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“Under Five” -- Book Talks

On this page, the books—not the intended readers—are under five years old.  The idea is to spread the word on good new books that students in adolescent literature classes at ASU have found intriguing and worthy of recommending to readers in junior or senior high schools.

 

Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter by Adeline Yen Mah.  Delacorte, 1999. 

“After dinner, I’m going to ask Big Brother to teach me how to read this map.  With Aunt Baba still in Tianjin, there’s obviously nobody looking out for me.  I’ll just have to find my own way.”  This autobiographical tale of an unwanted little girl who truly does have to find her own way will break your heart.  Still, you will be lifted up by the strength of her personality.  While you will cringe for her when harsh words are spoken, you will also meet characters who are loving and true.  As you follow Adeline through the Second World War and just beyond, you will see glimpses of history never fully explained in school.  For perhaps the first time you will see the effects of politics and culture in China.  The clash between the old dynasties and the new American fads are shocking. You will discover the Chinese language and the importance of self-identity for this little girl.  She must destroy stereotypes and face prejudice at every turn, and yet she seems empowered and able to recruit allies when she needs them most.  I suggest finding a comfortable spot and settling down because as you travel through her youth, you will confront your own truths. 

Adeline Yen Mah is a physician as well as a writer.  Her royalties go to the Falling Leaves Foundation, which enables American students to study in Beijing and Shanghai.

by Danita R. Mayer

 

The Dark Light by Mette Newth.  Douglas & McIntyre, 1998.

In the early 19th Century, leprosy struck many people.  This terrible disease, which eats away at the body, was considered to be a punishment from God.  Lepers were considered dead and were banished from their communities to die in hospitals.

Tora lived in the Norwegian countryside.  When she was a child, her leprous mother had died peacefully before her condition was discovered so that she would have been banished.  When Tora is thirteen, she is found to be leprous and is sent to Jørgen’s Hospital in Bergen.  Her family considers her dead, but Tora finds a new life waiting for her at the hospital.  The nurse, Marthe, takes Tora in and treats her like a daughter, and even the spiteful Mistress Dybendal, once a rich heiress, teaches Tora to read and write, and lets her share her books with the other patients.  

Throughout the book, Tora’s condition worsens: her feet must be amputated and she worries about losing her hands.  But more important than these physical worries, is Tora’s need to come to terms with her condition and to forgive her father and God.

by Nasreen Wahid

 

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine.  HarperCollins, 1997, Harper Trophy pbk., 1998.

Levine takes the story of Cinderella and adds a new twist.  At birth, Ella is given the gift of obedience.  Once ordered to eat her birthday cake, Ella begins to eat and eat until she starts to cry as she forces another bite of cake down her throat.  Noticing her unhappiness, her mother commands her to stop eating.  At once she does. 

This obedience takes over Ella’s life.  Her mother dies when she is young, and her father is forced to remarry in order to maintain his fortune.  He chooses Dame Olga as his bride, and her repulsive daughters Hattie and Olive move into Ella’s house.  The girls begin to order Ella around, demanding her belongings and ruining her new-found friendship/romance with Prince Charmont. 

When Prince Charmont gives a ball, Ella disguises herself and attends,  only to have her disguise ruined by one of her stepsisters.  Here the story takes on new twists and turns.  You’ll have to read the book to find out how Ella breaks the spell of her “gift” of obedience.

By Cory Levine

 

Girl Goddess # 9 by Francesca Lia Block.  HarperCollins, 1996.

One girl living with two women has a hard time coming to terms with the fact that she has two parents of the same sex.  She wants to know where her father is and who he is, so she travels to San Francisco in search of the father she never knew. This is just one of the nine stories in Block’s book written to “show teenage girls that they are all goddesses.”  Block, best known for her Weetzie Bat series, writes about nine unique teenage girls faced with some unusual situations.  In “Blue,” a young girl loses her mother, but befriends an imaginary blue, transsexual creature who helps her to remember her mother and to get through the hard times. 

The stories, which deal with gays, lesbians, loss of virginity, and casual sex, could be described as fantasy, sprinkled with bits of reality.  While they sugar coat reality, they are refreshing in their positive outlook on life and the underlying meaning about self-worth.     

by Shannon Peck

 

The Great Turkey Walk by Kathleen Karr.  Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1998.

