Happy Christmas Eve! This one should be obvious…
But I heard him exclaim,
ere he drove out of sight,
Happy Christmas to All,
and to All a Good Night!
(Which begs the question: do you have a favorite version of this story?)
Author: booknutgirls
Operation Yes
by Sarah Lewis Holmes
ages: 9+
First sentence: “
Review copy provided by publisher.
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Over the past two months, I have read a lot of books about war, death, loss, and kids dealing with all of that. Some of have been moving and made me cry, some have been irritating and made me annoyed. Few, however, have hit me just right. Operation Yes, though, is one of those few.
Bo is the son of an Air Force Colonel, living on base in Reform, North Carolina. They’ve moved a lot, of course, and he’s not had a good track record with school. That is, until sixth grade and his new teacher, Miss Loupe. Miss Loupe is one of those teachers — may we all be blessed enough to have one — who makes learning exciting. Oh, how I wanted to be a part of her class. She’s dynamic, she’s thrilling, and she has Bo totally and completely engaged. That is, until Gari — short for Garrison — shows up.
Gari is Bo’s cousin, and she’s (yes, that’s not a typo) come to stay with Bo and his family for a year while her mom, an Army nurse, is deployed to Iraq. To say that Gari is not happy about this, is to be wildly understating it. Gari is bitter, angry, and troublesome. And because Bo has the father he does, he gets blamed for much of the trouble that Gari brings. That is, until Miss Loupe’s brother, Marc, goes missing in Afghanistan, and Bo, Gari and a couple other classmates hatch a plan that will bring hope to everyone.
The book, from the first page, gave me a sense of what it means to work together toward a common goal. To deal with the loss of someone, both through distance and injury. To hope in spite of mounting evidence to the contrary. To dream. To walk to a different drummer. And it made me want to stand up and cheer. Everything about it, from the writing and characters down to the plot had me hooked from page one. I couldn’t put it down; I didn’t want to put it down. And I didn’t want it to end, even though the ending is supremely perfect.
If you have to read one book about War and Loss (and even if you don’t), pick this one. You won’t regret it.
(Just for the record: because this is a Cybils nominee, I’ve been asked to make sure y’all know this is my opinion only, and not that of the panel.)
Christmas Book Week, Day 4
From Baboushka, retold by Arthur Schollet, and illustrated by Helen Cann. A not-so-subtle reminder to get out from under the business and just *enjoy* the season.
Now everyone was itching for news. No one could work. No one could stay indoors. No one that is, but Baboushka. Baboushka had work to do — she always had. She swept, polished, scoured, and shined. Her house was the best kept, best polished, best washed, and best pained. Her garden was beautiful, her cooking superb.
“All this fuss for a star!” she muttered. “I don’t even have time to look. I’m so behind. I must work all night!”
So she missed the star at its most dazzling, high overhead. She missed the line of twinkling lights coming toward the village at dawn. She missed the sound of pipes and drums, the tinkling of bells getting louder. She missed the voices and whispers and then the sudden quiet of the villagers, and the footsteps coming up the path to her door.
Positively
by Courtney Sheinmel
ages: 10+
First sentence: “
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
There are some books that quietly creep under your skin and stick there. Sure, you know up front that they are issue books, that the sole purpose of the story is to raise awareness on something or other — in this case, AIDS, especially in children — that the author particularly cares about. But, for many reasons, the story sticks with you.
The story in this case follows thirteen-year-old Emerson — Emmy — Price. She’s HIV-positive, and her mother — who had AIDS — has recently passed away. Emmy’s dealing with a lot of change (she’s moved in with her dad and his new wife, who is expecting), a lot of pain, a lot of heartbreak, and it’s almost too much for her to bear. She wants to give it all up: it’s hard being different, taking meds all the time, and she misses her mom desperately. Then her dad sends her away to Camp Positive, a camp exclusively for HIV-positive kids. Over the course of the summer, Emmy learns to accept what has happened and move on.
It’s an issue book, definitely: the authors note on the end was almost more moving than the story itself. The fact that the author cares about the subject, and wants to address issues surrounding AIDS and HIV. But, she gave us a character we could care about (and get irritated with; I spent a good half of the book annoyed with her) and care about the journey of. It’s a touching book, it’s a caring book. And so, it surpasses the issue-ness and becomes a genuinely good book.
(Just for the record: because this is a Cybils nominee, I’ve been asked to make sure y’all know this is my opinion only, and not that of the panel.)
Christmas Book Week, Day 3
gFrom The Little House on the Prairie, which has been made into a lovely picture book called Santa Comes to Little House.
Laura and Mary never would have looked in their stockings again. The cups and the cakes and the candy were almost too much. They were too happy to speak. But Ma asked if they were sure the stockings were empty.
Then they put their hands down inside them, to make sure.
And in the very toe of each stocking was a shining bright, new penny!
They had never even thought of such a thing as having a penny. Think of having a whole penny for your very own. Think of having a cup and a cake and a stick of candy and a penny.
There had never been such a Christmas.
The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg
by Rodman Philbrick
ages: 9+
First sentence: “My name is Homer P. Figg, and these are my true adventures.”
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Life is not good for Homer P. Figg. His father was felled by a tree. His Dear Mother passed away, leaving Homer and his other brother, Harold, in the care of their uncle, Squint, who — to write an enormous understatement — doesn’t treat them well. Now Squint has illegally sold Harold to the Union Army, and it’s up to Homer to find him and bring him home.
These are his adventures. (Mostly true, anyway.)
And, boy are they adventures.
