May 2004     Vol.5 Issue 5

This month's book reviews

A boy and his dog book that starts out
with the boy being dog phobic

"A Dog Called Kitty" by Bill Wallace has won children's book awards in Texas, Iowa, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. First published in 1980, it has been republished as an Aladdin Paperback in 1992. In the story, a little dog, named "Kitty," helps a young Oklahoma farm boy overcome his fear of dogs. Later, the boy bravely saves his pet from a pack of vicious big dogs as the little pet tries to defend his young master. Not only a good dog story, the paperback describes family values of the early twentieth century.

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A story of beautiful Mackinaw Island
and its place in the War of 1812

Gloria Whelan's "Once on this Island" is a historical novel that brings to life the events that surrounded the British invasion of the upper Midwestern part of the U. S. in 1812-1814. The setting is well-described, the events are historically accurate, and today's young readers will find it easy to identify with the young characters in the book. There is just enough treatment of boy-girl romance to appeal to pre-teens and early-teenagers.

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Two boys of middle school age
confront racial issues that divide them

Andrew Clements, a best-selling author of children's books, examines covert racial prejudice in a new paperback titled, "The Jacket." The plot turns on a false accusation leveled by a white boy against a younger black boy. Was the accusation really justified? Or did it stem from an underlying, if unacknowledged, racial bias on the part of the white accuser? The situation is one most middle school kids could identify with. One published review cited on the book's cover calls it "an excellent story to open honest group discussion."

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A detailed and realistic portrayal of
the life of young Buffalo Bill Cody

Author, E. Cody Kimmel, imagines that somehow her family was related to the great western hero, Buffalo Bill Cody. She has turned her life-long interest in the famous frontiersman into the writing of a series of children's books that detail his life. Based on this the first book in the series, subtitled "To the Frontier," Kimmel's writing is as factual as any writing about a legend can be. Her graphic descriptions of the times and the frontier settings would seem to make the little books excellent background reading for children.

Not only does Kimmel move away from the many overly-fictionalized accounts of Bill Cody's life, but she does a good job for helping kids understand the Missouri Compromise and the friction between the Jayhawkers and the Bushwhackers in pre-Civil War Kansas. Such background is essential for young students trying to understand the history of their home state of Missouri.

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