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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

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Illustrated. Cloth, $49.95; Paper, $24.95

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With a foreword by Jack Hanna, this book combines photographs, oral histories and other resources to chronicle Lincoln Park Zoo's development and chart the unique role it continues to play in the growth of Chicago and in the establishment of zoos and preservation activities in cities across America. Read about Mike the polar bear and how he ripped offa man's (already artifical) arm. Other stories introduce Rocky the parachuting bear; Bushman, a lowland gorilla with an outgoing personality; and Princess Spearmint, a Nile hippopatamus donated by William Wrigley, Jr. Along with stories of the colorful characters that lived and worked in the park over the years, the authors give a detailed history of the park. They tell of the initially cau- tious, then effervescent growth of the zoo from its earliest years through the 1920s. Later, the Great Depression devastated the animals and their keepers before the recov- ery partially helped by the WPA. Growth continued through the tenure of Malin Perkins and one of the earliest nature shows on television, Zoo Parade. Now, zoo lead- ers work optimistically to keep the zoo 'free' while increasing cooperation with other education and preservation groups.

([ UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS THE BUvL LE T IN OF THE CENTER FOR CHILDREN'S BOOKS June 2004 Vol. 57 No. 10

I' A LOOK INSIDE

405 THE BIG PICTURE Toad Rage by Morris Gleitzman 406 NEW BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE Reviewed titles include: 417 * The Lost Colony ofRoanoke by Jean Fritz; illus. by Hudson Talbott 421 * Godless by Pete Hautman 427 * Messenger by Lois Lowry 429 * Shooter by Walter Dean Myers 443 * Dig! by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha; illus. by Marc Rosenthal 445 PROFESSIONAL CONNECTIONS 446 SUBJECT AND USE INDEX EXPLANATION OF CODE SYMBOLS USED WITH REVIEWS * Asterisks denote books of special distinction. R Recommended.

Ad Additional book of acceptable quality for collections needing more material in the area. M Marginal book that is so slight in content or has so many weaknesses in style or format that it should be given careful consideration before purchase. NR Not recommended. SpC Subject matter or treatment will tend to limit the book to specialized collections. SpR A book that will have appeal for the unusual reader only. Recommended for the special few who will read it.

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

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

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

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1 year, institutions, $75.00; multiple institutional subscriptions, $70 for the first and $50 for each additional; individuals, $50.00; students, $15.00. In countries other than the United States, add $7.00 per subscription for postage. Japanese subscription agent: Kinokuniya Company Ltd. Single copy rate: $7.50. Volumes available in microfilm from ProQuest, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Complete volumes available in microfiche from Johnson Associates, P.O. Box 1017, Greenwich, CT 06830. Subscription checks should be made payable to the University of Illinois Press. All notices of change of address should provide both the old and new address. Postmaster: Send address changes to The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, University of Illinois Press, 1325 S. Oak, Champaign, IL 61820-6903.

All inquiries about subscriptions and advertising should go to University of Illinois Press, 1325 S. Oak, Champaign, IL 61820-6903, 217-333-0950; toll free 866-244-0626. Review copies and all correspondence about reviews should be sent to Deborah Stevenson, The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, 501 E. Daniel St., Champaign, IL 61820-6601. Email: [email protected]; phone: 217-244-0324. Visit our homepage at http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/puboff/bccb

Periodicals postage paid at Champaign, Illinois © 2004 by The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois Drawings by Debra Bolgla. This publication is printed on acid-free paper. Cover illustration by Rod Clement from Toad Rage ©2004. Used by permission of Random House Children's Books. JUNE 2004 * 405

THE BIG PICTURE

Toad Rage by Morris Gleitzman

Reviewers of children's literature encounter animal points of view with great regu- larity; it seems certain critters, most notably of the domestic variety, frequently have the opportunity to share their perspective on the world. Just two months previously, the Big Picture showcased a yellow Lab's take on neighborhood life (I, Jack, BCCB 4/04), and countless cat books appear every season, offering a feline- focused worldview. In the latest comic entry from Australian author Morris Gleitzman (author of Puppy Fat, BCCB 7/96, Worry Warts, 4/93, among others), readers have the opportunity to hear from the most unlikely of creatures-the dreaded cane toad. Our protagonist, a young cane toad called Limpy, sets out into the world in search of an answer to that all-important question-why do humans hate cane toads? While the explanation may be obvious to the reader (it may be their offputting appearance, that venomous secretion directed at potential threats, the fact that they're a damaging invader species, or a combination of all three), poor Limpy is determined to understand and reverse this age-old revulsion if only given an opportunity to represent all that is good about his kind. Limpy's quest is prompted by the fact that his relatives are getting killed left and right; flying insects (necessary for a balanced cane-toad diet) tend to hang out around highway lights, and speeding vehicles flatten cane toads every day ("'Oh no, Limpy,' said Mum in exasperation. 'You haven't brought home another dead relative"'). Limpy, who fears especially for his slow-moving younger sister "who'd stayed small because of pollution," appoints himself to leave rural Queensland and figure out why humans seem to target his species. After a brief run-in with some vacationers at a gas station (where Limpy attempts to disguise himself as a tropical butterfly with a pair of pilfered underpants), Limpy hitches a ride to the Olympic Games in Sydney. His plan? To join the ranks of the platypus, echidna, and kookaburra and become a Games mascot, thereby earning the affection of humans and saving his species from pending destruction. The challenge of winning over the humans proves an enormous task-as explained by a rather blunt mosquito, humans find cane toads "even uglier and more revolting... than hairy spiders and smelly dung beetles and those slugs that sleep in their own snot." Unable to understand English, Limpy is constantly specu- lating, occasionally to grievous but snicker-worthy error, on human conversations that he overhears without comprehending. In an intriguing play on perspective, the reader, who can understand these dialogues, is often a step ahead of Limpy, making the toad take all the funnier. The real charm lies in the curious juxtaposi- tion of Limpy's tragic plight and Gleitzman's hysterically funny narration; Limpy's seriousness and sense of duty perfectly contrast with the helplessly humorous tone 406 * THE BULLETIN of his chronicle. Limpy's lucky escapes from countless dangers-he's attacked by rats, teenagers, and a toddler, to name just a few-are at the same time riveting and funny, and the clever dialogue places the reader firmly in the skin of an endan- gered cane toad out to change the world. The pace of the adventure keeps readers along for the ride, and the many details strewn throughout the story come together to great effect in the conclusion, where a stroke of symbiotic luck results in Limpy's clearing the name of a beloved national athlete accused of steroid use and thereby winning a fair dose of human appreciation. This highly accessible comedy would make a laugh-out-loud readaloud as well as an enticing read for the reluctant set; this little cane toad is an oddly lovable protagonist, and the lessons in courage and bravery woven throughout the story make this both an amusing and empowering tale for young people. Readers or listeners alike are certain to cheer for our hero's success in helping humans see that beauty is only as deep as one's skin-whether warty or not. (Imprint information appears on p. 418.) Hope Morrison, Reviewer

NEW BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE

ARDAGH, PHILIP The Fall of Fergal, or Not So Dingly in the Dell; illus. by David Roberts. Holt, 2004 123p ISBN 0-8050-7476-7 $9.95 Ad Gr. 4-6 Following on the heels of his middle-grades gothic A House Called Awful End (BCCB 12/02), Ardagh here offers the tale of the McNally family, a devoted bunch of siblings who share an embittered former military hero father and a genetic pre- disposition towards wiry red hair, multitudinous freckles, and bad teeth. The first chapter opens with the death of the youngest brother, Fergal, who falls fourteen stories from a hotel window. How he got to the hotel window is the subject of the subsequent ten chapters, which roam about rather freely as far as continuity is concerned. This farcical work also exhibits a bad case of Snickety-itis, with the authorial voice speaking freely to the reader, advising, admonishing, and altogether intruding on the action. The trajectory of the plot is sometimes interrupted by temporal switches, giving the text the start-stop jerkiness of a car in traffic. There is, however, a madcap humor to the accumulation of events and characters that will amuse readers with a taste for British comedy and mannerisms, and the cast of characters is colorful and eccentric. Roberts' black-and-white line drawings take full advantage of the book's dark humor, emphasizing the grotesque with an utter good cheer that readers will fully appreciate. Offer this to those patrons who are moaning for yet another unfortunate event. JMD JUNE 2004 * 407

BOELTS, MARIBETH When It's the Last Day of School; illus. by Hanako Wakiyama. Putnam, 2004 32p ISBN 0-399-23498-5 $15.99 R 5-8 yrs James has a plan for the last day of school that will send him into summer with a nifty gold star and a clear conscience. Determined to follow all the rules, he tells viewers what he will, but even more what he won't, do, like drinking water from the water fountain without spitting it out, and not cutting in line to sharpen his lucky pencil down to an eraser and a point. He'll even (gasp!) pay attention to the movie in science class, and not think about all the things he's going to do during summer vacation (which, of course, are offered in five consecutive spreads that show viewers what he's not thinking about). James' catalogue of the things he's not going to do during the day gives a pretty clear indication of just what a long year it's been, and the pressure of all that good behavior crammed into one day warrants the four exclamation marks on the final page: "and then... And then... I'll explode!!!!" Clean-edged oil illustrations establish a retro, golly-gee mood, with boys in rolled-up jeans and Howdy-Doody haircuts and girls in '50s-style dresses and pigtails with bows, all sporting oversized round eyes and earnest expressions. James himself is an endearing, entirely recognizable rascal, whether he's chatting with the janitor to waste time on his way to the bathroom, sucking up to the lunch lady, or giving his teacher that end-of-the-year, thanks-for-putting-up-with-me hug. This is sure to be a hit for classroom readalouds in the final countdown 'til school's out. KC

BOLING, KATHARINE January 1905. Harcourt, 2004 [160p] ISBN 0-15-205119-8 $16.00 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-7 In alternating chapters that span the course of a few days, eleven-year-old twin sisters give vent to their mutual jealousy, and each ultimately gains insight into the other's equally challenged life. As the daughters of textile mill workers, they are expected to pull their weight for the family's survival. Pauline, the stronger of the pair, puts in full days at the mill mending the threads that snap on the whirling bobbins; she envies Arlene's presumed freedom to indulge in laziness, unsupervised and unobserved. Arlene, crippled with a congenitally deformed foot, is charged with cooking and housekeeping, and she resents the lively social life she imagines Pauline to enjoy with the other mill girls. Just as their frustrations peak, a mill boy's hand is mangled in a machine and Arlene is called in to sweep floors. There she learns that her sister is shunned by the other girls, and Pauline realizes the family's comforts disappear when Arlene is not at home to work behind the scenes. Although the two voices are nearly identical and are heavily tinged with literary mannerism unlikely to spring from eleven-year-old lips ("Twirling like dancers, the bobbins spin. Some fatten and have to stop for breath, but the lean ones continue their merry jig"), the details of tedious and physically demanding days bolster the credibility of their understandable, if mistaken, points of view. EB

BONE, IAN The Song ofan Innocent Bystander. Dutton, 2004 [276p] ISBN 0-525-47282-7 $16.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 7-12 Ten years ago, when Freda was nine, she underwent the event that changed her life: a disturbed former employee took the patrons of a restaurant, including Freda, 408 * THE BULLETIN hostage and held them in a several-day standoff that terminated in the death of the restaurant manager and the gunman. Since then, her parents (stuck outside the restaurant during the event) have split up, and Freda's attorney mother has made a career crusading for victims' rights, gun control, and other associated causes while firmly shepherding her daughter through the publicity focused on her. Freda is "a teenager who's never had a teen's experience," still frozen by guilt and regret over the incident and frightened of facing the past, but haunting phone calls and her first interview on her own keep pushing her back towards it. The sustained philosophical questioning and the intercutting of past and present episodes demand readerly patience, but the dramatic subject will certainly capture attention. The suppressed ferocity of Freda's gnawing inner obsession actually has more impact than the flashbacks to the tragedy, and her tense but dependent relationship with her mother will strike a chord with most teenagers, even if they don't have Freda's traumatic history. While there are novels aplenty dealing with the experience of living through a tragedy, this Australian import is an unusual and thought-provoking look at the sometimes terrible legacy of survival. DS

BOTTNER, BARBARA Wallace's Lists; by Barbara Bottner and Gerald Kruglik; illus. by OlofLandstrim. Tegen/HarperCollins, 2004 [3 2 p] Library ed. ISBN 0-06-000225-5 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-000224-7 $15.99 Reviewed from galleys R 5-8 yrs Wallace the mouse loves lists so much that he almost misses out on a friendship with Albert, his new neighbor ("Wallace would have liked to say, 'Hello. My name is Wallace,' but saying hello was not on his list"). Fortunately, an amended list allows for acquaintance, and Wallace is so intrigued by Albert's spontaneous approach to life that he decides to join Albert on an outing in his airplane. Albert goes adventuring alone when an oversleeping Wallace misses their start time, but when Wallace hears that a dangerous storm is approaching, he's determined to go after Albert, even without lists, and warn his friend of the hazards. The plot lurches a bit when it shifts focus from Wallace's getting to know Albert to Wallace out chasing after Albert, and the reality of an airport-closing thunderstorm doesn't quite jibe with a world of rodential friendship. Worried little Wallace (perhaps a cousin ofHenkes' Wemberly Worried,BCCB 9/00) is an endearing hero, however, and Bottner and Kruglik chronicle his blossoming with affectionate wit. Landstrim's line-and-watercolor illustrations evince the tidy organization ofWallace's lists, with sophisticated tones of gray and beige emphasizing the rodents' urban loft existence. Touches of silliness in the lists and in the adventures (kids will be sorely tempted by the notion of riding around on the luggage carousel) boost the amuse- ment level, while Wallace's eternally furrowed brow is an everpresent reminder that these adventures are, for him, hard-won. In addition to offering reassurance to youngsters with Wallace-like wariness of the unknown, this might help the reckless Alberts of the world understand their more timid classmates. DS

BREDSDORFF, BODIL The Crow-Girl: The Children of Crow Cove; tr. from the Danish by Faith Ingwersen. Farrar, 2004 155p ISBN 0-374-31247-8 $16.00 R Gr. 4-6 Grandmother has died, and Crow-Girl must fend for herself. She is young-eight or nine-but she "can light a fire and gather driftwood and mussels and sea kale JUNE 2004 * 409

and snails, and carry water, clean fish, and cook," and she can "feed a whole family ... if it's not too big." Since Grandmother was her only living relative, Crow-Girl sets out to find herself another family, in the process taking on the roles of servant, shepherd, and savior of neglected and heartsick strangers. This Danish import presents Crow-Girl with sympathy but without sentimentality. Even the greatest personal losses are treated primarily through description of their physical effects on the characters rather than through commentary on their emotional toll. As a result, this strong-boned and sinewy narrative retains the austere beauty of the coast on which Crow-Girl lives. Admirers of Kirkpatrick Hill's Toughboy and Sister (BCCB 11/90) will find a potential new favorite here. A map of Crow-Girl's travels is included. TC

BRENNER, BARBARA One Small Place in a Tree; illus. by Tom Leonard. HarperCollins, 2004 32p Library ed. ISBN 0-688-17181-8 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-688-17180-X $15.99 R Gr. 1-3 A hole in a tree is a phenomenon so ordinary that it might be overlooked, but this book peeks inside the hole to uncover its history and its uses. Brenner imagines the origin of the hole as a scratch mark left by a bear and proceeds to show how the scratch in the bark allows an infestation of insects, which attracts woodpeckers, whose holes leave the tree vulnerable to disease. The hole widens as the tree begins to die. Finally, the hole becomes home to a number of creatures, both before and after the tree falls over and become a hollow log. The book ends by stressing that both living and dead trees are important to the health of a forest. Leonard's illus- trative style tidies up nature's textures and smooths her rough edges; the result is somewhat stiff and literal, but it draws attention to details such as the grain of wood, the scales of a snake, or the morphology of an insect by making them crisp and regular. Colors are purer and sharper than those found in nature as well, evoking the kind of illustration found in children's science magazines and featuring larger than life close-ups and cutaways that add information to the text. To- gether, text and illustration provide a neatly bounded lesson on the significance of a common woodland sighting, as well as a curricularly useful exercise in sequenc- ing and cause and effect. KC

