Category: Star Rating

The five-star rating system.

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…and now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold

The “coming-of-age” story. When a boy becomes a man.

…and now Miguel is a great read for boys ages nine through thirteen. Joseph Krumgold really gets into the head of a kid during that in-between age, wanting to be respected as a man yet child enough that he’s not quite ready for a man’s responsibilities.

Synopsis

Set in the Korean War era, the heart’s desire of Miguel Chavez is to be allowed to join the men when they take the sheep to the mountains. During his twelfth year, he meets every challenge to prove he is old enough to go with them. But his father says, “Not yet.” So Miguel prays to San Ysidro for a miracle allowing him to join the men. And his prayer is answered—only not in the way he would have desired.

Pros

  1. The novel peeks into the Hispanic-American culture giving children new insights.
  2. Krumgold teaches his readers all kinds of details about life on a sheep ranch. I learned a lot!

Cons

As a child, I might not have been interested in finishing the book because there is so much narrative. Dialogue exists, but not in the abundance of a modern novel.

Discussion Questions

  1. What is the difference between Pedro and Miguel?
  2. Why does Miguel respect his father? His grandfather? Gabriel?
  3. What is your opinion of Faustina?
  4. Name two ways that Miguel has begun to grow into a man by the end of the book.

Conclusion

Miguel’s moment of ultimate reality is this: we spend minutes upon minutes anticipating desired change. Change happens—for maybe one whole minute. After that, we live our changed lives minutes upon minutes.

This lesson is central to life, which is why …and now Miguel is a classic. For life is complicated. Even when you get your heart’s desire (glad), it may not be what you wanted (sorry). As Miguel’s father told him, “Always two things.”

 

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Mark of the Raven by Morgan Busse

Mark of the Raven is the first book in a new YA fantasy. 

Synopsis

Lady Selene is the heir to the Great House of Ravenwood and the secret family gift of dreamwalking. As a dreamwalker, she can enter a person’s dreams and manipulate their greatest fears or desires. For the last hundred years, the Ravenwood women have used their gift of dreaming for hire to gather information or to assassinate.

As she discovers her family’s dark secret, Selene is torn between upholding her family’s legacy–a legacy that supports her people–or seeking the true reason behind her family’s gift.

Her dilemma comes to a head when she is tasked with assassinating the one man who can bring peace to the nations, but who will also bring about the downfall of her own house.

One path holds glory and power, and will solidify her position as Lady of Ravenwood. The other path holds shame and execution. Which will she choose? And is she willing to pay the price for the path chosen?

Pros

  • I love the idea that there are seven kingdoms, each with its own secret power. The world’s history interacts with the kingdoms’ special abilities to create political maneuverings that added richness to the story.
  • Selene is a great character. She has so much internal conflict around becoming who she is meant to be. At times dark, the overall book is uplifting.
  • There’s a scene in chapter 14 that really spoke to me. Damien is practicing his special abilities (gift) to commune with the Light (the world’s deity). Reading this scene reminded me to use my own gifts for my Creator. How easy it is to forget that the abilities we have are God-given and to be used for his glory. The great thing about Christian fiction is that it can inspire you to be better, and that’s one thing this book has done for me.
  • That doesn’t mean that Mark of the Raven is a preachy book. Quite the opposite. Morgan Busse has created a world of dark and light, where gifts can be used as they were meant to be or twisted for selfish reasons, just like our world today. It shows us that good people can do bad things for what seems to be the right reason, and sometimes it’s hard to find the right path.
  • And the ending! I can’t wait for book 2. Bring it on. Now! .

Cons

  • The story gets a little dark in places. It’s necessary for the story, though, and compelling.

Final Word

Highly Recommended.

Discussion Questions

 
  1. Each kingdom had its own special gift. If you could choose one, which would you have, and why?
  2. Selene had to choose between living up to her mother’s expectations and following her heart. Have you ever experienced a time when what you wanted was different than what your parents wanted for you? What did you do?
  3. Selene did things she didn’t want to in order to protect her sisters from having to do them. Was she right in sacrificing herself in order to protect her sisters, or should she have refused to compromise herself in order to protect them?
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When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Last month I reviewed a Newbery winner which fascinated me with its intricate puzzle mystery. When You Reach Me is based on another complicated mystery, which, if I tell you the type of puzzle it is at its core, I would ruin the ending for you. So let’s just use the broad genre of science fiction to label it.

