Dave at Night by Gail Carson Levine

Gail Carson Levine is best known for her princess tales.  Her first was Ella Enchanted, but she has written a dozen more, all of which I enjoyed.  But one of my favorite of her books is not a princess tale.  It isn't even an fantasy.  David at Night is a historical fiction about a Jewish boy who is orphaned at age 11 during the depression.  His step mother and relatives are unable to take him so he is sent to the Hebrew Home for Boys in Harlem.  He isn't at the home long before he learns how to sneak out and explore the streets at night.  He happens upon a kindly older Jewish gentleman who introduces Dave to the wonders of Jazz, and the Harlem Renaissance.  I think that Ms Levine does a wonderful job capturing David's voice.  He is spunky, but a believable 11.  I also like the fact that the African American people in the story are the rich and influential ones and that his relationship with a black girl is completely untainted by racism.  It is easy to get tired of reading about oppressed peoples. The book was inspired by the experience of Ms. Levine's own father who was put in an orphanage as a child, and was unwilling to talk about it throughout the rest of his life. After his death, Ms Levine researched the orphanage where her father had lived, and also the time period and culture of the area. I first read Dave at Night years ago when it was first published about 10 years ago, but I was happy to go revisit it again.  It was interesting to compare it to The Little Rock Lions, and also The Help which I am still reading (281 p)

Steel Trapp: The Challenge by Ridley Pearson

Steven (nick named Steel) Trapp is on his way to the national science challenge hoping to win a medal for his amazing sniffing robot. Steel has photographic memory and that is why he remembers a woman who had left her carry-on on the train.  When he tries to return the bag to her, and she denies that it is hers, he unwittingly gets involved with a terrorist plot.  He, and another National Science Challenge contestant, a girl named Kaileigh he meets on the train, put their amazing brains, and science challenge inventions, to the task of unraveling the mystery.  This is a light, fun and fast paced action adventure that will appeal to nerdy kids of either gender.  My only problem with it is that the kids, who are supposed to be 14, act more like they are 11 or 12. They have no romantic interest in each other, and don't mention the awkwardness that would have occurred if 14-year-olds of different genders would have been thrown together as they were. I would bet the editors made Pearson change their age.  The rule of thumb in the editing world is that the main characters are supposed to be 2 years older than the target audience, and this book is definitely targeting pre-teens rather than teens. (324 p)

The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine

Marlee is so quiet, she only talks to a few people in her family, and one friend.  Then a new girl comes to her class, and asks Marlee to be her partner on a history project.  Liz is self confident and smart, and soon she begins to work with Marlee to help her overcome her shyness.  Then one day Liz doesn't come  to class, and Marlee discovers that Liz is really an African American, posing as a white girl so she could go to a better school.  Although Central High School had technically been integrated with the "Little Rock 9" had attended the year before, the grade schools were not integrated, and it was illegal, even dangerous, for Liz to attend school there.  As Liz and Marlee try to secretly continue their friendship, racial tensions rise, as one high school after another shut down to prevent integration. Marlee has to decide if she is brave enough to speak up and make a change in her own community.

There are a lot of novels out there that present the integration struggles in the 50's.  This one is interesting because it deals with the aftermath of the first attempts to integrate, and shows that things did not change overnight. I was interested to see what kind of ending Levine would have for the story, and was gratified to find that she chose the realistic conclusion, rather than the idealistic one.  The story is carefully researched and I think Levine does a good job of showing the emotions, attitudes and motivations behind the historical events.  (298 p)

Tall Story by Candy Gourlay

Andi has only seen her half brother, Bernardo, once, when she was 4 and he was 6, because he lives in the Philippines and her parents have struggled to get his immigration papers.  Her parents are therefore excited when his papers go through and they are able to send for him to come and live with them in London.  When Bernardo comes off the plane Andi is astonished to find out that he is 8 feet tall.  The story is told from both Andi and Bernardo's point of view in alternating chapters.  Bernardo suffers from gigantism, but he was never treated because in his village there was a legend of a giant named Bernardo who saved the village from earthquakes.  When Bernardo (the boy) begins to get tall, those in the village believe he is the reincarnation of the legendary Bernardo. He has longed to join his mother all his life, but when his papers go through the villagers beg him not to go for fear that his departure will bring on an earthquake.  Although the book touches on a lot of serious issues surrounding gigantism, friendship, and family, Gourlay doesn't gets too heavy.  It is certainly a book for children and the reader is never really in doubt of a happy ending.  (295 p)

