandad's grandfather worked on before drowning in a North Sea storm, and Grandad has said that Gavin must ask permission of the selkies before naming it Selkie after a seal they saw while fishing together in Stonehaven harbor. Much of the dominant imagery in the novel relates to what happens under the surface: Gavin's discovery of Gran's sadness under her constant flow of talk, his growing appreciation of the sensitivity beneath his mother's steadfast efficiency, and most of all, a trust of his own instincts in reaching his beloved grandfather through an identification so intense that he nearly drowns in it. One chapter, in fact, sways from realism into fantasy as Gavin-guided by a selkie as a result of sacrificing his model trawler to the sea--enters his grandfather's consciousness to bring him home from the foggy abyss where he drifts. This cross- over has something in common with Margaret Mahy's Changeover (BCCB 9/84) in its power and ambiguity: is the protagonist imagining the mystical, or experiencing it? Throughout, the medical details are skillfully specified along with the emotional stress attendant in such a situation, especially as they affect a child involved in talking to an inert form lying on a hospital bed. Gavin's sense of responsibility is singularly characterized, from the moment he handles the crisis alone by calling an ambulance and accompanying his grandfather to the hospital, throughout the day-to-day exposure that teaches him the problems and possibilities of a vigil. Consistently written from a child's viewpoint, this is a story insightfully developed and satisfyingly unexpected. BH

DIFFILY, DEBORAH Jurassic Shark; illus. by Karen Carr. Preiss/HarperCollins, 2004 [32p] Library ed. ISBN 0-06-008250-X $18.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-008249-6 $17.99 Reviewed from galleys R 4-7 yrs "Hunt or be hunted, kill or be killed, the Jurassic seas were a dangerous place." No kidding. The female hybodus featured here takes on all contenders, regardless of size, and no denizen of the sea from the smaller ichthyosaur to the massive liopleurodon is safe from her snapping jaws. Hybodus is about to give birth, though, and "until her baby is born, she will avoid bloody battles." Strategy, not wholesale carnage, is what's called for, so hybodus chews a modest chunk from the looming liopleurodon, other predators finish off the job, and the reef is temporarily safe for her to deliver her offspring. There's precious little information about hybodus here, other than her seven-foot length, and even the pictorial "Cast of Characters" at the book's end offers nothing more than a sense of scale and a pronunciation guide. Hybodus' choice of birthing place (clearly swarming with potential preda- 270 * THE BULLETIN

tors) is perplexing, as are larger issues concerning how scientists-and Diffily- know about behaviors of animals from 180 million years ago. The top billing extended to Karen Carr hints at the source of this vagueness: illustrations are the raison d'tre for the title, and kids who stalk the dinosaur and shark shelves in search of carnivorous action won't be disappointed in the detailed, computer-generated double bleeds (pun fully intended). Gratifying close-ups of toothy menace abound, and bloodstained waters obligingly remain clear enough for viewers to determine who ended up on the bottom of the food chain. Chow down. EB

DOYLE, BRIAN Boy O'Boy. Groundwood/Douglas & McIntyre, 2003 161p ISBN 0-88899-588-1 $15.95 R Gr. 6-9 Martin "Boy" O'Boy is pretty unhappy these days: his beloved fearless grandmother has just died, his heavy-drinking father and pregnant mother fight constantly, and his mentally disabled twin brother, Phil, mostly just destroys things and draws attention from Martin; only Martin's beloved cat, Cheap, seems to care about him. Insufficiently supervised, according to local authorities, Martin roams his Ottawa neighborhood with his friend Billy Batson, hoping that things will look up now that World War II is ending and the neighborhood hero will soon be returning. Martin and Billy get a little bit of structure in their lives from their participation in summer choir, but the organist's excessive interest in young boys soon brings them grief as well. The protagonist's experiences are less cohesive and more episodic than in other Doyle outings, and the routing of the bad guy (by, as Martin hoped, the returning soldier) is more convenient than believable. Doyle can suck readers into a world like nobody else, however, and his city neighborhood teems with moments of vigorous human existence, some of which surprisingly connect with one another. Martin's narration is authentically plainspoken and colloquial, but it's also telling in both its understatement and occasional direct appeal ("Please, somebody. Take care of me. Love me," thinks the desperate boy on returning unprotected to his unhappy home). It's that emotional impact, along with the boy's-eye-view of city life, that will satisfy Doyle fans. DS

EDWARDS, RICHARD Good Night, Copycub; illus. by Susan Winter. HarperCollins, 2004 [32p] ISBN 0-06-056671-X $15.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad 2-4 yrs After a busy day of foraging and playing in the woods with his mother, Copycub (hero of previous Copycub titles such as Copy Me, Copycub) can't get to sleep. His restless rustling awakens his mother, and he begs her for a story. She obliges with a tale that features Copycub and his mother taking a walk and encountering a sleeping goose, moose, and hare, all excellent subjects for Copycub to do what he does best-copy. The repetition is gently pleasing but pretty mild, and the animals are on the cutesy side of cuddly, with long-lashed eyes and blandly sweet expressions. Still, the butterscotch-colored bears with their fuzzy colored-pencil textures blend seamlessly into their autumn leaf-strewn cave; their nocturnal stroll leads them through blue and mauve watercolor washes of forests flecked with moon shadows--all of which makes for a sleepytime gentling of little eyes. Though not on a par with Mem Fox's similarly themed Timefor Bed (BCCB 10/93), this may lull little listeners into their own copycub dreams. KC MARCH 2004 * 271

ELLIOTT, DAVID Evangeline Mudd and the Golden-HairedApes of the Ikkinasti Jungle; illus. by Andrea Wesson. Candlewick, 2004 196p ISBN 0-7636-1876-4 $15.99 R Gr. 4-6 Drs. Merriweather and Magdalena Mudd have devoted their lives to studying the golden-haired apes of the Ikkinasti Jungle. When Evangeline is born, they decide, with true primatologist passion, to raise her as the golden-hairs raise their children. Though they make concessions, such as diapers, school, and piano lessons, Evangeline learns many ape feats, like eating with her feet and brachiating among trees. When her parents get the opportunity they'd dreamed of-two weeks in Ikkinasti studying the apes-they leave Evangeline with distant relative Melvin, unethical mink farmer, and his wife, India Terpsichore, crazed ex-prima-ballerina. When Evangeline's parents fail to return on time, she decides to look for them herself. With the help of primatologist Dr. Pikkaflee, ex-headhunter Dadoo, and a young golden-hair named Pansy, Evangeline finds her parents in the Ikkinasti Jungle and foils a maniacal land development plot along the way. Elliott's writing is light and funny, with much attention to gigglicious wordplay and over-the-top caricatures. Wesson's wavy line-and-wash illustrations capture the offbeat nature of the story perfectly; they are cartoonish and exaggerated without outdoing the text. The slightly smug, know-it-all narrator tells the story directly to readers, making the story appealing for readalouds as well as reading alone. There is an underlying seriousness about the plight of the rainforest and its natural creatures that may be missed among the silliness; still, children who miss the message (and even those who get it) will enjoy the delivery. KH

FLINN, ALEX Nothing to Lose. HarperCollins, 2004 [288p] Library ed. ISBN 0-06-051751-4 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-051750-6 $15.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 7-12 A year ago, Michael found in a carnival job an escape from his violent home, where his stepfather beat Michael's mother and his mother refused to take action. Now after a year of traveling, seventeen-year-old Michael has returned to town, just as his mother's trial for murdering her husband begins. As the narration shifts between "Last Year" and "This Year," readers see the evolution of Michael's dilemma then-whether to stay to protect his mother, which he's clearly unable to do-and his dilemma now-whether to trust a lawyer with his unconfessed knowledge of the murder. Flinn takes a different tack from many works on domestic violence, painting Michael's mother as self-trapped as well as husband-trapped, trying to hang onto her son by any means possible. The book is effective in its depiction of Michael's reaction to the situation, an aching, unbearable sense of responsibility for a person he over and over again fails to protect as he feels he should; it's therefore completely understandable why, aside from the girl of his dreams, Michael is drawn to the carny life, where people freely detach themselves from traditional bonds and obligations. Experienced readers will probably anticipate the revelation that it was Michael and not his mother who killed her husband, but the point isn't the surprise, it's Michael's readiness to reconnect with the people he'd tried to leave behind. This is an absorbing read as well as a thoughtful exploration of issues of responsibility, maturity, and independence, and readers will appreciate seeing a tough topic taken beyond melodrama. DS 272 * THE BULLETIN

FUNKE, CORNELIA Inkheart; tr. from the German by Anthea Bell. Chicken House/Scholastic, 2003 53 4 p ISBN 0-439-53164-0 $19.95 R Gr. 5-8 Twelve-year-old Meggie and her bookbinder father, Mo, live a quiet if sometimes vagabond life. One rainy night Dustfinger, a man from Mo's past, arrives at the door in search of a mysterious book entitled Inkheart. An attempted flight to Meggie's missing mother's aunt Elinor fails; Dustfinger follows, determined to acquire the book for his employer, the master villain Capricorn. Capricorn's hench- men kidnap Mo and steal the book, unaware that bibliophile Aunt Elinor has switched volumes. Meggie, Elinor, and Dustfinger follow Mo with the real book in hand for ransom, but fall into Capricorn's clutches; The villain's obsession with both the book and Mo becomes clear: through reading aloud, Mo brings things forth from books and gives them reality in this world, which is how Dustfinger and Capricorn got here in the first place. A desperate escape frees the captives, along with Farid (a boy conjured from the pages of The Arabian Nights); they achieve a few nights of freedom while visiting Fenoglio, the author of Inkheart, before Capricorn overtakes them. The driving forces behind this plot are the magic of words and images and the transformative power of books: each of the fifty-nine chapters opens with a quote from a well-known book for youth, the- matically related to the chapter content. The densely written but smooth text is richly descriptive, creating memorable characters and vivid images of the Italian countryside. The length of the story is a bit daunting, however, and the measured pace may encourage page counting. Still, this is a novel meant to be savored, not rushed: those adults who follow Funke's own advice regarding reading aloud with feeling will find that they and their listeners are in for a rewarding literary-in all senses of the word-treat. JMD

FUNKE, CORNELIA The Princess Knight; tr. by Anthea Bell; illus. by Kerstin Meyer. Chicken House/Scholastic, 2004 [32p] ISBN 0-439-53630-8 $15.95 Reviewed from galleys R 5-8 yrs King Wilfred has three sons, and "they were taught all the things he had been taught"-from riding and jousting to giving orders and striding with pride. When the Princess Violetta is born, the queen dies in childbirth, leaving Wilfred to raise the girl. The king decides she shall receive the same lessons as the boys, and so tiny Violetta learns the ways of a knight, much to the amusement of her brothers. To counter their teasing, Violetta begins practicing on her own, and soon, "Violetta became so nimble and quick that when her three brothers practiced jousting with her, their spears and swords just hit the empty air." When the king announces a tournament to honor her sixteenth birthday, Violetta's mind races to which horse she will ride, only to learn that she is not to be a participant but the prize-the winner takes her hand in marriage ("'What!' she cried. 'You want me to marry some dimwit in a tin suit?'"). Determination and cleverness are the key attributes of this princess' success, and listeners are sure to cheer along as she enters and wins the tournament disguised as "Sir No-Name." This lighthearted look at arranged royal marriages is cleverly written, and the sassy and indomitable Violetta is an admirable heroine. The watercolor illustrations incorporate detailed patterns into the scenes, and the use of repeated images lends a comic-book-like sense of action to Violetta's long labors to become a better knight. A fine addition to the not-so- MARCH 2004 * 273 typical-princess collection, Violetta's spirited efforts are certain to be a hit at storytime. HM

GALLOWAY, PRISCILLA Archers, Alchemists, and 98 Other MedievalJobs You Might Have Loved or Loathed; illus. by Martha Newbigging. Annick, 2003 [96p] Library ed. ISBN 1-55037-811-2 $24.95 Paper ed. ISBN 1-55037-810-4 $14.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-8 Desiring to move her readers beyond a TV/movie version of the Middle Ages, Galloway presents a brief overview of the history of the period followed by a more specific and informative breakdown of the various occupations and positions of medieval folk in four broad categories: nobles, clergy, specialists, and peasants. In her introductory remarks, she conveys the relatively static nature of the social organization, as well as highlighting the fundamental difference between our modern emphasis on individuality versus the medieval emphasis on everyone's having an assigned place in a fixed structure. There's therefore a small disconnect when she turns to describing the jobs, because she then suggests that occupation is a matter of choice. That's a minor flaw, however, considering that the writer's "choice" of jobs is an imaginative one and her use of second person to involve the reader in the various job descriptions is rhetorically effective. The breeziness and "you are there" appeal recall the divertingly irreverent "You Wouldn't Want to . . " series (see Green, You Wouldn't Want to Be a PolarExplorer, BCCB 2/02), and the immediacy of the descriptions and the amount of detail she provides for each is just right to keep energy and interest high. The information is well researched, and the energetic caricatures of medieval folklife are informative and humorous. She orga- nizes the jobs into ten chapters and provides a complete index and suggestions for further reading, making this not only an enjoyable read but also a useful reference book with many potential applications for role-playing, creative writing, and other research projects. KC

GARDNER, GRAHAM Inventing Elliot. Dial, 2004 [192p] ISBN 0-8037-2964-2 $16.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 6-9 Elliot's family has had a hard time: after his father suffered a terrible assault that left him sunk in unmoving depression, Elliot's mother suffered from the strain of supporting the family, withdrawing from her son in the process, while Elliot became the victim of endless bullying at school. Now at a new school, he's determined to behave in just the right way, neither drawing attention to himself nor too obviously hiding, in order to avoid becoming a victim again; the unexpected result is an impression of calm control that impresses the school's secret society and enforcement squad, the Guardians, who see in Orwell's 1984 a guidebook to and advocacy of the use of power for power's sake. Elliot doesn't wish to become the kind of abuser he once suffered from, but he can't see any other way to escape rejoining the ranks of the tormented. This is a taut and intense examination of a kid stuck in an untenable situation and having to deal with it pretty much on his own. The Guardians and their role in the school recall the Vigils in The Chocolate War (BCCB 7/74), but Gardner ups the stakes by making Elliot's choices even more polarized: if he doesn't want to become a victim, he has to become a victim- izer. Additional dimension is provided by his association with Ben, the Guard- 274 * THE BULLETIN ians' favorite prey, with whom Elliot has an uneasy secret friendship, and by his blossoming relationship with the strong-minded Louise, who reads 1984 very dif- ferently than the Guardians do. Most compelling is the head-on examination of the different personae that many kids struggle to maintain ("He was splitting into multiple Elliots-Elliots who mustn't meet under any circumstances-and he didn't know how much longer he could handle them, or keep them apart"). The attempts to deBritishize the book make the setting sometimes confusing; more unfortunately, the ending lets down the complexity of the situation by offering an easy out in the notification of authority, a solution that's not believable in light of the clear frailties of those in power. With its mixture of fierce authenticity and sharp perception, however, this is still one of the most chilling yet sympathetic looks at high-school power dynamics in a long time. DS