Synopsis

Written in 2009 but set in the 1970s, When You Reach Me reads like a vintage novel. Miranda is in sixth grade, lives in New York City, and Sal has been her best friend since before they learned how to talk. But when Sal gets punched by a kid for no apparent reason, he refuses to have anything more to do with Miranda. She’s hurt, but gradually finds some new friends.

Life would be okay, but mysterious things begin to happen. Her hidden emergency key is stolen. A shoe goes missing. And she receives cryptic notes from someone who knows an awful lot about her. The notes leave her thinking that tragedy could be heading her way. By the time she solves the puzzle from the notes, she might be too late to save a friend’s life.

Pros

1. Rebecca Stead had my brain whirring with possibilities from page two through the rest of the book until the satisfying final reveal. Does Miranda’s mother get hurt? Why does Miranda never want to remember the last six months of her life?
2. The chapters are titled as if they are topics on The $20,000 Pyramid TV game show, which is a fabulous detail to integrate into the setting, and highly entertaining for me.
3. Through Miranda’s new friendships, the author touches on current issues of the era, and does so in such a manner that young readers learn a great deal of the culture while they are immersed in story.

Cons

1. The average reader might get lost with so many clues to follow when none of them make sense. Rebecca Stead gives nothing away until the “veil” is lifted from Miranda’s eyes. And then it ALL makes sense.
2. Some parents may be uncomfortable with Miranda’s living situation. Her mom is single, and Mom’s boyfriend is in their home a lot. The author doesn’t specifically say he spends the night, but he does keep clothes in the apartment. They do plan to marry at the end of the book.

Discussion Questions

1. Marcus had punched Miranda’s best friend for no apparent reason. Why did she end up being Marcus’s friend?
2. If you had a friend with Annemarie’s health problems, what would you do to be helpful?
3. Miranda didn’t like Julia for a long time. What changed?
4. Is there someone in your class that you don’t like? Do you think you could change the situation for the better?
5. Who is the homeless old man?

Conclusion

Discussion question #5 will inform you if your child understood the story or not. And the answer will give him or her plenty to reflect upon regarding how people treat one another.

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The Westing Game By Ellen Raskin

The Westing Game is a mystery, or more accurately, a puzzle-mystery as described in the author’s own words. With sixteen characters, each with their own point-of-view, the challenge of solving the mystery ranks on par with the difficulty level of a 3000-piece jigsaw puzzle.

As an avid reader, I hate to waste my time rereading any story. There are so many books, and I have so little time! But The Westing Game has joined the exclusive club of Second Reads in Linda’s Library. In fact, because of the complicated puzzle, as soon as I read the last page, I turned to the front of the book and started over. I wanted to discover all the clues I had missed in the first reading. I’ve never done that before.

Synopsis

Sam Westing, the reclusive multi-millionaire, has been murdered. Sixteen heirs are invited to a reading of the will, which, in reality, is a contest. Whoever can solve the puzzle of Westing’s death inherits his estate. His lawyer provides the clues, a few at a time. Without mentioning every possible heir, the characters include perky and angry preteen Turtle to the morose, sixty-something Crow, from an African-American judge to the doorman of the apartment where most of the sixteen live. How one of them is able to solve the puzzle becomes an exercise in fascination. And how all sixteen characters grow in kindness and love toward one another warms the heart.

Pros

1. An excellent mystery is a pro in itself. If I can’t predict the outcome until the last page or two, the author has succeeded with flying colors. I was able to solve the major clues early on, yet couldn’t solve the entire puzzle-mystery.

2. The story is full of surprises along the way. I love surprises!

Cons

1. The head-hopping with sixteen POVs was disconcerting. But I got used to it and started to enjoy it.

2. The puzzle is awfully complex for a middle-grader to follow. I kept returning to previous pages and checked specific clues to keep track of the story. During an earlier era of my life (before my motto of “relentlessly eliminate hurry”), I had started this book and set it down because I didn’t have the leisure of mulling over the possibilities. I’m so glad I took the time to enjoy it now.

