Outrageously Alice - 48 Hour Book Challenge

So, if you've read my blog for long, you'll know that I am a big fan of the Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.  It had taken me a long time to get to Outrageously Alice and I had been looking forward to reading it.  This is another book that I will blog about sooner or later, so I won't spend too much time talking about it now.

But here are the things that stood out for me in this reading.  Alice lives with her father and her older brother.  There is such a remarkable relationship between the three of them - one that is so rare and fun.  They are good to each other, and both her father and her brother have roles in raising Alice.  Alice is curious, and there are lots of questions that she asks each of them (or both of them together!).
Also, in this book in the series, Alice is struggling with who she will be, both now and as a grown-up.  She wants to be "not boring", which can sometimes cross the line into outrageous.  She's also learning how to interact with boys, which is interesting too.  As always with these books, there is lots to think and write about.  I am looking forward to writing about this one on the blog too!!

Current Reading Time: 10.5 hours reading + 1 hour blogging - 11.5 hours total!!
Books Finished: 5

Outrageously Alice.  Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.  Simon and Schuster, 1997.

Now off to keep reading and I have a blog post to write for today!

GIrl Genius: Agatha Heterodyne and the Beetleburg Clank - 48 Hour Book Challenge

There's nothing better than a graphic novel to clear your palate after a longer book. This one only took me a half-hour to read, and I thought it would help get me going so that I could finish writing a blog post next.  Then it will be off to the library for a quick stop to return overdue books and pick up some holds before I'm back to reading.

I wish I could remember where I heard about Girl Genius, but I suspect it was a blog posting somewhere, and I think it was about girls reading graphic novels.  Regardless, I didn't remember hearing about this series before, although it has definitely been around for awhile (almost 15 years).  It sounded interesting enough that I bought a copy of my own, since our library didn't have it. 


This first title in the series (which is collected from the previously published comic books) doesn't have much exposition before you dive right in to the action.  And there is a lot of action, forcing me to just sort of keep up with what was going on.  Agatha Clay works in a shop at Transylvania Polygnostic University.  She is on her way there to work when there is an odd electrical anomaly and then she is mugged by a couple of soldiers.  A locket is stolen from her - one that her uncle told her she always needed to keep on.  When she arrives at work, things go from bad to worse when her boss is killed.  This all happens very, very quickly, so you don't get much of a sense of Agatha at all - except that she has spells when she gets upset, and that she loves working for the boss who was killed. 

When she gets home, she falls asleep after not feeling quite herself.  When she wakes up, there is an enormous clank coming in the door, along with one of the robbers who is returning her locket - it killed the other robber after they stole it.

Again, a lot of action going on all at the same time, but I do like steampunk, and I think this is going to be an intriguing series.  I know it's a little late to be catching up with this one, but I also bet in a couple of years Frances and Gloria will read and enjoy it too.  I'll keep reading in this series.

Current Reading Time: 3 1/2 hours
Books Finished: 2

Girl Genius (Book One): Agatha Heterodyne and the Beetleburg Clank. Phil and Kaja Foglio.  Airship Entertainment, 2006.

from my personal collection

Smoke

Another book completed last night in the 48 Hour Book Challenge!  Yay!  I read four hours Friday night, and another five and a half hours last night, which brings me up to 9 1/2 hours total.  I am going to try to finish reading this morning so I can get some other stuff done.  Besides which I have gotten some stuff read out of my TBR pile, which is always exciting!  I was sent Smoke by Simon & Schuster around Banned Books Week.  I of course had to read Burned first, so I could find out how the story began.  I liked Smoke a lot - it covers a lot of territory in a surprising way.  At the end of Burned, Pattyn Von Stratten was looking for revenge after the death of her true love and her unborn baby.  This book picks up just after that book ends, with the death of her father and Pattyn's escape.  Pattyn kills her father when she finds him beating her sister Jackie after Jackie is raped.  This sounds overwhelming, and it is.  Pattyn and Jackie deal with the murder in very different ways - while Pattyn leaves, Jackie must stay with the rest of her family and cope with the consequences.  Both girls heal and find love again, but it is the journey that is more interesting.  Pattyn's journey includes a migrant worker community and horses, Jackie's journey includes a confident, smart boy who has two moms.  This will speak to many high schoolers, just as the first one did.  I'll be doing a longer blog post on both books later on.

