Book Review: Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library

I don't always write up reviews for the books I read aloud to Sean and Trevor, but this was too good a book to ignore. We thoroughly enjoyed the read and have been thinking and talking about it ever since we finished it. Moreover, at the end of the book, in an author's note, Chris Grabenstein mentions that there was an additional puzzle in the book that wasn't in the story and he welcomes readers to write to him with the solution, when they find it. Oh, how I want to discover the puzzle and the solution (you can find an additional hint here). Oh, how I want to write to him triumphantly with the answer (even though the contest for figuring out the solution has come and gone). Alas, for now, we cannot ferret it out.

When Kyle Keeley fails to give his best to an essay contest, he is sure that he will not win a place at the opening night lock-in at Mr. Lemoncello's new library. Surprisingly, his weak effort is rewarded, but that is only the beginning of the story. Now that the grand and illustrious library has been unveiled, the group of twelve twelve-year-olds invited to the lock-in find they must play a game in order to escape from the library before time ticks out. Packed with clues and rebus puzzles, the story brings the reader along as the children attempt to figure out the only possible exit. Sean was thoroughly enthralled and eager to figure out the keys to the mystery. Plus, we loved hearing all the references to books we know of or have read. Sean marveled at how current the book was.

When we completed the story, Sean declared it to be one of his top five favorite books. Here are his favorites in order: 1) The Harry Potter series (which we are reading again for the umpteenth time), 2) The Just Grace series, 3) The Boys Against the Girls series, 4) The Ivy and Bean series, and 5) Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library (the only stand-alone book). While I wouldn't put the book in my top five, it was still an outstanding read, full of intrigue and suspense. A great book for bibliophiles and a great book to keep the brain working over the summer break from school.

Book Review: Criss Cross

Criss Cross, by Lynne Rae Perkins, was a 2005 Newbery Award winner. The Horn Book wrote of it: "Like a lazy summer day, the novel induces that exhilarating feeling that one has all the time in the world." I guess my perception of it was a bit different.  It did meander like a lazy summer day. It was an okay read, but merely okay. For the most part it felt like a stream-of-consciousness philosophizing about life. With no beginning, middle, or end, no plot to speak of, I longed for a destination and for more excitement than simple ruminations about lightning bugs, life, and love. There were moments of splendor, a few instances where the words felt beautiful, but it still didn't seem to be award worthy.

How to even summarize? Debbie is hoping something will happen to her soon. Set in the 1960s, the story is full of platform shoes and bell bottom jeans which graze the pavement. The various characters meander through life experiencing crushes on the opposite sex, contemplations of the meaning and purpose of life, and confusions over how to present the self to others. With no real action propelling it forward, it simply lallygagged through deep and shallow waters. I've read better Newbery winners than this.

Book Review: Dangerous Deception

It is highly unusual for me to read four children's books in a row. I suppose I am only snatching minimal moments to read lately, and together with several children's audio books to accompany my daily walk, these type of titles have just proliferated lately. Regardless of the reason, I always enjoy a Peg Kehret book. She gets her characters into scrapes both believable and entertaining. The last Kehret book Sean and I read together was Ghost Dog Secrets. This book, Dangerous Deception, was similar in that the main character sees a social ill and wants to address the need, but doing so places them in danger.

Emmy Rushford is a compassionate girl. When she learns of another girl's plight of hunger, she convinces her classmates to provide food anonymously as a public service project for a school assignment. The other students help a few times to bring bags of food to the starving girl's family, but it is Emmy who sticks around for the long haul, long after the starving family has disappeared, leaving behind their cat, Midnight. As Emmy attempts to locate the family and tell them she has Midnight, she is caught up in a dangerous situation, abducted by a bad man, and placed in a position of grave danger. Emmy means well, but her deception leads to trouble.

This tale will go far to emphasize to children the danger of keeping things secret from adults who could help them. Deceiving her mother has life-threatening consequences for Emmy. The book emphasizes the value of compassion, the importance of honesty, the dangers of riding with someone who texts while driving, and the folly of attempting to manage grown-up issues without some grown-up intervention (especially when those issues lead you to bad neighborhoods and criminal behavior). All of these are important lessons for tweens to absorb.