Discussion Questions

While there are dozens of questions one could ask regarding each clue, let’s skip to the end and see if your child knows the answers.

1. Who was Sam Westing?
2. When did Sam Westing die?
3. Who received the inheritance?
4. Why did Sam Westing create this crazy puzzle-mystery in the first place? (Hint: several possible answers would be acceptable which involve the man’s character as well as the integrity of the sixteen heirs.)

Conclusion

Just to whet your inquisitive appetite, I’ll leave you with some of the questions I came up with as I read.

1. Plain, grain, skies, brother?
2. Is Grace a Wexler, a Windkloppel, or a Westing?
3. Who else plays chess?
4. Will Angela die like Violet died?
5. Is Otis Amber a nut or a genius?

Happy reading!

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Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John

When Antony John’s wife challenged him to write a book about rock music and its personalities from a deaf person’s point of view, Five Flavors of Dumb was the result.


Synopsis

Eighteen-year-old Piper Vaughn lost her hearing in fifth grade, so her speech is pretty clear, and she’s mastered the skill of reading lips. Communicating to others is so much easier for her if she uses sign language, but only her brother and mom have learned it. Dad is ashamed of his imperfect daughter. However, Piper’s baby sister, Grace, who is also deaf, has just received expensive cochlear implants—paid for with Piper’s college fund. It doesn’t take much imagination to know how she feels.

The chip on her shoulder gets her into the sticky situation of managing, and getting a paying gig for, a high school rock band, Dumb. (That’s the name of the band, not my opinion of Piper!) The five personalities in the band range from arrogant to oppositional to placating, and Piper has her hands full getting them to listen to each other, both on instruments and in life. How can she do that when she can’t even hear the music properly? She depends on her feet to feel the rhythms through the floor, but her hearing aids only give her vague clues on the harmonies.

With the help of an aging ex-rock singer, Piper fumbles her way through the maze of rehearsals, public relations, and contracts. She gains a better understanding of her family while on the journey, learns to accept the hand of friendship as well as extend it, and is stunned by the discovery of romance.

Pros

1. I love a complicated story! With one main character and eight supporting roles, the opportunities for complex relationships abound. Antony John does a masterful job of building the relationships between Piper and her family and Piper and the band. He keeps those relationships true to life, too. She doesn’t succeed with everyone.

2. While the novel is set in the twenty-first century, the author adds wonderful nuggets of rock and roll trivia of the Eighties.

3. Piper gives the reader a good sense of Deaf Culture and what it’s like to be deaf in a hearing world.

Cons

Since Five Flavors of Dumb is not a Christian YA novel, the language can get pretty salty, so I don’t recommend the book for younger readers.
Discussion Questions
1. Why does Piper think her father is ashamed of her? Is she right or wrong? What makes you think so?
2. How does Piper’s opinion of her brother change over the course of the story?
3. How does Piper judge each of the band members at first? List what she thought about each of them. When was she right and when was she wrong? What does she learn about them as individuals?

Conclusion

Directly after the first chapter and directly before the last chapter, Piper creates a list which reveals how she looks at the world. When I compare both lists, I can see how much she’s grown in maturity and in loving others, a great lesson for all readers!

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Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright

Set in the late 1930s, Thimble Summer captures the era’s atmosphere of farm life in  Wisconsin. Elizabeth Enright wrote this while people were just beginning to recover from the Dust Bowl further south, and the book gives an excellent sense of the Depression years through a child’s eyes.

Synopsis

Garnet Linden, ten years old, gets herself into a different scrape every chapter. The story starts with the silver thimble she finds half buried in the river bank, and Garnet decides it will bring her good luck. All her adventures through the rest of the summer “prove” it. Life isn’t always easy, and she knows her father worries about the bills, but as the season comes to a close, she can look back on adventures that brought so many treasures to hold close to her heart for a lifetime.

