John Trenchard, a 15-year-old, becomes involved with a gang of smugglers, flees with their leader and finds a valuable diamond. Attempting to retrieve this diamond from a jeweller who has duped them, they are arrested and spend 10 years in hard labour. They finally return to Moonfleet by way of a shipwreck.
Set in the 18th century, this is a tale in the mould of Stevenson or Scott: Trenchard, the 1st person protagonist, grows up suddenly while overcoming dangers, helped by the bottomless charity of his friend and protector Elziver who finally gives his life to save John from the shipwreck. You have to stomach a certain amount of anti-Catholic sentiment, but one assumes that the author was simply reflecting the attitudes of people of the time, and had no malice.
Tim Golden is a computer programmer living in London. He is also the editor of the Good-to-Read website.
Below are some of the Caldecott winners for this year. All are worthwhile reads, though I must say A Ball for Daisy was my favorite.
A Ball For Daisy (Caldecott Award), by Chris Raschka: A delightful book of drawings that begs the reader to tell its story. Pre-schoolers will want to explain what happens to Daisy and her toy. The sequence of images provides material for discussion about cause and effect; the expressions on Daisy's face help youngsters learn to identify emotions in others.
Blackout (Caldecott Honor Book), by John Rocco: It can be frightening when the electricity goes out, but it can also be an adventure. In Rocco's book, a little girl and her family discover ways to have fun when they cannot use technology and must create games to play by candlelight or under the stars.
Grandpa Green (Caldecott Honor Book), by Lane Smith: A nice remembrance of a great-grandfather's life. Illustrations emphasize Grandpa Green's love for gardening and eccentric…
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I just love this gorgeous family. Birdsall has given each of the Penderwick sisters a unique and loveable personality, and a story that has the perfect combination of innocent and old fashioned charm and an endearing friendliness that makes you feel right at home.
I love how much the siblings love each other, a realistic and healthy sisterly love that accommodates (sometimes gigantic) differences and works to forgive mistakes and accept the others as they are. And I love how they take their responsibilities so seriously, one of their refreshingly old-fashioned characteristics.
I love each character's unique personality, they exude more life than many people I know. And there are so many natural acts of generosity that make the story beautiful in little ways, like when several of the girls are making wishes around a bonfire and Skye doesn't know what to wish for, so she just wishes that all of the others' wishes come true. There are…
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Walker has always been embarrassed about the star shaped birthmark on his face, so much so that he avoids other kids at school. To make matters worse, his mother seems overly concerned with the fact that he has no friends. Thus, when Eddie shows up, literally out of nowhere, and demonstrates great respect for Walker because of the star, Walker is suspicious. Eddie claims to be from an underground world, where a star shaped birthmark is a sign of the Chosen One. Curious about Eddie's claims, Walker follows him to Nebula, a kingdom where the forces of light (the Lightkeepers) and darkness (The Black Shroud) are struggling to gain control. There Walker learns that his star is indeed a mark of honor, but also of great responsibility.
Younger readers will enjoy Walker's adventures beneath the surface of the earth. Although reluctant to become entangled in the underworld's conflict, Walker's sense of duty compels him to do what he can to…
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Sir James Monmouth returns from 35 years abroad to England, the land of his birth, which he left when he was five. He starts to research the life of Conrad Vane, an explorer whom he had admired and emulated, but finds himself haunted by strange phenomena, in particular the ghost of a small boy. Moreover, those people whom he approaches seem intent on dissuading him from his research. He learns of a surviving relative and goes to visit her at his ancestral home, realising finally the connections between all that has happened to him.
As a ghost story, it lacks a certain something: the tension is never quite there and the aspects of mystery and family secrets are not really gripping, nor, at the denouement, explained particularly well. However, it remains an enjoyable and readable book, if only as the story of a man who has spent most of his life in the east and who returns to his native…
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First Farm in the Valley: Anna's Story by Anne Pellowski written for ages 7-10 | recommended published in 2008 (1982) | Bethlehem Books | 183 pages
Although six-year-old Anna was born in Wisconsin, she longs to visit Poland where her immigrant parents used to live. She and her seven siblings speak the Polish language, eat Polish foods and maintain Polish customs. They also participate in the chores of the farm her father established before any other families arrived in their valley. The work is hard, but lightened by the help and affection of neighbors. The families throughout the Latsch Valley support each other through harsh weather, fires, diphtheria outbreaks and the birth of new babies. It is, however, their deep faith that sustains them as they face the challenges of the mid-nineteenth century. Anne Pellowski incorporates many stories from her own family's experience in this sweet book about Polish immigrants in the Mid-west.
Jennifer Minicus is a mother and teacher living in Ridgewood, NJ.
This started well and then got better! After just finishing Finally it took me a while to accommodate myself to a few new characters and an altogether new storyline, but overall I really like that each book in this series focuses on a different character. Personalities from previous books are still around - and are impressively consistent with their former appearances - and it's interesting to see them from another perspective.
Each of the tween/teen characters is quite different, but all of them are going through that arduous journey of growing up.
Tara is the star of this story, and the first half of the book helps us to get to know her. She likes to 'live on the sidelines', lacking the confidence and motivation to be part of the main game. She doesn't have many friends, partly because her parents need to move house every other year. The relationship between Tara and her parents (especially her mother)…
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Four youngsters are sent into wartime Norway to destroy a Nazi heavy water plant, preventing the Germans from developing nuclear weaponry. Parachuted into a desolate and remote part of Norway in midwinter they have to survive with little shelter in blizzard conditions before entering the plant, detonating explosives, and escaping to Sweden 400km away.
The author, a British journalist, has clearly done her homework. She acknowledges assistance from all manner of people for helping her to set the Scandinavian scene. There are references to SOE training and survival techniques, Norwegian and Swedish geography and culture, ways to track the fauna of the Scandinavian forests by their tracks in the snow, and the setup of shelter huts in the high Norwegian mountains. Plus explanations of Heavy Water, the dangers of frostbite, and the nature of collaborators in wartime Norway. Wherever else the book fails, it doesn't fail in its educational value. It even has pull-out facsimiles of the training guides the…
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A thought experiment about marriage
24 May 2012
A world in which sexual intimacy could not produce children would never have come up with the idea of marriage.
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