BRIAN, KATE The VClub. Simon, 2004 280p ISBN 0-689-86764-6 $14.95 R Gr. 7-12 Upon her death, eccentric old Mrs. Treemont bequeathed $160,000 for a scholarship with a strange stipulation: the winner must meet all the usual qualifications of academic excellence and civic responsibility but must also "exemplify purity of soul and body." While the adults dither about what that might mean, the students jump to an immediate conclusion: the winner has to be a virgin. Four friends come up with a plan to demonstrate both their civic-mindedness and their purity by forming a service club for virgins only. Problems soon arise: is Kai, the presi- dent of the club, really a virgin? Why would Mandy, whose dad is ridiculously wealthy, even apply for the scholarship? How can Debbie, whose penchant for kissing has left her with a worse reputation than she realizes, prove that she is pure after all? Can Eva overcome her shyness and, scholarship or no scholarship, hook up with Riley, the only boy in the club? Tensions mount and finally explode in one of those unforgettable high-school parties that live in infamy for years after. 410 * THE BULLETIN

Brian has a keen ear for dialogue and an equally fine eye for gesture as she develops these strongly recognizable, though not cliched, characters. The virginity clause acts as an effective plot device for the author to explore the complex relationships of four very different girls trying to make good choices about sex, secrets, and speaking up in the context of families, friendships, and their dreams for the future. Though the ending wraps up too neatly and sweetly, things get very messy along the way, and readers get multiple perspectives on the ways friendships work and don't work and the ways families hang together and fall apart. There's nothing dark or edgy here; readers who enjoy books like The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (BCCB 12/01) will circulate this among their own V (or not) clubs. KC

BUTCHER, A. J. Spy High: Mission One. Little, 2004 [224p] Trade ed. ISBN 0-316-73759-3 $15.95 Paper ed. ISBN 0-316-73760-7 $6.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 6-10 Earth, circa 2060, is beset by a disturbing number of megalomaniacs and dastardly villains of all stripes. Rest easy, though, because Deveraux Academy is training teenagers to vanquish the forces of evil. The new recruits are coming along well- all except Bond Team, whose six members seem to be bent on emulating the solo efforts of their hero (James, of course) rather than working together as a unit. Having failed two rounds of simulated bad-guy bashing, they are sent on a "camp- ing trip" for some team-building. Out in the wild they run across an evil scientist who has already captured an alumni agent for genetic experimentation, and the teens are suddenly forced to cooperate to save their skins. Opening action quickly stalls in a protracted span of background setting and character introduction, and many pages ensue before the kids get back to business. James Bond may inspire the team (and the series), but forced repartee, cardboard villains, and cool but overused gadgetry owe more to DC Comics than to Fleming. The premise of teen crime fighters is ever a promising one, though, and now that the Bond Team has passed its test, it might be worth checking back to see if Mission Two will leave readers shaken or stirred. EB

CADNUM, MICHAEL Blood Gold. Viking, 2004 210p ISBN 0-670-05884-X $16.99 Ad Gr. 5-8 William Dwinelle is up to his "boot tops in tropical muck" in the "gold-fevered year of 1849," struggling through the Panamanian jungle with his friend Ben, bound for the placer mines of California. It's not wealth that William pursues, though, but justice for his friend Elizabeth, who has been left pregnant by the scion of the hometown's newspaper publisher, a young dandy who has hastily fled to avoid retribution arising from an unresolved duel. The journey West is im- peded by the vagaries of unscheduled shipping, perpetual shortage of funds, and entanglements with a host of colorful characters along the way. Ben is seduced and waylaid by the daughter of a shady theatrical manager, while William is caught up chasing a thief who turns out to be a very level-headed and alluring member of an eccentric family of prospective miners. William is not immune to the growing attraction of gold nuggets and dust, and as he ventures further up the coast and inland to the gold fields, he feels the urgency of Elizabeth's mission slipping away until, in the end, he finds his quarry dead and proves more than satisfied to send Elizabeth some cash and get on with his own life and romance. Cadnum's tale is a JUNE 2004 * 411 loose-jointed affair, with jerky transitions between episodes that leave readers wondering if they skipped a few pages here and there. A Dickensian parade of ruffians, con artists, and dreamers keeps things hopping, though, and fans of Kathleen Karr's adventure books might find this just their style. EB

CALETTI, DEB Honey, Baby, Sweetheart. Simon, 2004 [320p] ISBN 0-689-86765-4 $15.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 7-12 It's a summer of change for sixteen-year-old Ruby McQueen, who sheds her quiet reputation when she takes up with Travis Becker, daredevil motorcycle-riding son of the local rich family. Travis' charms lead Ruby to become a reckless aider and abettor ("I was fearless, because that's what he wanted me to be"), until finally she follows him into a criminal act that betrays an old friend. Her mother attempts to wrest her free of Travis' grip by getting her involved with the Casserole Queens, a group of senior citizens who meet weekly for book discussion, but it turns out that high drama lies there as well. One of its members, now rendered largely speechless by a stroke, turns out to be the long-ago sweetheart of the author whose autobiog- raphy they're reading, and the motley band embark on a wild plan: to spirit Lillian away from her nursing home and down the coast to her former love, who's waiting to be reunited with her. As she did in The Queen of Everything (BCCB 1/03), Caletti explores the conflicting, complicated impulses of the human heart with polish and penetration. Her portrait of Ruby, aware of her own weakness even as she succumbs to it and hurts those she loves most, is delicate and authentic, con- veying a sensitive understanding of character and of our ability to surprise our- selves in ways good as well as bad. Despite the thematic connections, there's rather a split between the infatuated-with-Travis plot and the road-trip story, but both adventures are wisely and richly drawn (and there's plenty of humor in the journey). This is a stylish and perceptive account of a young woman's developing perceptions of human frailty and human strength. DS

CART, MICHAEL, ed. Rush Hour: A Journalof Contemporary Voices. Volume 1: Sin. Delacorte, 2004 230p Library ed. ISBN 0-385-90166-6 $12.99 Paper ed. ISBN 0-385-73031-4 $9.95 R Gr. 7-12 Sin is the subject of the first volume of this unprecedented project in publishing for young adults-a print literary journal, including artwork, fiction, poetry, essays, and excerpts from novels by noted contemporary authors, to be published twice yearly. In this inaugural issue, authors and artists explore sins of omission and commission, private and public, realized and only wished for. Some are obvious, like the sexual sins of a naive girl being seduced by a sleazy roller-rink Casanova or a girl's seduction of her teacher so that she can get rid of obstacles on her way to a scholarship. Some ask more subtle questions, like is it sinful to work for an advertising agency that markets cigarettes to kids, or to perform Frankenstein-like experiments to try to reanimate dead animals? Is a hanging more sinful when it is suicide, or a lynching? Nikki Grimes gives poetic treatment to Biblical versions of sin, while Marc Aronson, Hazel Rochman, Tom Feelings, and Mark Podwal treat the sins of history and society through compelling nonfiction essays and artwork. Other entries look at war, sports, the classroom, and pornography as sites for one kind of sin or another. The effectively eclectic mix of genres opens the possibility 412 * THE BULLETIN for dialogue about the varying effectiveness of certain forms to move emotions and influence the mind in different ways. Though it is too early to tell whether the journal will live up to its own press as a "cutting edge literary journal of contemporary voices," the first volume provides enough edginess and currency to generate discussion on the many levels and guises of sin; teen book groups will welcome this and future volumes which promise to focus with similar diversity on topics like "Bad Boys," "Reckless," and "Face." KC

CHIBBARO, JULIE Redemption. Atheneum, 2004 [272p] ISBN 0-689-85736-5 $16.95 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 8-10 Authorities under the local baron have taken Eric Applegate away in the night and either murdered him or sent him into exile, and now, after Lily Applegate's family has been discovered harboring a religious rabble-rouser in their barn, Lily and her mother, Sarah, are forced to take passage to the colonies. They embark, but they promptly discover that the baron himself is aboard and intends to use the ship full of displaced dissidents as slave labor mining for gold. Here the sixteenth-century lye-soap opera begins in earnest. Lily's mother is seduced by the baron; the baron's son Ethan turns against his father and befriends Lily. When they arrive in the New World, Lily's mother wanders off while Lily and Ethan go bathing (a la The Blue Lagoon); Lily follows and gets lost; Ethan follows Lily and saves her; they are both found in the forest by Eric, who has been saved from a massacre and adopted by friendly Indians. Ethan goes native; they all go searching for Sarah Applegate; they are captured by unfriendly Indians; and they are rescued by a long-lost neighbor. The whole drama climaxes in an overpacked scene in which Lily is nearly raped and ends up atop her mother's corpse in a pit of dead bodies while hastily reconciled Indian tribes attack Lily's attackers, and everyone still alive is happily reunited, ready for the joyous promise of Lily and Ethan's marriage. Lily narrates in the clipped, breathless prose of so many literary heroines of the readers' century: "When I stand, I can feel the knife against my leg through my pocket. I will not tell anybody I have it. I will keep my big mouth shut." There's not a lot of plausibility here, but for dark menace, bright romance, narrow escapes, and non- stop action, this is the place to be. EB

CLEMENTS, ANDREW The Report Card. Simon, 2004 173p ISBN 0-689-84515-4 $15.95 Ad Gr. 4-6 No one-not even her family-knows that Nora Rowley is shatteringly smart, since she decided early that showing her brilliance was a good way to get a lot of unwanted attention. Instead, Nora has carefully matched her academic progress to that of the "normal" kids at school and surreptitiously indulged her curiosity about alternative energy, educational theory, and astronomy in private reading and Internet research. Now her best friend, Stephen, is worried that his falling grades mean he's stupid. Angered that the flawed testing and grading standards used in her school district have so much power over her friend's self-esteem, Nora goes to war. She will fail every test in order to get the attention of the parents, teachers, and administrators who have the authority to change the system to work to the benefit of every child, not just of the "smart" ones. While some children will sympathize with Nora's desire to challenge educational convention, whether everyone will identify with her is another matter; she is portrayed as so blindingly JUNE 2004 * 413 brainy that struggling students could easily find her first-person narration more intimidating than illuminating. Another bar to widespread positive reception is that Nora's complicated plot is crunched into a standard-sized middle-grade novel, leaving the primary characters bare of development and readers potentially confused by Nora's constant tactical switchbacks. However, as a snapshot of the conflict surrounding standardized grading, this offering has a singular potency in that this brainiac character cares more about fostering gentleness and kindness than do most of the adults designated by law as responsible for promoting her growth. TC

COLEMAN, MICHAEL On the Run. Dutton, 2004 [208p] ISBN 0-525-47318-1 $15.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 6-9 Luke is a young but experienced petty thief and lockpicker whose career takes a darker turn when he gets unwittingly involved with a car theft that results in his capture, the injury of the car's angry owner (who broke his leg pursuing Luke), and Luke's likely incarceration. He's offered one more chance, however, if he demonstrates his remorse and willingness to make reparations to the victim's family by taking the injured man's place as a guide runner to his blind daughter, Jodi, who is training to run in the London Marathon. While initially put off by Jodi's father's bitterness, Luke finds himself enjoying running with lively Jodi and looking forward to their event in the Marathon-until the older boys who stole the car start blackmailing Luke into their criminal plans by threatening to harm Jodi. This British import is an old-fashioned story chock-a-block with cliches of disabil- ity drama ("You've taught us that we haven't got a blind girl for a daughter, we've got a daughter who just happens to be blind") and tales of juvenile reformation ("You may not like the system, Luke, but it's giving you a damn sight more of a chance than you're giving it"). Still, there's a reason why these are popular plots, and Coleman moves the story along briskly and dramatically, working Luke's shift- ing loyalties and the tension of his dilemma to particularly good effect. Readers willing to overlook the hackneyed plot may find this a readable step up from the junior-high crime dramas of Willo Davis Roberts and Donna Jo Napoli. DS

DEMI The GreatestPower; written and illus. by Demi. McElderry, 2004 [32p] ISBN 0-689-84503-0 $19.95 Reviewed from galleys R 6-9 yrs Fictional boy emperor Ping, introduced in Demi's The Empty Pot, needs a wise prime minister to help him make his kingdom "as harmonious as the heavens." He invites all the children of the land to propose the greatest power in the world, and at a celebration the following year the children parade their choices. Sugges- tions range from weapons and beauty, to technological innovations and money, but the little girl who brings the lotus seed holding Eternal Life that "continues from seed to seed, forever and ever in perfect harmony," is clearly the wisest child of all the land. Although the doll-like figures and liberal use of gold touches are trademark Demi, the layout is simple (large circles framing the scenes on each single page), backgrounds are delicate in creamy textured brocade, and the palette is restrained, with expanses of beige and aqua pastel space calming the bright reds and fuchsias of buildings and costumes. Although the thought-provoking moral is the overall intent of this title, the panoply of Chinese inventions (e.g., printing press, water clock, seismograph, gunpowder) may prove for many listeners to be as 414 * THE BULLETIN intriguing as the story itself. When muscle-flexing and one-upmanship threaten to carry the day, try this tale of gentler, mightier power. EB

DEVILUERS, JULIA How My Private,PersonalJournalBecame a Bestseller. Dutton, 2004 [192p] ISBN 0-525-47283-5 $15.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 5-8 When a mixup means Jamie Bartlett's private writing gets handed in to her En- glish teacher as an assignment, the result is a life-changing event: the teacher is so smitten with Jamie's story that it gets not only classroom acclaim but a recommen- dation to an agent; the manuscript turns out to be a hot commodity, leading to a bidding war and high-profile publication and making Jamie the new teen phenomenon. Jamie's thrilled at the success of her beloved heroine, the everyday girl Isabella who changes into superhero IS and fights the evils of high-school mean- ness with her "Flick" of positivity, but she's also stunned by the whirl of publicity appearances, awards shows, and eager mob of fans who are apparently convinced that fourteen-year-old Jamie has all the answers to life's problems. Youthful bestsellerdom is certainly an appealing notion, and readers will warm to the high- powered world that it opens up for Jamie, even if she's not entirely at ease there. Readers who feel at the mercy of their peers will also relish seeing a method created, even if it's in a fiction-within-a-fiction, that evens the score. Unfortunately, those benefits are set in a narrative so overburdened with contrivance that sus- pending disbelief becomes a considerable chore, especially since Jamie's novel is itself a fairly lackluster proceeding, and the climax is forced and purposive. None- theless, young people whose dreams of insta-fame revolve around writing rather than rock bands may find this a pleasingly untaxing exploration of their fantasy. DS

DYER, HEATHER The Fish in Room 11; illus. by Peter Bailey. Chicken House/ Scholastic, 2004 158p ISBN 0-439-57975-9 $15.95 R Gr. 3-5 Toby lives in the attic of The Grand, a seaside hotel palace fallen into disrepair. A foundling, left on the bed in number twenty-three some years ago, he has been brought up by the hotel staff and earns his place by doing whatever jobs the hotel manager, Mr. Harris, assigns him. Toby's circumscribed existence undergoes a startling transformation when he makes friends with Eliza Flot, a young mermaid living with her parents in a cave under the pier. After a gift from Eliza's mother puts Toby in the spotlight and endangers the merfolk, Toby sneaks the Flots into the hotel and hides them from hordes of treasure seekers who have invaded the beach. Nigel, Harris' sneaky son, discovers the Flots' true nature and tells his father; Mr. Harris schemes to exploit the merpeople through exhibits and experiments, but a last-minute escape discredits him and puts the Flots far beyond his reach. The humorous plot is farfetched but cohesive, well supported by the wholesome charm of the innocent Toby and his good-natured friends. The carefree writing, replete with dialogue, is well shaped for reading aloud, and the black-and- white line drawings have a jolly insouciance that suits the cheery tone of the text. The saving of the sometimes cheerily oblivious Flots is not surprising, but the redemption of Nigel is another kettle of very satisfying fish. Younger fantasy readers, as well as grownups seeking a chapter-by-chapter bedtime story, will appreciate this just slightly suspenseful, good-humored story. JMD JUNE 2004 * 415