Kathleen Karr’s book is a fun and easy-to-read example of historical fiction for middle school students, whether read aloud or assigned as schoolwork.  The plot involves fifteen-year-old Simon Greene, who after completing the third grade for the third time, “graduates” from school.  Simon knows that as a graduate and a grown-up, he must figure out what to do with his life.  Simon soon learns from a local turkey farmer that there is a city called Denver so rich that the streets are paved in gold. 

The farmer laments that he would be a wealthy man if his turkey farm were in Denver instead of Kansas City because the price of turkeys in Denver is so high.  Simon realizes right then what he wants to do.  Investing his own money and $200 he borrows from his former teacher, Simon purchases 1,000 turkeys from the farmer and hires a man named Mr. Peece.  Together Simon and Mr. Peece begin their journey, herding one thousand turkeys 1,500 miles from Kansas City, Missouri to Denver, Colorado. The conflicts and problems are astounding as are their resolutions. 

In an afterword, Karr explains that before the railroads were built across frontier America, all animals—even birds—were herded from city to city in the same manner that Simon Greene employs.

By Sally Allen

 

A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck.  Dial, 1998.

At first Joe and Mary Alice Dowdel dread going on their annual one-week visits to their grandma.  The house has few modern conveniences; their grandma does not like the company of strangers, and she does not follow the examples of other people.  As Joe explains, “She was tough as an old boot, or so we thought.  As the years went by, though, Mary Alice and I grew up, and though Grandma never changed, we’d seem to see a different woman every summer.”    

When Joe and his sister take the trips to that old run-down town, grandma is able to surprise them every time, but she is unpredictable in a strangely predictable way.  Joe can never figure out her reasons beforehand, but afterwards they seem clear.  The sequel, A Year Down Yonder (Dial, 2000), in which Mary Alice is sent to live with the grandmother, won the 2001 Newbery Award.

by Amber Johnson

 

Lord of the Fries and Other Stories by Tim Wynne-Jones. DK Publishing, 1999.

Wynne-Jones’s short stories explore a wealth of subjects.  “Ick,” for example, discusses the serious issue of a teacher abusing his power to manipulate a student for his personal inclinations.  Although the actions are not taken far, it is suggested that if the students were not as cunning as they happen to be, that the wrong actions might have continued or progressed.  In this story, the students devise a plan to confront the teacher and gain control.  The title, “Ick,” gives a clue to the plan without giving away the excitement of the story.

In other stories, Wynne-Jones creates situations which span different perspectives while still providing entertaining and valuable lessons to young readers.  It is a nice change to read a book which has different relationships created within many different frameworks, such as two odd boys finding their places, a son recovering after the abandonment of his father, prejudiced adults learning to cope with people with differences, and girls and boys both having a chance to be heroes.  These stories help readers identify solutions to problems by exploring possibilities of life within someone else’s perspective.

By Nicole Kodis-Mercier

 

My Life in Dog Years by Gary Paulsen.  Bantam, Doubleday, Dell, 1998; Yearling Pbk., 1999.

This is a great book for anyone who enjoys Paulsen, and an even better book for anyone who loves dogs.  Paulsen is one of those kindred spirits who can appreciate the noises that only big dogs can make.  The popular author’s autobiography is told in terms of the dogs who were his companions throughout his life, and even though he is telling the dogs’ stories, we subtly learn about his own life. 

There’s Cookie, who saved his life; Snowball, his first puppy and only true friend; Ike, his hunting buddy; Dirk, who protects him from the neighborhood bully for the small fee of a hamburger; Quincy, who knows that the initials DQ mean that he will get ice cream; and Josh, who can figure out an irrigation system faster than can humans.  This is probably the only book you will ever finish wishing for a big warm tongue to give you a slobbery kiss on the cheek!

By Chris Hough

 

Never Trust a Dead Man by Vivian Vande Velde.  Harcourt Brace, 1999.

Selwyn Rowenson lives the typical life of a medieval farm boy.  He plows the field, hauls off pesky tree stumps, dreams of a fair maid, gets accused of murder...well, maybe he’s not THAT typical.  Selwyn’s dreams of a perfect marriage are dashed when the fair Anora rejects his love and chooses another, an obnoxious man named Farold.  Life gets even worse for Selwyn when Farold turns up dead—stabbed in the back by a mystery assailant. 