GEESLIN, CAMPBELL Elena's Serenade; illus. by Ana Juan. Schwartz/Atheneum, 2004 34 p ISBN 0-689-84908-7 $16.95 Ad 4-7 yrs Elena is the young daughter of a Mexican glassblower, eager to become a glassblower herself despite her father's rejection of her ambition ("Who ever heard of a girl glassblower?"). She therefore costumes herself as a boy and heads off to Monterrey, the great glassblowing center, with her glass pipe in hand; on the way, her sweet piping draws a sequence of animal companions, a burro, roadrunner, and coyote. Once at her destination, her musical piping produces fantastical glass and amazes the glassblowers, who welcome her among their number. Eventually she decides to return and pipes herself a magical glass bird who flies her home, where she reveals her talents to her surprised father. The glassblowing is an unusual element in a picture book, and the touches of fantasy have the sweet, dreamy reason of magical realism. Unfortunately, the plot is disjointed and often unsatis- fying-the folkloric sequence of animals never become traditional helpers or feature in any significant way in the drama, and since Elena's glassblowing ability seems to come solely from her possession of her father's old pipe, which she has right from the start, it's not clear what the journey to Monterrey really achieves. Juan, illustrator ofJonah Winter's Frida(BCCB 2/02), creates a fantastical acrylic and crayon landscape lit with warmth and humor. Roughly hewn rectangles con- tain figures with the textured surface and witty modeling details of lighthearted pottery. Rich reds and yellows warm the interior scenes, and landscapes sport sun- soaked earth colors, touched occasionally with juicy pinks or greens. This might be an entertaining introduction to a trip to a glass studio, or, for kids not too demanding about plot logic, just an enjoyable fanciful journey. A glossary of Spanish words and phrases is included. DS

GILBERT, SHERI L. The Legacy of Gloria Russell. Knopf, 2004 [224p] Library ed. ISBN 0-375-92823-5 $17.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-375-82823-0 $15.95 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 5-8 Twelve-year-old Billy is mourning the death of his best friend, Gloria, who rou- tinely defied convention in their little Ozark town and instead found her own dramatic, humanistic way. Some town residents would suggest that that's what killed her--specifically, her friendship with a local outsider known as Satan, who's actually a Czech immigrant named Josef Satan, and whose touch is believed to MARCH 2004 * 275 bring doom. In honor of Gloria, Billy helps Satan to shore up his precarious hillside when the townspeople refuse, and he develops his own friendship with the thoughtful, mystical man, which makes him increasingly troubled about Satan's ostracism by the locals. Billy's narration has some zingy down-home flavor ("I snapped my mouth closed and wished I had enough sense to keep it that way more often"), and the book unaffectedly and sensitively evokes the rough and the smooth of a small rural town and the troubling shadows of its past. The book is less effective, however, in its plot components and their interweaving: both Gloria and Satan are idealized into symbols rather than full characters, and Satan in particular, as the gentle disfigured alien with special wisdom (a "knowin' knack," as Billy's grandmother says), is rather a literary standard. Some of the many plot threads, like Billy's contact with his paternal grandfather and his mother's heart attack, get a bit lost in the tangle. Still, readers will appreciate the enjoyable narration and the message of kindness over convention. DS

HALAM, ANN Taylor Five. Lamb, 2004 [192p] Library ed. ISBN 0-385-90114-3 $17.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-385-73094-2 $15.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 6-9 When Taylor Walker sees the headline "Biotech Giant Lifeforce Announces Hu- man Clones!" she's one of a select few who know they're writing about her. One of five human clones, Tay has lived a reclusive life at the orangutan reserve in Borneo with her parents, who run the reserve, and her brother, Donny. Though she's known about her origins for over a year, once the story breaks Tay can't help feeling "like a package made to look like a girl, with something hardly human inside." When the unstable political situation in Borneo results in rebel forces destroying the reserve, Tay, Donny, and an eerily human orangutan named Uncle escape into the rainforest. As they struggle through the jungle toward civilization, Tay confronts her doubts about her humanity. Halam's world is the beginning of the overcrowded, scientifically advanced, iron and steel world seen in Peter Dickinson's Eva (BCCB 5/89), and her protagonist has a similar struggle: Tay, an outsider among both humans and apes, laments humanity's inability to share "hundreds and thousands of miles of forest" with the apes, who are slowly losing ground. Halam's story is sometimes awkward and confusing when integrating the scientific elements, especially in explaining why human clones were made (a drug called M- 389 that improves quality of life by preventing autoimmune diseases), and her subplot involving Uncle's possible humanity is anticlimactic. However, her portrayal of Tay's unique situation and her emotional turmoil is effective, and the journey through the jungle is both engrossing and tragic. Pair with Eva for an ethical lesson on the tension between humans and nature, or recommend it to those who like scientific drama. KH

HARTINGER, BRENT The Last Chance Texaco. HarperCollins, 2004 [24 0p] Library ed. ISBN 0-06-050913-9 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-050912-0 $15.99 Reviewed from galleys M Gr. 7-10 Lucy's been in foster care since the death of her parents eight years ago; now, at fifteen, she knows better than to expect much from her new group home, Kindle House, which is the tough girl's last chance before placement in the high-security 276 * THE BULLETIN institution. She's surprised to find herself becoming comfortable there and growing attached to her roommate, her social worker, and the counselors, but it's not a smooth road: she gets in trouble at school for fighting with a supercilious boy, and there's a troublemaking girl at the home who's trying to get Lucy kicked out. Soon, however, she falls into a romance with the boy she had pummeled, and he becomes her ally in her attempt to discover who's setting a string of arson fires near the home, resulting in suspicion cast on the residents and the authorities' intention to shut down the home. Lucy's narration has some sharp observations not usually found in foster-home fiction (especially on issues of race, class, and power), and touches of dark humor adorn the prose. Unfortunately, those advantages sink beneath a hackneyed plot riddled with cliches ("But you're rich," Lucy whispers to her new beau. "And I'm from a group home"), steeped in contrivance (eavesdrop- ping holds the plot together), and awash in shallow psychologizing (Lucy's tough- ness is suddenly recognized as a facade to reject people before they reject her). The realistic touches jar with the romantic notions of a care system dominated by or- phans (nobody's parents are incapable or uninterested, just dead) and a happy ending that includes the possibility of adoption for Lucy, yet things move too quickly to generate any real belief in Lucy's growing attachments to her new home or boyfriend. Readers looking for heart-tugging stories of foster care will be better off with Giffs Pictures ofHollis Woods (BCCB 12/02), and a better hard-edged redemption tale is Rita Williams-Garcia's Like Sisters on the Homefront (9/95). DS

HASSETT, JOHN Mouse in the House; written and illus. by John and Ann Hassett. Lorraine/Houghton, 2004 [32p] ISBN 0-618-35317-8 $15.00 Reviewed from galleys R 4-7 yrs Nana Quimby, put-upon protagonist of Cat up a Tree (BCCB 11/98), returns with the dubious aid of her family and the not-so-helpful services of a series of animals. It all starts when the family moves into a "messy old house," and Nana's horrified to discover a mouse inside. Father (who is, judging by facial resem- blance, Nana's son) rouses himself from his sleep and ingeniously orders an owl to rout the mouse. This works just fine, except Nana's no fan of the owl, either, so Mother orders a dog, with similarly mixed success. A sequence of animals is then acquired, each to be chased out by its successor after traumatizing Nana Quimby, until finally Nana resorts to the mouse itself to remove the elephant-and leaves the house to it and the rest of the family, fleeing to live with her Floridian cousin. In addition to the procedural echoes of "There was an old lady who swallowed a fly," there's a Thurberesque flavor to the animal adventures and the matter-of-fact relation of the strange events that kids will find amusing. The neatly crafted structure keeps the story rollicking along, with help from humorous elements such as Father's taste for stretching out and napping wherever he finds himself and the strange rewards provided to the animals (the owl gets a bowl of onions, the elephant gets a glass of root beer). Thick textures and paint overlays give the visuals a tactile, three-dimensional flair: Nana herself is a circular festival, with round head, nose, mouth, chin, eyes, and glasses. The animals are beguiling, and divert- ing details abound, such as the owl's happy sporting of Nana Quimby's glasses, the broken eggs that reveal not only a yolky mess but a surprised chick, and, on the back cover, the mouse's vulgar taunting ofNana Quimby with its stuck-out tongue. MARCH 2004 * 277

This would make for an entertaining readaloud anytime, but it would be a particularly amusing response to the discovery of a mouse in the library. DS

HEBSON, DENNY Robots Everywhere; illus. by Todd Hoffman. Walker, 2004 [32p] Library ed. ISBN 0-8027-8893-9 $16.85 Trade ed. ISBN 0-8027-8892-0 $15.95 Reviewed from galleys R 3-6 yrs Robots are indeed everywhere in this rhymed picture book, and they're quite a busy lot. They nosh ("eating nuts off metal plates") and travel ("riding the bus"), shop ("Buying stuff at Bolts 'R' Us"), relax ("rusting down at Robot Beach"), and slumber ("Sleeping under sheets of foil"). This is basically a brief robotty mood piece, as there's not much shape to the verse or point to this ubiquitousness; the specifics are imaginative, though, and it's an entertaining vision that's accessible to even very young automaton fans. The pictures are the real futuristic delight here: Hoffman's line and colored-ink illustrations have trim lines and a modestly muted palette, letting the scenes take center stage. The art sets eccentric, personable robots in a recognizable daily landscape, slightly skewed to suit its inhabitants, as with the suburban scene where a devoted robot parent uses spiral spring arms to push the robot tot on its trike (a hedge-clipping robot neighbor looks on). The robots' huge buggy eyes add both comedy and personality, and the illustrator's taste for humorous signs and logos (a robot purchases "baby oil for sensitive tin," there's a proscription against oiling on the bus, a kid at school sports a practical- joke sign reading "Dent me") will further entertain audiences. The final picture offers an "And then I woke up" interpretation to the story, depicting a dozing robot-mad child with his favorite toy mechanoids clutched in his arms; kids with the same taste in bedtime pals will find this an enticing fantastical vision for night- time or storytime. DS

HENKES, KEVIN Kitten's First Full Moon; written and illus. by Kevin Henkes. Greenwillow, 2004 [32p] Library ed. ISBN 0-06-058829-2 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-058828-4 $15.99 Reviewed from galleys R 2-5 yrs Kitten isn't astronomically inclined: when she sees her first full moon, she's posi- tive that it's a "little bowl of milk in the sky." Determined to reach the milk, she stretches out for it and licks, only to get a bug in her mouth; she jumps for it but only falls down; she chases it but it never comes closer; she sees it in the pond, but only gets soaked. Fortunately, when she returns, chastened, to her home, "there was a great big bowl of milk on the porch just waiting for her." There are gende overtones of Thurber's Many Moons in the lunar theme, and the tight focus and neatly expressive text give the simple and appealing kitty adventures their full due. The repetition ("Poor Kitten!") and the toddler-sized tension of Kitten's unsuc- cessful efforts will further involve listeners. Henkes' illustrations evince quite a departure in style here: gouache and colored pencil combine in a palette that seems at first nocturnal blush to be monochromatic, but on closer examination reveals some smoky, ruddy-toned browns softening the charcoal tints. Broad black lines give the drafting a stylized clarity, but there's enough textured modeling to 278 * THE BULLETIN ensure that the result is emphatic rather than merely flat; framed sequences and creative page layout help keep the momentum flowing and the visual interest high even with the deceptive simplicity of line and palette. The result is a tender but robust little picture book that will be storytime catnip. DS

HEUSTON, KIMBERLEY Dante'sDaughter. Front Street, 2003 [312p] ISBN 1-886910-97-9 $16.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 7-10 This work of historical fiction brings to life a girl about whom the historical record says little. Dante's daughter, Antonia, nicknamed Bice, is forced to leave home and live with her aunt and uncle when the political winds of Florence blow ill for her family. Later, her father takes her with him to Paris, where she joins a small group of tradeswomen at a beguinage while her father studies at the Sorbonne. Eventually, she returns to her uncle's home, and then her mother's, until finally her family is reunited after much tragedy. Unlike many heroines of medieval historical fiction, Bice is not anachronistically spunky and outspoken, but she is rather a girl aware of the limitations of women in her time and able to work within those limitations to realize both her talents and her loves. Flashes of wisdom and beauty filter through the narrative like light through a cathedral window, and the characters of both Dante and Bice are allowed to unfold alternately with the measured quietude and quick sparks of their artistic temperaments. The reader travels through the landscapes and cities of twelfth-century France and Italy with Bice as she spends most of her time with people of the noble class involved in various artistic endeavors, from illuminating manuscripts to painting panels and frescoes. All that lovely atmospheric detail drags at a plot that is episodic to begin with, and hence readers looking for a quick, lively read will likely put the book down before they finish. For those who persist, the music of the prose and the range and complexity of the relationships combine to make a compelling reading experience. KC

