Enola Holmes 1-3 by Nancy Springer

Enola Holmes is the much younger sister of Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes.  Her name is "Alone" spelled backwards, and was given to her by her mother, whose favorite encouragement was, "You can do very well on your own."  On Enola's 14th birthday, her mother runs away, but not before leaving Enola clues where to find a substantial amount of money.  When Mycroft, who is Enola's legal guardian, tries to put Enola in a boarding school, Enola runs away to London. There she sets herself up as a finder of lost people. Like her older brother and idol, Sherlock, she uses deductive reasoning, inside informants, and disguises to pursue her cases and avoid her brothers. She manages to stay one step ahead of them, using one asset she has that they don't, her knowledge of the feminine world. 

My husband and I watched the Netflix Enola Holmes movies last month, so I decided to read the books again.  They really are a delight but also very insightful and thought-provoking. Enola is a spunky and clever protagonist. Springer portrays London of 1889 with all its nasty underbelly, and also riffs on the oppression of women and minorities. Although both the libraries were I used to work put the Enola Holmes books in the middle grade section, they really are more YA, even though they are short.  They are good choices for reluctant reader teen-age girls.

The Case of the Missing Marquess (2007, 215 p.)

The Case of the Left-handed Lady (2008, 256 p.)

The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets (2009, 170 p.)

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

The SecUnit likes the small team of scientists it has been tasked with protecting as they investigate the possible assets of an uninhabited planet. The SecUnit, which calls itself, MurderBot, has secretly disabled its management program, and has downloads hours of action sitcoms to review while in stasis between its daily patrols and other responsibilities. It doesn't feel comfortable around the humans and always keeps its visor down around them.  Then one day something goes wrong. There is an attack on a base, and the team begins to wonder if there is more to it than the undocumented large fauna which injured one of the crewmen.  It is up to MurderBot to keep its unit safe as they investigate the unknown.

I can't remember who recommended this book to me but I really enjoyed it. The MurderBot has an interesting personality, both interaction-averse and highly protective of the scientists. It is querky in a kind of Asperger's way that is endearing. There is some language, but the book is otherwise clean for a YA SciFi. It is also really short and I think it would be a good choice for a teen reluctant reader. I enjoyed it enough I put the second on hold right away. (2017, 160 p)

P.S. As I was looking up the page count and publication date, I discovered it won a boatload of awards the year it came out. 

Ada Lovelace Cracks the Code by Rebel Girls

 Ada Byron Lovelace was the only legitimate daughter of Lord Byron.  By the time she was born, her parents were already estranged, so she never really knew her illustrious father before he died when she was eight.  She was raised as an aristocrat and given a good education, but had few friends and was often lonely.  She also had delicate health and spent several years as an invalid after a terrible case of the measles. While ill, she turned to books as her companions, and as a teen and young adult became fascinated with math and logic.  She became friends with another female mathematician, Mary Somerville, who introduced her to her future husband, William, Earl of Lovelace, and to Charles Babbage who was a scientist working on a computing machine.  He was designing the machine to do mathematical calculations, but Ada was able to see that it had far more possibilities than just mathematics.  She became an advocate of Babbage's work and translated and added notes to a paper about his device in hopes of raising funding for his project. 

This is a short biography written as a highly fictionalized story of Lovelace's life focusing one her personality, early education, and work with Babbage. I found it interesting and entertaining.  At the end of it, though, I wasn't clear why she was considered to have been the first computer programmer.  I had to read a Wikipedia article to discover she had added to her translation of the article referenced above, a postscript with a description of how to calculate the Bernoulli numbers with Babbage's machine.  It is this postscript that is considered by some the first computer program. Still, I think this is a very accessible biography for anyone, especially girls, who are interested in computers and coding. (2019, 128p.)

Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche by Nancy Springer

 Enola is still living in London, having established herself as a capable detective and having re-established relations with her famous brother, Sherlock.  When Dr Watson appeals to her to help her brother out of a particularly serious bout of melancholia, Enola knows that only a good case with help him rally.  Luckily such a case drops into their laps as a woman asks the Holmes' to investigate the alleged death of her twin sister. Both Sherlock and Enola undertake their own course of investigation, but ultimately they must work together to survive evil forces and solve the case.  