Book Review: Alien Encounter

I've been pleasantly surprised by my son's fondness for the Just Grace series written by Charise Mericle Harper. Despite the blatantly girly covers (think flowers, tutus, etc.), he continues to enjoy the writing style and the story line. He has even noticed the author's particular trademarks: an affinity for lists, superpowers, and faces with wide-set eyes. I was thrilled, then, when I discovered her book series with a more boyish appeal, called Sasquatch and Aliens. Alien Encounter is book one in the series and, although Sean didn't like it quite as well as the Just Grace books, he did say he wants to continue with the series whenever Harper gets around to writing further books for it (this one just came out a year ago and I believe the second book in the series came out in February of this year).

The characters and antics of two unlikely friends, Morgan and Lewis, are sure to appeal to young boys between the ages of 7 and 10. Their initial meeting, based around a humorous incident with a pair of underpants (what boy doesn't like something having to do with underpants?) sets the story rolling. When they return to the location of their meeting (a tree in the woods) to reenact the hilarious event and document it with a photo, they are both startled by an alien encounter.

The story is full of locations with boy appeal - a forest, a clubhouse where you have to jump through a window in order to enter, a shed outfitted with mattresses beneath for gigantic bounce sessions, and an underground secret workshop. Add into that details like wounds, injuries, costumes, and food, and you are sure to rope in a reluctant reader. With drawings to supplement the tale, the book has the feel of a younger Diary of a Wimpy Kid fare. We are quickly becoming devoted fans of Charise Mericle Harper's graphic novels for kids. Hopefully, this series will go as far as the Just Grace books (now at 12 titles).

Book Review: Lily's Crossing

Patricia Reilly Giff is an author my mother recommended to me and I'm pretty sure it was this children's book she encountered first to draw her in. Lily's Crossing is a tender tale of friendship during a time of war and uncertainty. For those who were young children (as my parents were) at the time of World War II, this will, no doubt, stir memories of that perilous time and the emotions which surged when brothers and fathers went to war, when specialty items were rationed, and when life felt like it would never be the same again.

From the back cover: "This year, as in other years, Lily has planned a spectacular summer in Rockaway, in her family's cozy house on stilts over the Atlantic Ocean. But by the summer of 1944, World War II has changed almost everyone's life. Lily's best friend, Margaret, and her family have moved to a wartime factory town, and worse, much worse, Lily's father is on his way overseas to the war.

"There's no one else Lily's age in Rockaway until Albert comes, a refugee from Hungary, a boy with a secret sewn into his coat. Albert has lost most of his family in the war: he's been through things Lily can't imagine. But when they join together to rescue and care for a kitten, they begin a special friendship. For Lily and Albert have their own secrets to share. They both have told lies, and Lily has told a lie that may cost Albert his life."

I thoroughly enjoyed this sweet tale. It certainly evoked emotion within me. I came to love Lily and her faults and foibles. I rooted for the budding friendship. I cried in the moments of peril and of triumph.

Book Review: Among the Hidden

I recognized Margaret Peterson Haddix's name, having read her book Double Identity almost six years ago. This book, Among the Hidden, jumped out at me in the tween audio section of our library (filed as a teen book in the other neighboring library I use) and turned out to be a riveting story to accompany my daily walk on the treadmill. It was frighteningly plausible and well-executed, providing plenty for tweens and teens to think about (although one Amazon reviewer did express concern that the subjects are too difficult for the target age group to handle - I think I disagree and would not dissuade my ten year old son from reading this book).

The government, in order to clamp down on the problem of starvation and over-population, has outlawed the birth of more than two children per family. When Luke's parents learn of his impending birth, they decide to ignore the law and keep him hidden in their home as a "third child." Hiding is all Luke has known, until his twelfth year when the woods on his farm property are chopped down to make way for a housing development. As he watches the new houses from the vents in his attic hideaway, Luke catches sight of something breathtaking and unimaginable. Risking the penalty of death, Luke sneaks over to the nearby house and discovers Jen, another third child. Jen doesn't tolerate being hidden quite so well as Luke. She is the daughter of a government official and is convinced that she can force change on society by planning a rally to embrace third children and set them free.

