Bird Lake Moon by Kevin Henkes

You know, there are phases in children's literature in which all stories seem to have a same central theme. How many Harry Potter type stories have come out over the past few years. This summer, the theme in children's books seems to be loss, and more particularly death.
Bird Lake Moon is another book that falls into that category. The story is told in alternating chapters from the perspective of two boys, 12 year old Mitch and 10 year old Spencer. The novel starts with Mitch who moves with his mother to their grandparents house at Bird Lake after his father leaves them. Faced with being lonely, Mitch begins to create a hideaway at the abandoned neighbors house which he claims as his own. That is until the real owners (the Intruders as Mitch calls them) move back in. That is when Spencer is introduced. Through Spencer's eyes and thoughts, we learn that the family is returning to the home for the first time since the death of his older brother over eight years prior. Mitch takes exception to their return and decides to leave little tricks and pranks around the house. Events which have coincidences to Spencer's dead brother, who he thinks is haunting them. The boys eventually become friends and seem to bond together before Spencer suddenly has to move back due to his mother's inability to cope with the location of her son's death.

And that's about when the story ends. What? The novel ends with both boys wondering what each other are doing and moving on with life. Although the writing is intellectual and intriguing throughout, I'm no sure that young readers will want to stay with it until the end, and if they do, be satisfied with the anti-climatic closing. Might be a book to recommend to a reader who is trying to themselves deal with divorce or death. This story would probably be more appreciated by upper middle school students and not elementary reader males for whom it was probably most intended.
I give the novel:

Not one of my favorites as of late mainly because of the ending, or lack there of, but definitely one worth reading.
Oh goody, the bathroom door is left open, now's my chance to see just how far that roll of paper can extend before it runs out. Until next time, I'm off!

- The Reading Dachshund

Publisher: Greenwillow Books
ISBN: 978-0-06-147078-3
Price: $16.99

Julia's Kitchen by Brenda A. Ferber

Man, do I love books about food. And even better, about cookies! Unfortunately most cookies in my house have chocolate in them so therefore I can only resort to smelling them as they are being eaten. So, with a picture of a big cookie on the front cover, made this dachshund salivate like I was one of Pavlov's pets. However, upon reading this book, cookies were far from the subject of importance.
Julia's Kitchen is about young eleven year old Cara who came up with the name of her mother's catering business, Julia's Kitchen. Cara's mother and sister are tragically killed in a house fire while she was spending the night as a friend's house, only her father survived. Cara is forced not only to cope with the loss of half her family, but also the way that everyone around her is dealing with the loss as well. Her father goes into a sort of depression and begins to ignore Julia and if it wasn't for the help of her best friend, Marlee, Cara may have slipped into a depression as well. This story is about makng the most out of life and making sure that it continues even in the face of such a tragedy. Along with grieving, Cara blames herself for not being home and is desperately wanting answers from her father as to why he was the only survivor. As part of her coping techniques, Cara decides to continue the catering business that her mother was so successful .
In Ferber's first novel, she takes us into the details and thoughts of the main character, Cara. The author seems to make an emphasis on all those people who are around to support those coping with a loss. Cara is constantly surrounded by very loving and caring people although she doesn't realize it at the time. Although at times, the characters seemed to separate themselves from each other due to the loss, it was the loss that brings them closer than ever.
Throughout the novel, the Jewish religion in integrated nicely. Often times children's literature skirts around the idea, but this novel uses the religion as some what of a teaching tool or introduction to some customs associated with it. There is a nice glossary at the back of the book to help give more detail to each Hebrew word. It shows us that religion is a part of a child's life and their thoughts, questions, and in Cara's case, doubts, about it are abundant.
I am giving Brenda Ferber's debut novel

I am very impressed with her rookie effort and although there were no references to dogs in the story only a couple of cats, one of which also died in the fire. I think students will be interested and will feel sorry for Cara and her situation. I highly recommend this novel to young readers.

Now, let me see if I can sneak some cookies.