I was delighted to see Nancy Springer resume her Enola Holmes series after a 10 year hiatus. I was not disappointed.  Although the mystery was pretty straight forward--no surprise ending here-- still, the personalities and the interaction between Enola and Sherlock are fun to read.  I think this is an excellent series for junior and even senior high school age girls who are reluctant readers.  The books are short, fast paced and feature a strong female character. They are also an interesting glimpse into life in turn of the 20th century England. (2021, 261 p)

Sweeping Up the Heart by Kevin Henkes

 Amelia's mother passed away when she was quite young, and now she lives with her reclusive professor father.  The two have a cook/housemade, Mrs O'Brian, who tries to be the female parental figure in the home.  One year, during spring break, Amelia meets Casey, who is staying with his aunt for a week while his parents decide whether to divorce. The two pre-teens strike an instant friendship, and help each other find hope despite complicated parental relationships. 

I love Kevin Henkes' light and open hearted touch when dealing with difficult family relationships.  Amelia's awkward relationship with her father is realistic and sympathetic.  Although he cannot express his love for his daughter with words, it gently shines through.  I also like that it is balanced by Mrs. O'Brian whose heart and arms are so open to the needy girl.  I met and had a fairly lengthy conversation with Mr. Henkes once, and he is as kind and gentle in person as he comes through in his books.    (183 p. 2019)

A Case in Any Case by Ulf Nilsson

This is the third in the Detective Gordon series.  In this one Detective Gordon is on vacation, and Buffy is minding the police station.  One night something comes scrabbling outside the police station.  Buffy is so worried she decides it is time to go and get Detective Gordon.  No sooner does he return, than two children go missing.  Detective Gordon and Buffy must work together to solve the mystery, but will Buffy ever discover who the mysterious scrabbler is?

This is a charming intermediate that feels a lot like the old Frog and Toad books by Arnold Lobel.  There isn't really anything that is scary and no real villain. All the characters are nice and good and the conflict comes from small mistakes the characters make. It has simple color illustrations every couple of pages. This would be a great choice for a child that was an advanced reader at a young age or for a visiting grandparent to read aloud over a couple of evenings. (2017, 95 p.)

A Dragon's Guide to Making Your Human Smarter by Lawrence Yep

In this second in the "Dragon's Guide" series. In this one Winnie is about to start school in the Sprigg's Academy for both magical and non-magical people.  She is nervous, but under Miss Drake's watchful eye, she makes friends and discovers that the power of intellect and cleverness is its own kind of magic. 

This is a cute series for kids who like Cowell's How to Train Your Dragon series, or Mylnowsky's Whatever After series.  There is an element of wish fulfillment in it.  Who wouldn't like to take science from Sir Isaac Newton, or have a chat with the Lock Ness Monster.? It is pretty light and would be appropriate for advanced younger readers. It is interesting to me that Yep would write such a series so late in his career when his earlier stuff was rather serious.  (2016, 294 p.)

The Adventurer's Guide to Successfull Escapes by Wade Albert White

Anne is an orphan waiting for her 13th birthday so she can leave the orphanage forever.  She hopes that she and her friend, Penelope, will be accepted into a questing school, but there is little chance of that--or at least that is what they think.   The day before Anne's birthday she and Penelope are  recruited by a school and given their first quest. They receive one more addition to her team, a boy names Hiro, and together they face seeming insurmountable odds to pursue their goal.

A lot of books I choose to read because they received starred reviews.  This one did not.  It is a B-level fantasy at best, but it was entertaining.  The author added some steam punk elements that were fun and there is good chemistry between the three children.  The main shortcoming is that the quest that was supposed to be impossibly difficult was really not very difficult at all.  If that was a high level quest, a low level quest probably requires the student to successfully make it to the bathroom and back.  Still, it is a fun story and I would recommend it to younger children who are good readers, who want a longer book but can't handle emotional intensity yet.  (374 p.)