HOOBLER, DOROTHY In Darkness, Death; by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler. Philomel, 2004 [208p] ISBN 0-399-23767-4 $16.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 6-10 In the third of the Hooblers' fictional adventures based on a real-life eighteenth- century samurai (The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn, BCCB 9/99; The Demon in the Teahouse, 6/01), Judge Ooka has been called in to solve the murder of Lord Inaba, who was stabbed to death while his bedroom guards and entire household slept. While Judge Ooka pursues a lead in one province, he sends adopted son Seikei with a shady ninja named Tatsuno to look into Lord Inaba's reputation and con- firm the source of an origami butterfly that was found next to the body. Readers who have enjoyed the detective elements of the Hooblers' previous titles will find less to engage their wits here. Judge Ooka plays little more than a cameo role, clues fall into place effortlessly, and in defiance of mystery-story tradition, the obvious bad guy turns out to be the actual villain. It's Seikei's journey with Tatsuno that supplies the interest here, as the boy gradually learns that Tatsuno's has-been demeanor masks both dedication and ability, and he watches his well-meaning efforts to better the lives of some starving villagers result in their deaths. Although this is the weakest entry in the Ooka series, the ninja mystique should keep estab- lished fans loyal. EB MARCH 2004 * 279

ICHIKAWA, SATOMI La La Rose; written and illus. by Satomi Ichikawa. Philomel, 2004 34p ISBN 0-399-24029-2 $15.99 R 4-7 yrs La La Rose, toy rabbit and best friend of Clementine, intends to spend a lovely day in her favorite place-Paris's Luxembourg Gardens. Things go awry when she is inadvertently left behind as Grandma, Clementine, and Clementine's brother, Pierre, head off to a puppet show. Her disaster is the audience's boon, however, as viewers get a bouncy tour of the Garden and its many visitors, all vividly abloom in Ichikawa's impressionistic watercolors. From rambunctious boys who toss La La Rose back and forth, to a careless girl who picks her up and then forgets about her, to a man who throws her into the fountain and his dog who retrieves her, to the older gentleman who sets her to dry in the sun while he feeds the birds, and finally to the nice girl who takes her to guard kiosk where she is reunited with her beloved Clementine, viewers follow La La Rose on a breathless and breathtaking trip throughout the entire park (endpaper maps clarify the landscape of the journey). The smoky grays of shadows and statuary are punctuated by the showy greens and purples of the foliage and the busy colors of the visitors' clothing. The compositions are crowded but not cluttered, suggesting vibrant community and happy activity, and reassuring young audiences that all will be well. La La Rose's ineffec- tive fretting and frantic attempts to make herself understood are just what a child might imagine her beloved stuffed animal doing while she was lost. As they did with Vulliamy's Small (BCCB 4/02), youngsters will relish getting the story from the toy's point of view; their grownups will just yearn for a trip to Paris in the spring. KC

JANECZKO, PAUL B. Worlds Afire. Candlewick, 2004 [112p] ISBN 0-7636-2235-4 $15.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 5-8 One of the biggest circus disasters in U.S. history occurred in 1944, when a Hart- ford, Connecticut big top caught fire mid-performance, resulting in the deaths of over 100 and the injury of over 500. Janeczko traces this event through a sequence of first-person free-verse monologues, including the views of circus workers, adult and child members of the terrified crowd, and those-the bereaved, the police, the hospital nurses-responding to the aftermath of the event. The book changes participants' names but sticks to the details of tragedy, including the later (and, as a note mentions, questionable) confession of disturbed individual to starting the fire and also the mysteriously unidentified victim, a little girl, who captured the imagination of the public. The plainspoken voices of the poetry make for easy reading, and there are some effective touches in the monologues: the old sideshow fan who, prior to the fire, grumps "Circus's goin' to hell,/ you ask me./ Give me the old days./ We had real freaks then," and the circus bandleader who talks about the circus tradition of playing "The Stars and Stripes Forever" when something bad happens: "We played/ until our uniforms blackened with soot/ and our gold buttons/ were too hot to touch." Overall, though, it's hard to get a grip on the tragedy: the distance of the narrative musings makes the experience curiously uninvolving, and the occasional touches of emotionality tend towards the cliched. Still, the monologues are eminently suitable for reading aloud, readers' theater, and other uses that will allow performance to enhance involvement with this his- 280 * THE BULLETIN torical drama. A brief note summarizes the tragedy, while the acknowledgments include a mention of three source books. DS

JOCELYN, MARTHE Mable Riley: A Reliable Record of Humdrum, Peril, and Romance. Candlewick, 2004 279p ISBN 0-7636-2120-X $15.99 Ad Gr. 5-8 Mable Riley is "determined to keep a record" of her adventures in Sellerton, Ontario, where her older sister, Viola, was just hired on as the new schoolteacher. Upon receiving the appointment, it is decided that Mable should join Viola in Sellerton, boarding on the Goodhand farm and attending school as an eighth-grade scholar. Mable's journal entries record the everyday details of her life in this new community with considerable care, and while the humdrum often exceeds the peril and romance, her reflections on growing up and her desire for adventure are well voiced and filled with fourteen-year-old longing. Mable's friendship with the unusual, bloomer-wearing neighbor Mrs. Rattle leads to her involvement with a rising suf- fragist movement (referred to publicly as the Ladies Reading Society), seeking to change the working conditions for women at the locld Bright Creek Cheese Fac- tory. Though at first hesitant about the organization's agenda, Mable possesses an overriding admiration for Mrs. Rattle, who "does not conform to the usual code of manners," and is quickly, and somewhat unbelievably, swept up onto the front lines of the protest. Mable's shift from wariness to self-revelation as an advocate for women's rights is thinly developed, leaning too heavily on her affection for Mrs. Rattle and not enough on the development of her own convictions. Still, it is a shift that resonates with Mable's characteristic desire for excitement. Readers willing to overlook the contrivance of Mable's involvement with the suffragists and the somewhat pedestrian prose may enjoy this detailed look at turn of the century life and the early workings of the women's rights movement. HM

JOHNSON, ANGELA JustLikeJosh Gibson; illus. by Beth Peck. Simon, 2004 32p ISBN 0-689-82628-1 $15.95 R 5-8 yrs A little girl proudly recounts Grandmama's story of how, when she was a little girl herself, she worshiped Negro League star Josh Gibson and wanted to play just like him. Baseball was in her breeding and her blood: "Grandmama says her papa showed up on that same day, the day she was born, with a Louisville slugger and a smile. He said his new baby would make baseballs fly." And so she did, stepping up to the plate every time the boys would let her into the game. Although her talent was beyond question, family and neighbors would regretfully comment, "Too bad she's a girl." But she got her chance when a cousin broke his arm and she was temporarily drafted onto the team: "Grandmama hit the ball a mile that day, caught anything that was thrown, and did everything else-just like Josh Gibson." Peck's thickly applied pastels raise the dusty dirt diamond in front of the rural frame homes, rail fence, and outhouse to the dignity of a pro field, and the enthusiasm from the stands speaks of a close-knit community that takes its baseball, and its children, seriously. In a closing note Johnson tells a bit more about Gibson, the institutionalized racism that kept him from competing in the Majors, and his posthumous Hall of Fame recognition. Although racism is clearly a factor in Gibson's story, it's gender discrimination within the sport that sticks in Grandmama's-and Johnson's--craw. After reviewing the achievements of several women players, she notes that "the major leagues is still strictly boys only." MARCH 2004 * 281

Children who cheer scrawny, pink-frocked Grandmama as she slugs 'em out of the field just like her scrappy idol might want to raise a little Cain on the issue themselves. EB

JOHNSON, PAUL BRETT, ad. Little Bunny Foo Foo; ad. and illus. by Paul Brett Johnson. Scholastic, 2004 [32p] ISBN 0-439-37301-8 $15.95 Reviewed from galleys R 4-6 yrs That gleefully irreverent favorite of young campers and schoolgoers returns in a newly illustrated, slightly adapted version. The Good Fairy admits in the very first line that "good fairies do not like tomfoolery," so when Little Bunny Foo Foo set off for the forest with a wagonload of mud pies she knows he is up to no good. Sure enough, that bad bunny starts "scoopin' up field mice/ and boppin' 'em on the head." Despite numerous warnings from the patient Good Fairy, Foo Foo continues scoopin' and boppin' until the Good Fairy makes good on her promise to turn him into a goon (with, of course, the usual punny moral). The adaptation make this a solid storytime readaloud with optimum chances for listener participation, spoken and sung. The compositions are coloring-book casual, but Johnson's slapdash illustrations have a goofy, cartoon quality that suits the text, from the skinny-ankled high-heeled fairy to the clown-costumed bunny himself. This isn't going to move ol' Foo Foo into great poetic circles, but it certainly is going to be a prominent part of the surefire-storytime shelf. Music and lyrics for the traditional song are included. JMD

JONES, MIRANDA Little Genie: Make a Wish!; illus. by David Calver. Delacorte, 2004 113p Library ed. ISBN 0-385-901682 $10.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-385-73137-X $8.95 Ad Gr. 2-3 Little Genie: Double Trouble; illus. by David Calver. Delacorte, 2004 119p Library ed. ISBN 0-385-90169-0 $10.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-385-73138-8 $8.95 Ad Gr. 2-4 Two opening titles in a new series for younger readers feature soon-to-be fourth- grader Ali and the genie she releases from inside a vintage lava lamp. Little Genie (hence the series title) is a sprightly being who, having flunked out of genie school, was consigned to the lava lamp until its eleventh owner released her. Ali is the lucky eleventh, and she loses no time in taking advantage of her available wishes. There are strings on the wishes, however: they come in groups of three; they only last as long as the sand runs through Little Genie's unpredictable hourglass watch; they can't be wished away again; and no new wish can be made until the sand in Genie's hourglass watch starts to run out. In Make a Wish!, Ali's first three unlikely wishes go to a purple tiger, a lot of chocolate, and something to help her sleep, and while these may not be the wishes that leap immediately to mind for young readers, they do help move the plot along. In Double Trouble, the wish is for Genie to look like Ali, so Ali can stay home and watch television while Genie goes to school in her place. The characterizations are cartoon shallow and the plots are contrived, but there is also lots of pink smoke, glittery transformations, and perky dialogue. The black-and-white illustrations are sleek and the packaging 282 * THE BULLETIN

is slick, and between the cotton-candy content and the book design, this will capture the early grades girl audience. JMD

KIMMEL, ERIC A., comp. Wonders and Miracles: A Passover Companion. Scholastic, 2004 136 p illus. with photographs ISBN 0-439-07175-5 $18.95 R* Gr. 5-8 A combination of storytelling, art, information, and prayer book, this is an el- egantly designed volume tailored for family celebration or Hebrew school classroom use. The text is organized according to the Seder ritual: Kadesh, Urchatz, Karpas, Yachatz, Maggid, Rachtzah, Motzi Matzah, Maror, Korech, Shulchan Orech, Tzafun, Barech, Hallel, and Nirtzah. The steps of this order are identified and explained briefly in the introduction, which maps the journey, and are then elaborated with an impressive collage of material (some previously published): poems, songs, recipes, contemporary fiction, historical description, and period art. The reproductions are exceptional, and the Hebrew typeface that accompanies English translations and transliterations is graceful. Kimmel has made a successful effort to keep a child reader in mind, introducing moments of levity and mystery into didactic material and clarifying connections between tradition and modern events. A number of well-known children's authors are represented, including J. Patrick Lewis with his poem "Spirit of the Seder," Nina Jaffe with "The Hebrew Midwives: A Midrash," Peninnah Schram with an adaptation of the Talmudic tale "Elijah the Builder," and Kimmel himself with a play entitled "How Many Plagues?" Following the final blessings come popular children's folksongs that mix the secular and the sacred: "Echad Mi Yodeah" ("Who Knows One," a counting song) and "Chad Gadya" ("One Little Goat," similar to cumulative tales such as "The Little Old Woman and Her Pig"). Israel's national anthem, "Hatikvah" ("The Hope"), concludes the book, which features a selective bibliography, careful picture credits, and a useful index. BH

KOJA, KATHE The Blue Mirror. Foster/Farrar, 2004 [128p] ISBN 0-374-30849-7 $16.00 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 9-12 The Blue Mirror coffee shop has been Maggy's refuge from her alcoholic mother and the monotony of senior-year classes, a place where she can pass the time creating in her sketchbook a paper world based on the faces she sees in the street and at nearby tables. Now a trio of street kids has invaded her space and life, with char- ismatic leader. Cole sensing and preying on her vulnerability, and his two teen thralls, Jouly and Marianne, pressuring her to follow his lead. It's clear to readers from the start that, despite Cole's profession of love, he's a user who exploits Maggy for sex, money, and a cover for shoplifting. Jouly and Marianne, who have tried unsuccessfully to break free of Cole's influence, are unconcerned that Maggy will inevitably share their fate; she's simply their meal ticket and their rival for Cole's empty show of affection. Maggy finally sees the light when she can no longer ignore the fact that Cole has abused and discarded a string of girls, and with the aid of the Blue Mirror's sympathetic manager, she and Marianne do manage to send Cole packing. Maggy's voice is articulate, controlled, and self-aware, which makes for intriguing reading. It also calls into question her susceptibility to the charms of such an obvious loser, and Maggy and Marianne's escape from Cole, which plays MARCH 2004 * 283 out in a dramatic chase scene, is a bit too facile. Nevertheless, the intensity and breakneck pacing of this latest YA outing from Koja (Buddha Boy, BCCB 6/03) will appeal to teen up for a literary run on the wild side. EB

KONIGSBURG, E. L. The Outcasts ofl9 Schuyler Place. Atheneum, 2004 [304p] ISBN 0-689-86636-4 $16.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 6-10 When Margaret Rose Kane (previously appearing in Silent to the Bone, BCCB 10/00) discovers how horrible her life at camp is, she opts for passive resistance to the program, echoing Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener" with her "I prefer not to" polite refusal. Since her parents are out of the country for the summer, it's her beloved great-uncles who pull her out of camp, gaining a friend along the way in the camp director's secretly anarchic, artistic son. There's more trouble at home with the great-uncles, however: their cherished backyard towers, lovingly hand- made and decorated and a landmark in the neighborhood for forty years, have offended the newly yuppie character of the neighborhood and are slated for de- struction unless Margaret can find a way to stop it. This is a classic Konigsburg theme-the little people banding together to challenge the Establishment-and she's rounded up an endearingly eccentric cast of players to tilt at the windmill. Margaret's determination will appeal to readers, but she also has the realistic arro- gance and overconfidence of a clever twelve-year-old who's just as prone to label- ing as those she disdains, and her happily bickering Hungarian-born great-uncles, who agree only on their devotion to Margaret, are the indulgent relatives of which dreams are made. The hinge between the camp story and the towers story is somewhat creaky, but the towers themselves are evocatively depicted (there are definite echoes of Simon Rodia's Watts Towers), and there's a satisfying pacing and pat- terning to the unfolding of the anti-demolition defense. Aside from the pleasures this will offer Konigsburg fans, it could be used to spice up an examination of outsider art or art in the community. DS