Selwyn is convicted by the town and sentenced to the ultimate punishment: to be entombed with his victim.  But the story does not end there.  By an odd twist of fate, Selwyn is given another chance in the form of a bizarre old witch named Elswyth.  After a little bargaining, Selwyn gets a chance to speak with the dead—to find out who is the TRUE murderer.  But when Farold is brought back to life, he isn’t much help.  Not only does a second odd twist of fate bring Farold back as something less than a man, but the plan itself proves flawed—Farold doesn’t know his killer.  As he says, “If you had looked before you started all this, you would have seen that I was stabbed in the back.”  Despite the grim plot and the Poe-esque themes, this book is a fantastically fun read.  Fans of the Monty Python comedy troupe will love the wit and humor.

by Jennifer Smalley

 

Rose and the Beast: Fairy Tales Retold by Francesca Lia Block.  HarperCollins, 2000.

Everybody knows the Fairy Tales.  They’re classics, deeply engrained in our culture.  Beauty and the Beast, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Sleeping Beauty—they’re wonderful stories.  But sometimes, they’re just a little too sweet, too sugary, too unbelievable. In her book, Francesca Lia Block takes the old stories and adds new depth, new character.  The heroes and heroines have flaws: they smoke cigarettes, have premarital sex, abuse drugs.  Sleeping Beauty is an opium addict.  The Beast treats Beauty better than does the man he becomes.

Using fairy tales as her vehicle, Block addresses issues that range from family values to sexuality to substance abuse.  This is not a book for immature readers, but for those who can handle the subject matter, it is well worth the time.

by Connor Warner

Sarny: A Life Remembered by Gary Paulsen. Delacorte, 1997, Laurel-Leaf pbk., 1999.

In this sequel to Paulsen’s Nightjohn, Sarny is now a free woman.  It is the end of the Civil War and slavery.  Sarny starts out on a journey to find her two children, Tyler and Delie, who were taken just days before.  She travels with another freed slave named Lucy.  Together they see many signs of the ending of the war.  One day while looking for food in an abandoned house, they discover a young boy.  They decide they can’t leave him behind, so Sarny names him Tyler Two.  They continue on their journey where they meet Miss Laura.  She is a wealthy woman and hires Sarny and Lucy.  They both accept because Miss Laura lives in New Orleans and that is where Sarny’s children were supposedly taken. 

Sarny learns many things from Miss Laura: how to be a businesswoman, how to cook, and how to take care of herself.  Sarny has to overcome people’s prejudices and other tough obstacles, and while the setting is tragic, most readers will enjoy sharing this story of Sarny becoming a strong woman.

By Heather Brengle

Shiva’s Fire by Suzanne Fisher Staples.   Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2000.

An Indian woman named Meenakshi was pregnant with her third child and this time she felt sure it was a girl.  She did not feel sick or unable to eat like she had with her two boys.  With this pregnancy, “everything tasted sweet and delicious, and she felt especially alive and healthy.”  Her husband often found her smiling.

Their life was simple, but there was enough to eat.  The father worked with elephants and the mother stayed at home caring for her two children and working in the fields.  But one day after her husband had left for work, Meenakshi felt the signs of impending birth.  The baby was born very quickly, and at the same time, torrential rains came so that the whole village was soon flooded under two feet of water. Meenakshi’s mud house was washed away and so she had to take her children to live with her husband’s brother’s family.  Times are hard and many children die of hunger, but Meenakshi’s baby, Parvati, thrives and has a happy and contented disposition.  Just as Meenakshi felt from the beginning, Parvati is special, but as other people notice her beauty and her penetrating and intense gaze, they begin to fear her and blame her for their village’s destruction.  This is the story of Parvati’s power and how she makes it positive instead of negative.

by Kristina Efimenko

 

Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World by Jennifer Armstrong.  Crown Publishers, 1998.