EMMETT, JONATHAN Someone Bigger; illus. by Adrian Reynolds. Clarion, 2004 [2 8p] ISBN 0-618-44397-5 $16.00 Reviewed from galleys R 3-5 yrs Sam and his dad have made a kite, but when it comes time to fly it, Sam's dad insists that Sam isn't big enough to hold onto it himself. As it turns out, Dad isn't quite the right size to fly the kite either, as he is whisked away, Piglet-fashion, into the sky. Despite Sam's insistence that he be allowed to hold the string, Dad re- peats that the kite needs "someone bigger," and he is eventually joined in the air by a variety of noble and ignoble adults trying to bring the errant kite to ground, including a postman, a bank robber, a bride and groom, some animals from the zoo, and some hapless firemen. In the end, Sam himself catches hold of the kite and pulls everyone back to earth, proving himself to be just the right size for his kite after all. The text combines rhyming couplets with rhythmic counternotes for a smooth readaloud; Sam's refrain will soon have listeners joining in as they delight in the familiar structure of the cumulative tale. The illustrations feature chunky figures with comma-shaped noses and dashes for mouths who seem re- markably unperturbed at their unscheduled flight; only the kangaroo registers any sort of emotion at being yanked skyward, and its expression is one of unrestrained delight. Floppy bodies of traditional neighborhood heroes cruising out of control and hanging on for dear life will produce grins on top of rueful "I told you so's"; this is a gentle triumph for kids who've had it up to their diminutive heights with condescending adults telling them they're not big enough for one thing or another. KC

ENGLISH, KAREN Hot Day on Abbott Avenue; illus. by Javaka Steptoe. Clarion, 2004 [3 2 p] ISBN 0-395-98527-7 $15.00 Reviewed from galleys R 5-8 yrs "Hot days sure can make tempers short," says neighbor Miss Johnson, observing the spat between former best friends Kishi and Renee (Kishi bought the last blue ice pop from the ice cream man, even though she knew blue was Rende's favorite). Despite gentle attempts at peacemaking by the neighbors, the two girls sigh and sneer and sulk at each other from their front yards and porches throughout the overheated summer day. The magical sound of a jump-rope chant drifting down the street lures them both over for a session of double-dutch, however, and the energy and camaraderie of jumping rope cools the girls' tempers; when the ice cream man comes around and Kishi once again buys the last blue pop, she shares it with her friend. English's atmospheric text has the slow, sultry pace of a humid day, but it also understands the sudden invigoration a new event can provide; while kids may think Renee is letting Kishi off easy (since she's still a whole blue pop ahead of Renee), they'll understand that the pleasures of icy blue slurping ("Pale blue juice drops down their arms-all the way down to their elbows") can overcome such petty arithmetic. Steptoe's arresting illustrations rely largely on cut paper, assembled for maximum dimensionality and enhanced with bits of string, wood, and other elements. The details of the collage sometimes overpower the compositions-the dramatic textures are as evident in the background as the foreground-but the multilayered faces are strong-featured and powerful, and the girls' blue-teethed final grins add a welcome touch of humor. This doesn't have quite 416 * THE BULLETIN the polish ofJoosse's Hot City, reviewed below, but audiences will sympathize with the falling-out-with-a-friend blues even as they long for their own blue popsicles. DS

FAGAN, CARY The Fortress ofKaspar Snit. Tundra, 2004 16 7p Paper ed. ISBN 0-88776-665-X $8.95 R Gr. 4-6 An obscure evil genius has mustered a clandestine army and ten black helicopters to nocturnally airlift Rome's glorious fountains and hustle them to his dark fortress far beyond the Carpathian Mountains in the last uninhabited part of Europe. Only four people (Eleanor, Solly, Daisy, and Manfred Blande) know that the fountain- filching mastermind is Kaspar Snit and that this is his revenge on the Blande family for having him to dinner in Rome six years before and-the agony!-calling him "nice." Snit's two-edged master plan is to deprive the world of its beauty and Manfred Blande (an expert on the design, construction, and maintenance of fountains) of his livelihood. Even worse, with Kaspar Snit's final vindictive theft of the Blande family fountain, a precious heirloom is lost: an amulet that confers on its owners the ability to fly. Italy will commence global warfare in aid of her pur- loined fountains unless the Blandes don capes and goggles and become "Googoo- dad, Googoo-mom, Googoo-sis, and Googoo-man. The invincible four!" Disbelief is suspended and then poked at with sticks in the straightfaced Pinkwater style of almost-rational explanations for impossible events. Tropes of secrecy and self- knowing lurk in the plotlines, deepening the reader's enjoyment of the story. Best of all, each major character exhibits three whole dimensions-even the villain, who demonstrates his delicious roundedness by mocking all attempts to rescue his soul. Replete with evil cackles, this is a readaloud or readalone that older elemen- tary students will relish. TC

FISHER, CATHERINE The Oracle Betrayed: Book One of the Oracle Prophecies. Greenwillow, 2004 34 1p ISBN 0-06-057157-8 $16.99 R* Gr. 6-10 Mirany is a handmaiden in service to the god of the Oracle; she is one of the Nine who see to the god's daily needs. Mirany's task involves more than placing offer- ings of food and oils, however; she is the Bearer, and her job is to carry the shallow bronze vessel containing the scorpions that indicate the god's presence. Fisher has constructed a seamless fantasy world combining elements of ancient Greek and Egyptian mythology and ritual. The main characters are young adults who already bear the burden of adult responsibility: Mirany is a conflicted acolyte only just realizing her own divine gifts, and Seth, her reluctant companion, is a scribe intent on making his and his poverty-stricken family's way in the world. A dying man reveals to Mirany that Hermia-Speaker for the Oracle and thus the voice of the god-is corrupt, and Mirany's determination to expose the duplicitous Speaker drives the plot forward. While the reader will know the god does indeed exist (his musings open each of nine sections), Mirany does not, and her discovery that she is one of the god's chosen both intrigues and horrifies her. Her link to the divine compels her to search for the reincarnation of the god on earth, the Archon, and makes her the target of Hermia and her lover/collaborator, General Argelin. Against a complexly constructed backdrop of underground tombs, forbidden temples, and gods who reveal their presence whenever the whim strikes them, the author serves up a tense, suspenseful tale peopled by characters driven by the most basic and JUNE 2004 * 417 understandable (if not always laudable) motives. This is a fantasy so fully imag- ined that readers will find themselves holding their breaths until the dangerous moments have passed. Be ready to field questions about when the next install- ment in this trilogy is due. JMD

Fox, HELEN Eager. Lamb, 2004 [208p] Library ed. ISBN 0-385-90903-9 $17.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-385-74672-5 $15.95 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 5-8 The Bell family's trusty butler robot, Grumps, has burned out his timer. Having lost their collective patience with soup for breakfast but finding themselves reluctant to rid themselves of a familiar presence, they accept an offer from an inventor friend to "raise" his new model EGR3 ("Eager"), which will accrue knowledge and understanding even as it assists Grumps in his work. Style-conscious teenager Fleur Bell would have preferred a top-of-the-line BDC4 like her friend Marcie's dazzling new "Boadicea," which seems more like a chum than a helper, but while awkward, rubbery Eager develops nicely as a member of the family, Boadicea and other BDC4s built by the megalith LifeCorp begin to evince some disturbing behaviors and eventually take their owners hostage. Considering the dramatic possibilities in robotic coups, there's a disappointing lack of action here. Sporadic interludes of philosophizing about free will and human nature are pertinent but drawn out, and the entanglements of rival robot designers are stiffly knit together. Still, Fox shines at times with flashes of humor and tenderness, as when Eager learns that sticky babies cannot be cleaned in a washing machine, and when the Bells mourn the passing of Grumps and don't know how to break the sad news to his kitchen friends ("Who's going to tell the kettle?"). Middle-schoolers who pre- fer their household machinery creepy should look into Ray Bradbury's "The Veldt," but fans of the benign Commander Data may enjoy meeting this sentient literary cousin. EB

FRITZ, JEAN The Lost Colony of Roanoke; illus. by Hudson Talbott. Putnam, 2004 58p ISBN 0-399-24027-6 $16.99 R Gr. 4-8 When the sixteenth-century English crown was less interested in colonizing the New World than in protecting any potential resources from Spanish claim, the island of Roanoke (in present-day North Carolina) seemed a likely staging area for journeys into the interior. Attempts to establish a toehold were, however, frustrated by storms, poor agricultural timing, dangerous shoal waters, political ma- neuvering, foreign wars, and botched encounters between settlers and native peoples-a combination of challenges common enough along the Atlantic coast, but which morphed into mystery and probable disaster at Roanoke. Fritz reviews the known background of the colony in three well-organized chapters, and in the closing "Clues" discusses theories concerning the complete disappearance of the abandoned settlers and efforts over the centuries to reconstruct their fate. Jane Yolen and Heidi Stemple have visited this ground in Roanoke: The Lost Colony (BCCB 11/03), casting the mystery in a solve-it-yourself format. Fritz employs an approach more traditional but no less engaging, leavened by a conversational tone and mildly sarcastic asides that keep the action clipping; she also discusses a recent theory, absent from Yolen's work, concerning Sir Francis Walsingham's effort to 418 * THE BULLETIN undermine Sir Walter Raleigh's land patent. Clean page design and Talbott's handsomely executed sea- and landscapes and wryly histrionic visual plays on sixteenth-century portraiture are appealing in their own right and aptly suited to Fritz's lively delivery. Kid-directed annotative notes, bibliography, and index are appended. EB

GERAS, ADELE, ad. Sleeping Beauty; illus. by Christian Birmingham. Orchard, 2004 64 p ISBN 0-439-58180-X $18.95 M 6-9 yrs In this elaborate retelling of this classic tale, Geras (who cites in her introduction Perrault's seventeenth-century La belle au bois dormant) stays with the tradition- ally emphasized elements of the plot: at a long-awaited baby princess' christening, an uninvited and insulted wicked fairy curses the child with "a life cut short." The curse is mitigated by a good fairy's charm of a hundred-year sleep, after which the princess will wake, "and it will be her destiny to be happy." The text is overwritten and often overexplanatory, sacrificing the forthright language and streamlined plot that makes traditional tales effective in the first place; the elaborations here are disappointingly pedestrian, and they add little to already available and more distinctly executed versions. Birmingham's illustrations, some color and some mono- chromatic, are awash with glittery sparkles and manifestations of light that add a tactile sensibility to the images. The color illustrations unfortunately echo the fulsome tone of the text, so much so that the fairy-tale glamour often overwhelms the compositions. The black-and-white images fare somewhat better, since their compositions evince a sophisticated drafting style that adds grace to the vignettes. The faces of the characters, however, would do Mattel proud, and Princess Aurora in particular (especially in the sixteenth-birthday ball scene) bears a frightening resemblance to a Barbie doll. This splashily overwrought production will certainly appeal to well-meaning if misguided adults attracted to high production values; be helpful and direct them to the K. Y. Craft-illustrated Sleeping Beauty (BCCB 1/03) instead. JMD

GLEITZMAN, MORRIS Toad Rage. Random House, 2004 [17 6p] Library ed. ISBN 0-375-92762-X $16.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-375-82762-5 $14.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-6 See this month's Big Picture, p. 405, for review.

GOODMAN, SUSAN E. The Truth aboutPoop;illus. by Elwood H. Smith. Viking, 2004 4 0p ISBN 0-670-03674-9 $15.99 R Gr. 3-6 People don't generally ask themselves if they know much about poop, but if they did, they'd realize they don't, and Susan Goodman is here to rectify the deficit, bravely proclaiming, "It's time to take poop out of the closet." The book divides itself into three main sections, the first discussing the wonders of the animal world's defecatory habits ("Geese poop, on average, once every 12 minutes"), the second discussing human habits and practices through the centuries (Japanese women use almost three times as much toilet paper as Americans), and the third discussing the uses to which poop has been put ("At the Moose Dropping Festival, people can JUNE 2004 * 419 buy moose poop gifts to bring home"). While the material is largely a concatena- tion of trivia, it's genuinely original and interesting information that succeeds in taking its subject past the "Ew" barrier and into a broader biological context. Cheerfully irreverent formatting invigorates each paragraph with lively oversized keywords, while Smith's manically upbeat cartoons wander indomitably through their poop-filled world and the text. An afterword describes the author's research (including some brazen acknowledgment of personal experience) and provides some books and a website for further exploration. This could entice reluctant readers, add hilarity to a biology curriculum, or give kids ammunition for just sitting around shooting the-well, you know. DS

GRAY, KES Cluck O'Clock; illus. by Mary McQuillan. Holiday House, 2004 32p ISBN 0-8234-1809-X $16.95 R 4-8 yrs Up at four o'cluck in the morning, this band of spotted, speckled, and squiggled chickens has quite a busy day ahead of them. They must eat, visit, perch, stroll, peck, and even engage in a bit of hijinx at the expense of the local ducks, each agenda item performed according to a precise schedule. The lighthearted mood darkens ever so slightly into suspense as the girls await their nightly visit from Olga, the fox, but Colin, the rooster, chases the smelly intruder away so that the hens can get their four hours of zzzzs in peace and quiet. Divided into mostly hourly, but sometimes minute-by-minute, segments, the chickens' day seems long, but the rhyming text and the mood shift keep the text from feeling overextended. The illustrations unify the chickeny theme: folk-art colors in hen hues dominate the landscapes (if not the hens themselves, who sport such colors as turquoise, violet, and yellow with blue spots), dry-brush cross-hatching makes the textures seem covered with chicken scratch, and a little egg-shaped clock runs from segment to segment on tiny chicken legs. Quirky graphic and textual details about individual chickens, the farmer's habits, and the toothless watchdog (who wears glasses and looks hopelessly daffy) perk up the chronology and add sly little bits of humor, making this an unassuming offering that celebrates the fun of all day, everyday. KC

GREENE, BETTE I've Already Forgotten Your Name, Philip Hall; illus. by Leonard Jenkins. HarperCollins, 2004 [17 6p] Library ed. ISBN 0-06-051836-7 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-051835-9 $15.99 Reviewed from galleys M Gr. 4-7 Beth Lambert is back after a more than a two-decade absence, and although Leonard Jenkins' artwork has given her and Philip an updated, slightly edgier look, her narrative attitude and so-SO-wholesome shenanigans are an awkward blast from the past. There's a wispy story line regarding the presidency of the girls' Pretty Pennies club, which has fallen under draconian leadership while Beth was out of town. There's another brief diversion involving Beth and Philip's investigation into the disappearance of brother Luther's singing piglet, but the mystery is dispatched in a single interview. The main event springs from a misunderstanding between Beth and Philip, which results in his challenging a nonexistent arm-wrestler from a neighboring town to a grudge match that will restore Walnut Ridge, Arkansas to rightful athletic renown. Events are wildly out of balance, with dispensable plot 420 * THE BULLETIN

lines given too much attention, e.g., an overcooked gag about mustard-ing hot dogs, while others, such as the hunt for the singing piglet, are left underdone. Language is frequently stilted ("They were screaming and pulling on their hair just like Philip Hall was a Country-and-Western singing star or something"), with a style that struggles in vain for a natural narrative voice. For a more tightly written series featuring African-American girls, try Sandra Belton's Ernestine and Amanda books instead. EB

GUIBERSON, BRENDA Z. Rain, Rain, Rain Forest; illus. by Steve Jenkins. Holt, 2004 32p ISBN 0-8050-6582-2 $16.95 R 5-8 yrs Youngsters living in drier climates may be surprised to see the complex web of life dependent on the regular storms of an equatorial rainforest. The present-tense narrative offers action-packed and animal-crammed descriptions of the residents' doings, livened up by onomatopoeic exclamations that evoke the sounds of the teeming biosystem. The muted greens and gray-blues of the cut- and torn-paper collages recall the damp, dim warmth of a downpour under the canopy, and the positioning of focal points in foreground and background space deepens each pros- pect and highlights luxurious textural details such as the ragged nap of fruitbat fur or the gleam of water droplets caught on a leaf. The repetition of miniaturized images from previous pages establishes the continuity of the interactive cycle. At the end, a brief visit by a scientist points up the potential value of yet undiscovered species from a medical and industrial outlook. No sources or suggestions for further reading are listed-a disappointing omission, since the intriguing variety of animalian behaviors described will certainly cause a run on the library rainforest section. TC