Hawksmaid by Kathryn Lasky

I am on vacation this week, and believe it or not, I, the librarian, forgot to check out a book to read on my trip.  So at the last minute I grabbed one off of my shelf at home.  It is an ARC (advanced reader copy) that I received years ago, but never read.  I hadn't read it because I am not a huge fan of Kathryn Lasky.  She is a writer that children love, but adults, not so much.  Her books lack...I don't know...sophistication, if that makes sense. That said, I enjoyed this book.  It is a "popcorn-and-peanuts" kind of read, and a good kind of "not so deep" story for a week on vacation.

     Matty is the daughter of a wealthy baron.  Her mother is trying to make her into a lady, but she prefers spending time with her father and his beautiful hawks.  Then one day Prince John's men attack her home, steeling all their fortune and killing Matty's mother.  Now motherless and penniless  Matty spends more and more time with the hawks, and with the rag tag team of urchin boys from the village.  The book covers a span of several years, and the reader is able to see Matty, and her best friend, Robert, grow into the famous Maid Marian and Robin Hood.  As Matty grows, her connection to her birds becomes deeper and then uncanny.  In the end Matty and the birds must work as one to save the kingdom and free the captive King Richard. 

Words in the Dust by Trent Reedy

Zulaikha is a 13 year old girl living in a remote village in Afghanistan. She was born with a cleft lip and has endured stares and taunting from those outside her family all her life.  Her kind and beautiful older sister is her primary emotional support, and Zulaikha is both happy, and sad when she hears that her father has arranged a marriage for Zeyneb. When the Americans come into her village, they offer to perform an operation to repair Zulaikha's cleft lip for free, but she must travel to Kandahar to the American base hospital to have the procedure.  While Zulaikha prepares for her life changing operation, Zeyneb prepares for her impending marriage, and both girls courageously face their uncertain future.

I was more caught up in this book than I have been in any book for a long time.  This is Mr. Reedy's first novel, but the writing is amazing.  I don't know how an American man could create such a believable Afghan girl character.  There in is my struggle with the book. The character of Zulaikha is based on a girl Mr. Reedy met while serving in the military providing humanitarian aide in Afghanistan in the early 2000's.  He lived in the country for a year, and worked closely with the native people there.  Still, all during the story I wondered how authentic the characters were.  Is the way Zulaikha and Zeyneb think really how Afghan women would have thought, or does he, unintentionally, place western ideals in the characters minds?  He doesn't overtly do so. The character's view of Americans is in no way idealized and his Afghan characters don't obviously fall into cultural stereotypes.  There is a long author's note at the end in which Reedy confesses to exactly the same reservations as I felt, but he defends his decision to write the book on the idea that someone ought to write Afghan girls' stories because they cannot write them themselves.  It is estimated that between 80-90 percent of Afghan women and girls are illiterate.

I am very conflicted about this book,  but I really enjoyed it as well, so you will have to read it yourself and decide what you think.  Be warned there is a one passage that contains rather graphic violence, and a few surrounding Zeyneb's wedding, that are a little mature in content, so I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone under 13.  (226 p.)

Starry River of the Sky by Grace Lin

Rendi has run away from home and stowed away in the cart of a wine seller.  He is discovered when he cart owner stops to sell wine to an innkeeper in the Village of Clear Sky.  The kindly innkeeper takes the boy on to help him and his young daughter run the inn in the absence of the keeper's son, who has gone missing.  The son is not the only thing missing.  The moon seems to be missing from sky above Village of Clear Sky, as is the rain.  At night Rendi can hear the sky weeping but no one else seems to hear it until one day a beautiful older woman arrives to stay in the inn.  She tells wonderful stories of the beings that live in the moon, the lake and the mountain.  As time passes Rendi comes to suspect that the woman is more than she seems, and her stories are not just idle fairy tales.

Grace Lin is a master storyteller.  She weaves all the elements of her story into an amazing lace-work of connections and meaning.  At the same time she creates interesting and complex characters who have fully realized personalities.  This book takes place in the same world as her Newbery Honor book, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, but you do not need to read one before you read the other.  Both books are loosely based on Asian mythology and are a great introduction to that topic. (288  p)