This Month's Book Reviews

A story about a boy who has taught himself
to survive in the wilderness

Gary Paulsen is noted for writing award-winning adventure stories for boys. One of his best-known novels is titled "Hatchet," the story of a boy who survives a plane crash in the northern wilderness. Paulsen followed up the success of "Hatchet" with several variations on the survival theme. One of them is "The River," which takes the young survivalist back into the wilderness, but this time with an adult companion, who has to be saved by the young boy. The story is vivid in detail, and Paulsen knows, like many children's authors, that kids like to read about kids who know better than the grown-ups around them.

 

A story of an unhappy boy and a dog that changes his attitude toward life

"Strider" was authored by Beverly Cleary and is the free-standing sequel to the Newbery-Award Winning "Dear Mr. Henshaw." The story is a not unusual one of a modern child living in a working-class home with a recently-divorced parent. The boy's mother is busy getting educated to a new profession while working full time. The father, who is trying to do the right thing, is going through job loss and a drastically reduced income. The teen-aged boy is facing the troubles that come with trying to grow up and deal with changing responsibilities. "Strider" is the stray dog that appears on the scene and helps the boy develop a positive attitude toward his future.

A paperback by an author who writes ghost stories for kids

"Deep and Dark and Dangerous" by Mary Downing Hahn is representative of the types of books that the author writes for kids. She writes about kids experiencing ghosts - ghosts who are kids themselves. She sets the stage where the appearance of ghosts seems quite plausible. The chilly feeling that ghost story readers expect to feel is a given. In this one, the reader experiences a ghostly character that, for unknown reasons, at least at first, clearly is intent on doing harm to the living children characters in the story. When the resolution comes about at the end of the story, the benefits are mostly to the adults who can't bring themselves to accept that a ghost is truly involved. The main child character doesn't suffer from the same limited viewpoint with which adults seem to be afflicted. Of course, this makes the story even more acceptable to a young reader.

A girl and her partner almost get killed
trying to save an abused horse

"Stealing Thunder" by Mary Casanova is more than just a story about a girl and a horse. Young Libby would like to own Thunderhead, an Appaloosa that belonged to the Porter Stable. She knew that when Mrs. Porter suddenly left her husband, the horses were to be sold. When she discovered Mr. Porter was abusing the three unsold horses left behind, Libby knew she had to do something to save all of them and not just Thunder, her favorite. Little did Libby know that Mr. Porter was willing to commit arson by setting fire to the stable and burning the horses to collect the insurance. The girl's life was in jeopardy when she and her friend tried to implement a plan to save the horses. All in all, it is quite a thrilling horse story.