Bluefish

Title: Bluefish
Author: Pat Schmatz
Copyright: 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5334-7

Travis:
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.  Travis has always been the Bluefish, ever since first grade when all the students were assigned leveled reading groups.  While all the kids around him moved forward Travis remained the stupid Blue Fish. 

Velveeta:
When Calvin, the only person who ever helped Velveeta succeed, dies of a heart attack she is left alone with a drunk mother just trying to get by.  It's the first day of school and her mom forgot to buy her any school supplies. In fact her mother forgets everything except to buy more alcohol, she always remembers that. 

Then Velveeta meets Travis all because of a flying shoe, and their lives will never be the same.  Travis meets a teacher who doesn't make him feel stupid because he can't read, and Velveeta makes a friend who cares about her and doesn't say anything about her home situation.  Travis even shares half his dessert with her everyday what could be a better friend then that. 

Both Travis and Velveeta have a lot of pain and regret to work through, but maybe, just maybe together they'll make it alright. 

No Castles Here

Title: No Castles Here
Author: A.C.E. Bauer
Copyright: 2007
ISBN: 978-0-375-83921-4

This book is for all the kids who truly believe that their parents are trying to ruin their life.  Augie Boretski does not fit in.  He just happens to be a scrawny white kid living in Camden, New Jersey.  All Augie wants is to survive Camden so that he can go somewhere better. 

Everything starts to fall apart in Augie's life when he accidentally steals a magical fairy tale book.  Yes, he accidentally stole the book.  That's the sort of kid Augie is. He lies to his mother and the neighbor, takes the train from Camden to Philadelphia, hides out in a bookstore, then runs out still holding a book.  He doesn't even like books, Augie was only holding it as a prop so that no one would bug him. 

Just to make his life worse at the age of twelve Augies mother decides that he needs a "male role model" and signs him up to participate in the Big Brothers program.  Augie is getting beat up every day, having his lunch stolen, and hiding from drug dealers, an ice storm wrecks his school the only place he feels safe.

Augie decides that for the first time in his life he will stand up for something.  Now read the book to find out what he stands for. 

The Last Song

Title: The Last Song
Author: Eva Wiseman
Copyright: 2012
ISBN: 978-0-88776-979-5

I am always on the lookout for accessible historical fiction that is written during a time period that children typically don't know much about.  When I picked up "The Last Song" I was deceived by the cover!  I was shocked when I started reading to discover that it was not a holocaust book like a expected by instead was set in Toledo, Spain during the Spanish Inquisition 1491! 

Well at that point I was committed, I had bought the book, I had started reading the book and I was hooked.  For the record I knew absolutely nothing about the Spanish Inquisition when I started reading.  In fact I couldn't even quite rationalize when 1491 would have been.  None of that stopped me, and in fact the story line is so compelling, none of my concerns even mattered. 

This is the story of Isabel an almost fifteen year old girl who discovers in chapter 1 that she must marry a boy she despises in order to keep her safe from the inquisition.  No matter how many questions she asks no one will tell Isabel why she would ever have to be kept safe her family is full of good Christians what could the problem be?

Isabel soon learns that her family is hiding a dark past and in her time of need people she thought she could trust will desert her.  However, when she meets a young Jewish boy named Yonah she also learns to accept her background and her family for what it is.  Follow the emotional journey of Isabel as she learns what it means to be Jewish during a time of persecution. 

Bake Mice Bake

Title: Bake Mice Bake
Author: Eric Seltzer
Illustrator: Natascha Rosenberg
Copyright: 2012
ISBN: 978-0-448-45763-5

People who regularly read my book reviews know that I hate Easy Readers.  In fact, just about anyone who comes into the library knows about my dislike of Easy Readers.  Typically I won't even bother to review them since there are so many better books in the world.  However I do occasionally find a book that I think I can "use" in some way.

