Author Carol Brender’s debut novel Radio Girl, set in 1938, is the cat’s meow. In it, she has captured the lively spirit of Cece Maloney, a young woman destined to become a radio broadcast celebrity. Cece will have nothing of the boring, hum-drum life that her mother and older sister lead. Instead she’s determined to follow in her father’s footsteps and be a star! In her quest to hit the big time she discovers that, in show biz, things are not as they seem behind the microphone. Cece learns of her father’s thoughtless indiscretions, as well as other forms of deception practiced in the entertainment world, such as the historic War of the Worlds broadcast. Cece grows to understand the effects of lies, secrets, and deceit upon others, as well as developing a sense of integrity within herself.
Not only is this story compelling and entertaining, it is richly steeped in historical detail. Brendler did her world-building homework to the max, resulting in a novel that believably spins the reader back in time. Yowsah!
In a setting reminiscent of Dicken’s Oliver Twist, Deborah Hopkinson’sThe Great Trouble: A Mystery of London, The Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2013) is a gripping tale about a community stricken with a horrid plague and the brilliant doctor who discovered the source of trouble. The story is told through the point of view of a boy named Eel, a mudlark who slogs through the rancid, muddy waters of the Thames River in search of trinkets to sell. An industrious lad, Eel holds several other jobs about town such as sweeping the tailor’s shop, helping out at the Lion’s Brewery, and cleaning the animal stalls for the great Dr. John Snow.
After cholera strikes the tailor’s home and the homes of others who live on Broad Street, putrid, foul-smelling, noxious death colors every aspect of Eel’s life. He witnesses the agony of those stricken by the disease, people he cares for and strives to save. Eel alerts Dr. Snow about the epidemic, who has his own theory regarding the cause of the “blue death.” “The miasma theory has been around for centuries,” Dr. Snow continues. “People, even educated men, have believed it for so long that most are afraid to think in a different way, or consider a new idea (107).” While it seemed logical that the cause of the plague was miasma, or toxic “bad air”, Dr. Snow had a different hypothesis, one that eventually saved lives.
The Great Trouble tells the tale of the development of Dr. John Snow’s water transmission theory of the cholera outbreak of 1845 in a most compelling and suspenseful way. A forward-thinking visionary, with great compassion for the suffering of others, Dr. John Snow was a pioneer in the development of anesthesia. In this story, the fictional Eel guides Dr. Snow through the streets of Soho, helping him piece together the facts he needed to prove how cholera was spread.
Part mystery, part survival, and part adventure novel, The Great Trouble is historical fiction at its best!
Great-grandfather asks his great-granddaughter to pick “what you like the most. Then I’ll tell you its story.”
What will she choose? An old jewelry box … a case of fine fountain pens … a mirror?
The young girl makes an unusual choice – an old cigar box full of empty matchboxes. Well, not exactly empty. Each matchbox holds a surprise. Her great-grandfathers explains that when he was a child he could not read or write but he wanted to keep a diary, a journal of memories of his travels from a home far away, across the ocean, to the strange land of America. Each matchbox contains one item that holds a special memory.
In The Matchbox Diary, Newbery Award winning author Paul Fleischman creates a story told entirely in dialogue that quickly captivates readers and listeners of all ages with poignant stories of cross-generational relationships and the deep connections that form among them.
“What’s in the little boxes?”
“My diary.”
“What’s a diary?”
“A way to remember what happens to you. Usually it’s a book people write in… but I couldn’t read or write. So I started this. Open the first one.”
“What is it?
“An olive pit. I put it in my palm, and I’m right back in Italy….”
With the opening of each matchbox, Great-grandfather and his great-granddaughter share a discovery of family and history. The journey is delightful.
Award-winning children’s book illustrator Bagram Ibatoulline provides key details in his illustrations. Ibatoulline, himself, has experienced the hard journey of immigration. Scenes of the present are painted with soft inviting colors; scenes from the past are created in the fading tones of sepia and framed so the reader, like the great-granddaughter, imagines old photographs carefully displayed in a family album.