Flight of the Maidens

I don't usually review my grown-up reads on this blog, but since it's for the 48 Hour Book Challenge, I will.  I finished this book last night.  It was recommended in the May/June 2010 Horn Book by someone who has loved it, and it sounded interesting to me, so I thought I would give it a try.  It is about three young women, who are friends in England after WWII.  They are all on their way to college, and this book takes place in the summer before they leave Yorkshire.  Each of the girls - Una, Hetty and Liselotte - have a very different experience.  One finds love, one finds herself, and one solves the mystery of her family.  While they each have different experiences, there is a lot for them to learn about life outside their sheltered village.  I didn't love this book, but then I don't love books about World War II anyways.  There is a lot of pain in this book,and angst, and while I think Gardam handles it well, it just didn't connect with me very much.  It took me an abnormally long time to read (maybe it's been in my To Be Read pile for more than a year?) which definitely says something.

The Flight of the Maidens - Jane Gardam.  Penguin, 2000.

from my personal collection

Alice In-Between

So it's Mother's Day, for at least another hour here.  I'm finally posting a blog for the first time in more than a month.  Sorry for the long silence, but there have been some changes here, as well as some computer troubles that kept me from posting.  But I'm back!

And I am writing today about Alice, who actually lost her mother when she was very young. If you haven't read my other posts on this series, you can start here.  Alice begins this book at the end of her seventh grade year.  She has "the in-between blues" (p.86) as she tells her brother Lester.  Alice feels like she isn't young anymore, but she also isn't ready to become a grownup.  After all, she is only just turning thirteen.  And as those of us who have been thirteen year old girls can attest, quite often you don't know exactly what's going on.  You yearn for change, but when it comes, you aren't really ready for it and then want to go back to childhood.

This is exactly what happens to Alice.  She gets two glimpses of the adult world that giver her pause in this book.  The first comes after Alice's birthday.  For her birthday, she gets Lester to agree to take her out for a fancy (expensive) night on the town.  While Alice and Lester are out dancing, they run into Lester's sometime girlfriend, Crystal.  She has met a man at a club, and he has become aggressive with alcohol and won't leave her alone.  This man believes that Lester and Alice are husband and wife, and he willingly dances with Alice while Lester smuggles Crystal out of the club.  Alice marvels "I had only been a teenager for one week, and already I was being asked to help out in the romance department.  More than that, I might even be saving Crystal's life." (p. 24).  They make it out successfully, and the whole incident has a light-hearted tone.  None of them ever really feel in danger, and they all laugh about it.  After dropping Crystal off, though, Alice does ask Lester what she should do if it happens to her, and he tells her to call home immediately so he or their father can come get her.  But Alice is flattered by being seen as older by this man, and excited by the adventure of rescuing Crystal.

The next incident is even more threatening and scary.  Alice is invited to Chicago to visit her Aunt Sally's family with her two best friends, Pamela and Elizabeth.  As a side note, this friendship is another place where Alice feels in-between.  While Pamela loves to look more grown-up and to experiment with being adult, Elizabeth is prudish and young.  She doesn't want to talk about anything having to do with boys, marriage or sex.  Alice isn't quite ready to move full steam ahead like Pamela, is, but she isn't as slow to grow up as Elizabeth.
So off the girls go, via Amtrak from Washington DC to Chicago.  They are going to spend the night on the train, and Pamela ends up with her own tiny room.  A man sees her on the train, and asks her to eat dinner with him.  Pamela, not thinking of the consequences, agrees.  She tells him that she is getting ready to start college.  After dinner (with multiple drinks for the man), they go back to her room, but luckily Pamela is able to escape before anything really terrible happens to her (he does kiss and grope her).  The girls are lucky to have the conductor watching out for them, and he threatens the man to get him to leave the girls alone.  All three girls are very shaken by this incident, and during their time in Chicago, Alice notices that Pamela is reverting: "I swear she looked more like her sixth-grade picture than she did back in sixth grade." (p.115).  Not even Pamela is truly ready to become an adult.
As in most of the Alice books, Alice spends a lot of time thinking and wondering about her mother.  She misses her mother, and wonders how she would be different if her mother was alive.  And she sometimes feels a little lost with her father and brother: "One of the problems of growing up without a mother is that there's no one around who has any idea what it's like to be a girl." (p.2).  As Alice continues to negotiate her way through puberty, I can see this only becoming more important to her.

