Serafina's Promise (2013)

Serafina's Promise. Ann E. Burg. 2013. Scholastic. 304 pages. [Source: Review copy]

I loved, loved, loved Ann E. Burg's verse novel, All the Broken Pieces. I was equally impressed with her newest verse novel: Serafina's Promise. This novel wowed me. I enjoy verse novels, but they don't always work for me as verse. Often, I feel, they might as well be written in prose. But that is not the case in Serafina's Promise. There were so many beautiful sentences, so many poetic, just-right sentences. The story itself is so compelling. But the way it is told, well, it's beautiful and incredible. I would love to see this book win something!

Serafina's Promise is set in Haiti. Serafina, our heroine, is a young girl who works hard alongside her family. She does not have any brothers or sisters to help her with the chores that have to be done. She doesn't have time to play with some of the other children, but, Serafina doesn't whine or complain. She dreams. She holds onto the hope that one day she WILL be a doctor. One way or another, she will make a difference in the lives of those around her. She will be able to fight against hunger and poverty and disease. She will save lives. Serafina longs to go to school. Her family cannot afford school or uniforms. But Serafina is determined and diligent. She will work even harder, do even more, to help her family save money--coins in a jar--so that her dream will come true.

I loved this one so much. It is one of those books I just want to tell everyone: READ THIS BOOK!!! I loved Serafina. I loved her family. I loved her grandmother, her mother, her father. I loved seeing the family scenes. Loved seeing Serafina with her new baby brother. This was a story to be felt and experienced. I cared so much about all the characters. (Serafina has a best friend, Julie Marie). It is a compelling, beautiful story--rich in detail. It is one of my favorites of the year.

Quotes:

When Papa talks,
the anger in Manman's eyes
softens
like stingers soaked in honey (27)

I wonder what hunger is like
without a family
to fill the emptiness. (43)

A child who doesn't sleep at night
is a crocodile in the morning! (52)

Manman's worries
are like the mosquitoes
at the ravine, so many
you could never count them
or get rid of them all. (81)

© 2013 SukaYuka.com of SukaYuka's Book Reviews

The Boy on the Porch (2013)

The Boy on the Porch. Sharon Creech. 2013. HarperCollins. 160 pages. [Source: Review Copy]

I really loved Sharon Creech's The Boy On The Porch. I loved it for many reasons, but, I'm not sure I can put into words just why. I loved how this childless couple, this out-of-the-way couple, this on-the-outskirts couple were transformed by the presence of a young, quiet boy in their lives. Marta and John were surprised--pleasantly surprised--when a young sleeping boy appears on their front porch with a note. The note reveals his name, Jacob, but, little else. Whoever left him may come back for him, but, there are no guarantees, no answers. The presence of the boy changes things, perhaps, they don't want to admit HOW much from day one. But their love for him, and their amazement and joy they find in watching him, caring for him, nurturing him, changes them deep down as well. Yes, some changes are surface: John going into town more often, trading more often, buying LOTS of jelly beans. But other things are quieter and subtler, I believe. One thing about the novel is the big question that no one really wants to dwell on: will the boy stay forever, is he theirs to keep and love forever and ever, or, will they have to let him go at some point. But the "ending" is really only the beginning. I absolutely loved some of the imagery.

© 2013 SukaYuka.com of SukaYuka's Book Reviews

The Year of Billy Miller (2013)

The Year of Billy Miller. Kevin Henkes. 2013. HarperCollins. 240 pages. [Source: Library]

I liked some things about The Year of Billy Miller. I did. But. I didn't quite "love, love, love" The Year of Billy Miller. I liked that it balanced school stories with family stories. There would be scenes set in the classroom, with the teacher, perhaps, or with his classmates. There would be scenes set at home with Billy interacting with his dad, his mom, his sister, his best friend. 