From getting caught by a couple of slave hunters (in Maine, of all places), and rescued by a Quaker to becoming a part of a traveling circus, this is one a rip-roaring adventure. Sure, it’s a Civil War book; there’s the same old Civil War themes of slavery, fighting, traitors, and death. But it didn’t feel like a Civil War book; instead, it’s more of an adventure story with a Civil War backdrop. (Bonus plus: Joshua Chamberlin, my absolute favorite Civil War character, made an appearance!) But, more than the unusual take on the war, the best part of the book was Homer. He’s is not only a winning character, he’s a wonderful narrator, even if he is (admittedly) a bit of a liar. It’s not a lying book like, say, Justine Larbalestier’s Liar is: the lying is more for comic effect, something which adds to the unique charm of Homer’s character. But, it was that dash of comedy (and, yes, lying) that made the pages just fly by.
And it was Homer’s charm that completely won me over. The cadence of the sentences, the word choices all lend itself to the whole charming tale. I’m not often a visual reader, but while reading this I had a definite picture of Homer. And I could totally wrap him up — spite, spit, dirt and all — and stick him in my pocket.
Which means that this one is a keeper.
(Just for the record: because this is a Cybils nominee, I’ve been asked to make sure y’all know this is my opinion only, and not that of the panel.)
Christmas Book Week, Day 2
Happy Midwinter everyone! Find some sunshine, if you can, and pull out your (hopefully well-worn) copy of The Dark is Rising, and enjoy. If you haven’t read it yet, here’s a teaser to get you (hopefully) interested.
The snow lay thin and apologetic over the world. That wide grey sweep was the lawn, with the straggling trees of the orchard still dark beyond; the white squares were the roofs of the garage, the old barn, the rabbit hutches, the chicken coops. Further back there were only the flat fields of Dawson’s farm, dimly white-striped. All the broad sky was grey, full of more snow that refused to fall. There was no colour anywhere.
Christmas Book Week, Day 1
I thought, this week before Christmas, amid all the reviews and other things (read: Cybils reading, girls home from school) I’ve got going on, I’d share some of my favorite quotes from Christmas books and stories.
To start off, because we’re going to watch The Muppet Christmas Carol tonight, a couple from the Charles Dickens classic:
If you should happen, by any unlikely chance, to know a man more blest in a laugh than Scrooge’s nephew, all I can say is, I should like to know him too. Introduce him to me, and I’ll cultivate his acquaintance.
He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.
Leaving the Bellweathers
by Kristin Clark Venuti
ages: 10+
First sentence: “It is nighttime in the village of Eel-Smack-by-the-Bay.”
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
File this one under delightfully odd.
The Bellweathers are a family that leave in the Lighthouse on the Hill by Eel-Smack-by-the-Bay. There’s dad, Dr. Bellweather, an inventor who has a habit of unleashing his “peculiar sense of humor.” There’s mom, Lillian, who loves to paint… the house. Over and over and over and over again. Then, there’s the kids. Spider, age 14, whose interest tends toward the violent animals, and who is determined to set up the first Endangered Albino Alligator refuge. Second in line is 13-year-old Ninda, Determined to help the Oppressed and Exploited. And will go to any lengths to do so. And, as if that weren’t enough, there’s the 9 year old triplets: Brick, Spike and Sassy. Always Up to No Good and determined to be artists, saying they are a handful is a massive understatement.
Keeping this, um, unique family together is their trusty butler, Tristan Benway. Except, he’s there only because his ancestor, 200 years ago, made an oath of fealty to the Bellweather family. There’s only 8 weeks, 2 hours and 27 minutes until GLOAT (Glorious Liberation and Oath Abandonment Time) and it’s everything Benway can do to keep it together until he can leave and get a cottage Far, Far Away.
While it wasn’t a consistent thing, there were parts of this book that had me in stitches. From Benway’s deadpan observations (he’s the one who calls Dr. Bellweather’s temper a “peculiar sense of humor”) to the occasional footnotes, to the absurd plot, I found myself either smiling, chuckling or snorting out loud. I haven’t read this book that was so… well… unusual, in a long, long time.
That’s not to say it’s for everyone: I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: humor is a tricky thing. But, this one tickled my funny bone just right.
Good thing, too.
(Just for the record: because this is a Cybils nominee, I’ve been asked to make sure y’all know this is my opinion only, and not that of the panel.)
Library Loot #49
Twas the week before Christmas,
although we were all very merry,
we still found time to get
a few books from the library.
We don’t know how much we’ll read
Since we’ve got lots of stuff to do
But that won’t stop us
from checking them out, until the year’s through.
Okay, that was kind of lame. 🙂
For A/K:
Hush, Baby Ghostling, by Andrea Beaty and Pascal Lemaitre
The Lion & the Mouse, by Jerry Pinkney
Voyage to the Pharos, by Sarah Gauch/Illus. by Roger Roth
Big Cat Pepper, by Elizabeth Partridge/Illus. by Lauren Castillo
You?, by Vladimir Radunsky
For C:
Camille McPhee Fell Under the Bus …, by Kristen Tracy
For me:
Gone from These Woods, by Donny Bailey Seagraves
The roundup is either at Reading Adventures or A Striped Armchair. Obligatory FTC note: the links are provided through my Amazon Associates account. If you click through and actually purchase one of these books, I’ll get a teeny, tiny payment. But, since no one ever does, and it’s SO much easier using the associates account to put up these links, I’m going to keep doing it.
*Ones that M eventually read.
**Picture books we really liked.
The Book Nut 