KRISHER, TRUDY Uncommon Faith. Holiday House, 2003 263p ISBN 0-8234-1791-3 $17.95 R Gr. 5-9 The town of Millbrook, Massachusetts, 1837, could hardly seem sleepier, but when a fire in the livery stable claims the lives of six citizens and nudges neighbors' relationships in unforeseen directions, over the course of the ensuing year it becomes obvious that Millbrook simmers with drama. Fourteen-year-old Faith Common, daughter of the Methodist minister, is the catalyst for community change with her outspoken manners and incessant questioning of the status quo. As she emboldens shy Celia Tanner, Celia in turn boosts Faith's brother John's self-confidence. John, who begins to see his own worth through Celia's eyes, finds the nerve to assist a Quaker couple who are stationmasters on the Underground Railroad. Faith's rabble- rousing at school spurs her female classmates to undertake clandestine study of math, and they in turn assist their mothers in standing up to the swindling owner of the general store. Even Faith's father, who loves the women of his family but values them only for the community service they render, comes to concede that women merit a voice in his church. Krisher takes Faith well beyond the spunky, proto-feminist gal role of much historical fiction by infusing her questioning spirit with religious as well as social motivation. Faith needs to reconcile contradictory 284 * THE BULLETIN passages in Scripture to find her way to God, and everything from her community activism to her study of Greek is in pursuit of a higher quest. The action unfolds through the voices of the townsfolk, and although readers may initially rely on the family trees that precede the text, each character soon becomes as distinct and familiar as a close neighbor. EB

KRULL, KATHLEEN The Boy on FairfieldStreet: How Ted Geisel Grew Up to Be- come Dr. Seuss; illus. by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher and with photographs. Random House, 2004 [4 4 p] ISBN 0-375-82298-4 $16.95 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 3-5 "Once upon a time, there lived a boy who feasted on books and was wild about animals." Thus begins the story of Ted Geisel's childhood, schooling, and early start as a newspaper cartoonist. Krull paints Ted the boy as a misfit dreamer who was content to doodle exaggerated creatures like horses with wings and airborne cows instead of pay attention in school or participate in athletics. Her writing is engaging and full of details, but her storytelling often gets the better of her biography: "Ted would eat baked beans and bratwurst and thrill to stories of stubborn bears and chattering monkeys, prowling lions and wild wolves. At night, their hoots and cries sometimes found their way into his dreams." Krull's tendency to dramatize is particularly problematic because she hasn't documented any of her information, making it impossible to tell the difference between what is fact and what is her own imagination. Each page of text has a representative drawing by Dr. Seuss underneath, with a full-page illustration by Johnson and Fancher on the next page. These pictures highlight important scenes from the text on the opposite page; with their muted palette, rounded faces, and formal presentation, they are as traditional as Seuss's are wild. A shorter but no-more-documented sum- mary of Seuss's rise as a children's-book author is included, along with a list of his works and a list of books and websites for more information that, in their out-of- the-way presentation, seem added at the last minute. With a brush heavily loaded with nostalgia and a touch of childhood worship, this portrayal of Ted Geisel is more fancy than fact, but it could serviceably complement Weidt's Oh, the Places He Went (BCCB 2/95). KH

KURTZ, JANE, ed. Memories ofSun: Stories ofAfrica andAmerica. Amistad/Green- willow, 2004 [25 6 p] Library ed. ISBN 0-06-051051-X $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-051050-1 $15.99 Reviewed from galleys R* Gr. 4-8 In her introduction to this anthology of stories and poems about Africa, Kurtz alludes to biological evidence that concludes "we are all African under the skin." The stories and poems themselves provide a different kind of evidence, perhaps even stronger than the biological connection, which may lead readers to the same conclusion. The selections from both well-known and newer writers (contributor biographies are appended) are divided into three sections: "Africa," "Americans in Africa," and "Africans in America." Readers meet a disaffected white girl who finds family among a group of dispossessed Kalahari Bushmen, an African-Ameri- can boy who is learning to love the South African country from which his father was exiled before he was born, a teenaged warrior from Sierra Leone who has to MARCH 2004 * 285 adjust to the slightly less violent streets of his new neighborhood in Los Angeles. Despite their variety, most of these vignettes of contemporary African experience end with a strongly evocative sensation of finding oneself firmly at home, con- nected to something much larger, older, and stronger than oneself. The strange- ness of the characters' encounters with new landscapes, animals, and experiences isn't swallowed up or domesticated, nor is it overly exoticized; instead these writers strike just the right balance of bewilderment, wonder, and connection that takes readers with them on their journeys of self-discovery and celebration of a rich and diverse land and heritage. Each selection stands alone as a richly inviting read, and yet taken together, they make up a whole that is larger than the sum of its parts, making the world we live in seem bigger and yet more intimate at the same time. KC

LASKY, KATHRYN Love That Baby!: A Book about Babiesfor New Brothers, Sisters, Cousins, and Friends;illus. by Jennifer Plecas. Candlewick, 2004 [32p] ISBN 1-56402-679-5 $15.99 Reviewed from galleys R 4-7 yrs Here's the baby. Now what do we do with it? Lasky clues youngsters in on the generalities of care and feeding, gratification and annoyances of the squawky new arrival. Short chapters, many no longer than a double-page spread, concentrate on behaviors throughout the day and practical advice on how a kid (like a probable listener) can lend a hand. "Yum Yum" sounds the alert on where food is likely to land; "Baby Cries" offers some reasons for the outbursts and solid tips to turn off the waterworks ("Turn on a water faucet," "Pace, pace, pace"). "Wet Babies" addresses infants' unavoidably high moisture level (from bath water to drool to pee); "Baby Talk" encourages older companions to get in on the act ("They think it's a real conversation. And it kind of is"). While there's no hint of when to expect changes in behavior or development (on that topic, see Deborah Heiligman's Babies: All You Need to Know, BCCB 10/02), Plecas' round-headed little squeal- ers, splashers, and snoozers demonstrate the full gamut of baby-ness, and the reac- tions of the young observers-puzzlement, delight, skepticism, helpfulness, or an urgent cry for "Mom!"-assure the audience that their changeable feelings toward the newcomer are probably just right. Not every detail will fly in every household; some parents will discourage the goo-goo babytalk that Lasky recommends and many will insist that the car seat face backward. The name of this baby-raising game is Adjustment, though, so step right up and start to play. EB

Low, ALICE Aunt Lucy Went to Buy a Hat; illus. by Laura Huliska- Beith. HarperCollins, 2004 [32p] Library ed. ISBN 0-06-008972-5 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-008971-7 $15.99 Reviewed from galleys R 3-5 yrs Forgetful Aunt Lucy cannot locate her favorite hat (which viewers will gleefully point out is hanging behind her back), so she sets out to buy another. While Aunt Lucy smiles her way down the busy main street, her forgotten-but-attached hat blows off, and, despite the best efforts of a chirping red bird, she fails to notice its loss. Instead, she acquires a cat from the Animal Haven, red silk from the fabric store, a new bed from the antique shop, and some meat from the butcher. In the butcher shop Lucy remembers her original intent, and, purpose renewed, she ven- 286 * THE BULLETIN

tures out only to find that the cat has retrieved the hat (blown out of the beak of the surely relieved bird): "Why, look at that,/ You darling cat!/ You brought me this/ Delightful hat... // A hat wide brimmed/ And trimmed with lace,/ To keep the sunshine/ Off my face./ You're one terrific cat!" Low's rhyming text is as cheery as Aunt Lucy, with the words breezing from spread to spread. Huliska- Beith's illustrations have a jazzy retro quality that lends them an energetic cachet that matches the demeanor of the blithely unaware but good-humored main character. The rich tones of the opaque colors make tiny details pop, and youngsters will giggle at the newly acquired cat's insistent demands for milk as well as his expressive responses to each of Aunt Lucy's purchases. Combine this with Slobodkina's Capsfor Sale for a dandy dress-up storytime. JMD

MAJOR, KEVIN Ann and Seamus; illus. by David Blackwood. Groundwood/ Douglas & McIntyre, 2003 109p ISBN 0-88899-561-X $16.95 Ad Gr. 7-10 Ann Harvey has spent her seventeen years on Newfoundland, mostly on the chill- ingly named Isle aux Morts, living the traditional life of an island girl in 1828 but dreaming a bit of life beyond the island, wondering what it would be like to read, to attend dances, to travel. When her family hears the news that an Irish ship has foundered on the nearby rocks, Ann and her father and brother head out in their little boat to rescue survivors as best as they can. Among the passengers from that heavily loaded ship is young Seamus Ryan, who left Donegal in hope of a new life in Canada or America and is appalled to find himself instead in a terrifying wreck in a roiling sea, assisting the Captain's young brother in manning the long boat and trying to remove his fellow shipmates from the drowning vessel, then standing out on the exposed reef to sight possible help. Amid the scenes of rescue, Ann and Seamus connect with one another, in what might be love and is certainly a chance for Ann to leave the island to see the wider world. It's hard to go wrong with a good shipwreck, and Major's free verse is clean and cool; the shift in viewpoint from Ann to Seamus and back to Ann again not only helps fill in the story but makes Ann's final decision (to pursue life on the island rather than following Seamus off of it) a complicated but legitimate decision rather than a romantic failure. Shipwreck or no, the book's effects are sometimes too quiet for real satisfaction; the nautical terminology is authentically dense but sometimes a tad opaque for landlubbers, and there's little emotional intensity generated around what's a fairly intense situation. Though the bookmaking is subtle and elegant, the somber, slate-toned illustrations are moody but oddly still, especially in scenes set on what should be a raging sea. Reading aloud or readers' theater might be particularly effective at bringing out the undercurrents in this fluid narrative. DS

MARSDEN, CAROLYN Silk Umbrellas. Candlewick, 2004 134 p ISBN 0-7636-2257-5 $15.99 R Gr. 4-7 This lyrically resonant story tells of Noi's coming of age in a rural Thai community beset by economic struggle as landowners lose their farms to development. Noi's grandmother, Kun Ya, paints silk umbrellas to sell in the tourist market and has recently started teaching the art to Noi ("We must be still for a moment, Noi, and listen to the umbrella. Look at its color and the way the light touches it. Know the story it wants you to tell before you begin"), who demonstrates a knack for creating images on the soft canvas. Her older sister, Ting, has just started MARCH 2004 * 287 working at the local radio factory, despite Kun Ya's objections, in an effort to bring in more money for the family. When Noi realizes it is her fate to join her sister on the assembly line after finishing school ("School would be over soon, and then the metal boxes would begin to move toward her, on and on without stop- ping"), she secretly commits herself to the umbrellas, hoping to sell them in place of her grandmother, who spends longer and longer periods of the day resting beneath her mosquito net. Noi's skill as an artist is no surprise; her quiet observations on the world around her are rich with sensory fullness, where umbrellas float like bells in the breeze and the yellow of a paper lantern expands "inside her like a flower blooming." Noi's perspective on reality is similarly rich, noting the curious juxtaposition of the dark factory to days spent in the jungle assisting Kun Ya with her painting, "filled with light and shadow, breezes and laughter." This delicately detailed story, where Noi's reflections punctuate the simple dialogue of conflicts met and surpassed, welcomes the reader into the mind of an artist who constantly takes note of the world around her as she approaches her own fate and familial duty. HM

MCGHEE, ALISON Snap. Candlewick, 2004 129p ISBN 0-7636-2002-5 $15.99 R Gr. 4-6 Noted adult writer (and author of the picture book Countdown to Kindergarten, BCCB 10/02) McGhee embarks here on her first novel for young readers. The story follows narrator Eddie Beckey, a methodical list-maker, through a maze of memory and unnamed fears as she tries to understand and comfort her best friend, Sally, whose grandmother, Willie, is dying. Eddie can't imagine how Sally will exist without her long-legged, bucket-swinging grandmother, nor can she find a way to comfort her friend. Sally's reaction to her own grief is withdrawal, a response that shuts out the pain but also the sweetness of day-to-day life. Eddie follows blindly, terrified of uncertainty and change but compelled to reach out to the friend who needs her. An affirmation of the reality of pain but also of love and beauty, Snap is a more lyrical tale than its crisp title suggests. Short chapter vignettes present image after image to the heart's eye, images repeated and developed until the full-blooded story emerges with the emotional power of a personal grief. Though Eddie's list-making palls three pages in (her rubber-band-snapping is used to better effect), the story retains vigor by avoiding the sentimentality of an easy out for Willie or for Eddie. Readers moved by Holt's My Louisiana Sky (BCCB 6/98) will find similar depth in this sympathetic treatment of grief and friendship. TC

McKISSACK, PATRICIA C. Hard Labor: The First African Americans, 1619; by Patricia C. and Fredrick L. McKissack, Jr.; illus. by Joseph Daniel Fiedler. Aladdin, 2004 64 p (Milestone Books) Library ed. ISBN 0-689-86150-8 $11.89 R Gr. 4-6 The McKissacks peer far back into the history of Europeans in the Americas to examine a period in which race-based chattel slavery was not, by any means, a foregone conclusion. Through carefully structured chapters, each starting with guiding questions, readers are introduced to slavery systems long in place among world cultures and the indenture system that, as evidence strongly suggests, brought many Africans to American shores early on. The 1619 arrival of twenty Africans at Jamestown demonstrates that, although coercion was certainly involved and the 288 * THE BULLETIN life of an indentured servant could be brutal indeed, Africans fared no worse than their white counterparts and could-and did-achieve landowner status and hold their own laborers in indenture. American slavery as it would become known by the eighteenth century was a product of specific social, economic, and legal decisions. The text is even-handed and concise, and a detailed scrutiny of the rise and decline of seventeenth-century servant Anthony Johnson and his family brings the historical argument down to earth. This underexamined topic deserves better bookmaking than it receives, however. The format is decidedly unappealing, with dreary, narrow-margined typeset and a dozen dull black-and-white scenes. Four "Virtual Visits" are listed for Web enthusiasts, but specific sources for the text are not offered. EB

