December 2001     Vol.2 Issue 12

This month's book reviews

A Christmas Book by St. Louis authors

Patricia and Frederick McKissack are popular children's writers whose hometown is St. Louis. One of their productions is a colorful Christmas book called "Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters." The "Big House" in the title refers to the stately mansion with white pillars in front that dominates an 1859 Virginia plantation. The "Quarters" in the second part of the title refers to the one-room cabins that were the homes of the slaves that lived on the plantation. The purpose of the book is to present comparisons and contrasts between the way Christmas was observed by the family in the mansion and the families in the slave quarters.

The book has only sixty-eight pages but it is a large hard-back book. Its illustrator, John Thompson, went to great lengths to provide realistic pictures of the families and their holiday celebrations. The McKissacks, through footnotes and references, show the care they took in presenting a factual account of a southern plantation Christmas that took place just before the outbreak of the Civil War. Christmas comes to life with vivid descriptions of the food preparation, feasting, music and dancing, and gift exchanging that took place in both parts of the plantations. Foreshadowed are the events from 1860 to 1865 that were to change the plantation life style so vividly depicted.

A book to get kids into reading
about the Civil War

Scholastic, Inc. publishes a series of books called the "My Name is America" series. All of the books are diaries or journals of young people, which present an account of some period of American history. All are fictional, yet they are based on some historical figure or set of writings from the period covered. "The Journal of Edmond Pease, A Civil War Union Soldier" by Jim Murphy was inspired by the actual diary of a fifteen-year-old Civil War soldier named Elisha Stockwell, Jr., as well as the journals of several other teen-age veterans of the war.

The author, Jim Murphy, admits that he had not been interested in Civil War history when he was a kid, because of the dryness of most of the writing. The diaries of youthful participants in the war were much more interesting because they seemed to be "direct, honest, wonderfully detailed and very, very funny." Murphy tried to replicate in his fictional journal the kind of writing that brought the Civil War to life for him. In addition to the journal entries, Murphy has also included drawings, historical photographs, and a foldout map of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Battlefields.

A book that might help kids
understand their own obsessions

"Multiple Choice" by Janet Tashjian is another inexpensive paperback by Scholastic, Inc. that is an engaging presentation of youthful behavior that can help young readers understand what may be operating in their own lives. In this instance, the book deals with obsessive behavior that borders on compulsion. Monica Devon, the central character, comes from a good home and family and is bright and a very good student. Still, she worries obsessively about what other people think. She freezes up on tests in school. She focuses too much on imagined faults or missteps she has made or might make.

Monica's obsessive habits carry over into her feeling compelled to turn a word, a name, or a phrase into anagrams, or other words that use all the letters of the first one. Her fascination with multiple choice tests given in one of her classes leads her to set up multiple choices that govern her behavior each day. She sets up choices that can cause chaos in her life, but if she picks one of these choices randomly, she feels compelled to carry it out.

Gradually, Monica, through a process of self-discovery, takes control of her obsessions and, as a result, takes true control of her life and actions. A young reader can come up with a better understanding of his or her own personal behavior, while having some fun with the word games scattered throughout the novel.

A book about events before, during, and after the Alamo told from a young girl's point of view

"I Remember the Alamo" is a novel in paperback about an eleven-year-old pioneer girl, which is directed to readers in about that age range. Today's young reader will readily identify with the feelings and adventures of Jessie McCann. As was often the case in those days of the early settlers and their struggles for survival, kids had to grow up fast and accept tremendous responsibilities when they were still quite young.

Battle cries of "Remember the Alamo" and "Remember Pearl Harbor" have been mentioned repeatedly as the media talks about the terrorist activities of September 11, 2001. D. Anne Loves little book, published as a Yearling Book by Random House, puts the events behind the 1836 siege of the Alamo in a perspective that would help the kids of 2001 understand why people still "Remember the Alamo."