This
month's book reviews
A
brave slave boy delivers important mail for the Pony Express
Jacob Israel Christmas was only thirteen. Jacob and his
mother had
escaped slavery once before. They had lived in Philadelphia
as free citizens for four years. But then they had been kidnapped
and taken South to be sold as slaves once again.
Jacob and his mother found themselves up for sale at a slave
auction just before the presidential election of 1860. A strange
acting white man bought the two of them along with eight other
slaves. He loaded them into stage coach type wagons and started
West with them.
To the slaves' astonishment, he bought them new clothes and
shoes, fed them good meals, and even put them up in inns at
night as they traveled westward. They easily could have run
away, but they were so surprised at their good treatment,
they decided to hang around and see what would happen.
Jacob had learned to read, so he knew from newspapers that
if Lincoln was elected, there was a good chance that all slaves
would be freed. He overheard a plot, though, that could have
ruined things for his small group of slaves. If Lincoln won
the election, his new master was planning to keep the Pony
Express riders from getting the election results known in
California. The plotters planned to separate California from
the Union and keep it a slave state. Jacob, though he was
only a boy, had to figure out how to foil that plan.
The main part of the story is concerned with Jacob's daring
and dangerous escapades as he deals with bad guys and wild
Indians in his efforts to help the Pony Express get the mail
through. Californians had to find out as quickly as possible
that Lincoln was the new president of the United States.
A girl makes up a "real mom"
and tells people at school she is adopted
Twelve-year
-old Antonia MacPherson thinks that her life is messed up.
She prefers to be called "Ant", but nobody at home will call
her that. She thinks that the only one who really loves her
is her stinky little dog named "Pistachio." Her uptight mother
is always griping at her, but seems to think Ant's sister,
Elizabeth, can do no wrong. The other sister, Katherine, likes
to spy on Ant and tattle on her for everything. Ant tells
everyone at school that her "real parents" are going to come
and take her away with them just any day now to join her "real
family."
The trouble for Ant gets worse when Miss Samberson, the art
teacher with her jangling bracelets and earrings, tells the
vice-principal that Ant is reporting that she is not living
with her real parents. Miss Samberson, by the way, is called
Just Carol by the kids because she always says "just Carol"
when the kids call her Miss Samberson. Just Carol takes it
on herself to try to find out the cause of Ant's problems
and to get Ant to stop lying about so many things. Naturally,
Ant's mom is upset at any insinuation that she is not a good
mom and may be the cause of Ant's weird behavior. After the
conference in the vice-principal's office, things only start
getting worse for Ant.
Ant's only friend is Harrison Emerson. Her mom hates Harrison
because he eats with his mouth open, walks his pet chicken
on a leash, and is always scratching at something. That her
mom doesn't like Harrison is just sort of a bonus for Ant's
having him as a best friend.
One of Ant's practices is that when her old dog appears to
be sick, she takes him to a veterinarian for treatment. She
gives the vet's office a wrong name and a fake address so
her parents won't receive a bill. But there are just so many
vets in town and she is running out of places to take Pistachio.
What's going to happen when her parents find out what she
is doing? Of all things, the teacher, Just Carol, does find
out what is happening with the vets. She insists that it is
a kind of stealing and that Ant must tell her folks.
Well, you get the idea. As Ant tells her story, she just
goes from one improbable incident to another. Is she ever
going to get her life straightened out? We know she can't
keep spinning a fabric of lies. Will she ever come to realize
that for herself?
A
teen-age girl grows up in Brooklyn during the 1940's
Judy Strand lives in a neighborhood made up mostly of immigrants
from Norway. Many of the fathers still make their living working
on boats out in the Atlantic. Judy's dad was captain of a
tug boat working out of New York harbor. It was while her
dad was out on the sea that Judy discovered that she was adopted.
She was looking for candy in a closet when she discovered
some pictures and a set of adoption papers.
Her mother had brought Judy From Norway when she was a baby.
The man she thought was her father had married her mother
and adopted Judy. Her mother told her that Judy's real father
had been an alcoholic and had abandoned them back in Norway.
Judy found out also that a little sister had caught pneumonia
and had died on the voyage to America. Judy had been too young
herself to remember any of this.
Judy, who had been a daddy's girl, was terribly hurt by the
news. She was angry at both her mother and her father for
keeping the truth from her. She continued to play stick ball
and go swimming with the neighborhood kids, but she felt like
she had some kind of shameful secret to hide.
One of the problems the kids had to deal with in the neighborhood
was the bullying tactics of Irish gang members from a nearby
neighborhood. Jacob, one of the Norwegian boys, for some reason
was targeted by the gang of toughs. He had been badly beaten
up and was threatened with greater harm if they caught up
with him again.
Judy's family had taken summer vacations at a small cottage
in the Catskills each year. This year, Judy was not looking
forward to it as much as she had in previous summers. She
was especially surprised when she found out that her family
was taking Jacob with them in order to get him away from further
harm by the gang members. The thought was that maybe things
would cool down if he were away for a few weeks. At first,
Judy was resentful. That summer, though, she came to like
Jacob and received her first kiss from a boy.
Keep in mind that World War II was being fought while all
of this was going on. Fathers and brothers from many of the
families were away fighting in the war. Blue stars hung in
the front windows of families of servicemen. Gold stars meant
a serviceman had been killed in the war.
That summer Judy came to find that others had problems just
as great or even greater than hers. She found she could forgive
her mother and adopted father and once again find joy in her
family and friends.
A
science-fiction story that involves a boy and his dog
Logan
Moore was fourteen. He lived with his mother and Robert, his
step-dad that was always trying to make Logan into someone
different than who he was. When Logan was just seven, his
real dad had walked out and just disappeared. As a result,
Logan was angry at both of them - his real father and his
step-dad. In fact, Logan was an angry boy - even angry at
his mother because she would never stand up to Robert and
defend Logan from unfair criticism. Logan was good at inventing
things and making new gadgets out of old materials. His step-dad
even criticized him for that.
When one of Robert's friends suggested that getting a dog
for Logan might make him less angry and help him "shape up",
Robert offered to buy Logan a new dog. Of course, Logan wanted
a dog that was much different from the one Robert wanted him
to get. The dog he settled on was a mangy-looking, wild-acting
mutt that nobody else wanted. The dog was a female, but Logan
named her "Jack". That was the name of Robert's dog that he
always talked about from his boyhood, and Logan would do anything
he could to "stick it" to Robert.
Logan liked science, so he decided to train Jack according
to what the experts had to say about training dogs. Jack turned
out to be highly trainable and very obedient to Logan's commands
and wishes. Unfortunately, Logan trained her to do things
that irritated his step-dad. Instead of getting better, the
situation worsened.
While all of this is going on with Logan's family, an unusual
disease is popping up among the dogs in the country. Dogs
become lethargic and as their illness progresses, it is clear
they are going to die. Just before dying, however, the dogs
become vicious and attack anyone, even their owners. It then
becomes apparent that humans who are bitten contact the disease
themselves. It is always fatal.
As the books plot unfolds, it is clear that Logan's wild
dog, Jack, somehow is the key to coming up with a cure for
the new and dreaded disease. Logan has run away to protect
his dog from being destroyed along with other dogs. Will he
ever understand that his dog must be turned over to authorities
in order to save all surviving dogs as well as hundreds of
humans? And if he does figure it out, how can he get the right
people to believe him - a hungry and dirty runaway with an
ugly dog?