MITTON, JACQUELINE Once Upon a Starry Night: A Book of Constellations; illus. by Christina Balit. National Geographic, 2004 26p ISBN 0-7922-6332-4 $16.95 Ad Gr. 3-5 In a few breathy paragraphs apiece, Mitton offers a much abbreviated tale for each of eleven figures of characters and objects that twinkle in the Northern and South- ern hemispheres. The narrow white column of text in each double-page spread is accompanied by glittery silver stars that mark the configuration, and a brilliant, jewel-toned fantasy figure stretched across a star-mottled, midnight-blue sky. There are more stars denoted in the artwork than in the endpaper star maps, which could be frustrating for readers who favor tidy correlations. Moreover, end matter that expands on astronomical information is only provided for seven of the featured constellations. There's not really enough storytelling to satisfy mythology lovers, nor is there enough astronomy to rivet the science set. There is, however, enough celestial glitz and glamour to entice kids with little previous interest to step outside some mild evening and look up. EB

MORRIS, GERALD The Princess, the Crone, and the Dung-CartKnight. Houghton, 2004 [320p] ISBN 0-618-37823-5 $15.00 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 6-10 Morris returns with yet another fine entry in his series based in Arthurian lore (The Squire's Tale, BCCB 7/98; The Squire, His Knight, & His Lady, 3/99, and others). Thirteen-year-old Sarah survives on a subsistence level in the woods after the burning of her mother and her guardian as witches. The grieving girl's only desire is to avenge her loved ones' deaths, but her goal is delayed when she witnesses the kidnapping of Queen Guinevere and Sir Kai. After going to Camelot to report to the king, Sarah subsequently joins the quest to rescue the queen. Gawain, his squire Terence, and a mysterious knight (who turns out to be Lancelot) all endeavor to rescue the abducted, but it is Sarah who proves to be the linchpin in the final conquest of the enemy. Morris is a dab hand with deeds of derring-do, and this title is no exception: there are enough sword fights, heroic actions, and secret identities to keep the most stringent swashbuckle-loving reader happy. Character- izations are crisp and definitive, and the pace gallops. An author's note explains Morris' adaptation of Chritien de Troyes' romance Le chevalierde la charette (The Knight ofthe Cart);a family tree for those readers interested in branches ofArthurian lore will be included in the bound book. JMD MARCH 2004 * 289

MORROW, BARBARA OLENYIK A Good Night for Freedom; illus. by Leonard Jenkins. Holiday House, 2004 32p ISBN 0-8234-1709-3 $16.95 R 5-8 yrs. When Hallie delivers butter to Aunt Katy Coffin one winter morning in 1839, she runs smack into two runaway slave girls. What should she do? Life in Kentucky had been a lot simpler: slaves belonged to their masters, that was that. But Hallie's family just moved to Newport, Indiana, and here the Underground Railroad runs at full throttle, with Levi and Katy Coffin at the helm. Hallie's father warns her not to meddle, but in times like these, a "strong-minded" girl like Hallie has to choose right and wrong on her own. In spite of Morrow's reliance on cliches to establish the slave-catchers' villainy (individuals "snicker," give "a sugary smile," and sport a "thick neck" and a "whiskery face covered with dry spittle"), her text deftly draws the outlines of this historical fiction in a conversational style that reads well aloud. Jenkins' vibrant images in acrylic, pastel, spray paint, and colored pencil cut across each page, often mirroring a faded close-up from one page around text on the facing page to emphasize the importance of the decisions made in that moment. Within backgrounds, oranges and yellows clash with deep shadow and crawling, abstract designs, while foreground faces and dress receive detailed, realistic treatment, giving the reader a strong sense of danger and the significance of individual action within the jumbled flow of events. A straightforward narrative whose exceptional illustrations transcend a century and a half of history, this title is best read across two or three laps, so the illustrations can be enjoyed up close and attention held through the occasional long text passage. Author's and illustrator's notes and lists of places to visit, recommended reading, and websites are included. TC

Moss, MARISSA Mighty Jackie: The Strike-Out Queen; illus. by C. F. Payne. Wiseman/Simon, 2004 32p ISBN 0-689-86329-2 $16.95 R 5-8 yrs Power pitcher Jackie Mitchell may have been shortchanged by the major leagues, but she's getting her due in children's books. The chapter-book crowd was introduced in Jean L. S. Patrick's The Girl Who Struck Out Babe Ruth (BCCB 6/00), and now the picture-book audience makes Jackie's acquaintance with an account that delves further back into her childhood, depicting her practicing tirelessly with her father and a bull's-eye painted on the siding, learning some tricks from Dazzy Vance, and advancing her dream of "playing in the World Series." As Moss points out in her concluding note, Jackie never made it that far. After one triumphant game in which the young woman struck out both the Babe and Lou Gehrig, she was banned from major and minor league ball and only played on the sly for small teams. There are some important questions left unanswered, such as how an eight- year-old came to be coached by a star pitcher and how she made her break in signing with the Chattanooga Lookouts in the first place. The focus here, however, as in Patrick's work, is on Mitchell's day of fame, and Payne's heroic mixed- media illustrations do their subject full justice. Payne, who's worked the diamond in Bildner's Shoeless Joe & Black Betsy (BCCB 2/02) and Thayer's Casey at the Bat (2/03), knows just how to zero in on a player's attitude. Jackie, with the slightly elongated shoes that root her to the mound and delicately detailed fingers caress- ing the ball, glares determinedly into the distance in a pose that begs to be cast in bronze, while a close-up of Babe Ruth, equally determined, presents a man who, 290 * THE BULLETIN in that moment, believes himself to be incapable of defeat. This is a tale worth telling, and there's every reason to acquire another angle on the story. EB

MYRACLE, LAUREN Eleven. Dutton, 2004 [208p] ISBN 0-525-47165-0 $16.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-6 "When kids change, it's really pretty ugly. Three times out of four it means someone's going to get her feelings hurt, or someone's going to feel stupid when the day before she felt just fine." So says eleven-year-old Winnie, who's trying to deal with some serious friendship reconfiguration: her long-term best friend, Amanda, is starting to be really interested in boys, occasionally irritated with Winnie, and drawn towards bossy new girl Gail. As the girls drift apart despite occasional lurches back towards each other, Winnie starts to worry that her social cachet was dependent on her being Amanda's friend and that she's drifting out of popularity, especially since she's cast more and more into the company of somewhat dorky Dinah Devine, the girl Winnie's parents always make her include at parties. Myracle is an acute observer of the details and emotions of preteen girlhood, whether it be the importance of being able to laugh about pointless insider jokes with your friends, the intensity of playground power politics, or the painfulness of an innertube valve in one's bare thigh when swimming. The book moves somewhat slowly, since there's not much plot shaping beyond the daily details as the year goes by, and there's little authorial perspective to put Winnie's trials into context. Instead, though, there's a bracing realism: Winnie's friendship with Dinah has its merits but it's still largely a friendship of necessity wherein Winnie holds the reins; Winnie's no saint but a mass of preteen jealousy, bossiness, and willfulness herself. This isn't quite up to Lynne Rae Perkins' eloquent AllAlone in the Universe (BCCB 10/ 99), but it will certainly reassure readers in similar quandaries that preteen transi- tions are painful but survivable. DS

NELSON, VAUNDA MICHEAUX Almost to Freedom; illus. by Colin Bootman. Carolrhoda, 2003 40p ISBN 1-57505-342-X $15.95 R 5-8 yrs Sally, a rag doll lovingly stitched by Miz Rachel for her daughter Lindy, has wit- nessed more than a doll should ever see. She's been tied to Lindy's waist when the little girl works beside her mother in the cotton field, she's seen Lindy's papa sold "down the river," she's lain helpless on the ground when Lindy was whipped by the master, and she's been slapped by the branches when Miz Rachel and Lindy sneak away one night to rejoin Mr. Henry and make a break for freedom. The family finds refuge with a silver-haired woman who hides them in a secret store- room, but when slave catchers force the trio to flee, Sally gets dropped in the shuffle ("Lindy! Wait! But she ain't hear me, 'cause I ain't got no voice"). The silver-haired woman carefully tucks Sally away in the now deserted room, and just when the doll feels most forgotten, another runaway and her little girl take shelter. The child names the doll Belinda ("I like that. Sounds like Lindy. ... I sure do miss her, but I's mighty glad to be Willa's doll baby. It's a right important job"). The doll's perspective puts a welcome buffer between the child audience and the brutal events which Sally must truthfully relate. There's no sticky sentimentality in Sally's take on events; she greets news of their intention to run off with an anxious "Lord, have mercy!" and she evinces enough self-interest to make her own MARCH 2004 * 291 experiences convincing. Bootman's paintings are appropriately serious and intense, with Sally's deadpan expression a counterpoint to her inner turmoil. A closing note speaks of the Underground Railroad and dolls that "were said to have been found in one of the hideouts." A list of historical words and phrases is also included. EB

PHILBRICK, RODMAN The Young Man and the Sea. Blue Sky/Scholastic, 2004 [192p] ISBN 0-439-36829-4 $16.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-8 Dad has been keeping company with the sofa, the TV, and a six-pack ever since his wife died, and twelve-year-old Samuel "Skiff' Beaman, though grateful his father is a morose rather than a violent drunk, is determined to get on with his own affairs. The first order of business is to raise their thirty-six-footer the Mary Rose, which is underwater dockside. With the help of neighbor Mr. Woodwell, who built the craft years ago, Skiff brings it to the surface, but salt water has damaged the engine, so Skiff needs to raise some cash. When his scheme to set lobster traps is undermined by rich brat Tyler Croft, who cuts the buoys, Skiff puts one last effort into catching a bluefin and selling it to a fish dealer. The parallel to Hemingway, suggested by the title, is intentional, if somewhat late in coming. Only about halfway through the book, when Skiff sets out in pursuit of "the big one," does an echo of Santiago and his doomed marlin begin to sound. Even then, Skiffs ordeal comes to a much more satisfying conclusion. Although his ordeal at sea is as perilous, and it takes the cooperation of the Crofts and his father to bring him home safely, the fabled bluefin arrives with meat intact and Skiffs financial and domestic woes abate. It's unlikely that the middle-grade set will be troubled by divergence from Hemingway's plotline (unless, of course, junior-high kids try to crib a test from the knock-off). Skiffs travails are entirely believable, given his resolute nature, and the combination ofentrepreneurship, bullying, and fish story is a fast-moving winner. EB

PINKWATER, DANIEL Bad Bears in the Big City: An Irving andMuktuk Story; illus. by Jill Pinkwater. Houghton, 2004 [32p] ISBN 0-618-25208-8 $16.00 Reviewed from galleys R* Gr. 2-4 See this month's Big Picture, p. 257, for review.

PoLAcco, PATRICIA Oh, Look!; written and illus. by Patricia Polacco. Philomel, 2004 32p ISBN 0-399-24223-6 $16.99 R 2-5 yrs Polacco takes a free and easy approach to this retelling of the traditional bear-hunt action rhyme, this time using, according to jacket copy, "her favorite animals"- goats. A trio of flop-eared goats escape their pen through an unlocked gate ("Squeak, squeak, squeak it goes as we go through it"), and race over a bridge ("Click, click, click our little hooves go as we go across it"), up a hill ("Puff, puff, puff we go as we climb up it"), across a pond ("Swish, swish, swish we go as we swim in it"), and so on until they come to a fair "with big striped tents and flags all aflutter." Spooked by a big green ogre in the house of mirrors, the little goats race back through all previous obstacles until they are "right back home, safe and sound! Ahhhhhhhhhh." 292 * THE BULLETIN

The loose-lined illustrations spill across the spreads in a bucolic burst of pastoral colors brightened by scraps of blue and red. The images capture the energy and momentum of the text while providing a humorous view of the mischievous actions of the irrepressible goats. The form of this action rhyme has made it a surefire storytime audience pleaser for years, and Polacco doesn't mess with success: her refreshing take on this favorite piece has opportunities for participation, a winning trio of gangly goats, and watercolor-and-pencil illustrations suitable for view- ing by small groups. Those bored with bears will find this a welcome addition to their programming oeuvre. JMD

PROSEK, JAMES A GoodDays Fishing;written and illus. by James Prosek. Simon, 2004 40p ISBN 0-689-85327-0 $15.95 R 4-8 yrs As the unseen narrator rummages through his tackle box in pursuit of the unnamed item essential to his fishing trip, readers are treated to a cram course in piscatorial arcana. The patter is breezy and natural: "This is a phoebe spoon. It flashes in the water. I caught a pumpkinseed sunfish on it in old Farmer Kachele's pond." As the spare text makes its lazy way across the spread, the featured spoon and fish are captured in detailed watercolor-solitary items on snowy white background: "I hooked a crappie, too, but it got away!" Well, of course it did. The memory, however, is exceptionally vivid, as this double-page spread highlights not only the elusive prey, but silty water, swaying aquatic flora, and a stretch of over- cast sky. The tackle box yields both treasures ("And here are my hooks. Aren't they cool?") and dross ("Here's an old sandwich. What was I looking for again?") before the narrator at last retrieves his well-worn hat, and we finally see him marching across a meadow, rod in hand, for his date with a fish. Casual listeners will be content to stop here, with the promise of the pleasant day to come, but for true aficionados the fun is just starting as Prosek supplies a detailed, illustrated, four- page "Lure and Fly Glossary" that defines varieties of spinners, plugs, spoons, plas- tic lures, jigs, and more than half a dozen flies, all with suggestions on their deployment. With Prosek's glossary as a guide, readers and listeners can start sorting through their own tackle boxes and let the fish tales fly. EB

