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January 2004 Vol.5 Issue 1
This
month's book reviews
A
mystery story with a focus on friendship and acceptance
Eleven-year-old
Ben is the narrator in "Dangling." He, of course,
is left dangling when his best friend, Ring, appears to have
drowned in the river while on a family picnic. Ben had been
considered seriously introverted before Ring and his weird
behavior had come along and brought Ben out of his shell.
It is only when the mystery behind Ring's disappearance is
resolved that both Ben and the reader find out that Ring's
life had been one of "dangling" also.
As a foster child,
Ring had been handed from family to family without any real
home. His current foster parents had been in the lengthy process
of trying to adopt Ring and provide him with a real home.
However, in crossing state lines in pursuit of employment
and taking Ring with them, they were in violation of his home
state's child welfare laws. Ring's staged drowning and disappearance
was a ploy on his part to keep his potential adoptive parents
out of trouble with the law. But the real heart of the story
is concerned with the unique friendship that had grown up
between Ben and Ring. Its reinstatement makes for a genuine
happy ending.
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An
orphaned young girl struggles to adapt to
living with a harsh and judgmental aunt
Jessie Hass,
author of "Unbroken," admits to finding her inspiration
for the novel from an autobiographical account of a young
woman of the 1880's published by the University of Massachusetts
Press in 1995. The novel's title, "Unbroken," on
the face of it, refers to the young Morgan colt that the orphaned
girl inherited and needs to train to provide her with the
means to continue her schooling. Less obviously, of course,
it also refers to the young heroine's efforts to remain "unbroken"
as she endeavors to make her way in a seemingly hostile environment.
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A
good story for kids built around
their fascination with spiders
Ralph Fletcher,
the author of "Spider Boy," begins every chapter
in the book with giving facts, some of them rarely known,
about spiders. But actually, the spider theme is just to entice
young readers to read about such things as adjusting to new
surroundings, boy-girl friendship, and dealing with bullies.
The boy-girl relationship is complicated even further by presenting
a Caucasian boy and an African-American girl as the pair.
Are they just friends or are they boyfriend and girlfriend?
Or does it really make any difference?
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A
story combining horror, magic, space
and time travel, and humor all in one
Bruce Coville
is a popular kids' author. He likes to put his characters
in improbable situations with monsters, werewolves, ghosts,
etc. Often, in his books his heroes tend to exhibit cool humor
and the plots reach for shock value. "The Monsters of
Morley Manor" could be viewed as a parody of the various
genres of writings that it incorporates. Coville's success
underscores that there are a lot of kid readers that like
his style of writing. So for a young reader that appreciates
tongue-in-cheek humor and exaggerated plot situations, "The
Monsters of Morley Manor" would provide fun reading.
What can be wrong with a book where the kids "stay cool,"
"do the right thing," and end up "saving the
Earth?"
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