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• Current

Type: children's

Status: neutral

Authors: Jean_Claude Mourlevat Y. Maudet

Tags: france childrens_lit Tom_Thumb fairy_tale_adaptations

Description: Winner of the Batchelder award for translation (and the Prix Sorcieres in France), this unusualWinner of the Batchelder award for translation (and the Prix Sorcieres in France), this unusual short novel is a medley of voices and a re-telling (re-visioning) of the Tom Thumb story. Opens with the voice of a social worker who is troubled by a 10-year-old named Yann Doutreleau, who is a miniature (not a dwarf) and a mute -- and highly intelligent. He has three sets of identical twin brothers older -- and parents who abuse them all. Yann overhears the father saying he's going to kill 7 newborn kittens -- and he insists his brothers run away to the ocean with him. They walk, they hitchhike, the take a train, etc. We hear from all 7 brothers, the mother, the father, the social worker, various people who glimpse them on the run, the man who locks them into his summer house as burglars (the equivalent of the Ogre?), etc. In the end the six older brothers go back home, while Yann (Tom Thumb) heads out to sea on a ship. Strange... but interesting....

2007-08-02

• Current

Type: children's

Status: I recommend

Authors: Brett Helquist Blue Balliett

Tags: mystery architecture childrens_lit

Description: Sequel to Chasing Vermeer, featuring the same student sleuths and similar reality hooks: thisSequel to Chasing Vermeer, featuring the same student sleuths and similar reality hooks: this time the artwork in danger in Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House. Similar elements of coincidence and otherworldly connections....

2007-05-13

  & 4 users

• Current

Type: children's

Status: I recommend

Authors: Brett Helquist Blue Balliett

Tags: art mystery childrens_lit artists

Description: Clever mystery for upper primary students, with plenty of hooks into reality -- Charles FortClever mystery for upper primary students, with plenty of hooks into reality -- Charles Fort and his books, Vermeer and his paintings, Chicago and the famous lab school attached to the university, pentominoes, and codes. Depicts an open inquiry-based classroom method internalized by students....

2007-05-12

  & 1 users

• Current

Type: children's

Status: liked

Author: Helen Dunmore

Tags: fantasy uk childrens_lit absent_fathers mermaids

Description: 2005. First of a planned trilogy. First-person narrative by Sapphy (Sapphire) who is perhaps2005. First of a planned trilogy. First-person narrative by Sapphy (Sapphire) who is perhaps 10 years old and lives in Cornwall, right next to the sea. When her fisherman father disappears at sea and his boat -- but not his body -- is found, children at school taunt her that he left her mother for another woman, but Sapphy and her brother Conor (2 years older) know he's still alive somewhere -- and they come to discover that he's likely gone to Ingo, the underwater world peopled by the Mer. After all, her father is named for a man who once left his "Air" family for the mermaid of Zennor, immortalized by a wooden statue in the church. Sapphy and Conor have some Mer blood and meet a Mer brother and sister who take them under. Sapphy in particular is drawn to the sea -- unlike their mother who hates the sea due to some horrible fortune-teller's prediction. When the mother's new boyfriend Roger, a diver, almost dies because he inadvertently was diving near the Mer people's dying ground, Sapphy and Conor go to rescue him -- with the help of Faro and Elivira, their Mer siblings. Though Sapphy resents Roger potentially replacing her missing father, she also appreciates him supporting her in her desire for a dog. Granny Carne helps the children understand the balance of powers between Air and Ingo -- and she is represented as a white witch ruling the Air. Ends with Sapphy hearing her father's voice in the Mer language saying 'my daughter' and her resolve to find him -- in the next installment of this proposed trilogy....

2006-06-07

• Current

Type: children's

Status: liked

Author: Kevin Brooks

Tags: drugs teen prostitution childrens_lit

Description: 2005. 16-year-old Joe Beck tells the story of how he chanced to meet Candy near King's2005. 16-year-old Joe Beck tells the story of how he chanced to meet Candy near King's Cross tube station -- and fell under the spell of her beauty. But she's a prostitute, hooked on heroin, and her pimp, Iggy, is big, black, and dangerous. They have a day out at the zoo and she comes to hear his band play a gig in London -- before Iggy descends and beats her up. Joe manages to find her and rescue her, though Iggy is injured and comes after them. Hiding away in his family's weekend cottage in Suffolk, Candy goes through withdrawal, but Iggy hunts them down -- with Joe's beloved older sister Gina as a hostage. In the showdown, Candy ends up killing Iggy. Epilogue: Candy is in rehab and an adolescent unit and Joe is still in love for her... waiting for her. NB: to counteract the negative image of the big, black Iggy, Gina has a good-hearted, worthy boyfriend Mike -- who is also big and black -- and who helps Joe and Candy. Also there was a subplot about the divorced father started to date his ex-wife -- the kids' mother -- again, yet the mother has not bothered to see her kids in several years. An unusual detail that was never expanded upon -- is it important to Joe's experience with Candy?...

2006-06-07

  & 1 users

• Current

Type: children's

Status: I recommend

Author: Geraldine McCaughrean

Tags: explorers childrens_lit deafness antartica

Description: 2005. First-person narrative by Symone, who is 14 and in love with Titus or, rather, Captain2005. First-person narrative by Symone, who is 14 and in love with Titus or, rather, Captain Lawrence Oates, who accompanied Scott to the South Pole in 1911. He's the one who famously left the tent saying, "I am just going outside and I may be some time." Amazingly, Symone's clever uncle Victor manages to sneak her away for a trip of a lifetime -- to Antarctica -- as he is also mad about the place and its history. Mad being the operative word. A harrowing story of adventure, survival, and terrible deception and abuse -- and even murder. By the way, Symone is deaf enough to need hearing aids, thanks to evil uncle Victor experimenting on her as a child -- something she only learns in the end when she also learns he poisoned her father... and her mind. Luckily in the end he dies and she gets rescued in time. Again, just like "Turbulence", there is the slightest hint of love in her future popping up in the final pages of the book....

2006-05-27

  & 1 users

• Current

Type: children's

Status: I recommend

Author: Jan Mark

Tags: uk dysfunctional_families childrens_lit strangers

Description: First-person narrative by Clare -- also known as Clay -- a Year 6 girl (so 12?) who tells theFirst-person narrative by Clare -- also known as Clay -- a Year 6 girl (so 12?) who tells the story of the stranger who comes to town -- and into the family -- and creates trouble. A child's view of the complicated -- and childish -- world of adults -- who create turbulence in their wake and end up having to be rescued by their children. Great cast of characters, including a 60+ year old grandmother who teaches school and still gets high occasionally. Sub-theme of old movies running throughout. View on adult male-female relationships from someone on the edge of sexual awakening....

2006-05-27

  & 5 users

• Current

Type: fiction

Status: —

Author: John Green

Tags: childrens_lit

Description: Printz award winner (2005)

2006-02-12