HAPTIE, CHARLOTTE Otto and the Flying Twins: The First Book of the Karmidee. Holiday House, 2004 304p ISBN 0-8234-1826-X $17.95 R Gr. 5-9 Inaccessible from the Outside, the enchanted City of Trees was built long ago by the Karmidee (the "magical people of all races") as a place to hide from humans, but humans eventually found a way inside and took control. By the time the City closed itself off once more, the Karmidee were marginalized from society, but after hundreds of years and no contact with the Outside, even the humans forgot what's "normal." To them, the perpetually cold and snowy Winter Gardens, the trampo- line-like Bouncing Pavements, and the crate birds large enough to make nests out of scrap metal are perfectly ordinary. Otto Hush lives in this City with his parents and his two baby sisters, and they were all considered terribly respectable people until the babies learned to fly instead of crawl. Suddenly, as Otto's house becomes a prison of closed windows and curtains and his family must face their hidden Karmidee roots, Mayor Crumb and Councillor Crink unveil their plans to remove "anything that is not Normal, respectable, possible, and modern" from the City. The first in a series, Otto's journey to stop Crumb and Crink resembles a twisting, turning road: you never know what's around the bend, but you know you'll want to keep going. Though Haptie's recondite style stalls the adventure at first, once the City's history is established, the story is free to take off. The City's quirky blend of normalcy and magic is an imaginative child's ideal world, with all of the comforts of home but none of the mundaneness, and Otto is an appealing hero in JUNE 2004 * 421

his subdued earnestness. There is enough action, humor, and lunacy for everyone, while underneath the portrayal of an oppressed people triumphing over their op- pressors (with understanding and not bloodshed as the result) is quite satisfying. Everything wraps up so neatly that it's hard to guess what to expect in the next book, but those who read the first will definitely be up for the ride. KH

HAUTMAN,PETE Godless. Simon, 2004 [208p] ISBN 0-689-86278-4 $15.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 7-12 "Why mess around with Catholicism," thinks Jason Bock, annoyed by his church youth group, "when you can have your own customized religion? All you need is a disciple or two. And a god." Jason finds his god in the town water tower, which he dubs "The Ten Legged One," and gets considerable mileage out of tweaking people with his new faith. Sometimes, though, his nerdy and intense friend Shin seems to be taking the whole Chutengodian (short for "Church of the Ten Legged God") thing too seriously, and when Jason and a few other disciples start making night pilgrimages to the top of the tower, Shin, who can't manage to scale the heights, gets increasingly bitter at his exclusion. A transcendent night wherein the teens break into the water tower for a swim nearly ends in tragedy when one of the boys slides off the top of the tower; that's not enough to warn off Shin, who's determined to make it to the top of his sacred water tower, even if it's without his now thoroughly grounded friend. The book expertly captures the blend ofsnarky humorousness and seriousness with which young people often launch ideas-though Jason doesn't believe in the Ten Legged God per se, he's making a genuine inquiry into the nature of belief, and he's also sincerely struggling with questions about the consequences of his actions. The nocturnal rendezvous at the water tower have genuine allure, despite and because of their danger, and it's utterly believable that this lunatic idea, with its accompanying grandeur, brings an unexpected collection of people together; it's also realistic that this togetherness doesn't sustain itself after the last magical and disastrous night. The witty text and provocative subject will make this a supremely enjoyable discussion-starter as well as pleasurable read. DS

HERMES, PATRICIA Summer Secrets. Cavendish, 2004 141p ISBN 0-7614-5074-2 $15.95 Ad Gr. 4-8 Oppressed by the lassitude that accompanies a Mississippi summer, Missy and her two friends, Vanessa and Almay, struggle to keep themselves entertained through the long, hot days. Missy has more on her mind than the heat, however, as her mother is showing signs that her mental illness has returned. Over the course of the summer, Mama becomes increasingly distant and erratic in her behavior, to the point where she takes Missy and runs away with her to a hotel for a week without telling anyone. Missy tries to sort out her feelings about her mother, as well as about Almay's and Vanessa's growing interest in boys, and about the subtleties of racial segregation that she is expected to grow into as a child of the deep South in the late 1940s. Hermes' plot pacing and her prose reflect her considerable experience as a children's author, but her narrative never quite achieves a level of tension sufficient to create emotional power. The plot is eventful, to be sure, but the events try too hard to coax a thematic unity out of a series of relatively underdeveloped plot points: Missy is able to save the lives of a little boy from drowning and ofAlmay by preventing her from taking a fatal motorcycle ride with a drunken 422 * THE BULLETIN boy, but she is not able to keep her mother from becoming increasingly symptom- atic or to keep a wounded bird from dying, and the difference between these relative sites of agency is never commented or reflected upon. Most underdeveloped, however, is her relationship with Geneva, the black housekeeper who is Almay's mother and Missy's surrogate mother. Geneva is obviously important to Missy, but she never seems to develop as a character so much as a stereotype of alternately silent and harrumphing disapproval of the rascally behavior of both children and grownups. The book's theme is nonetheless an enduring one, and readers who appreciate the subtleties of quiet melodrama may go for this exploration of history. KC

HIGH, LINDA OATMAN Sister Slam and the Poetic Motormouth Road Trip. Bloomsbury, 2004 [250p] ISBN 1-58234-948-7 $16.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 7-12 Eighteen-year-old Laura Crapper, a "word-addicted/ cool-kid evicted/ fat chick/ who wanted to be a/ butt-kickin' shit-slingin'/ road poet," takes her poetry name of Sister Slam, grabs her best friend, Twig, and heads out on a rite-of-passage road trip. After a fiasco at a poetry slam, the girls head for New York, finding a knight in shining armor in the form ofJake, who takes them under his wing after totaling their car. Once in Manhattan, the girls become poetry sensations and revel in a glorious summer, but when Laura's father falls ill back home, she must leave New York-and perhaps Jake-behind. As a story, this is essentially a fairy tale, with fortunes good and bad raining from the skies and characters iconic rather than psychologically round, despite the earthbound events. High's pulsating rap bal- ladry makes it a vigorous and stylish outing, however. Her close-coupled lines interweave double and triple rhymes both internally and terminally, pounding to be read aloud, and the division of the story into wittily titled "lessons" ("Never Leave the Scene of a Pig that's Been Hit") makes sequential performance more possible and tempting. The unashamedly oversized heroine is a refreshing literary original right down to her missing tooth (knocked out on a red cinnamon heart), but her earthy rootedness blends seamlessly with the fantasy of a world where an impromptu rap at The Tavern on the Green parlays into poetic fortune sufficient to live on and where a kind and handsome rich guy offers endless generosity and true love. Readers who disdain more conventional narratives of tender romance or performance success will rejoice in the edgy and offbeat approach, which will allow them to keep their dignity while warming to the tender tale. DS

JACQUES, BRIAN The Ribbajack & Other Curious Yarns. Philomel, 2004 [17 6p] ISBN 0-399-24220-1 $16.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 4-8 In this collection of short stories, Jacques writes six odd and occasionally eerie tales of unearthly creatures on the prowl in boarding schools, high schools, and rural villages. In "The Ribbajack," a single boy terrorizes his boarding school until he manifests his hatred in monster form, only to have it suddenly turn against him, while another school bully gets his in "The Mystery of Huma D'Este" when he is picked out by a modern-day Medusa as the new addition to her collection of male statues. "The All Ireland Champion Versus the Nye Add" and "Rosie's Pet" com- JUNE 2004 * 423 bine tall-tale characters with legendary creatures (a mermaid and a werewolf, re- spectively) to tell the stories of one person ruined by his curiosity and another rewarded for hers. The girl in "A Smile and a Wave" finds out why not to visit school on the weekend when she meets a ghost who wants her to stay-forever- while the girl in "Miggy Mags and the Malabar Sailor" escapes from her murder- ous uncle with unusual help. The clunky characterizations, predictable conclusions, and unpolished feeling of some of the stories mar this collection, while the absence of true scares will annoy readers looking for the horror the book claims to have. However, the stories, written in the informal style of a loquacious English gent pulling favorites from his bag of tales, are quick reads with unusual premises, making this a good choice for reluctant readers and for reading aloud. Each story opens with a short poem that, while pedestrian, serves as a useful bridge into the narrative. Recommend this to anyone who enjoyed Jacques' other collection of stories, Seven Strange and Ghostly Tales (BCCB 12/91). KH

JINKINS, JIM Pinky Dinky Doo: Where Are My Shoes? Random House, 2004 [48p] (Step Into Reading) Library ed. ISBN 0-375-92712-3 $11.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-375-82914-8 $12.95 Paper ed. ISBN 0-375-82712-9 $3.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 2-3 "Where Are My Shoes?" is not only the title of the book, it's also the name of the story Pinky Dinky Doo makes up to tell her younger brother, Tyler. This story conveniently also features a girl named Pinky Dinky Doo, who needs to get to school but can't find her shoes, so she straps baloney on her feet with string beans. Once at school, it turns out that the other kids had similar problems this morning with similar consequences, so various feet are sporting melons, meatloaf, dough- nuts, or whatever the wearer could find in the cupboard or fridge. This turns out to be a blessing when the cafeteria proves to be serving shoes for lunch: Pinky Dinky cleverly suggests that the kids "eat our food shoes and wear our shoe food!" The entry-level comedy of inappropriateness and the action are somewhat young for the more sophisticated demands of vocabulary, concept, and layout, and the figures have a bland if enthusiastic sameness throughout. Nonetheless, the sheer absurdity of the visual contrast between the flat, trim-lined characters and the photographic world with which they interact will tickle some funnybones, and some youngsters will appreciate the silliness, pell-mell approach, and inclusion of diversions such as nonsense quizzes about the proceedings. Developing readers looking for a break may appreciate Pinky's jolly disregard for sensibility. DS

JONES, DIANA WYNNE Unexpected Magic: Collected Stories. Greenwillow, 2004 4 98p ISBN 0-06-055533-5 $16.99 R Gr. 6-9 In this collection of fifteen short stories (three of which are new to America) and one novella, Jones mixes modern realistic settings with futuristic places, parallel worlds, and classic fantasy landscapes. Though the stories are distinctly different, they revolve around some familiar characters-bossy or self-important adults; well- meaning but oblivious parents; intelligent and articulate cats; suspect authority figures; hapless thieves; evil wizards; and heroic children. All the tales end happily 424 * THE BULLETIN ever after, though not in the way you might expect. Transformation is a common thread in many stories, as a writer's word processor becomes her spaceship to a parallel world in "Nad and Dan adn [sic] Quaffy," and a veterinarian's dream about werewolves turns into an unsettling premonition in "The Master." Jones also uses narrators outside human society who are often refreshingly childlike in their reasoning: the cat in "What the Cat Told Me" explains how she and Boy were freed from an evil magician, while the service robot in "No One" tries to reprogram himself to understand the human world. While some of the stories take their strangeness to the point of being confusing, as in "The Fluffy Pink Toad- stool," Jones does have a knack for successfully confounding expectations. This talent works especially well in "The Green Stone" and "Enna Hittims," two humorous looks at traditional heroes seen in untraditional ways. Jones' writing is always straightforward, no matter what oddities she is describing, and her character-driven plots and inventive scenarios will appeal to most young fantasy fans. Though they may not enjoy every story in the collection, they'll undoubtedly find seveal worth their time. KH

JOOSSE, BARBARA Hot City; illus. by R. Gregory Christie. Philomel, 2004 32p ISBN 0-399-23640-6 $16.99 R 5-8 yrs Mimi and her younger brother, Joe, are restlessly enduring the city's summer heat, entertaining themselves by spying on the "blah blah ladies" (their mother and her friends) and buying snow-cones, until finally they find a respite "in the coooool library." There Mimi immerses herself in the books from "the Princess shelf" (Joe is firmly ensconced in the dinosaur section), finding liberation not only in the library's apparently air-conditioned interior but also in her princess fantasies of galloping through dark forests on a unicorn and foiling evildoers (Joe cruises by on a T. rex). The ending loses steam a bit, but otherwise the book is a rich and sensory evocation of the summertime fidgets, the oppressive heat that radiates from city concrete, and the delights of being well and truly taken out of oneself by a book; Joosse's easygoing first-person narration catches the authentic rhythms of front-step dialogue. Christie's acrylics are stunningly vivid, with faces of uncanny individuality caught photographically in moments of quick, authentic expression. His backgrounds make the city into abstracted striations of magenta, orange, and yellow, which glow with all the overbaked shimmer of an urban heat wave. There's a deliberate contrast with the refreshing library interior and even more with the text-free fantasy spreads, wherein a leafy glen provides the perfect backdrop for a luxuriantly garbed Mimi and her gleaming pink steed. Use this with Hesse's Come On, Rain (BCCB 4/99) for a look at ways to beat the heat, or just pull it out for shameless library promotion when summer starts cooking. DS

KRISHNASWAMI, UMA Naming Maya. Farrar, 2004 178p ISBN 0-374-35485-5 $16.00 R Gr. 4-6 Two years after the death of her grandfather, Maya and her mother travel from their New Jersey community to Chennai, India, to sell his home. Dealing with the recent divorce of her parents and sorting through complex issues of identity ("I'm American here, but in America, I'm Indian") are just some of the challenges Maya faces that summer. Upon arriving in Chennai, Maya is reacquainted with head- strong Kamala Mami, the family's long-time cook, who takes Maya under her care, telling her stories of past times and protecting her as they set about daily JUNE 2004 * 425 errands in the city; as Kamala Mami's memory begins to slip, only Maya recognizes the deterioration. Krishnaswami (author of the picture book Monsoon, BCCB 1/04) has written an engaging first novel, full of the pulsing sensory images of a bustling Indian city and the complex emotions of an eleven-year old Indian-Ameri- can girl. The careful depiction of Kamala Mami's condition and Maya's response to that condition is effectively constructed, and readers will easily respond to Maya's confusion, sadness, and anger. The cultural details woven throughout the story create a rich landscape for Maya to work through the challenges of a changing relationship with her mother, a sense of mourning for her father's absence, and a growing understanding of India, a "maddening, dazzling place" that "makes so many bits of my life fall together like a giant puzzle." This book is certain to appeal to fans of identity fiction not yet ready for Desai's Born Confised (BCCB 2/03). A glossary of Tamil terms is included. HM

LAKIN, PATRICIA Beach Day!; illus. by Scott Nash. Dial, 2004 32p ISBN 0-8037-2894-8 $15.99 R 3-7 yrs A quartet of reptilian buddies agree that iced lemonade just isn't taming the heat. "'Hot,' said Sam. 'Sunny,' said Pam. 'Sweaty,' said Will. 'Swim?' said Jill. 'BEACH!' said Sam, Pam, Will and Jill." They gather their gear and take off on a bicycle-built-for-four, but the attractive distractions of a playground, a picnic, and a nap delay their arrival at the shore. The sun is setting: "'No umbrellas,' said Sam. 'No snack bar,' said Pam. 'No chairs,' said Will. 'No people,' said Jill." No problem. They simply swim "by the light of the moon." Nash's olive-green crocs are certainly of amiable, fun-loving stock, with their broad, toothy grins, natty beach attire, and desire to grab the gusto from every situation. Ever so slightly muted peaches, blues, and greens darken almost imperceptibly as the day slips away, until the golden sand is painted with startling silhouette shadows of the four friends and the yellow sun dissolves in the sea, leaving the critters bathed in moon- and starlight. Although some of the vocabulary (e.g., swimsuits, sandwich, umbrellas) may preclude reading alone, oversize font, repetition, and picture clues should definitely encourage reading along. Snag this title for the summer fun display. EB

LAMSTEIN, SARAH HungerMoon. Front Street, 2004 [112p] ISBN 1-932425-05-5 $15.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-8 Sixth-grader Ruthie would love to be the sparkly center of attention, like her TV idol Lucille Ball, but her family barely seems to notice her: instead, her tightly wound parents focus their attention on Ruthie's younger brother Eddy, whose developmental issues make it difficult for him to meet his parents' expectations. It's especially Ruthie's hypercritical mother who turns life at home into a night- mare of tension, making Eddy's deficiencies the focus of every mealtime; though Ruthie hates the anger in her house and yearns for the greater acceptance of her loving grandmother, she finds it hard to avoid emulating her parents' abusive be- littling of her brother ("I was in that mean square dance everyone does around Eddy"). While the style in this '50s-set story sometimes leans into the overly artful from the creatively resonant (and the resolution has rather more hope than reality), Ruthie's present-tense narration is convincingly constrained yet affecting. Her yearning for something better, for herself and for Eddy, is touching and believable, 426 * THE BULLETIN but the book's particular originality is to admit Ruthie's own contribution to the "mean square dance"; the result is an avoidance of a too-simple bad/good dichotomy and an exploration of how frustration and unhappiness can spur on cruelty in anyone. Just about everyone has felt that impulse, family situation or no, so Ruthie's story should find many understanding readers. DS