While looking for a poem to recite in a poetry unit at school, she finds a poem in a book belonging to her mother.  It's "Thanatopsis" by William Cullen Bryant, and a note in its margin tells Alice that it was one of her favorites.  Alice begins to work on memorizing the poem, and in turn, this connects her to her father's grief.  He helps Alice practice, and tells her how this poem helped sustain both Alice's mother and him while she was dying.  On the day Alice recites the poem in class, she begins crying as she speaks, thinking of her mother's life and love.  Later than night, she tells her brother and father about what happened.  Lester tells about a letter their mother had written him before she died, and how he thought he had lost it at school afterwards.  He tells how hard he had cried.  "Dad reached over and put a hand on Lester's shoulder, then stretched out his other hand to me...for a moment we just sat there, all holding hands.  Then Dad gave us a quick squeeze, and we went back to eating supper." (p. 85).  It's a poignant moment of enduring grief, but also enduring family strength.

Alice is negotiating the difficulties of being a teenager fairly well.  At the end of this book, Alice seems to be back together with Patrick, her on-again, off-again boyfriend.  And she is coming into her own.  There will always be bumps in the road, but Alice's Aunt Sally sums it up best when she says "'Marie's little girl, almost grown.'...'She would have been so pleased.'" (p. 120)

Alice In-Between.  Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.  Atheneum, 1994.
Borrowed from Lewis & Clark library

Alice in April

I've been reading my way through the Alice series for about 18 months now.  They aren't the only thing I'm reading, as you can tell from my other entries.  But every time I pick up a book from this series, I gulp them down in a very short amount of time.  As I read, I fold down the corners of pages I want to go back to.  When I'm done reading, there are usually many dog-eared pages throughout.  There are so many ideas about growing up that really resonate with me, both remembering life as a young teenager and looking at Alice as an adult.  That's why I'm always so pleased to share these with you - if just one teen reads this series because of my writing, I'll feel like I did my part!


Alice in April begins right before Alice turns 13.  One of the most dated plot points in this novel (this was published almost 20 years ago, in 1993) involves Alice's Aunt Sally.  Since Alice's mother died before Alice was even in Kindergarten, Aunt Sally is the closest thing Alice has to a mother.  Sally advises Alice that as she turns 13, she will need to become the Woman of the House (capital letters intended), to support her older brother and father.  Sally reminds Alice that Alice's mother was a homemaker.  When Alice questions what a homemaker is, Sally "said a homemaker just makes a better home." (p.29).  She also gives Alice a laundry list of tasks she needs to begin, including all of the mending.  Eventually Alice's father discovers Alice's worries about being the Woman of the House, and reassures her that he does all the mending, and that no one needs to start spring cleaning just yet.

It is difficult for Alice to remember her mother, so she relies on other people's stories and memories of her.  Often in the past Alice has told her father she remembers something about her mother, and it turns out she's really confusing her mother with her Aunt Sally, who helped care for Alice after her mother died.  This is always painful for her father, and of course it's painful for Alice, too.  She is constantly reminded that she is the one person who has no idea what her mother was like.  That sort of mistaken memory is mentioned in every book - sometimes matter of factly, sometimes sadly.  As readers, we have grown accustomed to this, and accept that Alice will not ever remember anything about her mother.  So in Alice in April it is such a surprise, and such a gift, when Alice does finally remember something involving her mother.  "The more I thought about that scene, the clearer it became.  Yes, it was definitely my mother, and I remembered hugging her legs as we sat on those steps...." (p. 51).  In the memory, a young Alice tells her mother that she will never marry, and stay with her mother forever.  Her mother replies that Alice will find someone kind to love her.  It's a little bit of throwaway wisdom that I'm sure Alice's mother never thought would become a treasured memory.