RANSOM, CANDICE Liberty Street; illus. by Eric Velasquez. Walker, 2003 32p Library ed. ISBN 0-8027-8871-8 $17.85 Trade ed. ISBN 0-8027-8869-6 $16.95 Ad 6-9 yrs As a young slave girl in Fredericksburg, Virginia, Kezia's favorite day is Sunday, when she and the other slaves in the city are able to visit, go for walks along the unpaved path they term "Liberty Street," and enjoy their meals together. Despite the difficult conditions of their lives, Kezia's mother finds ways to make a better life for Kezia. She sends her to an illegal school run by a local free woman to learn to read and write, and she works extra jobs to try to save enough money to buy Kezia's freedom. When she learns of her mistress's plans to "bond out" Kezia, Kezia's mother sets up passage for Kezia on a boat leaving the city. Though fearful of the dark underground tunnels that will get her safely to the boat, Kezia goes, vowing to realize her mother's dreams for her. The text glosses over some significant elements (there's an awful lot of dangerous territory Kezia has yet to cross, and there's no hint of the punishment Kezia's mother is likely to suffer when the slaveowners realize she has helped her daughter to escape), but this is a dramatic MARCH 2004 * 293 account of a kind of slavery that isn't often described, and Ransom has made Kezia, with her normal, everyday fears and her extraordinary situation, a character with whom young audiences will empathize. The rich colors of Velasquez's oils add to the drama of the events, but their draftsmanship is stiff, the people (who are improbably neat and tidy) too often waxen figures posed in tableaux. An author's note doesn't fill in all the details, but it does give a bit more information on some of the sketchy details of the plot and setting. KC

RAVEN, MARGOT THEIS Circle Unbroken: The Story of a Basket and Its People; illus. by E. B. Lewis. Kroupa/Farrar, 2004 4 8p ISBN 0-374-31289-3 $16.00 R 7-9 yrs An elderly African-American woman relates a personalized history of sweetgrass basket-weaving as she demonstrates it to the grandchild encircled in her arms. The story begins in West Africa with rites of passage involving the craft ("Can you bring water in a basket?"), continues with the sweetgrass "Gullah" baskets made by slaves who worked the rice fields along the South Carolina/Georgia coast, and is passed through generations to the tourist marketplaces today. This is a lyrical narrative with sweeping rhythms and occasional echoes of rhyme in the varied linescape. Most important, the tone of both textual and graphic imagery never veers into the sentimental or adulatory, but rather keeps faith with the specifics of storytelling-not an easy task given the centuries of oppression that are covered in the space of a picture book. Lewis' watercolor paintings combine distance with intimacy in depicting scenes of then and now. The dynamic endpapers show a basket pattern radiating off the page into the viewer's own space. Browns and greens dominate, with suddenly effective flashes of blue as Yankee troops march across a double spread, two women carry their wares in baskets on their heads, or a car approaches the new bridge "tying islands to land with steel-arching hands." While the illustrations are literal, they steer clear of a photorealistic style that leaves no room for imagination. An afterword provides some further factual background, acknowledges valuable sources, and provides a selective bibliography. This is a readaloud that would fit well into both family and classroom discussions of African- American roots, with weaving crafts a natural project in accompaniment. BH

REEVE, PHILIP MortalEngines. Eos/HarperCollins, 2003 310p Library ed. ISBN 0-06-008208-9 $17.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-008207-0 $16.99 R Gr. 7-10 Centuries after the "Sixty Minute War," the great cities of the world are mobile (thanks to caterpillar tracks and huge engines) and engaged in "Municipal Darwinism," in which larger, faster cities literally gobble up the resources of smaller towns in order to feed the never-ending need for fuel. Tom Natsworthy is fifteen and a Third Class Apprentice in the London Museum when he meets Thaddeus Valentine, Head Historian and legendary archaeologist. The boy's daydreams of heroism come true when he foils an attempt on Valentine's life by a girl with a scarred face; trapped between Tom and almost certain death, the girl reveals her name-Hester Shaw-and leaps into a waste chute. Shortly after, Tom, too, falls into the chute, deliberately pushed by Valentine. Hester and Tom survive the fall onto the soft mud of the Out-Country, and the two of them become unwilling comrades in their effort to survive long enough to return to London and confront Valentine. Meanwhile, Valentine's daughter discovers a terrible truth: her father 294 * THE BULLETIN is a secret agent for Magnus Crome, Lord Mayor of London, and he has killed easily and often to bring Crome a piece of Old Tech weaponry that can destroy London's enemies. In this first title in the Hungry City Chronicles, Reeve successfully creates a complex post-apocalyptic world with a detailed social hierarchy and a believable sensibility. The characterizations are distinct, the action is fast, and the plotlines are tightly woven. Piracy and violence is the way of the Out- Country, but the sinister secrets and plots of the city's Guilds are just as desperate. Factions pro- and con- mobility battle for supremacy in the roar of exhaust fumes and the rumble of gargantuan engines; beneath the polite Upper Levels lurk the Guts of the city, where industrial expedience makes slavery and torture both acceptable and necessary. This is darkly nuanced science fiction with tragic overtones that is sure to attract a sizable young-adult audience. JMD

REUTER, BJARNE The Ring of the Slave Prince; tr. from the Danish by Tiina Nunnally. Dutton, 2004 372p ISBN 0-525-47146-4 $22.99 R Gr. 5-10 On a dark and stormy night (yes, a "dark and stormy night"), the local witch repays Tom O'Connor's grudging hospitality with a vision of his future and, as every self-respecting adventure reader knows, the question is not whether, but how, her cryptic prophecy will be fulfilled. Swindled from his rightful half share in a drowning slave of royal birth whom he has plucked from the sea, the fourteen- year-old takes off in pursuit of con-man Ramon the Pious and his princely chattel. While tracking them down our abrasive, greedy hero finds himself working as an overseer on a Jamaican sugarcane plantation, chased by vengeful employer for his role in a slave arson and escape, and ultimately embroiled with dastardly pirate C. W. Bull. Tom is more than a match for Bull since the boy is descended from (real life) Irish freebooter Grainne Ni Mhaille, just as the witch had divined. The slave Nyo Boto, as it turns out, is no prince but the son of a fisherman and just as capable of craftiness as Tom and Bull when it comes to saving his own skin. A climactic showdown in the Cape Verde Islands may have been transparently pro- grammed from the start, but along the way to the predictably happy ending and just deserts, readers are treated to a string of rousing episodes encompassing the Spanish Inquisition, a pirate mutiny, a hurricane, a finger amputation, a very funny bit of cannibalism, and a nasty tooth extraction. While most of the plot elements in this Danish import have been thoroughly worked over elsewhere, readers who do not require, well, novelty of their novels should be well satisfied by Tom's thundering exploits. EB

SCHUMACHER, JULIE GrassAngel. Delacorte, 2004 [208p] Library ed. ISBN 0-385-90163-1 $17.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-385-73073-X $15.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-8 Because eleven-year-old Frances stubbornly refuses to abandon her plans for camp- and for lazy days aestivating with a best friend-she is left to stay with peculiar Aunt Blue in their small Ohio town while her mother and little brother, Everett, trek across country to a spiritual retreat in Oregon. This setup for a pivotal summer's rite of passage is conventional, but the characters are original: Frances's mother, critical and lonely since the unexpected death of Frances's father at a relatively young age; Aunt Blue, awkward socially and physically but honest in her eccentricity; MARCH 2004 * 295 seven-year-old Everett, a solemn, scientifically gifted devotee of his headlong sister; and Frances herself, an "underachieving" misfit desperate to control her rage in dealing with what feels like several levels of abandonment not only by her family but even, at one point, by her loyal friend Agnes. Most notable, in fact, is the way Frances and Agnes weather the differences in their own nature and nurture. Though Everett's disappearance at one point lends tangible suspense to the plot, this is a story driven primarily by internal action. Frances's flaring temper creates a swift undercurrent and dangerously rocky moments in a deceptively everyday flow of events. The dynamic development of conflicted relationships will engage readers who may be struggling with their own feelings of rejection and the violent anger that can result. An author of adult fiction, Schumacher in this novel projects a voice authentic to the issues and experience of preteens. BH

SHANGE, NTOZAKE Ellington Was Not a Street; illus. by Kadir Nelson. Simon, 2004 4 0p ISBN 0-689-82884-5 $15.95 Ad Gr. 3-6 Shange's poem "Mood Indigo," an adult recollection of a childhood spent "in the company of men/ who changed the world," receives a literal treatment through illustrations that follow a demure little girl who nonchalantly interacts with the mid-twentieth-century African-American luminaries who visit her father. As a freestanding poem addressed to adults, the text is charged with sadness over the passage of a long generation of achievers from activity into memory, and with barely suppressed anger over the shuttering of segments of the African-American community though fear and demographic change. Once "Ellington was not a street," but a vibrant artist, and Shange/narrator remembers when "our windows were not cement or steel/ our doors opened like our daddy's arms/ held us safe & loved." Snaring and caging intense emotions within a picture-book framework brings the poem to young children's attention, but the result is problematic: though the pictures are luminous, they limit and constrict the poem, and the featured little girl is too young to capture the interest of those readers old enough to begin to grasp the text's implications. If the audience does not (or, more likely, cannot) share Shange's grasp of community evolution, they must be forgiven for simply puzzling over who this little girl is and how her father came to preside over so impressive a salon. Nelson's domestic scenes are, to be sure, carefully crafted. Opposite the title page, a young lady on a piano bench clutches an old LP; her pensive gaze follows the trajectory of the grand piano lid that bisects a painting of (presumably) Ellington's orchestra. A later scene of a house party, viewed looking in from streetside, packs an easy-moving, spirited crowd of affectionately caricatured guests into a tight space of precisely centered, bourgeois propriety. A spread of biographical notes introduces these A-list members, but without sufficient historical background, children may unfortunately regard this as little more than an illustrated list of names to know. EB

SMITH, JANICE LEE Jess and the Stinky Cowboys; illus. by Lisa Thiesing. Dial, 2004 4 8p (Dial Easy-to-Read) ISBN 0-8037-2641-4 $14.99 R Gr. 2-4 Since Jess' father is out of town (chasing outlaws in the Very Bad Lands), Jess and her aunt Gussy, deputies, are in charge of law enforcement in Snake Gulch. Their control is tested when a cattle drive comes to town, and along with it a crowd of 296 * THE BULLETIN

cowboys who are wantonly and unrepentantly violating Snake Gulch's No-Stink law. A resourceful Jess herds the reeking wranglers into an outside jail and refuses to release them until they take baths, but their adamant refusal means that the Stink Cloud gathering over their heads "grew until it covered the sky over Snake Gulch"; the olfactorily offended townspeople try a variety of desperate measures until Jess finally manages to save the day. Like Timberlake's The Dirty Cowboy (BCCB 9/03), this hits on favorite youthful topics of cowpokes, stench, and delayed bathing ("No baths today!... No baths tomorrow!... No baths ever!" is the drovers' chant). Four concise chapters give plenty of room for snicker-worthy stinky jokes, some witty throwaway lines, and a humorously escalating situation (Jess finally turns a fire hose of soapy water on the filthy varmints), all of which make this a lively candidate for reading aloud as well as easygoing reading alone. The illustrations are predominantly watercolor with some colored-pencil touches for dusty Western texturing; the darker detailing makes some of the more compact scenes a bit muddy, but Thiesing's depiction of her cast as a perky pack of pooches adds another layer of entertainment. This'll round 'em up for a nonthreatening and silly read, even if the audience isn't any cleaner at the end. DS

SON, JOHN FindingMy Hat. Orchard, 2003 185p (First Person Fiction) ISBN 0-439-43538-2 $16.95 R Gr. 4-8 Jin-Han's earliest memory is of a cold, windy day in Chicago when he was two and a gust of wind lifted his hat off his head and out of reach. Using hats and wigs as metaphors of identity, Son tracks the lives and fortunes ofJin-Han's family as they struggle to make a life for themselves in various cities in the U.S. Jin-Han's memories are presented in small, textured vignettes of school life, first love, and the death of his mother, set against the various moves of the family. Jin-Han's father realizes that the only way for them to make a living is to open their own business with the help of other Koreans, so they leave Chicago for Memphis. The economy in Memphis is bad, however, so they move their wig shop to Houston. Later, Jin- Han learns the reasons why his parents left Korea in the first place and takes a trip to the land of his parents, which is beautiful, but is not his home. Son effectively captures the halting directness and linguistic frustrations of a child reared in a bilingual environment. As he tells the stories of himself and his family, Jin-Han's voice is at first shy and tentative, making the reading experience rather slow-going. Though it is difficult to believe that he would remember incidents from when he was two years old, the first-person narration will generate reader empathy, and the credibility of his story is enhanced rather than strained by the stories he tells. His narrative voice develops fluency as he gains self-confidence and a sense of his identity; though Jin-Han was born in the States, he feels like an outsider until he slides his hand up a girl's shirt at a dance, making him something of a junior-high celeb- rity. This is another sound entry in Scholastic's First Person Fiction series, providing readers with a glimpse of the big picture of Korean immigrant experience in the '60s and '70s as well as smaller snapshots of one boy's everyday life. KC

SPINa, EJLEEN Something to Tell the Grandcows;illus. by Bill Slavin. Eerdmans, 2004 [3 2 p] ISBN 0-8028-5236-X $16.00 Reviewed from galleys Ad 5-8 yrs Emmadine is worried that she'll have nothing to tell her grandcows, so she joins up MARCH 2004 * 297 with Admiral Byrd's 1933 expedition to the Antarctic. She voyages to an astonish- ing world of snow and ice, encountering strange animals such as seals and pen- guins and experiencing nights filled with sunlight and days of total darkness, responding to all these wonders with "Oh, wouldn't the grandcows be amazed!" Finally she returns home to cheers, acclaim, and the fascination of her adoring grandcows. The details (even Emmadine's name) are drawn from history, but Spinelli uses them as a basis for a more fantastical account, remaining silent about the birth of a calf and the death of one of the cows and instead spinning a yarn about Emmadine's terpsichorean efforts at morale-boosting ("She even taught the cowherd to do the hoochy-coochy"). The result is a somewhat awkward mixture that leaves audiences confused about what's fact and what's not (there's no note) and doesn't quite work as a whimsical story in its own right, despite some intriguing views of the Antarctic and some lively narrative touches. The art is more successful, with Slavin's acrylics evincing a softly textured, frescoesque feel; Emmadine's a sturdy and cheerful Guernsey, but it's the landscapes and local fauna that make the most of the smudgy shading and frosty highlights. This could be used with Caroline Alexander's Mrs. Chippy's Last Expedition for a focus on adven- turous animals, or just as an amusing accompaniment to a serving of ice cream. DS

