Here are some terrific books I have been reading recently:
Novels:
SCARLET is the second of four projected books in the Lunar Chronicles, by Marissa Meyer. The first, Cinder, was the fabulously told story of a cyborg Cinderella. As a follow-up, Scarlett does not disappoint. This time around, the story is based on Little Red Riding Hood, and comes complete with a French teenager, her missing grandmother, and Wolf, who is a very strong person with pointy teeth. The action is non-stop, and intertwines nicely with the plot begun in Cinder. The third installment will be based on Rapunzel. These are really fun books. The audio for Cinder was good, too.
NAVIGATING EARLY, by Newbery medalist
Clare Vanderpool, is an inspiring coming-of-age odyssey through the backwoods of Maine. When Jack Baker's mother dies, Jack finds himself uprooted from his home in Kansas. Taken to boarding school in Maine, he becomes an outsider, "with nowhere to call home, at a school with no baseball, unable to row a boat straight." Then Jack meets Early Auden, a strange boy who lives in the school's basement and makes up stories about the mathematical number pi. This is a story about finding one's way through landscapes both mythical and real, while learning the true meaning of friendship.
NEVER FALL DOWN, by Patricia McCormick, is a hard-hitting look at Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge march in. What makes this subject inspiring as well as heartbreaking is the narrator, Arn Chorn-Pond, a real person whose story is told through the skillful writing of McCormick. Though it's called a novel, Arn was in fact captured by soldiers who took him, his family, and many entire villages to labor camps to be worked to death or shot on a whim. But Arn is a survivor, and an adult now, he travels around the world, working for humanitarian causes and speaking about his experiences. It's beautifully written. Patricia McCormick also wrote Sold, a previous Book Talk book about Nepalese girls sold into slavery.
Picture books:
ONE COOL FRIEND, by Toni Buzzeo, pictures by David Small (he recently won a Caldecott Honor for this book), is a very silly look at what happens when a boy asks his father if he can take a penguin home from the aquarium. His father, looking at the stuffed toy penguins, hands over the money. Dad seems pretty oblivious as the penguin adapts to life with his new family, but by the end we are aware that this family
is nothing if not quirky.
For a fun twist on The Boy who Cried Wolf, take a look at THE BOY WHO CRIED BIGFOOT, by Scott Magoon. The illustrations are lots of fun, and the story is less straightforward than you would think! Once won't be enough--this is a book that will have its audience going back to reread for clues that they may have missed the first time around.
LUCKY DUCKLINGS, by Eva Moore, with pictures by Nancy Carpenter, is mindfully reminiscent of Robert McCloskey's classic, Make Way for Ducklings. This is a true story of a mother duck and her five babies, Pippin, Bippin, Tippin, Dippin, and Little Joe, who go for a walk in Montauk, on Long Island. The text is engaging, with
some catchy repetition, while the art brings McCloskey's work to mind, though it's enhanced with color and has an updated feel.
And finally THE BEST BIKE RIDE EVER, by James Proimos and Johanna Wright, is a fun look at learning to ride a bicycle. The art is fresh and energetic, and the text is short and engaging. Like The Boy Who Cried Bigfoot, this one will likely encourage a second read-through.
Lynn
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