LAYTON, NEAL Hot Hot Hot; written and illus. by Neal Layton. Candlewick, 2004 32p ISBN 0-7636-2148-X $15.99 R 4-7 yrs Ice Age mammoths Oscar (brown, medium tusks, tiny striped party hat) and Arabella (tan, grand tusks, teeny pink hair bow) couldn't be happier with "the snow, the ice, and the freezing arctic winds." Summer, however, is a different matter. First, there are the foliage allergies, then come the insects and dust, and finally the soaring temperature. Fans don't help, and a dip in the pond displaces the water, not the heat. Arabella resourcefully, if somewhat anachronistically, pro- duces a pair of scissors, and a haircut brings instant relief. The happy solution is emulated not only by other furry beasts but also by a cave guy who's been lurking in the background all the while. He gleefully doffs his animal pelt and romps around au naturel ("Wahey!") until the season changes again and the joke-and absolutely nothing else-is on him. The animals regrow their fur, but the cave guy, now as icy blue as the footprints he leaves in the snow, drags himself away chattering, "kkkkkkkkold!" Oscar and Arabella are roughly framed out by a mad scribble of wiry black lines and bulked up with a generous dollop of shaggily ap- plied color. The transformation of mammoths and friends from hirsute splendor to comfortable stubble, which then energizes the crew for volleyball and croquet, is a hoot. Of course it's the bare-bummed cave guy with his "farmer tan" who steals the show, and the kids who howl over David Shannon's equally uninhibited No, David!(BCCB 9/98) will form a conga line for Hot Hot Hot. EB

LEVINE, SHAR The Ultimate Bubble Book: Soapy Science Fun; by Shar Levine and Leslie Johnstone; illus. by Simon Shaw. Sterling, 2004 80p Paper ed. ISBN 1-4027-0042-3 $15.95 Ad Gr. 3-6 Bubble-blowing must be close to perfect entertainment: it's cheap and noncom- petitive, requiring little equipment and no particular talent or training. Now Le- vine and Johnstone offer scads of ideas to enhance the fun and edification of the pastime. Inquisitive blowers can observe color and duration, measure diameters and angles within clusters, and study the effects of temperature and tension. Fun- seekers can devise bubble paraphernalia, make bubbles inside bubbles, create bubble chains with a friend, and even make bubble candy. Appealing though the ideas may be, directions are not always as helpful as one might appreciate. A full four pages of introductory do's, don'ts, and safety concerns seem to serve the publisher's legal department rather than a reader with common sense. Three formulas for bubble solutions are unnecessary in view of the fact that none is specified for any of the projects and an economical plastic jar of the dime store variety serves just as well. A couple of suggestions will require amounts of solution that range from prodigious (a deep bowlful to immerse hands in up to the wrists) to the unrealistic (a wading pool filled three inches deep to encase a person in a bubble), or the help of an adult (just what bubble blowers want, to be sure). Nonetheless, ideas suit- able for indoor as well as outdoor recreation are included, and the perky cartoon JUNE 2004 * 427 pictures, one-to-three bubble-difficulty rating system, and reasonably lucid explanations of bubble behavior should give bubblers some fresh ideas. EB

LowRY, Lois Messenger. Lorraine/Houghton, 2004 169p ISBN 0-618-40441-4 $16.00 R Gr. 6-9 Bounded by Forest, a protective and yet also malicious guardian, Village welcomes newcomers and offers acceptance and a fresh start to those who were unwanted in their previous homes. Matty is one such person, finding his way to Village after fleeing terrible abuse. Since then, he has become indispensable as a messenger between Village and other communities, for only Matty can navigate Forest without risking the dangers it presents to others. His idyllic Village, however, is becoming less and less of a haven: the previously generous community wishes to close Village to outsiders, and Forest has grown even more threatening. While Matty tries to discover what brought about these rapid changes and deal with a surprising power he accidentally discovers within himself, he must make a last journey through Forest to warn others that Village is closing. Will he make it through the suddenly hostile Forest alive? Lowry returns to familiar themes in this story of a utopia gone dys-, but this community's peace is not, like that in The Giver (BCCB 4/93), built on lies or dubious moralizing, and its downward spiral comes not from inevitability but from the poisoning influence of what one person brought with him from the outside. Also unlike other ruined utopias, this one gets to heal; as the community trades their souls in exchange for shallower, but more visible, assets, Matty's special gift and his ultimate sacrifice save them from losing their deepest selves. Lowry's writing, especially the domestic details and the dialogue, is simple and comfortable, while her story has enough mystery and action to carry the slower, more touching moments. The ending, with its quick reversal of Village back to its original, peaceful state, is anticlimactic, though Matty's death is powerful and poignant in its own right. Fans of dys- and utopian fiction who are tired of society's evils always winning will appreciate Lowry's Village. KH

LYNCH, CHRIS The Gravedigger's Cottage. HarperCollins, 2004 [208p] Library ed. ISBN 0-06-623941-9 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-623940-0 $15.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 7-10 Sylvia McLuckie is startled when her routine-oriented father suddenly uproots her and her little brother, Walter, to live in an old seaside cottage; she's downright disturbed to discover that the locals now consider her father "the Digger," as they've moved into the Gravedigger's Cottage, which reportedly attracts people with a history of tragedy. She's particularly upset because the report is true: death took Sylvia's mother and then, only a few years later, Mr. McLuckie's second wife, Walter's mother; their old house was surrounded by a burial ground of beloved pets, lost when a moment's irresponsibility or misguided love led to tragedy. Four- teen-year-old Sylvia has held things together through all this ("It was my job to keep things right, to be sensible and smart and centered"), but now her father is turning unrecognizable, determinedly engaging in inept home improvements to fight against the "leakage" and "chaos" he sees as encroaching on the family resi- dence ("The house is not tight . . . it's not secure, it's not impenetrable to the elements, the way a house should be"). The action in this psychological drama is largely implied and the chronology of events, with accounts of pet death after pet 428 * THE BULLETIN

death interspersed with the contemporary narrative, somewhat challenging to sort out; the book's gothic undertones lose their taut intensity with the resolution. This is, however, a nervous, atmospheric tale of the pain of terrible loss and the understandable but mistaken desire for self-protection. Polly Horvath has also touched on this subject, in Everything on a Waffle (BCCB 3/01), but while Horvath's protagonist was coolly intellectual, Lynch's narrator is warmly stubborn. Sylvia is authentic as a bossy older sister, the rock of her small family; utterly flummoxed by the changes in her father and determined to drag him back into the family, she plainly challenges his long policy of shutting out bad things: "We will dwell on this. Now. I am tired of not dwelling. I think we have to dwell on something, Dad." Many young people have experienced their own bereavements of death and separation, and they'll find rare sympathy and insight here. DS

LYON, STEVE The Gift Moves. Houghton, 2004 230p ISBN 0-618-39128-2 $15.00 Ad Gr. 6-9 Thirteen-year-old Path Down the Mountain is driven to succeed as a weaver not only by her talent for the trade but also by her need to prove her worth to the mother who abandoned her five years ago. Bird Speaks is a baker by heritage but he longs to be more, and he strikes up a friendship with Path in defiance of the wishes of Path's trade-mistress, the famous weaver Heron, and of his own mother. Bird's desire to help Path and Path's need for and fear of love connect the two young people in a friendship that antagonizes Heron and precipitates a crisis that, when resolved, leaves Path free of her emotional burden and Bird awake to his true place in the community. The gift-based society portrayed here, a post-apocalyptic culture in which goods are given away rather than traded for profit, provides an interesting foil for our own culture and may cause readers to see their own acquisi- tiveness differently. Alternating chapters from the viewpoints of the two primary characters widen the potential readership. Path's character is less fully developed than Bird's, however; the layers of her experience peel off awkwardly via an impromptu therapy session with Bird, and the girl thus revealed is less believable as a result. Also, Heron's removal from the relationship triangle is simply too convenient. Still, readers may overlook these flaws, since the well-developed imaginary society and Bird's experience therein provide quite enough opportunity for reflec- tion. TC

MAcLEAN, CHRISTINE KOLE Mary Margaretand the Perfect Pet Plan. Dutton, 2004 168p ISBN 0-525-47183-9 $15.99 R Gr. 3-5 Being eight-and-a-half doesn't get you a whole lot of perks. Mary Margaret knows: she has no control over her bedtime, her older brother's behavior, or her parents' decision to have another baby. To make up for everything she's missing, Mary Margaret wants a pet-the fuzzy kind. Unfortunately, Dad is allergic to anything with dander, which rules out hairy beasts. Besides, what Mary Margaret really wants is to get back her used-to-be-fun mom, who is now in the blimp-belly, hormone-roller-coaster stage of pregnancy. Mary Margaret's precocious perspi- cacity makes her eight-year-old antics all the funnier as she brings home a variety of no-go animals and engages in an aggressive pro-pet propaganda campaign. Char- acterizations of M.M. and her family are dead on; the chief delight here is found neither in the tight plotting nor in the highly competent wordcraft (though both JUNE 2004 * 429

are admirable) but rather in the surprising depth demonstrated by each character in this short, fast-paced novel. Read it to a class or give it to your favorite young animal lover-it's a sure hit either way. TC

MUNRO, ROXIE Doors; written and illus. by Roxie Munro. Chronicle, 2004 22p ISBN 1-58717-247-X $15.95 R Gr. K-4 Imagine a field trip in which you're invited to poke and pry about in places generally considered off-limits-in the cabinets of a fire station, in a backstage dressing room, below deck on a sailboat, in the tool chest at the repair shop, even through the hatch of a space station. Munro introduces each of ten double-page spreads with a list to the left of items to seek; on the right is a lift-the-flap door, through which the search begins. Most scenes are devilishly detailed enough to pose a challenge, and the multiple layers of doors, gates, lids, covers, and other hinged devices are, themselves, often cleverly concealed or hidden in plain sight. Here are the combined pleasures of an I Spy-styled picture puzzle and effective paper engi- neering. Step right in. EB

MYERS, WALTER DEAN Shooter. Amistad/HarperTempest, 2004 223p Library ed. ISBN 0-06-029520-1 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-029519-8 $15.99 R* Gr. 7-12 Myers' Monster (BCCB 5/99) examined the culpability of a young man involved in a robbery gone wrong; in Shooter, he turns to the complicated aftermath of a school shooting, reconstructing the event and its causes through interviews, newspaper articles, and journal entries. It's gradually revealed that the subjects of the interviews, Cameron Porter and Carla Evans, were friends with Leonard Gray, and that Len opened fire on his schoolmates, killing one, and then turned one of his guns on himself. That's simple, if tragic, enough, but what's immensely complicated is the intricate web of human relationships and emotions that brought Cameron and Carla to school with an armed Leonard that morning. Even more interesting are the human differences and inclinations in interviewers (psycholo- gists and law enforcement officials in a Safety Commission created after the event) as well as interviewees that make each interview unique in its approach, revela- tions, and omissions; some pursue racial angles (Cameron is black, the other two kids white), some sexual, some seek to counsel, some to condemn. Newspaper articles offer wild speculation and a key bit of information absent from the interviews-the name of Len's victim, who was also his prime tormentor; the extended section of Len's hand-scrawled journal reveals a young man of seriously, clinically disordered thinking and barely dammed floods of hostility. Myers is superb in his refusal to grant any of his players full or reliable possession of the truth: the adults sometimes clearly miss the mark (to one psychologist's explanation that the power guns confer is illusory, Cameron bluntly replies, "Guns are real power. We wouldn't be here if they weren't"), but the kids are also sometimes self-deceiving as well as confused. Putting the pieces together will challenge readers intellectually even though the reading is quite literarily accessible (though Len's journal is a bit more difficult to unravel); even more provocative will be the discovery that the pieces make different pictures to different readers. As a consequence, this title will make an outstanding catalyst for discussion of a multitude of questions about ethics, loyalty, judgment, authority, and bias, as well as a terrific partner to, say, Oates' 430 * THE BULLETIN

Big Mouth and Ugly Girl (BCCB 6/02) or even Dostoevsky's Crime and Punish- ment and an absorbing read in its own right. DS

MYRACLE, LAUREN ttyl. Amulet/Abrams, 2004 [22 4p] ISBN 0-8109-4821-4 $15.95 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 7-12 Perhaps it was an experiment that had to happen sooner or later-a novel written entirely in instant messages. Angela (Snow Angel), Madigan (mad maddie), and Zoe (zoegirl) are best friends as they enter tenth grade, and remain so (at least until Thanksgiving break, when the novel ends), despite some setbacks. Among the setbacks are the usual things-Madigan is being seduced into a friendship with the popular but very nasty Jana-and some less than usual things-Zoe is being seduced, literally, by her English teacher. On the pretense of engaging her in deep spiritual discussions, inviting her to Young Life, and taking her to church, the twenty-four-year-old teacher is itching to get Zoe into a hot tub. The girls engage in discussions about these and other things with remarkable candor; despite being "together 4ever," they're often quite catty, and not just about other people. Maddie ridicules Zoe mercilessly for her interest in Christianity, and Zoe and Angela are unsympathetic to the vagaries of Maddie's admittedly off-balance love life. The limitations of the form prevent real attachment to the characters, who are differen- tiated largely by their results on an Internet quiz and who emerge as little more than types (Zoe the mild and serious, Maddie the wild and sassy, and Angela the bland and conciliatory), and there is little clue as to what holds these three together. The IM code is fun, and most of it's easy enough to figure out (for instance, "18r" obviously means "later"); some is limited to the initiated, though, and there is, tellingly, no glossary to help the unhip. The lack of depth may quickly make this seem so twenty minutes ago, but it's a clever idea that should appeal to teens bonded together by that window on the computer screen. KC

NAPOLI, DONNA Jo North. Greenwillow, 2004 [352p] Library ed. ISBN 0-06-057988-9 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-057987-0 $15.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 5-7 While twelve-year-old Alvin knows inner-city Washington, D.C. isn't the safest of places, he'd like to be able to visit friends, join in on class trips, and walk to school unsupervised, and he's becoming increasingly frustrated at his mother's loving but stern overprotectiveness. Fascinated by the heroic exploits of his idol, polar ex- plorer Matthew Henson, he makes a daring (and foolish) decision to claim his autonomy by heading north to the Arctic-in January. Luck is on his side as he successfully travels by train all the way to far northern Churchill, Manitoba (though he almost freezes to death on the last leg, wherein he stows away in an unheated freight car). A succession of sympathetic Inuit help him further: one, a fur trader, flies Alvin to Baffin Island, and from there another brings him along on a dogsled trip to the island's Arctic north tip. There another man believes he knows a descendent of Matthew Henson, and Alvin goes out into the Arctic winter to meet Idlouk Tana. Though Idlouk proves not to be a descendent of Henson but a part- Danish Inuk from Greenland, and a recluse at that, he takes Alvin in until the warmer weather will allow the boy to return home; as the weeks go by, the two form a quiet bond and Alvin finds his own appreciation of the frozen north he had JUNE 2004 * 431 longed to see. This isn't quite the dramatic outdoorsy adventure the cover (with its fur-jacketed individual facing a snarling wolf) would suggest; instead, it's a more philosophical, interiorly turned bildungsroman of journey after journey, change after change as Alvin transforms from being the overmothered runt who's eliciting the interest of drug dealers to a young man who has found a wider world both outside and inside. The measured pace squanders some of the book's energy, and the language occasionally veers into a sophisticated imagery that seems at odds with the more plainspoken narration reflecting Alvin's preteen point of view. Kids absorbed by the adventure may be willing to overlook Alvin's fantastical helpings of luck, but even the ordinarily parent-indifferent may spare a pang for Alvin's abandoned and no doubt frantic mother. Ultimately, though, this is a fantasy in real terms, a spiritual journey made geographical, and readers prepared to travel thoughtfully and find the point in the journey may find this a horizon-broadening experience. DS