STEWIG, JOHN WARREN, ad. Whuppity Stoorie; illus. by Preston McDaniels. Holiday House, 2004 [32p] ISBN 0-8234-1749-2 $16.95 Reviewed from galleys R 5-9 yrs Folktale-wise listeners will utter a sotto voce "uh-oh" when a poor deserted goodwife, with naught but a sick sow to keep her from poverty, desperately promises "a green gentlewoman" anything she wants so long as she saves the pig. What the fairy woman wants, of course, is the goodwife's young son, and unless the goodwife can guess the fairy's name, that son the fairy will have. The goodwife is beside herself, so she takes a walk "to ease her mind," and, luckily, overhears the fairy woman singing out her own name-Whuppity Stoorie. There's a rolling lilt to Stewig's retelling of this traditional Scottish tale that lends itself to reading and telling aloud. There is just enough exaggeration to put the humor over the top, and the dialogue between the canny fairy and the worried goodwife would, in the right mouths, make fine readers' theater. McDaniels' watercolors have a wild energy that is all their own: the figures are broadly drawn with oversized fingers and toes, and the foliage roars through the landscape with verdant abandon. The palette is subdued, but the line is flowing and lively. The only real problem here is the chosen typeface: the overly ornate font is difficult to read, and it will limit access for younger readers. The language is worth the effort, however, and the end result is a successful readaloud romp. Stewig includes an extensive note explaining not only the sources he used for this retelling, but also the variants he consulted, the changes he made, and the reasons he made them. JMD

STONE, PHOEBE Sonata #1for Riley Red. Little, 2003 194 p ISBN 0-316-99041-8 $15.95 Ad Gr. 6-8 Thirteen-year-old Rachel Townsend was a passive victim among her fellow students until swept under the wing of the dramatic Desmona McKarroll and her older brother, Riley. Desmona collects the lost and beset and makes them part of 298 * THE BULLETIN her magnetic orbit through a combination of compassion and will power. Her belief that everyone was put on earth to accomplish one great deed drives her to organize protests against veal in school lunches, to save cats from the pound, and to rescue a mistreated elephant from a rundown zoo. Desmona, Rachel, Riley, and friend Woolsey sneak the elephant out of the zoo and into the nearby woods, where they feed it on apples, carrots, and hay for over a week, until finally even the passive Rachel sees the need to act. The high drama of Desmona's story (her deceased mother was a poet who drowned suspiciously in Walden Pond) is colored by pianist Rachel's own tale: she has discovered a secret about her own mother that affected her so deeply she can no longer compose her own music. The frag- mented plot is farfetched, depending on a succession of incidents that test the bounds of credibility. Nonetheless, the pace is quick and the mid-'60s atmo- sphere credible, and sensitive Rachel relates her friends' stories with careful in- sight, in a gently involving narrative voice that will draw readers into her own emotional life. JMD

STROUD, JONATHAN The Bartimaeus Trilogy: The Amulet of Samarkand. Miramax/Hyperion, 2003 4 62p ISBN 0-7868-1859-X $17.95 R Gr. 7-10 The demon Bartimaeus is summoned by precocious magician's apprentice Nathaniel and ordered to retrieve the Amulet of Samarkand from the house of master magician Simon Lovelace. Thus begins the partnership between boy and demon, one that can only be dissolved when Nathaniel releases Bartimaeus from a bond of Perpetual Confinement. Nathaniel is unaware of the real power of the Amulet- he only wants it to avenge himself on Simon Lovelace for embarrassing him at a gathering of magicians-but Lovelace was planning to use the Amulet to assassi- nate the Prime Minister and take over the Government, and he is not happy at its loss. Lovelace tracks the Amulet, kills Nathaniel's master, and sets a host of magical beings in search of boy and demon. Bartimaeus, sworn to protect Nathaniel, sneaks them both into the conference where Lovelace is planning his coup; in a shattering confrontation the boy retrieves the Amulet and saves the day-and the appropriately grateful Prime Minister. Stroud alternates between Bartimaeus' first- person narration and an omniscient narrator's view of Nathaniel. The demon has a sarcastic tone and highly developed sense of irony, evident not only in his direct narrative but in the footnotes he includes to explain himself to the reader. Fast action and Machiavellian politics shape the plot: the structure of the society and the hierarchy of the magicians within it are clearly delineated. The constant threat of discovery means the tension is high, although Nathaniel's eventual survival and his release of Bartimaeus is never really in doubt. The relationship between Stroud's conflicted apprentice and the mouthy demon, as well as his unusual handling of the formal intricacies of magic, make this novel a standard in the genre of magician-oriented fantasy. Here's hoping Bartimaeus gets another chance to help Nathaniel grow up. JMD

VANDER ZEE, RUTH Erika's Story; illus. by Roberto Innocenti. Creative Edi- tions, 2003 24 p ISBN 1-56846-176-3 $15.95 R* Gr. 3-8 "I was born sometime in 1944. I do not know my birthdate. I do not know my birth name. I do not know in what city or country I was born," says narrator and MARCH 2004 * 299 protagonist Erika, in introducing her strange Holocaust history. She offers sober speculation on her parents' persecution and removal from their home and eventual placement in a railroad car bound for a concentration camp, where the first part of her known history occurs: "My mother threw me from the train." Some- one takes the bundled baby to a woman who braves the risk to become her foster mother, naming her and raising her as her own. Erika went on to a loving marriage and a happy family with children and grandchildren, and "Today, my tree once again has roots." The finely honed text has a spare lyricism, moving with restrained dignity from the opening author's note, which describes Vander Zee's meeting with Erika and introduces her story, through the measured description of Erika's imagined past, to the quiet triumph of her survival and flourishing family life. Innocenti's portraits of the wartime countryside drain the colors until a smoky gray dominates, making them almost monochromatic, emphasizing their photorealistic quality, and tonally matching the text; occasional details, such as the yellow stars on the faceless travelers or the pink bundle containing baby Erika, are picked out in muted color. The final spread shows a later time, limiting the gray to the skies and enlivening the landscape with autumn colors, as a young girl-a postwar Erika? Erika's granddaughter?-gazes at a distant passing freight train. Book design is also tonally fitting-smoky gray text paces deliberately across cream pages, with paragraphs separated by slender-lined stars of David-though it's a bit ideologically puzzling that the book concludes with a five-pointed yellow star (ech- oed in the die-cut shape on the book's cover). While the CIP information labels this nonfiction, the absence of documentation and the transformation of a life story makes it more kin to Allen Say's factually inspired but articulately and artistically distilled windows into personal history. With a text exquisitely balanced between understated acknowledgment of tragedy and firm faith in the future, the story and presentation offer drama, impact, and simplicity enough to capture readers over a broad range of ages. DS

VISCONTI, GUIDO, ad. Clareand Francis;illus. by Bimba Landmann. Eerdmans, 2004 40p ISBN 0-8028-5269-6 $20.00 Ad Gr. 4-6 This lavishly illustrated retelling of the lives of Clare and Francis of Assisi is based upon the Franciscan Sources, a collection of biographies and written works (for which no further citation is provided). Beginning with a thumbnail timeline highlighting specific events in the lives of the two saints (though more heavily emphasizing Francis), the story roughly develops their association with one another, from Francis' observation of Clare's charitable works as a young girl to her eventual arrival at Portiuncula, where Francis lived with a small community of friars. Though the story is full of details about isolated incidents in the lives of each (incidents often not included in the opening timeline), it's ultimately not clear what the book is trying to achieve, since it's neither a biography nor a history of the founding of the Franciscan order, neither an overview of Clare and Francis' friendship nor a detailed description of what led to their canonization. Instead, the story rambles from account to account, jumping from Clare to Francis with little semblance of a cohesive objective. The line between fact and fiction is blurry, and no source notes are provided to enlighten the reader as to what is assumed and what is recorded. Landmann's oil paintings, laden with broad strokes and gold leaf detail, are rich, filling each spread with thickly applied color. In some cases, the paintings confus- 300 * THE BULLETIN ingly lay out details absent from the text, and there are occasional discrepancies between the two (such as when the story speaks of the bishop approaching a sitting Clare and the picture depicts the two standing side by side). Accuracy aside, the paintings are artistically compelling, and the book offers visual appeal where it doesn't provide a comprehensive introduction to either saint. Readers looking for a more solid look at St. Francis should try Margaret Hodges' Brother Francisand the Friendly Beasts (BCCB 11/91). HM

WALDMAN, STUART We Askedfor Nothing: The Remarkable Journey ofCabeza de Vaca; illus. by Tom McNeely. Mikaya, 2003 [4 8p] ISBN 1-931414-07-6 $19.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-8 The latest entry in the Great Explorers series retraces the route ofAlvar Ndifiez Cabeza de Vaca who, separated from Narviez's ill-fated sixteenth century Spanish expedition, unintentionally became the explorer who charted a route from the Gulf of Mexico, along the Rio Grande, and down the western coast of Mexico. While Cabeza de Vaca's tale is exciting in its own right-filled with shipwreck, enslavement, starvation, and quasi-deification by many indigenous peoples- Waldman continues the series' practice of assessing the pros and cons of European exploration on other continents and attempting to limit judgment of motivation to the standards of centuries past. Here Cabeza de Vaca is no paragon of enlight- enment, but an initially arrogant Spaniard who, through his experiences of both suffering and aid at the hands of Native Americans, came to regard them as fully human and to protest their enslavement and overt exploitation by his fellow Euro- peans. Design is clean and inviting, with text on roomy, black-bordered spreads, gracefully ornamented sidebar quotations from contemporary sources, and a fold- out map that can be easily accessed while reading. McNeely's illustrations, drenched in red and orange, are reminiscent of aging museum dioramas; overwrought mod- esty seems to have sent the naked, shipwrecked Spaniards and their Indian hosts scrambling for cover behind bows, tent supports, and shrubbery-until, that is, they discover loincloths around page 20 and stride into the open. Nonetheless, collections in need of an update in the era of conquistadors should give this title serious consideration. EB

WALLACE, KAREN Wendy. Simon, 2003 307p ISBN 0-689-86769-7 $16.95 M Gr. 6-9 This Peter Pan prequel explores the existence of the Darling family prior to the kids' famed trip to Never Never Land, and a troubled existence it is indeed. A bitter, sadistic nanny controls the children's days, a bellicose and often drunken Mr. Darling strains to raise his family's social status and engages in an affair with a neighbor, and a shallow and childlike Mrs. Darling withdraws from the family and mourns a private sorrow. This is rather a perplexing project: there's a lurid pleasure in the direness of the family's emotional straits (the dreadful children of Mr. Darling's paramour are often comical in their caricatured awfulness), and the Edwardian details are rich and atmospheric (though The Secret Garden slips anachronistically in), but ultimately there's no plausible connection between these Darlings and those in PeterPan. Wendy here is a Beatrix Potter figure, a tomboy interested in science and books ("a splendidly outspoken urchin of a child") who's a far cry from her gentle motherly competence with Peter, and even after financial MARCH 2004 * 301

ruin and repentance Wallace's stiff and angry Mr. Darling seems more kin to Cap- tain Hook than to his character in Barrie's play and novel. The occasional indul- gences in heavy-handed contemporary psychologizing, especially when reflecting the theme of childhood vs. adulthood, create further tonal discrepancies between this story and its source, and the emotionally wringing events have such import that a flying woodsprite would be merely a footnote in the lives of these children. Even when read without regard to Barrie's work, the book is histrionically over- dramatic, with little genuine development in the characters, and the sudden recon- ciliation at the end is baffling and unconvincing. This has some curiosity value, but Pan fans would be better off pursuing Barrie variants. DS

WEIGEL, JEFF Atomic Ace (He's Just My Dad); written and illus. by Jeff Weigel. Whitman, 2004 [32p] Trade ed. ISBN 0-8075-3216-9 $15.95 Paper ed. ISBN 0-8075-3217-7 $6.95 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 2-4 Atomic Ace is a flying nuclear-powered superhero with duties both public and private: while he nabs bank robbers and "stops evil schemes," he also cooks hotdogs and cleans the house for his family. His son insists that life with a SuperDad isn't that strange, but he has a hard time proving that to the other kids (especially Mike and Chad) when his dad is always in the newspapers. Then Atomic Ace's arch nemesis breaks into a bank on the night of his son's band concert! Can Atomic Ace squash the Insect King before 8 P.M.? Will his son's tunes prove to be tuneless? Will Mike and Chad ever stop their terrible teasing? Atomic Ace's story is appropriately told in comic-book panels, complete with classically lame superhero quips ("It's time I clipped your wings again, Insect King!") and dramatic lead-ins ("Mean- while, at the Insect King's secret hideout ... "); the comic sequences are inter- spersed with full and half-page illustrations of Atomic Ace's family life, narrated by his son. Drawn in the heavily outlined, brightly colored style of Silver Age comic books, this father-son superhero story is both ironic and tender: Weigel plays on the image of the traditional "perfect" superhero, as Atomic Ace makes a mistake that leaves him with an ant-head on his shoulders, but in doing so shows that even so-called perfect people fail occasionally, and that's no reason to give up. Unfortu- nately, Weigel undermines both his savvy and his sweetness with the jangly verse of the main narrative; the sing-song rhythm, forced AABB rhyme scheme, and awkward phrasing are disappointing as well as at odds with the otherwise energeti- cally hyper-real comic-book approach. Aside from this weakness, the book is clever both in story and format; older comic book aficionados might be put off by the rhyme, but younger children will be fired up by the story nonetheless. KH

WILLIAMS, JULIE Escaping Tornado Season: A Story in Poems. HarperTempest, 2004 [272p] Library ed. ISBN 0-06-008640-8 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-008639-4 $15.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 7-10 After Allie's father dies, she and her mother leave Nebraska for her mother's family home in northern Minnesota. She's not particularly surprised when her mercurial mother departs in the night, leaving Allie on her own with her sharp-edged grandmother and quiet painter grandfather, since her mother pulled the same disappear- 302 * THE BULLETIN ing act years before, when Allie's beloved twin brother died. Small-town Minne- sota in the 1960s is rife with anti-Indian prejudice, which a shocked Allie discovers as she starts ninth grade there alongside a contingent of Ojibwe kids; nonetheless, she makes friends with an Ojibwe girl, Lidia, and does her best to defend her from an abusive teacher. Meanwhile, on the homefront, the return of Allie's mother means the two must renegotiate their relationship while coming to terms with their depleted family. Literature for young people rarely looks at this particular bigotry (Marsha Qualey's Revolutions of the Heart, BCCB 5/93, being a notable exception), and Williams effectively demonstrates the casual way such attitudes can permeate a community; Allie's quietly developing relationship with Joe, Lidia's cousin, is thoughtfully and understatedly depicted. Though sometimes insightful, the free-verse poetry is often rather prosaic, relying on line breaks to lend impact to the phrases. The various themes and plot elements don't all work or cohere (the tornado theme in particular is superfluous), and some of the events are more dramatic than believable (a letter from Allie gets the abusive teacher fired and jailed). Nonetheless, this is an emotional account of a girl learning to appreciate her family's-and her own-strength. DS