Imagine the worst day of your life. Imagine the worst meal you ever ate. Imagine the coldest and loneliest you have ever been.  Imagine the most scared you have ever felt.  Now imagine all of these memories occurring at the same time and lasting 19 months.  It is hard to imagine such extremes, but this was the reality for 27 sailors trying to cross the Antarctic continent in 1914.  Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew on the ironically named ship, Endurance, became trapped, literally freezing in place among the rapidly expanding ice packs.  Forced to traverse 600 miles on foot to an uninhabited island, Shackleton and five of his crew members sail another 800 miles before they find help and are able to rescue the remaining crew members left on the island.  Amazingly, everyone survived.  How Shackleton and his crew members managed to keep faith is a testament to the human spirit and a wonderful read.

By Andrew Lawrence

 

Slam edited by Cecily Von Ziegesar, foreword by Tori Amos.  Penguin/Alloy, 2000.

As explained in the introduction, Slam is meant to inspire, excite, teach, and treat...We all have something worth hearing, and the way you say it is poetry.”  In this collection, the voices of teen poets intermingle with the voices of notable poets including William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, and Allen Ginsberg. They unite behind powerful themes of life: love, depression, confidence, and lust.  Slam’s goal is to convince teenagers that poetry is not dead.  Musicians such as Tori Amos, Jewel, Rob Thomas, and Macy Gray serve as modern bards, pouring forth musical lyrics that are poems of our day.

Whether you want to learn how to put on a poetry slam in your garage or whether you simply want to read a collection of provocative poems in a quiet corner of your home, Slam is the book to excite and teach you.  It will encourage that timid voice inside to be heard through exuberant poetry, for as William Blake wrote, “Exuberance is beauty.”

by Shelly Whitfield

 

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.  Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1999.

Melinda Sordino enters Merryweather High School as an outcast.  Frightened, friendless, and disgusted with herself, she escapes from the crowded hallways by taking shelter in a forgotten janitor’s closet.  She is not only hiding from Mr. Neck, the Marthas, and IT—she is hiding from herself.

No matter where she runs, a horrendous pain follows her, screaming in her head.  Something happened to Melinda at an end-of-the-summer party just weeks before she began attending Merryweather, and she refuses to speak about it. Melinda’s old friends have abandoned her since she ruined the summer party by calling the cops.  Her parents are too busy with their careers to notice her hermit-like behavior and failing grades.  And her only friend, Heather, is more concerned with prom decorations than Melinda’s obvious cries for help. But Melinda must find some way to keep her sanity.  She finds comfort in art class.  As Mr. Freeman, the art teacher, makes her unravel the meaning of her artistic fascination with trees, she begins to find meaning in herself.  Yet will art be enough to heal her, when the cause of her fear still walks the halls of Merryweather?

by Shelly Whitfield

 

Tenderness by Robert Cormier.  Delacorte, 1997.

When an obsession comes along, Lori has no choice but to obey.  It’s the only way to extinguish the urges.  But for Lori, her biggest desire is to find someone who will be tender with her.  For someone who has yet to be involved in an appropriate relationship, this dream has always been just beyond her grasp.  So Lori sets out on a cross-country trip to realize this dream.  Somehow she finds this tenderness, but it comes in a form no one could have expected.

Eric was incarcerated for killing his parents.  His brutality, though not yet proven, extends to his passion for young women.  In his attempt to share tenderness with these young women, Eric must kill them.  It’s the only way he knows to achieve the depth of feeling he seeks.  Upon his release from jail, Eric is once again a predator.  He sets out to find his next victim.

As the story unfolds, the fates of Lori and Eric become entwined.  It is a love story that is both disturbing and touching.  They travel together, fleeing the suspicions of the cops in search of something intangible.  These two dysfunctional young people, discover a new form of friendship and intimacy.  The author creates a scenario that pulls your emotions in several directions at once.  He focuses not on brutality or violence, but on the peculiar minds of the two protagonists.  This story remains somehow believable up until the unpredictable ending that leaves readers breathless and emotional.

by Danita R. Mayer

 

Time Capsule edited by Donald R. Gallo. Delacorte, 1999.

Time Capsule is a book of short stories about teenagers in every decade of the 20th century.  Each story highlights a popular idea or event of that decade.  For example, a story about the World’s Fair in St. Louis is the topic for the first decade, and for the 1950s, a story includes the newly invented television along with nuclear fallout drills.  The editor wrote short one- or two- page history briefs for the beginnings of each story, along with short biographies of the individual authors.  Included are the themes they usually treat and the titles of their books.  Gallo’s book would be excellent to use with a history or literature unit revolving around the 20th century.  The stories are short enough for readers in junior high, while still being interesting enough for those in senior high.