Alice has thought and talked about her mother's death in all of the books so far.  This series is realistic in depicting Alice's grief.  While her family moves on with their lives, they all feel their mother's absence.  But in all of the previous novels, Alice has looked at her mother's death from her own sense of loss and perspective.  In this story, Alice goes to get a physical, and has a shocking moment of recognition: "It was weird, but I suddenly thought about Mom just then - wondering if she'd been sitting in a doctor's office in a paper robe like this the day she found out she had leukemia." (p. 41).  Alice is growing up, and this is just one way Naylor demonstrates that.  It is only for a split second (just seven lines of text) that Alice puts herself in her mother's place.  But it is poignant and heartbreaking and all too real.  You really see her mother, sitting on the table.  She has always been a shadowy character, since we can only know what Alice knows, but here she comes into sharp, tearful focus.

This isn't the only heartbreaking loss in Alice in April.  Alice spends some time with Denise, who we originally met in Reluctantly Alice, two books ago.  Denise began as a bully, but eventually she and Alice have become tentative friends.  Alice knows that Denise's life at home isn't good.  Denise shows up unannounced at Alice's house one night, and stays the night because she doesn't want to go home.  When Alice's father can't reach Denise's family, he notifies the police that Denise is safe with them, but no one ever comes looking for Denise.  Alice can tell Denise is hit on a regular basis, but doesn't question it.  Denise shrugs it off, and seems to accept it.  She tells Alice that her mother "won't change.  That's the problem - no matter what I do, I can't win. (p.69).  Alice shows empathy and compassion for Denise, and supports her as best as she can.  But sadly, it isn't enough.  Readers will be as shocked as Alice is to find out that Denise has committed suicide.  I felt the impact of this act as I read - I hadn't seen it coming, as bad as Denise's life was.  The school is told about Denise's death in an assembly, but Alice is in total shock.  "He went on talking, but I didn't hear.  I found myself crawling down through the seats in the bleachers, pushing aside people's feet to make room." (p. 155).  For many students today, this is unfortunately something they've heard about either locally or on the news, but to see Alice experience it is still emotional and visceral.  It leaves readers shaken.

Denise's death happens at the end of the book, and Alice definitely isn't okay by the final scene.  She is contemplative, wondering what she could have done differently.  In the end, she realizes "...all we can do is be the best friends to each other that we can and hope it's enough." (p.159).  Growing up is never easy, and Naylor's willingness to share this struggle is just one of the things I love about this series.

Alice in April.  Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.  Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1993.

borrowed from Lewis & Clark library

All About Alice

As you already know, I've been reading the Alice series for the past year or so.  I really believed that I had read a good portion of the series previously, and that many of these would be re-reads.  So far I've read seven books for this goal, and I hadn't read any of those before!  Here's the latest one in the series - new to me (and to you!) - All But Alice.

Alice's mother died seven years ago, when Alice was only five years old.  She doesn't remember much about her mother, and in fact she often gets memories of her mother and her Aunt Sally confused.  But even though she didn't really get to know her mother, her mother's death still affects her life every day.  This year (seventh grade is just starting at the beginning of the novel) Alice feels the loss of her mother very strongly.  She has felt for the past couple of books that the embarassing mistakes that she makes are mostly due to not having a mother or another strong female presence in her life.  But she does realize that there are lots of women, young and old, around her.  So to take advantage of all their wisdom and experience, Alice decides to join the Worldwide Sisterhood.

That sounds comforting and empowering, doesn't it?  Alice thinks she'll be safest following the sisterhood's lead.  But really the Universal Sisterhood isn't everything it seems.  For instance, Alice believes that sisters should put each other first.  So how can she balance the three women who are all in love with Alice's older brother Lester?  She knows Marilyn and Crystal, the two girlfriends Lester has alternated between, the best.  Alice likes them both for different reasons.  Then there's Loretta, who works at the music store Alice's dad manages.  Loretta seems older and more worldly than the other two, and Alice thinks that has its advantages, too.  "I felt as though I'd been admitted to the Secret Society of Sisters or something.  Whatever Loretta knew about life, she'd share with me, I was sure." (p. 25)  Who's a girl to support?