A Dragon's Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans by Lawrence Yep

When her aunt Amelia passes away, Winnie and mother move into their ancestral home. What Winnie knows and her mother doesn't is that with the estate comes a dragon named Miss Drake.  Miss Drake considered aunt Amelia to be her beloved pet and called her, Fluffy, and was very sad at her passing.  The kindly, but stern dragon is not sure she is ready to take on another pet, especially such a young one, but she soon comes to admire Winnie's intelligence and pluck.

This was a darling book, much lighter and more playful than other books I have read by Yep.  The relationship between the dragon and Winnie is delightful and the magical world that Yep creates is charming.  This is a great choice as a read aloud for a family with younger children (maybe 4-8), or for a child who is young but has a high reading level.  (152p.)

School Ship Tobermory by Alexander McCall Smith

Ben and Fee McTavish are brother/sister twin children of marine biologists.  When it is time for them to go to boarding school, they are sent to a school that is on a sailing ship.  They quickly make friends, and enemies, and learn the difference between port and bow.  On their first semester voyage some students are invited to be extras in a movie about pirates, but is the the piracy all on film, or is there something more sinister going on?

This is delightfully innocent book.  The kids actually make correct and responsible choices when deciding whether to tell the Captain what is going on or sneak onto the movie ship and investigate for themselves. Hooray! Here is a book with the charm of the Penderwicks that will appeal to both boys and girls. It is a good choice for fairly young readers who are reading at an advanced level or for a family read aloud where there is a variety of ages of listeners. (218 p)

p.s. I was surprised to find out it is written by the author of the #1 Ladies Detective Agency.  It makes me want to try one of that series. (Ha ha, probably most adult women readers would have said that sentence the other way around.)

Mango and Bambang: The Not a Pig by Polly Faber

Here is this week's intermediate.
Mango lives with her father who is always busy "balancing books."  She tries to stay busy, too, but is often lonely, until the day she meets Bambang.  Bambang is not a pig, but a tapir from a far away land. He is very nervous about living in the big city, but Mango is kind and gentle with him, and soon they are best friends. When Mango finally faces something that makes her nervous, Bambang knows he must step up and help his dear friend, the way she has helped him. This book is a treat, both literarily and visually. With simple language Faber creates a wonderful story of friendship and kindness. Vulliamy's cover even looks like a treat;  a box of candy or a popcorn bag. The interior illustrations are also charmingly done in the same two tone purple. Gentler than Junie B. Jones or Ivy and Bean, this is a great choice for a young child who is an advanced reader, or anyone who has a tender soul. (135 p.)

Sink or Swim by Sarah Mlynowski

Here is book 3 in the Whatever After series.  In this one Abby and Jonah travel through the magic mirror to the island of Mustard just as the Little Mermaid, Lana, is saving prince Mortimer from the shipwreck.  The arrival of the kids scares Lana away before Prince Mortimer wakes up so he doesn't get a chance to meet her.  Now the kids have a dilemma.  Do they want to fix Lana's story, knowing how it originally ends (not they Disney ending, but the H. C. Anderson depressing ending)?  This is about like the other Whatever After books; a little humor, a little moralizing and a happily-ever-after ending that is different from the original fairy tale. It is cute, and it gave me something simple but mildly entertaining to listen to while I did a big weeding project today.  (165 p)

Pip Bartlett's Guide to Magical Creatures by Jackson Pearce and Maggie Stiefvater

Pip Bartlett loves learning about magical creatures, so she is not too disappointed when her mother arranges for her to spend the summer with her aunt, who is a magical creatures vet.  Pip has a secret; she can talk with animals, so she soon becomes a valuable asset at the veterinarian clinic.  Her skills become invaluable when her town is overrun by Fuzzles, little creatures that burst into flame when they are nervous.  Pip, her aunt, and her new friend, Thomas, are in a race against time to keep the cute little Fuzzles from either burning down the town or being exterminated.

This was a cute and lighthearted little book that would be appropriate for a fairly young child who was a advanced reader.  Nothing terribly scary happens, and there are some funny scenes and mild underwear and flatulence jokes.  This is a good choice for readers who have been enjoying books like "The Rescue Princesses" or the "Animal Magic" series and are ready to move up to a slightly longer offering. (184 p.)

