This Month's Book Reviews

A paperback about a big, friendly dog named "Santa Paws"

"Santa Paws to the Rescue" by Nicholas Edwards is the latest title in a series of four books about the Christmas season and the role that a dog called "Santa Paws" plays in making the season a happy one. In this one, Santa Paws is intent on helping his family, the Callahans, come safely through a big pre-Christmas snow storm that hits their small New England town. Even though there is some suspense, the tone of the little book is mostly humorous, since the events tend to be seen through the eyes of a big, floppy-eared dog whose main priorities in life are to eat, sleep, and be part of a family. If he can save a few lives while wagging his tale and making friends, that's just icing on the dog biscuit.

 

One in a series of "spy novels" for kids

"Spy X, Tunnel Vision" by Peter Lerangis is the fourth novel in a series of paperbacks, published by Scholastic Inc, the largest marketer of novels for kids, hardback or paperback. Like most series books for kids, the author has a "hook" that he or she uses until the kids who buy the books stop buying them. The "hook" in this case is to involve the characters in a series of improbable events that, supposedly, keep young readers on the edge of their seats. To further involve these readers, they are served up a series of encoded messages that they can, if they choose, try to decipher before the book's characters unravel their meaning.

Just as there are adults who can't wait until their best-selling author of spy novels comes up with a new one where the main character saves the world, there are kids who like the same genre. In this little series, however, saving the world gives way to saving the family, while saving the country.

 

Noted children's story with an ecological theme

Jean Craighead George is the author of "There's an Owl in the Shower." She has written more than sixty books for children, many of them with an ecological theme. And, of course, this little paperback makes the case for protecting the spotted owl. The author points out that, if the lumbering had been done right in the first place, tree cutters would not have lost their jobs. Hopefully, today's lumber industry is taking better care of the forests - to everyone's benefit, not just protected species. This paperback was named "A notable children's trade book in the field of social studies, 1996." It also was illustrated by a notable painter of animals.

 

A mother and her four daughters try to protect a mistreated teenage relative

Author Ruth White won a Newbery Medal for an earlier book about a family in the rural Appalachia of the 1950's. In "Tadpole", she writes about a similar time and setting. A mother is raising her four daughters on a small farm not far from town. With no husband and the need to work long hours six days a week, Mrs. Collins is dependent on her daughters to keep house and maintain their vegetable garden. When a musically talented teen-age relative shows up and asks to stay awhile, limited resources are stretched to take him in.

The story centers on Tadpole, the guitar-playing relative who is seeking escape from an abusive uncle. It also features the narrator, Carolina, the youngest of the four daughters, who is seeking to establish an identity for herself among her more outgoing sisters. It tells of a simpler time when people seemed to have to make do with much less than is available for most families today.