NEWBERY, LINDA Sisterland. Fickling, 2004 370p Library ed. ISBN 0-385-75035-8 $17.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-385-75026-9 $15.95 R Gr. 7-12 A victim ofAlzheimer's, Hilly's grandmother, Heidigran, is living more in her past as a child transported from Germany to England than the present. Truths about her history emerge in bits and pieces that don't accord with what Hilly has always believed about her grandmother, leaving Hilly and her friend Reuben to reconstruct the truth about who Heidigran is and who she was. Meanwhile, Zoe, Hilly's sister, has taken up with a neo-Nazi band, Reuben has fallen in love with a boy named Saeed, and Hilly falls for Saeed's brother, Rashid, after Saeed is brutally beaten by skinheads. Reminiscent of Chambers' Postcardsfrom No Man's Land (BCCB 9/02) and Newbery's own The Shell House (11/02) with its back and forth narration between past and present and its theme of postwar reconciliation, this book has a broad base of appeal, and Newbery's pacing is tighter than in her previous book. The portrayals of Heidigran's Alzheimer's, Zoe's alternating bouts of petulance, angst, and parental manipulation, and Hilly's whipped-around emotions as she learns of her father's infidelity, copes with her best friend's crush, and develops a crush of her own are masterfully handled. Newbery refuses to sugarcoat Heidigran's stance; after her experience of Kristallnacht and the Kindertransports, she is so fully invested in the need to protect herself at any cost that she utterly denies both her Jewishness and her Germanness and responds with revulsion to the changed person her sister has become since surviving the camps, giving readers a perspective on an alternate kind of Holocaust survival. In this densely textured novel, Newbery handles Heidigran's past with sensitivity and deftly draws it into the present in the story of the newly Jewish Hilly and her love for the Palestinian Arab, Rashid. As a family drama with historical and social relevance, this has something for everyone. KC

O'BRIEN, JOHN The Beach Patrol; by John O'Brien and Max Bilkins; illus. by John O'Brien. Holt, 2004 32p ISBN 0-8050-6911-9 $15.95 R 5-8 yrs All is not sun and fun down at the shore. Before ol' Sol's worshippers arrive, the sand must be raked and readied for the day's crowd and lifeguards trained and mustered to protect their clients from the elements and from their own thought- 432 * THE BULLETIN lessness and recklessness. Although O'Brien may be better known to the picture- book audience for his illustrations in tides such as the This Is sports books (e.g. Blackstone's This Is Soccer, BCCB 4/99), here he and his co-author are on home turf (er, sand); they write with easy confidence, introducing listeners (and young readers with seaside inclinations) to lifeguard hierarchy, gear, jargon, signals, and rescue procedures that go unnoticed by day trippers. A broad swath across each spread tracks the day's emergencies (from sunstroke and rip currents to thunderstorm evacuation and lost children) while a narrower strip at the bottom highlights some fascinating professional arcana, such as how rescuers "porpoise" through shallow surf and how lost children move in predictable patterns. Overly skittish listeners may regard the litany of seaside mishaps with some alarm and wonder whether a day at the beach is all it's cracked up to be, but close examination of O'Brien's humorously detailed line-and-watercolor scenes should convince them that most accidents are preventable and swimmers' safety is in capable hands. Beach- bound kids will find this title as essential as the bucket and shovel and SPF 30. EB

PALATINI, MARGIE Stinky Smelly Feet: A Love Story; illus. by Ethan Long. Dutton, 2004 32p ISBN 0-525-47201-0 $15.99 R 5-8 yrs Douglas is a thoughtful and courtly companion, any girl's dream, and Dolores finds pleasure in his friendship-but not, alas, in his lethally odiferous feet. Mo- ments of spontaneous barefooting therefore lead to Dolores' fainting from the stench and embarrassing public rebukes from the authorities ("You in there with those stinky, smell feet. Come out with your shoes on!" demand the police after Douglas lays a whole cinema audience low). Remedies such as a thorough scrub and the liberal application of perfume don't seem to discourage the foul emana- tions, but finally Dolores has a brilliant thought-perhaps it's not Douglas' feet, but his shoes. (She's wrong-it is his feet-but by then they're too much in love to care.) While the true-love ending is somewhat hastily slapped on, kids won't be attending for romance but for reeking, and there's fragrance aplenty here. Palatini's comically frilly dialogue between the couple provides a deliciously ludicrous contrast with the stinky smelly story, and she milks the malodor for splendidly corny effect. The tonal similarity of the predominant green and orange in Long's palette tends to unfocus the compositions, but his characterization of Douglas and Dolores as spirited on-the-go ducks is an inspired bit of bird-brainery. The three-dimen- sional shading and rubbery lines of the figures and landscape elements lend an air of deliberate artifice, and the popeyed excess of expression will be welcome to fans ofneo-cartoons. While young readers could enjoyably negotiate this on their own, it offers stimulating possibilities for a rowdy readaloud, especially if performed in smell-o-vision. DS

PETERSON, JEANNE WHITEHOUSE Don'tForget Winona; illus. by Kimberly Bulcken Root. Cotler/HarperCollins, 2004 32p Library ed. ISBN 0-06-027198-1 $15.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-027197-3 $14.99 R 5-8 yrs It is 1937 and Winona's family, like so many others, is leaving Oklahoma "because of the wind and the dust storms." Told from the perspective of the unnamed older sister, the story follows the family along Route 66; the trip itself is difficult and the narrator is further challenged by the assigned task of keeping an eye on the younger JUNE 2004 * 433

Winona, who has a tendency to playfully wander off. Predictably, Winona gets left behind in New Mexico; when a trucker returns her later that day, she has taken ill. A few days of sleep bring her around, and the family eventually arrives in California, hopeful for a new life. Though the forgetting of Winona isn't the climactic moment the leadup might suggest, the understated text makes the family's hard but hopeful journey the main point. Winona herself is a likable child, full of mischief and unconditional joy despite the difficult times, and her older sister's affection for her is tenderly depicted. The illustrations capture the family in the daily tasks of the journey, washing in a stream or resting in the shade of a gas station, and the color schemes effectively mirror the given narrative moment, so that Oklahoma is a blaze of deep golds and tans, California "a sea-green valley"; the carefully composed landscapes evoke the variance in topography and time of day encountered by the traveling family. The story captures a moment in Ameri- can history not often depicted in picture-book format, and young listeners will appreciate the child's perspective on the Dust Bowl years. An author's note providing background information on Route 66 and a map are included. HM

POLIKOFF, BARBARA GARLAND Why Does the Coqui Sing? Holiday House, 2004 213p ISBN 0-8234-1817-0 $16.95 R Gr. 6-8 Luz Sorrento doesn't care if Puerto Rico is the land of her ancestors; as far as she's concerned, she's a native Chicagoan. Okay, she speaks Spanish, but that's no reason to leave her friends, her school, and her dog behind for a tiny island town without even a library. Luz's new stepfather assures her that the coquf, a tiny Puerto Rican frog, may live in other countries, "but it will sing only in Puerto Rico." Wahoo for the coquf, thinks Luz; whether she herself will ever feel at home in Puerto Rico is another matter altogether. Letters to Chicago pepper Luz's first- person narration, inviting comparison between Luz's frequently attempted correspondence and the minimal response she receives from her former friends. This lack of encouragement from the Mainland makes Luz's new life seem more wel- coming than the old, an impression that allows her to change her attitude and settle into life on the island. In contrast, Rome, her brother, tries to stow away on an ocean liner and sneak back to his girlfriend and hockey buddies in Chicago. Since readers will likely harbor their own doubts about whether they would survive (much less enjoy) a forced removal to a distant land, the inclusion of both Luz's and Rome's reactions gives their experience authenticity. The wordcraft of the tale is skillfully rooted in vocabulary and perceptions appropriate to Luz's personality and age, and the descriptions of Puerto Rico's tropical beauty are seamlessly embedded throughout. Luz herself is a likable narrator, entirely credible as a girl caught in limbo between childhood and adolescence as well as homelands old and new. Readers browsing the shelves of early teen fiction will appreciate a timely nudge toward this out-of-the-ordinary offering. TC

QUALEY, MARSHA Too Big a Storm. Dial, 2004 24 6p ISBN 0-8037-2839-5 $16.99 M Gr. 9-12 The story opens on the historic eve of the first moonwalk; that's the night Brady meets Sally, a wild and reckless young woman who's the polar opposite of "eighteen and constantly worried" Brady. The intrigue unfolds when an FBI agent arrives to tell Brady's family that her older brother Will, in Vietnam the past six 434 * THE BULLETIN months, has gone AWOL. While working at a radical church social center, Brady meets Mark, an eighteen-year old vet who shows her a copy of the "Deserter Times," an underground weekly featuring an article attributed to Will and thereby explaining the FBI's high interest. Meanwhile, in a defiant move against her wealthy upbringing, Sally moves in with a bunch of underground resisters, starts transport- ing fugitives across the Canadian border, and gets her name mixed in with suspects of a bombing on the university campus. Somewhere amidst the jumble ofplotlines and subplotlines, Qualey implies the development of relationships without ever demonstrating these developments; Brady speaks of intimacies well before the reader senses any, and the motivations behind actions are subsequently not always clear. Further, the story suffers overall for its anachronistic sense of being far more contemporary than the late 1960s claim. The pace is quick, which may draw some readers, but the story is ultimately confusing, and readers may find themselves expected to care about the characters before given any reason to do so. Readers interested in historical fiction of the Vietnam era would be better turning to Qualey's earlier novel Come in from the Cold (BCCB 11/94). HM

RANDALL, DAVID Clovermead: In the Shadow ofthe Bear. Simon, 2004 [30 4 p] ISBN 0-689-86639-9 $15.95 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 5-7 Clovermead is a blonde twelve-year-old who wants to learn to fight and have adventures. Her saga begins when Sorrel, a tatter-clothed stranger, stops at her father's inn and teaches her swordplay but must ride north to escape a huge white bear after only a few days. Soon another visitor to the inn recognizes her father, Wickward, as a colleague who twelve years ago stole something of great value from the realm of Chandlefort. When Wickward and Clo (and the inn's cook) rout the man, he loses an enchanted bear's tooth in the scuffle, and Clo keeps the tooth for herself. Though possessing the relic seems to transform Clo into a bloodthirsty bear, her desire for power prevents her from discarding the item, thus bringing the fulfillment of a centuries-old prophecy into jeopardy. The lands walked by Clo and her compatriots come alive in deftly drawn word-pictures, and Clo's keen, mischievous personality and gift for gab make her endearing. It's a bit of a stretch that Clo is such a quick-witted youngster and yet doesn't guess the secret of her own identity given so many clues, Clo's maturity often seems that of a six-year-old rather than a twelve-year-old, and the dialogue between Clo and her thirsty tooth tends to drag on. Balancing these flaws, though, is the subtle treatment of the practice of blood sacrifice embraced by the followers of evil. The potential for horrific scenes dripping with gore is converted instead into tightly wound dramatic tension, as most deaths are mentioned without extensive description, defin- ing the danger of Clo's journey, and the blood given Clo's thirsty tooth comes primarily from her own body, underscoring both Clo's inherent goodness and the personal cost of serving the forces of darkness. Readers sympathetic to the trials of Luke Skywalker and Frodo may want to give Clovermead's heroic conflict the once-over. TC

RASCOL, SABINA I., ad. The Impudent Rooster; illus. by Holly Berry. Dutton, 2004 32p ISBN 0-525-47179-0 $17.99 R 4-7 yrs A poor man has only his rooster for solace, but after hunger drives the man to scold JUNE 2004 * 435 his avian companion, the ever-loyal rooster takes to the road to seek sustenance for his master. Under some fallen leaves the rooster finds "a bright little purse with a few pennies in it" and joyfully turns home, knowing his master will be able to buy food. Alas, it is not to be-a wicked nobleman steals the purse, "happy to have added even those few pennies to his enormous wealth." The rooster, however, will not be thwarted; he follows the nobleman, demanding the return of the pennies: "Cucurigu, my great lord! Give back the pennies you stole!" The nobleman tries everything from throwing the rooster into a well to drown to tossing him into a herd of cattle to be trampled, but the rooster conquers all. Beaten, the nobleman returns the purse to the rooster (now gargantuan from having eaten the contents of the nobleman's money room and pasture), who brings to his master not only the pennies but also the nobleman's ill-gotten wealth. Rascol sources her retelling in an original story by Romanian writer Ion Creanga, but folktale enthusiasts will recognize its folkloric roots. The retelling here is both funny and fast; the language is emphatic and lively, and the often conversational, sometimes interrogative tone invites participation by a listening audience. Berry's illustrations draw on the elaborate folk-art motifs of Eastern Europe, and the compositional focus is sometimes lost in the busy and intricate design; audiences will nonetheless warm to the glow- ing palette of reds and golds and the Modernist echoes in the shaded edges of the plumply rounded landscapes, and they'll relish the festive image of the indomi- table rooster. IfAmbrus' Little Cockerel (BCCB 3/69) has long fled the shelves (or even if it hasn't), add this title for a rousing and satisfying storytime or readaloud. Cucurigu! JMD

RODMAN, MARY ANN Yankee Girl. Farrar, 2004 219p ISBN 0-374-38661-7 $17.00 Ad Gr. 4-8 Despite her mother's assurances that she will someday be glad she lived in 1964, Alice is not glad to be moving to Mississippi, and she is a bit scared to be going to a school that is in the process of being integrated for the first time. As the daughter of an FBI agent, she knows she should befriend the quiet, determined Valerie, daughter of the famous Reverend Claymore Taylor and the only black girl in Alice's class. As a sixth-grader in a new school, however, all Alice wants is to stop being called Yankee Girl and be accepted as a cheerleader. She finds things almost unmanageably different in Mississippi from the way they were in Chicago. There, black people were called "Negroes" and were considered separate but equal; here, they are called "nigras" (or "niggers" by the white trash, as her friend Jeb informs her) and work for white folk. The use of headlines from the Jackson Daily Journal as chapter headings, the inclusion of real historical people, and the autobiographi- cal note that closely connects Alice to Rodman all lend authority to the text, but the presentation suffers from a distinctly uncomplicated binary between Northern and Southern attitudes toward integration, with Rodman using Alice's musings to caricature both sides. Conversations at home focus almost entirely on the stupid- ity of Southerners who think that blacks are inferior to whites, while at school the children spend their time torturing Valerie. Alice is believably torn between her desire to be popular and her empathy with Valerie, especially when Valerie's father is killed doing his civil rights work (a fear Alice lives with as well), but there is a strong suggestion that the students who finally do begin to accept their black peers do so only on Alice's lead, as if all these Southern children needed was a Northern light. Nonetheless, Rodman's story, if paired with other perspectives, offers insight into doing the right thing in difficult times. KC 436 * THE BULLETIN

RUBIN, SUSAN GOLDMAN Art against the Odds: From Slave Quilts to Prison Paintings. Crown, 2004 4 8p illus. with photographs Library ed. ISBN 0-375-92406-X $21.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-375-82406-5 $19.95 Ad Gr. 4-7 Rubin uses her "against the odds" umbrella to cover various artistic themes and movements: "outsider art," exemplified by the art of psychiatric patients; art inside prisons, concentration camps, and internment camps; the artistic tradition of women's quilts; and the art produced by kids on the edge in New York and kids struggling to survive in Kenya. The individual artistic explorations are often thought-provoking (the prison art in particular is likely to surprise kids who may have heard of many of the other examples), and the book does a good job of focusing on the individuality of the people who create, even when discussing larger trends. That merit is also the book's main weak point: there's insufficient discussion to bring the separate examinations together, so that the result is primarily just a series of quick artistic looks. Different sections confusingly imply or state different motivations and standards for art without ever reconciling or explaining the contradictions. The layout is also unfortunately stodgy for such a free-wheeling topic, with most pages laden with triple columns, but fortunately most spreads are livened up with a reproduction or two, often in color, of the subject's art. While there are individual titles that provide more depths on aspects of this subject, the collective approach here makes this a useful overview, and it may stimulate young readers to rethink their preconceptions about art. An index and an extensive list of resources and references (though oddly only one website) are included. DS