One of the other problems that Alice is trying to solve is the problem of popularity.  When several other girls in the seventh grade, including her best friend Pamela, decide to get their ears pierced, Alice wants hers done too.  After all, one of the best things about the sisterhood to Alice is solidarity.  This means, Alice believes, doing everything the same, looking the same, to show how strong they are together.  The girls become popular together, including spending most of their free time together, trying to decide what they will wear and how to coordinate their clothes with their new earrings.  But in becoming popular, Alice excludes one of her long-time best friends, Elizabeth.  Elizabeth has decided not to pierce her ears, and doesn't become popular.  At first, Alice doesn't even notice.  She is too busy feeling loved and comforted by her young sisterhood.  Alice needs help getting her first pair of earrings in, and her group is there to help her.  "After that, I felt terrific just thinking about the way the girls had fussed over me there in the restroom, the way they'd helped and encouraged me.  I'd been surrounded with Sisters..." (p.49)

So what does being a Sister really mean?  Alice has to come to terms with the fact that being in the sisterhood doesn't mean being a pod person.  This means valuing herself and her friendships, both with boys and girls.  Alice is an original, and that's what great about her character.  She's not perfect, and her mistakes in life are just as genuine as her desire to do the right thing for her sisterhood.  Alice is scattered, but excited about life and what's ahead for her.  At the beginning of the book, she muses "Only a day or so ago, I'd been thinking bulletin boards and now I was thinking pierced ears.  What would I be thinking about the day after tomorrow?  Being twelve, almost thirteen, meant all kinds of wonderful surprises..." (p. 16).  Alice keeps us guessing.  What will happen next to Alice?  We'll have to keep reading in this series to find out!

All But Alice.  Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.  Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1992, 2011.

my own copy

Reluctantly Alice

How much do I love Alice McKinley?  Let me count the ways…one, two, three,  four.  And now here’s a fifth way.

In Reluctantly Alice, Alice McKinley is starting seventh grade.  She and her friends have moved on to junior high, and I’m sure we have all felt the same way Alice feels.  “Junior high sure has a way of mixing you up, tossing kids around like a giant blender.” (p. 92).  Just before the summer began, Alice and her group of friends were at the top of their elementary school.  Everything they did was cool and clever to the younger kids in the school.  Now suddenly they are at the bottom of the barrel, watching the older kids to see what they do (9^th grade boys perform a Boxer Check in front of Alice and her astonished girl friends).  At the same time, these seventh graders are desperately trying not to be noticed by older kids.  They aren’t sure what to do, and they feel a little overwhelmed and lost.

Alice has decided to concentrate on having everyone like her this year.  She wants to be the kind of girl that causes everyone to smile when they think of her, and if anyone can do it, you get the feeling Alice can.  She rarely has something mean to say, she’s fun and daring, smart and funny.  Alice is honest and even her mishaps seem endearing.  But almost as soon as the school year begins, Alice has an enemy.  An 8^th grader in some of her classes, Denise, starts to dislike Alice and begins to taunt and bully Alice.  Like many bullies, Denise finds what she believes is Alice’s weakness (her mother’s death) and brings it up every chance she gets. This escalates into a serious bullying situation.  Denise and her group of friends throw food, trip Alice, laugh at her…it goes on and on.  And although this book was written before most of the focus on bullying in children’s literature, the solution Alice finds still rings true.  She comes up with this idea on her own, one that works for her without confronting Denise in a mean way (although she certainly thinks about it), but also extends kindness to Denise.  I don’t think her solution will work for everyone, but it fits Alice perfectly.  I also think it will help young teens realize that there may be a solution to their bullying problem that fits them.  Alice never tells a teacher about the bullying, but she does talk to her father and brother about it.  They give her suggestions, and Alice’s brother Lester does show up once at the school to help Alice, but they all seem to recognize that the answer has to come from Alice.

As in most of these books, Alice, Pamela and Elizabeth (her two best friends) continue to question love, romance and their changing bodies.  When Elizabeth has a pressing question that Alice tries to answer, Alice’s father steps in.  Alice has a strong, honest relationship with her father and brother.  They answer her questions with as much information as they think she can handle, and they know what to do if they don’t have answers to her questions.  Thus is set up one of my favorite scenes in this series so far.  Alice’s father takes Alice to the library, and allows her to research the answer to Elizabeth’s question herself.  When Alice is in the library stacks, “A librarian came by to get a book from the shelf, and she couldn’t help but see what I was looking at; she didn’t even blink.  Like it was okay to be curious.” (p. 90)  These are librarians at their most professional – they treat Alice respectfully and as an adult.  I love seeing librarians in such a positive light.  I love middle schoolers and teens getting to see that libraries can help answer questions in a non-judgmental way.  What a terrific scene!