Land of Stories: the Wishing Spell By Chris Colfer

Twelve year old twins, Alex and Connor, are mourning the death of their father, and adjusting to having their mom work all the time. One memento of their father is a book of fairy tales, but one day the book starts to act strangely.  It glows and makes noises, until one day it sucks the children into the land of fairytales.  There they meet all their fairy tale favorites who are currently living their lives a decade or so after their famous stories.  Alex and Conner find a journal that tells them about a wishing spell that might be able to take them back to their own world, so they go on a quest to find the ingredients they need for the spell.  They are not the only ones hoping to have an impossible wish granted and the others looking for the ingredients are not nice people.

This is a cute fractured fairytale story for those who like E.D. Baker's Frog Princess stories and Michael Buckley's Sister's Grimm series.  It is appropriate for a younger, but very confident reader because almost everyone they meet is actually pretty nice to them, and even the bad guys are not evil to the core.

It is interesting because as I read the book I kept thinking, "this is pretty good, but the writer sounds inexperienced."  One of the reasons I thought that was because, even though Alex (a girl) and Connor (a boy) have different interests, there wasn't much difference in their personalities.  Especially, when the action heats up near the end of the book the author treats them as a single person, and they sayand do several things in unison. I guess what I am trying to express is that the story doesn't arise from the characters.  The author came up with the story first, and then moves the two characters through it like a kid might move his Lego guys through a pretend adventure.  When I looked up the author, I found out he was only 22 when the book was published. That means he was probably only 20 or younger when he wrote it. It will be interesting to read the second book in the series and see how the writing matures.  (438 p.)

The Unfinished Angel by Sharon Creech

In a little town in the Swiss Alps lives an angel.  It (the book specifically says the angel is without gender)  has lived in the top floor of a tower in an old chalet for hundreds of years.  It helps people in the little town when it can, but mostly enjoys swooping around the nearby mountains and forests.  One day an American family moves into the chalet, and much to the angel's surprise, the little girl from the family, Zola, can see it.  Zola immediately demands that the angel do something about this or that injustice or conflict.  The angel doesn't like being bossed around, but soon discovers needs in the little town it had not been aware of.  Zola and the angel ultimately help some homeless children find a permanent home in the town.  This was an odd little book.  I like some of Sharon Creech's stuff, and not others. I loved Grandma Torrelli Makes Soup, and I liked her Newbery winner, Walk two Moons. This one isn't  as good as either of those, but it was good enough to keep me going as I did some cleaning around the house.  The plot line is a little confusing.  At first Zola tells the angle she is an orphan, but she seems to be living with her dad, and at the end of the book, her mother and little brother show up.  The little angel in the story is vaguely trying to do good, but feels that it is lacking instruction and direction about how to be a good angel. It never really does get help or direction, but in the end the reader senses the angel had become more confident in its responsibilities.  This is a gentle story, with no real conflict or struggle.  It would work for a younger child who is an advanced reader, but not emotionally ready to read something more intense.  (164 p.)

Tuesdays in the Castle by Jessica Day George

Celie is the youngest daughter of King and Queen Glower.  She and her family live in a most unusual castle.  It has a life of its own and changes from time to time, adding a room here, removing a hall there.  The royal family and staff are used to these changes, and even see them as the castle's way of taking care of the kingdom.  When the King and Queen are ambushed and thought dead, the castle goes into action to help Celie and her siblings retain power, and have hope that their parents are not really dead.  This is a cute fantasy full of imagination and clever twists on familiar themes.  The royal children are resourceful, but George manages to keep them child-like, instead of making them into little adults.  The story is engaging and exciting, but not violent and there are no objectionable elements.  It could be enjoyed by as old as middle school age children, but if there were a good reader who was in 1st or 2nd grade, they could enjoy it too. (p. 228)