I thought Henkes did a much better job with the home scenes, the family stuff, than the school stuff. I did get a good sense of Billy Miller's home, what his family was like, the dynamics of those relationships. I really liked seeing Billy challenge himself here. For example, his love-hate relationship with his younger sister. Sometimes he HATES her (like when she "adds" glitter to his school project), and sometimes he LOVES her (like when he goes to her bedroom and wakes her up because he's scared and doesn't want to be alone). I thought there were some sweet and tender scenes between Billy and the individual members of his family. 

I was not as impressed with Billy's school life, however. I thought the book started off promising with Billy trying to impress his new teacher, his biggest desire earning her love and respect, wanting to be thought one of the "good" kids in the room, etc. And in the few scenes we see with the teacher, well, it works well enough, I suppose. But what this book lacked that other books for this age group don't is memorable classmates. The school stuff just didn't work for me as well. The characterization just wasn't there, the descriptions just weren't there. Part of me liked the fact that the book was so rushed and that it was more a series of novellas than an actual novel, the other part of me wanted more continuity and less jumping about in time. (The first chapter starts with the first day of school; the last chapter finishes off the school year.) 

© 2013 SukaYuka.com of SukaYuka's Book Reviews

Year of the Baby (2013)

The Year of the Baby. Andrea Cheng. Illustrated by Patrice Barton. 2013. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 176 pages. [Source: Review copy]

Anna and her friends are back for a second adventure. The Year of the Baby is mainly focused on two things: Anna's new adopted (all the way) from China baby sister AND the fact that their class is participating in a science fair. When Anna's baby sister fails to thrive and starts losing weight, Anna decides her science project will be her baby sister. She teams up with her two best friends and they start their ongoing project. All the adults in her life (her parents, her teacher, the pediatrician) all act as if Anna and her friends "save the day." This bothered me. It's one thing to say "good job," or "great idea" and quite another to say it is because of YOU that the baby has gained several pounds. When the experiment only focuses on one snack of each day, and that snack consists of a handful of banana slices or pieces of Chinese burgers. That one snack is just a fraction of the meals and snacks (or feedings) consumed in a day. And most of the daily calories are coming from the other meals that have nothing to do with the experiment or observation. The experiment was fun and playful and a great chance to bond, but, I'm not convinced that it "saved the day." (The bonding might have led the baby to feel happier and more secure in her new home which might help overall in her health.)

I really wanted to love The Year of the Baby. I definitely enjoyed reading Year of the Book. However, I have hesitations about The Year of the Baby; my hesitations are about the science experiment or science fair.

© 2013 SukaYuka.com of SukaYuka's Book Reviews

Counting by 7s (2013)

Counting by 7s. Holly Goldberg Sloan. 2013. Penguin USA. 384 pages. [Review Copy]

Willow Chance is her own person. She may be a little different, a little distant, a little odd. But. There is something truly special about her. At the end of the first chapter, Willow returns home with the school counselor and two other new friends, to discover the police are waiting to tell her horrible news: both of her parents are dead. Willow has no other family; there aren't even any family friends that she knows about, that she could stay with. Mai and Quang-ha her new friends step up and volunteer. They lie. They say their families have known each other for years; of course, Willow will have a home with them, at least temporarily. The school counselor knows the truth, of course, he introduced them not so very long ago, but he stays silent. The novel then goes back to show what happened before: how Willow started the school year, how Willow "needed" counseling, how Willow made some new friends, why Willow suddenly got inspired to learn Vietnamese, how knowing Willow has changed the lives of two different men (the school counselor; a taxi driver). The reader also learns about the accident in greater detail. (Some of the details leading up to the event disappointed me; I thought it was too much.)

My favorite character in Counting by 7s was not Willow Chance. Willow's influence on other people is encouraging, proof that she is special, but Willow's narration alone did not win my heart. My two favorite characters were Mr. Dell Duke, the school counselor, and Jairo Hernandez, the taxi-driver. I enjoyed the other characters as well: Mai, Quang-ha, and their mother, Pattie.

The novel's greatest strength is in its quirkiness. It never felt sentimental. This is not your typical "sad book" about death and grief. There is humor and hope and courage. 