Pros

 

  1. Children who love a gentle, happy story with enough challenges to keep them interested will love the book.
  2. Enright provides wonderful details teaching today’s readers what farming was like in the twentieth century before World War II, such as how neighbors teamed up to get everyone’s harvest in and how farm machinery was relatively new.

Cons

 

Children who love action and adventure, or adults who deem no story is a good story without building toward a strong climax will not like Thimble Summer.

Discussion Questions

  1. What chores did Garnet help out with?
  2. Would you prefer to be Eric, who lived on his own for over a year, or would you prefer to be part of a family like Garnet’s? Why?
  3. How was it possible that no one missed Garnet when she ran away for the whole day?

Conclusion

I write reviews for Vintage Reads for the sole purpose of pointing readers to great books of yesteryear. This is the second book by Elizabeth Enright that I’ve reviewed. You can find my opinion of The Saturdays here. She has ten more books for children, and each one paints a beautiful picture of Americana.

 

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Rocky Road by Rose Kent

My local library had the foresight to carry several novels with deaf characters for children and teens.  Rocky Road is one of them. In the coming months, I will be including additional reviews as part of a “Deaf Series.”

Synopsis

Tess Dobson has always rolled with the punches that make up her life. Her dad left years ago,  her little brother, Jordan, is deaf, and her mom is a bit wild and crazy. Take, for instance, their sudden move from San Antonio, Texas, to Schenectady, New York.  Mom thinks the schools up north can help Jordan. The family has no money, but Tess’s mother plans to start up an ice cream shop in the middle of the winter. And they’re living in a run-down, old people’s community.

Tess manages to start some new friendships in the middle of seventh grade, keep up with her ASL practice for her brother, get to know some of her elderly neighbors, and help her mom with the preparations for the ice cream parlor. As Mom’s bipolar behavior intensifies, Tess learns that the family’s survival doesn’t depend on Tess.

Pros

  1. All the characters, no matter how quirky, are lovable and to be admired.
  2. With the main character’s southern personality, the down-home, Texas sayings that come out of her mouth make for a fun read.

Cons

While I think of this story as realistic fiction, it’s really not. The characters are almost caricatures. I have never met real people like Tess, her mom, and her friends. That said, there’s nothing wrong with making characters larger than life when the author wants to point out specific traits or actions that readers are encouraged to emulate. In Rocky Road’s case: be a friend and accept individual differences in the people around you.

Discussion questions

  1. Tess knows she can’t talk her mom out of moving, so she decides to make the best of a bad situation. How would you have reacted in the same circumstances?
  2. Why did Mom want to move?
  3. At what point in the story could you tell Mom probably needed medical help?
  4. If you had a brother or sister who was deaf, would you learn sign language?

Conclusion

The book jacket’s final line encapsulates the novel: “This moving story of family, community, and ice cream proves that with a little help from the people around us, life really can be sweet—and a little nutty—just like Rocky Road.” Which is why I loved this book.

 

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The Crescent Stone by Matt Mikalatos

The Crescent Stone by Matt Mikalatos

Power has its Price…

Synopsis

Madeline Oliver is dying from lung disease and there’s no cure. Jason Wu, after tragedy strikes, is left grief stricken and promises to only speak the truth from that point on. When a mysterious stranger name Hanali appears to Madeline and offers to heal her in exchange for one year of service to his people, Madeline and Jason are swept into a strange land where they don’t know the rules and where their decisions carry consequences that reach farther than they could ever guess.

Pros:

  • great writing
  • rich world building
  • plot line that kept me engaged
  • unique characters
  • original folklore

Cons:

  • once in awhile I caught the author “preaching” about societal issues which I found a little off putting (I like things to be a little less on the nose)
  • I did not find Madeline’s character made a big impression on me

This book took me a bit to get into but I really enjoyed it once I got further in! I really loved Jason’s character and his sense of humour. The story line is intriguing and full of just enough twists and turns to keep you turning to the next page. The characters in the Sunlit Land are unique and full of life and it was a wonderful place to visit. I’m looking forward to book 2!