Liesl and Po by Lauren Oliver

Liesl is a girl, locked in the attic because her father has died and her stepmother wants to control her inheritance.  Will is a young alchemist’s apprentice who likes to watch Liesl draw through her attic window.  Po is a ghost who also likes Liesl’s drawings and decides to pay her visits.  When William accidentally switches Liesl’s father’s funerary box with one that contains a great magical power it sets off a series of events that brings Victorian England to the brink of disaster, but just might bring Liesl, Will and Po their greatest heart’s desire.  This is a cute, non-scary ghost story.   It reads like a fairy tale.  The characters are not really very dimensional, especially the villains, who are comical caricatures, but there is a brisk pace of action and suspense, and a very nice happy ending.  It is such a different kind of Ghost story from Lockwood and Company.  Po is not spooky at all and certainly not threatening.  He is actually endearing and seems to have a little crush on Liesl. This is a good book for a younger child who is a good reader and wants to read a ghost story but gets creeped-out easily. 370 p

The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Henkes

A few days before Billy is about to start 2nd grade, he falls and receives a concussion.  He overhears his parents discussing their worries that there might be permanent brain damage, so Billy starts 2nd grade fearing that he won't be smart any more.  Luckily Billy has a wonderful teacher, and a kind and supportive family.  He makes it through the year with flying colors, and, along the way, his innate kindness and desire to be good helps those around him.

Kevin Henkes visited my library last Spring and I had the opportunity to get to know him a little when I was assigned to drive him to the airport.  My husband came along for the ride and both he and I were impressed with Mr Henkes' innate gentleness and goodness.  It was my husband that wanted to read this book for our family story reading, (I say family, but actually my kids are so busy they aren't able to join us very much.  It was mostly David and I reading together.)  We both loved the book.  Mr. Henkes nails how a 7 year old thinks.  We both laughed several times because what we read brought back memories of our or our children's childhood.  David also noted that the book could be a good example to both parents and teachers of how to help a child learn and grow while providing a supportive environment.  Two thumbs way up. (229 p)

Mr. and Mrs Bunny: Detectives Extraordinaire, by Polly Horvath

Madeline lives on Hornby Island, Canada with her very "New Age" (aka Hippy) parents.  Madeline is not like her parents, and takes responsibility for her own education and well being.  One day her parents are stolen away by a troop of criminal foxes.  As Madeline goes to try to find them, she meets up with Mr. and Mrs. Bunny, who are amateur detectives. Madeline discovers that she can understand Rabbit language, and accepts the Bunny's help to discover and rescue her parents.   This is an extremely silly book.  There is a lot of "tongue in cheek" humor about hippies, society and life in general. There is also a great deal of snappy dialog between the two bunnies. The story is not without a little tenderness. Although Madeline is resourceful and independent, she finds herself enjoying the kind mothering of Mrs Bunny, something she never got from her own mother.  I am not sure who the target audience is for this book.  I might recommend it for a child who is quite young, but a good reader.  That demographic, however, would miss a lot of the jokes.  Maybe a book for an adult to read to an intelligent younger child.  The child would enjoy the silliness, and the adult could chuckle at the jokes. (248 p)

Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome

This book was an interesting discovery.  It was written in 1930 and is the first in a long series of books featuring a group of four siblings of the last name Walker.  In this book, the four children are staying at a lake with their mother and baby sister while their father is away at sea.  The children get permission to use a small sailing boat and camp out on a small island in the lake.  When they arrive at the island, they discover that someone had camped there before.  They soon meet the previous inhabitants, the Blackett girls, and they all become fast friends and have wonderful adventures together.

As with most books I review, I experienced this one as a recorded book.  The recording was made in 2008, so at first I didn't realize this was an old classic.  It didn't take long listening to figure out that this book could not have been written and published in the last decade.  The children do and are allowed to do things that would never be considered appropriate today.  I guess parents are much more protective now then they were 70 years ago.  For example, when they smallest boy, who we presume is about 6, finally learns to swim on his own, his mother gives him his first pocket knife as a reward. Can you imagine a book written today where a mother gives a 6 year old a pocket knife?

Another old fashion element of the story is how proper the children are, and completely without fault.  They are never tempted to be bad, and are always respectful and responsible.  Their adventures are pretty tame as well.  They get in a storm,  they get lost on the lake at night, but they are never really in danger.

Anyway, it was delightful read, with an innocence reminiscent of the Box Car Children or Little Women.  It would be a great book for a Low/High reader.  (351 p.)