© 2013 SukaYuka.com of SukaYuka's Book Reviews

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library (2013)

Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library. Chris Grabenstein. 2013. Random House. 304 pages. [Source: Review Copy]

Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library has a great premise. If you love games (board games, word games, puzzles, etc.) OR if you love libraries (books, reading), then you're in for quite a treat. Mr. Lemoncello is a famous game maker. He makes board games and video games. His games are the best in the world. His hometown has not had a library in twelve years; the old library had burned down. So the new spectacular library needs a grand opening like no other. Twelve lucky children (all age twelve, of course) will get to spend the night locked in the library! But that's just the start of this fantastical book. For in reality, the children will have to "escape" from the library--it's a contest of wits. There are games to be played, risks to be taken, teams to be formed. It will take brains to solve the ultimate game. They only know they cannot use the door they came through or they will be disqualified!

Readers meet all twelve children, but not all children get equal time and attention. This book is fun not because of the characters, but because of the engaging puzzle and the cleverness of the text. This text might appeal more to adult readers, especially librarians who know their children's literature, than to children. But it was fun. I really enjoyed it!

© 2013 SukaYuka.com of SukaYuka's Book Reviews

The Water Castle (2013)

The Water Castle. Megan Frazer Blakemore. 2013. Walker. 352 pages. [Source: Review Copy]

There were things I really liked about The Water Castle, and there were things I really did not like about it. My favorite part of The Water Castle was the unfolding historical story of Nora Darling; this story was set around 1909. My least favorite part was all the "science."

The Appledore family is returning to the town of Crystal Springs. The father has suffered a damaging stroke. The mother is doing the best she can to help him receive the best medical care or treatment. The three children (Price, Ephraim, and Brynn) are settling in to a new school and new town. Ephraim is struggling more than the others. The Water Castle is his coming-of-age tale. It is a busy tale with themes of friendship, family, exploration, and immortality. A lot of questing going on! 

I did like the focus on friendship. Ephraim does not make friends easily. Neither does Mallory Green. And Will Wylie, well, he almost chooses to be disagreeable. These three kids are very unlikely friends, and yet, they come together supposedly to work on a history report on Arctic exploration, but it is so much more than that. They are fascinated with the legendary stories of The Water Castle and the supposed quest for the fountain of youth.

I would have preferred a magical or fantastical explanation for the "fountain of youth" story instead of the "science" one. There were elements in this one that I just did not connect with at all.

It is a slow-and-steady story of friendship and perseverance. You might like it more than I did.

© 2013 SukaYuka.com of SukaYuka's Book Reviews

Second Fiddle (2011)

Second Fiddle. Roseanne Parry. 2011. Random House. 240 pages. [Source: Review Copy]

I enjoyed reading Second Fiddle by Rosanne Parry. Jody Field is finding life bittersweet. She's spent a few years now in Berlin, and she's got two fantastic friends: Giselle and Vivian. All three take music lessons from Herr Muller. They are a string trio preparing to play Canon in D for an international music competition in Paris. It will be--most likely--the last time they ever play music together again.

Early in the novel, the girls are disappointed to learn that the trip is off. Their teacher who was to chaperon them on the trip is very ill--he'll be in the hospital. Before they can deliver the bad news to their parents, however, they witness something extraordinary: the near-murder of a man, a soldier, a Soviet soldier. His own army has turned against him. They witness the beating. They witness his being thrown over the bridge and into the river. So what do they do? What can they do? And will this change everything?

Second Fiddle is a very thoughtful novel. The three girls are very independent, resourceful, even courageous. Are they mature enough to handle the real world? Especially when that real world involves espionage?! Probably not. But determined they are!

Second Fiddle was a fascinating novel set in Berlin and Paris in 1990.

