June 2004     Vol.5 Issue 6

This month's book reviews

Kids get a look into the great
depression and small town life

Richard Peck’s “A Long Way From Chicago” is a novel written in an unusual format. Each chapter, almost a free-standing short story in itself, represents one summer’s experiences as two siblings visit grandma’s house during the years of the Great Depression. The visitors, reluctant at the beginning of their visits, gain insight into and appreciation for their Grandma and her life style as they mature into young adulthood. Peck’s almost slapstick humor serves to make vivid the characters and the aura of Midwest small town life in the 1930’s. Any adult with rural or small town connections from his or her youth would find the little book an entertaining read just as much as a young reader will find it to be.

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A stark orientation to life for
a girl in Afghanistan under the Taliban

Middle grade children in America today are reminded daily that their country is involved in wars in strange countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan. The book, “The Breadwinner” by Deborah Ellis, helps bring to life what similar-aged children were experiencing in Taliban-dominated Afghanistan. Although the book paints a fairly stark picture of civilian life in a war-torn country, the author is writing for children and she is careful in her selection of incidents to describe. “The Breadwinner” is a good choice for children who are trying to better understand some of the things they hear about in the daily news.

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An eleven-year-old tells stories to calm his little brother

An eleven-year-old in a troubled family situation feels responsible for his six-year-old brother. Archie makes up adventure stories to distract his little brother Oggie’s attention from their troubles and to calm his fears. Things get complicated when real life adventures start to rival the action in the comic book type stories that Archie was making up. Children’s author, Janet Taylor Lisle, makes a good case for taking responsibility as well as for the power of story telling and writing.

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A young girl tries to make her life
more interesting by writing about it

Sandwiched between a twelve-year-old brother and a two-year-old little sister, nine-year-old Lizzie thinks her life is pretty boring. After finding her mother’s old portable typewriter and hearing about how her mother used it years before to help pay for a trip around the world, Lizzie decided to make her own life more interesting by writing about it, using the same old typewriter. She finds that by shading the facts just a little bit, a dull life can seem quite interesting, even hilarious. Children’s author, Mary Eccles, in her book “By Lizzie” attempts to draw young readers into finding as much fun in writing as she does.

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