This month's book reviews

It's tough having a famous author
of kids' books as your mom

Harvey Ryan was one fifth grader who really hated it when his mom came to school. She was invited to speak to classes because she wrote books that were popular with kids. The trouble was she wrote about kids who often did dumb things. Mrs. Ryan "credited" her son Harvey for giving her many of her ideas to use in her books. How embarrassing! Harvey wished he had a regular mom just like everybody else.

Harvey's mom was divorced from his dad, who had remarried. He liked his dad's new wife and enjoyed staying with them every other week. The trouble here was that his mom had too much time on her hands to watch everything that Harvey did. And, naturally, she had to write about it in her books. Harvey's best friend was Cecilia Spicer, or Seal for short. Seal had the idea that if they could find a boyfriend for Mrs. Ryan she wouldn't be likely to watch Harvey for things to write about. She might even be too busy to come to school all the time to talk about her books.

There was one unattached male that the two kids knew about. The trouble here was that the male was Mr. Stevens, the principal of the school. Harvey went along with the idea of trying to bring the two grown-ups together in order to encourage a romance between them. It worked. The trouble here was that Harvey came to find out that the only thing worse than having a mom who wrote about him was having a mom that was dating the principal of his school.

Harvey's one-after-another troubles provide lots of laughs for a really entertaining book. Harvey's baseball playing efforts provide an interesting subplot for those interested in sports.

 

A long made-up fairy tale told with tongue-in-cheek humor by a modern-thinking author

Alexandria, an orphaned goose-girl, lives an isolated existence surrounded only by her twelve geese. She was doing okay by herself until she gave the last piece of bread from her lunch to a hungry old crone. The crone, who, of course was a witch, had to reward Alexandria for her generous gesture. Plain Alexandria was made beautiful with long golden hair. When she combed her long hair, glittering gold dust came out of it. And when she cried, her tears turned into precious diamonds.

Unfortunately for Alexandria, others in the neighboring village could see her great beauty and her unusual means of producing wealth. It wasn't long before a mean but powerful king and a nice-looking but stupid prince showed up and demanded that she pick one of them for her husband. They locked her up in a tower until she made up her mind which one she would marry. Alexandria couldn't stand either one of them. All she wanted to do was escape from the tower and go back to her simple life with her twelve geese.

With the help of her geese, Alexandria manages to escape from the tower. But her troubles are not over. In fact, they are just really beginning. She, along with her geese, goes through a series of dangerous adventures which involve cannibalistic ogres, the stupid prince, a jealous baroness, dark dungeons, and, finally, the evil king himself. Believe it or not, a reader stays worried throughout the events and always wonders if Alexandria's story can ever have a happy ending.

If you have ever thought about writing your own fairy tales, this is one you want to read to get an idea how it can be done.

 

Can a lonely kid whose multimillionaire parents buy him anything he wants truly be happy?

The hero in "A Week in the Woods" by Andrew Clements is different from what you would expect from the title. In fact, the first part of the book gives a lot of detail about Mr. Maxwell, a science teacher at Hardy Elementary School in New Hampshire. It isn't until the second chapter that Mark Robert Chelmsley, the main character, is introduced. Mark is a fifth grader. His parents are moving from their mansion in Scarsdale, New York, to an old estate in Whitson, New Hampshire. Mark is to be uprooted from his home and his school, a private school for wealthy kids, and moved to a regular public school near their new home. Mark is resentful and really doesn't want to leave school in the middle of the school year and lose the few friends he has made there.

Mark is joining the fifth grade class in his new school just as they are getting ready to go on a week long camping trip in the woods. Mr. Maxwell, the science teacher, is the leader of the camping experience. He is an almost fanatic outdoorsman and environmentalist. His week long camping experience for the fifth graders has become a tradition at Hardy Elementary School.

Mark is understandably a little sullen when he enters the new school. Unfortunately for Mark, Mr. Maxwell quickly judges Mark to be a spoiled rich kid who is both lazy and smart-alecky. When Mark tries to show more interest and be more friendly, it is too late. Mr. Maxwell has already formed his opinion and won't change it in spite of Mark's best efforts.

Mark had learned to love roaming around in the outdoors. His wealthy parents had bought him all kinds of outdoor equipment. Mark had read lots of articles and books on wilderness survival. So when he gets into trouble through no fault of his own early in the school's week at camp, he simply heads off into the wilderness on his own.

Well, Mark didn't realize what a furor would be created when Mr. Maxwell found out that one of his fifth graders, a son of famous and wealthy parents, had just disappeared from school camp. Somewhat carelessly, Mr. Maxwell takes off on a search without proper clothes or gear for survival. The book becomes an exciting story of Mark's and Mr. Maxwell's efforts to survive in the woods.

 

Another middle schooler tries to
figure out how to be popular

Bess Cunningham is just starting middle school. She likes to be independent and do her own thing. But, still, she would like to be popular with her new classmates. Bess had seen some older girls wearing colorful combinations of old clothes they had picked out at a thrift store. Since Bess's mother collected and sorted old clothes for a charity thrift store, Bess had plenty of colorful old clothes to pick from. When she wore long skirts, colorful tops, and wild looking hats, she certainly was noticed by her new classmates.

Her school was known for its elaborate theatrical productions. Bess was picked by the teacher who was directing the upcoming school play to be the stage manager for the production. That meant Bess had to know everything about the play and even know every line for all the actors in it. It was a big job. But since all the popular kids in the school were in the play, they all got to know Bess very well.

Everything was going in the right direction until Bess' mom leaned on her to start giving some of her weekend time to working in the town's soup kitchen for homeless people. It was there that Bess met Gracie Jarvis Battle, an elderly widow who had lost her home and now had to live on the streets. Bess' concern for Gracie and her increasing involvement with her mother's charity efforts started to come into conflict with her responsibilities as stage manager.

The rest of the story is concerned with how Bess juggles all of her increasing responsibilities and not mess up and make everbody mad at her. Can she do what she thinks is right and still remain popular with her teachers and her middle school classmates