© 2013 SukaYuka.com of SukaYuka's Book Reviews

The Year of the Book (2012)

The Year of the Book. Andrea Cheng. Illustrated by Abigail Halpin. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 160 pages. [Source: Library]

The Year of the Book has a cozy feel to it, perhaps because of the hopeful outlook. Though Anna, our heroine, isn't absolutely loving all the changes that come with being in fourth grade, she has much to be thankful for. Anna gets great joy out of reading. Almost every chapter in this one includes Anna reading a new book or talking about a new book. Sometimes she's sharing memories of a book she loved, loved, loved long ago like Little Blue and Little Yellow (by Leo Lionni), and other times she's talking about her newest favorite-favorite book like A Wrinkle in Time or From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. I love her approach to life, if she has vacation, of course, she's going to spend it reading a new library book each day?! What else would she do?! But a love of book isn't all there is to Anna. She also loves to sew and make crafts. And it isn't hard to see that Anna cares about people deeply too. Sure, at the beginning, Anna seems like she is guarding herself a bit, hesitant to trust her old friend, Laura, since Laura has seemed so different, not quite herself since the start of the new school year. I love how open her heart is, though. How Anna takes time to care for people that may not receive a lot of attention or notice or care. There is something real about Anna and that is what I appreciated most in this tender novel.

© 2013 SukaYuka.com of SukaYuka's Book Reviews

Sunday Salon: Reading The Belgian Twins (1917)

The Belgian Twins. Lucy Fitch Perkins. 1917. 124 pages.

I was very surprised by The Belgian Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins. This 1917 novel tells the story of two Belgian refugees--two children, a boy and a girl, Jan and Marie or Janke and Mie. This isn't a quaint historical book. No, it was contemporary.

The book tells of the German army invading Belgium, disrupting if not destroying the villages and farms in their path. The twins' father joined the army when the first rumors of invasion came. The twins become separated from their mother when the German army comes to their farm. The children are hidden safely away, however. They come out of hiding to discover their farm a wreck and their mother missing. Which about matches the picture of their village. The children start searching for their mother in a nearby town, but an immediate reunion is not possible. Fortunately, the children meet a handful of kind souls along the way: 'Granny' and Father and Mother DeSmet and their children.

The two eventually end up in America as refugees! It is quite an adventure how they got there! This isn't a sad refugee story, but a happy one with a couple of surprises at the end.

Have you read any of the 'Twins' books? 

© 2013 SukaYuka.com of SukaYuka's Book Reviews

Destiny, Rewritten (2013)

Destiny, Rewritten. Kathryn Fitzmaurice. 2013. HarperCollins. 176 pages.

I really enjoyed The Year The Swallows Came Early, and I loved, loved, LOVED A Diamond in the Desert. How did I feel about Destiny, Rewritten? I really, really liked it. I appreciated so many things about the heroine, Emily Elizabeth Davis. She's a heroine who needs to believe in happy endings, who writes out her favorite happy endings from books, who checks to see that there is a happy ending before even reading books, who regularly writes Danielle Steel. She's presented as smart and kind, a girl you want for a best friend, a sister, a daughter. But her life isn't perfect. Emily feels some slight pressure from her mom to live up to her destiny. Emily doesn't embrace poetry; she doesn't feel called to BE a poet just because her mom named her after Emily Dickinson. The inspiring story about how her mom found a first edition complete poems of Emily Dickinson just days before she was born? Well, it makes her love and appreciate her mom--the book of poems is updated in the margins with details from her life--but it doesn't make her want to write poetry or even write about poetry.

One day, this treasured book is LOST, donated by accident. Emily and her friends and family come together to search the city for this one-of-a-kind book. Her mom is relaxed, reassuring. If the book is meant to come back to her, then it will. Her mom is all about how destiny can't be forced or rushed, that you just have to accept it, embrace it one day at a time. Emily NEEDS the book, NOW. Why? She's just learned that the name of her father is hidden inside its pages. She never discovered this because she's never read it cover to cover. (Her mom won't tell her who her father is, won't explain why he's not a part of their lives.)

So will Emily get her happy ending?!

I definitely recommend this one! I really love Kathryn Fitzmaurice's writing. One of the reasons I love her writing is the great characterization.

© 2013 SukaYuka.com of SukaYuka's Book Reviews

Clementine and The Spring Trip (2013)

Clementine and the Spring Trip. Sara Pennypacker. 2013. Hyperion. 160 pages.

