12 year old Megan and her younger brother are confused by their mother's sudden decision to leave their home. What are they running away from? Megan begins to piece together bits of the mystery and realizes that something or someone from their past is stalking them. Megan is frustrated when they have to uproot themselves again after she has finally started to fit in and make close friends. They are sent to stay with their Grandfather who is renting a cottage for the summer. At the cottage they meet Ben. Together the threesome explore an island, which makes a great fort and eventually, becomes an even greater place to hide when the past catches up with them. If you enjoy Phyllis A. Whitney's kid books or Nancy Drew, try this suspenseful story.
Gary Paulsen's writing in this exciting western lives up to his reputation for realistic, gripping story-telling. The hero is a young boy who is separated from his wagon train and captured by Pawnees. With the help of a stranger, he escapes and learns to stay alive in the wilderness. His rescuer, Mr. Grimes, teaches him survival, but young Mr. Tucket has to discovers for himself what it means to be an adult. I highly recommend Paulsen's other books, including:
and if you enjoyed the western setting, try reading Moccasin Trail, by Eloise Jarvis McGraw. Back To Children's Books Archive
This is an unusual story about a young boy who is torn between loyalty to his poor friends and the lure of belonging to the rich kid's crowd. While the plot does not seem terribly unique, it is the characters Doyle creates that give this story it's distinctive flavour. Hubbo O'Driscoll's father was run over by a street car, and his mother died the day he was born. He lives with an eccentric cousin of his father's, who is the cleaning lady at Hubbo's high school. The girl that Hubbo cares for, Fleurette Featherstone Fitchell, is another uncool relationship, according to the gang of rich kids who say that Fleurette was dirty. What is Hubbo to do? When Hubbo is offered a job working for a terribly rich woman, Miss Collar-Cuff who lives on Easy Avenue, Hubbo is thrilled that he finally has a chance to earn some money. Then, even more miraculously, Hubbo acquires a mysterious benefactor. He and Mrs. O'Driscoll could use the cash. Mrs. O'Driscoll warns Hubbo about wanting money too badly, but that is a lesson he still has to learn. Brian Doyle is a Canadian writer who has won many awards for his children's fiction. Easy Avenue won the Canadian Library Book of the Year Award. Brian Doyle' Books include:
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Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Paterson Katherine Paterson's books have captured the hearts and imaginations of tens of thousands of children and adults. They are books that stay with you long after you've read them; they change you. The author was born in China, educated there and in the American South, and lived in Japan for four years. She won the National Book Awards for two of her books: The Master Puppeteer, which was set in Japan, and The Great Gilly Hopkins. She also won the prestigious Newbery Medal for Jacob I Have Loved and Bridge to Terabithia, which was written in 1977 and won the Newbery Medal in 1978. Bridge to Terabithia is about an unlikely friendship between Jess Aarons and the "new" girl, Leslie Burke. Jess wants to be the best at something, and he figures this year he has a shot at being the fastest runner in the school. He would like to be the best at drawing, but his father doesn't approve of that. So Jess spends his free time running, training to be the best. Then Leslie shows up and beats all the boys in a race. To make matters worse, Leslie is odd. She calls her parents Bill and Judy, and they don't even own a television. Despite their shaky beginning and different homes, Jess and Leslie become best friends. Together Leslie and Jess create the magical land of Terabithia which can only be reached by swinging across a gully from an old rope. Leslie has read all about Narnia and she teaches Jess to see magic in the forest where they build their castle stronghold. In Terabithia, Jess and Leslie rule as king and queen over the trees and animals. Leslie teaches Jess how to talk like a king, and, "Between the two of them they owned the world and no enemy, Gary Fulcher, Wanda Kay Moore, Janice Avery, Jess' own fears and insufficiencies, nor any of the foes whom Leslie imagined attacking Terabithia, could ever really defeat them." Jess' family is poor, and he often struggles to keep his imagination from being snuffed out by his mundane existence at home. One of his teachers, Miss Edmunds, takes a special interest in Jess and his artistic talent. One day she calls Jess and invites him to go to Washington to visit the National Gallery with her. For Jess, it is the perfect day, but when he arrives home news of a tragedy awaits him. The sort of terrible news that couldn't possibly be true, but really is. As I said before, Katherine Paterson has a gift for writing a story that is unforgettable. Even if the details of this novel fade, the memories of Jess' golden times in Terabithia will linger. I highly recommend this novel to readers of all ages. More about Katherine Paterson: Back To Children's Books Archive Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging - Louise Rennison Published by Harper Collins When I first started reading this book, I was immediately struck that it was an awful lot like a Bridget Jones's Diary, but for teens. I was quite impressed by this observation until I noticed this blurb on the inside flap of the book, "In this wildly funny journal in the life of Georgia Nicolson, British author Louise Rennison has perfectly captured the soaring joys and the bottomless angst of being a teenager. In the spirit of Bridget Jones's Diary, this fresh, irreverent, and simply hilarious book will you laughing out loud. As Georgia would say, it "Fabbity fab fab!" It is rather obviously written to imitate Helen Fielding's style, but it does a very good job at it, so that seems forgivable The title of the book is intriguing, and I think it needs some explaining. Angus is Georgia's cat. Her cat is a rather insane beast that is half domestic tabby and half Scottish wildcat. Angus likes to hunt smaller animals, including the neighbour's poodle, and bring them home to nibble on. He provides us with comic relief throughout the novel, though he does play an