There are many, many other things going on in this novel, some of which are carried over from other books in the series, some of which develop in this novel.  While it is definitely part of the whole series, you can pick up any Alice book and read it as a stand-alone novel.  However I would bet that no matter where you started in the series, you would want to read the whole set!!  I can’t say enough how much I do love Alice and the world Naylor creates in this series.  For the first time, in her biography at the end of the book, Naylor writes that she plans to keep writing the Alice series until Alice turns eighteen.  I’m so grateful – I can’t wait to see how Alice turns out!!

Reluctantly Alice.  Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.  Aladdin, 2000, ©1991.

Borrowed from the Lewis & Clark library

Jeremy Bender vs. the Cupcake Cadets

I think it’s natural that when I read middle-grade and teen fiction, I prefer to read books with girl main characters.  After all, as librarians know very well, we tend to be drawn to books that look as if the main character is their particular gender.  Boys will choose books with boys on the cover, and girls are attracted to prominently featured girls.  This is why I think even the title Jeremy Bender vs. the Cupcake Cadets is so genius.  Just with six words, Eric Luper has indicated that this book will satisfy both boys and girls.  And when readers look at the cover, they see both Jeremy and the Cupcake Cadets prominently featured, along with a neutral blue background.  Everyone on the cover has their arms crossed, showing their readiness to fight.

First – Jeremy Bender.  He’s an average 6^th grader with a couple of big problems.  First, there’s his problem at school.  The problem’s name is Paul Vogler, and he is a bully who picks on Jeremy and his best friend, a skateboarder named Slater.  His second problem is much larger.  Jeremy believes that he can show his father how responsible he is by meticulously caring for his father’s prized Chris-Craft boat.  But when he and Slater bring sodas on board the boat…let’s just say there is one very sticky mess.  He needs $450 to fix the engine before his dad tries to take the boat out next summer.  But Jeremy doesn’t even have 450 pennies to his name.

This is where the Cupcake Cadets come in.  The Cupcake Cadets sponsor a model sailboat contest with a $500 prize.  The only catch?  You must be a Cupcake Cadet – and a girl – to enter and win.  Jeremy and Slater plunge right in, dressing as girls to infiltrate the Cupcake Cadet troop.  While the Cupcake Cadets seem sweet and innocent, they are not always that naïve.  The Cupcake Cadets’ song says it all “I’ll use teamwork and cooperation, and innovative thinking.  I’ll use caring and sharing, and a bit of vanilla frosting.”  While the Cupcake Cadet troop fosters all of those traditional girl qualities – caring, sharing, cooperation- it also looks for innovation.  The troop rewards creativity and intelligence.  While they may not recognize Jeremy and Slater for the boys they really are (and many of the girls either go to school with them or have met them before), they reward the boys for working hard and teamwork.

And while Jeremy and Slater aren’t technically allowed to be Cupcake Cadets, they actually fulfill the tenets of the troop.  One of the biggest examples of this is a car wash the boys hold to sell their cupcakes.  The cupcakes are the Cadet equivalent of Girl Scout cookies, only much less tasty.  The boys have a lot to sell, having been manipulated into taking another Cadet’s portion along with theirs.  The boys are having a terrible time getting rid of them, until they hold a car wash, “giving” the customer a free cupcake with each wash.  They eventually get their whole troop involved in the car wash.  Slater is a good example of cooperation, caring and sharing.  After all, while he helped make the mess that landed them in the Cupcake Cadets, dressing as and impersonating a girl goes above and beyond the call of friendship.  By the time the sailboat competition comes around, the boys are far more invested in the troop than they expected.

What I love about the girls in the Cupcake Cadets is that they are smart, competitive and tough.  The Cadet who Jeremy and Slater spend the most time with is Margaret.  Margaret has won the sailboat competition for years running, and has taken an aerodynamics class this year in order to create the best sailboat.  Not only is she competitive and smart, she is ambitious as well.  Margaret is the Cadet who gets Jeremy and Slater (they are known as Jenna and Samantha within the troop) to sell all of her cupcakes along with their own.  There is a rival Cupcake Cadet troop, whose leader is out to get their troop’s leader, Mrs. Rendell.  And Jeremy’s older sister, Ruthie, an ex-Cupcake Cadet (where else would the boys get the uniforms and wigs?) is savvy and sharp.  She spends most of the novel on the phone, dispensing advice to Jeremy while cultivating gossip from everyone in her class.  Trust me, these girls are more spice than sugar, just the way we like our main characters.

