bookshelf

CHILD OF THE MOUNTAINS

Name: CHILD OF THE MOUNTAINS
Author: Marilyn Sue Shank
ISBN: 978-0-385-74079-1

by Marilyn Sue Shank ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 10, 2012

For fans of Ruth White’s and Kerry Madden’s Appalachian-inspired fiction.

bookshelf

While hoping for her jailed, single mother’s appeal in 1953, an Appalachian Mountain girl from West Virginia finds her identity in this promising debut.

“My mama’s in jail. It ain’t right. Leastwise, I don’t think so,” begins sixth-grader Lydia’s spiral notebook, bought to help her sort through recent, tragic events. Her first-person narration, which unfolds in pitch-perfect, regional dialect, alternates present and past. In the former, she lives with her particular aunt and uncle and deals with the bullies at school who call her mother a murderer. In the past, she reveals that her little brother, BJ, has “Sissy Fie Broke It” and recounts both BJ’s special treatments at a research hospital (which claims all rights to him) in Ohio and the family’s decision to “kidnap” BJ to let him die from his cystic fibrosis at home. Complicating Lydia’s already-stressful life are her passage into womanhood and a family secret about her relationship with the mother she’s fighting to free. Her story occasionally makes a didactic dip, especially when relating court terminology and commenting on segregation of the time. Nevertheless, Lydia’s comparisons to spunky Anne of Green Gables, unwavering faith, strong family ties and growing appreciation of her Appalachian heritage will secure middle-grade readers.

For fans of Ruth White’s and Kerry Madden’s Appalachian-inspired fiction. (map, author’s note) (Historical fiction. 9- 12)

Pub Date: April 10, 2012

ISBN: 978-0-385-74079-1

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Delacorte

Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2012

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY | CHILDREN'S HISTORICAL FICTION

bookshelf

CLUES TO THE UNIVERSE

by Christina Li ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 12, 2021

Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.

bookshelf

An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.

Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.

Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)

Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020

Categories:

CHILDREN'S FAMILY | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

bookshelf

NUMBER THE STARS

by Lois Lowry ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1989

A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit...

bookshelf

The author of the Anastasia books as well as more serious fiction (Rabble Starkey, 1987) offers her first historical fiction—a story about the escape of the Jews from Denmark in 1943.

Five years younger than Lisa in Carol Matas' Lisa's War (1989), Annemarie Johansen has, at 10, known three years of Nazi occupation. Though ever cautious and fearful of the ubiquitous soldiers, she is largely unaware of the extent of the danger around her; the Resistance kept even its participants safer by telling them as little as possible, and Annemarie has never been told that her older sister Lise died in its service. When the Germans plan to round up the Jews, the Johansens take in Annemarie's friend, Ellen Rosen, and pretend she is their daughter; later, they travel to Uncle Hendrik's house on the coast, where the Rosens and other Jews are transported by fishing boat to Sweden. Apart from Lise's offstage death, there is little violence here; like Annemarie, the reader is protected from the full implications of events—but will be caught up in the suspense and menace of several encounters with soldiers and in Annemarie's courageous run as courier on the night of the escape. The book concludes with the Jews' return, after the war, to homes well kept for them by their neighbors.

A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit of riding alone in Copenhagen, but for their Jews. (Historical fiction. 9-12)