The Trouble with May Amelia

By Jennifer L. Holm, 199 pages.

It has been a month of sequels for me, this is the second installment of the May Amelia series. Set in 1900 in Washington State, this story is about a young girl struggling to survive as the only daughter in a family with seven boys. That many brothers will give a girl spunk and that is necessary to deal with farm life, crazy neighbors, taking a boat to get to school, and all the other every day adventures she has to deal with. Everything is not idyllic however, and the family is in danger of losing the farm after May's father falls for a scam -- after utilizing May as a translator. May Amelia is blamed for the loss by her father and must somehow figure out a way to save her family.

I enjoyed 3/4ths of this book and was reminded of my childhood when I couldn't get enough of early American historical fiction. I felt true fury at May's father (and almost flung the book across the room) and laughed out loud at many of the funny parts. I wish a bit more thought was given to the ending, everything goes from being horrid to 'all ok' in just a few pages, but overall a great book for kids who are fans of historical fiction.

The Last Apprentice: Rage of the Fallen

I really enjoy this series.  It's rooted in old folklore and mythology, reasonably scary and well-written.  I've been a fan since the first book, The Spook's Apprentice.  If you have older elementary kids who are looking for a scary series, you might recommend this.  The vocabulary is challenging but it's an engaging series.
KimF

Step Fourth, Mallory!

By: Laurie Friedman, Illustrations by: Jennifer Kalis,

175 pp.

Grade school is not always the easiest for kids. However, when Mallory McDonald gets ready to go into the fourth grade, she just knows it is going to be the best year yet! Well, it turns out that she just keeps breaking all of her teacher's rules even though she does not mean to. She tries to make things better between her teacher and herself, but they are just making things a lot worse!

To top it all off, her best friend likes the new boy in school and Mallory likes him too.

Mallory learns to start putting her best foot forward while also learning that as you grow up, you are responsible for your actions whether you mean the things you do or not...I think it is paying off for her - finally.

This is a very cute story. I think a lot of young kids can relate to Mallory's story of starting the fourth grade.

Meet Julie : an American girl ~ 1974

By: Megan McDonald, 92 pp.

Girls can play sports too, and Julie Albright is out to prove it! Julie's parents get divorced and Julie's sister and her have to move with their mom to an apartment above her mother's store.

Julie is finding a hard time to fit in with the kids at her new school until she meets T.J. Her and T.J. bounce the basketball around in the gym after school. T.J. mentions the sign up sheet for basketball players that is to be posted outside Coach Manley's office. However, when Julie goes to sign up, she is told that no girls can play sports. "Sports are for boys."

Julie is so upset, she decides to get signatures on a petition. She gets the petition idea from her mom's friend, Hank, who is a vet petitioning for the veteran's center to be opened back up.

Julie gets 150 signatures just to have Coach Manley throw it away! She worked so hard! Julie decides to dig it out of the trash and go to the school principal. The principal tells her he will have to bring it up to the school board and get back to her....... Will she get to play? Or are sports really just for boys?

At the end of this book, there are stories of real girls wanting to do the things that only were meant for boys, but they work towards changing those rules and become famous!

Bless This Mouse

By: Lois Lowry& Illustrated by: Eric Rohmann, 152 pp.

I loved Lois Lowry's The Giver! I have had the opportunity to read such another great work of hers. Bless This Mouse is so cute. Hilegarde, the Mouse Mistress of Saint Bartholemew's Church, is a very stern leader of over 200 church mice. She does an excellent job at guiding them and teaching them how to stay safe and out of sight of humans. Hildegarde has an assistant that has a huge crush on her. His name is Rodrick. Hildegarde also has an enemy mouse, Lucretia, that is always trying to take her place as Mouse Mistress. The mice do get into some real close calls...

Follow Hildegarde, Roderick, and another 200 and more mice on an adventure that could cost them some of their lives!

I can see this as a cute little kids animated movie!

Oh and if you have not read The Giver and Bless This Mouse yet, I recommend that you do! You will not regret it! I assure you!

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

by J.K. Rowling, 309 p.

I'm still re-reading all of my childhood favorites just to make sure I still love them, and this is next on my list. I loved these so much, and I really think I always will. Reading them now, however, I get the subtle nuances and the hints that J.K. Rowling must have taken painstaking efforts to add. I love seeing how much the characters grew over the years, especially Snape. I feel a huge difference in the Snape from the first few books as compared with the last three.

I can't wait to re-read the others.

Moon Over Manifest

by Clare Vanderpool. 351 pages


Early on the morning of January 10, I'm listening to the ALA Media Award announcements. I hear the winner of the 2011 Newbery Award announced: Moon over Manifest, by Clare Vanderpool. What? Who? I know I do not keep as current about new juvenile and young adult literature as I did in my last job, but I usually have some inkling of what's going on. I felt a bit better when I spoke with a couple of other people who were equally perplexed.

Once I read Vanderpool's tale of 12-year-old Abilene Tucker and the stories she lives and hears when she moves to the town of Manifest, Kansas, I understood. This has to be the best job of storytelling since Sachar's Holes -- winner of the 1999 Newbery Award. Through Abilene's first person narration set in 1936, newspaper articles from 1918, and the stories the diviner Miss Sadie tells about Manifest's past, the reader sees the various pieces dropping in place until the entire picture unfolds, with the sum being much greater than its parts.

Abilene is the daughter of a drifter, riding the rails from one town to the next. She's never known a permanent home or family other than her father, Gideon. After a scratch leads to an infection that leaves her with a high fever, Gideon sends the recovered Abilene to Manifest, Kansas to stay with an old friend, Shady, who seems to be a part-time preacher and part-time bootlegger. Abilene feels perplexed and abandoned and is determined to learn about her father's past from Shady and other members of the diverse community. Abilene discovers an old box filled with mysterious mementos in her room at Shady's. Abilene shares her discovery with Ruthanne and Lettie, cousins with whom she's become friends upon her arrive in Manifest. As the girls start the search for the meaning behind the objects, they learn of a mysterious character from the war years who some supposed to be a spy. The reader goes back and forth between 1918 Manifest and its occupants and the current Manifest of 1936, but the transitions are seamless and the story moves quickly. As the summer progresses and Abilene becomes frustrated that her father doesn't seem to have a past in Manifest, she (and the town of Manifest) learns about the value of stories to a person's past, present and future.

I have to say, I questioned the setting for this story when I began reading. Really, some small, rural town in Kansas that is populated by Poles, Germans, Greeks, Hungarians and more? But Vanderpool not only weaves a fascinating story, she provides historical reference and facts as foundation for this full story with its rich collection of characters. She drops subtle and innocent hints that are well-placed. And it's such fun to see those innocent hints become pieces that fit together to make a fascinating picture.