SCHERTLE, ALICE All You Need for a Beach; illus. by Barbara Lavallee. Silver Whistle/Harcourt, 2004 32p ISBN 0-15-216755-2 $16.00 R 3-6 yrs The rhyming text of this summertime story, a seasonal double to Schertle and Lavallee's All You Needfor a Snowman (BCCB 1/03), provides a cumulative list of all things needed for a day at the beach. From the first grain of sand, joined by trillions of others, to the sun, seagulls, buckets, and beach towels, the exuberant narrative voice builds up to the final inclusion of the listener in the beachfront fun ("All you need for a beach is ... YOU!"). The querying words in the bottom right corner, which provide modest page-turn cliffhangers, appear in a cherry-red type- face that lacks contrast with the background, so this entertaining little fillip may be overlooked. The itemization of beach requirements is catchy and imaginatively phrased, however, and the details of sand, sea, and sun are evoked with sensory gusto, enticing young listeners with visions of summertime fun. Lavallee's watercolor and gouache illustrations employ warm seasonal colors, which evoke a certain playfulness that suits the pudgy, pout-faced cast ofbeachgoers; the swimsuit-clad figures are a joyful if somewhat stiff set, and young viewers will enjoy noting their various forms of recreation. This will fit happily into a summer preschool storytime or family vacation preparation. HM

SHERLOCK, PATTI Lettersfrom Wolfie. Viking, 2004 232p ISBN 0-670-03694-3 $16.99 R Gr. 5-9 When Mark's brother, Danny, leaves for Vietnam in 1969, the family expects the war has little longer to run, and they're proud that their oldest is serving. Eighth- grader Mark, looking for a way to offer his own service and a little nettled at Danny's continual occupation of the spotlight, offers his beloved Shepherd/Husky JUNE 2004 * 437 cross to the army for training as a scout. As the months go by, Mark follows Wolfie's progress as the dog trains with his army handler, who sends him letters; after Wolfie travels to Vietnam, reports of his activities make Mark and his family increasingly anxious not only about Wolfie but also about Danny, whose letters tell less and less about what he's doing and show more and more about the changes he's undergoing. The unassuming style and doggy focus make this book ripe for underestimation, when in fact it's a thoughtful and accessible book about Vietnam for younger readers. Sherlock cleverly uses the focus on a real issue-the military's dogs and their indeterminate fate, which becomes Mark's cause-not just for its own considerable emotional value but also as an effective shortcut to empathy with the homefront families, hanging on every piece of news from abroad and by turns proud and frightened. She's also managed to represent most views of the war without reducing them to the pro/anti binary, instead offering evolving characters behind the viewpoints; even the soldiers offer a wider breadth than usual (Wolfie's handler isn't, especially initially, the greatest guy in the world). Most Vietnam novels have "foregone conclusion" written all over them, but this one allows kids a real sense of being in the middle of a wrenching time in our nation's history as it affected family, friend, and even dog, without any certainty as to how it was all going to end for any of them. A factual note about the military dogs in Vietnam is appended. DS

SHINN, SHARON The Safe-Keeper's Secret. Viking, 2004 228p ISBN 0-670-05910-2 $16.99 R Gr. 7-12 Though Reed and Fiona have been raised by Damiana, the Safe-Keeper, as brother and sister, one of them was born elsewhere and entrusted to Damiana on the night she gave birth to the other. The whole village knows this secret, in spite ofDamiana's silence on the subject, and Reed grows to manhood wondering where he fits in the world. Fiona knows where she belongs: in her mother's cottage, providing others, as her mother has done, with a safe ear into which even the most terrible secrets can be whispered. Fiona's perception of herself is turned inside out when a Truth- Teller and a Dream-Maker reveal the king's long-kept secret and show that one's place in the world is determined by one's willingness to serve as much as by one's heritage. Shinn offers a fantasy world in which realistically drawn characters deal with real-world problems-a Safe-Keeper trusted with secrets of bastardy and in- cest finds few easy answers. Fiona's load is lightened by the support of a nontradi- tional family: a mother, the mother's lover, the mother's sister, a neighbor lady who happens to be a witch, and a traveling woman who serves as the kingdom's good-luck charm incarnate, as well as Fiona's not-brother, Reed. Everyday details given with casual warmth combine with a cultural dependence on unnamed, wish- granting powers to form a satisfying fantasy novel centered in domestic life that fans of McKinley's Beauty (BCCB 12/78) will enjoy. TC

SHULMAN, MARK Attack ofthe Killer Video Book: Tips and Tricksfor Young Direc- tors; by Mark Shulman and Hazlitt Krog; illus. by Martha Newbigging. Annick, 2004 [64 p] Trade ed. ISBN 1-55037-841-4 $24.95 Paper ed. ISBN 1-55037-840-6 $12.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-10 While Colton Lawrence's Big FatPaycheck: A Young Person's Guide to Writingfor the Movies (BCCB 5/04) offers guidance to the wannabe screenwriters, this breezy 438 * THE BULLETIN and humorous guide encourages entry-level directors to take the videocamera for a spin. Material covered ranges from the importance of planning and some tips on treating your filming assistants well to artistic guidance on framing and technical tips on low-budget sound effects, with safety and ethicality repeatedly emphasized. Throughout, there's an understanding of the kind of limitations young filmmak- ers face, especially the financial (there are even suggestions on how to make films without a videocamera), but also the experiential, and the generous helpings of advice will bolster novices' morale as well as provide them with helpful guidelines and creativity-prompting exercises. The goofiness is forced to the point of intru- siveness, with jokes sometimes difficult to differentiate from serious information, but there's still a wealth of thoughtful and helpful tidbits. The balanced but fre- netic layouts set off diagrams, sidebars, lists, etc. in swathes of contrasting color, and Newbigging's high-spirited cartoons provide visual emphasis as well as illustration, and a detailed glossary and extremely complete index are included. Kids stuck taking endless videos of their pets while yearning to set their inner Scorsese free will find this just the boost they need to get into the lights, camera, and action. DS

STADLER, ALEXANDER Lila Bloom; written and illus. by Alexander Stadler. Foster/ Farrar, 2004 34p ISBN 0-374-34474-4 $16.00 R 6-9 yrs Suffering from a bad case of the sulks after a mishap-ridden schoolday, Lila grumbles about her after-school ballet class ("The shoes, the stupid tutus-the whole thing makes me sick") and decides a dramatic change is in order: she announces to the dressing room that she's quitting. The clever teacher, Madame Vera, responds to Lila's announcement not with horror but with studied indifference ("Mademoi- selle Bloom has not been dancing that well anyway"), whereupon an indignant Lila redoubles her efforts, discovering that ballet fills her up and drives out such petty considerations as bad mood and hurt pride. There aren't many books for this age that address the internal rewards of artistic or physical pastimes, and Stadler effectively depicts the genuine pleasure such a pursuit can afford while realistically addressing the ambivalence that can surround its practice (and the quotidian details that can get the most driven kid down). The strong graphics are as streamlined as an arabesque: thick, spongy black lines dominate the spreads, with pale washes adding a delicate sheen to the emphatically drafted figures; Lila's features (and especially her expressively wiry hair) offer understated comedy but even more intensity. Even the most ardent young amateurs occasionally question their devo- tion to their calling, and this will reassure them that they're not alone. A pronun- ciation guide to the French terms is included on the copyright page. DS

STEVENS, JANET Plaidypus Lost; by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel; illus. by Janet Stevens. Holiday House, 2004 4 2p ISBN 0-8234-1561-9 $16.95 Ad 2-5 yrs A little girl takes her beloved stuffed toy, made from one of grandpa's old shirts, with her wherever she goes. Unfortunately, she leaves him wherever she goes as well. At the park, at the store, at the beach, Plaidypus suffers her nonchalance and patiently awaits his retrieval, until the time when he falls from the car window. The little girl tries to retrace her path, but Plaidypus is nowhere to be found, so she makes a sign with Grandma's address on it. After four whole days, Plaidypus, JUNE 2004 * 439 much the worse for wear, is mysteriously returned. Grandma's patching restores Plaidypus, now renamed Plaida-polka-stripapus, once again to the little girl's mercy. The oversized format matches the larger-than-life toy; this and the repetitive structure make the book a good choice for large-group story times that focus on special toys. Well-read-to tykes will recognize the cheerily round grandmother in her signature flowered dress and thick-rimmed purple glasses from her previous appearances in Epossumondas (BCCB 10/02) and To Market, To Market (11/97), but there is no overt connection to these other books. Unfortunately, the little girl's appearance is less consistent, and at times she looks just a tad too much like her broad-snouted Plaidypus. While the plot is all too familiar for parents of young children, the happy ending suggests hope where perhaps a more delicate caution is warranted; while grandmothers are marvelous fixers, errant toys expelled from car windows don't often return home, even when signs are posted. Nonetheless, young listeners will no doubt warm to the resurrection of Plaidypus in his new guise and take heart in the ever-renewable promise to never ever ever ever lose a precious toy. KC

SWANSON, DIANE Turn It Loose: The Scientist in Absolutely Everybody; illus. by Warren Clark. Annick, 2004 [120p] Trade ed. ISBN 1-55037-851-1 $29.95 Paper ed. ISBN 1-55037-850-3 $14.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-8 While there are plenty of books about different pursuits in science, it's unusual to find a book that discusses intellectual exploration itself, especially in terms relevant to young readers. Using a multitude of examples, especially from the youth of prominent scientists and trailblazers in other fields, Swanson explains the value of questioning, the importance of individual thought, the value of persistence, the need for record-keeping and measurement, and other important aspects of scien- tific achievement; she also stresses that exploration is a process, not a beeline to the facts ("Scientists expect to be wrong-again and again"). The broad approach will open many readers' eyes, taking their view of science from a thing grownups in white coats do with test tubes to something all of us can do with our brains. Lay- outs and line-and-watercolor illustrations tend towards a textbook's stodgy attempt at informality, but there's still browsability offered by the lacing of inspirational quotes and the periodic "Brainplay" exercises. This would make a sound partner to Scientists in the Field titles such as Sy Montgomery's The Tarantula Scientist (BCCB 4/04), but it could also pair up with the author's provocative Nibbling at Einstein's Brain (BCCB 1/02) for a literary jumpstart into thinking about thinking. An extensive list of resources and an index are included. DS

THOMAS, JOYCE CAROL, ad. The Gospel Cinderella;illus. by David Diaz. Amistad/ Cotler/HarperCollins, 2004 40p Library ed. ISBN 0-06-025388-6 $16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-025387-8 $15.99 R 4-8 yrs "Once upon a time," begins this lilting riffon the traditional story, "Queen Mother Rhythm, leader of the Great Gospel Choir, lived deep in the swamp with her beautiful baby daughter. In a voice as flavorful as licorice she sang lullabies to her darling child." A vicious hurricane separates mother and daughter; the babe is retrieved by Crooked Foster Mother, who names her Cinderella and raises her to 440 * THE BULLETIN be maid-of-all-work for Crooked Foster Mother and her twins. When Queen Mother Rhythm decides to retire and she and the Prince of Music hold auditions to find the right voice, the only worthy contestant is Cinderella, who sings in "a voice as sweet as licorice." Though the girl flees before she can be identified, the Prince of Music searches the swamp and finds Cinderella, and she is reunited with her mother for a melodiously happy ending. Thomas' original adaptation has a fresh premise and agile execution that just begs for musical accompaniment; the narrative is uncluttered yet dramatic. Although sometimes uneven (the final illustration is surprisingly flat), Diaz' illustrations have a fluid rhythm of their own: the curves of the characters sweep large across the spreads, the rounded shapes and vibrant colors adding to the sense of choreographed movement from page to page. The stylized blossoms that follow both Cinderella and her mother connect them just as strongly as their voices and add an undercurrent of natural magical com- plicity to the tale. Thomas and Diaz have conjured a newly resonant tale from an old favorite, and their artistic duet is worth an enthusiastic round of applause. JMD

THURLO, AIMPE The Spirit Line; by Aimde and David Thurlo. Viking, 2004 216p ISBN 0-670-03645-5 $15.99 Ad Gr. 7-12 Crystal Manyfeathers is about to find out what happens when a talented Navajo weaver like herself refuses to honor the goddess Spider Woman by weaving a spirit line into her rug. Since her mother died last year, Crystal has rejected any obser- vance of the spiritual aspect of the Navajo way. She even dismisses the paranormal powers of her best friend, Junior, an apprentice medicine man. Junior, like Crystal's dad and other relatives, hopes that Crystal's upcoming participation in the wom- anhood ceremony of the kinaaldd will help her see differently, but the goddess Spider Woman is less patient. Otherworldly visitations, repeated attacks of weaving sickness, and the theft of her unfinished rug lead Crystal to (reluctantly) seek reconciliation with the Navajo gods. Junior and other friends join in the search for the stolen rug and, ultimately, in Crystal's quest to understand her own birthright. Rapid plot progression and a sympathetic protagonist make this mystery/ bildungsroman an intriguing window onto traditional Navajo life as embraced- or rejected-by today's teenagers. The occasional touches of the supernatural are brief, understated, and often spiced with humor, all of which make Crystal's epiphanic journey accessible to the modern reader. Unfortunately, the extended expository passages introducing Crystal's background, her way of life, and the Navajo origin stories slow the reader considerably, and Crystal's willing capitulation to the demands of a culture she's spent most of the novel denigrating makes for an anti- climactically convenient ending. On the upside, a quick read depicting the worldview of teenagers within a marginalized people lends itself to many classroom uses, from sparking a group discussion to introducing topics for a research paper to inspiring teens to write about their own folkways. TC

TORREY, MICHELE Voyage oflce. Knopf, 2004 [192p] Library ed. ISBN 0-375-92381-0 $17.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-375-82381-6 $15.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-9 It doesn't matter to narrator Nicholas Robbins and his older brother Dexter that JUNE 2004 * 441 their whaling captain father was lost at sea. Whaling is in their blood, and as soon as Nicholas is old enough to sign onto a ship, the boys are off on their first tour. Openings aboard the Sea Hawk, under command of Captain Thorndike, seem to be a stroke of good luck, but soon the boys learn that even the spiffiest of vessels cannot compensate for a greenhorn's lack of experience and that the captain is a far more severe master than they had reckoned on. Thorndike particularly dislikes Nicholas, who reminds him of his own lost son, and when the captain's daughter, Elizabeth, takes an ill-concealed shine to the newcomer, Nicholas's life becomes a misery. Torrey lades her novel with nearly every possible horror at sea, from ship- wreck and sadistic shipmates, to frostbite, scurvy, and starvation, to cannibalism and a miraculous rescue by kindly Inuit. Torrey's extensive research and sailing knowledge are evident in her precise descriptions, and the undercurrent of romance between Nicholas and Elizabeth may expand interest to a more tenderhearted readership than generally frequents sea stories. The core of the tale, however, is the relentless action of years of whaling history and lore conflated into the experience of one fictional teen, and adventure fans will hardly have time to draw breath between tribulations. EB

TURNER, PAMELA S. Hachiko: The True Story of a Loyal Dog; illus. by Yan Nascimbene. Houghton, 2004 32p ISBN 0-618-14094-8 $15.00 R Gr. 2-4 In this retelling of a legendary Japanese canine's story, the narrator, Kentaro, re- calls his youthful friendship with Hachiko. Kentaro first meets Hachiko at Tokyo's Shibuya Station, where Kentaro has gone to wait for his father's evening return and Hachiko awaits the return of his master, Kentaro's father's colleague, on the same train. The boy and dog develop a tradition of waiting together for the evening train, until one day Kentaro's father returns home alone with the sad news that Hachiko's master has died during the day. Hachiko continues his vigil at the station, waiting every day for the master who will never come, accepting food and water from Kentaro, and returning to his master's old house to sleep every night; finally old age overtakes the loyal dog, and he dies at the station, still waiting for his master. The subtitle is somewhat misleading-although the dog himself was real, the story is actually fictional, with Kentaro an invention-but this is still a touching tale with the added resonance of its underlying truth. Turner's quiet, matter-of-fact style makes Kentaro's voice credible, and the understatement em- phasizes the impact of the story without tipping it into melodrama. The watercolor illustrations offer glimpses of 1920s Japan, with silhouetted landscape elements and figures adding layers to the backgrounds, while the controlled scenes in tidy squares small and large bring the human and animal drama to the forefront. Spare draftsmanship simplifies the figures without flattening them, and Nascimbene cleverly balances emotional distance and effect, showing Hachiko's owner only in a posthumous photograph and dramatizing his passing with a fall of scarlet petals on the dark ground (and then illustrating Hachiko's passing by showing his empty space at the train station adorned with floral tributes). While this may well elicit some sympathetic tears, its dignity and restraint makes it a welcome alternative to more manipulative doggy tearjerkers, and the compelling story will fascinate young readees as well as young readers. A note about the real Hachiko's story is included. DS 442 * THE BULLETIN