Great-grandfather’s immigration story is shared with intimacy and warmth – a beautiful experience to share with a child.
If I were given the choice to choose one book, I would choose this one.
Halloween is the perfect time of year to shower young people with ghoushily fun books. Instead of cracking open a bag of candy, hit your local bookstore and discover all kinds of haunting treats to drop into young readers’ bags. In the theme of Halloween, we’re highlighting two books but there are scads of scary and sweet stories out there to choose from. Have a happy and safe Halloween!
Everyone loves Halloween, right? Dragon, not so much! And like Dragon, many young readers can relate to being scared of mummies and zombies and werewolves. But Dragon’s best pal is determined to change Dragon’s mind and find him the absolutely best costume to go trick-or-treating in. Or will Dragon even need to dress-up at all? Find out in this ripsnorting tale about two friends looking out for each other. In the follow-up to Me and My Dragon (Charlesbridge, 2012), Biedrzycki deserves two wings up! The text and art are a dazzling blend of storytelling for ages 4 and up. In true Biedrzycki fashion, he delivers even more story in the book’s end papers!
Check out the book trailer for Me and My Dragon: Scared of Halloween by clicking on the link below.
Influenced by historical fact, Celenza writes about one of Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) most popular works Danse macabre, and she brings the composition to life for young readers, like skeletons at a ball, just in time for Halloween.
It’s 1872 and French composer Saint-Saëns visits the catacombs that lie far below the Paris streets. Surrounded by stone walls and more than six million bones, remains of heroes who fought in the french revolution, he finds the chilly inspiration he was searching for. He imagines skeltons dancing all around him. “CLACK, clicky, clicky, CLACK, clicky, clicky, CLACK.”He returns top-side and works for years on composing that image into the melody that we now know today as Dance Macabre.
As part of a music-appreciation series, Celenza’s and Kitchel’s seventh collaboration is ghoulishly entertaining and will have kids falling in love with classical music. Kitchel’s watercolor illustrations draw young people into the time period and the rhythm of the storytelling. “Long live the music! Long live the dance!” Author’s note and CD accompany the book. Music teachers will delight in having their students listen to the CD and pick out the cellos, violins, trombones, woodwinds, cymbals, xylophone, and solo oboe in the masterpiece. For ages 6 and up. For information on the other books in the music appreciation series visit the publisher’s website at www.charlesbridge.com.
Monica Edinger skillfully – and delightfully – tells an extraordinary story through the voice of a young girl who experiences an extraordinary journey. Illustrator Robert Byrd fills the pages with detailed images that expand the text to further engage and inform the reader.
Amistad is a slave ship, but it is not like any other slave ship. Margru is a nine-year old girl from Sierra Leon, Africa, who is not like any other girl sold into slavery. “For them, I was just something to buy and something to sell.”
Even during the darkest times Margru remembers her beloved home in West Africa,
“one of the greenest places on earth… Shiny green palm trees surrounded my village, so tall I was certain that they touched the sky. Every day my sisters and I walked along paths lined with green bamboo, past green rice fields, to bathe in a river full of green and pink water lilies. We ate tiny green bananas, juicy green pineapple, and the tart green mangoes my oldest brother brought us … And the creatures! There were green butterflies, green parrots, green ducks….”
So green, so warm and beautiful! That was Margru’s home, until she was nine when she was sold and put in chains and loaded onto the Amistad with other “slave cargo” in route to first Cuba and then the United States (1839)
Margru takes on each new challenge to survive with the unrelenting goal of somehow returning home. Her first challenge was the seven weeks of being “cargo.”
“Seven weeks in a dark and airless hold.
Seven weeks of heaving ocean.
Seven weeks of chains and shackles.
Seven weeks of sobs and cries.
Seven weeks of pain and suffering.”