important role in Georgia's romantic life towards the end of the journal. Thongs refers to the type of underwear Georgia's rival in love seems to prefer. This is what Georgia says about thongs, "it [the thong] felt ridiculous...they just go up your bum as far as I can tell." Georgia's observations are very funny and straight forward. While she makes us laugh, I often was struck by her callousness towards other people, particularly her father. It is sometimes difficult to discern how much of what Georgia says is true. Once in a while she lets us see that what she writes is not always true to her feelings. Finally, the full-frontal snogging refers to "kissing with all the trimmings, lip to lip, open mouth, tongues...everything. (Apart from dribble, which is never acceptable.) This definition was found in the highly amusing glossary found at the end of the book. I'm sure that there must be language in this book that parents would find offensive, but it is all in such incomprehensible British slang that you don't even know it is there. An Excerpt From Georgia's Glossary: bangers: Firecrackers. Fireworks that just explode with a big bang. That's it. No pretty whooshing or stars or rocketing up into the sky. Bangers just bang. Boy fireworks. Boys are truly weird. prat: A prat is a gormless oik. You make a prat of yourself by mistakenly putting both legs down one knicker leg or by playing air guitar at pop concerts. wally: See prat. A wally additionally had no clothes sense. Georgia shaves off her eyebrows, loves her little sister, obsesses about boys, and worries about the size of her nose. She is often a typical, though hilarious teen. At other times, however, she seems like a complete stranger rather than a familiar character we can relate to. For example, she learns to kiss from a professional kisser (she pays him?!) and has a strange interlude with a rather odd cousin (yucky), not to mention her constant fear that she is going to end up a lesbian with only Angus as company in her old age. There were lots of things in this book that made me laugh, but sometimes I found the types of things Georgia said or did disturbing. Teenage girls seem to love this book, so I think that perhaps I may be missing the point in some cases because I'm not one anymore. I wouldn't recommend this book for very young teens. There was a reason why Bridget Jones's Diary was written for adults.
Louise Rennison lives in Brighton, England. She is currently working as roving reporter and columnist, and plans to write three books about Georgia. Back To Children's Books Archive This Can't Be Happening At MacDonald Hall - Gordon Korman Gordon Korman was in the seventh grade when he wrote This Can't Be Happening At MacDonald Hall as a English project. By the time he graduated from high school he had written five other books! I read this series in grade seven and loved it, and having recently reread it, I think I has aged pretty well. The story is set in boarding school just east of Toronto, Ontario, where two loveable troublemakers live in Dorm 3, room 306. Bruno Walton and Boots O'Neal cause more mischief than their headmaster, Mr. Sturgeon (aka The Fish) can handle, and with the help of some young ladies at Miss Scrimmage's Finishing School, they really cause havoc! They steal the mascot of their hockey rivals, and change tapes so hundreds of students standing ready to hear the anthem are blasted away by the sound of "The Strip". The Fish decides that he has had enough and he splits up the dynamic duo. Boots has to move in with George Wexford-Smith III, the snobbiest rich kid in the school, and a hypochondriac as well. Bruno's new roommate, Elmer, is a budding scientist who owns an ant colony and whose pet goldfish had her babies in the tub. Bruno comes up with a plan to put things right and he and Boots decide to be as bad as they can so their new roommates will demand to be rid of them. Though it costs them a small fortune and suspended privileges, their plan seems to be working. There is even a petition circling Bruno's dorm to get rid of him. "If it comes to you, sign it," he tells Boots. A midnight panty raid, a riot at the finishing school, and almost getting expelled convince Bruno and Boots that they need to change their strategy. In a bold move, Bruno declares being an "angel" is their last, best hope. Needless to say, that doesn't work either, but there is lots of fun still ahead. I won't spoil the ending and tell you if they do get to be roommates again, but there are plenty of funny moments left, and I haven't even mentioned the skunk or Miss Scrimmage and the spiked punch... Back To Children's Books Archive Blubber - Judy Blume When Linda Fischer has to do her report on mammals for Mrs. Minish's 5th grade class, she explains to the class what blubber is. Wendy, the class president and overall snob, passes a note that says "Blubber is a good name for her." This is how the reign of terror begins. Jill Brenner goes along the with rest of the class as they tease Linda, but then things seem to get out of hand... Jill and her best friend Tracy Wu live across the road from each other, ride the same bus, and even go to the same school. Unfortunately, they're not in the same grade 5 class. Still they collect stamps, hang out, and make plans to fill grumpy old Mr. Machinist's mailbox with rotten eggs on Halloween. For Halloween, Jill dresses up as a flenser (the name given to men who strip blubber from whales), in honour of "Blubber." She's quite proud of her costume, but then Wendy and her gang trap Linda in the bathroom and tell Jill she has to strip Linda, since that is what a flenser does to blubber. Jill reluctantly agrees, and pulls of Linda's costume. The teasing continues, and every chance they get, the girls sing, to the tune of Beautiful Dreamer, blubbery blubber blub blub. Eventually Wendy writes up a list: How to Have Fun With Blubber
While Jill doesn't always enjoy teasing Linda, she can't understand why Linda lets it happen. "...just his girl in our class who lets everybody in our class walk all over her...she really looks for it." Jill's mom tells he to imagine herself in Linda's place, to which Jill replies, "I could never be in her place!" But things can change, as Jill is about to learn. From the author, Judy Blume: Based
on an incident in my daughter Randy's fifth grade classroom that never could
have happened if the teacher had been tuned in to the kids in her class.
