This month's book reviews

A story about a girl who wants her picture in the paper and be famous at least for a little while

Judy Moody is only in the third grade. She is tired of everybody else winning prizes and getting talked about for something they have done. She is especially tired of Jessica Finch. Jessica was always winning spelling bees and getting her picture in the paper. She even had a crown she wore to school. Why couldn't Judy Moody get her picture in the paper at least once? She wasn't even famous enough to get her picture on the refrigerator!

Judy is not one to sit around and just be moody. She thinks up one scheme after another that might make her famous. How about memorizing all the words in the dictionary? Or maybe coming up with a cherry seed from the cherry tree that George Washington cut down? She didn't want to do something bad to become famous. Besides her teacher, Mr. Todd, told her that would be "infamous" anyway.

The reader of this little story follows Judy through one attempt after another to get some attention. They are all pretty funny, but they don't make her famous. But she does one little (good) thing and gets written up in the paper and talked about all over town. What? You have to read the book to find out.

 

A hungry teenager finds out that his
new job involves robbing graves

Imagine that you are twelve years old and have just lost your whole family to cholera. You are roaming the streets of New York City with no place to go and nothing to eat. It is early in the 1800's. You see a small notice in the paper looking for a "bright lad" and it offers "training and board." Wouldn't you answer the ad?

When Matthew Morrissey answers the ad he expects to find a doctor of medicine, since the ad had been placed by a Dr. ABC. Instead he finds that Dr. Asa B. Corwall is a Doctor of Phrenology. Dr. Corwall seems eccentric but he does like Matthew and is willing to take him on as an apprentice. Matthew has found a place to eat and sleep and is about to learn a new trade.

Matthew is impressed by the books stacked around Dr. ABC's small quarters. He is shocked, however, by the grinning skulls stacked on shelves. He finds out that a Doctor of Phrenology studies people's skulls and tells them about their strengths and weaknesses based on the shape of their heads and the small bumps on their skulls. It seems to be an accepted science, at least by some, and many people are willing to pay a fair amount of money to have their skulls evaluated.

The trouble is that Dr. ABC considers himself a research scientist in his field. He is in the process of writing not just one book on phrenology, but two such books. He needs to do research. Unfortunately, his research involves studying the skulls of famous people who have already died. And that requires digging up bodies and stealing skulls from graves. It takes a while before Matthew realizes what his new job calls for him to do.

Matthew reluctantly goes along with Dr. ABC's nighttime raids on graveyards. In the process, however, he meets a menacing and murderous grave robber that turns out to be a killer who is out to kill Dr. ABC and steal his manuscripts.

"Skullduggery" is an exciting adventure tale that tells you a lot about the time in which it is set and about a now discredited science called phrenology.

 

How a nine-year-old can get into a lot
of trouble without even trying

Ruby Lavender is a nine-year-old who lives in Halleluia, Mississippi. She lives with her mother, but her best friend is her grandmother, Miss Eula, who lives nearby. Just about a year before, Ruby had lost her grandfather in a car accident. He had accidentally driven off a bridge one night on a trip home from the city. Both Ruby and her grandmother were still grieving over the loss, but they tried to keep busy. Among other things, they painted the grandmother's house a flaming pink. The also sneaked in and kidnapped some old hens in order to save them from being slaughtered because the owner of the chickens was getting out of the egg business

When Miss Eula decides to visit her son in Hawaii and see her newest grandchild, Ruby is devastated. She can't face a whole summer in boring old Halleluia without her grandmother. But, the best she can do is to write everyday and tell Miss Eula all her troubles. Her biggest trouble is in trying not to get in a fight with the prissy Melba Jane Latham, who was in her same room at school.

Ruby finds herself getting into one bad situation after another. Most of them involve Melba Jane in one way or another. Although the two girls can't stand each other, they keep turning up in each other's life. Can Miss Eula get home from Hawaii in time to keep Ruby from doing something really bad to Melba Jane? It's one laugh after another as the reader reads on to find out the answer.

 

A fifth grade girl copes with both
arthritis and a younger brother

Julie Welsh is only eleven years old but she already is suffering from arthritis. The disease is often painful and keeps Julie from dancing and running as freely as other kids her age. But Julie is determined to not let her arthritis interfere with her being active and having as much fun as possible with her friends.

Frankie, Julie's nine-year-old younger brother, has a wild imagination and is always dreaming up weird things to do. The trouble is that Julie often gets involved in Frankie's schemes. When something goes wrong, as it usually does, she gets the blame because she is older. They realized it wasn't such a good idea to push a dummy dressed in Julie's clothes out of a second story window when their parents called 911 before running out in the yard to see how badly Julie was hurt.

Much of the story is told in letters that Julie is writing to her pen pal, Mrs. Kaplan, an eighty-nine year old woman living in a nursing home in another state. Both Julie and Mrs. Kaplan are coping with arthritis, and through their letters help keep each others spirits up.

We learn, along with Julie, that Frankie is really a big help to her, because he is always pushing her to not give into her illness and fight to stay active.