WADDELL, MARTIN Tiny's BigAdventure; illus. by John Lawrence. Candlewick, 2004 [3 2p] ISBN 0-7636-2170-6 $15.99 Reviewed from galleys R 2-4 yrs On his first visit to the wheat field near his home, Tiny the mouse gets separated from his sister, Katy, and then scared silly by the shadowy forms of a snail, a spider, and an old boot. When Katy rejoins him, she names each thing and points out its beauty (or, in the case of the boot, Tiny's luck in finding it). The two mice scam- per home, mouths jammed with wheat ears, eager for their next "big mouse adventure." Brief paragraphs of compact description and dialogue punctuate a sequence of heavily grained illustrations produced from vinyl engravings, watercolor washes, and printed wood textures. The visual verisimilitude effected by these artistic techniques is heightened by the contrasting stylization of the images and the palette; most objects are chunked up and thickly outlined, and the colors are focused in strong tones of marigold, fruity orange, and two shades of teal, which set off the textures while simplifying the tableaux. As a result, the mice's explorations are both image-rich and viewer-friendly. The accompanying text is warmly inflected with the mouse siblings' mutual affection, making Tiny and Katy Mouse's happy ending an intimate reassurance for children facing their first days alone at preschool or kindergarten. TC

WALLACE, JOHN Anything for You; illus. by Harry Horse. HarperCollins, 2004 28p ISBN 0-06-058129-8 $15.99 Ad 2-4 yrs The cozy relationships between mother bears and their cubs provide no end of grist for picture-book mills; here we have a bedtime version, where a cub whose efforts to help his mother with the cleaning predictably result in even bigger messes. As this cub will do anything for his mom, including swimming from one end of the bathtub to the next and letting her be his best friend, Mom turns his cooperative spirit to his own advantage and persuades him to get into bed and sleep tight all night, just for her. Wallace's psychological wisdom of showing how a little bear's motives to please his mother can be deployed for his own good is mildly undercut by the overt statements that the cub is doing more harm than good in helping her out; he would have done better to leave that to the illustrations of Harry Horse, which more than ably show the results of Little Charlie's efforts. Horse's line-and-watercolor illustrations are sweet without lapsing into saccharin- ity. Though never explicitly derivative, they nonetheless achieve enough of a car- toonish, not-too-bearish, not-too-fuzzy similarity to Sendak's Little Bear to be comforting and not cloying. The sweetness of the text, however, might turn awkwardly sticky for listeners who have achieved a certain level of separation, but for those still in the rosy blush of mother-child infatuation, this is a nice book to drift off to. KC

WRIGHT, RANDALL Hunchback. Holt, 2004 248p ISBN 0-8050-7232-2 $16.95 R Gr. 5-8 Though Hodge dreams of serving a prince, as an orphan with a hunched back, he has dim prospects of doing anything besides the most menial tasks. Fortune seems to smile on him, however, when Prince Leo is immediately sequestered in the solar after arriving clandestinely at Castle Marlby. Hodge begins delivering the prince's JUNE 2004 * 443

meals, and the prince takes a fancy to the boy. Still, no one seems to know the terms of the prince's confinement: he is under guard, but is it because he is in danger, or because he is the danger? Circumstances become no clearer when the prince escapes and the castle is placed under siege. Hodge wants to believe in his prince, but he becomes increasingly convinced of his treachery, especially when Hodge's brother leaves to join the king's army against the prince. As the prince's trusted companion, Hodge is able to uncover plans that will compromise the king's victory; though he remains ambivalent about the prince who was kind to him, he knows that his larger loyalties must lie with king and country, and he embarks on a dangerous mission to warn the king of his son's treasonous intent. Hodge's steadfast loyalty and simple dreams make him an endearing hero; his resolve to do the right thing despite his uncertain emotions generates empathy for both the boy and his prince, who, as it turns out, is in fact a rogue, but a wounded one. While the reasons for the warfare, as well as some of the uneasy alliances, are sometimes unclear to the reader, they are unclear to Hodge as well. Cover art and title could be a tad misleading-the reader will wait in vain for Hodge to move to France and become a bell-ringer-but for readers with a taste for fast-paced action and unlikely heroes in medieval settings, this is a solid offering. KC

YEE, PAUL A Song for Ba; illus. by Jan Peng Wang. Groundwood/Douglas & McIntyre, 2004 [32p] ISBN 0-88899-492-3 $16.95 Reviewed from galleys Ad 6-9 yrs Wei Lim comes from a family of Chinese opera singers, but although he has a fine voice and a powerful interest in following his father and grandfather to the stage, Ba wants a more secure future for his son here in the New World than this dying tradition can offer. The troupe returns from a disappointing road trip, determined to put on a grand show in an all-out effort to revive interest in their art, and Wei is alarmed to find that Ba, who once played the acrobatic warrior role of the general, now takes a female part and hasn't mastered the singing technique it demands. Wei is now the tutor, instructing his father in tricks that Grandfather taught him on the sly and thus becoming a part of his family's theatrical legacy: "When Ba started to sing, Wei heard his grandfather's voice and his own soaring through the hall like a bell. He didn't know whether there would still be a Chinese opera when he grew up, but on that night, he, too, was a star." Wang's juxtaposi- tion of the realistic facial features of Wei and Ba against a hazier backdrop of ornately costumed opera performers, taunting neighborhood boys, and backstage bustle is at once solemn and dreamlike. The text-intensive plot moves slowly, and with no closing note on the current state of Chinese opera (this story is set "many years ago" when "the government had stopped Chinese immigration"), listeners may wonder whether Wei's desire to continue the family tradition is realistic. This is, nonetheless, an intriguing topic which could add considerable depth to picture book collections on Chinese-American history, or immigration in general. EB

ZIMMERMAN, ANDREA Dig!; by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha; illus. by Marc Rosenthal. Silver Whistle/Harcourt, 2004 32p ISBN 0-15-216785-4 $16.00 R 3-6 yrs If you thought Zimmerman and Clemesha's sanitation worker in Trashy Town (BCCB 5/99) was a busy guy, wait until you see how much work Mr. Rally and his 444 * THE BULLETIN backhoe can pack into a day. There are five major jobs on his list ("He counts them. One. Two. Three. Four. Five") from the "bridge on the ridge" to the "zoo, all brand-new," and while his focus is "Dig up rock and dig up clay!/ Dig up dirt and dig all day!" his dog Lightning is just as diligently occupied excavating his own holes to bury bones. The hero of Trashy Town may be rewarded at day's end with a soothing bubble bath, but Mr. Rally's got digging in his soul and we leave him spading the soil out in his garden and signing off with a friendly wave. Rosenthal's amiable cast of rounded, slightly overstuffed residents and construction workers are duly appreciative of Mr. Rally's efforts, and everyone is enthusias- tically cooperative when he shows up to dig a run-off drain, clear a traffic jamming landslide near the shore, or prepare the hole for a local pool. The entire community is appropriately rendered in subtly textured earthy shades of sandy brown, rusty red, and soft olive green that make a golden backhoe feel right at home, and make the activity easy to follow for the back row of the story-hour crowd. "Good job, Mr. Rally!... Is all the digging done?" We certainly hope not. EB

ZUNSHINE, TATIANA, ad. A Little Story about a Big Turnip; illus. by Evgeny Antonenkov. Pumpkin House, 2004 [32p] ISBN 0-9646010-0-1 $15.95 Reviewed from galleys R 2-5 yrs Grandie lives with his wife, Grannie, and their granddaughter, Annie. One day Grandie plants a turnip seed in his backyard garden, and folktale-experienced audiences will guess what happens then. Zunshine's retelling of this well-known Russian folktale about the recalcitrant vegetable is fairly standard; the accumulation of events leading to the giant turnip's finally being pulled out of the ground follows the usual progression of the old man pulling the turnip, the old woman pulling the old man, the young girl pulling the old woman, etc. The most notable difference here is the cutely predictable but still preschool-funny names given to the animal characters: Ruffle the dog, Meowsie the cat, and Squeakie the mouse. What makes this variant really worth a second look, however, are Antonenkov's storytime-friendly illustrations: the pictures are large and the action is easy to follow, especially for small listening groups. The paintings (watercolor over black line drawing) are infused with a glaze-like intensity that adds a richness of tone to the images. The elongated human figures and amusingly ludicrous animal observ- ers are drafted in exaggerated but confident lines that add subtlety to the slapstick activities. Readers-aloud willing to make the animals' names reflect their animal voices will soon have listeners ruffing, meowing, and squeaking along. JMD JUNE 2004 * 445

PROFESSIONAL CONNECTIONS: RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS AND LIBRARIANS

NEWMAN, MARILYN DOVER CyberLit: Online Connections to Children'sLiterature for the Primary Grades. Scarecrow, 2004 160p Paper ed. ISBN 0-8108-4903-8 $29.95 Sometimes it's nice to have a little assistance in corralling the Internet's many resources on children's literature, and Newman offers a helping hand to those looking for material on a dozen popular primary-grades authors/characters, from Jan Brett to Curious George to Rosemary Wells. Each subject's main site, whether his or her own or a publisher's creation, is evaluated and briefly described, with particularly valuable or inventive features singled out for special mention. Next comes an annotated list of online author studies and lesson plans for specific titles, with sometimes a few other thematic goodies. A nice feature is the inclusion of permissions information, alerting readers to sites that allow downloading and reproduction for educational purposes. Additional chapters treat Internet resources for picture book illustration and for Caldecott titles. The subject and title indices are somewhat peculiar and sketchy-they don't include the titles mentioned in the lesson plans, for instance-but the text is easy enough to navigate on its own. There's an abundance of material that should provide curricular expansion, exploration, and support, and not just for educators; some sites are child-aimed and some librarian-aimed as well. DS

ANNOUNCEMENT

The first annual Gryphon Award goes to Douglas Florian, for Bow Wow Meow Meow: It's Rhyming Cats and Dogs (Harcourt). The award is given by the Center for Children's Books to the author of an outstanding English language work of fiction or nonfiction for which the primary audience is children in kindergarten through grade 4. The title chosen best exemplifies those qualities that successfully bridge the gap in difficulty between readaloud and readalone titles. Two honor books were also named: Carol Fenner's Snowed In with GrandmotherSilk (Dial) and Jim Benton's Franny K Stein, Mad Scientist: Lunch Walks among Us (Simon). 446 * THE BULLETIN

SUBJECT AND USE INDEX

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

Abuse-fiction: Lamstein CRAFT BOOKS: Levine ADVENTURE: Butcher; Cadnum; Crime and criminals-fiction: Chibbaro; Fagan; Randall; Ardagh; Bone; Butcher; Coleman; Torrey; Wright Fagan; Myers African Americans-fiction: Greene; CUMULATIVE STORIES: Myers; Napoli Emmett African Americans-stories: English; Dancers and dancing-stories: Joosse; Thomas Stadler Alzheimer's Disease-fiction: DANGER: Hautman Krishnaswami; Newbery Death-fiction: Lynch Animals-fiction: Gleitzman Disabilities-fiction: Coleman; ANTHOLOGIES: Cart; Jacques; Wright Jones Dogs-fiction: Sherlock; Turner Arctic-fiction: Napoli Ducks-stories: Palatini Art and artists: Rubin Ecology: Brenner; Guiberson Art and artists-fiction: Thurlo EPISTOLARY NOVELS: Myracle Athletes-fiction: Coleman Ethics and values: Bone; Caletti; Ballet-stories: Stadler, Cart; Clements; Coleman; Demi; Beaches: O'Brien Fox; Hautman; Lowry; Lyon; Beaches-poetry: Schertle Myers; Qualey; Sherlock Beaches-stories: Lakin FABLES: Demi Bears-fiction: Randall Faith-fiction: Fisher; Hautman Bears-stories: Wallace Fame-fiction: DeVilliers BEDTIME STORIES: Wallace Families-fiction: Lamstein Blindness-fiction: Coleman FANTASY: Dyer; Fisher; Haptie; Books and reading-stories: Joosse Jones; Lowry; Lyon; Randall; Brothers-fiction: Sherlock Shinn Brothers and sisters-fiction: Fathers-stories: Yee Lamstein; Lynch; Shinn Fear-stories: Bottner Brothers and sisters-stories: Joosse; Films and filmmaking: Shulman Waddell FOLKTALES AND FAIRY TALES: Chickens-stories: Gray; Rascol Geras; Rascol; Thomas; Zunshine Child labor-fiction: Boling Food and eating-fiction: Jinkins China-stories: Demi Food and eating-stories: Zunshine Chinese Americans-stories: Yee Friends-fiction: Brian; Greene; Civil rights-fiction: Rodman Myracle Colonial life: Chibbaro; Fritz Friends-stories: Bottner; English; Computers-fiction: Myracle Lakin Construction-stories: Zimmerman Gods-fiction: Fisher JUNE 2004 * 447

Gold Rush-fiction: Cadnum Reading, reluctant: Goodman; Grandmothers-fiction: Newbery Jacques; Shulman Grandparents-stories: Zunshine Religious education: Cart Grief-fiction: Lynch RHYMING STORIES: Schertle Growing up-fiction: Brian Robots-fiction: Fox Guilt-fiction: Bone ROMANCE: Chibbaro; Geras; Hair-stories: Layton High; Palatini HISTORICAL FICTION: Boling; Royalty-fiction: Wright Cadnum; Chibbaro; Hermes; Runaways-fiction: Napoli Peterson; Qualey; Rodman; Safety education: O'Brien Sherlock; Torrey School-fiction: Clements History, U.S.: Boling; Fritz; Myers; School-stories: Boelts Peterson Science: Goodman; Levine; Holocaust-fiction: Newbery Swanson HUMOR: Ardagh; Boelts; Dyer; SEA STORIES: Torrey Emmett; Fagan; Gleitzman; Sex and sexuality-fiction: Brian; Jinkins; Layton; Palatini Caletti Ice age-stories: Layton SHORT STORIES: Cart; Jacques; Immigrants-fiction: Chibbaro Jones Indian Americans-fiction: Sisters-fiction: Boling Krishnaswami Smell-stories: Palatini Intelligence-fiction: Clements South, the-fiction: Hermes; Jews-fiction: Newbery Rodman Language arts: Myracle Spies and spying-fiction: Butcher Latinos-fiction: Polikoff Storytime: Emmett; Gray; Stevens; Magic-fiction: Haptie Thomas; Waddell; Zimmerman; Medieval life-stories: Wright Zunshine Mental disabilities-fiction: Lamstein Summer-stories: English; Joosse; Mermaids-fiction: Dyer Lakin; Layton Mice-stories: Waddell SUPERNATURAL STORIES: Mothers-stories: Wallace Jacques; Thurlo Moving-fiction: Polikoff SURVIVAL STORIES: Bredsdorff Music and musicians-stories: Swimming: O'Brien Thomas; Yee Time-stories: Gray MYSTERIES: Ardagh TODDLER BOOKS: Waddell Native Americans-fiction: Thurlo Toys-stories: Stevens Nature study: Brenner; Guiberson Trees: Brenner Orphans-fiction: Wright UTOPIAN FICTION: Lowry; Perseverance-stories: Stadler Lyon Pets-fiction: MacLean Vietnam War-fiction: Qualey; POETRY: High Sherlock POP-UP BOOKS: Munro Voyages and travel-fiction: Prejudice-fiction: Newbery Bredsdorff; Cadnum; Caletti; Princes-fiction: Wright Gleitzman; Krishnaswami; Princesses-stories: Geras Napoli; Torrey Racism-fiction: Hermes; Rodman Voyages and travel-stories: Bottner; Readers' theater: High Peterson; Waddell Reading aloud: Dyer; Fagan; West, the-fiction: Cadnum Gleitzman; Goodman; High; Work-fiction: Boling MacLean; Turner Writers and writing-fiction: Reading, easy: Dyer; Jinkins; DeVilliers; High MacLean; Turner a veritase Ieas .... III*M^»Bcaa[M]| -Publishers Weekly, srTAfaD R vmw THE NEW NOVEL FROM NEWBERY MEDAL WINNER SHARON CREECH 1I. wPl1

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