Her lack of awareness made it easy for the class leader to use her power in an
evil way, victimizing one student and turning classmate against classmate. Back To Children's Books Archive A Series of Unfortunate Events - The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket The back of the book tells us, " I'm sorry to say that the book you are holding in your hands is extremely unpleasant." Why doesn't this scare readers off? Maybe it is because we are curious to find out why it is so unpleasant, or maybe because the old saying "misery loves company" is true, but Lemony Snicket has written a very successful series of children's books based on the depressing things that befall the three Baudelaire children. It begins with a brief introduction explaining how happy the three extraordinary Baudelaire's were just to show how us how truly terrible things are going to get for them in comparison. In the first few pages of the book their house burns down, killing their parents, and they are farmed off to a very distant and repulsive relative. Violet, the oldest child, is an inventor and quite brilliant. She is also a lovely fourteen year old girl. Klaus, at twelve, is the next oldest; he is also very intelligent and loves to read books. The baby, Sunny, is too young to really talk, but she loves to bite things. They are sent by the man in charge of their affairs, Mr. Poe, to stay with Count Olaf. Count Olaf lives in a filthy decrepit mansion, where he expects the children to share one really lumpy bed and each children is given a cardboard box to keep their things in. Instead of books or toys, Olaf gives them a pile of rocks to play with. "Count Olaf was neither interesting nor kind; he was demanding, short-tempered, and bad-smelling." It wasn't so bad when the count stayed away most of the time, but then Olaf started to hatch an evil plot to steal the Baudelaire's fortune. The only bright spot in the kids' lives is Count Olaf's neighbour, the kind Justice Strauss who lets the children come over to visit or read the books in her enormous library. Unfortunately no one, not Mr. Poe or even Justice Strauss, realizes just how depraved Count Olaf is. It seems hopeless, but the three children are brave and smart, and they're determined to save themselves and be happy again. Lemony Snicket obviously does not believe in happy endings since there are many more tales of misery and woe in this series. Far from being depressing, though, the author writes with a tongue in cheek sense of humour that balances the tragedy: "For instance, one country in Europe has a law that requires all of its bakers to sell bread at the exact same price. A certain island has a law that forbids anyone from removing its fruit. And a town not too far from where you live has a law that bars me from coming within five miles of its borders. The author also loves to play with words: "But even given the surroundings, the children had mixed feelings when, over a dull dinner of boiled chicken, boiled potatoes, and blanched - the word "blanched" here means "boiled" - string beans , Mr. Poe announced that they were to leave his household the next morning." The Bad Beginning reads like an old fashioned fairytale, except it lacks the happily ever after part. Yet, somehow you want to keep reading in hopes that those three poor orphans will someday find what they are looking for - a real home. I would recommend these books for children ages 10 to whatever. They're well written, funny, and different from anything I've read before. Some children find the stories a bit alarming at first, so if your child is very sensitive you may want to explain that the stories are just fiction. Not only is the story itself good, but so are the wonderful drawings by Brett Helquist that grace the cover, and each new chapter. The rest of the books in the series:
The Author: (From his website: lemonsnicket.com which is so funny you ought to go and visit!) Lemony Snicket was born before you were, and is likely to die before you as well. His family has roots in a part of the country which is now underwater, and his childhood was spent in the relative splendor of the Snicket Villa which has since become a factory, a fortress and a pharmacy and is now, alas, someone else's villa. To the untrained eye, Mr. Snicket's hometown would not appear to be filled with secrets. Untrained eyes have been wrong before. More... The Artist: Brett Helquist |