This month's book reviews

A young girl finds herself the only passenger
on a ship sailing to America

Thirteen-year-old Charlotte Doyle was enrolled in a school for wealthy girls. It was in England and the year was 1832. Her American father was an official in a shipping company engaged in trade between England and America. When her father was called back to America on business, Charlotte's parents decided to leave her in school to finish out the term. They sailed for America without her. Once school was out, Charlotte was to travel home to Providence, Rhode Island, along with some family friends.

Even before she boarded the ship to take her home, Charlotte began to sense something was wrong. The families that were to travel with her were not aboard the ship. She was told that the ship had to sail with the morning tide. Not only was Charlotte to be the only passenger, she would be the only female aboard the ship. She knew that was inappropriate, but she was given no choice in the matter.

Charlotte had heard before boarding that Captain Jaggery of the ship, Seahawk, was a man both hated and feared, by workers along the dockside. Once aboard, however, she was treated well by the Captain. He tried to reassure her that there was nothing to fear. He also informed her that it would be impossible to wait for her friends to join her or to put her back ashore so she could sail with them on another vessel.

Charlotte was frightened, but because of her upbringing as a young lady of quality, she had to believe that the Captain could be trusted. Her cabin was cramped and crowded, but, at first, the Captain invited her to take her meals with him in his much larger cabin. Surely, Captain Jaggery could not be the cruel and merciless man that some of the sailors tried to tell her that he was. Besides the Captain knew that her father was an official in the company that owned the ship.

However, Charlotte began to see with her own eyes how cruel the Captain was to the crew. When, finally, some of the crew members rebelled against their unjust treatment, Charlotte began to realize that the Captain knew that she could be a witness that could hurt his reputation with the ship owners. When a member of the crew was murdered, evidence was contrived to show that Charlotte had been the one to kill him. She was to be tried, convicted, and hanged before the ship reached America. There seemed to be nothing she could do to save herself.

How could a young girl, educated to be a lady, hope to survive in such a situation? And, if she did survive by joining the sailors in a mutiny against the Captain, could she ever face life as a fancy-dressed doll-type figure that young ladies of that era were supposed to be. Be ready for one strange turn after another as the events of this story unfold.

Individuals turn a Cleveland inner city dump site
into a community garden

"Seedfolks" by Paul Fleishman is a collection of individual stories, or vignettes, relating how a diverse group of people are motivated to plant seeds in an inner city dump site. They all live in a crime-ridden area, surrounded by abandoned buildings and vacant lots. At the center of it all is a large area where old homes and buildings have been torn down. People have thrown their trash and worn out furniture and appliances on the site. Debris from torn down building has been dumped there. One by one, a small group of inhabitants secretly start to clear little areas of ground and plant different kinds of seeds.

First, is Kim, a little Vietnamese girl, who just wants to see if some beans might grow on the dump site. She is watched by Ana, an elderly Rumanian immigrant. Ana calls Wendell, a school janitor and talks him into secretly watering the little girl's bean plants. Wendel starts his own garden. Then Gonzalo, a Guatemalan, finds that his old uncle, Tio Juan, wants to plant melons close to where others have started their little gardens. And the story goes on from person to person as each makes some contribution to the garden that is beginning to take over the dump site.

Wonder of wonders, these people start to talk to each other and help out in small ways with the development of what finally becomes a community garden area. They are what the name of this tiny book is referring to with its title "Seedfolks."

 

A girl faces growing up without her mother

Gabby Weiss is twelve-years-old and lives with her father and older brother, Ian. She can't really remember her mother, who died when Gabby was only three. Her dad is an artist who paints and teaches art at a local college. He seems to be kind of a nerd, preoccupied and distracted most of the time. Her dad does have girlfriends, but none of them seem to be around very long. Gabby learns things - girl things - from them when she has a chance. She really misses having another female around and thinks she might like for her dad to marry again.

Her dad's latest girlfriend is Cleo and it begins to look like this relationship might turn into something serious. Cleo even starts to stay over occasionally. When the girls at school make fun of Gabby's coat, pointing out that it looks like a boy's coat; it's Cleo who insists on taking her shopping to buy a new one. When her dad, Ian, and Gabby drive with Cleo to New York City to meet Cleo's parents, it looks like Gabby just might get her wish to have a mother to learn from.

When Cleo suddenly moves away without explanation, Gabby is upset. Did she do something wrong to drive Cleo away? Then Gabby starts to want to know what really happened to her own mother. Her brother, Ian, was old enough to remember some things, but he was only seven when their mother died. Their dad just won't talk about what really happened. Gabby wants to visit the apartment where the family lived when their mother died. It's far enough away that Ian insists on traveling with her.

Can trying to retrace the past helps the kids and their father draw closer together? Can changes in the little family bring Cleo back to join them? You need to read "What Every Girl (except me) Knows" to find the answers.

Mischievous young girls and their father
vacation at a wealthy country estate

The Penderwick family usually rented a beach house at Cape Cod for their summer vacation. However, the beach house had been sold at the last minute and was no longer available to rent. So when Mr. Penderwick heard about a cottage for rent for three weeks in the Berkshire Mountains with lots of bedrooms and a fenced-in pen for a dog, he rented it. He thought it would be just right for his four daughters: Rosalind, twelve; Skye, eleven; Jane, ten; and Batty, only four-years-old. Of course there would be their dog, Hound Penderwick. Naturally, Mr. Penderwick would be there, but unfortunately, the girls' mother, Mrs. Penderwick, had died after Batty was born. Mr. Penderwick, who used a lot of Latin phrases, taught Botany in college and tried to raise four rambunctious daughters the best he could.

The family was having a hard time finding the cottage. When they stopped to ask directions, they were directed to a place called "Arundel." On arrival, they were astonished to find that Arundel was a huge and beautiful estate. The cottage they had rented was located on a parcel of ground at the back of the estate.

Early on, the girls met Harry, the Tomato Man, since he was the one who gave them directions to Arundel. He let them know that Mrs. Tipton owned the estate and that she was a beautiful woman but "snooty as all get out." She also was "touchy" about the gardens surrounding the mansion. The big yellow cottage the Penderwicks had rented turned out to be just perfect, but could the four girls and their dog manage to keep out of her gardens and from upsetting Mrs. Tipton?

Twelve-year-old Rosalind was pleasantly surprised that the gardener they met on arrival was a good-looking teenaged boy with a Red Sox baseball cap. His name was Cagney and he was about eighteen or nineteen. He seemed friendly and volunteered to show the girls around the estate. This could be an interesting vacation, after all.

Skye had seen a boy looking out the window of the mansion when they arrived. It turned out that the boy was Mrs. Tipton's son, Jeffrey. He and Skye were the same age. Jeffrey was thrilled to have somebody to play games with, especially soccer. One problem arose immediately: is soccer a good game to play around beautiful, landscaped gardens?

Well, you get the picture. The Penderwick girls, in spite of their efforts to be good, can't help but get into all kinds of trouble with snooty Mrs. Tipton. And poor Mr. Penderwick, he just can't believe what unfolds during what he had hoped would be a quiet vacation with his daughters.