Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean's Most Fearless Scientist by Jess Keating

This is a appealing picture book biography of an impressive female scientist. Eugenie Clark was fascinated with sharks from the time she was a small child.  When she got older she earned a bachelor's, master's and PhD in Zoology in a time when there were not many women in the sciences.  She studied sharks in the Mediterranean Sea, wrote many articles and two books about her adventures, and worked as a professor. The book is written in simple prose that is accessible to even early grade students.  The illustrations are clean watercolor cartoons done in light-filled summer colors. The author includes a time line and extra facts about sharks and oceanography as end notes.  This is a great STEM choice for both younger and older grade school age children. (2017, unpaginated)

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

I have read Little Women several times now.  This time I read it because I watched the new PBS Little Women mini series.  I am so familiar with the Winona Ryder version, when I watched the PBS one I thought, 'humm, this is really different.  I wonder which one is closer to the book?'  The answer is that the PBS series got more of the actual story elements and chronologies correct, but I personally believe the older video got some of the personalities better.  I especially didn't like the new portrayal of Amy.  She is certainly not as bratty and spoiled in the book as in the new PBS series.

A couple of things struck me as I read this beloved classic again.  I had forgotten how moralizing it is.  It is very preachy, and every event has its edifying moral lesson.  Another interesting observation is that the book really follows all four girls in their life journey, focusing whole chapters on just Meg, or just Amy, while all the movies mostly focus on Jo.  I don't know why that is.  I guess it is because Jo best represents the author, and maybe has a more interesting romantic journey.

I enjoyed reading the book again, and I don't mind the little moral lessons. There are some issues with ethnocentrism and negative stereotypes of foreigners, but they were not beyond what was normal for the time period. The message of enduring hardship through faith and close family ties is so delightful that I think families, especially families with girls, would do well to read the book together.  (400 p.)

The Trouble Begins at 8: the Life of Mark Twain in the Wild Wild West by Sid Fleischman

This is a lively biography of Samuel Clemens by one of my favorite children's nonfiction writers.  Fleishman draws a lot from Clemens' own writings and the accounts of other contemporaries, but, of course the difficulty when writing about "Mark Twain" is separating fact from fiction.  Clemens lived a life as adventurous and exciting as many fictional characters.  He wrote about his adventures but often embellished them to make the writing more entertaining. In this biography Fleischman includes the fun parts but is careful to mention when scholars have debates about the historicity of certain events.  I actually learned new things about Clemens from this biography.  I didn't know that his novel writing came relatively late in his life, and that much of his earlier fortune came from his performances on the lecture circuit. I also didn't realize that he had traveled so widely. Fleischman adds an extensive appendix that contains one of Clemens short stories, and a good time line with historical notes.  Kids could certainly read this for fun or as a report biography.  This is not a new book, but I am glad I picked it up. (2008, 224 p.)

The Problim Children by Natalie Lloyd

Seven children with the last name of Problim, live in a swamp on their own while their parents are on an archaeological expedition.  When the kids' bungalow gets destroyed, they go into town hoping to live in their grandfather's house until their parents arrive.  Their next door neighbors in town are the O'Pinion family, and Evil Desdemona O'Pinion is convinced there is a treasure hidden in the Problim mansion.  Even though Desdemona tries to turn the city against them, the other neighbors are intrigued by the strange children, who are totally uncouth in an mysterious and exciting way.

Of course you can tell from the family names that this book is a kind of satire.  It is a comic trial between the good-hearted, but unconventional "Problim Children" and the conventional and critical family that represents public "O'Pinion."  It is not super serious though.  Fart jokes and potty type humor abound. Each of the children have an odd super power and unique quirky personality.  The whole book is a bit of a high spirited romp and I think kids will really like it.  It would appeal to either boy or girl. The story doesn't completely resolve, so if you start this one do so knowing you will have to commit to waiting for the sequel. (285 p. 2018)

Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson

Estaban, Haley, Amari, Ashton, and Holly are 5th and 6th graders who have different ways of learning.  Their school starts a program where they are put together in a small class.  At first they don't know each other, but as their wise teacher gives them time alone to talk, they start to share some of the struggles they each have.   Their willingness to be vulnerable with each other creates a family-like bond between the children.

This book has received a ton of starred reviews this year.  It has a lot going for it.  Woodson is a well known and lyric writer.  The kids are diverse and each has a really difficult, but totally realistic, challenge.  One has a parent in jail, another has a parent who has been deported, another has ADHD, one is struggling with racial prejudice, and another is being bullied.  I really believe this will be on everyone's potential Newbery list.  The thing is, I didn't like it that much.  I didn't hate it like I hated Wolf Hollow two years ago but I didn't love it.  The reason is that I was never convinced that they were real 10 and 11 year old children.  The way they talked and the way that they were totally supportive of each other and philosophical about their lives was not realistic to me.  If they had been fifteen or sixteen, maybe. There were moments when they sounded more like their supposed ages, but much of the book I felt the author was putting her own thoughts and ideals in their mouths instead of letting them tell their own story their own way.  There was an interview at the end of the recording of Ms Woodson talking with her 11 year old son.  It made me a little amused that in the interview she was kind of putting words into her son's mouth just as she had put words into her character's mouths.  It will be interesting to see if it wins any awards.
(2018, 176 p.)

Samurai Rising : the epic life of Minamoto Yoshitsune by Pamela Turner

Yoshitsune was one of Japan's most famous Samurai.  He was bold, reckless, and a fierce and cunning warrior.  This engaging biography recounts his life and the complicated warlord culture of 12th century Japan.  Turner does a good job of making the arcane time period accessible. It is no surprise it won a boat load of awards the year it came out. I especially liked some of her analogies to modern life e.g. when she said that Yoshitsune was like the star quarterback, but his older half brother was like the owner of the team.  Her biography is carefully researched, and she mentions her sources in text and in an author's note at the end.  Medieval Japan was a cruel and violent place, and Turner doesn't shellac any of the graphic details of her heroes' exploits.  This is not a good choice for the squeamish at heart.  It might be a great choice for a teen who loves action video games and is required to read a bio of a historical figure.  (2016, 236 p.)

The Boys in the Boat: Young Reader Adaptation by Daniel James Brown

Joseph Rantz started life as a normal kid in a normal working class family.  All that changed when his mother died and his father remarried.  Joe's step mother didn't like him, and by the time Joe was 15, he was kicked out of the house and fending for himself.  He managed to earn enough money to go to one semester at Washington University, where he tried out for the rowing team.  His hope was that if he got on the team he would be able to also get a job working in the athletic department and earn enough money to stay in school.  The place on the rowing team lead him to more than a job; it eventually lead to a gold medal in the 1936 Olympics.  More importantly it taught him that he could trust people and risk being part of something again.

When this book first came out in 2015 it got a lot of attention from review journals.  It is a well written and inspirational story of young men who get through life by working together and pushing themselves.  I actually didn't like it quite as well as Steve Sheinkin's Undefeated.  Brown's descriptions of Joe's struggles and the team's efforts to pull together are great, but his attempt to tie it in with all that was going on with the rise of Hitler is a bit tenuous.  Still, it is a engaging book, and I never got bored reading it. It would be a good choice for a junior high-age-boy who is a reluctant reader but likes sports and has to read a historical nonfiction book. (or for adults who were kind of interested in the original version, but don't want to wade through 400 pages of a sports narrative.)(2015, 240 p.)