Then, rebellion! Margru watched, expecting her own swift death, as the slaves united and fought hand to hand, sword against bloody sword, and defeated the crew. The ship was theirs! But how would they return home? They didn’t. They were tricked into landing at Long Island, New York.
Then a series of court battles began. The first trial was to determine if the slaves were guilty of mutiny and murder. Maybe they would all be hung. After years of legalities and arguments of many lawyers, including former-president John Quincy Adams, eventually all of the slaves were set free and given permission to return to their home in Africa…if they could get there.
More challenges faced Margru. First schooling to learn to read and write and then, eventually, a college education at Oberlin to become a teacher, and the reality of how to raise enough money to sail back across the Atlantic Ocean.
“Then, taking a deep breath, I turned my face east.
Toward Africa. Toward home.”
Such a story, and so well told by Monica Edinger, who began her career as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone. In the spring of 2000 she attended the Amistad exhibit and began her own journey to research Margru’s story, one of the children who traveled as slave cargo on the Amistad and eventually returned home to Sierra Leone. Margru did in fact study at Oberlin College, earn her teaching degree, pen many letters about her life’s experiences, and return to Africa. In Sierra Leone, Margru created a school for children, a school beneath the green, green shade of mango and palm trees, “one of the greenest places on earth.”
In Princess Posey and the Christmas Magic (Putnam, 2103), first grade protagonist Posey is beginning to mature. In this book, the seventh in the series, author Stephanie Greene and illustrator Stephanie Roth Sisson masterfully present some challenging emotional issues for Posey to ponder. Not only does she desire for Santa to bring her a highly unrealistic Christmas gift, she learns that her beloved neighbor, Mrs. Romero, has a deceased child. In addition, Gramps has asked Mrs. Romero for date! These are huge events for any feisty first grader to wrap their magic wand around.
In their starred review, here’s what Kirkus had to say about these eloquently crafted story threads. “A subplot about Gramps and his new love interest, neighbor Mrs. Romero, adds much to the story, making it more than just a story about a little girl. When Mrs. Romero shares a childhood picture of Barbara, her little girl who died years ago, the twist is revealed with calm, believable emotion.”
In her own thoughtful and tender way, Posey, with the help of her all-powerful tutu, is beginning to step outside of her own needs to become more aware of sadness and joys experienced by those around her. She’s growing up with each turn of the page, as are her faithful readers.
Historical fiction can sometimes be a hard sell in the library when placed next to an especially popular zombie/vampire/goth novel. That’s why a historical fiction book must be able to transport the reader to another place and time while also making the actions, thoughts and desires of the characters accessible and believable to a modern child or young adult. Here are a few more books that will tempt all ages.
For younger readers:
Red Kite, Blue Kite written by by Ji-li Jiang and illustrated by Greg Ruth. A heart-breaking, yet hopeful story of a young boy and his father who are caught up in chaos of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. A great book to introduce this time period to older children but also a way to reach children whose parents or close relatives have been incarcerated. Appropriate for all ages.
For older readers:
The Friendship Doll by Kirby Larson. In 1927, fifty-eight exquisite hand-made dolls were sent from Japan to the United States to foster friendship and understanding between the two countries. Four stories set during the Great Depression and one in present-day bring to light a little remembered historical event. The writing is lyrical and engaging for readers eight years and up.
The Wicked and the Just by J. Anderson Coats. Told from the point of view of Cecily, a spoiled teenage girl whose father has just moved the family into occupied Wales in order to improve the family fortune and Gwenhwyfar, the teenage former inhabitant and now servant of the castle manor. A compassionate and vivid picture of early medieval life with two main characters that can at times display very modern wants and desires. There is some violence in the novel.
ReaderKidZ guest Melissa Buron has worked as a librarian and teacher for young people in Africa, Europe, and the United States for the past twenty years. She is an author, blogger and journalist. You can find her at www.melissaburon.com, or on Facebook, LinkedIn and on Twitter (@melissaburon).
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