Jeremy  and Slater’s predicament is laugh-out-loud funny.  It is also suspenseful.  We keep reading to find out when someone is actually going to look past their uniforms and wigs to see them for what they really are.  Among the other memorable characters is a very cool children’s librarian who is always complaining about the other librarians who don’t like children.  Librarians always appreciate seeing a great librarian character in the novel they are reading!

By the end of the book, there are resolutions to both of Jeremy’s problems, but they may not be the solutions you expect.  While the bullying issue is handled with a light hand, the boys are genuinely leery of Paul, and I believe readers will be able to empathize with their problem.  I appreciate that the solution to the bullying doesn’t include bribery, hiding out or adult involvement.  Luper gives readers another solution to dealing with bullies, and this one will resonate with kids.  All in all, this is a satisfying read for both boys and girls.  It has something to appeal to everyone!

Jeremy Bender vs. the Cupcake Cadets.  Eric Luper.  Balzer & Bray: HarperCollins, 2011.

FTC Full Disclosure: I was given this book by the publisher, hoping I would review it.

Fancy Nancy: Splendid Speller

When I was “just” a children’s librarian, I will freely admit that Fancy Nancy was a little too…fancy for me.  I’d show families where they were on the shelf, buy the latest copies for the library, but I’d leave the reading to them.  Now Frances is four years old, and we’ve read our share of Fancy Nancy titles – she loves the glitz and glamor of Nancy’s outfits, and I do admire her sophisticated vocabulary.  So when I got a box of books from HarperCollins to review, there was excited shrieking when Fancy Nancy: Splendid Speller emerged.  Both Frances and Gloria looked at it several  times then, and afterwards I hid it away to review it later. 

When the girls and I went on vacation a few weeks ago, I stashed Splendid Speller in Frances’ carry-on backpack so we could read it on the plane.  Due to missed connections, we ended up spending 8 hours in the Seattle airport, and boy, was I grateful to have Fancy Nancy in tow!! She stood up to repeated readings that day and has been in rotation ever since.

In this title in the series, Nancy is faced with her first spelling test.  She’s sure it will be a breeze because she is such a splendid speller.  Nancy studies all week, but during the test her confidence wavers on a word.  She looks at her friend Bree’s test paper for confirmation, and then realizes that she might have done something wrong.  This moral dilemma (to confess to the teacher or not) colors the rest of the story, but don’t worry, Nancy solves her dilemma in typical fancy style.

First things first – this book is a level one reader, which HarperCollins defines as beginning reading.  The back cover adds that level one books include “simple sentences for eager new readers”.  Because of Nancy’s impressive vocabulary, I would suspect that the first time through, a beginning reader would need some help reading words like splendid, memorize, bravo and impressed.  However, one of the things I like best about Fancy Nancy is that O’Connor does a terrific job of allowing Nancy to define new words in the context of the story.  Sometimes she’ll explain the word’s meaning in parentheses “(Splendid is even better than great.)”.  When she spells the word chien, not only does she give a meaning, but also gives the pronunciation to help out.  Again, I think the pronunciation would need an adult reader’s guidance the first time through before the reader has confidence to tackle it themselves.

This book is firmly rooted in first grade, and I imagine it would be very comforting for a first grader to read.  While Nancy has confidence in her spelling ability, when the spelling list is announced, there are children in the class who look anxious and worried.  Not everyone in the class thinks spelling is easy, but for children for whom spelling is a problem, the book shows Nancy using study skills to memorize the words.  She draws pictures that are labeled with the spelling word and practices the words aloud.  Nancy doesn’t just rest on her belief that she is a great speller, but takes the test seriously.  Their teacher is kind, concerned and sparkly – someone who readers will gravitate towards.  They will feel Nancy’s anxiety when she realizes she may have cheated by looking at Bree’s work.  They’ll also be relieved by Ms. Glass’ discreet, comforting handling of the situation.  Nancy isn’t “in trouble” and has the confidence to make it right.  She has to decide if it is better to have her splendid reputation intact or to be honest about her shortcomings.

