Beverly Right Here by Kate DiCamillo

Beverly lives with her drunk mother and her beloved dog.  When her dog dies, she can't bear to stay where she is and catches a ride to a town a couple of hours away.  Though only 14, she happens to find a job and a place to live.  She lives with an old woman who treats her with kindness and she begins to make friends in the town.  Is this a place where she can make a new life, or will the call of home, as flawed as it is, become too strong?

This is the third in the series that began with the award winning Raymie Nightingale.  In this story we find out what happens to Raymie's crusty friend, Beverly.  I liked Raymie Nightingale okay, but it wasn't my favorite, so I am not sure why I picked this one up.  Once I started reading it, though, I remembered why I am pretty much always willing to read something by DiCamillo.  She is just an amazing writer.  If you ever need an example of the adage, "Show, not tell"  DiCamillo is the master.  She is so good at showing thoughts and moods by body movement and gesture. She must just watch people all the time and take notes of different things they do with their hands and faces.  It is pretty amazing.  The story of this book was sweet, but unexceptional, but it is worth the read just as a writing lesson.  (it is also clean which is rare for teen fiction). (2019, 256 p.)

Crispin and the Cross of Lead and Crispin at the Edge of the World by Avi

Astor's son has always lived with his mother on the edge of starvation in a small town in 14th century England.  His mother has been shunned for some reason her son doesn't understand, and he shares in her status.  When she dies of illness, Astor's son doesn't know where to go or what to do, but he soon discovers that the overseer of the manor wants him dead as well.  A kindly priest gives him a cross that used to belong to his mother, tells him his birth name is Crispin, and urges him to flee the city.  Out on the open road Crispin meets a juggler, called Bear, who takes him on, first as a servant and then as an apprentice.  The juggler is also more than he seems, and soon both he and Bear are running from the magistrates.  Will Crispin ever truly be free?

In the second book Bear and Crispin meet a pagan midwife and her harelipped ward. When the old woman is killed by an angry mob lead by the town bailiff, Crispin and Bear take the girl, Troth, under their care and together they flee the town and continue to search for a place where they can live in peace.  The constant stress takes a toll on Bear, and more and more Crispin must step up and make sure they all stay safe.


I read The Cross of Lead because I was considering using it for a Parent/Child book club.  After I finished it I decided to use a different book.  It is well written and the characters are sympathetic, but I think is was a bit too gritty for the age group that comes to my book club.  It also bothered me that they swear by various body parts of Jesus and God throughout.  Although these oaths are perhaps historically accurate, and most people wouldn't think of them as swearwords, that is what they felt like to me. (2002, 268 p.)

When I finished The Cross of Lead, none of the other books I had on hold had come in yet, so I went ahead and read the second book in the series.  I liked it as well as the first, but was a little disappointed to come to the end and realize that the story continues in a third book.  I should have known--book series rarely just come in two.  I may or may not read the third the next time I am between other reading choices.(2006, 234 p)

Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson

Alcatraz has moved from foster home to foster home.  Nobody keeps him long because his tendency to break things.  When he turns 13 his grandfather shows  up and whisks Alcatraz away into a new world full of magic and and ruled over by evil Librarians. Nothing is as he thought it was, including himself, his family, and his strange abilities.

I read this years ago and am reading it again because it is our parent/child book club book for March.  Honestly, I had forgotten how silly it is, but really intelligent, too.  Sanderson has an amazingly clever mind and his gives it full range here.  There is so much ironic and sarcastic humor that will go over the heads of many children, but delight the really smart ones. The rumor is that he wrote these books when he was working on other, harder projects, as a kind of mental break.  The world of children's fantasy is so glad he did. (2007, 319 p)

Lost and Found by Orson Scott Card

Ezekiel Bliss is a loner and likes it that way, or he did, until he meets Beth and she wants to walk with him to school.  She is a proportional dwarf, so she looks like she is about seven years old, even though she is 14.  Zeke and Beth find in each other the friend neither knew they needed and Beth and one of the counselors at school help Zeke embrace a talent, or "mico-power" he has.  He can sense lost things  and instinctively knows how to return them to their owners. Although his talent has gotten him into trouble before, it now might help save someone's life.

After reading two nonfiction in a row, I was ready for a fantasy.  I found this one by Orson Scott Card and was surprised that is wasn't very sci-fi/fantasy-ish.  I always associate Card with Ender's Game and the Alvin Maker series.  Even though this book isn't "high fantasy" it turned out to be pretty good.  I don't know how a 68 year old man channels at teen age boy's mind so well.  Ezekiel is spot on and his relationship with his dad is both sweet and authentic.  I also liked his relationship with Beth. It is a true friendship, unfettered by romantic interest.  Although there is no romance, this is squarely a teen book because Card describes some tough stuff related with child pornography and there is some "off stage" violence that is pretty gruesome.  Still, I will feel happy to recommend this to both teen boys and girls. (2019, 288 p)

Dare to Lead by Brené Brown

Ms Brown has written a number of books about the power of vulnerability in interpersonal relationships.  In this book she applies many of her well known ideas to the task of leadership, specifically business leadership.  She talks about how to establish trust, increase creativity, set reasonable boundaries, and change hostile working situations into productive teams. I think Ms Brown has a lot of valuable ideas but I did not enjoy this book as much as I did "The Gifts of Imperfection."  I feel like she has become mired in her own lingo.  She uses terms like "rumbling with vulnerability" "staying inside my integrity"  "leaning in" and a host of others so often it all started to sound trite. If I walked up to an employee and said, "hey, we need to have an integrity rumble" they would just look at me funny.  Also, the book felt really self-promoting.  Every time she quoted someone's experience, the first 3 or 4 sentences were that person talking about how much they liked the Brené Brown workshop they went to and how it changed their life.  It felt a little like an infomercial. It wasn't all that bad, but there are other leadership books I have enjoyed more. (2018, 298 p.)

Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation

This engaging nonfiction book follows Nelson Mandela's political path for ten years, from the time he was in prison to the triumphant win of the South African rugby team of the world cup in 1995.  Carlin shows how Nelson's charisma and political genius kept South Africa out of civil war and how he used rugby to unite a nation.  I have read Invictus before and enjoyed it, but I think I enjoyed this one more.  Invictus was more about the players, but this focuses more on Mandela and how his gentle but powerful personality won over one opponent after another.  In the forward, the author states that in a way this book could be seen as a leadership manual for statesmen.  I really felt that was true, and got some good ideas for my own role as director from reading this. It reinforced something I have been thinking about.  Sometimes tasks seem insurmountable, but really they hinge only on people changing their minds.  Mandela was a master of helping people change their minds for the better.