By Lori Frazier

There’s a Dead Person Following My Sister Around by Vivian Vande Velde.  Harcourt Brace, 1999. 

I was not eager to read this book because it was designated as a fantasy, a genre I am not particularly fond of.  However, There’s A Dead Person Following My Sister Around has changed my attitude about fantasy literature and I am now a fan. Vande Velde’s character development and imagery is superbly done.  The story is surprisingly educational in the historic references to the Underground Railroad and the plot twists are creative and entertaining. Anyone who has a teenaged sibling will relate to twelve-year-old Ted and five-year-old Vicki’s relationship with their obnoxious older brother, Zack.  Zack thinks he knows everything, but he is not the hero of the story.  It is Ted and his cousin who unearth the sad history of the “dead person following his sister.”  Their discovery enables them to buy the haunting past and provides two very deserving souls the peace and freedom they so richly desire. 

I look forward to recommending this educational, suspenseful, funny, sad, and all-around-good-read to students in upper elementary grades.

By Sheila McEvoy

 

Vanishing by Bruce Brooks.  HarperCollins, 1999. 

Alice meets Rex in the children’s ward of the hospital.  He has a mystery disease that is slowly killing him, but he is nevertheless loads of fun.  He brightens up gloomy days and shows the world he has no fear of death or life.

Unfortunately, Alice can’t live that way.  Her parents are divorced.  Her dad has just kicked her out; her mother, an alcoholic, is married to a man that Alice hates, and she doesn’t want to live with them under any circumstances.  Alice lands herself in the hospital with a cold that becomes more than a cold, and she decides to stay.  She stops eating, and so the hospital has to keep her.

Weeks go by; Alice starts to waste away.  She doesn’t really notice because it’s so much fun to have her consciousness leave her body.  Dying isn’t part of the plan, but staying in the hospital is the only way she can envision staying alive.  When the doctors tell her she could die at any moment, she doesn’t believe them.  But when it really comes down to life or death, Rex has something to say, and finally Alice listens.

by Amber N. Johnson

 

What Became of Her by M. E. Kerr.  HarperCollins, 2000.

Rosalind Slaymaster was the wealthiest woman in the whole town of Serenity, quite possibly in all of Bucks County.  She resided in a beautiful mansion known as Peligro, where she lived part of the year with her adopted “niece” Julie; her servants; and her beloved leather mannequin, Peale.  Rosalind solicits Ann, a local astrologer and Edward Tobbit’s mother, to do Peale’s Astrological chart.  You see, Peale means almost more to the family than to Julie, and is obviously loved and accepted far more than Julie ever could or would be.  It is upon this realization that Edward, or E. C., and Julie begin their friendship.

After Mrs. Slaymaster does a bizarre dance with Peale at her annual Christmas party, E. C. unravels the twisted tale of Mrs. Slaymaster’s life by reading an old diary.  Tales of death, lust, deceit, hate, and passion come to life.  E. C. and Julie’s friendship is complicated by E. C.’s  knowledge and their mutual friendship with another boy who has an unfortunate habit of stealing things.  The story gets more and more complicated.  Only seven or eight years later do some of the blanks get filled in when Edward and Julie happen to meet.

            by Liz Reid

 

Witnesses to War by Michael Leapman.  Penguin Group, 1998.

Thousands of children in Europe during World War II were stolen from their parents, screened in racial tests, and then selected for “Germanization” and adoption by German families; many never saw their parents again.  Their experiences make up a significant part of this powerful collective biography, written without sensationalism by a British journalist who directed a BBC film about the Nazi’s selective breeding program. Each chapter begins with general historical background and then describes what happened to one child.  Accompanied by black and white photos and based on research and interviews with those who survived, these sad and compelling stories of Jewish and nonJewish Polish, Czech, and Gypsy children document the horrors of the Holocaust.

Once readers pick up this book, they will not be able to put it down.  The deeply moving accounts retold with great sensitivity and understanding, provide a valuable historical insight to today’s readers of what life must have been like then.  The author has a way of allowing the reader to face tragedy with hope.  This book would be most appropriate for young adult readers in grades 8-12.

by Janice Ewbank