AUTHOR:    Patricia McKissack
AGES:        5 - 8 years old
REVIEW:    Flossie & the Fox is a tale of empowerment. A notorious and wily fox meets his match when he encounters an equally witted little girl in the woods. Flossie, who is delivering eggs to a neighbor, refuses to be afraid of this sly critter until he can offer proof that he is the fox her grandmother warned her about. Back to Books also has a short summary.

This story is set in the rural South and reminds me of the simpler days, before television and video games, when my grandfather and I would catch lightning bugs, fish and walk around the homestead. We worked during the day and would spend the evenings talking about infamous relatives and competing in telling the most outlandish yet believable stories. Like the tales of master Storytellers, this story has a message; a young girl uses her brains to beat the fox’s brawn.   

This story does contain old southern vernacular you may not want your child to learn and racial/social stereotyping, yet it could serve as an opportunity to discuss these matters with your child. Good media offers another view on this book.

For more about the author and her books, check out The AuthorVisit blog.

Guest Blogger:  Matt M. is administrator of a satellite campus at Jackson State Community College and loves reading bedtime stories to his daughter. Bedtime stories are a fond memory from my childhood and I am carrying on the tradition, from Disney to our own made up stories, we cover it all. I was trained to teach a myriad of subjects at the secondary level but now only use those skills at homework time.  Matt is a student in Dr. Grant's IDT 7061 class.

 
 

AUTHOR:  Eoin Colfer
AGES:  4th – 10th grades
REVIEW:  Finally, we see redemption in Artemis Fowl.  He's able to build an uneasy allance with the People.  Barnes and Noble offers this synopsis.  EmilyP has a cute take on this one as well. 

This quick read is pure fun.  The action is fast and the technology and magic pretty incredulous.  You gotta love this one.

 
 

AUTHOR:   Tony DiTerlizzi & Holly Black
AGES:   7 – 12 years old
REVIEW:    I just finished all five of the original Spiderwick Chronicles, and I have to say that I was pretty impressed for such short books.  These novels are quick reads and really targeted at second through fifth graders.  So, the plot lines are pretty simple, and the language is very accessible for children. For a review of The Spiderwick Chronicles, see Blais' article for USA Today.

While many movie and books sites, such as Cleveland Free Times and About.com, will give you the synopsis of the storyline about faeries, hobgoblins, boggarts, gryphons, dragons and ogres, the main story of Spidewick as us to suspend our disbelief about the world of Fey.  As we follow the children's introduction into the Faerie world, we are also initiated into the new world around us.  With each book, we delve deeper into the fantastical world.

However, the most real aspect of this book is the much less obvious subplot about "bad dads."  As soon as The Field Guide begins, we meet the Graces, who are recovering from the separation of mom and dad.  In later installments, we come to understand that Aurthur Spiderwick became obsessed with his field guide and the world of Fey, which caused his disappearance and broke his family.  Finally, in The Wrath of Mulgarath, we understand just how self-absorbed Mr. Grace is and how angry the children are at him for collapsing their family and sending them into this dangerous spiral of events. 

I believe the books improve over the series.  Mulgarath to me is the bes of the five.  The action, setting descriptions and emotions are all best portrayed in this book.  I would certainly recommend The Spiderwick Chronicles to anyone. They are certainly appropriate for the 7th through 5th grader, but I would encourage a teen to pick through them as well.

 
 

AUTHOR:   Ryder Windham
AGES:   7th - 10 Grades
REVIEW:     As other reviews have noted (see Amazon's site and The Comlink), the storyline for this juvenile novel tracts along all six movies very closely.  It was evident from the editing that decisions were made about what to include with details and what to exclude.  It seems as though page count dictated the plot.  In many cases, I would like to have seen more details and space given to more of the action portions of the story.  For example, after Count Dooku is beheaded, we are told in just a few sentences that Anakin flew Palpatine, Obi-Wan Kenobi and R2-D2 back to Coruscant, because Anakin can fly anything.  There were too many instances of this throughout the book for it to be engaging and powerful.  I understand that this short novel had to span 6 book and over two decades of characters and events, and the pace had to meet characteristics of young readers.  Too much was abridged, though.

The best parts of the book, however, were those small shards that gave us insight into Anakin's broken psyche.  In a number of instances, we learned about Vader's motivations and his feelings that he attempted to ignore.  We were also treated to some references to stories that took place outside of the six novels, bringing in some of the expanded Star Wars universe beyond the Lucas vision.  These jewels, I thought, were the book's greatest strength.  We saw some connections between what happened after Empire and before Jedi.  We saw allusions to Vader's first inclinations of Luke and Leia.  We heard of Vader's retreat.  These extended the story we all could recite.  These make the book worth reading.  But there were too few of these to make it worth buying.

The Comlink makes the suggestion for taking this novel and rewriting for adults.  I would second that.  This is the atypical direction, though.  Most novels get the juvenile adaptation.  We'd like to see the mature adaptation and don't disappoint us.

 
 

AUTHOR:   Brian Selznick
AGES:         4th grade - 8th grade
REVIEW:  Selznick really brings together different forms of storytelling, including graphic novels, picture books and novels together in this work.  For a synopsis of the plot, check out It's All About the Book's entry.  What I really like most is how the author uses the artwork to advance the plot action, which really is the magic of picture books and authors like David Wiesner and Graeme Base.  Selznick nails the combination, though.  The drawings are all pencil, black-and-white, and the whole layout and typography of the text has been executed well.  The book feels like a work of art.

He also does a great job of weaving historical facts and artifacts into the fictional storyline.  Photos and still frames from films have been integrated seamlessly into the story and illustrations.  It's All About the Book's entry questions whether an author has ever been nominated for a Caldecott and a Newberry award in the same year and should 2007 be the year.  I agree.  This book really deserves distinguished recognition for making us rethink these award categories and how text and pictures can be united.