The illustrations are as girl-centered as ever, and I mean that in a good way.  The pictures are packed full of curlicues and flourishes and all the things little girls hold dear.  Nancy and Bree’s hair are packed full of baubles and barrettes, and their clothes are just as fabulous as ever.  And the rest of Nancy’s family is reassuringly plain and restful to my adult eyes.  I appreciate that Nancy isn’t depicted as wearing all pink or all dresses – that other colors and styles can be equally fancy.  And Ms. Glass is in turns accessible and stylish – just the sort of teacher we’d envision for that Fancy Nancy.

All in all, I think this book is well-created for the young elementary school reader.  The ethics of cheating are handled naturally without being too didactic but still staying true to the character.  There is a glossary of Fancy Nancy’s Fancy Words to help the unfamiliar words stay fresh in children’s minds.  Fun and thoughtful, too.

Fancy Nancy: Splendid Speller.  Jane O’Connor; cover illustration by Robin Preiss Glasser; interior illustrations by Ted Enik.  Harper: HarperCollins Publishers, 2011.

FTC Full Disclosure – The publisher sent me a copy, hoping I would review the book.

The Agony of Alice

As you've seen here and here, I'm reading the Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.  I had read a few books in the series and loved them, and I'd always intended to read them all.  The Agony of Alice was the first book in the series, written in 1985.

It takes place after Alice, her father and older brother have moved to Silver Spring.  Alice will be beginning sixth grade in a new school - a daunting task for anyone.  Alice is no exception - she is looking at herself and feeling very self-conscious.  She is embarrassed by some of the situations she finds herself in - like when she asked a neighbor to play Tarzan and Jane with her so she could kiss him, and then changed her mind at the last minute.  Naylor is very tuned in to Alice's tween personality and fluctuating emotions, and I think any girl of this age will relate to Alice.  Even as an adult, I can remember feeling self-conscious, awkward and unsure of myself at Alice's age.

However what makes Alice different than most girls is the absence of her mother.  While Alice's mom died seven years ago, when Alice was four, but that doesn't mean that Alice misses her any less at this point in her life.  In fact, Alice is sure that a mother would have helped steer her away from the embarrassing situations Alice seems to find herself in.  Her mother's death is part of what makes up Alice's personality.  I love that Lester (who is older, and thus remembers their mother more clearly) shares his memories with Alice, who remembers very little of her.  The family spends a lot of time bringing their mother to life - a healthy way to grieve but also honor her.

As these books go on, it is evident that Alice's father is slightly out of depth with Alice.  Alice gets her period in this novel, and luckily it happens at her aunt's house.  When she gets home, her dad mentions it awkwardly, and Alice knows that however she feels about it, she wants to make her father comfortable.  She reassures him matter of factly that everything's okay, and he is visibly relieved.

Alice finds herself grasping for guidance that she might have gotten from her mother.  She is disappointed when she arrives at her new school to find she's been assigned to Mrs. Plotkin's room.  She instantly dislikes Mrs. Plotkin, based on her name and shape.   Alice wants nothing more than to be in the beautiful, young teacher's classroom, but as the year progresses, Mrs. Plotkin turns out to be the teacher Alice needs and much more.  The name Mrs. Plotkin is so evocative, but her true personality is revealed and she is wonderful.  Naylor provides a gentle lesson for readers, but in a warm way.

Many of the recurring characters in this series are already onstage in this novel - Alice's father has memorable female employees vying for his attention; Lester has two girlfriends who he will go back and forth between throughout the series.  Alice is observing what it is like to be a woman in all these situations, and it is a diverse group that influences her.  Alice has already met the girls who will be her best friends, Pamela and Elizabeth.  And then there's Patrick, Alice's "boyfriend" - "On the way to school the next morning, Patrick threw another candy bar toward me, a Three Musketeers.  This time I was so nervous I dropped it,...and after that , I guess we were going together." (p. 94)  So sixth grade!!

This book introduces new feelings and ideas to tween girls, but it is done in such a friendly, comforting way.  Yet another terrific book about growing up by Naylor.

The Agony of Alice.  Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.  Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1985.
borrowed from Lewis & Clark Library