This Month's Book Reviews

A boy comes to appreciate his family, normal or not

"Deliver Us from Normal" by Kate Klise starts out in the real city of Normal, Illinois. The story is told from the point of view of eleven-year-old Charles Harrisong. Charles thinks everything about Normal is not normal, including his own family. He doesn't feel a part of his school and feels the other kids look down on him because he is from a family with five kids; they live in a rented house; his father doesn't have a regular job but is the town handyman; and, in Charles' estimate, they are poor. After his sister suffers a humiliating experience at school, the whole family picks up and quietly leaves town. In spite of his wife's concerns, the father has bought an old houseboat in Alabama, sight unseen, and the family is going to start a new life. Charles, naturally, expects the worst. However, after a nearly disastrous start with the leaky old houseboat, Charles comes to realize his family is even better than "normal."

A young Mexican girl of privilege learns to cope
with poverty and prejudice

"Esperanza Rising" by Pam Munoz Ryan begins in lyrical fashion, describing the almost idyllic life of a wealthy young girl in Mexico. When catastrophe strikes and the young girl experiences the loss of her pampered and spoiled existence, the tone of the little novel also changes. By the time Esperanza is trying to survive in a migrant worker camp in California during the Great Depression, the tone become much more realistic, almost gritty. But, as the title suggests, Esperanza rises above the unhappy events of her life and a happy ending for her seems inevitable. This book has been the recipient of numerous awards including Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year.

An active "tomboy" comes to realize being a girl isn't so bad

Carolyn, the twelve-year-old heroine of Wendelin Van Draanen's "How I Survived Being a Girl," is a stereotypic tomboy. The storyline is concerned with one event after another where Carolyn tries to prove she is just as venturesome and as much of a risk taker as any boys, including her brothers. Two events play a part in changing her attitude. One is her developing crush on a boy her age that respects and admires her for who she is. The other is her finding out her mother is going to have a baby. When the baby turns out to be the sister she wishes for, Caroline is ready to give up wanting to be a boy.

A boy's view of Bosnian-Serbian infighting
at the break-up of Yugoslavia

"Under the Sun" by Arthur Dorros is a story of a teen-aged boy's experiences during the Serbian-Bosnian efforts at genocide in the early 1990's. The novel is reported to be based on actual accounts coming out of that four year conflict. Young readers will relate to the young hero's efforts to maintain family ties as he struggles to find a way to lead a peaceful life. Young people who are aware of what is reported in the evening news will realize that similar events are occurring in several spots in the world today where religious and ethnic strife is continuing to uproot families.