Bake, Mice, Bake is a new easy reader featuring four mice who own the Cakes and More bakery.  Since I used to work as a baker I am a softy for books that involve cooking and baking.  If you are looking for a way to get your child more involved in the kitchen this is the book you want.  It uses all the various action words that your child will need to help learn to cook.  The mice cut, chop, drop, mop, crack, whip, pour, drip etc.  Each short phrase features an adorable picture to illustrate the action. 

One of my favorite pages includes a picture of a mouse dropping an egg, and then grabbing a mop to clean up the mess!  What better skill could we teach children then cleaning up after themselves.  If you are looking for a new easy reader for your child, consider checking out Bake, Mice, Bake and then doing a little baking together!

Mooshka: A Quilt Story

Title: Mooshka: A Quilt Story
Author: Julie Paschkis
ISBN: 978-1-56145-620-8
Copyright 2012

Adopt-a-Book month is almost over and still we have books waiting for a loving family to claim them.  Mooshka: A Quilt Story would be the perfect book to adopt if you have a new baby, or a grandmother you would like to honor.

Mooshka was a quilt.  She was not just any quilt, she was a very unusual and special quilt that her grandmother had made her when she was young.  It was full of color and life and made her room glow at night.

"If there was something scary under the bed, it snuggled tight around her and made her feel safe.  But that wasn't why Karla's quilt was unusual."

What made Mooshka the most special quilt was that it talked to Karla every evening, and every morning, when she touched it, the quilt would tell her stories.  The different pieces of fabric that her grandmother called "schnitz" all told different stories about her family and what they have seen.

One day something changes in her life and Mooshka stops speaking to Karla. She doesn't know how to make Mooshka speak again but she does know how to make someone very very happy.

Adopt this book to find out how Mooshka is passed along.

Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms

Title: Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms
Author: Lissa Evans
ISBN: 978-1-4027-9806-1
Copyright: 2012

Everything about Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms feels old.  Not old in a bad way, but in a classic and intriguing manner.  Lissa Evans wrote an intriguing plot full of quirky characters who interact, and don't interact in some surprising ways. 

Stuart Horten or S.Horten as people often refer to him is an unusually small ten year old boy.  In fact he comes from a family of unusually small, and unusually tall relatives.  When his parents decide to move back to his fathers home town of Beeton Stuart is faced with a profound problem, living in a new town at the beginning of summer vacation where he doesn't know a single soul.

His parents (being parents) don't see the problem.  His father makes crossword puzzles and speaks using rather large words.

"Ah, there you are.  I was just thinking of going for a brief perambulation.  Would you like to come too?" Stuart answered, "Oh all right, then"

By "brief perambulation," his father meant a short walk.  That was the way he talked all the time, and he always spoke in a  loud, clear voice, so that people in the street turned and stared at him."

 As the story progresses Stuart learns that he has a great-uncle who is missing (and a former magician) his house is about to be demolished (rather mysteriously), the neighbors are triplet girls who snoop about, and the telephone with the receiver that isn't even connected seems to always work when the library is calling. 

Check this brand new book out today in order to find out how Stuart's summer progresses and whether or not he is able to track down his missing great-uncle.

Laundry Day

Title: Laundry Day
Author: Maurie Manning
Copyright: 2012
ISBN: 9-780-547-24196-8
Adopt-a-Book Price: $10.02

In Laundry Day by Maurie J. Manning a young shoe shine boy goes on an adventure to discover who a red piece of cloth belongs too after it comes loose from the clothes lines over his head.  This book is set up in the style of a graphic novel.  The different frames help move the story along even though there is very little text to read. 

In New York City the shoeshine boy really wants to return the cloth to it's owner as he climbs up stairs, drain pipes, and shimmies across clotheslines he encounters people of different ethnicity living in the same building.  The shoeshine boy goes from balcony to balcony learning a little bit about each of his neighbors what the do and who they are as people.

This is a great book to show children to explain about different cultures.  Plus it is also a great way to get kids used to reading the graphic novel format. 

To find out of the shoeshine boy ever found the owner of the mysterious red fabric you will have to adopt the book and read it.