A book about an African queen
written by a St. Louis author

There is a series of books for kids called "The Royal Diaries," featuring books about historical figures such as Elizabeth I of 16th century England, Cleopatra, a famous queen of Egypt, and other royal figures. A recent one in the series is "Nzingha, Warrior Queen of Matamba." All the stories are diaries written as if the actual historical figure wrote them.

Nzingha's diary covers the period when she is a young girl of about 12 or 13 years of age. She is the daughter of a powerful king in a country now called Angola, located in the Southwest part of Africa. She is the king's first child, but because she is a girl, she was not expected to be chosen as the country's leader when her father died. In addition, her mother was of a different tribe than the Mbundu, her father's people, and that kept Nzingha from being accepted as heir to her father's throne.

Nzingha's country was being invaded by Portugal, which like other European nations in that era, thought it had a right to take over any part of Africa it wanted to. Nzingha hated the Portuguese because they were trying to take over her country. She also hated them for the terrible slave trade, which they carried on. Unlike other girls of her era, Nzingha learned to use weapons and hunt like young men. She also had been taught to speak Portuguese. Her warrior spirit and her skills led her father to want to make her his successor. He even sent her to negotiate with enemies of his kingdom.

The events in the diary are based on actual historical records. Patricia McKissack, a successful children's' author and St. Louis native, researched old records and books to find out as many facts about Nzingha as she could uncover. Nzingha had been a heroine of her people, remembered in stories and songs for hundreds of years. She had been Queen of those of her countrymen who fled to the mountains and carried on continuing warfare against the Portuguese invaders. Patricia McKissack thought the story of Nzingha's life was an important one for the children of today.

 

Would you like to read a
hilarious spoof of superheroes?

Imagine an eleven-year-old boy who is skinny, wears thick glasses, and has braces on his teeth. He also is always the last one chosen for teams at school because he's no good at sports. While visiting the Air and Space Museum on a class trip to Washington, D.C., he catches some radioactive rocks dropped from a ladder. Now, when he goes into superhero mode, he can fly, run faster than trains, and lift a truck over his head with one hand. He also glows in the dark.

The boy, whose real name is Max Silver, takes on the name of "MAXimum Boy." His parents know about his super powers, as does his teen-age sister, a girl named "Charlie" who is his closest friend, the family doctor, his teacher, and the President of the United States. The President frequently calls on Max to save the country from some kind of disaster. Of course, his mother insists that Max be home in bed on school nights by 9:30, and he must have his homework done by bedtime. He and his mom put together a superhero costume, so that no one would recognize him when he was doing superhero things. Max was always spilling something on his costume, like spaghetti sauce. It was usually in the laundry basket when he most needed it.

If you like to read books which poke fun at almost everything, especially comic book superheroes, you will really enjoy "The Hijacking of Manhattan." Max really doesn't want to be a superhero, but who else is going to save Manhattan Island when two bad guys manage to move it out to sea? One of these bad guys was Dr. Cubic Zirkon, a mad scientist who had accidentally turned himself into a duck-billed platypus! Be sure you have on your laughing clothes when you read this one.

 

How about a book where
you put the plot together?

"River of No Return" is just one book, but it has several adventure stories in it. You read a couple of pages and then it gives you two or three choices about where to go next with the plot. It's kind of a "mix and match" book, where you can go back and reread the earlier parts of the story and pick a different route to the conclusion.

The core part of the plot is that you are a kid waiting to begin a river-rafting trip. It's a guided tour through some of the wildest rapids in the West. It takes place on the Anacosta River in Montana. Your parents have dropped you off for the adventure. Of course, you had concealed from them how dangerous the trip was likely to be. Little did you know that it might involve storm damage to the route of the trip, overturned boats and near drowning incidents, and shots being fired at one of the guys in the group. It appears that the choices you make can result in loss of life, or in your being a big hero who saves not only himself, but his companions as well.

All the plots are interesting. To get full enjoyment from the book, you need to reread it while making different choices at each of the choice points. "River of No Return" is just one of a series of books that all make use of the same choice-making technique. A few of them are written as part of the "Young Indiana Jones Chronicles."

 

An attic with a magic mirror
that lets girls go back in time

A group of four girls have formed a club called the Magic Attic Club. They had discovered a magic mirror in the attic of an old Victorian house belonging to an elderly neighbor. The large gilded mirror enabled them to be transported to different times and places simply by standing in front of it. All they had to do to return to the attic was to find a mirror at the destination and stand in front of it.

Other than their unusual club and the adventures related to the magic attic, the girls are normal middle grade students. They do seem to be a clique because of the way they hang out together. A new girl in school named Rose is a computer expert. Because of a series of unplanned events, she seems to think the girls in the club don't like her. They feel bad about it and try to include Rose in some of their activities. Almost by accident, she ends up in the magic attic and is invited on one of their adventures.

The girls are transported to a holiday party in a natural history museum. They are interested in different exhibits, so they split up. When it's time for the museum to close, they can't find Rose. She had gone to see the Native American display. It turns out that she is an American Indian and wanted to find out more about her ancestors. By the time all the girls get together, the museum has closed and they are trapped inside.

The real adventure begins as they try to figure out how to evade the museum guards and security system and return to the magic attic. By the time they escape and make it home, Rose has become one of the group, a member of the Magic Attic Club.

There are numerous titles in the Magic Attic Club series. If you like this one, you may want to read more of them. You too can join the Magic Attic Club by mailing in the card at the back of any of the books.