 Clementine has to be one of my favorite heroines. I just LOVE spending time with her. I love reading about her family life AND I love reading about her school days too. She always has an opinion, and she's always got something on her mind! In this book, Clementine is excited but nervous about an upcoming field trip to Plimoth Plantation. At first she felt comfortable about going because she was going to partner with fourth grader, Margaret. (Clementine is in third grade.) Clementine was going to help Margaret by doing all the "dirty" work, and Margaret was going to help Clementine by teaching her to eat quietly. The "rule" of the fourth graders being that no noisy foods are ever allowed. But when a new student arrives, a girl named Olive, well, plans change. The teacher assigns Olive to Clementine, and with the teacher and the principal telling Clementine that this will be a GOOD thing, she has to accept her disappointment. But noisy eating isn't the only thing worrying Clementine and her classmates, no, there is the dreaded bus number seven with "the cloud." This is the SMELLIEST bus ever, a thing of nightmares. And oh how the kids like to make comparisons as to what it smells like and why!!!

The novel is great fun focusing on Clementine at school and home. I would definitely recommend this series.

Read Clementine and the Spring Trip

• If you love children's books
• If you're looking for a heroine to love and adore (like Ramona, Moxy Maxwell, or Ida May, etc.)
• If you've enjoyed Clementine, The Talented Clementine, Clementine's Letter, Clementine, Friend of the Week, Clementine and the Family Meeting.

© 2013 SukaYuka.com of SukaYuka's Book Reviews

The Center of Everything (2013)

The Center of Everything. Linda Urban. 2013. Harcourt. 208 pages.

I was not disappointed with Linda Urban's newest novel, The Center of Everything. While I didn't love, love, love it to the same degree as I loved A Crooked Kind of Perfect (a book I read twice in one week because it was just that good), I still found myself loving The Center of Everything.

Ruby Pepperdine is the heroine of The Center of Everything. We meet her on a big day, the day she's part of the town's parade. She'll be reading her winning essay to the waiting crowd. Winning is something that she definitely didn't expect. Then again, a lot of unexpected things have been happening: her grandmother dying, a growing distance between herself and her best friend, her newly developed friendship with a boy, and that's not to mention the wish...

Readers get flashes from the past bringing the story to life. We learn chapter by chapter what is going right and what is going wrong in this young girl's life.

The Center of Everything is a great coming of age story; it captures some of the emotions of being eleven-going-on-twelve.

Read the Center of Everything

• If you are a fan of Linda Urban
• If you enjoy middle grade fiction with a focus on friendship and family
• If you enjoy coming of age stories
• If you are looking for a MG title about grief
• If you are looking for a 'summer' book

© 2013 SukaYuka.com of SukaYuka's Book Reviews

A Tange of Knots (2013)

A Tangle of Knots. Lisa Graff. 2013. Penguin. 240 pages.

A Tangle of Knots reminded me of Ingrid Law's Savvy. In both MG novels, we've got some characters with special, unique talents or powers. In A Tangle of Knots, readers meet a large cast of characters--children and adults, some more obviously talented than others in terms of magic. If we have a true main character, it would be Cady, a young girl with a talent for KNOWING precisely what kind of cake to bake for each person she meets. She has a way of knowing what each person's perfectly-perfect cake is. She's the only orphan living in the orphanage. The manager of the orphanage can't keep any other kids because her oh so special talent is matching orphans with adoptive parents. She just has a way of knowing where people belong. There are probably a dozen or so other characters complicating this story about fate and destiny and belonging. The plotting can be a bit messy, I believe it is intentionally messy since it's called Tangle of Knots. The characters are tangled together in a way, their lives intermingling, touching one another. One isn't always sure how the pieces are all going to fit together. But. It has its delightful moments. I think you might have to be in the right mood to love it, but, it was quite enjoyable regardless.

Read A Tangle of Knots

• If you enjoy middle grade fiction
• If you enjoy coming of age stories with a touch of fantasy
• If you enjoy books that incorporate recipes into the storytelling

© 2013 SukaYuka.com of SukaYuka's Book Reviews