WOJCIECHOWSKI, SUSAN A Fine St. Patrick'sDay; illus. by Tom Curry. Random House, 2004 40p Library ed. ISBN 0-375-92386-1 $16.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-375-82386-7 $14.95 Ad 5-8 yrs Every year the towns Tralee and Tralah compete in a St. Patrick's Day decorating contest, and every year Tralee goes down in defeat. Not this year, though. Six- year-old Fiona Riley suggests that they paint their whole town green, "except for the mailboxes, being government property, and the fire hydrants, which remained yellow so they could be seen." While Tralah hang their glitter and cardboard shamrocks, they are visited by a little fellow in need of assistance in getting his cows out of the mud. They're simply too busy and shoo him away. Tralee, though, is more than willing to help a stranger in need and, wouldn't you know it, the little fellow turns out to be a leprechaun who finishes their task and wins them the prize. Even though the text is coy about his identity, it's as clear as his tall green hat, red beard, turned up toes, and pointy ears that this guy's one of the Little People. The telling isn't quite as tight as it could be, and Wojciechowski's "sure and begorra"s wear a bit thin. Curry's paintings, however, refreshingly eschew the gaudy greens that tend to dominate March 17th in favor of an earthy palette that recalls Eastern European folklore. There's even an attractive touch of eeriness to the villagers' stiff-armed poses and staring almond eyes. Plot and tone may be St. Pat's at its most predictable, but readers in search of a fresh look for the holiday could give it ago. EB MARCH 2004 * 303

CHILDREN'S BOOK AWARDS 2004

The Newbery Medal will be awarded to Kate DiCamillo for The Tale ofDesperaux, illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering (Candlewick). The Newbery Honor Books are Olive's Ocean, by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow), and An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 by Jim Murphy (Clarion).

The Caldecott Medal will be awarded to Mordicai Gerstein for The Man who Walked between the Towers, written by the illustrator (Roaring Brook). The Cal- decott Honor Books are Ella Sarah Gets Dressed,written and illustrated by Marga- ret Chodos-Irvine (Harcourt), WhatDo You Do with a TailLike This?, written and illustrated by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page (Houghton), and Don'tLet the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, written and illustrated by Mo Willems (Hyperion).

The Coretta Scott King Award for writing will be presented to Angela Johnson, author of The First PartLast (Simon), and the award for illustration goes to Ashley Bryan for Beautiful Blackbird, adapted by the illustrator (Atheneum). The King Honor Books for writing are Days of Jubilee: The End of Slavery in the United States, written by Patricia C. and Fredrick L. McKissack (Scholastic), Locomotion, written by Jacqueline Woodson (Putnam), and The Battle ofJericho, written by Sharon Draper (Atheneum). The King Honor Books for illustration are Almost to Freedom, illustrated by Colin Bootman, written by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson (Car- olrhoda), and Thunder Rose, illustrated by Kadir Nelson, written by Jerdine Nolen (Silver Whistle/Harcourt). The Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award for writing goes to The Way a Door Closes, written by Hope Anita Smith and illustrated by Shane W. Evans (Holt); the award for illustration goes to My Family Plays Music, illustrated by Elbrite Brown and written by Judy Cox (Holi- day House).

The Pura Belpre Award for writing will be presented to Before We Were Free, by Julia Alvarez (Knopf), and the award for illustration goes to Just a Minute: A Trickster Tale and Counting Book, written and illustrated by Yuyi Morales (Chronicle). Belpre Honor books for writing are Cuba 15, written by Nancy Osa (Delacorte), and My Diaryfrom Here to There/Mi diario de aquf hasta alli, written by Amada Irma Perez and illustrated by Maya Christina Gonzalez (Children's Book Press). Honor books for illustration are First Day in Grapes, illustrated by Robert Casilla, written by L. King Perez (Lee & Low), The Pot thatJuan Built, illustrated by David Diaz, written by Nancy Andrews-Goebel (Lee & Low), and HarvestingHope: The Story ofCesar Chavez, illustrated by Yuyi Morales, written by Kathleen Krull (Harcourt).

The American publisher receiving the Mildred L. Batchelder Award for the most outstanding translation of a book originally published in a foreign language is 304 * THE BULLETIN

Lorraine/Houghton for Uri Orlev's Run, Boy, Run; the honor award goes to Chronicle Books for The Man who Went to the Far Side of the Moon: The Story of Apollo 11 AstronautMichael Collins, written by Bea Uusma Schyfffert.

The Michael L. Printz Award for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature goes to Angela Johnson for The First Part Last (Simon). Honor books are A Northern Light, by Jennifer Donnelly (Harcourt), Keesha's House, by Helen Frost (Foster/Farrar), Fat KidRules the World, by K. L. Going (Putnam), and The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things, by Carolyn Mackler (Can- dlewick).

The Robert F. Sibert Award for most distinguished informational book for children goes to Jim Murphy for An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 (Clarion). The honor book is I Face the Wind, written by Vicki Cobb, illustrated by Julia Gorton (HarperCollins).

The 2005 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture will be delivered by Richard Jack- son.

Ursula LeGuin is the 2004 winner of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for Out- standing Literature for Young Adults, honoring an author's lifetime contribution in writing books for teenagers.

The Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction goes to Richard Peck for The River between Us (Dial).

The Canadian Library Association's Best Book of the Year for children is Karen Levine's Hana's Suitcase (Whitman). The Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award goes to Pascal Milelli for TheArt Room, written by Susan Van Griek (Tundra). The Young Adult Canadian Book Award goes to Martha Brooks' True Confessions of a Heartless Girl (Kroupa/Farrar).

The Carnegie Medal was awarded to Sharon Creech for Ruby Holler (Cotler/Har- perCollins).

The Kate Greenaway Medal was awarded to Bob Graham for Jethro Byrd: Fairy Child, written by the illustrator (Candlewick).

Hz:5l MARCH 2004 * 305

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: Doyle; Flinn; Koja Biology: Bortolotti ADVENTURE: Elliott; Funke Boats-fiction: Philbrick Inkheart; Reeve; Reuter Books and reading-fiction: Funke Africa-fiction: Kurtz Inkheart African Americans: Blumberg; Brothers and sisters: Lasky Cline-Ransome; McKissack; Brothers and sisters-fiction: Shange Choldenko African Americans-stories: Battle- Bullies-fiction: Gardner Lavert; Belton; Johnson, A.; Careers: Galloway Morrow; Nelson; Ransom Careers-fiction: Cann Angels-stories: de Paola Caribbean-poetry: Berry Animals: Bortolotti Cats-stories: Banks; Henkes; Low Animals-fiction: Baker; Elliott; Civics: Battle-Lavert; Konigsburg Halam; Stone Clothing-stories: Low Animals-stories: Hassett; Polacco Cowboys-fiction: Smith ANTHOLOGIES: Kurtz Cows-stories: Spinelli Apes-fiction: Elliott; Halam Crime and criminals-fiction: Art: Crews Choldenko; Cooley; Flinn; Art and artists: Krull Hartinger Art and artists-fiction: Cann; Dating-fiction: Cann Creech; Heuston; Konigsburg; Death and dying-fiction: Gilbert; Marsden McGhee; Williams Art and artists-stories: Belton; Demons-fiction: Stroud Geeslin; Raven Disasters-fiction: Janeczko Asian Americans-fiction: Son Dogs-stories: Buehner Astronomy: Mitton Dolls-stories: Nelson Athletes-fiction: Creech Ecology: Bortolotti Aunts-fiction: Schumacher Environmental studies: Bang Baseball: Moss Ethics and values: Gardner; Gilbert; Babies: Lasky Koja; Krisher; Morrow; Stone Baseball-stories: Johnson, A. Explorers and exploring: Blumberg; Baths-fiction: Smith Waldman Bears-stories: Edwards; Pinkwater Explorers and exploring-stories: BEDTIME STORIES: Edwards Spinelli BIBLE STORIES: Beneduce Faith-fiction: Krisher BIOGRAPHIES: Blumberg; Cline- Families-fiction: Calhoun; Cooley; Ransome; Krull; Moss Doyle; Wallace 306 * THE BULLETIN

FANTASY: Calhoun; Coville; Kidnapping-fiction: Cooley Funke Inkheart; Jones; Reeve; Knights and chivalry-fiction: Stroud Morris Fathers-fiction: Cooley; Krisher; Knights and chivalry-stories: Funke Philbrick; Weigel Princess Feminism-fiction: Jocelyn Literature, children's: Krull Fires-fiction: Janeczko Magic-fiction: Coville; Jones; Fish: Diffily; Prosek Stroud Fish-fiction: Philbrick Marine biology: Diffily FOLKTALES AND FAIRY TALES: Medieval life-fiction: Heuston; Stewig; Wojciechowski Morris Food and eating-stories: de Paola Mental illness-fiction: Choldenko Foster care-fiction: Hartinger Mice-stories: Hassett France-stories: Banks Moon-stories: Henkes Friends-fiction: Gilbert; McGhee; Mothers-fiction: Flinn Myracle; Stone MYSTERIES: Hoobler Frogs-fiction: Delacre Native Americans-fiction: Bruchac; Future-fiction: Reeve Williams Gardeners and gardening-fiction: Nature study: Delacre; Diffily Calhoun NURSERY RHYMES: Crews Grandfathers-fiction: Creech; Outdoor life: Prosek Dickinson; McGhee Photography: Crews Grandmothers-fiction: Marsden Pigs-stories: Stewig Grandmothers-stories: Raven POETRY: Berry; Creech; Janeczko; Growing up-fiction: Myracle Major; Shange; Williams HISTORICAL FICTION: Battle- Prejudice-fiction: Gilbert Lavert; Bruchac; Choldenko; Princes-fiction: Burnham Doyle; Heuston; Hoobler; Princesses-stories: Funke Princess Jocelyn; Johnson, A.; Krisher; Prisons and prisoners-fiction: Major; Ransom; Wallace; Choldenko Williams Rabbits-stories: Johnson, P. History, American: Waldman Racism: Cline-Ransome History, European: Galloway; Racism-fiction: Bruchac; Williams Vander Zee Readers' theater: Janeczko History, U.S.: Battle-Lavert; Belton; Reading aloud: Berry; Pinkwater; Blumberg; Cline-Ransome; Smith McKissack; Moss; Nelson; Reading, easy: Baker; Coville; Ransom; Shange Delacre; Jones; Marsden; History, world: Waldman Pinkwater; Smith Holidays: Kimmel Reading, family: Kimmel Holocaust: Vander Zee Reading, reluctant: Coville; HUMOR: Baker; Coville; Elliott; Galloway; Koja; Vander Zee Hassett; Low; Pinkwater; Smith Religious instruction: Beneduce; de Illness-fiction: Dickinson Paola; Kimmel; Visconti Immigrants-fiction: Son RHYMING STORIES: Hebson; Ireland-stories: Wojciechowski Polacco; Weigel Japan-fiction: Hoobler Robots-stories: Hebson Jews: Vander Zee Romance-fiction: Burnham; JOURNALS: Jocelyn Hartinger Judaism: Kimmel Royalty-fiction: Burnham MARCH 2004 * 307

Saints-fiction: Visconti Voyages and travel-stories: Banks; Saints-stories: de Paola Geeslin; Ichikawa; Spinelli School-fiction: Gardner West, the: Blumberg SCIENCE FICTION: Halam; West, the-fiction: Smith Reeve Wishes-fiction: Jones Science: Bang; Delacre; Mitton Witches-fiction: Reuter Sharks: Diffily Women's studies: Heuston; Shipwrecks-fiction: Major Jocelyn; Johnson, A.; Krisher; SHORT STORIES: Kurtz Moss Slavery: McKissack World cultures: Kurtz Slavery-stories: Morrow; Nelson; World War II: Vander Zee Ransom World War II-fiction: Doyle SONGS: Johnson, P. Writers and writing: Krull SPORTS STORIES: Cline- Ransome; Moss St. Patrick's Day-stories: Wojciechowski Stepfathers-fiction: Flinn Storytime: Buehner; Crews; de Paola; Edwards; Funke Princess; Hassett; Hebson; Henkes; i--il' Ichikawa; Johnson, P.; Polacco; Stewig; Wojciechowski Summer-fiction: Schumacher Superheroes-fiction: Weigel Superheroes-stories: Buehner Thailand-fiction: Marsden Toys-stories: Ichikawa Uncles-fiction: Konigsburg Underground railroad-stories: Morrow; Nelson; Ransom Violence-fiction: Flinn Voyages and travel: Halam Voyages and travel-fiction: Reuter THEt FREE PRFESINA TRIAL ISSUE of an award-winning publication! Visit www.TeachingK-8.com Click on FREE TRIAL ISSUE

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L PublicationsOffice A STORY: FROM FmEPLACE TO CYBERSPACE Connecting Children and Narrative EDITED BY BETSY HEARNE, JANICE M. DEL NEGRO, CHRISTINE JENKINS, AND DEBORAH STEVENSON Papers Presented at the Allerton Park Institute Sponsored October 26-28, 1997, by the Graduate School of Library and Information Science University of Illinois

In our interest in children's welfare, we often forget that children are not simply passive receptacles for whatever treasure or trash the adult world throws at them but are lively agents who are continually interacting with their environment. Children actively create meaning as readers, viewers, and listeners. The 39 th Allerton Park Insti- tute papers emphasize the critical need to connect children and narrative as a way to affect their develooment ISBN 0-87845-105-6; as listeners, readers, viewers, and evaluators of litera- Number 39; 143 pages; ture-and information in all forms. paper; $21.95*

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