*This book releases today! So you can now get your copy of it on Amazon!*

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Carry On, Mr. Bowditch By Jean Lee Latham

Set in post-Revolutionary War New England, Carry On, Mr. Bowditch is the  biography of Nathaniel Bowditch, author of The American Practical Navigator, nicknamed the “Sailor’s Bible.” While I never paid attention to the author’s name when I was a child, I’m sure I read several of Jean Lee Latham’s biographical works. I recognized her writing style at once.

Synopsis

When Habakkuk Bowditch’s ship founders on the shoals near Salem, Massachusetts, the family is left in poverty.  His second son, Nat,  is much smaller than his other other sons, and Mr. Bowditch doesn’t expect Nat will have the strength needed to join the family tradition of working on a ship.  So he decides to send Nat into indentured service. There will be one less mouth to feed in a family of seven children and Nat will be able to earn a living after nine years. Nat lives with another family for nine years to learn the trade of ship chandlery, the business of supplying equipment and commodities for ships.

Nat’s intuitive understanding of math concepts combined with his passion for helping ships sail as safely as possible drives him to a phenomenal self-education. He learns bookkeeping, Latin, French, Italian, navigational techniques, and advanced mathematics, all with the purpose of writing a book which will correct mathematical errors in established navigational books.

But don’t think this story is only about academic subjects. Nat’s adventures from the Cape of Good Hope to the island of Sumatra add all the action a reader could wish for.

Pros

  1. Nathaniel Bowditch’s life is well-documented, and Latham’s story holds true to all the facts.
  2. Children reading this will get a strong sense of the New World culture circa 1800.

Cons

  1. Because of the early nineteenth century culture, some adults may have a problem with the attitude of such things as “boys don’t blubber,” or that society approved of profits from whaling and sealing expeditions.

Discussion Questions

  1. Do you think Nat had a good attitude once he was indentured to the ship chandlery? Why or why not?
  2. Did Nat ever receive a college degree from Harvard?
  3. Why did wives of sailors need to be independent, able to run their entire households and provide for their families?
  4. Nat sailed on five different voyages. Which one of those voyages did you enjoy reading about the most?

Conclusion

As a Vintage Read, Carry On, Mr. Bowditch is both educational and entertaining.

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Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski

Lois Lenski’s American Regional books have been likened to the Little House books of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Yes, the similar settings are hugely important to the story, but Lenski’s style is far different than Wilder’s, and I like them both. I found Strawberry Girl particularly interesting because it covers a place and time I’m unfamiliar with, Florida at the turn of the twentieth century.

Synopsis

Birdie Boyer’s father has purchased a long-abandoned farm in central Florida. Proud of their Cracker heritage (the Scotch-Irish pioneers who populated the Appalachian Mountains), ten-year-old Birdie works hard helping her family plant an orchard and strawberry field. However, the antagonists, a squatter family who have lived on the nearby land for generations, are determined to stop the Boyers from building fences. The Slaters own cattle and are used to allowing their cows to roam wild. You can see how conflict is going to build.

Once Birdie cools down from the latest Slater outrage, she and her mother still offer kindness to their neighbors, especially as they realize that wife and children suffer under the irresponsibility of the father. Today’s reader will find the ending improbable. Without giving away the plot, I’ll just tell you that Lenski uses the ideal to teach children virtues to strive for.

Pros

  1. Strawberry Girl offers a great history lesson about Florida and its culture.
  2. The language is simple and straightforward, even as Lenski uses southern terms that might be unfamiliar to her readers. Third-graders should be able to understand most of it.

Cons

  1. Many readers won’t care for what I’ve noted as pros. They don’t want a history lesson, and they don’t want to struggle with new vocabulary. I guess that’s more of a criticism of the reader than the book!
  2. Having been written over sixty years ago, the book is narrated rather than the deep POV most of us are now accustomed to. But the narration is excellent, which is why it won the Newbery Medal in 1945.

Discussion Questions

  1. If Effie Slater wanted to be friends with Birdie, why was Effie so hateful toward her neighbor sometimes?
  2. Who was able to better solve problems between the Boyers and the Slaters, Mr. Boyer or Mrs. Boyer? Give an example.
  3. What was Birdie’s surprise gift after all her work growing the strawberries?

Conclusion

Another very worthwhile vintage read!