This month's book reviews

Can the fifth-grade daughter of the
middle school girls' basketball coach find
happiness as a player on the team?

Laurie had made a lot of friends in her hometown. She was tall and an excellent basketball player. At eleven years of age, the last thing she wanted to hear was that her dad had taken a new job as girls' basketball coach in a middle school located in a town four hours away. But they had to go. Not only was it a better job for her dad, but they needed to move in with her grandmother who needed help if she was to keep living in her longtime home.

When Laura tries out for the school basketball team, she finds out that the returning players had formed cliques and tried to shut out any newcomers. Laura's problems were especially bad because her father was the coach and could not display any favoritism. To Laura, he seemed to be closing his eyes to the cruel and selfish things the older team members were doing to the new recruits.

Laura has to battle the animosity of the former star players and their parents as she works at reaching her potential as a player. She has to overcome numerous obstacles in helping to mold an inexperienced group into a really competitive basketball team. That such a team could become state champions was very much of a "long shot."

"Long Shot" by Timothy Tocher is an exciting sports book. Any girl who likes basketball should find it a great book to read.

 

Do you like to watch old horror movies?

Alonzo King was ten years old and had been born on Halloween. He imagined his life to be a black-and-white horror movie and he was the star. His favorite movies included "Frankenstein," "Dracula," "The Wolf Man," and, most favorite of all, "Phantom of the Opera." His favorite TV show was "Monsters at Midnight," hosted by Mr. Shadows, because it just showed old horror movies. Even his bookshelf contained titles like "Stories of Strange Disappearances" and books about the Loch Ness monster.

Alonzo's life becomes really exciting when people start talking about a mysterious beast that seems to be showing up in different places and at different times around town. Alonzo collects all the stories and becomes the town's expert on "the beast," although he had never seen it himself. With the help of the local postman, Mr. Blake, who seemed to share Alonzo's interest in monsters, Alonzo solves the mystery. In the process, he achieves his ambition of becoming "the boy of a thousand faces."

This is a very short paperback book with a lot of pictures. It only has about 40 pages. Brian Selznick is the author and the illustrator of "The Boy of a Thousand Faces." The plot is not very complicated, and you can read it pretty fast.

 

A teenage adventure centered on restoring wolves on lands close to a Hopi Indian Reservation

Jacob Lansa leads an adventurous life. He's only fifteen, but he has lived in isolated spots around the world. He normally assists his father, a zoologist who studies endangered species. Jacob has returned to Arizona for a short vacation and to visit his grandfather. He finds that his aging grandfather, who had been born on a Hopi Indian reservation, has abruptly left the retirement center to return to living with acquaintances from his childhood. Jacob is especially concerned because his grandfather had been experiencing occasional losses of memory.

He finds that his grandfather is flourishing among his old family friends. The primitive life appears to be helping him both physically and mentally. But while Jacob is checking out this family matter, he becomes involved in a variety of events that lead to his going out to trap a wolf. Besides skills that he had learned from his father, Jacob quickly learns trapping tricks from an old Indian wolf-trapper. Of course, there is a "bad guy" who doesn't like Jacob because he is an outsider. So, among numerous other problems, Jacob has to cope with a guy who not only wants to kill the wolf Jacob is trying to save, but also shoot Jacob in the process.

Roland Smith who has produced a number of other adventure novels for kids wrote "The Last Lobo". Among the other works are titles such as "Thunder Cave," "Jaguar," and "Sasquatch."

 

Family and school life through
the eyes of a five-year-old

A crisis has come up in the life of five-year-old Sam. His teacher has assigned all the kids to pick a job they would like to be in when they grow up. They are to dress up like what it is they want to be and give a report to the class on what they are expected to do on their chosen job. Sam has several problems with this assignment. One is that he keeps changing his mind. Another is that he wants to be something different from what anybody else would choose. Most of the boys, for instance, want to be firemen. Of course, another problem is being able to come up with the proper clothing or uniform.

He finally got his idea from an animal book that was one of his favorites. He would be a zookeeper! With that, the plot gets amazingly complicated. His mother has to come up on short notice with a proper "zooman's" suit. The boyfriend of his sister, Anastasia, gets involved by helping Sam learn to "train" Sleuth, the big and lazy family dog. Anastasia gets involved because the father of one of her girl friends has a collection of sports team caps that he is willing to give to Sam. Sam has hats with animal names on them - names like Cubs, Lions, Rams, Eagles, Gators, etc. Sam figures he can wear a different hat and give a new report every morning. That way he can stand up in front of the class every day for two or three weeks! What a way to become important!

Even though the main character in this book is five-year-old Sam, this isn't a little kid's book. It seems pretty clear that Lois Lowry, the author of "Zooman Sam," knows about little brothers and big sisters and how they can "bug" one another. There is plenty to laugh about in this little paperback.

 

 

Looking for a Dictionary with "Attitude?"
(Reprinted from our May 2000 issue)

Using a dictionary regularly is one of the best ways for anybody to build a better vocabulary and improve spelling.  A new paperback dictionary might be just the one you are looking for.  It's designed just for middle-grade kids. It's a handy size and easy to flip through. It combines Garfield comic strips along with a serious dictionary that has over 65, 000 definitions in it. The comic strips are used to illustrate the meanings of many of the words.  It also has many other black and white pictures in it, but it is not a little kid's picture dictionary at all.

Garfield's creator, Jim Davis, along with the publishers, think that it's okay to have a laugh or two while looking up a word.  The famous cat does a lot to make you want to look it up right now rather than "wait until later." The title is The Merriam-Webster and Garfield Dictionary.  Published in 1999 by Merriam-Webster, it has 800 pages, sells for $12.95, and should be available in the intermediate section of your local bookstore.