-The Happy (and Hungry) Dachshund

Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux (2006)
ISBN: 978-0-374-39932-0
Price: $16.00

* 2008 William Allen White Master List - Elementary

Jumping the Scratch by Sarah Weeks

We are taking a bit of a break from our Literature Circle books over the summer to read some of the books on the William Allen White Master Lists for this year. This list is a compilation of books that tell a superb story and are voted on by elementary students and middle school students throughout the state.
It's always been my owner's goal to read as many as we can throughout the summer so that he will know which to read to his students during the upcoming school year. Now, he is a bit odd and instead of reading only those on the elementary list, which his students are, this goofball also reads those on the middle school list as well. So, now it's my job to keep my paws moving and write these reviews for him. Mainly because he has a bad memory and can't remember them when the time comes. Maybe I should give him a treat to help him remember, because if I have to eat one more of those healthy dog biscuits, I'm telling you I am going to find the cleanest spot on the floor and ... well, no need to air my laundry here. So, here goes.

The first book we read off the Master List was a book called Jumping the Scratch by Sarah Weeks. Mrs. Weeks also had a book on the list a couple of years ago called So B. It, and we liked it so, this book sounded like a good place to start. The story is about a boy, Jamie Reardon who has had some bad things happen in his life; his cat dies, his father leaves, and his aunt is injured in a an accident that causes her to lose her short term memory, or skip as Jamie likes to call it. Jamie and his mother move in with his aunt in her mobile home to help her out, and it's Jamie's job to try and find a "trigger" that will help spark his aunt's memory loss. Jumping the Scratch refers to the skipping of the memories that Aunt Sapphy is having. Because of a bully, and an insensitive teacher, school isn't the most pleasant for him and his grades start to slip. Jamie is having other issues of his own that he can't explain, and he has weird quirks of his own, such as placing old cherry cans around his bed at night, and walking through the ditch past the maintenance man's trailer instead of using the road. Jamie meets a strange girl from the same trailer park who, through her psychic abilities, and amazingly enough the help of his Aunt Sapphy, and a local author, Jamie is able to untangle some of the mysteries to his life that have made him "jump the scratch".
As with her other novel, Mrs. Weeks gives all of us some great insight as to her characters thoughts and feelings throughout the whole book. Jamie's interaction with his aunt is sometimes funny and sometimes heart breaking knowing that this is what this boy has to look forward to everyday after school. Although, the story's ending was a bit predictable, sad to say in today's society, held my interest all the way through due to the other sub plots going on. Jamie's secret was handled in a careful way to get the point across. I was anticipating how all of it would tie together in the end. I can see students feeling for Jamie's character and rallying around his triumphs. Kids may find the triggering of the Aunt's memory a bit odd and unbelievable but will enjoy the story all the same.
Overall, a very good story with a happy ending, I give it:

Sarah Weeks has produced two tail wagging good books not a part of her "Regular Guy" series and I hope her next is just as good.

- The Reading Dachshund

Publisher: Laura Geringer
ISBN: 978-0-06-054111-8
Price: $5.99 (paperback version)

*2008 William Allen White Master List - Middle School

I Can Make Jazz Tunes too!

Okay so maybe I've relaxed the past month or so, or maybe two, okay it was three months. But, the good news is, I'm back with the first of several tail wagging reviews. The book we just finished is called Before John was a Jazz Giant by Carole Boston Weatherford. The story is a picture book representation of legendary jazz musician John Coltrane. The story tells about about John's like growing up in the 1930's and all of the influences as far as music is concerned in his life. These influences range anywhere from his grandmother's banging of hambones in a pot to mama's phonograph to listening to the big bands on the radio.
Not having ever heard John Coltrane before, I assume he was a very influential person in jazz history. Thankfully the author included a brief biography about the legendary jazz saxophonist, and provided a list of links and resources to continue to explore this and other jazz greats. The book was a very short read with some vibrant and interesting illustrations. The illustrations were colorful and dominated by lots and lots of circles. While I can't play the saxophone like Mr. Coltrane did, after eating some of those veggie flavors dog biscuits, I can sure belt out a jazzy tune of my own, although it has more effect on people's noses than their ears.
Because of the unique illustrations I am giving this book


I liked the unique look of the pictures and they went along well with the story. Kids will like the pictures as well as the shortness of the book. I doubt they will get the hymnal feel of the story as it was written as a song, but I do think it is a good book to get themselves acquinted with some of those influential people in history without boring them to death.

The Happy Dachshund - Milo








Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
ISBN: 978-0-8050-7994-4
Price: $16.95