I did note, from the author's website, (where discussion questions and related activities can be found) that this is the first in a series of books. All of the books in the series sound equally riveting and action-packed. I will probably seek out a few more of these books to follow Luke's story and see where life takes him after the adventures of this book (thankfully, it looks like my library has the entire series available, though not in audio form).

Book Review: Mind Change

One of the books selected for my evening book club is The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr. Although that book is not on the reading schedule until July, I jumped when I saw this alternative title available at our library. I wanted a second book to evaluate Carr's book against. Of course, I cannot make any comparisons until I read The Shallows, but for now I will offer up a brief description of this book by Susan Greenfield, entitled Mind Change: How Digital Technologies are Leaving Their Mark on Our Brains.

Susan Greenfield is a neuroscientist and member of the House of Lords, where she has argued her premise that the digital age is altering the way we think and relate. Hers is a cautionary tale which argues, similarly to the perils of climate change, that we are on the brink of cultural mind change with just as possibly devastating consequences. She begins by introducing her term "mind change" and asserting that it is a highly controversial global phenomenon. She then breaks down technological advances into three separate categories of concern: "social networking and the implications for identity and relationships; gaming and the implications for attention, addiction, and aggression; and search engines and the implications for learning and memory."

As she dissected how social networking is changing the way we think and relate, I could easily see both positives and negatives in my own life. How often, indeed, do I log onto my computer in the morning hoping to see some sort of feedback from friends, be they virtual, close or distant, to something I have shared or simply hoping for news from someone else's existence in order to spice up the boring nature of my own existence? How often do I share something on-line that I may not have shared with more than a handful of people prior to the advent of Facebook? My life would be entirely isolated without social networking. It would be like living in a desert. But how often do I compare myself, unfairly, to others whose lives are presented in technicolor for the digital world to envy and admire? How does my own sense of identity profit from or bear harm from my involvement in a wider society of friends available through social networking? These are tricky questions.

The gaming section was perhaps the most sobering of all, because I fear the effects my own sons are reaping from their involvement with multi-player on-line role-playing games. On the one hand, it is cool to watch their ability to play a game and interact with their cousin while he is miles away in his own home. However, my sons play games their cousins would never be allowed to play and many of them are violent in nature. They have seen far more graphic episodes of violence than I ever experienced in my own childhood. Although this is most definitely a negative thing, the author doesn't paint the scenario as entirely bad. There are some positives to the use of video games for developing certain skills and reactions (indeed, video games like "Fruit Ninja" are actually used to help rehabilitate stroke sufferers). Still, her focus is primarily on the chemical responses of the brain to such gaming and how close those experiences are to the chemical responses occurring in the brains of those with severe addictions. Gaming addiction is a serious problem to consider and I fear my sons might be at risk for this, given the satisfaction they seem to receive (achievements, status, manliness, etc) from playing such games.

The final section focuses on the changes brought about by surfing the Web. We have become a culture with the knee-jerk reaction of "I'll just Google that and find out the information I need." The ability to find information so quickly and freely doesn't necessarily mean that we are becoming smarter. If anything, we are less inclined to retain information because we are under the impression that such information is always just a click away. Moreover, we do lose something in acquiring our information via a screen instead of through books. The immediacy of information and entertainment is shortening our attention span and drawing us away from traditional methods of learning. Students are interrupted far more frequently when trying to study because there is a constant stream of distractions from text messaging and multi-tasking. The pull of You Tube is quite fierce in my own household, with both of my younger boys watching videos others have recommended because they are funny or because they show information for tackling some aspect of a game they are wanting to play.

While I found the book fascinating and frightening, I also found it a bit difficult to digest fully and found myself skimming through bits because it just didn't hold my interest or I wanted to get to the next bit more quickly. Perhaps my own response is an example of the arguments the author frames. Perhaps I just wasn't entirely in the mood to focus in with more depth to the study at hand. For whatever reason, I don't think I absorbed as much from the book as I could have if I had been more careful in my reading and retention (say, if I had been given the assignment of reading this for a class). I will be anxious to see how Nicholas Carr's book measures up to this one. Hopefully, I will remember enough of what I read here to be able to form an opinion about which book was more effective in discussing this modern day problem of the alteration of the brain in response to our technological advances.